photos of Jordan desert

No, this isn't me. These are a couple of great photos sent to me by Noam, from Israel, in the country of Jordan. I met him on my second or third day on my first trip to India, in 1999. We shared a room in Rishikesh for a week or two, then ended up running into each other three more times in India during that trip.

okay, this is just weird...

I'm back online after getting a pad thai from a street vendor. On the way there, I passed this guy that I seem to see everywhere, including on all of my trips to India. My first trip to India, I was in the city of Udaipur in Rajasthan state (which is where the James Bond film Octopussy was filmed) and met this older British guy from London, in his forties or fifties, among a group of other people. He ended up in one of my photos, so I recognized him when I saw again at a restaurant in Hampi, when I was in south India two years ago. He was pretty drunk at the time and rather incoherent and obnoxious, but I talked to him anyway and he agreed that he had been in Udaipur at that time six years before, although he didn't remember me. Then, I saw him again just a month or so ago, when I was in Pushkar, also in Rajasthan state, but didn't get the chance to say hello there. So maybe if I see him again here in Bangkok (which is likely since I saw him right on Khao San Road, which is a fairly short little street jammed with restaurants, bars and assorted tourist shops) and if he's not drunk and annoying this time (like a good chunk of people on Khao San Road, due to the "buy one bucket of beer, get one free" deals) I'll have to ask him if he's got a twin or maybe a couple of triplets also traveling around. As mentioned above with my friend Noam, it's actually fairly common to see the same people on one trip, since you can end up on a similar route, going to the same places. But seeing someone four different times on three trips in two different countries is definitely a bit strange.

in Bangkok again

I'm back in Bangkok, where I was in early December. It hasn't changed too much, and is actually a little bit cooler than it was at that time (like maybe mid-80s rather than around 90 if I remember), but I think only because it wasn't all that sunny today. But it's definitely the tropics, it's humid as heck and I can easily imagine once the sun comes out full force that the only good place to be will be on the beach.

Getting to my flight yesterday in Delhi, I ran into a slight wrinkle, although no big deal. Since I didn't have enough Indian rupees left to pay for a taxi, and besides I had tons of time as my flight left after midnight, I took the city bus out to the airport. I'd been told to take bus #780, which would go by on one of the main streets in New Delhi, the somewhat fancy area of town built by the British, with wide streets and even a nice little park. But then bus #781 came by and they were yelling "airport" out the window, so I got on and thought I'd confirmed it was still going to the international airport, so I figured it was just a slightly different route. But instead it took me to the domestic airport, didn't go to the international airport at all, so I got off there since it was more or less in the same part of the city, and this was around 5 or 6 in the evening, so I had about 8 hours to get it straightened out. But the problem was that it was a roundabout route to get from one airport to another, and apparently there was no direct (and cheap) bus, but instead you had to take a taxi or a rickshaw. The taxi drivers were asking 350 rupees, and probably would have lowered that price, but I only had 90 rupees left at that point, even though the bus had only cost me 10 rupees. So eventually a policeman ended up helping me out, by flagging down a rickshaw driver and making sure he charged me the metered rate, which they never want to do with tourists because they'll charge more with a fixed rate. But he got me to the right airport, it cost 57 rupees, the little ordeal used up some time and then I had just enough left over to buy a snack to munch on while waiting for my flight.

The flight was fun, even though I was pretty tired out from the long day, doing last minute business around Delhi. They served a meal and free drinks as well, so I took advantage of it and had a couple of glasses of wine, watched some TV and the flight flew by....well literally, obviously, but time-wise as well. After 30 hours straight on buses, 4 hours on a plane with distractions just felt like an extended snack break. And Jet Airways, which is an Indian airlines, was pretty high class, much better than the Indian Air or Air India flights that I'd taken on my last trip to India.

So I got into Bangkok early this morning, took the express bus to Khao San Road and managed to get a room at the Khao San Inn. I'd wanted to stay there the last time, but they didn't have any of their cheaper rooms available. Even that one is a little spendy by my standards, at 290 baht, or about 8 dollars. But it's a decent room and they have a rooftop pool, so I figured I'd splurge a little while here in Bangkok, although I definitely need to find cheaper accommodations once I get to one of the islands. Where I'm headed, Ko Chang and Ko Phayam (not to be confused with the other Ko Chang, near Cambodia and the other islands that I visited when I was here before) are both basically budget backpacker islands, so should have some fairly cheap huts on the beach.

Nothing too exciting has happened here in Bangkok, since I just slept all afternoon after not sleeping at all on the flight. I already got one more roll of film developed here, but the developing wasn't quite as good as back home so I think I'll wait to get the other 5 rolls of film developed. Other than that, I had a great fruit smoothie this evening, and am now headed out to find some real dinner as I'm starving.

back in Delhi, India

I survived the long couple of bus rides from Pokhara, Nepal here to Delhi. I left Pokhara around 1 in the afternoon, on a typically creaky, rattling bus, except that it had once been a deluxe bus so the seats were actually pretty comfortable, which made all the difference. I ended up sitting next to a Nepali college student who spoke some English, which helped the time pass a bit. So it was a rough ride through the night, but could have been worse. Then I arrived at the small town of Mahendrenagar, Nepal on the western border of Nepal, just a few miles from India, at around 8:30 the next morning. From there I took a shared auto rickshaw, went through both Nepali and Indian immigrations without incident (thanks to that 10-year Indian visa that I got when I went to India two years ago. Otherwise I would have had to go to Kathmandu first to get another visa from the Indian embassy, which I've heard can take as much as 11 days) and then got a bicycle rickshaw to the nearby little Indian town of Banbassa. A bus was waiting from there going direct to Delhi, so I decided to scrap my plans of going to the lakeside town of Nainital, which I'd been to my first time in India, since it would have been out of the way and I wouldn't have had time to do anything there anyway. The bus from Banbassa wasn't leaving for about half an hour, so I had just enough time to eat a quick thali and have some mango juice, then hop on the bus, which took off about 10:30 in the morning.

That bus was supposed to take about 8 hours, but as things go of course it took 10 1/2 instead (but at least was a pretty interesting bus ride, with tons of people-watching through the towns and cities along the way), arriving in Delhi at around 9 pm. Then one more auto rickshaw (which I bargained down to 72 rupees, since that was the last of my Indian money) got me to the backpacker's area of Paharganj, and I got a cheap room. I still had a Nepali 500 rupee note on me, so I changed that this morning, then sold my India guidebook for 150 rupees. So after paying for my room and breakfast, I will have just enough money left to pay for a couple hours of internet usage, get a really cheap lunch, and then catch the cheaper bus, rather than a taxi, to the airport. My flight leaves at 12:45 am, so I've got plenty of time to get there this evening.

So I'll fly into Bangkok tomorrow morning, and most likely head for Bangkok's backpacker hangout area of Khao San Road. There's one hotel there (the Khao San Palace Hotel) that's relatively affordable, and has a rooftop pool which would be worth paying a little extra for, so that I can have a relaxing couple of days in Bangkok, after the rather hectic past month or so of traveling from Rajasthan to Nepal and then back here. I'll probably stay in Bangkok for 3-4 days, do some shopping and see a few more of the sights that I missed the last time I was there in December, as well as ponder whether I want to pay to send some of my stuff back to the U.S. I doubt I'll be needing the two winter jackets, big boots, long underwear, two pairs of gloves, extra shirts, warm hat, etc. in Thailand, considering that it was pretty dang hot when I left Bangkok last December. And this time I plan to head further south to explore some more of the islands, where it's definitely going to be warmish, if not downright scorching, plus humid. My other possible travel plan in that area is to go to see the temple complexes at Angkor Wat, in Cambodia. This will require going back up to Bangkok and then heading east into Cambodia, so I'll just save that for the end of my month there, when hopefully I'm feeling ready for dealing with another long series of bus rides and the border crossing. On April 24th I will then fly from Bangkok back to Kauai, Hawaii for two weeks to hike out to the Na Pali Coast again, then I'll fly to California early May. So that's all for now, I'll be writing next from Thailand.

PS. check below for a photo from the trek to Annapurna, and later for some more pictures, as I got a roll developed in Pokhara and will try to scan a few more...

back from the trek

(Photo is of myself at Annapurna Base Camp, Nepal, at about 13,500 feet, with Annapurna 1 in the background; at about 26,500 feet it's the 10th highest peak in the world and one of only 14 peaks in the world over 8,000 meters.)

The trek up to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) was really amazing. Just to clarify, the reason it's called "trekking" rather than just hiking or backpacking, is because it's hiking from one village to the next, staying at various guest houses or small hotels along the way, where they also cook up your meals for you. This is quite an established trekking route so there were plenty of places to choose from, so that you could pretty much hike as short or far as you wanted to, since at most the distance from one place to the next was maybe a mile or two. Some of the places to stay were in established villages, whereas sometimes it was just a couple of simple lodges along the trail. But it's a great way to hike through the mountains, since you don't have to carry your own tent, mattress and all your food, just a sleeping bag and clothes and a few other things, and then you get to sleep in a real bed and have someone cook up chow mein or pizza or omelettes or whatever else for you.

But, it still definitely wasn't a walk in the park. The taxi ride to the trailhead at Phedi (which I guess is Nepali for "bottom of the hill") didn't go uphill much. From there a simple path started climbing up right away, and the total elevation gain from there to the base camp was somewhere around 10,000 feet. But it was actually much more than that, since many times we hiked up and over one ridge, only to drop back down into another valley and then climb up again from there. So it took nine days altogether, there and back (we came back a slightly different route) without any days off from the hiking. Our couple of "easy" days ended up not being so easy because, although they were shorter, they had huge hills involved, which always seemed to come at the end of the day. So I got back into Pokhara yesterday evening, and am definitely glad to have a day off since just about every muscle in my body is seriously sore. The last two days were all downhill, down these big stone steps, which was a bit hard on the knees, but still it was a lot better than going up.

There weren't too many exciting events to report, mostly it was just hiking along and enjoying the scenery, or else the view of one's feet while grunting up the hills. It started off as a group of four of us, being myself, John from Eugene, Oregon (who's 55th birthday was on the trek), an 18-year-old Dutch guy, Talis, and a 25-year-old woman, Fiona, from Ireland. The Irish woman took a different, shorter route so we said goodbye to her on the second day. Then the three of us continued hiking the next couple of days up to the base camp at 13,000 feet.

That was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip, which was the most stunning scenery I've ever seen. Annapurna is actually the name of 5 different peaks, Annapurna 1,2,3,4, and Annapurna South, with Annapurna 1 the tallest and one of only 14 peaks in the world that are over 8,000 meters (about 25,00 feet). So this hike takes you up into the center of all these mountains, which basically form a ring, along with several other peaks. There was about a foot of snow on the ground at the base camp itself and for the last couple of hours hiking up to it, although the trail was pretty well broken and easy to follow, besides it went up a narrow valley so you really couldn't get lost at that point. This was a good thing since I was hiking alone at that point (our paces went pretty much by age, with Talis, the 18-year-old up ahead and John behind me) and also the clouds socked in as they did generally in the afternoon so there wasn't much visibility, plus it started snowing slightly. But I arrived at the base camp, which was just a cluster of about 3 or 4 different lodges, to a dining room with a heater and tons of windows that looked out at the mountains. The clouds cleared a little bit that evening so that I at least got a glimpse of them. Then we all just spent the evening, as usual, hanging out and bullshitting with all the other hikers, since there was generally just one big table that everyone sat around.

My room that night was right next to the kitchen, and so I was awakened at about 6am, after having a crappy night's sleep (probably because of the altitude or else the sweet Tibetan bread I'd eaten right beforehand). But since it was getting light I took a glance out the window, to see if I could see the mountains. Things almost always cleared up in the mornings and this was the case, I could see Annapurna 1 right outside my window, and a pink glow from the sunrise was just shining onto the peak. Part of me wanted to just try and go back to sleep, but I quickly realized that was a dumb idea. I knew I didn't have long, so I grabbed my camera and went out into the snow in just my long underwear, and took a couple of photos as the sun was rising on the mountains. Then I got properly dressed in basically everything I had, and spent the next couple of hours watching the sun rise and taking plenty of pictures, along with a dozen or so other folks that were also up early.

The one bummer was that I slipped in the snow at one point, and dropped my camera directly on a rock, which it bounced squarely off as plastic seemed to fly everywhere. My first thought was that at least I had changed the film right after taking those first few pink sunrise photos, so at least I had those for certain, along with pictures of the way up there. Then when I went to grab the camera, and fortunately it was just one piece that ran all across the top which had broken off, which was still intact, although you could see all the working components exposed. But, the actual film area didn't seem to have been affected. So I was able to snap that piece back on, although the screws were lost in the snow and the flash indicator bulb was gone, and there were a couple of tiny cracks on the top. But miraculously the camera still worked, so I kept using it and am getting that roll of film developed here in Pokhara. I think there's a pretty good chance it'll still come out, but I'll find out tomorrow when I pick it up.

So, we'd been considering staying up there at the base camp for the day and spending another night there. But our lodge was already booked full for the next evening, so once we had packed, although we could have probably gotten a room in one of the other lodges, we decided to get going. For one thing, I figured getting back to Pokhara sooner rather than later was a good idea, to give me more time to get ready for the long haul back to Delhi, in India for my flight to Thailand. Talis was especially ready for a good long hike, so he sped ahead of us, saying that he might hike farther than us, which was the case. After talking to some other people last night, who we'd met along the trek, and then saw him back here in Pokhara, he took a shorter route and hiked out in just two days, so we actually haven't seen him at all since up at the base camp. But he's also going to Thailand in a couple of weeks, so it's possible I'll see him again there.

So, that day coming down from ABC I hiked farther than John and we ended up staying at different lodges. But he got up earlier than me the next morning, so we met up along the trail and then hiked partly together that day, and stayed in the same lodges for the next two nights. Then the following day I was ready to get back to civilization, so I went on ahead and stayed in a great place with an excellent view from the room, partway down that long flight of stone steps. Then I hiked the rest of the way back yesterday, and caught a bus about an hour-and-a-half from that other trailhead back to Pokhara. John will most likely arrive today, so I'll probably see him again before I leave, since it's easy to run into people here.

Since I'm waiting for that film to get developed, and have plenty of other things to take care of, I'll be taking off back to India most likely on March 24th, which gives me about 3 full days to get back to Delhi. There's a bus that leaves Pokhara early afternoon and then goes direct to the border crossing at Mahendrenagar, in western Nepal, a different border from where I initially entered in south-central Nepal. It's going to be a hellish bus ride, as it'll be through the night on most likely winding roads (although that area of Nepal is at least less hilly than around here). But once I get that over with and arrive at the border, then I'll be within about a day's bus or train ride from Delhi, so I should have an extra day leftover. Then my flight to Bangkok leaves at around 1 in the morning on the 27th. Well I should wrap this up for now, but I'll be getting back online sometime before I get on that bus in two days.

leaving tomorrow

We're headed out for our trek tomorrow morning around 9. It's only a short 30 minute taxi ride from here to where we start hiking. Considering that we're currently at about 2,500 feet here in Pokhara, and our final destination is at 12,000 feet, I'm hoping to heck that the taxi ride is mostly uphill, to get some of the elevation gain out of the way. But at least my pack shouldn't be too heavy, even with all the chocolate bars I just bought (they might be selling them along the trail at places, but I'm sure they'll be charging a bit more for them up there).

So, today we got our permits, I rented a sleeping bag and yesterday I bought a new jacket (I'd bought another jacket in India, but it's not water or wind proof). The boots I'd bought in India are the slightest bit too small, but I soaked them in water today and then wore them around and I think they're going to do alright. Worst case scenario I end up hiking in my sandals (not flip flops but pretty sturdy sandals). Whenever I've hiked the Na Pali Coast in Hawaii I've always worn sandals, and with a lot more weight in my pack, so it isn't as bad as it sounds. But, I think the boots will work out fine. I hope so, because I like them otherwise. We picked up another guy to come along, an 18-year guy from Holland who's traveling alone and didn't want to trek by himself. And another woman from Ireland might be joining us. Then two other friends will probably be doing a shorter trek in the same area.

Also we talked with someone who just did that same trek. He said it had just snowed there about 5 days ago, up at the base camp. But it sounded like he was actually fairly unprepared, as he didn't have enough warm clothes and he still did alright, whereas we've all got plenty of layers, i.e. I've got two pairs of gloves, long underwear tops and bottoms, the sleeping bag seems pretty warm, etc. I'm actually looking forward to making use of all my warm clothes, to justify carrying them all over the warmer areas of India the past couple of months.

So here's hoping that this trek does indeed take no more than 10 days, because my flight leaves Delhi on the 26th, so I'm going to be in a bit of a hurry to get back there from here. That's not going to be fun, but oh well. Well, I'd better get out of here and finish up the packing and get to bed at a reasonable hour, so I'll be back here in Pokhara in roughly ten days.

trekking, etc.

I ran into my friend John on the street yesterday evening, which is easy to do because there's basically one long tourist stretch along the lake here with all the restaurants and shops and everything, that everybody's walking up and down. So it looks like we're set to take off on our trek on Thursday morning, March 13th. We will be doing the Annapurna Base Camp, or ABC trek, which starts just an hour's bus ride or so from Pokhara. We will be hiking up to the base camp for people who are actually climbing the peak of Annapurna, just over 8,000 meters high, which I guess would be around 25,000 feet. But of course we aren't going to the peak (which costs around 50,000 bucks to do anyway apparently) but just to the base camp at around 12,000 feet. It's supposed to be a pretty spectacular hike, as there are actually 4 or 5 separate tall peaks in the area which make up Annapurna mountain, and this trek essentially takes you up into the middle of all of them. We won't be with a guide or porters or anything; this was one of the reasons that I'd settled on this trek, because the trail is very well established and, although there's plenty of elevation gain it's otherwise a pretty straightforward hike. It's also quite popular, and there are assorted villages along the way where you can stay in simple guest houses and eat, so we won't be carrying tents or food, just a sleeping bag and whatever clothes we'll need pretty much. I'll be leaving a bunch of my stuff behind at my current guest house to lighten the load and then pick it up when I get back. But it sounds like we're doing it at a good time as it's just getting to be a good time to go weatherwise, but the peak season hasn't hit yet, so there shouldn't be too many other people on the trail. Apparently it actually snowed up there just last week, so there will definitely be some snow around, but everyone says it won't be a problem, and that it's actually fairly warm during the day at this point.

So as for the past couple of days, I've just been hanging out with assorted other travelers around here. Once you meet a couple of people, such as the group from the crazy van ride that got us here, then they run into other people who know other people, and you meet a bunch of people all at once. So this morning some of us, including my friend John from Oregon (who was my yoga instructor when I was living in Eugene, and I just happened to email him a couple of months ago in India to find out he would be in Nepal around the same time as me) went to breakfast, then about 5 of us went for a row boat ride out on the lake and went for a swim. Surprisingly the water wasn't all that cold, although it's been a little hazy so it wasn't super warm out, but warm enough for swimming. We're only at about 2,500 feet here in Pokhara, and of course almost in the tropics, so that's why it's relatively warm here despite being up against the Himalaya when it's still technically winter.

So, I might get back online tomorrow before taking off, but in case I don't then the trek is somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-10 days, so I'll be out of internet access for pretty close to two weeks (unless of course they have internet access somewhere up there, which I hope to heck they don't, along with cell phone service). And it actually might not just be John and I going, a couple of other friends from here are considering joining us as well, so might be a little group. Well I feel like there's probably some sort of pertinent details I'm skipping over but can't think of them for the time being....

in Nepal

I pulled into Pokhara, Nepal late last night (Saturday) after a very long and grueling few days of travel. Just to wrap it up real quick, I took an overnight train from the city of Jhansi (near Orchha) to Allahabad, arriving there in the morning. My next train from there was that evening, so I had the day to kill there. I spent it taking care of a few assorted things, one of which was that I got stuck with a 500-rupee note (about $13) that nobody would take because it had a bit of a rip in it that was taped up. So I took it to a bank, they wouldn't exchange it but said to go to another bank. I took it to that bank, they said they would only exchange it at their main branch in the city, which was several miles away. So I walked there, determined not to spend money on a rickshaw just to exchange a bad note, and was finally able to change it there. But typical India, even the banks don't wan't to take an old bill and you spend half a day dealing with it.

So after that I got a dorm bed and took a nap for the afternoon, then headed for the train station and caught another train for Gorakhpur, the jumping off point for Nepal. From there, another 3 hour bus ride, where I met a number of other travelers and, after crossing the border, a few of us went in on a van ride from there to Pokhara so that we would arrive that night, rather than taking the slower bus later that day or else the next day. It was supposed to take only 5 hours, but took closer to seven, on narrow, windy roads through the mountains. So we were all barely hanging in there by the time we arrived around 9 last night, since we'd all come from pretty far away.

But man, what a change it is to be in Nepal. I'd heard that it was a bit cleaner and mellower than India, but the difference is actually profound. It's much more on the level of Thailand, with clean streets, not nearly so many people, few beggars, the people here hardly use their horns in the cars and busses, the shopkeepers barely hassle you, the kids occasionally say hello rather than mobbing you, and none of them are asking for rupees, chocolate, pens, biscuits, coins from your country or anything else. I rented a bicycle today along with three other people from the van ride last night and we spent the afternoon biking around and exploring, and are all rather amazed and relieved to be back in the "normal" world after all being in India for quite a while. What I can't help thinking is, why is Nepal the country in a state of political instability, while India is so relatively stable? Indians should really be up in arms about the deplorable state of their country's infrastructure, because it's so much worse off than most places in the world, the streets are literaly like garbage dumps and sewers in many places. But fortunately, I didn't spend too much time in the larger cities of India where things are worse in that regard. I finally figured out that the key to enjoying India is to avoid the cities almost exclusively and just find the smaller towns and villages and hidden little spots with interesting things to see, and then it's well worth being there, but everything in between is really best to be avoided as much as possible.

So I'm almost out of time here, but quickly just wanted to mention that as far as any kind of political problems here, sounds like things are pretty calm here overall, and you certainly can't tell that anything's wrong just walking around. Apparently the headlines have affected tourism here, which on the positive side means that prices have come down for hotel rooms and you can hassle with prices on things a little more easily because, unfortunately, it means a lot of the skopkeepers are a bit desperate for business, at least you get that general sense. But it is by no means abandoned, there are plenty of other Western tourists around, especially in this area along the lake where there's a long street jammed with guest houses, restaurants, bookshops, internet cafes, etc., etc. So overall things seem pretty normal around here. Well I've gotta run for now since I've used up an hour, and am meeting those same people for dinner, but will get back online again before I take off for my trek in a few days.

headed for Allahabad tomorrow

Another day of palace, fort and temple touring. I opted to go by foot today after bicycling all over the place yesterday, to save myself 25 rupees, but mostly just to use some different muscles. I basically retraced part of my steps from yesterday as I'd at least bicycled past the major sites then, which are all in a nearby area. But this time I forked over the 275 rupees so that I could go inside and explore the best preserved ones. They were really amazing and definitely worth the price (the Taj Mahal is 750 rupees now, and all you do is walk in and look at it and go "Wow, cool", but no elaborate mazes of tunnels to explore. Although, it was only 15 rupees when I visited it, they now have this whole Indian price/foreigner price thing, in which foreigners pay 20 times or even more of the Indian entrance fee).

So anyhow, at this point I feel like my interest in old buildings is definitely satiated, to the point of being just about burnt out. I'm glad I'll be making a big change in heading for Nepal to see the mountains. There's a slight change in my travel plans, which is that I just booked a train ticket for one leaving tomorrow evening, that will take me straight to Allahabad overnight, rather than spending two days on busses. I was going to stop and see this other old fort along the way, but like I said I don't need to see every last fort in India, they'll still be there next time I come back, even if it's in a few hundred years. So, then I'm in Allahabad for the day (in which I'll probably just get a hotel room and get some better sleep than I will overnight on the train) and that evening I'll be on another overnight train to Gorakhpur, the jumping off point for Nepal.

exploring Orchha

This post will be fairly short as internet is slow here (dial-up) and plus this internet cafe is about to close. I rented a bicycle here in Orchha and spent the whole day biking around, and I think Orchha is now my favorite place in India. It's a tiny little village, although as usual with a bustling market area, which is right at the base of this tremendous, hundreds of years old temple. But there are so many ruins around here it's ridiculous, anywhere you go it seems you see another huge building off in the distance somewhere. There's a beautiful river that flows nearby, with what looks like pretty clean water and lots of rocks and boulders that makes for good swimming holes, so I went for a swim, on my way up to check out some of the ruins alongside the river. You have to pay to enter the best ones, but I decided to save that for tomorrow and see what I could see today for free. The free ones might even be the better ones because, for one thing there aren't many other people at them, and you can go up these narrow little stairways that lead up to huge open rooms with amazing views of the surrounding valley (don't worry, I shout and whistle first for bats and cobras and other surprises). So I'm not sure how many miles I biked today but I explored in three different directions and definitely didn't hit all of them. So tomorrow I'll probably shell out the 275 rupees (8 bucks or so) to see the better preserved buildings, including a palace and several massive temples, as well as hopefully have time for another swim. It's getting warm around here. Well time's up here, I've gotta run...

Fatehpur Sikri, Orchha, etc.

I'm now in the small village of Orchha, which is yet another area strewn with assorted old temples, palaces and forts, etc. I just arrived a few hours ago, right after dark, and so haven't had the chance to see anything other than the inside of my hotel room and then wandering around the village a little bit. But, so far it looks very nice (other than the mosquitoes, obviously things are warming up here in India as the bugs are coming out of the woodwork), and really quiet and mellow.

It's been a pretty full few days since leaving Bundi. The day before leaving Bundi, I bicycled down to the railway station to try and book several tickets, including one for the next day. However, I got there at 3:30pm to find that they had closed at 3pm, since it's a small town. So I figured the next morning I would just take the bus to the larger city of Kota, about an hour away, and try to get on a train that left from there heading north at about 11:30 in the morning. Next morning, I packed up and made it to the Kota train station by about 9:30, with plenty of time to deal with the tickets. The whole line situation wasn't nearly as bad as at the New Delhi railway station, only problem was that 2 out of 3 of the trains I wanted to make reservations for were full, including the one for that day. But, I did at least get a ticket for a couple of days later (for the train that just took me down here today); then they said to go to another ticket counter and get a ticket for "general seating" for that same train that day, which just means third class.

I think I took third class only once before, and it was six hours of sitting crouched on the floor near the bathroom, with people piled all around. So, not your usual relaxing train ride. There's apparenlty no limit to how many tickets they will sell. This ride would be only 3 1/2 hours or so since it was an express train, and it was really important I get on it because otherwise it was a 7-8 hour bus ride, which would get me where I was headed way late in the evening, by the time I got back to the bus station, waited for the next bus, etc. So, I got a general seating ticket, and when the train showed up it was bad news. There was only one or two cars for general seating for some reason, and a huge crowd of people waiting to get on. I tried to join those trying to cram on, but it just wasn't going to happen.

With no other options basically, I decided to go forward and see if I could get on another car and plead ignorance if they caught me. I did this, and ended up in a 2nd class a/c car, which means the second of three different classes of first class, so it's actually well above normal second class. It was quite plush, nice and cool with the a/c going and extremely quiet. So I sat down on one seat where there was another guy sleeping under a sheet on the opposite bunk. After a couple of minutes another Indian guy showed up, and didn't seem too bothered by my being there. I figured if I could just hang in there until the train started moving, then I was at least on the train. It started moving, and a couple of minutes later the ticket checker showed up, which was pretty quick on his part because usually they don't come by until midway in the trip at some point. So either I was just unlucky in that regard or they're just better about checking tickets in first class, probably a bit of both.

But for some reason when I showed him my third-class ticket he hardly flinched (I didn't even have to plead ignorance), but instead just told me to go forward to one of the second class cars, rather than third class; I'm assuming because he knew there was no way I would fit into the rear third class one, and as a foreigner he may have just assumed I didn't know how it worked anyway and so gave me a break. So I did this, and soon enough came across a group of exuberant young Indian guys who demanded I join them at their seats, which was perfect because this provided some cover in case the ticket checker came along again. They were all under 20 and attended the same architectural university in Punjab state, which is primarily Sikh (a minority religion in India). Many of them spoke English and so we were able to have more of a conversation than just the usual 10 questions. So everything worked out from there, the time passed pretty quick, my ticket didn't get checked again and I showed up in Bharatpur, a short distance from my destination of Fatehpur Sikri. Fortunately, though, I shouldn't be in that position again here of having to get on a train that I don't have a ticket for, because getting stuck on a bus at that point would have been a long and miserable ride.

Fatehpur Sikri is a short distance from Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, which I saw my first time in India. They were both capitals of that region of India at various times, but Fatehpur Sikri was abandoned only 15 years after it was built due to a water shortage. But it was built by a very extravagant Muslim emperor as his royal palace, fort and grounds, and has remained almost entirely intact since then, so it was pretty amazing. You had to pay to enter the best preserved area of the ruins, but then surrounding it was lots more to explore for free, as well as a huge Muslim mosque that was free to enter and is still in use, as there's now a village that surrounds the ruins. I stayed there two nights, then this morning caught a bus into Agra, and caught my train to Jhansi without any incidents. From the city of Jhansi it was just a 20-minute rickshaw ride here (too late to catch the bus).

Only problem is, it turns out there's a Hollywood movie being shot here, starting tomorrow, and so the hotels are mostly full and jacking up their prices. So I got stuck with a bad deal on a place tonight (but at least I got a hot shower and it has a TV, if I'm not too tired to watch it), but then reserved another cheaper hotel already for tomorrow night. It sounds like there's tons to explore here and I like the feel of the place, so I will likely stay here the next three nights. Then, I have another train reserved on March 7th (which I managed to get in Agra this morning) from Allahabad (which is where I saw the Magh Mela Hindu ceremony by the Ganges River, in 2000, the smaller version of the Kumbha Mela) to Gorakhpur, which is the closest city to the border crossing for Nepal, and Pokhara (I probably won't be going to the capital of Kathmandu). I was unable to reserve a train ticket for after Nepal to get me back to Delhi, as it was all full despite being 3 weeks out, so I'll have to work on that one. But I think I'll probably spend my last two weeks in Nepal and then one way or another get myself back to Delhi, for my flight to Thailand on March 27th.