Panna National Park 21.02.10 Nikki Arriving at Panna was almost an 'Out of Africa' experience. The lodge was situated next to a river and our cottages were enormous, as well as a huge bedroom area there was a massive dressing room and stairs which led up to a private roof terrace. As we arrived in the morning there was plenty of time to relax with a beer and a book before venturing out on our safari. We set off in comfy, camouflaged, upholstered luxury for...

Khajuraho 20/2/10Nikki Today we travelled in style in private cars to Khajuraho. On the way we stopped at a paper making co-operative supported by Intrepid which employs local people to make paper products from waste fabric. The ladies we saw seemed to be loving their work and there was lots of laughter and chat. There was some great stationery to buy in the little shop so the backpack is now even more stuffed!When we arrived in Khajuraho we were taken to lunch ...

Orchha 18/2/10-19/2/10Nikki It was an early start on the bus from Chanderi to Jhansi, the main city in the area. The bus that rolled up was a very local one (for that read rusty and ramshackle!) and at our first stop the aisles were filled with huge sacks of coriander seeds which meant that everyone boarding the bus had to either clamber over them or sit on them. After the four hour journey we arrived to be greeted by tuk tuks beautifully decorated for one of ou...

Chanderi 16.2.10-17.2.10NikkiAnother train took us away from Agra, it was an early start once again. As we boarded, the carriage was in darkness as on the journey from Jodhpur and we fumbled around until we found our berths. Dinesh, the tour leader had bought breakfast enroute so we feasted on bread, jam and peanut butter (courtesy of two Canadian members of the group) with biscuits, apples and bananas, complemented, of course, by tea from the train chai wallah.I...

Agra 15.2.10 Nikki Today the new group caught the train (the one that was cancelled a month ago) with no delays and I revisited Agra Fort and the Taj for the third time! It must have been 15 degrees warmer than last time and the sky was (sorry Jo) clear. We had a bizarre dinner in a revolving restaurant with ferocious A/C surrounded by overexcited school children (from Bundi apparently!) who were here on a school trip. Thank goodness I wasn't responsible for t...