With the sound of music. Well, birdsong anyway, as I seem to have the noisest bird in the world ever having taken up residence outside my window here in Manali. Yep, I’ve made it after a 17.5 hour coach journey. Hurrah for all that. So, what’s been up?

Well, as we had a free day in Delhi after sending out the last e-mail, we attempted to go the cinema, as I said, which proved to be very far away. It also proved to be sold out by the time we got there, bugger. Apparently there aren’t very many in Delhi itself, which I assume is because there aren’t theatres in the centre that were converted like the UK. We did pop into a market though on the way back, and I got a very cool t-shirt for 200 rupees (about 2.5 pounds) It has racing written on it, which always makes me weak in the wallet area. Strangely only one of them had it spelt correctly, the rest said ‘racnig’. It’s nice anyway, and I have it on now…

So the bus. Ah the bus. I had the joy of sitting next to Claudia, who was having some bowel problems (I’ve been lucky so far), for the whole trip. Luckily she proved to be ok, but as my immediate family will know, I can move very quickly when threatened with someone vomitting near by. The years of experience with Laura meant I swapped seats in record time so she could have the window. No vomit was forthcoming though, as I’m sure you all wanted to know.

Travelling through the night emphasised that there really are a lot of people in India. I thought at least some of the trip would be like the trip to Ellough Park in Norfolk for BUKC in 2003, where we drove for miles with just inky blackness on either side, but that never happened here, there were lights and people all the way through the night…

The first part of the trip was like the trip to Jaipur at the start of the tour on the public bus, well paved dual carriageway. However, the second part was in the hills, as Manali is in the foothills of the Himalayas (which seem to be huge all on their own!). The roads here were a bit more rough, and we seemed to career down them at ludicrous speeds. I once saw a quote from Mario Andretti on a t-shirt that “If everything seems to be under control, you’re not going fast enough”. Well, judging by how out of control that bus felt, I don’t think he could have been going much faster.

Still, as dawn broke, I was distracted by the scenary. It’s amazing around here, so completely different to Rajasthan, deep, deep valleys, waterfalls, rivers. It’s just mind blowing… Yet more pictures of that for you all to enjoy (I’ve taken about 300+ so far…). We finally pulled into Manali at about 11:30am, after setting off at 7:00pm. B2, the tour leader, had been telling us that the hotel was the worst one of the itinery, but we’d have the best rooms. Turns out he’s a good liar, as this is easily the best hotel so far. We’ve got a full pine room, and as we’re much further north and higher up, duvets to deal with the cold! I’ve been lusting for a duvet for ages as blankets just aren’t the same, and the desert, as expected, was hot. Before bed though, we went to a restaurant called Chopsticks. Being quite near China, Tibet and Nepal here, the food is much more oriental, and it was gorgeous, and ludricously cheap. I couldn’t even approach finishing mine as there was so much, and the whole meal cost me 135 rupees, so about 1.5 pounds.

Manali itself is quite strange. Apparently it’s population is only 4400, but there seems to be at least that many westerns here as well. I assume this has something to do that with the fact that cannabis plants are growing wild all over the place. That would also explain the few people on the bus from Delhi who looked a little slow with the reactions and had bloodshot eyes…

Today we’ve been on a 12km hike up to the Solang valley. The scenary has again been wonderful, and you can see glaciers up at the top of the hills. I’m sure Neal and Jake will be surprised to hear I was the only one who kept up the tour guide all the way I put it down to good shoes and being 10 years younger than everyone else

I was quite tired after all that though, so it’s been a lazy afternoon for the last couple of hours.

We’re off to chopsticks again now though. So I’ll catch you all soon! Dharamsala tomorrow for 3 nights, then Amritsar and then home.

Well then, I’m not where you would think I am. Today I’m supposed to be in Shimla, which the British built to be the summer capital when Delhi got too hot. Where am I then? In the Jukaso Inn, Delhi, again!

We were meant to leave Bikaner for Shimla 2 days ago, but the overnight train we were to take to Chandigarh (strangely, the capital of both Punjab and Haryana) was cancelled because of flooding in the area. So we stayed in Bikaner an extra day, which was ok as we got to explore the old city a bit, and there were loads of beautifully carved Havelis (mansions) in the back streets. Bikaner was also great because there were hardly any tourists, so in the bazaars we weren’t constantly being pestered to go into various shops.

I’ll back up a bit though, we left Jaisalmer the day I sent the last e-mail, and got to the hotel in Bikaner, which was actually a homestay. The rooms were really nice, and the food was home cooked an incredible. I had a fit of giggles when we were given the dinner choices of either mutton or chicken, only to be told they were out of mutton. My reaction was “so my choice is ‘or chicken’ then?” and various other variations on ‘not expecting such a rush’. If you’re not an Eddie Izzard fan, that was very funny.

Anyway, next morning tour of yet another fort. Again, this one was incredible, but the summer bedroom decorated outside with bathroom tiles was a bit weird and looked out of place. Pictures of course to follow. I’m sure people will be bored of the amount of pictures of forts, but they are all a little different

As the hotel was called “Hotel Palace View” you would assume that there was a palace near by, which there was. In the afternoon before the attempt to catch the train some of us went for a wander round the museum, which was quite interesting. I never knew that the British basically let all the Maharajas keep their kingdoms as long as they were loyal the crown.

Yes, so that brings us back round to the missing of the train. It was back to the hotel for the night, but this time we went to the Palace (which is now a hotel) for dinner, where they had a reasonably priced (for a palace) BBQ in the garden. The food was great there as well, and I continued my penchant for ordering dishes I’ve never heard of as I can get the rest at home.

The alternate plan, as we couldn’t get to Shimla due to the road being washed away by flooding was the get the train to Delhi and then a bus to Manali, and then we’ll be back on track. The train though was 10 hours, and we were in a sleeper carriage. It was certainly… an experience. I’m glad we did it, but I wouldn’t want to repeat it! We had to have to windows open to keep the heat to an acceptable level, but we all got covered in dust, sweat, etc. There were also 20 students in our one compartment all staring at us at one point, while the rest of the train was empty. Luckily they weren’t on the train for long…

We had to take 4 auto-rickshaws from the station, as it was quite a long drive I amused myself by pretending it was a race. I thought we were doomed to second until the one right in front of us made a wrong turning and we won! hurrah! I was sharing it with B2 the tour leader, I don’t think he knew what I was on about by saying the driver needed to get into the slipstream as ours seemed to have less top end than the others…

I’ve never been so glad for a hot shower when I got here though… mmm… It’s been a lazy day today as we’ve got a 15 hour overnight bus (air conditioned luxury bus though!) to Manali tonight. I watched Robin Hood: Men In Tights this morning, and I believe we’re going to see I, Robot at the cinema this afternoon.

So, pending the roads being washed out to Manali (not impossible) hopefully we’ll be back on track tomorrow!

Hello from Jaisalmer. This is a bit of a weird place, being as it is on a big rock in the middle of the desert, close to the border with Pakistan. They test the air raid siren every morning!

So, it’s been a few days since the last e-mail from Pushkar, what’s been up since then?

Well, that afternoon we hiked up to the top of another mountain to a Hindu temple and watched the sunset. It was a bit cloudy this time, but I definately felt good after walking up there. Early night then after a nice dinner at the Hotel Pushkar Palace again on the lake, as we were off early to Jodhpur the next morning.

It was a 5 hour bus ride to Jodhpur. What I love about taking the bus here is that I can fall asleep and when I wake up again, the landscape has completely changed. Jodhpur itself is quite a small town, still basically run by the local Maharaja, who maintains all the historical sites in the city. It’s also known as ‘The Blue City’. Unlike Jaipur, where only the old city is pink, the whole of Jodhpur is blue. Very strange, but very cool. The skyline is dominated by a fort with a long name that I can’t spell, but was very interesting to see. It’s never been successfully attacked, and there was a very entertaining audio tour of the whole place. Apparently the previous maharajas were very into polo, which of course explains why Jodhpur is the home of jodhpurs… The ramparts had cannons taken from successful campaigns against others. I assume all the British ones weren’t taken from others, but there was a chinese one there.

We were only there for one night though, and then it was off across the desert to Jaisalmer, 280km west. We’re here for three nights, went for a wander of the town on the first night, and had dinner at a great place call The Trio. It was Angela’s 40th birthday, and we were serenaded with a song hoping she lives 1000 years and has 100 sons. Which was… nice.

Last night was the best though, as we went on a Camel safari. We were driven out of the town by jeep to our camels, and rode for about 2 hours into the desert, onto some proper dunes. It was so quiet compared to the rest of India so far, I got quite a few pictures of that. Then a further ride, including a race (I had a small camel, and thus came last) to the camp. The food was excellent at the camp, and then a few of us (me included) pulled out beds out of the tents and slept out under the stars. It was great to be able to look up and see the sky so clear. I slept reasonably well too. I was might glad to get all the sand off though when I got back to the hotel for a shower. We did stop at a Jain temple on the way back, which was a beautiful place. Jain’s believe in inner beauty and all that sort of stuff, so the outside of the temple is quite plain, but the inside is really intricately carved.

Rather strangely for a religion that believes in non-materialism, they control 35% of the money in India, yet only 2% of the population practice it… Most odd. Today I’ve been wandering around the fort and taking pictures. Unlike the Jodhpur fort, it’s still in use and 7000 people live there. As Jaisalmer used to be on the main camel trade route the whole place is really well crafted as it used to be very rich.

Anyway, that’s it for now. We’re off on a 9 hour bus journey to Bikaner tomorrow for one night, and then it’s a overnight train to Shamli.

I set off from the Jukaso Inn, with a packed lunch they had made me to the Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT). The taxi driver was very nice and pointed out all the sites to me on the way, which I had missed sitting in the hotel with no sun cream or mosquito repellant. The ISBT was… an experience… the amount of people there jumping on and off buses in a seemingly random fashion was a bit intimidating, but the enquiries desk told me exactly where to go, I bought my ticket at the stand for 170 rupees (about 2 pound) and climbed onto the empty bus. By the time we left it was about half full, which was good as my bag was filling the seat next to me. There was no air conditioning on there, and I’d got a window seat, but all the same I was a bit worried about the heat as we sat there in the terminal. I had 4 litres of water in my bag though, so I reckoned I’d be fine.

The bus ride itself was an amazing experience. I’d read in the trip dossier that many people consider it a highlight of the tour, but I thought this was just sales talk. Public bus drivers in India seem to be wannabe race car drivers and as we speeded down the surprisingly good highway (dual carriageway nearly all the way of smoothish tarmac, not rutted at all) we overtook most things. There was one hairy moment when we swerved round something and the bus seemed like it was almost going to go over, but otherwise it was great. It was reasonably cool with the wind from the window, and the views from the window kept me occupied for pretty much the whole 6 hour drive to Jaipur. Definately not to be missed if you come to India.

So when arriving in Jaipur (after passing through a city wall that seem to have had a huge hole knocked in it to put a road in) I made the cardinal error of agreeing to go with the first person who grabbed me off the bus in his auto-rickshaw. Usually if you do this they take you to the hotel where they get commission, but I was explaining how I was on a proper tour and there was definately a room there, and he thankfully took me straight there. Sabir was his name, I felt a bit bad because he was offering to take me on a tour of the city, and had a big book of glowing praise from various British people. I didn’t know what the group was up to though, so I had to politely decline.

The arrived back from sightseeing just after I got to the hotel, and I met my roommate Jingo, who is 40 and from Spain. I keep calling him Spainish Steve in my head because he looks just like my colleague Steve in work (which reminds me, how did the wedding go Steve?). The rest of the group are Bhutu (Indian-Nepelese tour leader, very knowledgeable on everything, cool guy), Mark (31, teacher from London), Reniker (teacher from Lancashire, found out yesterday his Dad is Chinese, which probably explains the odd name), Angela (about 35?, from Glasgow), Claudia (34, from Columbia) and Kat (32, from Melbourne, Australia).

In the evening we went out to a restaurant, I had some very nice Laal Maas, which I think was lamb ribs in a spicy sauce, followed by a swift Kingfisher lager in a rooftop bar, and the via proper old style rickshaw (which was a near-death experience to be repeated!) we went to the Raj Manilan (I think) which is a big, very ornate cinema. We saw a Bollywood film who’s name translates to ‘Impossible’. Unforgettable experience, and you could follow what was going on, mainly because the bad guys kept raising their eyebrows and the good guys sang a lot.

This brings us to yesterday morning. Jingo and I decided to go and see the Tiger Fort, which is on a cliff, high over Jaipur. We got an auto-rickshaw to the bottom of the cliff and the walked up a pathway all the way to the top. It was quite early morning so it wasn’t too hot, but it was still hard work and I was really glad to have plenty of water on my in the backpack. There wasn’t actually that much to do up in the fort, but we went for a walk around the walls which gave some excellent views of Jaipur. I took plenty of photos.

A wander in the city was our next stop, and we took in the Hawas Mahel, which is the ‘Wind Palace’, part of the Pink City, which is the part of Jaipur that was painted Pink to welcome Edward VII. The architecture was impressive and the artwork on the display very interesting. We were taken up to the balcony of a man’s house opposite where we took some good photos. I thought he’d charge us money, but apparently not. I guess not everyone is after something here. We walked back along the main bazaar road, past loads of shops trying to grab us and little kids asking for Chipatis, and the got back to the hotel. We packed up and got on our little air conditioned bus and drove across the Pushkar.

Pushkar is a very holy city here in India, and it contains the only temple in India dedicated to Bramha, the god of creation. Apparently the three main gods in Hinduism, Bramha, the god of creation, Shiva and Vishnu (I forget what they are gods of, but it’s something like earth and destruction). There is no meat, alcohol or eggs here either. It’s quite a small place though, with a population of 14,000. It’s definately my favourite place so far, it’s very chilled out compared to Delhi and Jaipur. We walked to the temple around the holy lake (allegedly appeared when Bramha dropped a lotus flower on the spot) and had a look round. We had to be barefoot in there, which felt nice on the marble. We then walked around the lake, but didn’t see much of it as it’s surrounded by temples, until we got to the holy bridge (more barefootedness) and then sat on some steps and watched the sunset. It has to be one of the most spectacular I’ve ever seen, as as we had dinner in the Hotel Pushkar Palace, on the edge of the lake, it just got more and more beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it as the sky was streaked in blue and orange, a bit like a pre-war Japanese flag. I got loads of pictures of that, so you’ll see what I mean.

We came back for a fairly early night, as we planned to leave at 5:30am to go and walk up this mountain behind the hotel and watch the sunrise. Surprised you may be, but I did get uip in time, and all made it all the way up the mountain near the front of the group. From the top you could see Pushkar on one side, and Ajmer on the other. Ajmer is one of the holiest places in India for Muslims, as some famous holy man died there. The views were breathtaking. I could see why people come to India and find spiritualism, because it was mind blowing. This has easily been the best day of the tour to far because of that. I wish I was actually good enough with words to accurately describe the way it looked, and the way I felt, but I can’t, so you’ll have to wait for the photos.

We did come across a group of monkeys on the way back down, and I got some good photos of a mother and a tiny baby. It was lovely…

Still, after that we went into Pushkar itself had had Nutella and banana naans for breakfast and then were blessed at the lake by a priest. Apparently I’m going to live to 100 now, but he did accidentally give me 88 more years at first. Still, got to make a wish, and I’ve got a red spot on my head with rice and flowers stuck to it too. Which is nice. Still, it’s onwards to Jodhpur from here I think, and more adventures!

Ok, so the bad news is I’m still in Delhi. The good news is I now have my bag, hurrah! By the time I actually got it, it was rather late in the day, so I decided that I’d come back to the hotel again and wash, get changed, rest overnight and then get up bright and early to get the bus to Jaipur in the morning. It’s only a 6-7 hour trip… So that’s tomorrow sorted.

Getting the bag back proved to be quite a challenge though, first I had to go to the Air India baggage office, wait around, fill out a form. Then I had to go and get a pass to get into arrivals. Fill out another form, then I had to go and claim the baggage, fill out another form, wait around, sign a book, then the baggage turns up, then I have to go and get it x-rayed, then fill out another form, get out another piece of paper, hand that in, sign more things, and then go back to the baggage claim office, fill out two more forms, and finally I can go back to the hotel.

You’ve got to love bureaucracy. I can see what Mark Thomas was on about now when he said that if you wanted to change anything in India you had to become a radical bureaucrat…

This is me, Alex Mace, talking to you from Delhi. I’m in the Jukaso Inn, who have a DSL connection. I can get a DSL connection in Delhi, but I can’t get one in Herefordshire. Isn’t that a bit backwards?

Hmm, anyway, so adventures since Tokyo. I went to the gate to indentify my bag, which proved to be a slight problem. My bag wasn’t there. Apparently, it was in Amsterdam.

Shit

So, what was the solution? Well, the people in Tokyo said I should see KLM when I get to Delhi. So I flew the 7 hours back to Delhi (I was confused how it was “only” 10 hours to Tokyo from Amsterdam, but 7 hours back to Delhi.) and enquired when I got there. Air India (who I flew Tokyo-Delhi) said I should speak to KLM. KLM said I should speak to Air India.

Shit

So I got them to speak to each other, a missing baggage form was filled out and I came here to rest as I been travelling for about 36 hours at this point. Upon getting to this here inn, I had to explain to the tour leader that I had lost my bag. His reaction? “That was a bit silly”.

Shit

I think if I hadn’t been so tired, I would have exploded at this point. Still, I kept my calm. I rung home to explain my situation and consider my options. As I only have 4 days worth of anti-malarials on me, I can’t do without the bag for long, so I reckoned that if the bag would turn up in the next couple of days, I’d stay, and if they had no idea or it was longer, I’d say screw it, and go home. Mum rung KLM and they said the couldn’t say if the bag was in Amsterdam, or if it had left.

Shit

However, I did sit around with a load of people going on an Imaginative Traveller tour in the evening, and they seemed pretty cool. However, they weren’t on my tour. I must make a good first impression though as they were saying I should go on their tour! As I was bagless and had a flight out of Delhi already booked for the end of this one, that wasn’t really an option.

So, I headed to bed after a rather nice fish and chips (I decided this would be an ironic choice after I’d had Sushi and curry on the various planes). This morning, I rung KLM, no word on the baggage.

Shit

However, I rung Air India next to see if they knew, and they found the bag! It’s in Tokyo!

Shit

It is now winging it’s way here, via Hong Kong (one more place for this story to mess up, I bet) and will arrive 1:25am tomorrow morning. So tomorrow I’m going back to the airport to get the bag, and then to the bus station in Delhi, and then getting a bus to Jaipur to join the rest of the tour. Phew, at least we’re getting somewhere. All I’ve got to do is try and work out somewhere to get changed with the bag. If they can deliver it to the hotel, that would be best…

So the adventure continues…

Ok, so Mum beat me to it on the last entry, but still. Am I in Delhi? Am I hell! I’m in sunny Tokyo, in the Yahoo Cafe in Terminal 2 of Narita Airport. Rather surprisingly, this access is free, so I might as well make use of it.

I’ve always quite fancied visiting Japan, but I wasn’t really expecting to make my first visit like this. So far, I’ve been Birmingham to Amsterdam, stood in the KLM ticket queue for an hour, dashed over to the next gate to fly here, spent 10 hours on the plane, and now I’m shortly to set off on my third flight in 24 hours to finally get into Delhi. Bit of a worrying moment when I got here when they were asking for the baggage claim number. The what? I’ve never heard of one of them before! Thankfully that’s sorted, all I have to do is identify my bag at the gate before my next flight. Grah. Anyway, if you want to send me an e-mail wondering where the hell I am now (and I’m only just sure), send it to me. (and if all that works, be impressed because I’ve been travelling for about 20 hours now, and everything is in a funny place on the keyboard.) Nice laptop though…