Andaman & Nicobar Islands - PARADISE!!!

After a fairly crazy few days in Kolkata Cindy and i took a flight on the 25th January over to the beautiful very unspoilt Andaman and Nicobar Islands which are just of the east coast of India. Time for a holiday we thought... hee hee! We spent the first week on the slightly more touristy island (Havelock) where we met loads of great people i had a go at scuba diving (whole other story though), hired bicycles and mopeds to go exploring and just genearally enjoyed lounging around in the sun and sipping cocktails at night.

Kumb Melah/indian trains!

Here's a small glimpse of our 'mini adventure' to the Kumb Melah Festival, one of India's largest holy festivals which takes place every 12 years 140km north of varanassi... and what an experience it was!!! Cindy and i were bundled onto a train at 8 o'clock in the morning along with the other hordes of people all heading out to bathe in the holy waters where the 3 rivers meet. We then spent the next 8 hours (no joke!!) crammed in a carriage on extremely uncomfortable wooden benches, as the train crawled along to it's final destination...!!
Talk about a day in the life of a local - how to travel trains in true indian style! The only things missing were the chickens and the cows!
So, we finally arrived at the festival, making it just in time to see the pilgrims bathing at sunset, pretty amazing huh! It was well worth the adventure to get there.
Only having enough time to spend a couple of hours there we then made it back to the train station (which was a mission in itself!), in time to get the last train back to Varanassi. Little did we know (although i guess we should've presumed), that we were going to be crushed in the crowds getting onto the platform, only to then sit huddled in a cage(literally!) freezing cold, completely shattered and absolutely desparate for a pee for the next 5 hours(!). We were then shuttled out of the cage and back onto the manic platform as our train finally pulled up at 2 o'clock in the morning! And still the worst part was yet to come - Cindy and i were completely separated by the swarms of people literally fighting, pushing, pulling to get on the train - everything being passed over our heads, elderly people being crushed, my head was nearly taken off... I then shouted out the window to cindy so that she at least knew which carriage i had been bundled into so we were together again for the next painful 6 hours back on the wooden benches and still needing a pee but not able to actually move once we had our spot on the train. Even if i had wanted to risk it i would've been very unpopular climbing over all the peopl that covered every inch of the train...!!! 9 am we were finally safely back at our hotel in Varanassi after our biggest adventure so far we reckon! It really was an experience.... and although it was pretty amazing, and certainly an eye-opener, maybe not one i would repeat in a hurry!! :-)

The grand old Taj Mahal to the burning ghats of Varanassi

Oh yes, we all saw this one coming.... of course you can't really visit India without taking a peak at the Taj! We were even lucky enough to find a budget 'hotel' with the best views in town out across to the spectacular building. It really is just like it looks in the pictures you may've seen of it, i couldn't quite believe it was real when we were stood there in front of it!

After marvelling at the Taj we then experienced India in it's most holy form.... at Varanassi. A city based all along the ganges river where hindu pilgrims come to wash away their sins and bodies are cremated out in public along the ghats. Yikes!

Was quite a shock i have to say.... but also truly amazing and a very special place.

The photo is taken from our sunrise boat trip along

the ganges.

Jaiselmer to Jaipur (by accident!), then Pushkar to Delhi!

So our next move across india was via another joyous overnight bus ride hoping to get to Pushkar... But, Cindy and i having both overslept, actually ended up in the middle of Jaipur (Rajhastan's capital) at 7 o'clock in the morning.... half asleep and no idea where the hell we were! Doh! So, we spent a few days seeing the sights of Jaipur which was pretty crazy but cool, before our second attempt at reaching Pushkar which was a lovely small city all based around a beautiful lake.

We then headed slightly further north to Delhi, which i had no expectations for at all, and actually fell in love with it straight away....! Just so much to see and do, and with a really great feel to it. Ok, so if you've just landed in Delhi as your first stop in India then maybe it's all a bit much but if you're kind of used to the madness and the 'indian ways' then it's great!! We ate in revolving restaurants, visited the crazy spice markets, walked around one of the world's biggest mosques, and stepped inside one of the most spectacular, and most modern temples i have seen - the Bahai (lotus temple), see photo.

Christmas on a camel!

Next stop Jaisalmer where we spent the christmas and new year period. Pretty great place to be, being one of India's 'hot spots' for setting out on a camel safari across the Thar desert, so why not go for a slightly different christmas, and spend 3 days out in the beautiful untouched sand dunes bouncing along on a camel...!! We even managed to hunt down santa hats for the occasion, much to the suprise of our fellow safari people who i think thought we were maybe a little crazy.... but it's christmas!!! Why not!?!

Was kind of surreal waking up on boxing day to morning chai huddled in our sleeping bags having slept out under the stars in the middle of the desert. Yey!

Heading across Rajhastan....

So, here goes... my travels across Rajhastan, in a nutshell...! Having successfully 'completed' our cooking course and completely and utterly stuffing ourselves with a 10 course meal(pretty much!), in Udaipur, Cindy and i then moved on to the beautiful 'blue city' of Jodhpur where we took a trip up to the grand Mehrangarh Fort, visited some of the nearby Bishnoi villages and even did a spot of christmas shopping for stocking fillers for one another...! All very entertaining in the indian markets, and way less stressfull than the christmas shopping i am used to...!!! Yep, after initially thinking we were going to let christmas just go by we kind of had a change of tune and thought ah what the hell lets get a little festive!

Welcome to my blog!

Hello to you all!

Welcome to a small insight into my adventures around the globe.....!

Sorry it's taken me a little while to get this set up (more than 5 months - oops!) but it's here now so i hope you enjoy...

I'll start the blog as a follow on from my last big email update, which was around the middle of December '06 when i was in Udaipur, India.

If you click on the photos you can see them in a bigger size.