Happy new year!!!!

For the first time in my adult life I slept through midnight - but luckily was woken by a call full of new year cheer. This rainy first day of 2012 is a travel day for me and I will celebrate it in Agra. Hoping that it won't rain again, as it was pouring last night and this morning.  Luckily I was sheltered in the train station waiting for the 5 1/2 hour late train.  Yet again I'm the only tourist at the station, but as always find a really helpful guy who points me in the right direction of where to wait for the correct carriage. And two hours later I'm in bustling Agra having lunch on a cafe rooftop with a view of the Taj - not bad for New Years Day.  Back to Agra, sadly still polluted, with open sewers and constantly smelling of piss at every street corner, but where there is the most famous monument to love in the world!!! Again Incredible India, where else can you walk out of your guest house and follow a camel along to your restaurant of choice in the evening. 

Off to Gwalior and off again

Head into my new years eve destination of Gwalior and immediately hate it.  Suddenly the hustle and bustle of town live feels overwhelming, as I have been in small towns all the time after leaving Delhi. I head to the fort and start to climb the really steep road to the top.  Rewarded by a great view of the city and the fine ruins of the palace I slowly descend on the opposite side on the vehicle road.  Along here there are huge Buddha statues carved in the rock side - amazing!  It's so interesting to see how Buddhism spread across India.  Then decide that I need to head to Agra, as this city really isn't that appealing. So I then head to the train station to get a ticket for tomorrow.  Cannot believe that it is not possible to buy a ticket for the next day, if the journey is under 200 kms, without joining the enormous reservations queue, so I head to a travel agent round the corner and I get one - money always brings a solution. 

On the road again

Head out by taxi to Orchha and the road is horrendous, there's no direct rail link, so this is a good option and a real treat compared to a days bumpy bus journey.  Get there in the afternoon and head out to the main palace and start climbing up and the steep steps and end up on the top terrace with a fantastic view of the town. There's clusters of incredible monuments and temples all round town.  After a vertigo fuelled descent (mostly on my arse) I head back to the entrance and get an auto rickshaw to whisk me round town before the daylight fades.  This town has an incredible history. In one old palace there's a huge mural depicting a battle with the English, with hundred of troops with guns descending on the fort. Then there's the kings palaces by the river and a huge fort in the middle of town to explore.  So glad that I added this to my destinations as  it's so lovely lovely and an added bonus is the amount of hassling is almost nonexistent!!!!

Change of plan

I've decided to leave here a day early and head to the quiet and beautiful town of Orchha.  Last evening I broke my sobriety by having a beer with Biblu, who has a shop near the hotel and has just split up from his girlfriend. Definitely time to leave town when I have become an agony aunt.  I've managed to get a refund on the room, as I paid in advance and they gave me a free breakfast as well. 

Taking it easy

My first trip to India was really rushed. I wanted to see as much as possible and embarked on what felt like an endurance test of crazy overnight trains arriving in the wee small hours and then rushing round these amazing destinations dog tired.  Now I travel at a more leisurely pace and have chosen only four destinations outside of Delhi to visit. This makes a much more leisurely experience and you get a much better opportunity to get under the skin of where you are. Khajuraho is a great place, a two street town, where everyone knows everyone and everyone wants your custom. Gone are the Varanasi shouts of boats, here are enticements to come and looking into my shop 'looking is free' and lads with nothing else to do but hang around talking to tourists.  I must admit that this is now getting very tiresome, as there is a constant stream of mindless annoying chatter.  I did head off on a motorbike adventure yesterday afternoon , which was great. I even had tea made for me by a Sadu in a temple, which certainly was a highlight. It was great to get out into the countryside and head to small remote villages. In one there was a old guy with a cobra in a basket to entertain the trickle of tourists passing through. Incredible India !!!!

Another night on a train

From one extreme to another. I have left behind the beautiful heritage hotel, with tiled floors and dark antique furniture for a night on a crowed train.   Spending my last afternoon in Varanasi taking a boat trip along the ghats allowed a different view from just walking through.  Here you could see the people bathing, praying, swimming and clothes washing.  Behind them were the splendid but crumpling palaces of a time gone by, when every maharaja had a palace here overlooking the Ganges.  Now they are guest houses, silk shops, factories and schools and they live on in an unkempt manner.  Luckily again  when I joined the waiting crowds on platform 8,  I stood next to a lovely couple who were catching the same train.  Chatting to them whiled away the two hour delay and then I joined the tourist filled air conditioned 3 tier sleeper carriage.

A Wonderful sunny Christmas day

Yesterday I visited nearby temples and was blessed and given a red dot on my forehead.  I counted that as the religious side of these festive days.  Today I slowly walked along the ghats in the lovely sunshine and did a lot of people watching, as this place is so fascinating.  I got a brilliant little printer for Christmas (thanks Mum) and last night printed off a few photos and distributed them to the local shop keeper, the guy  from the marker where I got my beads and lastly to the local auto rickshaw driver who took me to meet his family.  I love this, as here photos are a real luxury and now printing is accessible!!!  So Merry Christmas and I'm signing out now so I can tuck onto my Christmas meal of a vegetable Thai.