Delhi to Goa ... 8 days on the road

So i am alone on my travels now, Muma left and i spent 5 days in Delhi, chatting away in cafes, drinking copius chai and vaguely seeing the sights, whilst there i met some french guys who had driven over to india from France, they happened to be driving down to Arambol in Goa and persuaded me to join them on the journey cross country, it was incredible!

inside the van..

We passed through central india a place very rarely travelled through by tourists, for the entire 8 days i didnt seen another white face, we stopped in tiny villages all along the way, the roads were awful and the people fascinated by us. 

The truck broke down 4 times during the trip, we had to replace all the wheels, everything that could have possibly went wrong did!

We picked up many wierd and wonderfull hitchhickers along our journey, this man was a snake charmer from Rahjistan... 

beautiful sunsets..

The men on this journey were pretty hatrd work, i was lucky to be with two big pretty hard core guys but it still got to me, i had to hide in the truck allot of the time with crowds of men 50 thick trying to get in at me, it was frieghtening and i was literally beating them off with sticks at points, but the plus side was the women, so friendly and warm as we got further south there was a clear change in the power, the women were in charge and they welcomed me with big wide open arms every where we went. 

One  of the nicests elements of the trip was being invited into peoples homes in the places we stopped, the warmness and hospitality of middle india is something i will never forget, the people were so generous to us, the most wonderfull experiences ive ever had i think...

We did this for you Andrew.

The time we went and had our photos taken in front of a poster of the Taj Mahal, well if felt like we were stood in front of a very large poster. The best bit was the acoustics inside, if felt very spiritual!

(We got up at 6 in the morning to see the sun rise over the old Taj, the city its in is rank, Agra has a thick scent of rotten eggs)

Our wonderfull new family!

We met this lovely couple whilst waiting for a train from Ajmir to Agra, they were on their way home to Bombay/Mumbai (they called it Bombay not us). We whiled away the many hours before our train sharing snacks and chatting away with them, Mum really got on with satnia,  they invited us to come and stay and just couldn't understand why mum was going home!!!

Coffee Coffee Coffee

 I can not express to you how NICE it was to find proper coffee in Pushkar, 

We had double espresso lattes in this place every morning and didn't  feel and inch of guilt for it. 

The funny thing is, when we first came to India we pretty much exclaimed that we wouldn't be eating any western food, we thought all these tourist places were crazy and weird  But i retract everything now,

 Funky Monkey i will be back for a hot espresso and a piece of delicious choco banana cake! 

Pushkar

We left little Bundi on Saturday morning at 6 am! The bone rattling brain mushing ride took over 6 hours and we arrived in Ajmer at 12, then it was only a half an hour local bus to the much anticipated Pushkar! 

Pushkar is a small town in the middle of Rajisthan, its considered Holy as the there is a natural lake here whilst the surrounding area is all desert. When we got here the festival was in full swing, its like nothing we've ever seen before, the swarms and swarms of people on the streets every day are incredible, I've never seen so many vibrant colours, saris, turbans and little guttersnipes! People flock from all over the desert, ever tribe and caste you can imagen all busteling together, it really is fascinating to be here in the middle of it, our little white faces in pure awe of it all!

There are loads of events, today we watched the famous  moustache competition,

some bloke asked me if i was Irish because i had so many scabs on my face, 
i hope he meant freckles.

a woman on a sleeper train

Bundi Bunda

So we arrived in Bundi late at night, it was dark and we had no idea how to get to our guest house, the train station was miles out of town! Luckily Raj came to our rescue, we didnt know he was coming and when a man stood on the platform saying 'Anna, anna?' i walked past him (in Hindi Anna means come here) But he was actually waiting for us and took us safely back to the incredible old elephant  stables we're staying in!

Bundi is a tiny little town within a fort, you can walk the entirety of it in less than an hour, its chilled, theres no hassle and people are really friendly! These photos are from the old palace which has been abandoned for over 200 years, its beautiful and crumbling to the floor, its only enhabitants now are a great herd of aggressive monkeys or 'bunda' in Hindi.

The markets are brilliant here, beautiful with so many exotic vegetables ive never laid eyes on before, they also dont charge triple just because we are foreign, which is nice! 

And this shop here is where one buys their curd and wheys. 

Sleeper trains and unusual fruits.