We had booked a 'waitlisted train' on CLEARTRIP (Indian Rail website) some days before and were Waitlist 1&2 (ie. awaiting cancellations) - luckily around 11am I received a text on my Indian Airtel SIM to say we were booked A1 seats 7/8 confimed! relief! were due to take the 14hr 1000Rp each 16:45 sleeper 2AC train (Air conditioned 2 beds one above another in compartments of 4 with a curtain across!) from Varanasi to Agra. We sped in tuktuk across a very busy...

As Paul said at the end of the last blog Varanasi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places on earth. It is a sacred place to the Hindus being on the banks of Mother Ganga (the Ganges). Every year Hindus will do a pilgrimage here either bathing away their sins in the waters, floating offerings on the river or praying in the temples or at the daily evening ceremony on the Dasaswamedh Ghat. For Hindus, Varanasi is also the place to die as dying here breaks...

We left 21:30 and arrived Hyderabad 08:00 after a quiet drive - albeit with broken uncomfortable sleep.Hyderabad is a large busy city and we arrived in the main Bus Station - after the usual touts melee we grabbed a chai each and tuktuk'ed to a local area - Abids - which had 'budget' hotels. We grabbed an AC room with breakfast but had to fork out 2000Rp a night at The Jaya International! Gasp! Room was fine - cool and comfy - so we relaxed and caught up with som...

At Bijapur bus station we asked the autorickshaw driver to drop us off at Megharaj hotel it was in Station Road with a few other Lonely Planet recommended hotels. Paul was going to do his usual negotiations. The rickshaw driver pulled up outside a half-demolished building and pointed and said "Megharaj". He clearly knew it was in that state when we set off. We drove on a little further to another hotel. Paul's best efforts were wasted - too expensive! T...

We arrived after 250km in Hospet (near Hampi) by train 08:00 after the 10hr A/C train sleeper adventure - feeling refreshed. The landscape on the way in was barren and boulder strewn and very much hand-to-mouth agricultural. We took a 20min tuktuk from 'Coffee-Boy', as he called himself, to Hampi and we took breakfast with our 2 large bags. Sheryl waited while I raced around checking rooms and rates. I negotiated Kiran Homestay non-A/C for 250Rp a night (£3.30)....