tour2

Time to leave Delhi and head on down to Pune. I managed to get a berth on the the Sleeper train to Pune; The Goa Express. Two guesses where it goes to. Ruby (our Tour Leader) sorted an Auto to get me to the Station which was on the far side of town and it took me a good 40 minutes to get over there, however I was in good time and found my seat and on the train. Packed as usual with loads of people seeing each other off and saying their goodbye's I managed to squeeze my bags under my seat and was about to settle in for the long haul when a young girl came to ask me if I would swap seats. Not sure why, and fearing I was being fleeced for my seat I was a little reticent. Then a man nearby explained that she wanted to swap as her husband was in a berth further down the carriage and she wanted to swap to be with him. It turns out that this is standard practice and nearly half the train was playing musical chairs to be with friends or relatives. (Just because you book at the same time ...

As we were not getting our Train back to Delhi until 2:30 there was a little time left for shopping and food in Pushkar and a little lunch. Then we took a jeep and Ambassador car over the pass to Amjer to get the train back to Delhi. The terrain in this area is similar to Northern Spain, rugged read and orange rock. The train we are taking from here back to Delhi is an Day Express. On broading the train we found that the seating is arranged Airline style with 3 and 2 either side of the aisle. Within minutes of setting off the carradge attendant came round with a free litre bottle of water each then 30 mins later with afternoon tea , this set the trend for the rest of the journey we we force fed soup, drinks, and evening meal, and more drinks. Infact after every stop the attendant came around and dropped food or drinks infront of you - and this wasn't even 1st class! In some respects Virgin has a lot to live upto! Back in Delhi we took cars back to the Hotel Swati where we had start...

I've uploaded a few more Pic's but the connection is fairly slow here and I don't have much time available for interneting!

In the morning we were allowed a late start 10am!! Although we had awoken earlier – first to the call to prayer at 5am then to our own alarm we had forgotten to turn off at 7am and finally at 8am to the sound of a cat been castrated – well that's what the 'music' sounded like. Apparently it was a party political address as local elections are taking place soon. Breakfast was again being served in the main hall and then we went out to meet the Jeeps to take us to Pushkar about a 2 hour drive on varying roads from good tarmac to sand to gravel. Before we left we had a walk around the grounds which had been transformed overnight of a wedding which was to take place that day. Over 1000 people we due to arrive to take part in the celebrations and a number had arrived already, food was being served and we were offered some of the sweet sugary toffee and a spicy ball people were eating, I declined it as it looked very rich and I though not a good idea just before 2 hours of boun...

This morning we were up again early at around 7 to pack and travel over to Kishangarh. We took Auto's to the bus station and again took a local state bus for about 1.5hours south of Jaipur where we got off the bus and awaited jeeps. The main highways are in general good (during the day!) although the imposition of a contraflow section did not stop the bus driver from cutting through the cones to overtake a line of trucks, against the flow of oncoming vehicles, hmm. The landscape is very flat and dusty with scrub and fields disappearing to the horizon. The place where we caught the jeeps from is also the heart of the marble trading area and along the roads there were hundreds of marble wholesalers. If it wasn't for the fact they all only sold marble it was like being in a huge Travis Perkins. Many of the men out here wear bright colourful turbans and these are worn with pride by the men here. The jeeps that took us out to the fort were reminiscent of American ones although they...

I've stared to upload some pictures but it's taking ages so here's some for starters. If your reading this from the actual blog (and not on Facebook!) then you can return to them from the Flickr link on the right of the page.

Today we took the bus from Agra to Jaipur. This was the 'state' bus service and although it was a little tatty the run was very good - and the roads are a lot safer during the day. The bus advertised that it was A/C but the actually meant you just open the windows!. Travelling out of Agra we passed over the plains of Utter Pradesh and into Rajestan however it wasn't until the last couple of miles that we started to climb up to Jaipur. It definitely feels cooler up here. We checked into a Guesthouse which is really good - its a bit out of the town centre so is quiet which is nice and a good Internet connection so I'm trying to upload a load of photos as I type this! After lunch at a nice restaurant in town we took cyclo-rickshaws into 'the Pink City' - this is the oldest part of the town and is quite literally all painted a dirty pink colour. It is massive, an endless maze of shops selling everything under the sun and more, major thoroughfares cross through it bu...

After a couple of hours of well needed rest our day in Agra began with lunch in a restaurant which was run by a Finnish lady who had moved out to Agra. The restaurant was used to raise profits for an NGO she runs helping local people. The food was really good – and they served beer in large coffee mugs. Then we took a 'magic bus' (7 seater minibus) to The Red Fort. This was a beautiful fort build by a Mogul king and is now still used by the Indian army so only 20% is on public display. The carvings and stonework within is extraordinary and we had a Guide who explained all about the Muslim King and his Hindu Wife. He wanted to bring all the Religions together so the carvings around the fort reflect all different faiths combined. Unfortunately many previous visitors to the fort thought it fit to scribe their names on the walls and it really detracted from the place – a real shame. The guide we had told us many things about the fort and it's occupants – mostly date after ...

We took rickshaws to the railway station in Varanasi however on arrival we found we only had 4 seats reserved for the trip to Agra, Ruby the tour leader was unable to obtain any others from the guard so she oped for Plan B – this involved cancelling all the train tickets and getting a car for the journey. Initially this sounded ok but on arrival the vehicle could only take bags for 4 people and just seat 7 so we insisted on a second one and we ended up 4 in one and 3 in the other. All seemed ok at this point as we set off into the night for the 12hr drive. The National Highway 2 connects Varanasi and Agra and is for the most part a well made dual carriageway road. However Indian driving standards are somewhat crap not to put a too finer point on it. I think the final count was over 350miles was at least 8 crashed lorries (one of which still had bodies in), 4 over-turned trailers, 1 burnt out rickshaw, 1 car on its roof (lights still on and the wheels spinning – but we didn't see it...

Varanasi is a largish town on the banks of the Ganges and is considered to be one of the most holy places in the Hindu Religion. The town in located only on side of the river and is said to be one of the oldest cities in the world. We landed on the Ghats which are the stepped banks of the Ganges and waked about 500 yds up in to the town to the Hotel. Here we showered and changed before going for a walk down the Ghats to see life at the waters edge. People come here to bathe and wash in the waters and also to die. In the Hindu faith if you are cremated on the banks of the Ganges you are released to Nirvana, so there are two areas known as 'the burning ghats' where people are cremated on wooden pyres 24 hours a day. the ashes are then washed into the River. A fire has been burning here for thousands of years and never goes out as it is used as the source for lighting each of the pyres. It was rather strange to stand and watch the cremations which are constantly being started one ...

Finally we pulled into our destination station of Mirzapur where we had only 2 minutes to offload before the train would set off again with a loud blare of it's horn. Our transport from here was a short ride in classic white Ambassador cars; this time with all the bags stuffed in the 2 boots but with the lids bouncing open as they could not close them. We stopped at a very nice little hotel and took 2 rooms here between us to shower and freshen up before we had a breakfast of tea, toast and omelette's. Back into the cars we took a short ride to our transport for the next two days – 3 25ft wooden sailing boats. One of the boats was the kitchen and the other 2 were to be our ours to lounge on. Each boat had 2 men to sail or row them and the cook boat had the chef, his assistant and 'the boss'. We were soon underway out in the middle of the Ganges, it is a wide low flowing river and initially we were able to use the wind to help us along. However after rounding a bend the ...

We left the hotel this evening after having a very Indian meal at Pizza Hut – yes I know – but everyone fancied Pizza. After cramming 7 of us into 2 taxi's and piling bags on the roof rack and tying them on with apiece of sizal string somehow they made it to the Train station. We arrived there about 1 hour early and went to find our train. It was huge over 25 carriages long so it took nearly 15 minutes to find our AC3 carriage. The we had to find our seats/bunks . Each carriage in AC3 seats 64 people. 3 facing 3 seats and also a row of bunks down one side which are 2 high. We managed to swap with a few people and got 4 of us together the other 3 were in the next carriage up. The bunks weren't too bad and surprisingly the train ride was very smooth. Early in the journey there were people constantly coming through with water and food from the Pantry Car. Amusingly the food was all labeled as 'Meals-on-Wheels'; not the same sort as we get back home though. Soon after, thin...

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR . Spent today in Old Delhi, took the Metro to the old town and it was a little crammed in! But very clean and efficient. First we visited the Jama Masjid Mosque in the centre of the old town, this massive building will accommodate 25,000 worshipers. We then wandered through the tight narrow streets of the old town where the buildings are so close above you the almost join 3 floors up. The we visited a Sikh Gurudwara (sorry forgot name) where they have a food kitchen which is open to all 24 hrs a day and is free. We were allowed to go into the kitchens to see the food been prepared in dixies the size I have never seen before over. Next was a walk through the spice market which was frankly overpowering, the smell senses are now well and truly shot what with the smog and heat to boot. We all left sneezing. We then took the Metro to Connaught Place, the centre of what was the British Raj India. Beautiful colonnade buildings are arranged in a circle ...

:( for some reason I can't update the Google Latitude map from here, but believe me, I am in Delhi not Hounslow as the map shows! (Fixed Now!) Mike

Well I've arrived in Delhi OK. But can't check-in to the hotel for another hour (9am) so killing time using the free internet access. Hotel looks nice and clean with friendly staff, and they brought me a cup of chai (tea) which was nice. It's warm, 20+deg at 5:30 when the plane landed, and the usual Indian city smog. Not seen much on the way in as it was still dark when we landed and the sun only came up about an hour ago. The BA flight was good but I defiantly got spoilt on previous long haul flights. 'Tis a little cramped in coach :(. Delhi Airport is typical of an Indian Airport - organised chaos. A 'health check' is done on arrival which involves filling out a form - that's it. Then you have to wait ages for the bags to come through. I did as the guide book suggested and got a pre-paid taxi voucher from the Police control booth. 250Rs. (3.25GBP) Driver didn't know the hotel exactly so we drove around and around for a bit till he found the Hotel. I th...

Well I've managed to get to the Departure Lounge at Heathrow ok. The drive down was uneventful apart from a detour to Volvo Oxford as the onboard computer threw a wobbler at Norton Canes Services and stopped working - No radio 4 - my Dad couldn't cope any further. Anyway all we had to do was turn the engine off for 5mins and all's well again. Stayed overnight at the Premier Inn Heathrow, Excellent place, Very good staff, big rooms, Good food. However £3.45 a pint! Travel Tip1; book the Meal Deal £20 for 2course Meal + Drink and all you can eat Breakfast. Travel Tip2; go out the front doors and get the local bus to the airport it's Free (go out the back and you pay £4 for the Airport Hotel Hoppa!) Off to board the plane...

Let's See Manchester Saturday: light showers, Max Temp: 9°C (48°F), Min Temp: 2°C (36°F) New Delhi Saturday: sunny, Max Temp: 31°C (88°F), Min Temp: 15°C (59°F) Where would you rather be?