Where am I

Bundi palace. Bundi was quite nice in the end so didn't mind being stuck there

The Indian equivalent of the pub, the tea man. Indian tea is better than that which we drink in England, they use spices which make it taste awesome. You have to be careful what you ask for though or you'll end up on your behind


Woken up by a festival outside my room



The old classic, ladies 100 meters with water jug on head. They later had more women only events such as 'ladies ironing 10 mens shirts in quickest time'

As a foreigner you were treated very well at the festival, there were dinners I was allowed to go to and as you can see below I was dressed in a turban. I don't look very taken by it


And some fireworks



Hampi according to my guidebook is the best thing to do/see in all of India! It is even above the Taj Mahal. As it was near Goa I thought I'd have a look before hitting the beaches. The jungle around the place was pretty I thought but broken old buildings, as usual, bore me a lot. Maybe Tony Robinson from time team would like this place but as a tourist I just don't get it


An error I made one day


The river in Hampi


Something I learnt in Goa reading an Indian paper. I wouldn't agree with this taking into account some of the countries I've traveled through


Goa... It is a nice place to relax and for me it was a relief to reach somewhere I could eat beef! I ate a lot. Like some other parts of India though, all the travelers smoke weed and have dreadlocks. Not really my scene. I tried to sunbath but nothing really happened. I blame this on my mother for being Scottish. I relaxed for a week or two and then started thinking more about going home


So I went! and am now home. My opinion of India is somewhere in my head but I won't find it for 6 months or so. India is such an intense place. I definitely don't love it though

I'm in England, it's cold, wet and miserable. But I am happy to be home. I've been busy looking for a car and somewhere to live. I've ticked one of those things off the list. I'm now a boy racer



Hmm, traveling around the world... It's an awesome experience but not the 'party/fun every day thing' which often people think it is. It's strange as I learnt a huge amount but also feel that my brain has turned to mush.

My favourite countries? Bolivia and New Zealand. Awesome countries for different reasons. So that's it I guess, back to reality

India is tiring...

I'd like to live in the style of a maharaja for a while. They seemed to defy the rules that the rest of Indians lived to

I thought maybe temples would be more exciting having rats in them but I was wrong, they just smell more. Deshnok rat temple

Jaisalmer Haveli

Jaisalmer fort. You can stay in the fort which is fun, it has guesthouses, restaurants etc

My room had a view

I went on a camel trek, less comfortable than horses

A sand dune

I actually didn't do the trek for the camels although they were quite fun. What I was looking forward to was sleeping under the stars in the dessert

No mosquitoes in the dessert but many of these big beatles


When it was time for bed I was given a blanket and told I could sleep where I want. I walked 5 minutes up a sand dune and made my bed. Nice sleeping under the stars


Note the beatle tracks, they crawl all over you in the night

Camels look stupid

Jodhpur fort is big. On the way to Jodhpur some guy managed to take a crap on the bus floor even though the bus was full of people....

I spent a lot of money in Udaipur on souvenirs and did an Indian cooking course. Indian cooking is pretty simple but you need a huge spice rack

I feel it would save thousands of lives in India if the government (amongst many, many other things) revoked the driving licences of the whole population and made everyone take driving tests to a higher standard. I was cycling by this lake and stopped for a drink, as I was drinking some boy racer flew past and crashed into this pillar. Idiot! Lucky I stopped for a drink. I'm genuinely not comfortable on the roads in India and will go out of my way to avoid buses. The trains are very good but unfortunately you often have to book at least a week in advance which is something I hate doing. I can't generally think more than 24 hours ahead of myself. This is also why I am writing this blog from a place called Bundi rather than by a beach in Goa

It could also be argued that some Indian people shouldn't be allowed to play with matches. I was fortunate enough to inhale and experience fully the recently extinguished 7 day oil fire in Jaipur

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Jaipur-fire-Indian-Oil-Corporation-faces-negligence-charge/articleshow/5192181.cms

I have far too many pictures like this on my camera, kids always asking for a photo and then posing in the stupidest of ways. I think what is cool in India is very far away from cool anywhere else

Ranthambhore national park, I was first in line on this day in the hope of getting a seat on a Jeep (vehicle numbers are restricted). There are lots of agents also queuing who make money from commission on orders from hotels. When the ticket office opens the guy tells me there are no seats for the jeeps and I'd have to go in the beastly vehicle below. Of course there were seats on jeeps but you have to pay more than double price for them, the extra money going to the agent (behind me in the queue) and the ticket office workers who require bribing. Same story for many things in India, money is king and if you haven't got it you are treated like sh*t. Not directly related but it has just been going through my mind is the social system in India. From what I can see, I find it really quite depressing when there seem to be so many rich people in India and yet the government doesn't seem to provide education to the poorer people. The divide just seems so big and it is a long way off from being corrected. Corruption and caste seem to keep the rich rich and the poor poor. I could moan about it for a long time but I don't know enough about what is and isn't being done to change things. And don't even start me on disabled people in India...

No tigers, just deer

A stick given to me a couple of nights ago in a restaurant for protection from monkeys. Funny, I thought, then an angry monkey scared the crap out of me forcing me to use it. I don't like monkeys if they are within any kind of striking distance

Stupid/rude things said to me recently;

I heard London bridge is falling down, is this true? (I guess this is a joke that I didn't find funny)

You have the head of a 45 year old, the body of a 25 year old! (baldness is like a disability in India. I've spoken to some receding guys around my age who are distraught as they, well their parents, can't find a woman who will marry them)

As the title of this post suggests, I'm finding India quite tiring. Travel is a pain and it's difficult to get a moments peace wherever you are. So I'm going to Goa and around that way to see a couple of other things; if I enjoy the beaches then I will stay for the next few weeks. If I hate them, then I will bump my flight forward

India

India, what can I say, a place of extremes. There are many extremely rich people and even more extremely poor people. I landed in Mumbai and immediately had some bad experiences with people working in taxis, hotels etc. Nothing important, just little things that annoy. So lesson one, most people that work with tourists are likely to be trying to rip you off in some way or another. Some monument designed by the British and no doubt built by Indians

Check out the beach in Mumbai, fancy a swim? don't think so. I'm amazed they don't pay some homeless people to keep the place clean. Labor costs absolutely nothing in India

Hello sailors! Men hold hands in India. My theory is that it is because contact with women is pretty limited...until you're married

I'm a little ashamed by this, when I got to a hostel (the dirtiest I have stayed in on my whole trip) some guy handed me a phone with a woman asking if I wanted to be an extra in a bollywood movie. So I went. I earned 500 rupees though. I think it's cool to have westerners in the movies. It was actually a music video for a movie called Blue. There were some famous actors there but I woudn't know who they were even if it were a hollywood movie. There were actually quite a few foreigners that were extras for a living... Not a career choice I would take

If you copy this into your browser you can watch the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1yKSfknJEc I couldn't see myself

The Taj Mahal is big

And impressive

And costs 70 times more to visit if you aren't Indian

This attitude in India that as you are from the west means you can afford to spend more on everything is quite annoying. The fact that most museums and tourist attractions have two tear pricing really encourages everyone to treat tourists this way. Many Indians ask how much I earn, how many rupees to the pound and assume I am a millionaire or something. Trying to explain tax and the difference in costs doesn't seem to work

I felt bad paying this guy about 50p to cycle me to Agra fort. It was a really hot day. He had his revenge though as took me to some crap shop where he earns comission for taking tourists

Khajuraho, the most annoying place I've been. They have some nice temples that are famous as there are some explicit scenes on them. The town around the temples is full of con artists. I literally couldn't leave my hotel unless I wanted to hear sob stories from kids who can speak 4-5 different languages about how they can't afford school fees

Varanasi is a religious city on the banks of the Ganges river. This is a cow outside my hotel, they are everywhere and you can't eat them. What a tease, someone should have told me about the holy cow before I left for India

Beer is also a rarity in India, I think I've drunk 5 bottles of beer since arriving mid September which is impressive for when travelling

The river is where they burn Hindu bodies and is where many Hindus travel to for dying. Like Hastings in England but different

Delhi... is a dirty place although maybe this photo doesn't portray that (also quite a few con artists there). It is basically a giant building site due to the commonwealth games they are holding next year. They need a bit of good luck to finish the place before it starts. The guys below wanted a photo. I think the one on the left left a red sock in his white wash

Aaah, the mountains! Manali is nice, Himilayan mountains, trees, rivers and less stress. I stayed here a few days

This weed grows everywhere in Manali, some travellers come here especially for it. I prefer a cup of tea

Tough decision... to carry on into the mountains even though the season is turning to winter and the roads are bad. Well, I chose to keep on heading north. The journey to Ladakh is famous for the scenery

A place called Keylong

Leh in Ladakh is like another country, greater Buddhist presence and more relaxed than other parts of India

Buddhist Monastary in Tikse

Sweet girl in Lamayaru

Dangerous road to Kashmir

I wasn't sure whether going to Kashmir was a good idea as they have problems there. I spoke to a few locals and from what I understand, they do not consider themselves Indians and want to become a country of their own. There are thousands of Indian soldiers with machine guns everywhere due to these problems. Some guys actually suggested that India were behaving in the same way England did with India in the past. I didn't feel welcome in Kashmir anyway so left. The trip from Srinagar to Jammu was not so good. Our driver was so dangerous, the other traveller on the minibus and I refused to get back in the bus unless someone else drove. The bus below was not the one I was taking but just an example of how rubbish the drive was. All buses on this route were covered in vomit from the bumpy ride. Not sure If you can see the vomit well in the picture

Amritsar, the golden temple, an important place for Sikhs. I was uninspired by the temple. Outside the temple, I was caught off guard by a Indian/Canadian Sikh guy who propositioned me. His parents had sent him here to learn more of his culture. Not sure he was spending his time wisely. All a bit odd but I got free lunch out of it

Common rude questions I get in India:

How much money do you earn?

How many girlfriends do you have/women have you slept with? The common assumption seems to be Western women are easy but no good for a wife

Funny questions I have had:

Do you have elephants in England?

All the houses in England have air conditioning?!