Our train from Varanasi pulled into Gorakhpur station at around midday on Saturday 8 September. We had met two German guys on the train so the four of us just stuck together and weaved our way past all the rickshaw drivers up the road to the "bus station." There we tossed our bags on the roof and got comfy for the 3 hour trip up to the border town of Sunuali. We somehow managed to keep our patience with the Nepali border police (barely) and soon enough we were ...

Initially the two of us and our two Japanese friends had the six-sleeper compartment to ourselves, which was great :-) However, that ended at around 2 am when the other two people arrived - a man who turned out to be the loudest snorer in the universe, and a mother with a small baby who would not stop screaming. So yeah... not a lot of sleep happened after that :-/ Our train eventually pulled into Varanasi Station at around 06:30 on Thursday 6 September and we...

Our train from New Delhi pulled into Agra Station in the heat of the afternoon on Tuesday 4 September. We were only able to get seats in Sleeper class, which is how the bulk of Indians travel long distance. It's pretty rough & dirty, so we were glad that the journey was only about five hours and we didn't actually have to do any sleeping! We quickly found a room in a guesthouse and then walked down the road to get something to eat. Afterwards we wandered ar...

Our train pulled into one of the outlying New Delhi stations late in the afternoon on Thursday 30 August. The journey was more confortable than we were used to (compared to the SE Asian trains) so we arrived fairly well rested. We managed to get tickets for and find our way onto a local train to New Delhi Station, where we walked up the main bazaar street looking for a place to stay. Even though we had been warned, the constant staring by everyone was already s...

We arrived at the international airport in Mumbai late on Tuesday 28 August. We knew India was going to be a bit rough, but we weren't quite ready for what hit us. People. Just people everywhere! All jostling and pushing their way to somewhere. It didn't get any calmer outside the airport either - we were immediately greeted by a swarm of touts punting their taxi's and hotels. A bit dazed and overwhelmed (the picture for this post is us outside the airport), we...