Kerala

After the craziness of Bangalore and Birthday Week, we have arrived in Kerala.  The journey here wasn't exactly as planned. As I mentioned before we left Bangalore, we were on a waiting list for seat  allocation.  This is something that has happened before, so we thought everything was going to be ok.  However 2 hrs before we were still a fair way down the list...  

Bangalore

We arrived in Bangalore at around 6am today.  So tired as I just can't seem to get into the hang of sleeping on the night train.  Missing Hampi already.  It's so loud and cramped and beepy here.  It's a business hub so has quite a Western feel to it.

Hampi

We have come inland now and landed ourselves in a place called Hampi which is apparently one of the traveller go tos when in this part of India.  It's a village in Northern Karnataka which is surrounded by ruins and temples.  We arrived and were immediately surrounded by hotel owners wanting us to take a look at their rooms. It is so cheap here.  You can get a room for 300 which is about £3.50 a night, which is alright.  As its'off season everyone is keen to get the custom. We got a room which is quite luxurious really.  A TV, hot water and cool.

Goa

We have arrived in the promised land!

Mumbai

It took almost 20 hrs spread`over 2 trains to get here.  I do feel like I had my first real Indian train journey as the 2nd train was not Air Conditioned and we had about 10 people trying to cram into what was a 3 person compartment. Nice.  Being sat by the window I got the full blast of Indian air and felt perhaps a bit too close to the scenery at times.

Pushkar to Udaipur (Lake City)

As soon as we sat down on the platform at the train station some dude came over and seemed to be bursting to say something.  He eventually mustered the courage to say hi to Andy.  He was absolutely beside himself with excitement.  I guess he was from the villages where they don't ever see many foreigners.  Really difficult to communicate with the obvious language barrier but we got the jist that he was very pleased to meet us.

Jaisalmer to Pushkar via Jodpur

We had to wait around until midnight for our train.  We spent a lot of time by the pool and catching up on sleep after we got back to the hotel.  This is the only pain of having bought the tour.  No control over your travel timings.  I felt quite envious of the Canadian couple, Foster and Briana, who has their own driver.   How lush, but I haven't a clue how much that was.  We only had one night in Jodpur.  We didn't really sleep on the train so we had to sleep when we arrived and then got a train at 7am the next day.  It seemed similar to other places but definitely had the worst roads!  So bumpy!  We did have the best food so far.  An awesome mutton curry.  Very rich though. I started taking my malaria tablets also.  Just waiting to see if I lose it.  Dun dun duh!!!


Jodpur to Pushkar
We arrived in Pushkar at some point in the afternoon after leaving Jodpur.  It is such a change of pace in comparison to where we have been.  It's quite a small town centre so quite walkable which was nice.  Loads of small shops mainly selling clothes and trinkets.  It is home to a crazy  amount of temples as well. 


I've decided to buy a pair of loose fitting lighter trousers.  I was`trying  to fight the urge to by hareems but I'm failing. I am such a cliche.  Every other traveller you see wears hareems.  Some well.  Some not so well...  

I took the plunge and bought a pair yesterday.  They are a bit more transparent than I would have liked. The shop keeper told me it was fine.  He had glasses that made his pupils seem more enlarged.  I think this is a tactic on his part.  I guess that the trade off you make to not constantly have a sweaty crotch.  Sorry...

I quite like Pushkar.  We discovered a little cafe called The Funky Monkey that does actual coffee.  I had all but given up hope of ever having a good coffee in India.  It is also so hard finding somewhere to just sit and relax.  People seem to congregate on road sides etc.  Finding this cafe was so good because we could just sit and watch the world go by for a bit and talk.