One Life ...

A leisurely start to the day with a late breakfast, whilst watching Youtube videos of our friend singing - wow she is good! We caught an auto into town, walked via the clock tower to the Palton bazaar...Today we were shopping for coats.  As we head north towards the Himalayas the weather is going to get colder and colder. In fact, we have heard of one area we had considered visiting - already had snow! The bazaar was packed with shoppers and streets upon streets of shops! First stop was whippy ice-cream.  Next 2 warm coats were purchased for the princely sum of £5.50 ... (For both, not each!!). Back to base for lunch and then a wander around the small forest at the back of our accommodation. As the sun was setting we walked to the local gurdwara which looked beautiful lit up. We went inside and listened to the live music playing and were  invited for tea and biscuits. Dinner was home cooked delicious food. We chatted, planned tomorrow and retired at midnight.

What do you do when you have all day to reach the train station for a midnight train? You walk to the station. We returned to our evening Chai stall from yesterday. The Chai is great however the stall was having a canopy installed and there was a fair few sparks flying in our direction. We sat a while before moving on before our hair was synged! We found a Gurdwara to visit so went inside. It seemed to be closed but a kind lady opened it up for us. She also offered us lunch and chai. We accepted her kind offer. It seemed as though she was sharing her own meal with us. We tried to communicate using Google translate. It worked a little. We handed over over some money and thanked her for her kindness. Her food was really good! Next stop was the bathing ghat in Mathura. There were many boats touting for business and the Dwarkadesh temple just outside. We relaxed by the ghat and watched the monkeys. The temple opened and we took a peek inside. It was quite different to others we have seen.

A slow start to the day. We are still recovering from yesterday's wake up call at 4am. We started our journey by relaxing in a small park right where we were staying. We waited in the park until just after 11 o'clock. This is when the Tatkal train tickets are released. Trains in India are very busy and tickets booked 3 months in advance. One of the only ways we can get a ticket sometimes is to use the Tatkal quota issued one day before at 11am. However, this is also the only way a lot of other people can get a ticket too.  Just before 11 there were 109 tickets ready to go live at 11. We waited patiently ready to book... At 11 the booking system grinds to a halt due to the volume of traffic. At about 11.01 there were 37 tickets available and we had to restart the booking app due to it crashing. At 11.03 we had confirmed tickets for the train!! At 11.04 there were no tickets and there was already a waiting list. Wow, we were booked on the train, the only problem being one of us i

4.30 alarm today. Not what we really wanted but the train will leave without us if we don't wake up. It got close to the time we needed to leave the house and we had no transport. The car we had hoped to use was still on its journey from Bhopal.  Panic levels were rising ...however we were assured it would be here in time. And, then the car arrived. We were taken by our friend to the station, collected our tickets but the train was running 30 minutes. We said goodbye and thanked our friend before drinking Chai on the platform ... The train turned up Darryl got on. The carriage was rammed. Darryl got off ... But only just. It was just too full. Christine managed to get herself into a special carriage and even managed to get a seat. Darryl soon followed. We were very, very, very lucky! The carriage gradually packed out along the journey and we started to wonder how we would get out. A 10 minute shuffle, squeeze and breath hold exercise did the trick. We made it, we were standing on t

A lazy morning. We woke up late and spent the day relaxing mainly because we predict a big night ahead. Before lunch we relaxed. Lunch was delicious home cooked food. After lunch we relaxed. About 5 pm we headed out in search of adventure. We had a slight change of plan because the tourist price to walk the new artificial river front was £6 each. That will cost double our average hotel room price and just to see cardboard cut out buildings. Well, not exactly but they are similar! Instead our friend suggested some other local spots. A river front view near the power station. It is called a thermal power station. Not exactly sure why as we think it is burning coal? We visited a small temple with music and a small audience. Close by was an artists area. The artists were painting pots that were moulded in many different colours.  Our next stop was the dam (barrage). We are fairly certain the dam was out of bounds but there was no security and everyone else was there too. We walked the old

Apparently, there was going to be a small festival in Bundi today. We just were not sure exactly when ... The alarm went off at 7am and we immediately left and headed to the small lake. Someone mentioned a morning procession may start from there. A large number of men started to congregate. All dressed in white shirts and brown trousers carrying long sticks. They took over a large stadium and performed exercises and fighting manouvers with their sticks They were the Bundi RSS - Hindu nationalists defending cultural erosion. We believed this would be the procession. We watched for a while before returning for breakfast of aloo paratha. We then walked to the bus station to catch the bus to Kota ......along with many other people.  When the bus arrived there was a mad dash and soon the bus was full, with standing room only.  Luckily, the trip was quite short, at just under an hour!  We arrived in Kota and were met at the bus station and immediately taken on a quick tour of town.  First st

We made it up for breakfast. Today's delight was Poha - yellow, tasty rice. We had Chai too of course. We met a few fellow travellers at Breakfast. A Russian, a Mexican and a French man on his very fancy BMW touring motor bike. We each shared stories from our trip and photos of the step wells in town. We discussed the amount of rubbish they had in them and how they were not very well maintained, apart from one. The first stop on today's tour was the fort. We didn't pay to enter as parts of it was free. It didn't seem in the best condition but the whole place is spectacular. The Chitrashala had very old paintings on the walls which were very nice though faded due to their age. The big lake was our next stop. We walked past 2 step wells. One of them wasn't too bad but the other was used as a giant bin! The lake was pretty but again rubbish floated amongst the lillies. We passed a house where Rudyard Kipling wrote Kim. We didn't go inside but wondered how people ha

This morning we took the opportunity for a spot of clothes washing. There is a long line outside to hang it on. Hopefully they will be dry before the monkeys start trying them on. Apparently, they will take anything that looks a little exciting! Clothes dry in an instant in the hot Indian sun. Our hotel includes breakfast. So at 8.30 we were devouring aloo paratha and masala chai. A great combination topped off with curd. A short walk into Bundi revealed so many interesting things - many hand water pumps, music shops, sword sharpeners, gold and silver sellers, a bike technician trueing a wheel, fort views, hand weaving looms and even a man making super elaborate pressed jewellery! It was difficult to walk past anywhere without taking a closer look. We were looking for step wells and we soon stumpled up on our first 2 right in the centre. They were quite big but what really caught our attention were small sweets. We tried different ones. We bought some, ate too many and felt sick! Paren