Today was a bit of a lazy day... We had pre-ordered our breakfast and were downstairs at 6.45am eating it before hopping into our tuk tuks to go to the bus station. One of the drivers didn't take the instructions in and took himself and 3 of the group off to the train station instead. They got swamped by locals and had no clue what was going on....

Really enjoyed the peace and tranquility here. We cycled in the park and contrary to the guidebooks saying there would be no birds we saw loads of things. Deer, Spotted Deer and some other really big birds, which I can't remember the name of, some spoonbills, egrets and Ibis the guide did say we were very lucky to see them all. Also we saw wild ...

After Jaipur (one of the points on the golden tourist triangle with Agra (Taj Mahal) and Delhi) we didnt want to stay in Agra - expecting too many tourist rip off scams. We went to a place called Bharatpur. This town had a bird sanctuary connected to it meaning it was more of a country town (much better than ****** cities of India). When we got ...

The next morning, after securing a safe deposit box, we were introduced to our cycles that were to be our mode of transport for the next week... not quite the mountain bikes advertised but the authentic traditional Indian variety... 2 wheels, pedals, a seat and brakes. Manufactured by Hero Cycles there are millions of these reliable bikes all ov...

The reason for coming to Bharatpur was to visit the World Heritage bird sanctuary here and is the only sanctuary that is open in India at this time of year. It is 29sq km of wetlands and home to 364 species of birds with some migrating here all the way from Siberia. As well as the birds, we also saw deer, antelope, foxes, and lizards, and althou...

The others in my group had had enough of early starts on cold bumpy buses (actually I quite like them)so we chipped in a bit more cash and hired an Ambassador car (old white Indian car - quite old fashioned looking, can see them everywhere!). Somehow 5 of us managed to squeeze into this beauty and all our luggage although Dale had to sit with hi...