Blogs from Uttar Pradesh, India, Asia - page 166

as i just re-read my latest email/xanga entry i realized how incredibly spastic they are. it's hard to capture the essence of these places when there's just so much to say. i find that my thoughts are going about 50 mph too fast for my fingers and all of the thoughts that i'm having are not being aptly portrayed in my posts. my fingers cannot keep up with the multitude of feelings streaming through my mind. that last email simply did not do justice to the past 48 hours. but, honestly, i'm too hungry to bother to re-post anything. time for some food. -molly ... read more

After a short bus ride I arrived in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Actually entering the Taj Mahal complex was pretty expensive (750 Rupes == 18 dollars) but I was eager to see it; so I decided to head down there anyways and see if I could just view it from the streets or something (I was planning on going in the next morning). I arrived at the main gate to the Taj, and start to poke around a little. I noticed a path that leaded into the woods and around the outside wall....so of course I head down there...ended up sneaking through a fence, past some sort of gaurd (who was cleaning his motorcycle) and into an area that seemed to hold plants and flowers that where used to decorate the Taj Mahal grounds. ... read more

We were in the train station of Katni at 9:30 a.m., enough time to buy tickets. We split up to different queues, a strategy that has already proved quite helpful in India. Suddenly, a policeman led Stephan to a different ticket counter in a car outside the building, a man was sitting there with a computer on his lap. This was supposed to be the express counter! We did not really trust this arrangement, so Klaudia stayed queued, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Soon, the policeman turned up again, violently dragging the Indians in front of Klaudia from their places in order to make Klaudia advance faster. He treated these people in an incredibly unfriendly way, shouting at them something Klaudia could not understand, but she could imagine the meaning of his words. These ... read more

Our 12 hour journey to Varanasi turned into a miserable 15 hour journey thanks to the punctuality of the Indian rail. Plus, we had the pleasure of sharing our cubicle with a wheezing bull (well, he definately sounded and looked like a wheezing bull). Suffice to say we woke up that day rather grumpy. To make matters worse, Indian Airlines had contacted us and told us that the flight we had booked from Varanasi into Nepal for the 14th had been rerouted via Delhi, so we now had to fly to Delhi on the 13th (today) at 3pm. Thus, instead of having 1.5 days in Varanasi, we now had about 6 hours. However, since the train decided to be 3 hours late, we now only had 3 hours. Plus we had to go collect our new ... read more

Left Orcha. Took rickshaw to Jhansi, and from thence to Agra. However the train got as far a Gwalior then ground to a halt. For hours. I ran out of water early on and hadn't brought any more with me. I started to fantisise about water. I tried really hard not to think of fountains, streams and taps gushing with cold, clear, plentiful water or of being in a cold shower with water streaming over my face, into my mouth. I watched our fellow travellers with their bottles of water. I tried not to stare as they poured water down their throats. I fought the urge to ask for some, thinking of infection. It was like a bad song that goes round and round in your head. Cyclical thoughts of water. We had two friendly travelling ... read more