Aangan Hotel Jaipur The Pink City

We have now completed the golden triangle of India.
Jaipur isn't as nice as we had hoped though.

It's very busy with getting alot of hassle from tultuk drivers and as
with most of India it is very noisy with beeping of horns, traffic and
people which after a long bus trip and in 35C heat can all get a bit
too much!

We were lucky enough to be here though fortue Diwali Celebrations,
which was great as they had lots of fireworks going off and the aim is
to light up your home as much as possible to welcome the goddess of
prosperity for the next year. We saw hugh firework displays and there
were lots of firecrackers & bangers to keep with their loud
lifestyle..... crazy!

The Royal Palace in Jaipur (now 300 rupees) was very nice to see where
the Rajahstan royal family live. They have no power as the country is
ruled by the primer minister. We also visited a bizarre observatory
built by the Shah in the 17th century. They have a sun dial there
accurate to within 2 secs, amazing!

We stayed at a nice guest house and they looked after us well but for
those coming to visit India, Jaipur is more expensive than most other
northern cities in India and you would be lucky to find any guest
house at less than 250 rupees for a double room.

Shah Jahan Hostel Agra India review

The Taj Mahal!
We have finally made it to Agra!
An amazing place the Taj Mahal is but Agra there is not much else to
see apart from the Taj.

It just so happens that the Argentinean President has also decided to
pay a visit to the Taj on the same day so the whole place has to be
cleared out for her arrival. Thankfully this also means that we can
also go bak in after her visit so we see it's beauty throughout the
day from the misty morning and sunrise through to the beautiful sunset
creating an orange glow to the building. The building is perfectly
designed in all aspects apart from the fact the fact it was built for
the Shah or Emperors wife but when the Shah died they broke the
symmetry by placing him in the middle of the Taj! It is amazing just
being here but you strangely feel as if you have been here before as
you have seen it in pictures or on the TV!

The building itself is huge. made of White marble and the gardens are
beautiful with the reflecting pools. We were lucky to go in the
morning as it was packed in the afternoon when all the tour groups
seem to arrive. India is so full of contrasts from dirty litter street
to an amazing place like this.

Shah Jahan hostel was our home while we stayed in Agra. It was 175
rupees a night after some bargaining which seems to be a norm here or
you often pay double the normal price and had ensuite bathroom with
fan. The room was pretty clean and had Internet from 30 rupees/hr. It
also had a roof top cafe so we could eat our breakfast whilst looking
at the Taj which most hostels seem to have round here. We found a
great little eatery called Johnnys Place where they make great Masala
Koftas, wow I like this Indian food and am still a vegetarian!

Next stop Jaipur for Diwali, the biggest festival in India!

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New Fort Guesthouse, Orchha

On to Orchha by train (well 5km out anyway)
It's a rush to squash in to an auto rickshaw the size of a
Mini but manages to fit about 10 people into it by some
Amazing feet! We were clutching on to the sides for dear life!

Orchha is an amazing little place with huge forts built by a Shah in
15th century. We were luck enough to arrive when their was some big
celebration going on so it was heaving. The temple seemed to be the
place where everyone was heading and we presumed that there was some
very important religious festival going on

Yogi Lodge, Khajuraho

So we left this crazy place for the land of temples with Kama Sutra
figures on it's temples!

Unfortuneately our train left 2 hrs late and so we didn't arrive in
Satna until 7pm when it was already dark. So we had a forced stop
there before carrying on our bus to Khajuraho.

Satna is a non descript place (nothing for tourists and prices for
hotels that match that) minimum hotel rooms cost 400 rupees, which was
even more than Delhi!

Next morning up early to catch the bus.

Khajuraho is such a laid back sort of place compared to anywhere else
so far in India. I guess as it was the smallest place we had been to
and it was great to finally escape the neverending beeping of horns
from every type of vehicle which you get so used to in any Indian
town, what bliss!

Yogi Lodge was nice and comfortable and again only cost us 150 rupees
per night with ensuite! We also discovered it had wifi so had the
chance to call Lizzie from the iPod.
They also offered yoga & meditation classes which James enjoyed in
getting in touch with his inner self. So much so that the yoga teacher
gave him a new name, Krishna. So from now on that will be my spiritual
name!!!

The temples were magnificent and the towns people were very friendly
but some of this friendliness was to get you to pay to see their
school or home. But the restaurant owners were very friendly as it was
low season (apparently it doesnt start until at least Nov & gets much
busier until March when it calms down again) and so were desperate for
you to eat there. And they were generous with the amount of food. On
numerous occasions at Safari Restaurant we asked for one hot lemon or
porridge and out came two! No no we said but he said don't worry this
is one!

We enjoyed relaxing there for a few days!

The bonus came that they have now opened a new railway station in
Khajuraho in the past few months (this isn't yet in any of the
guidebooks as it is too new!) It meant we could get a train directly
to Orchha on the 1230pm each day, much better than the noisy &
squashed buses.

They are apparently aiming to have direct train services from
Khajuraho to Varanasi, Delhi & Agra and vice versa making it much
easier to get to this nice town!

Indian Railways Sleeper Class Conditions

So how did the epic train journey go?

Well surprisingly well considering sleeper class was the best class we
could book last minute. Now you're thinking sleeper class that sounds
nice but no it is the 2nd lowest class on the train after the packed
3rd class wooden seats, so not surprisngly we were a little
apprehensive! It has 3 berths on either side & 2 at the side so it was
cozy! Everyone else could hardly speak any English so we ended up with
some sign language to get our point across. We ended up playing cards
which the Indians where fascinated by & wanted to play too. We ended
up playing for almost 4 hrs! So time passed quickly and the beds were
pretty comfortable and we felt pretty safe really so long as we kept
our bags with us.

Sleeper Class is ideal as it is often a fifth of the price and only
lose out on not having a/c which isn't too bad seeing on moving train!

Indian Railways Sleeper Class Conditions

So how did the epic train journey go?

Well surprisingly well considering sleeper class was the best class we
could book last minute. Now you're thinking sleeper class that sounds
nice but no it is the 2nd lowest class on the train after the packed
3rd class wooden seats, so not surprisngly we were a little
apprehensive! It has 3 berths on either side & 2 at the side so it was
cozy! Everyone else could hardly speak any English so we ended up with
some sign language to get our point across. We ended up playing cards
which the Indians where fascinated by & wanted to play too. We ended
up playing for almost 4 hrs! So time passed quickly and the beds were
pretty comfortable and we felt pretty safe really so long as we kept
our bags with us.

Sleeper Class is ideal as it is often a fifth of the price and only
lose out on not having a/c which isn't too bad seeing you get natural
a/c on moving train!

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Shanti Guest House, Manikarnika Ghat, Varanasi

So to Varanasi, home of the sacred Ganges River and burning bodies!

We hadn't thought about going this far across the country but everyone
we spoke to said it was worth the trip.

Varanasi is apparently one of the oldest cities in the world sitting
on the banks of the sacred Ganges River. So sacred in fact that they
throw anything into it, including bodies, but more on that later.

So we arrived in V after our long train journey and were a little
exhausted. Everytime you come out of a station you get almost attacked
by rickshaw peddlers wanting to take you to your hotel. This seems
very kind until you realise that they only do this to make a
commission which gets added on to the cost of your hotel bill. But we
tried to avoid this but they were one step ahead with someone waiting
where we were dropped off! We tried to lose him but he had his buddy
watching us from behind and even James with his GPS navigation got
lost in the maze of little street around the claustrophobic city.
After finally stopping the husslers from following us after 30mins we
were exhausted and completely lost. We finally found someone who
helped us find the way to the guesthouse and arrived just before dark!

Next morning it was an early rise from Shanti Guesthouse with its boat
trip along the Ganges at sunrise 530am! It was amazing to see the
burning (ghat or temple) where the local people came to burn their
elderly relatives. Apparently women were not allowed at these
ceremonies now after one woman jumping on to the body of her dead
husband!!! It's quite a morbid place and sad as no one seems to be
that upset or crying for their dead reelative, strange.

Well as we said they throw everything in their so called sacred Ganges
including bodies (yes we saw a dead body floating in the river (only
pregnant women, children, priest and those bitten by Cobra can't be
burned at the Ghats) and therefor must be tied down with a rock &
thrown into the river. Unfortunately, as we saw, they aren't tied down
well enough sometimes! Very Grim!!

Whilst we saw this our boatman showed us how holy the water is in the
Ganges by drinking this thicky dirty brown murky water just momenta
after we had seen the dead body and some people pouring animal
excrement and rubbish directly into the river! YUCK! But apparently
they don't get sick as their stomach is used to this water! Amazing!

Meanwhile Indian men, women & children on the river banks were bathing
themselves with this dirty water (sorry holy water!)

So as you can gather Varanasi is quite a full on sort of the place
which boggles all your senses!

Shanti Guest House, Manikarnika Ghat, Varanasi

So to Varanasi, home of the sacred Ganges River and burning bodies!

We hadn't thought about going this far across the country but everyone
we spoke to said it was worth the trip.

Varanasi is apparently one of the oldest cities in the world sitting
on the banks of the sacred Ganges River. So sacred in fact that they
throw anything into it, including bodies, but more on that later.

So we arrived in V after our long train journey and were a little
exhausted. Everytime you come out of a station you get almost attacked
by rickshaw peddlers wanting to take you to your hotel. This seems
very kind until you realise that they only do this to make a
commission which gets added on to the cost of your hotel bill. But we
tried to avoid this but they were one step ahead with someone waiting
where we were dropped off! We tried to lose him but he had his buddy
watching us from behind and even James with his GPS navigation got
lost in the maze of little street around the claustrophobic city.
After finally stopping the husslers from following us after 30mins we
were exhausted and completely lost. We finally found someone who
helped us find the way to the guesthouse and arrived just before dark!

Next morning it was an early rise from Shanti Guesthouse with its boat
trip along the Ganges at sunrise 530am! It was amazing to see the
burning (ghat or temple) where the local people came to burn their
elderly relatives. Apparently women were not allowed at these
ceremonies now after one woman jumping on to the body of her dead
husband!!! It's quite a morbid place and sad as no one seems to be
that upset or crying for their dead reelative, strange.

Well as we said they throw everything in their so called sacred Ganges
including bodies (yes we saw a dead body floating in the river (only
pregnant women, children, priest and those bitten by Cobra can't be
burned at the Ghats) and therefor must be tied down with a rock &
thrown into the river. Unfortunately, as we saw, they aren't tied down
well enough sometimes! Very Grim!!

Whilst we saw this our boatman showed us how holy the water is in the
Ganges by drinking this thicky dirty brown murky water just momenta
after we had seen the dead body and some people pouring animal
excrement and rubbish directly into the river! YUCK! But apparently
they don't get sick as their stomach is used to this water! Amazing!

Meanwhile Indian men, women & children on the river banks were bathing
themselves with this dirty water (sorry holy water!)

So as you can gather Varanasi is quite a full on sort of the place
which boggles all your senses!

Armritsar - The Golden Temple!

Well we have unfortunately returned to the heat of the plains of
India, but it is worth it to see this amazing place.

The Golden Temple is plated in gold and looks truly amazing! It is set
in the middle of a holy lake. It is the holiest place for the Sikh
religion, one of many in India.

They are so generous here. They allow you to stay next to the temple
for donation only and allow you to eat at the temple for donation too!
Finally they allow you in to the temple for, yes you guessed it,
donation only!

We also got to see the spectacle at the Indian Pakistan border at
Atarri. He each side of the border like to heckle each other to
torment them as they seem to hate each other Pakistan & India. It's a
daily ritual where thousands on each side start shoutting & singing
their favourite songs. At the end of it the border guards do a funny
march (and almost slapeach other in the face), they lower the flag and
then the thousands go home for another day!

Well it has been a nice place to relax and explore for a few days.

It's funny in how we had no itininery for the trip before we left,
but now we are jjust getting swept along by other people
recommendations of where to go. This time we are heading to Varanasi
next, a 24hr train journey, our first & in basic sleeper class. Wish
us luck!

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Akash Hotel, McLeod Ganj, India

We have made our way to Dharmsala.

It's where the Dalai Lama lives in exile from Tibet. It is medative
with lots of Buddhist monks around and quite a hippy place too. It's
nice as it's still pretty cool up here in the mountains.

We are trying do some volunteer work over here if we can find any.
They strangely seem to make it pretty difficult so we'll have to see.

The place is full of Tibetans, so we get to try Tibetan food like
momos (a little like dumplings & Tampsa (barley) porridge, both of
which are very tasty. I also seem to be turning vegetarian as it
tastes so good over here! I think I last ate meat over 3 wks ago now

The hotel we have been staying at is again great value only 150 rupees
per night! (70 rupees to pound!)

We have also been helping local refugees to speak English. Most seem
to be Tibetans who have been forced to leave Tibet for fear of their
lives over there due to peaceful protest. I never really understood
what the Tibet situation was all about. There is a museum here
describing how the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1959 and since then they
have gradually been destroying anything with Tibetan history. They
hope to finally drive them out by destroying their monasteries and
much of their land which used to be beautiful. Obviously here is
something for the Chinese in all this and once again it apperars to be
natural resources like oil, gold and more importantly water! Tibet is
so high that numerous rivers for numerous countries start in Tibet and
both the need for hydroelectric power and drinking water in China is
very important! It's a very sad situation and now feel I support their
plight to regain Tibet's independence. They try to deal with it by
peaceful protest but if the Chinese see any protest they often lock
these people away in prison or if they organised it they can even be
tortured! It's strange that the world doesn't know more about their
plight.

Well on a lighter note we're off to the Golden Temple in Amritsar next!