India

To send me on my way, I treat myself to a last pint and portion of chips before I leave England (not that airport food is particularly representative of British food, but it was more of a symbolic gesture). The flight was long and cramped but the morning views across the Himalaya made it worth while.

India, especially Delhi, is hard to arrive in for the first time without being culture shocked. The streets are very dirty and grimy and the smells that drift in and out can be quite overpowering. However, the hustle and bustle make it lively and exciting. I spend only one night in New Delhi, planning to save Delhi's sights until one of my 2 return trips.

The hustle and bustle of New Delhi.

The following day I took the train to Mathura, the birthplace of Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu. The town was a lot quiter and more pleasant than Delhi and I soon found myself on a boat trip on the river, taking in the sights. This was also my first encounter with 'backsheesh', or the traditional indian way of tipping. It seems like just about anybody you meet expects backsheesh of some kind. I make a small donation to a 'restoration fund' for one of the temples we visit and leave it at that. Mathura's sister town of Vindavan also had lots of temples. I enjoyed the carved sandstone architecture of the Govind Dev temple and the beautiful marble gateways to the Rangaji temple. The Krishna temple, however, was basically another chance to ask for backsheesh. Backsheesh for some flowers to offer at the alter, backsheesh for my fiorehead to be marked, backsheesh for the 'widows and orphans' fund, etc. I should have seen it coming. The one place of rest from all the backsheesh was the archaeological museum. Unfortunately, the gallery which was supposed to be displaying the famous 5^th century buddha was closed for repairs but there were some other excellent pieces of Mathura school sculpture and a beautiful bronze casting of Vishnu.

Next I moved on to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. I hired a rickshaw driver, KK, for a couple of days which seemed like a good deal at the time because I wanted to see the several sights around the town, and the ticket for the Taj Mahal meant you got very cheap entry to the other sights on the same day. Unfortunately, he wanted to take me to 'local craft shops' all the time, which I played along with for a while but soon got fed up with and started to make my instructions more forceful. Despite all this, the Taj Majal was amazing. It was built by Shar Jahan as a mausoleum for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in child birth. It is an amazing piece of architecture. Photographs just don't do it justice. The sheer scale of the building is impressive but to be so well proportioned too, is breath-taking. On top of this, the white marble that the structure is made from is inlayed with precious and semi-precious stones all over, to make inscriptions from the Koran or just decorative patterns, typically with a floral design. Other buildings of the same nature that I saw were the Baby Taj, a smaller mausoleum with even more beautiful inlayed stonework; the Agra fort, with less splendid architecture, but the best views of the Taj Mahal in town; and Sikandra, another mausoleum slightly out of town, with very grand red sandstone architecutre, again inlayed with stonework and carved with amazing geometric patterns.

A slightly wonky piccy of the Taj Mahal.

Since I had enjoyed the Mughal architecture of Agra so much, I decided to visit the nearby town of Fatehpur Sikri where there was a ruined city in the same style. I hired a guide to show me around and he was worth every penny. He showed me round the still functioning Jama Masjid first, supposidly a copy of the mosque in Mecca and the beuatiful Tomb of Shaikh Salim Chishti which was built in a similar style to the Baby Taj with inlayed stonework and stone screens beautifully carved with geometric patterns. He showed me lots of interesting detail and all the best angels for photos. The rest of the town was less impressive but more romantic. The old towers and gate of the disused city look out over the planes and it's very easy to imagine the opulent residents living their lives in the lap of luxury there. At the end of the day I took the advice from my guide book and went south to the city walls for a spectacular sunset view. At one end of the hill, the red sandstone gate was beautifully lit by the evening sun, and at the other, the sun was dipping to the crest while casting a reflection in a small lake. Truely a stereotypical Indian dusk if there ever was one.

The Tomb of Shaikh Salim Chishti, Fatehpur Sikri.

After a long and dusty day's train journey I arrived in Lucknow, the administrative centre when India was under British rule. I joined a guided tour to see the sights which was good value as it probably would have cost me more to just travel to each sight myself with my unhoned haggling skills. Most of the sights didn't intrest me. The only things that really caught my attention were a picture of a man who kept a swarm of bees in his beard, the maze of tunnels and huge vaulted ceiling of the Bara Imambara and the Residence, where the British took refuge during the 3 month siege that was known as 'the Uprising' or 'the First War of Independence' depending upon your point of view. The thing that particularly interested me about the Residency is that before leaving England, my friend Henry had told me that he had inherited a title and he was now Sir Henry Lawrence. He told me the title originated with his great, great...great grandfather who was killed in the siege. As it turns out, there was lots of evidence of the original Sir Henry including an obelisk like memorial to him, his grave, 2 pictures in the museum and he even gets a mention in a poem by Lord Tennyson! I tried name dropping while I was there but to no avail. I don't think Sir Henry was a popular figure with the locals.

Sir Henry Lawrence's Monument.

Sir Henry Lawrence's Grave.

On the tour I met a Danish girl called Katerine. She had been studying in Calcutta and was visiting a friend in Lucknow during the holiday. In the afternoon, she and another of her friends, Gaurav, invited me to a crocodile farm. There we saw crocodiles of all sizes, from little hatchlings, to huge 3 metre adults. We spent a quite afternoon there in the park, chatting and drinking lemon soda. It was nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of citys for a while.

The next day I set off to Nepal. The guide book said it was only 4 hours from Lucknow, but as I've been learning, it's best to take these estimates with a pinch of salt. I set off at 8am and arrived at the border at 3:30pm. I short horse and cart ride and 2 immigration check points later, I found myself in Nepal...