It was a pretty smooth train ride. Apparently some of our neighbouring passengers were a little noisy but I didn't hear a thing! From the train station we took taxis to the hotel. Soon, everyone will have to do this, as the tuk-tuk will be illegal as of the start of the 2009. Despite its size and importance as a commercial city, Kolkata's streets are surprisingly quiet. Well, relatively quiet that is. And it is Christmas day, after all, in this the most Christian...

Yet again, the train was perfectly on time. I'm starting to think all these horror stories about Indian transport are made up to scare people away. Admittedly, this time we were seperated, so Paul and I shared the 6-berth with an Indian family who seemed to want to eat dinner ad infinitum so we couldn't let the beds down 'til the middle of the night. And we shared the cabin with the luggage from next door, who seemed to have brought the entire house with them (an...

Not exactly an auspicious start when the car comes to collect you is too small, is it? It was quite funny really. We were steadily loading up the car with bags etc, when someone counted the seats and established that there were only six, plus the driver (for anyone who hasn't been eagerly counting, there are seven of us, including Raj). Even Raj couldn't magically turn the car into an 8-seater, although I'm sure he did his best, and we settled for turning it i...

Back on to a relatively luxury bus to Bharatpur. We spent the afternoon out at the Keoladeo Ghana National Park. There is a lot of wildlife there. Shall Ilist it? Why not - we saw deer, antelope, red-faced macaques (monkeys), kingfishers, cranes, storks, snake-necked heron, grey heron, grey partridges, the odd eagle, about a bazilion cormorants and some white ibis. You probably had to be there to appreciate the variety!

Finally, a bona fide, genuine, hold-on-to-your hats Indian public transport experience, travelling on a public bus to Jaipur. It was a pretty uneventful experience really, and again I fail to see what the fuss is about. Yes, the driver could probably have benefite from actuall learning to drive and no, I don't think the bus was roadworthy, but the "If my vehicle is bigger than yours then you have to get out of my way" principle works pretty well when yo...