Aug 4, 2008 - Meet up with my tour group from GAP Adventures Travel

I met up with my group on Monday night at the Hotel Pablas. I have a Lebanese-Canadian roommate named Nidaa, there are two sisters from Slovenia, one woman from Italy, cousins from Canada, a mother and daughter traveling with their Australian friend, a couple from New York/New Jersey, and two people from Ireland. I'm probably leaving somebody out too. Oh yes, another woman from England. Our tour guide is a nice Indian man who studied Tourism. Unfortunately most of my GAP guides seem to have emphasized what they would not do for you over...

Aug 2, 2008 - Arrival in New Delhi, India

I arrived in New Delhi early on Saturday morning and was glad to have the driver I had hired to take me to my hotel waiting for me. He was first in line at the rail after I cleared customs and immigration. The New Delhi airport looked fine until I got outside. None of the ATMs were working, and the street was a rutted dirt road. But after that it was smooth sailing. Before I left the US I had been unsuccessful at reaching my hotel by email or phone, so I was a little concerned that it might have closed its doors. My taxi successfully made...

Jul 20, 2008 - New Delhi, India

Jerry-After a 11pm arrival into New Delhi, we slept for a few hours and hopped on a north bound train at 5am to Hardiwar, where we could catch a tuk tuk to Rishikesh. Rishikesh is the birthplace of yoga. It is also where the Beatles wrote most of the White Album. We stayed in an Ashram (a place where you meditate, eat vegetarian food and do yoga) for two nights. Yoga was interesting; it was led by a 95 year old man who was in much better shape than I am (no kidding, he was doing hand stand push ups). He told us the secret was doing yoga and...

Jun 16, 2008 - Delhi

The other reason that I hate night buses is that you don't get to see anything, there were no daytime options from McLeod back to Delhi so I had to take my last one of this trip. I could tell that we were going through great scenery as there was enough of a moon to see the outlines of lush valleys and monsoon-engorged rivers but not enough to apreciate it properly. Sometimes I really love Israelis despite some of the things I say, sometimes they serve a purpose that no one else can fill, they can complain like no other. The two Hebie girls...

May 1, 2008 - New Delhi

I'm back. I could have known I was back in India with my eyes closed when I got off the plane this morning, nowhere else on earth smells like Delhi and I'm not even talking of the smell of piss in various places, the biddy smoke mingled with the smells of spices, the local flora and CNG powered vehicles is unique. I don't think anywhere else would have policemen guarding the airport holding hands either. I had an hour wait for the bus outside the airport at dawn this morning and just sat by the side of the road watching, the best pastime in...

Apr 13, 2008 - New Delhi - Getting to Turkey

After several more days in Kathmandu, which we spent planning for Turkey, we flew back to New Delhi for one day. We made a few final purchases for things we would need in Turkey. It happened to be a Hindu holiday so many stores were closed but we managed to get the supplies. While browsing the Main Bazaar that evening, a stupendously lit parade marched right down the narrow, crowded street. The parade, in honor of the Hindu Goddess Shiva, was really incredible. The “floats” were pulled by tractors and horses, which were elaborately...

Apr 8, 2008 - Shopping in Noida

I checked into my hotel, the Noida Radisson (a high-tech suburb of New Delhi), around 3am on Tuesday morning, having left my house at 6:30pm on Sunday. One very long day! My room is on the sixth floor, which curiously is 9 flights up from the lobby. Since I’m still in training for my planned summer backtracking trips, I avoid elevators and escalators (except when I’m carrying my luggage). Nine flights down and nine flights back up just to have breakfast will quickly convince one to avoid unnecessary trips! After catching a few hours sleep...

Feb 27, 2008 - New Delhi - Getting there

Our train to New Delhi was scheduled to arrive at 5:35am and leave 5 minutes later. We were up at 4:30am and started our final packing - most of which was done the night before. At 5am we walked to the hotel gates to find the front gate closed and secured with a thick chain and two padlocks. We just smiled at each other because this sort of thing doesn't even surprise us anymore. Of course, I told the office manager that we were leaving at 5am to catch an early train to New Delhi. I went back to the hotel office and could find not a single...

Jan 31, 2008 - From Goa, flew to New Dehli which provides best access to Taj Mahal

Looked around Goa. Ate at a very good Portuguese restaurant. There is a very strong Catholic influence in the area from the Portuguese. There is a beautiful church complex. Goa is noted for having a big beach parties but did not partake. The city is on a beautiful beach.
This photo of Goa is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Oct 24, 2007 - Delhi

We weren't going to bother writing about Delhi again as our only reason for coming back here was to catch our flight to Tokyo but we had one or two incidents that made Delhi worth a second entry! Again the airport was busy, hectic and disorganised. After collecting our luggage we couldn't help but laugh when an old woman walking by stopped briefly in front of us and farted really loudly before nonchalantely moving on! At the arrival hall we couldn't spot the hotel driver who was meant to be picking us up so David went off to phone the hotel...

Oct 15, 2007 - Holy Cow!!!! Our first two weeks in India

Hello all, So it has been two weeks, and India is indeed incredible. The border crossing into India from Nepal overland was in and of itself a cultural experience filled with personal questions about our religion, income and the nature of our relationships (not for any official purpose, they were just curious). After we bid Ruairi fare thee well, Kate and I headed to our first stop in India, Varanassi. For many, this is a favorite place in all of India. For us, it was quite an introduction. We arrived in Varanasi at about 5am, arguably the...

Sep 27, 2007 - Delhi

We got off to a fantastic start at Glasgow Airport. After our (almost tearful) goodbyes with our parents, a friendly face, Susan Shannon, directed us to the airport executive lounge where we enjoyed a complimentary glass of champagne and sandwiches before boarding our flight to London. When we arrived at Heathrow we chanced our luck with the old "honeymoon" line and we were upgraded to Worldtraveller Plus seats for our flight to Delhi(wider seats with more leg room). We were absolutely shattered when we arrived in India and were delighted...