Hotel Presidency Inn Lucknow

We woke very early to catch thhe train from Agra to Khajuarho. Because of fog in New Delhi, 220 miles away, the train was 4 and a half hours late. While standing at the station, I asked our guide why the men ride on the motorbikes with helmets but the women and children squeezed along don'hae helmets. He laughed and said it would be too much to ask a woman to wear a safety helmet because she has ...

... in excrement. <br><br>The right hand toilet was western. Similar to the trainspotting toilet. This negated the need to strip off and was my favored dropping off point. That is until I misjudged my stance (no sitting on the thing, no way, just semi squatting at a 45 degree angle and holding on the sink tight for dear life) and shat everywhere. Had a vain attempt at a clear up operation. But it was beyond hope. I ...

... a night after getting the driver to trawl round the city, it had no window....I always find that weird even though thinking about it you rarely open the window with A/C....but many rooms are like that here .......<br><br>.... it was passable, but they didnt give us an AC control you had to phone down for someone to come and adjust or turn off your AC..can you believe that cos i couldnt!!! ... ridiculous!! we have ours on and off constantly, usually ...

... the village helps each other out. We saw as they all bathed in a local well and washed each other, little girls washing the hair of their sisters and taking turns to bathe the babies. They all just seemed so so happy, regardless of whether we were there or not. And they live in the most beautiful place in amongst the hills, in wonderful forests with such magical scenery. I felt, as I stood there, that perhaps I was the one that might be missing out.

... fellow experienced travellers were wimps. When offered an upgrade to a room, only 4 of 25 ended up in tents. I love sleeping alone in a tent on a cool night, I had the best night sleep. I was on breakfast duty and I could hardly stand, had no energy to do anything, had a circus in my stomach and had to keep a mental note as the shortest route to the toilet at any point. After barely pulling my weight with breakfast duties I bailed out to crash in a ...

... although oddly, the ceiling looked like something out of a modern art museum from the 1970s or 1980s. Before the show began, a couple famous Lucknowites (I still have no idea who they were) came up to the stage to light to ceremonial oil lamp. After they took their "seats of honor" in the front row, a woman wearing a beautiful sari came up on stage and gave a long introduction to the performance, all in Hindi of course. By the time the show started, we had been ...

... crowd and start jumping and dancing, as it "taken" by some spirit. The chanting continued for about 2 hours, and towards the end of that time, the yogi led some nasal breathing exercises, which was the only part of the evening that resembled the type of yoga that I'm familiar with. Finally, the yogi turned off the TVs and people began to stand up and line up in front of the altar. The woman who had seated us in the front once again motioned to us to come to the ...

... cotillas, y se quieren enterar de todo. Que haces, como comes, que le estas diciendo a la persona que tienes al lado, porque te pones la ropa de un forma u otra, que piensas sobre india, y bla bla bla. Es una nacion de cotillas. En cierta forma me recuerda a Espana, sobre todo en Sevilla en mi barrio, cuando hay alguien de fuera todo el mundo te mira y se queda mirando sin que le de ningun tipo de verguenza. ASi que yo estoy bastante formada en ser cotilla ...

... Hindi and their nonexistent English, we didn't have much luck. Finally, we saw a girl wearing "Western clothes" (ie. Jeans and a T-shirt) standing at the gate of her house, and I decided to ask for her help, hoping that she spoke English. My guess was right, and she told us in English that we were actually on the right street, but just had to continue down a short ways. We thanked her and followed her directions. A few minutes later, we reached our house and I was ...

... were extremely warm and friendly, and many of them spoke English. The office was its own one-story building, with about 8-10 rooms spread throughout. I was happy to find that there were plenty of fans at the office, and even some A/C units that I guessed were used when it got too hot to work. We had a quick cup of tea with Paula, and then were taken back to our apartment to settle in for our first night in Lucknow. More to come on my first week's adventures in Lucknow...