Monday November 4th 2013: I'm starting this blog a little bit later than I could have as I didn't plan to write one. I've decided to do this partly to keep people up to date and partly because I was finding it hard to track what we've been doing.

We left Sydney on November 2nd so I'll do a bit of back tracking before I get up to date and try to keep this blog fairly current….

Arrived at Sydney airport around 9:30 for our flight at 12:15 to Singapore. While I got a lift to the airport from Vicki, Piyush got a lift from a relative Victor and decided to call me on the way and say "I'm not going to make it man…" something I immediately believed as it is not unheard of that Piyush misses flights. Anyway, this time he was joking…and caught me out good.

After the usual airport palaver we got through security and thought, although it was barely mid-day it would be a good idea to have one last decent beer as Piyush warned me there are no decent beers in India, and besides we were kind of on holiday by then. So we each swigged on a James Squires One Fifty Lashes, a great pale ale, although got royally ripped off by the airport prices of almost $10 a beer. Before we knew it we had way missed the recommended boarding time and got to our gate about 20 minutes late….still no problem as we knew there would be a massive queue which there was. The giant A380 planes (which we had) are nice inside, but just too many damn people.

About 8 hours later we go to Singapore after a pretty uneventful flight. An hour later was our connecting flight to New Delhi. We had many beers on this flight….I don't remember much else.

Got to New Delhi around 22:30 and once we got out took a taxi to Piyush's friends Poonam's which was in South Delhi. The journey was about 45 minutes and as all journeys from airports are, you get to be introduced to the city you've landed in pretty quickly. India has a lot of people, tuktuks, rickshaws, cows stray dogs, car horns, people, and a lot of people. India is a developing country and the poor a prevalent on the streets immediately, but it all seems to work in a round-about way. Down numerous roads and back allies we found Poonam and her friend Alex, who then guided us even deeper into the maze of small side streets. Finally got to her small apartment which was nice (better than I expected really), in fact it was more of a party house. Although we (or I at least) was pretty tired at this stage, the beers came out and we had a good chat and laugh, along with another guy who came over called Harish. They were all nice people and originally from Piyush's home state Manipur in the far east of India (where we should hopefully end up).

After going to bed around 4am we managed to get up around 8:30am…..it's great when jet lag works in your favour. Piyush and I went out and got a tuktuk to a place he knew of to get breakfast. This was a side of the road type restaurant in South Extension 1, where the food was cooked on the side of the street. We had Chole Bhature which is a classic indian dish with deep fried bread (like roti) and a chick pea curry, and is available all day rather than a specific breakfast meal. It was already apparent everywhere that Diwali festival was today, which is a major festival here where everywhere is lit up and fire crackers and fireworks are set off in the streets. Side of the street shops and stands were getting ready to sell all their fire crackers and flowers. Once we were done we got a tuktuk to Red Fort, which is a really big walled fort right in the craziness of Delhi. Foreigners tickets are about 10x the price Indians pay (Piyush had a good laugh), but still cheap, and once you get through it's really nice to see some space, less people, and no traffic. It was really impressive and had a great deal of history, which was also shown off in the small museum it had. Red Fort was built by the same emperor that built the Taj Mahal, he lived in Red Fort. After we walked around all of the fort we went out and got a rickshaw down some extremely busy small streets called Chandni Chowk, which is a famous and oldest bazaar in Delhi. It was my first time on a rickshaw here and I immediately have a great respect for these rickshaw riders. Diwali festival was all around here with little yellow marigold flowers everywhere….the fire crackers were of course being sold too but were yet to start being used. We continued in the rickshaw until we got to Jama Masjid mosque, which was also impressive but had more of a touristy feel about it and getting the most from tourist arrivals. We walked all around the mosque which was again in a walled grounds.

Afterwards we took a tuktuk to a university area called Kamala Nagar, where we walked around and went to a small restaurant. It had a western toilet which was a winner for me right at that point. After some food and even some ice cream and coffee, we left and I was feeling much better.

Piyush had a great idea when we were eating to go to the cinema, and at this point sitting and chilling out for a while I was definitely up for. So we took a tuktuk to a cinema called Batra in Mukheerjee. We watched Krrish 3, and although basically no English (a few words here and there), it was a pretty good film. Part action, part love, part comedy, part Bollywood dancing, it was all there and Piyush tells me all Bollywood movies are like this. It was 2 ½ hours long and I anticipated having a nap but it was worth stay awake for. Plus the crowed loved it….for example the main famous indian actor guy in the movie turned around early on to reveal his ripped chest and massive muscles and the blokes in the audience all started cheering and shouting. Although I found it strange that when there was the obvious body-shot of the prized lead actress the cheering and whistling I expected to come never materialised. The cinema was packed out and we got any seat we could which ended up being right next to the exit….fine by me I thought, easy way out should I need to quickly. Half way through the movie (obviously in the dark), either a giant rat or small cat came through a hole and darted up the staircase next to me scaring the crap out of me. There are a lot of stray cats and dogs, and just before we went into the cinema we were walking down the road and there was a section of a big pipe on its side that had a litter of puppies in on their own.

After the cinema we had it planned to go to a Tibetan quarter for a walk around and dinner. Piyush used to stay in one of the places within this area in the late 90's and used to go to this Tibetan restaurant we went to. The area was nice, and certainly felt like different place to Delhi and is actually run by Tibetans. It's considered one of the safer places for foreigners, and I did see some white faces….something I have not seen much of at all. We had dinner (ordered way too much) with Poonam and Alex and get a taxi back to the apartment. Diwali was in full swing everywhere and sounded like bombs going off. Very loud. We bought some and let them off in the sides streets where we were staying. A guy there also had a big banger he got piyush to light from his cigarette and the lobbed it in the air, it came down and exploded about 2 foot above some guy riding past.....I'm suprised there werent more injuries but it was a good laugh to see everyone enjoying the festival. After this I was knackered and not long after went to sleep.

Monday (today) we got up early and had a load to sort out. Firstly we went to the train booking centre and tried to book our tickets from Delhi to Agra, this is because we wanted to stay in Agra and see the Taj Mahal. Anyway, the three trains we could have got were all booked, so the next plan was to get a bus to Agra. We got breakfast and went back to Poonams and book a night at a place in Agra, we also booked the bus ticket (where I have been sitting writing this). We were also trying to get me a SIM card so the next couple of hours was running around getting photos and photocopies of my passport/visa, but we eventually got a SIM card (though not working yet).

Before the bus we went to Arunachal House, where we are trying to get a pass for me to be able to go to Tawang which is next to Bhutan and Tibet/China. Piyush got his Indian pass but as they only let foreigners go in a minimum of 2 they are trying to find another foreigner to pair me up with who wants to go on the same date. I highly doubt they will, but Piyush said this lady we were talking to (we went to her office to discuss our plans) is the top-dog lady and she can do whatever she wants, and considering she was really nice to us we should be in with some luck.

Running out of time, we got a tuktuk with all our gear to the bus station, waited the bus and left. Fortunately this bus is the best bus I've seen in India yet, but it is the more expensive bus….500Rp instead of 100Rp….but still only about $4. Anyway, we are coming into Agra now after this bus journey of 3 hours. Sadly a puppy came running out on the road which the driver slammed the brakes on for but did not make it. The time now is 18:10 and we should be getting off soon to get a tuktuk and find our cheap hotel we booked. Piyush has warned me that in this area we will be getting ripped off without a doubt.

---- I'm posting this the next day (Tuesday at 1:40pm) so need to catch up on writing. We're about to leave for the next bus to Jaipur.