Darjeeling to Kalimpong 24th - 29th Darjeeling Had a lovely few days in Darjeeling - up high in the hills with views accross to Kanchenjunga (3rd highest mountain in the world) feels like a different country up here - very Tibetan influence - so everyone looks different and there is less of the hassle you get from street sellers, rickshaw and taxi drivers you get in the other parts of India i have been too. Staying at Dekeling - lovely hotel run by a really fri...

From Rajhastan to Kolkata to Darjeeling........ 12th - 15th September First overnight train ride from Udaipur to Bharatpur - not bad journey (you get your own bunk pillow, sheet and blanket) - very weird waking up in the middle of the night at stations where there is a hype of activity - definitely a 24 hour country! To stop all and sundry staring at me all night (as they do) i rigged up a sheet over my bunk to hide myself - seemed to semi work. 1 night at a r...

6th Sept - Jaipur Great day in Jaipur - auto rickshaw trip out to Amber and Jaigarth forts - beautiful views, big hill to climb - keeping me fit in the hot sun! Saw elephants, camels and monkeys in and around the palaces - as well as many beggars and street sellers. Had my photo taken with lots of groups of young blokes - have they not seen a western woman before!! You have to keep saying - hands off! Went to Monkey Palace - guess what full of monkeys and stran...

2nd - 4th September Howdy all... well its now my 4th day here in sunny India and wow what a rollercoaster ive had already... Landed in Delhi on 2nd September - panicking that i was going to be accosted by a million rickshaw and taxi drivers... I walked out into a sea of calm.. and my driver who was taking me to my hotel was sitting very calmly reading the paper! Little did i know the mayhem was yet to come... Ok so Delhi is MAD, its hot, its smelly, its craz...