Hotel Tansen Gwalior

... with knowledge and ready to go. I was buying the ticket instead of oscar. I worked my way to the front of the line and pushed with the best of them, 3 minutes later we were heading for the platform to catch the 2807 Samata express to Agra.
Once on the platform , it's just a case of waiting for the inevitably late train, trying to hear any platform changes over the hubub, saying no to beggers and dodging a rat or two ...

... particularly safe and spending way too uch time kiling the cockroaches (havent got a problem with them if its a basic place but I'm not paying through the teeth for them!) I decided to move to another hotel.

2nd hotel was ok - not great but I felt better there.

1st day I went to a barking mad palace of a maharaja. They guy had way too much money so sent a guy off to Europe and he came back with ideas of Italian design and lots of things. So a 200 odd room ...

Gwailor is famous for its medieval fortress built upon a 7 km long mountain ridge. The fort changed hands many times over the centuries and has even been used as a prison. It played a major role during the Indian uprising against the British in 1857.It functioned as a fort from 1446 - 1516. There are several sub floors that were later used as a ...

... oder fuer Antennen...). A propos Cricket, dies ist hier in Indien Nationalsportart und hat so ziemlich alles andere verdraengt. Dummerweise ist Deutschland im Cricket nicht so gut, daher gibt es erstaunlich viele Inder, die Deutschland gar nicht kennen... Habe dann meinen hoffentlich letzten Bus genommen um noch am selben Tag Agra zu erreichen. Gruss Ralf

... well boy i was wrong i thought it would be around 60-70percent but more like 10percent ,Taxi drivers say "yes i speak English", but you can tell they dint have a breeze- i just ask them what day of the week it is and they reply "yes i can take u there "- OK mister By bye to you One rule i kinda have over here is so no to people trying to help , most are chancers-i chose who to ask- it can take ...

... on the edge of the cliff, and we found a secluded area on the high floors of the temple to sit in the breeze, cool of from the 40+ degree heat and enjoy the great view of the city, just chat up all the emotions that India has provided so far. We also went to a Sikh temple. ANother wierd experience. One of the head guys was very eager to explian things to us, but in his details it was obvious that he assumed we knew the first 3-4 basic things about Sikh (big mistake ...

... and rubbish surrounding the community, and it was heart breaking to imagine life before WaterAid started work. We reluctantly left the community to return to the hotel and say our goodbyes to Dr Singh. Dan and Dan gave a fantastic performance of the Gwalior version of "I've been around the world", which Johnson followed with a song he had written especially for the occasion! Saying our good byes to Johnson, Maria, Suresh and the rest of ...

... about our lives and explaining how they saved up to 5 hours a day by not collecting water and how everyone was now cleaner with clean clothes. Before every house hold had someone ill with stomach problems and Diarrhea, now Diarrhea and malaria have now almost disappeared from the village. Every person in the village owns some land and with the irrigation systems even the poorest farmer can earn and extra 10,000 rupees a month from selling crops at ...

... which was helpful so at least now I know what I was eating! I then went on the internet for a while before heading back to the hotel and resting. That evening I went to the Kwality restaurant which was very popular with locals and foreigners as a group of 10 whitey's were sat at one table. They sounded American and English. I had a very good tandorri chicken, mushroom and pea curry, rice, naan and 2 papads (poppudums) before heading back to the hotel.

... to exit the fort down the other path as there was another museum and some smaller temples on the way down. The museum featured more beautifully decorated stone carvings, some coins, miniature paintings, weapons and armory housed in what looked like an underground bunker. After leaving the museum I walked along a street where all the shop fronts were written in Hindi and not English like I'd seen elsewhere. This is off the beaten track territory and I was ...