India
Delhi, last few days in India
I’m writing this post in retrospect so the way I write may be different to what it would have been at the time, in parts that will mean diluted frustration but it may also mean that I’ve also diluted some of the positives… We arrived in Delhi after a direct bus from Rishikesh, after 5 … Continue reading
Rishikesh – yoga capital of the world?!
This post should probably be a fairly short one, although we stayed in Rishikesh for 5 days, they were a relaxing 5 days… I think rather than story telling my way through the visit I’ll just mention the main points: MY BIRTHDAY, yep, my 28th birthday fell during the time we were in Rishikesh, we … Continue reading
McLeod Ganj – Monk monk monk lama (Om mani padme um)
The land of Tibet in exile and home to the Dali Lama. We’d arrived here after a bus ride with a change at some place in the middle of nowhere, it had taken a good few hours but the ride up was pleasant, going through Dharmasala, up and down the mountains, and every now and … Continue reading
Agra to Amritsar
After bussing it from Agra, via Dehli we arrived in Amritsar, the Golden City, the home of the Golden Temple. The bus journey itself from Agra was fairly uneventful although we had a few hour stop off in Dehli so we hopped in a TukTuk get to the other bus stop ready for the next … Continue reading
Hello Mr Taj
So! We arrived in Agra from Varanasi via train – I have to say, not the worst journey, but wasn’t too great either. All in all we booked ourselves onto the 2AC sleeper (type of class in India, see man in seat 61 for an overview of classes), a three bunk bed cabin. Unfortunately we didn’t … Continue reading
Messing about on the river (I think we’ve found India) – Life and Death on the Mother Ganga – Varanasi
So, it seems we’ve arrived in ‘real’ India – the one you see on TV where the streets are where you live, work and socialise and where the river is the place the whole city goes to complete their daily chores… We have arrived in Varanasi, the Holy city. It’s amazing how you can be … Continue reading
Mysore
After a quick nap, we’d planned to spend time at Mysore Palace followed by spending the afternoon at the bazaar until 2 random (separate) people on the street told us of a better plan… Apparently the palace is really busy in a morning so we were advised to head to the markets first and back … Continue reading
The Journey to the Heart of South India (Munnar to Mysore)
It appears the internet can only give you so much information and local knowledge goes a long way, especially on the less trodden paths(at least tourist-wise). I like to think I’m pretty good at good old Google-fu but nowhere could I find a nice easy way to get to Mysore from Munnar (using forums, travel … Continue reading
Head to the hills – Munnar
Munnar is such a beautiful place, reached by a series of sharp bends spiralling through the hillside. The main focus of our trip here was to trek up into the tea plantations. We arranged a trip through our guest house, Green View, up at 5.30am for tea and biscuits (yes! I now seem to drink … Continue reading
By the water’s edge
Feels like we’re back in Sri Lanka now. The whole place is green and buzzing with life, a contrast to the shades of grey and yellow of Chennai, and everything already seems more relaxed. We got to Alappuzha (Alleppey) around 1500 and headed straight for the guest house (Vendanta wake up! an Indian backpacking chain). We … Continue reading
Fort Kochi, culture town!
This is more like it… green trees, happy smiling faces… We were struggling to find a train from Chennai to Kochi (Cochin) so we took a flight instead, it actually worked out cheaper at £25 each (instead of around £50 each for 1AC, first class). We were sat next to a lovely guy from Kerala … Continue reading
Welcome to India…
…And what a welcome it was – a true guidebook introduction to the chaos that is India! Feeling rather smug that we’d had a taste (albeit a diluted taste) of what India was going to be like by visiting Sri Lanka first, getting out of the airport and not seeing too many people we thought … Continue reading
