The rest of India and Nepal!

AGRA – 19 JUNE

There isn't much in Agra but it has one thing that brings everyone to it, the Taj Mahal!!

We were no different, the Taj was a must see so we hopped on the bus from Jaipur and arrived in Agra for one night. We were told the best time to see the Taj was at sunrise so went for an early night before getting up at 5am an headed in.

It was a breathtaking sight, I don’t think any of us had ever seen anything so 'like it does on the postcard', picture perfect!! Sunrise was a great decision too as even though it was a bit cloudy it was much cooler an less crowded which was great. We got all the obligatory pics an after an hour or so headed for some breakfast an a few hours nap!!

As I mentioned there isn't much else in Agra other than the Taj so we spent the afternoon visiting the red fort (the only other thing really worth seeing in Agra and which also boasts great views of the Taj) and then just relaxing in a rooftop bar before enjoying dinner overlooking the Taj at sunset.....did I mention everything in Agra revolves around the Taj?!

KHAJURAHO – 20-22 JUNE

After Agra we headed to Khajuraho – the home of the erotic temples. The over night train was pretty good – and after the non-stop sightseeing of Jaipur and Agra, the plan was to chill out for a few days.

As soon we stepped off the train onto the station we were besieged with tuk tuk drivers wanting to take us into town. As it’s such a small place, they didn’t have the usual hoards of tourists. I like tuk tuks – the glorified three wheel motorbikes. With three of you with large bags crammed in the back, there is always that funny mixture of danger and awe at the skill of the drivers to miss every pot hole and other vehicle on the road.

Khajuraho was ridiculously hot – which made the whole “relaxing” thing a bit trickier! Particularly when the power cut out (every few hours!) and the fans stopped working. The first day we chilled out, ready to see some 1000 year old sexy temples the following day!

In the west part of town sit 6 or 7 large stone temples, which are incredibly ornate and graphically sexual for being 1000 years old. You must walk round the outside of the temples clockwise, with your right side (your divine side) facing them. Then inside there are shines to various gods.

There were some amazing sculputres. One of which depicted a few guys getting a bit too friendly with a horse...

Later we went to see the eastern temples – not quite as grand, but very impressive. On the way there we met the cutest wee boy on his adult size bike asking for “chocolate, pen, money or photo” – a common greeting from kids in India.

That night we ate dinner in a tree house (!!) – and used our head torches to see our meal due to another power cut!

On our final day we had a lot of time to kill – our train to Varanasi was not until 11.30pm. We went to find a swimming pool – and for such a small place, they actually had a huge Radisson Hotel with outdoor pool! A little indulgence once in a while can’t be too bad!

VARANASI – 23-25 JUNE

Our final overnight train journey took us to Varanasi and the holy Ganges River. The place is a complete maze of narrow streets that don't allow traffic so we were delighted that our tuk tuk driver walked is to the hostel as otherwise we could have spent hours searching for it!!

We spent the first day relaxing and meeting some great people on the hostel rooftop before heading for a sunset boat ride on the Ganges. This was amazing but gave us our 2 big 'Varanasi shocks' that we will never forget.

The Ganges is an extremely holy river and along it sit the ghats (steps) where the locals come to bath in the water, pray and at the top and bottom ends of the river cremate their friends and family. Literally on the edge of the water we saw several dead bodies placed into the open fires. And then in the water were people 'panning the ashes' searching for any gold from the bodies, i.e. teeth or jewellery. A very humbling sight and the biggest culture shock we experienced. Our boatman then told us of the bodies that are not cremated and are just dropped into the Ganges. This happens depending on the nature of the death or how old the person is, e.g. Any child under 10 is not cremated, just dropped in the river. Therefore often when on the boats on the river you pass floating bodies.....which we then did, a body floating right passed our boat, a very surreal thing which also emphasised the fact that swimming in the Ganges is not advised!! This still however doesn't stop the locals swimming in the river and drinking the water...culture shock number 2!!

Feeling somewhat solemn following the boat ride we had a quiet first night before getting up the following day to wander round the town and along the ghats. It was a great place with really friendly people and much less hassle than we expected. That night we went to the brilliant daily festival they have on the side of the river where floating candles are put in the river and men and women sing and dance in celebration of the holy Ganges! We had a final dinner with 2 mates from the hostel, Nick and Duffy, before spending our final night in India watching Italy beat England on pens.......perfect ;)!

The next day our group of 3 became 4 as Duffy joined us to head for Nepal. The journey was a long and very hot one but by the end of the day we were at the border saying goodbye to India and hello to our second country, Nepal!!

ARRIVING IN NEPAL – 25 JUNE

Finally we cross the border and after some haggling on price with our tuk tuk driver we suss out how we get from the border to Lumbini – our first stop in Nepal.  Lumbini is not far from the border - maybe 30k away - but getting there involves 3 modes of transport.

1. Jeep for maybe 15 mins - the girls are allowed seats inside but no room for the boys - they have to cling onto the outside for dear life!

2.  Tuk Tuk for 10 mins - we all pile on and go the short distance to where we can get a bus.

3. The bus will take us the rest of the way but this time there are no seats left – so naturally we are directed to the luggage rack on the roof! We all pile up with our bags and make ourselves comfortable and enjoy the view of the countryside and our first Nepalese sunset courtesy of our roof-top tour! This is what it is all about!!

Lumbini is the birthplace of Buddah but we arrive too late on the first night to see anything so we had dinner (involving thankthut and momos - flat noodle soup and Nepalese dumplings - mmmmmmmm) and a few beers with some Italian/Spanish/Canadian people in our hostel who had just emerged from a 10 day meditation course - this involved full time meditation meaning they were unable to speak to anyone for the whole 10 days - they had to sit in a room without moving for 12 hours each day - we decided this was not something we would have coped with very well!!! So they were excited to see some new faces and break their 10 days of silence! Needless to say they had saved up a lot of chat and were really good fun!

Our first impressions of Nepal are amazing - the people are so friendly and there seems to be more space here than in India.  The temperature has dropped slightly and it is nice to be away from chaotic cities and in the more relaxed and very beautiful countryside for a few days. Also it seems much more acceptable here to have a few beers which is always a winner!!!

The next day we woke to find we had been attacked by every insect under the sun and were bitten badly resulting in a pretty itchy and uncomfortable bus rise to our next destination - Pokhara.

This was a full day bus ride but it was pretty comfortable and we were allowed inside the bus this time so we could snooze in between watching the beautiful countryside go by.  The road itself was slightly precarious and we were convinced on several occasions the back wheels of the bus had left the "road" and were hovering over the cliff side dangling towards the ravines hundreds of meters below us.

Best not to look out the window at those points or indeed at the wreckages of busses that had not quite made it round the hairpin bends and tumbled to the valley floor!!!!!

POKHARA….AAAANNNNND RELAX – 26-30 JUNE

Pokhara turned out to be a beautiful town set on a lake and is where many travellers base themselves when they are trekking in the near by Himalaya mountain range - mainly the Anapurna circuit and base camp routes.  We chilled out here for a few days - our hostel even had a balcony where played cards and enjoyed some beer.

Coming from India we had been living on veggie curry for 3 weeks and were craving some steak! First port of call was a highly recommended steak restaurant.  Cal E and Dev had huge burgers and Duffy and Youngy tucked into massive steaks. MMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!! So good! We couldn't move after so much food but we did manage to crawl to a near by bar and listened to some live music and had a few drinks.  There is basically a big strip of hotels, restaurants, bars and nightclubs to cater to the trekkers that pass through - it felt like Sauchiehall street on a Saturday night compared to the night life in India!

Over the next few days we had long lies and sauntered about Pokhara.

Duffy arranged to meet Lorenzo and Armenia (the Spanish guy and Italian girl we met in Lumbini) to do the 10 day Anapurna base cap trek.  This sounded amazing and we all wished we were doing it with them but we didn't have enough time so will have to leave that for another trip!

We did fit in some trekking - a mini walk to a peace pagoda that had lovely views over the town and another 1 day hike to a place called Dampus which was the first main stop on the Anapurna base camp trek. This was ace but unfortunately the view wasn't as spectacular as it could have been due to bad weather and really thick mist which hid the Himalayas from us.

One of our favourite days in Pokhara involved a bike ride to a secluded point on the lake where we found a lovely bar/restaurant right on the lake.  We spent the day swimming, drinking a few beers and lazing around in the sun with Duffy, Lorenzo and Armenia.  We also met a lovely Nepalese couple who owned a restaurant in town and invited us back for dinner.

We also experienced the Nepalese monsoon which was mental.  Within minutes the streets get flooded and you are soaked through in seconds! We had been pretty lucky with the weather so far but the rains that had been chasing us had finally caught up with us. Wasn't too bad though and mainly only rained at night time which was fine.

We were sad to leave Pokhara - a town full of chilled out and lovely people, amazing food and a great atmosphere - but we were excited to head for our next stop which was Chitwan National Park for some safari trips, jungle walks and elephant rides!

CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK – 30 JUNE – 2 JULY

We could again tell it was the low tourist season when we arrived at Chitwan National Park (home to around 90 tigers!) When we got off our 5 hour bus ride, those few tourists who hadn’t booked a lodge were surrounded by guys selling their lodges. At our own Tiger Lodge – we were the only guests! A good way to get some special attention from the staff.

Our 2 and a half days were planned out for us – all aimed at spotting some of the hundreds of types of wild animals in the park – from birds to snakes, elephants, rhinos, crocodiles, deer, boar, tigers and many more. Our guide first took us to the elephant breeding and training centre – used for tourist purposes. He also took us down past the river where he told us about the two types of crocodile – the long nosed one that ate fish, and the short nosed one that ate everything! Suddenly walking through the long grass was a bit more daunting. We found an amazing spot to watch the sun set, then heard some commotion on the hill beside us – and turns out a wild rhino was going for a drink in the river some distance away – our first sighting! Then appeared one of the short nosed crocs in the river. It was there for a short while then with a swish of its tale it disappeared into the murky water.

On our second day we started early with a canoe ride down the river. We spotted a baby short-nosed crocodile in its den in the bank. Then a few hundred meters further down a local was looking at something under the water from his canoe. Turns out it was a sleeping short nosed adult crocodile. As we drifted up closer to it our guide said it was okay, as he had a large stick to protect us…

A bit further down we went for a walk in the jungle. Our guide said that if we see a wild rhino we should huddle together then climb the nearest tree if it charges! No rhinos, but we did find a relatively fresh tiger paw print in the mud.

On the way back we stopped to give elephants a bath (as you do…). We each got an elephant to jump on the back of and were taken into the river. The elephants then proceeded to sook up the water in their trunks and spray it all over us. The guide also found it fun to make the elephants lie down so we would go flying off into the river. Repeatedly. Awesome fun.

 That night we went for a walk ourselves around town, and then up to the hill where we say the rhino the night before. Believe it or not there was both an elephant and rhino just on the other side of the bank! Who needs a guide eh?!

On our final morning we went on an elephant safari in the jungle – we saw a few monkeys and deer – but riding on the back on an elephant was an experience in itself!

KATHMANDU – 2-4 JULY

Just a short time in Kathmandu before our flight from there to Tokyo on the 4^th. The bus journey here (usually 5 hours) was extended by 2 hours more due to striking truck drivers. The route was through the mountains again – more thin roads – and with the trucks lining these it made it nearly impossible to pass! It went on for miles and apparently happens whenever the two major political parties fight!

We finally got there and stayed in a cool hostel. We had some great food and went for an early night. As both Calums had birthdays in the next few days, Sarah kindly bought us all a plane ride around Mount Everest! Booked for 6am the next morning to get the sunrise, it meant an early start at 4.30am.

We got to the airport, and although overcast, they said it was okay to fly. We took off in our small propeller plane and got a good view over Kathmandu. A view that was extended as the captain said they needed to circle back to the airport as they have “technical difficulties”!! Not something you want to hear whilst in mid air, but we got back safely and turns out there was a problem with their navigation gear. When we got back they also decided that it was too cloudy to see anything at Everest (as reported by a plane that left slightly earlier) so we booked on again for the next morning.

As per our form, we headed out to sightsee at the hottest part of the day to Durbar Square. Some really good old buildings and steeped in history. After some more wandering around we headed for some final mo:mo dumplings, and the best yet!

Plane ride attempt take 2 – back to the airport again, ever hopeful they would take off, but alas it was decided it was still too cloudy. Next time.

It was the 4^th of July, so of course that meant only one thing. Time to fly to Japan!