Having a buffet breakfast of porridge and toast (that was the 'buffet', two options) we were collected by Khan and shepherded off toward Jodhpur. Khan took a 'short cut' which was a country road that stretched for four hours of our six hour journey. The road was so bumpy and potholed that I spent the rest of the day in a neck brace due to severe whiplash; I'm being hyperbolic but it was bad, let me assure you. As my music playlists are pretty damn fresh - I c...

Thirteen may be considered unlucky by the superstitious but it proved to be the best day in India to date! Rousing at a spunky 5:30 and having a shower in a bucket of icy water (that's one thing I'll take back with me to Wales, I'm an absolute wizard at washing in a bucket) we strode out onto the dark streets of Agra towards the Taj Mahal, I practically skipped there, I was so excited! In the queues that divided men and women on the cold flagstone floor, outsid...

After yesterday's tribulations I was anxious to get back into the smooth consistency of site-seeing and taking in what India had to offer. Unfortunately, the Taj Mahal is closed on a Friday as it is used solely for Muslim prayer. This threw a hefty spanner in the works for us as we were only supposed to spending one night in Agra before trundling onto Pushkar. With out train delays yesterday we didn't get the opportunity to see the Taj in the afternoon as we ha...

I am certain that everyone, even non-religious people like myself, have wondered what hell must or could be like. The imagination probably drew up images of flames, pitchforks and lots of howling? Well, you don't need to imagine anymore as I can give you a first hand account of the place. It all started around 23:10 in Varanasi... When our receptionist, Ram, inspected our train tickets that had been sent earlier in the day from our absolutely diabolical tourism ...

Waking up to the sound of an overly enthusiastic alarm clock is never ideal, but when a sunrise boat trip is on the cards you can avoid hitting the snooze button with ease. It was very surreal getting to our ghat at 5:45 in the morning; everything was quite as a tomb, a stark contrast to the hubbub of usual Indian life. With sunrise quickly approaching we lengthened our stride to ensure that we got to our skipper in time - a youthful fellow that had an affinity...