India Onto Nepal!

So By Wednesday the 23rd we'd made our way to Agra, Home of the Taj Mahal. I an attempt to see it in all its glory i dragge dmyself out of bed at 5.30am to see it in the ambience of sunrise (as its completely marble its suppose to glow in the early mornign sun blah blah blah) only to find by the time i made it outside en route to the taj it was broad daylight. Oh well i basically had the place to myself for the first few hours at elast. My reputation and fame it seemed had spread even to agra as i was asked to pose if my indian and chinese fans for the minium of 15 photos, it nice to be loved. Anyway later on we hopped on a sleeper train to a tiny town called Katni in view to transfer on to another train to a national park - Bandhavgorh. Only the train was 4 hours late, apprently the usual in India no one bar me and bill were frustrated. In that four hours watching trains roll in and out of the station it began to worry me the state of the train we were going to be spending the next twleve hours on as some only had bars for windows and no doors and a sewage system that flushed on to the track, we saw the evidence. At 1 Am we stepped on our 9 oclock train to be greeted by a wall of air con and freshly made three decker beds with fresh sheets, best night sleep of the travels so far!!

On the Morning of thurs 24th we arrived into katni having missed our connecting train we had to either wait 6 hours for abnother or get a taxi whilst the station master went and secured a 'local price' for our taxi to the national park 90Km away me and bill could only over spectuialte and cringe at how much this was going to cost - 15 pounds, bargin!

When we arrived at the national park hotel we was staying at and it was off the road on a mud track and due to the monsoon rains the road half way down had been washed away to leave a five foot drop whihc the taxi was not  getting over. So we finished the last 2 Km to the hotel on the back of Motorbikes with our colossus back packs taking up most of the bike. The indian popualtion following on from they started tried to con us into upgrading into another room for 300 rupees, a deluxe into a junior suite only when we asked to look around it was exactly the same room. We booked our morning safari for 5AM so that meant an early night which was easier said than done given the magnitutde of frogs,lizards and insects in our room dropping on to our heads from the ceilings, that hotle room would not of been out of place on a bush tucker trial! But apprently thats all part of the monsoon charm we were informed.

We Go round on the safari only to find no tigers much to bills much to Bills distress, bless him. So a tad defeated we get in a taxi at 10pm and make our way to the station only to drive along the way across a tiger crossing the road right in front of our full beam headlights, we paid 50 quid for the safari for fuck sake ha!
So at the station we arrange a local train to the main station where we are gettting our sleeper train to the indian/nepal border. For 10 pence a ticket for an hour n half journey we should have known what to expect. But the conditions took us totally by surpirse, people were pilled up in the doors ways asleep upon one another whilst a couple of rats slowly worked there way around them proberly curious to see if there was food about.

10p's worth of travel room

At the other end upon waiting for our sleep train to the border me and Bill celebrate our final grasp on cheap travel and how to actually travel round india like a backpacker shoudl. we toasted oursleves with luke warm coke and spicy lemon inidan pretzles ( yes as nice as they sound! ) and sat and waited for our sleeper train, Only we toasted to early and ended up waiting 10 hours for a extremely delayed train to the indian border. Oh well i assured Bill at least we'll get those nice carriages with air con and we can sleep for hours given that the trian ride is 18 hours. Our carriage was the one with bars for windows and wood for beds, defiantely a premature toast!

By now, due to the 30 hour + travel we've just undetaken, me and bill have no idea what day it is we still think its saturday only to be told its actually monday, oops. From the station we have to get a 3 hour bus to the border of india to neapl. 3 hours is childs play after a 18 hour train ride! We cross over pay our fees and before you know it we gget a bus ride ( on the roof of the bus admist luggage, clueless as to why when the bus is only half full, firendly game of kill the toursit perhaps?) into nepal to Lumbini - the birthplace of Budda. To cultural for me some might say.... we hired bikes for the day as lumbini is just a big estate of monesteries taking up a totaal of about 8Km. So we cycle around under the mid day sun only to relize that i'm not in india anymore and sunblock is mandatory everywhere else in the world when the tempertaure is in the mid 30's. Too late i look like a lobster.



India - the start

The first leg of the trip is to India.

Before we even left the country Billy had acquired a Indian style ladies scarf which he informed he intended to use as a sarong on the beach when the time was right, the time will never be right for that image!

When we arrived into Delhi we boarded the train and headed into the center of town, sweating already, we obviously looked lost and confused and one man helped us out and took us to a nearby rickshaw or tuk-tuk and gave them instructions to the local tourist office. Down to pure inexperience we got a package deal with the tourist company gaining us a driver to two different cities and two sleeper train tickets, although it was the most convenient deal it certainly would have been cheaper and more backpacker like to sort ourselves out but you live and learn.

We had arranged to tour round the golden triangle which consists of Delhi, Jaipur and Agra, and then from there head to a national park further south. Keen to see all the sights on our only day in Delhi we packed them in which proved to be not the most relaxing way but we saw everything we wanted to - The Lotus temple, the Red Fort, India Gate and Humayuns Tomb.

On the second day we travelled to Jaipur, which hold sites such as a floating palace and the Amber fort, it was the most chaotic journey i have ever had, thew amount of traffic on the roads in India is unbelievable and hectic. On being stuck in a traffic jam our driver drove on the other side of the road on the hard shoulder for 15 minutes which wasn't the most comfortable experience of my life! ON the first night in Jaipur we got speaking to a man in the hostel reception who offered to take us to ride an elephant so he drove us to the outskirts of town and we rode round a elephant in a small village which was an amazing experience. I also started to realize how much i stood out as some of the children had never seen a white person before and parents were pointing their attention towards me!

We met a really friendly Mexican man and his french girlfriend on the sencond night and they came along on the third day to tour orund the amber fort and look round the markets in city. At the entrance of the fort was snake charmers and we were offered a turban and flute a chance to charm along side them, Aftert looking round the fort which was vast and perivous had housed the royals of India we made our way in to town and looking the markets with yet again more staring at me even the occasional 'sly' photo taken of me.

So far India has been a massive culture shock, you couldn't get further away from London the streets are strewn with litter and people are begging in every single direction. The locals as well seem to seize every opportunity they have with you to try and squeeze any kind of money they can. Although this is extremely annoying it is not surprising as the poverty and poorness of the country is staggering. Much to mine and bills surprise it isn't as cheap as first thought with that probably being tied in to squeezing money out of tourism, there tends to be a locals price and a tourist price for everything. But i'm enjoying the experience and the fact that is in the early 40's celcius but due to signifcant cloud colour i need not wear suncream, a pale mans dream!!

Elephant traffic

Me in my furture career as a snake charmer