Last night’s train journey, at 15 hours and 600 miles, was the longest one in our plan and if we didn’t catch it we’d have a problem on our hands, so being cautious I’d booked a backup train. To minimise cancellation costs I needed to cancel the backup train before we caught the planned one. … Read more
Emilia has already blogged about our visits to Sonagiri and Datia when we were travelling from Gwalior to Orchha. I’ve just looked through the photos I took there and realised how much I liked the different carved screens that were in the palace. Every screen seemed to be unique although maybe they weren’t as … Read more
Well it was inevitable, the monsoon would get us eventually, although as we were travelling by car from Gwalior to Orchha it didn’t affect us much, just slowed the journey right down and it was slow enough to start with. We’ve had thunder and lightning pretty much every day, twice a day at least whilst … Read more
Here’s a couple of short videos from our stay at the homestay in Orchha. scroll down… This first one is the breakfast served at Malti’s house: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pplpDsSP6ws This second one is some footage of the kids playing and having fun in Ganj, the little village near Orchha where all … Read more
The room the owners of my homestay live in is no bigger than the room Emilia and I are occupying, yet we’ve only got a couple of rucksacks filling the space, although in typical Winchcombe fashion everything’s scattered to fill the void well. We’ve got beds, we’ve got mosquito nets, we’ve got electrical sockets, a … Read more
In a corner of the room, right next to the doorway, sat Malti, the wife of the family that Emilia and I were staying with. She was stirring some steaming potato curry in a pot which was resting over a fire powered by a single main log. The log didn’t fully fit … Read more
Perhaps the most intrepid part of our trip – apart from travelling on trains for 2500 miles in the worst season possible – was our planned stay with two local families in the sleepy riverside town of Orchha. The idea for a homestay was sewn early on, when the original plan was to go to … Read more
Today we were picked in Gwalior by a young taxi driver named Amir sent by the owners of the homestay organisation, Friends Of Orchha. A homestay is where you stay with a local family, often using a spare room of theirs or one they build purposely. Daddy found this place on the Internet and found … Read more
Delhi disappears into the distance along the train tracks as we head off on our first sleeping class train – the previous two have been day time Shatabdi trains – to Gwalior, a city which certainly isn’t on the standard tourist path but could easily be if it promoted itself a little more. It’s got … Read more
It was RebeccaM from IndiaMike who indirectly – via one of her posts – first put me onto Gurinder’s tour guide services and I’m glad she did. To be fair I’ve not used many guides before but it’s simply hard to believe you could find someone more knowledgeable, so easy to get along with and … Read more
This place should need little introduction, I’ll assume everyone has heard of this place but broadly it is one of the key holy places for the Sikh religion and is a centre for devotion in the same way as Mecca is to Islam, Jerusalem is to Christianity and St Mary’s is to football. So many … Read more
Kesar da Dhaba is a low-key restaurant and a hidden gem in the dark, narrow backstreets of old Amritsar town. I don’t know the true meaning of ‘dhaba’ but in my view they seem to be places that are for the locals, have a fast turn around of food and generally offer food the way … Read more
In the last post I described the ceremony and showed you some pictures but this video is worth watching just to see how bizarre it all really was Scroll down to watch the video Here’s a video of the ceremony: Wagah : httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP6VCYP9Iqg
Each night when the border between India and Pakistan closes there’s a really fun, light-hearted but bizarre ceremony which draws a huge crowd, especially from the Indian side. The border ceremony is held at a place called Wagah so the taxiwallahs in Amritsar keep saying “Wagah border Sir?” as that’s how it’s better known as. … Read more
Waking up early after a great night out we had little time to celebrate the start of our 17th wedding anniversary as our train for Amritsar was scheduled to leave at 7:20 a.m.. At that time in the morning any train station that has 16 platforms could seem intimidating but other than the station guard … Read more