Park Regency Bharatpur

... post. Once at the border we sadly found out that even Nepali people do their best to rip you off :-< We left the border town at around 6pm on a crowded local bus - people with an enormous number of bags stamping on each other with screeching voices...complete mayhem. With hindsight I think it was better if we got the slightly more expensive tourist bus. At 9:45pm the bus ...

... love. We are still very insulated from it, and the stares are constant. But it is an awesome introduction into to it. Mustard fields, and little temples. Tiny villiages and tons of construction. Never seen so much exposed rebar in my life. We pull up to Fatehpur Sikri and are transferred to a "governement sponsored tour guide"... take a took took to the top of the hill, go inside and are given a very nice tour of the facilities. We discover ...

... meet his parents and have a cup of tea. You don't get that with Shearings (an English coach company) do you? Then it's on to a smart hotel set in the country, definitely a step up, with landscaped gardens and a swimming pool. We enjoy a buffet lunch and then climb back into the buses for the afternoon visit. The 'Keoladeo Ghana National Park' is a 52 sq km mixed woodland site, set aside as a bird sanctuary for local and migratory birds. Parking at the ...

... if you stand in the street and watch a kite fight, a few minutes after the kite falls you can see the boys running like the wind (excuse the pun) to recover their 'new' kite. Not always that simple though, the power lines and phone lines are littered with old kites which got caught up on the way down. Shame the boys must have been dissapointed! Now its a long long journey from here to Varanassi via Mathura.........oh my word overnight on a sleeper.

... being one of the highlights. As motorised vehicles are kept out of the park we rode the 3km road in a pony trap that Cameron thought was great craic ... until, on the return journey, the effect of early mornings and the heat meant he fell asleep. One of the least comfortable naps he has attempted. The real reason for going to Bharatpur was to catch the 3.14 Golden Temple Mail, and while it takes about 27 hours to travel from Mumbai to Amritsar, we were only on it for the four hours to ...

... just amazing. Floating on the horizon, crooked, yet perfect. The morning light adds a soft yellow glow to the white marble, and I got a reflection in the nearly empty fountains in front. Its quite well preserved, mostly I think because of the ban on any metal objects from being taken into the grounds. Many of the other historical sites we went to in India had a lot of graffiti and marks on the walls. You even wear booties over your ...

... unos judios caminando por un mercado local. Este es un tema inagotable pero he aqui algunos datos breves e interesantes que quiero comentar. Quizas sean triavles, quizas no. Por ejemplo que los dioses hindus y sus reencarnaciones son representados con auras (o halos) en la cabeza (tal como los santos catolicos), y que ellos tambien tienen un agua bendita que la gente se echa en la cabeza y que le ponen flores a sus profetas que son igualitas que los cempasuchiles ...

... cameras so that they could see themselves. We also visited a house where the floor (made from a mixture of cow dung and soil) was replaced every two weeks; all done by the women of the house who seemed to be responsible for just about everything whilst the men sat around smoking. Later, we were entertained with a puppet show whilst we sat around a bonfire. Quite entertaining but the sound effects left a lot to be desired. Next stop, Jaipur.

... wie in Agra so ueberwaeltigend entgegenschwappt. Was mich in einer dunklen Stunde in einem Vollgestopften, stinkenden Zug dazu bewegt hat folgendes in mein Notizbuch zu schreiben: "Das gute alte Indien ist weg. Die Maharadschas, die Sutren, die Geschichte, die Geschichten, die Magie einer jahrtausende alten Kultur wurden verdraengt vom Geruch von Kot beim Einfahren in den Bahnhof, vom Laerm der Straszen, vom Dreck der in der Luft ueber den Staedten schwebt ...

... tutta la mattinata. Volevamo solo essere assieme al nostro amico Taj e respirare la storia d'amore che lo ha fatto nascere. Infatti, il monumento è la tomba di Mumtaz Mahal, seconda moglie dell'imperatore Moghul Shah Jahan (nipote di Akbar, quello di prima), morta nel dare alla luce il suo quattordicesimo (... permettetemi una pausa di ammirazione...) figlio. L'imperatore si è svenato per metterlo in piedi (l'equivalente di 70 milioni di euro di oggi, dice la Lonely, e pare ...