Jodhpur

This is the town where those baggy riding pants were invented and that seems to be its second biggest draw. The first being its majestic hilltop fort - Meharangath. We walked uphill for 20mins to get to the entrance and the walls towered about 30m above us. The view all round is fantastic and we paused regularly from our audioguide tour to take in the scenery below. The Maharajas still own and run the fort and you can see what a place it must have been. The palace is carved out in amazing intricate detail from the stone and the whole thing overlooks what would have been their capital. The houses below ar mostly painted blue and the desert stretching beyond completes the amazing picture.
In the afternoon we stood for half an hour in a "queue" to buy some train tickets. An indian Queue is like no other - everyone pushes to the front and its everyman for himself. One of the few concesions that women get in this country is that they don't need to queue so Nicola took our little reservation form to the desk. You have to complete forms for everything here. Checking into a hotel involves a barage of questions and many details need to be filled out in duplicate which can take up to 15mins of writing. The police keep records of every guest staying in every hotel for some reason. Anyway we got the tickets for a later train journey. Travel by train is really something in India. We have been travelling mostly in 2AC which is a sleeper train with one bed above another. The beds are set up along both walls of an open compartment and along the facing corridoor wall as well. Its fairly comfortable and an absolute luxury compared to the sleeper class most Indians use. People fight for seats in there, they sit on luggage racks, backs of seats, the roof of the train and hang on precariously out the doorways. There is such a crush for seats that people often get killed in the crush...we got caught on the edge of one a week ago and it wasn't too pleasent. Anyway one thing we have to put up with in 2AC is the view. As the train ambles through stations you are often faced with a wall of arses..people live by the side of tracks and in the early morning and evening they come out to go through their daily ablutions. It can be very graphic and its certainly safer to pull the blind down when you're eating. Again there are people regularly killed mid act...obviously facing the wrong way. Anyway apart from that the trains are quite something - moving over 14 million people every day (most of whome seem to be on whatever train we need to take).
Anyway Jodhpur was nice and now its on to anotehr new place...

Jaislamer

This is a hot dry and dusty town on in the Thar desert. It really is roasting here and we stepped off the train (from our 12hr overnight journey) into what felt like an oven. Once we had checked in it was out to wander round the old town. There is an ancient fort built on a hilltop which has 99 bastions. Its a large fort and is still lived in by many folk including the maharaja. The town is not like other parts of India...its quiet and laid back. There are stalls and shops everywhere but the lack of traffic makes for a more relaxing visit. You can do camel safaris from here but after our trip to morocco a few years ago we both swore we wouldn't get on a camel ever again...its very much overraterd! Walking at night here is strange, there are hardly any lights and those that they do have just cast weak pools of light. That makes it dificult to avoid the hundreds of cows roaming about and even harder top avoid all the cow pats. So far we've been lucky but as you can imagine - the thought of standing in a cow pat whilst wearing sandals is not an appealing one.

We have been down to the lake which has existed for hundreds of years. The desert here gets an average of 5cm rain a year which makes a large pool of water all the more impressive. We also had a tour round the maharajas palace which is very grand. The palace along with the rest of the fort is sliding away down the hill because of all the water they use in the fort. It wasn't built to handle much water and as is typical in India they haven't renewed any of the services so the old pipes just struggle on.

Everywhere in India they seem to be renovating some tourist attraction or other. At each of these scaffold clad sites there is a sign saying "we are sorry for the inconvenience or the building work. Next time you return we will be sure to give you an unforgettable experience". Its definately been worth the journey out although I don't think we will return to review the place when building stops.....

Jaipur

Our train was a couple of hours delayed and so we arrived into Jaipur just after midnight. After fighting our way through the scrum of touts and drivers we managed to negotiate a decent price and went to a nearby hotel which thankfully had one room left. It turned out to be a beauty of a place and is easily the best we have stayed at in India. We went into Jaipur and saw many of the sites - the Maharaja's Palace, the cenotaph where the royals are buried outside the city and the water palace (pictured). A really interesting one was an observatory built a couple of hundred years ago. It was filled with massive marble constructions which included the 27m high sundial which is accurate to a degree of 2 seconds (sunny days only). There were plenty others as well and despite our guide explaining everything I'm still not sure we grasped it all.
Hawa Mahal is the palace of the winds and is fairly famous locally. Its a building with some 360 tiny windows all carved out of the rock. Princesses used to watch life go by from there without having to be seen themselves.
The final thing we packed in here was a visit to the Amber Fort nearby which is again very impressive. On returning from that we decided to follow a walking route round the city. It was pegged at roughly 1hr but we thought that was fine - there was an air con cafe listed near the end which we could rest up in. Well, 2 and a half hours later we trudged wearily past where the coffee shop should have been. We were knackered and hot and still had another 8hrs to kill before our overnight train to Jaislamer which leaves at midnight (hopefully).

Agra

We arrived at about half eight in the morning and luckly manage to get a room in an area immediately to the south of the Taj. he hotels here all have roof top restaurants with great views of the Taj. Unfortunately though the area is a bit of a dive. We didn't let that deter us and booked into a room with a bizaare air con contraption. It was a box about 5ft hight and 3ft wide filled with a kind of grass or moss. The room was fine actually and we didn't need it. We had two days here and as the Taj is shut on a Friday we went to see Agra fort which is a really nice building. all the forts in india are really well preserved and you get the feeling they are still in use. Half way round here the heavens opened and we were drenched. We did have a cycle rickshaw man waiting for us outside and both felt very guilty as we sat under his canopy while he peddaled away in the torrential rain..he seemed delighted with the 50p tip (which lso appeased our sense of guilt.

The second day we visited the Taj. Its simply amazing and we spent hours there gawping up at the building from every different angle. It somehow carries an aura and provides a peaceful feeling and we really can't describe it - fantastic.

That evening we had a diner on a family run restaurant overlooking the Taj. We had a passable enough meal served by a waiter who was at least 103 years old. We were asked to pay the owner downstairs and he directed us to take a seat, went through our bill and we exchanged money. Then, without a word of a lie, he offered us a very good discount on some quality toilet roll. Now in India under normal circumstances this kind offer would be readily accepted but when your restaurant owner offers you a post meal bog roll you really do start to worry. We both wondered if this was standard practice or whether he had simply run out of mints.

Needless to say any fears we had were allayed over time.

india - Amritsar

Amritsar is in punjab right up in the northwest of India within a few kilometers of the border with Pakistan. We arrived off a bus and took a rickshaw into town where we knew there were a few hotels. One of the funny things about India are the descriptive (or perhaps misleading) the trading names establishments adopt - Lucky Hotel, Hotel Decent, Good Times hotel and so on... Amritsar was no different and one of the hotels we considered was the utterly misleadingly named "Hotel Deluxe". The rates quoted were reasonable but when we viewed the room it was a little dingy due to the fact it had no window. Deciding to give the proprietor a second chance (and not relishing lugging our packs about in the heat) we asked if he had any better rooms, with windows. He proudly informed us that none of the rooms in his hotel possessed something so common as a window and even seemed a little mystified when we took the news of the world line.... made our excuses and left.

Anyway once we successfully procured ourselves a room we set out to the Golden Temple, the most holy of sites in Sikhdom. It really is something to behold and the place is very peaceful and welcoming...you don't get that feeling of trespassing you do when visiting some holy places. The temple itself is reckoned to be covered with 750kg of gold. There are free rooms here for anyone that wants them and there is also a kitchen open to everyone. Volunteers serve meals of dhal, roti and rice to all comers 24hrs a day right throughout the year. There certainly is a lot of washing up but we managed to slip through the net and avoid being pressed into service.

The other reason people (including ourselves) visit Amritsar is to view the closing of the border ceremony that takes place each night in front of a crowd which is thousands strong. The soldiers on each side (all selected for their height of over 8ft- or so it seemed) prance about with much pomp and ceremony. They goosestep right up to their counter parts kicking so high their feet touch their hats, shake hands and then slam the gates shut. Meanwhile the crowd of indians is whipped into nothing short of a frenzy by the cheerleader and the hindi music... They dance shout wave and chant for 25mins before the flags are lowered and everyone heads off home no doubt only to return the following evening. It was all very captivating and not a little amusing....we watched the guards "warming up" behind their hut. This involved star jumps and dancing to the hindi music and despite their imposing stature we found it impossible to take them seriously after seeing the prancing warm up....I don't think GMA should even consider adopting such a routine!

India - Dharamsala

This is the official abode of the Dalai Lama and the place is appropriately laid back. Saying that we haven't actually seen the guy wandering the streets. There are however loads of Tibetans seeking asylum from the Chinese...many of them walked over the himalayas to get to India. The museum where we learned this was fairly graphic and during the trip of about 22 days almost everyone loses fingers or toes to the frostbite.

Anyway back to the good stuff...the place was very very relaxing and the locals are almost permanently horizontal at their work. The attached picture shows two, yes 2, men operating one shovel (and you thought the Scottish councils were bad!). One of these workshy chaps seems to halfheartedly move the shovel while the other pulls on a rope in roughly the same direction. I guess efficiency is not the main thing on the agenda in a country where one billion people need to work.

The other picture is of an auto rickshaw absolutely packed with people... I am not even sure how its tiny engine actually managed to move it at all.

Nicola had the unfortunate luck to find a large lump of human tooth in her muesli one morning here. Even more unfortunately it turned out to be her own and she then had to brave the dentist. We shopped around and elected not to go with the chap who was plying his trade whilst sat on the pavement but rather found someone who actually had his own premises and more than two pieces of equipment. All turned out well in the end and hopefully things will stay that way. At least, on the bright side, we had some excitement in sleepy Dharamsala.

India - Shimla

We caught the early morning express train from Delhi...Its a very civilised affair that includes two waiters per carriage...they served breakfast and then morning tea during the journey...it all comes with the ticket. We had to change trains for a narrow gauge train for the journey up into the foothills of the himalayas. The 100k journey took just over 5hrs on the smallest train you have ever seen (the locals aptly refer to it as the toy train). It was an unbelievably scenic journey crossing bridges, ravines and ridges.
Shimla is much cooler than Delhi...its a chilly 20 degrees C here and its obviously the reason its so popular with the hoardes of wealthy Indians who come here for Holidays. We Found a suitable hotel early enough. 8 pounds a night buys you a room with a 30yr old carpet, plastic chairs on your balcony, mirrors on the ceiling above the bed and a cover with a massive tigers head printed on it....and that was the best room we looked at! Its comfy enough and we have an amazing view down one of the valleys.
We have visited the old Viceroyal Lodge (in the picture above) which was the seat of the indian government over the summer months. The tour round it took in the room where the partition with Pakistan and Bangladesh was signed in 1947ish...Anyway it was such an opulent place with teak and mahogany everywhere. We had to wait a while after the tour finished whilst a group of about 20 indians took their photos with us.
We have also been for a walk which took us through some pretty nice wee "glens" as they are referred to here...
Anyway we have really enjoyed things here and have even managed to plan out most of our trip...The indians produce a phonebook size book called "trains at a glance" which is the timetable for the whole of the indian railways. I hate to admit it but we have both spent a few hours enjoying the read through this....anoraks or what!
We will be getting the bus to Dharamsala and Mcleod Ganj tomorrow...a quick 10hr hop through the mountains....

India - Delhi

The flight over from Turkey was fine although we landed at 3am so not the best timing. We changed some money and got a Taxi to Paharganj (for those of you who havent been it ca be summed up by the famous star wars line "Never before have you seen such a hive of scum and villany". Anyway as we passed the sleeping people and cows along the side of the dirt road we were glad to see our hotel. Relief was short lived as they had no recor of our booking and no rooms available other than one which seemed to be themed on prisoner cell block H. We stood at the reception desk while the staff fussed about and as Nicola was reading a notice about the "luxury tax" at the hotel a mouse ran past her on the reception counter....needless to say I was sent out to find some alternative. The street was not lit and all the hotels lock up at 12 so I had to wake the staff up by banging on the doors to check availability. A couple of hotels later I found a place and after a good bit of haggling we took a room. The place is nice although a little whacky (its got a fishtank set in the wall and another wall is completely lined with mirrors. Anyway we certainly know we are in Delhi and we have really enjoyed it. All this stuff is just part of the fun. We have booked train tickets to Shimla and seen a few of Delhi's sights such as Jama Masjid - a massive mosque that can hold 25000 people and the Red Fort. We also managed to post some stuff we don't need back home. The process is quite funny in that a tailor who works in the post office sews up your package in cloth for a small fee. We opted for air mail after being told that sea mail wouldn't arrive until "next year".

Turkey - Istanbul

After arrıvıng ın a bus statıon bıgger than most aırports we have been to ıt was great to crash out ın the hotel for 30mıns after the overnıght bus. The hotel ıs rıght ın Sultanamet and about 10mıns walk to the blue mosque, Aya Sofıa and Topkapı Palace where all the sultans stayed. We have been ın each of those and are stıll debatıng whıch ıs the most ımpressıve (that may contınue for some tıme). We have taken a ferry up the bosphorus whıch ıs always teemıng wıth boats of all sızes and as such I have reconsıdered my plan to swım from europe to asıa. (Its probably just as well gıven the current that washes through from the north - I would have probably ended up back ın greece.
The cıty really does seem to epıtomıse the word cosmopolıtan and just seems busy all the tıme. We are lucky enough to be here durıng Ramadan whıch means at nıghts the park between the two mosques ıs teemıng wıth stalls and people. Everyone seems to come out to celebrate the sun goıng down and every nıght we get caught up ın the atmosphere - sıttıng ın the park and eatıng far too much. They sell everythıng from Kebaps, baked tattıes, candy floss, toffee apples, massıve cakes.....the lıst goes on and those are just the starters!
Anyway we have had a real great tıme here and head off to Indıa on the 6th Sept....lookıng forward to that and startıng to plan out what we wıll do from there on ın....

Turkey - Cappadocıa

You know you have been travellıng for too long when you leave the hotel and ıt takes a hundred yards before you realıse you left your shoes ın the room...thats what happened to me ın Goreme so maybe prevıous assessments of my mental prowess (or lack of) have been correct afte all - or maybe we are just relaxıng loads.
We stayed ın Goreme ın Cappadocıa. The regıon ıs covered ın weırd and wonderful rock formatıons. They are all over the place and come ın all types of shapes and sızes..I wıll try to add a few photos... Some of the cone shaped rocks were lıved ın and an even greater number (ıt seems) were used as churches. We vısıted Zelve - a large town carved ınto the rock whıch was ınhabıted untıl 1952. It seems amazıng but the houses dıdnt really change over the 2000 years sınce they were fırst used. We hıred bıkes on day and the 3hr cycle took us to the valley of the faıry chımneys. About 10mıns ınto the cycle we puzzled over why there were no other cyclısts...by the tıme we got back to the hotel we knew why...my backsıde ıs stıll kıllıng me and ıt was three days ago!
One mornıng at sunrıse we took a hot aır baloon whıch would have been magıc ın normal cırcumstancs but over thıs terraın ıt was sımply awesome.
We have an overnıght bus to Istanbul - ıt takes 11hrs whıch gıves some ıdea just how bıg Turkey ıs...lookıng forward to the next destınatıon and a busy cıty after a long tıme ın one street towns...