Mcleod Ganj was cool, quite literally, we were sad to leave but the journey must continue....



Our next journey took us South to Rajasthan. After a 1 hour jeep journey, 5 hour bus and 10 minute walk, we arrived at the train station. The scenic journey via the narrow gauge railway of Kangra Mandir was ruined by a mass of boys on a school trip and an unusually large number of other passengers with children all crammed in to a tiny train. It was only by chance that we got on the train, as a boy spotted us and wanted to chat with us so let us on, he then proceeded to slam the door on a small childs head and push women off as they didnt want them in their carriage, not a nice sight at all. Maybe its because this country has too many people, maybe its down to survival of the richest, but a lot of people have no respect for human life at all.

The next part of the trip involved a 21 hour train journey to Jodhpur
Rajasthan, luckily we got the top berths as people around us fought to get a place to sleep, the richer moving the poorer, the older moving the younger, women moving men, quite a spectacle. The problem is that hardly any of them buy tickets, they offer a little Baksheesh to the conductor for a seat, so what can be expected? As foreigners who pay for our travel at a relatively high price, we are normally given a little preferential treatment, there is normally an older gentlemen who fends off the Indian women who try to muscle in on our seats and rearranges the families of 8 or more to keep everyone happy, very handy.

Anyway, we arrived in the quite appealing, if not just as dirty and dusty
as everywhere else, city of Jodphur. The city is famous for the sea of
blue houses dominated by a huge red fort. We stayed in a lovely 500 yr old Haveli, all painted a gorgeous shade of blue. We only had time to stay a night and then went off on a 6hr bus journey to Udaipur, in hope of some R & R by the lake. A bad start arguing with the bus driver who tried to get money out of us just to get our bags back, they then followed us around in their rickshaws blocking our path etc. Pete as everyone knows is normally not a violent person but he saw red and nearly throttled the bloke, this country makes you aggressive, you have be in order to survive.

All turned out well in the end though, we are staying in a beautiful room in a Haveli with our own balcony overlooking the lake and the Raj palaces, this is what India is like when it is good, it is romantic, peaceful and captivating but still with a sense of the harsh turbulent history of this area.

Next we are off to Goa to chill on the beach, a bit concerned about the
hawkers and gawkers, but hopefully we can find a place to rest our weary bodies and brains without too much hassle....

C