Puri

Well, Sonya (Canadian lass) and Cedric (French dude) left an hour ago to catch a train to Chennai (Madras) in the south. So, the good company that I've enjoyed for the last couple of days has departed.
Still, there's a fresh fish dinner awaiting me at the 'Pink House' restaurant, so can't complain.

Thinking I might get down to some sci. writing here if I can get the concentration together.....

OK, this is a short one - I'm at the beach, after all!

Kanha and thence to Puri

So, after Pushkar I moved on to the Kanha jungle (aka national park) . Kanha is Madya Pradesh state, about six hours bus from Jabalpur("close", by the standards of India!).

I met up with a group of 5 Indians and shared a dorm at the park lodgings and did three days of jeep safaris thru the park together. They were very friendly and sharing the dorm room made for a refreshing change to my normal solitary habitats. On our first day-long jeep safari we saw lots of animals - birds, deer, boar, sambar etc - but unfortunately no tigers.

But this was certainly redeemed on the next day when we had a sighting of a tigress on elephant-back in the morning and then in the afternoon we were driving again through the park on a jeep safari and saw the park's second largest tiger, Banda (meaning "broken tail"), lying sleeping in the jungle not far from the road. He seemed unconcerned by our presence and would periodically raise his head to give almighty yawns that showed off his gigantic incisor teeth to best advantage. That most magical moment was when he decided the accumulating group of jeeps was becoming tiresome and he stood up to reveal his 300 kg. bulk and then sauntered off into the jungle.

Even better was the third and final day in the park when a tigress paced out from the long grass and crossed the road just 10 metres in front of our jeep. My hand didn't shake enough that it stopped me getting some great footage on the sony handycam.

So, then I left my Indian friends and went my separate way via a long train journey(s) and so
I'm in Puri on the Orissa coast now. I'm enjoying the sun and sea, but feeling somewhat travel-weary. Fortunately, I've met some nice tourists here, but the "trip to the east" is def. undergoing a loss of momentum.

Let's hope this condition is temporary!

Pushing on from pushy Pushkar

Well, I finally got my act together and organised my travel onward from Pushkar, where I've been lounging about, somewhat aimlessly, for more than a week. Next destination is the Kanha national park, which has about the best repute of all Indian parks and is supposed to have at least 100 tigers. So, bus from here to Kota, then overnight sleeper train to Jabalpur in Madya Pradesh.

Actually, the lounging about hasn't been entirely without its moments. Olli (Finnish fellow-traveller met in Dharmasala) came over here from Jaiselmer, so it's been very good to see a familiar face and have good company for dinner etc

I finished off the 'Dark Matter' article and emailed it off to Kindred Spirit mag., where it appears to have been well-received. Also got a water colour of Pushkar from the Lake View hotel well underway - hopefully will get it finished off today.

I also seem to have been spending an inordinate amount of time on the internet, research ways to continue my onward journey (without flying). What I've turned up is that:-

1) -mostly no email responses wrt to crossing Indian Ocean by freighter, and only negative ones from those who replied. Phone calls have also turned up negative answers.
2) crossing Burma by land-borders is confirmed impossible
3) going up via Nepal thru Tibet very, very hard work (both visa-wise and the sheer land travel ordeal) and is also the wrong time of year (ie winter).

So, the plan now is to go to Kolkata (Calcutta) and make a last check there for ships by visiting the shipping agents in person. Assuming it's no go, I'll then prob. have to give in and take a flight from Kolkata to Bangkok and resume land travel from there.

All for now - I hope the gloomy weather back in UK is cheering up!

G

fed up in Pushkar

Been feeling fed up today (Friday the 13th). "What's all this travelling lark about, anyway?" etc etc A sense of the momentum grinding to a halt and wistful visions of aircraft and airports assailing my imagination as I lay on the hotel room bed gazing up at the ceiling.

I've been intending to finish off the Dark Matter article for Kindred Spirit magazine here in Pushka, but it's been slow going in this mood.

Oh well, energy lows aren't new to me. They normally happen in the depths of the winter at home, so I'm getting off lightly here; wandering about in T-shirt and shorts.

Part of the problem, I think, is that the way ahead looks like a real trial. My travel options have narrowed :-

1) possible freighter across the Indian Ocean from India to Malaysia/Thailand, but no sign of this from my enquiries so far
2) land crossing from India through Burma to Thailand is impossible as the only way into Burma is by flying
3) possibility to go up thru Nepal, Tibet, China, Laos/Vietnam/Cambodia and to Thailand. But it looks like a long bloody way (esp. China part) and not sure I'm interested in the ordeal
4) go by ship to the Andaman Islands, but how to get to Thailand from there?

Oh, well, worse things happen at sea. Umm, that's where I might be going......

feet up in Pushkar

Well, Sherrie, Olli and Hugo went on west to Jaiselmer and I've come east (as is my wont) to Pushkar. A small holy town set around a sacred lake with lots of ghats (steps) going down to the water for the use of pilgrims.

I arrived on the bus (5 hours) and couldn't see my guitar, a mixture of indignation and relief flooded through me, until I saw that someone had put it on the overhead luggage rack - damn and blast it! So, lugged it off and splashed out on a rickshaw ride all the way from Amjer to Pushkar.

It's very nice and quite here, though well on the tourist trail. Lots of souvenir shops and their owners beckoning you in the whole time. They're quite pushy in Pushkar. But overall, quite a peaceful place to be. I've got the best room in town, no. 15 at the Lake View hotel. Balcony right over the ghat, no attached bathroom, but only 250 Rs. I think only room 17 has also has a similar view with balcony. Better even than the Pushkar Palace.

If I can get my act together and do some reading/writing, I may stay here for several days - we'll see how it goes.

I also want to see if I can make any progress on finding a way to SE Asia, found some websites, but no positive replies to my email enquiries yet to these websites.

www.HYPERLINK "http://www.starcruises.com/Destinations/index.html"starcruisesHYPERLINK "http://www.starcruises.com/Destinations/index.html".com/Destinations/index.html - starcare@starcruises.com.mywww.geocities.com/HYPERLINK "http://www.geocities.com/freighterman.geo"freightermanHYPERLINK "http://www.geocities.com/freighterman.geo".geowww.HYPERLINK "http://www.strandtravel.co.uk/strandvoyages/sv_main.asp"strandtravelHYPERLINK "http://www.strandtravel.co.uk/strandvoyages/sv_main.asp".co.uk/strandvoyages/sv_main.asp - voyages@strandtravel.co.ukwww.HYPERLINK "http://www.freightercruises.com"freightercruisesHYPERLINK "http://www.freightercruises.com".com (aka www.freighter-cruises.com)www.HYPERLINK "http://www.freightertravel.com.au"freightertravelHYPERLINK "http://www.freightertravel.com.au".com.auwww.HYPERLINK "http://www.freighter-travel.com"freighter-travelHYPERLINK "http://www.freighter-travel.com".comwww.HYPERLINK "http://www.freighterworld.com"freighterworldHYPERLINK "http://www.freighterworld.com".comwww.HYPERLINK "http://www.aws.co.uk/cruises/cruises.html"awsHYPERLINK "http://www.aws.co.uk/cruises/cruises.html".co.uk/cruises/cruises.htmlwww.HYPERLINK "http://www.grimaldi-freightercruises.com/inden.htm"grimaldiHYPERLINK "http://www.grimaldi-freightercruises.com/inden.htm"-freightercruises.com/inden.htmmembers.aol.com/HYPERLINK "http://members.aol.com/CruiseAZ/freighters.htm"CruiseAZHYPERLINK "http://members.aol.com/CruiseAZ/freighters.htm"/freighters.htmwww.HYPERLINK "http://www.seatravel.nl"seatravelHYPERLINK "http://www.seatravel.nl".nlwww.HYPERLINK "http://www.travltips.com"travltipsHYPERLINK "http://www.travltips.com".comwww.HYPERLINK "http://www.thecrewingagency.com.au"thecrewingagencyHYPERLINK "http://www.thecrewingagency.com.au".com.au - "if it involves ships, trawlers, yachts, barges or a wooden raft we can find the crew to man it"Cruising Crew List Index - database of crew seeking boats and boats requiring crew, organised by region (also has links to numerous other crew lists) www.cargoshipcruises.nl/English/cargo english.htm - also available in DutchPerkins Shipping - container ships Darwin/Dili (weekly) & Darwin/Singapore (fortnightly) Rooney Shipping - fortnightly livestock shipping service Darwin/Brunei Darwin to East Timor by container ship - first-hand account

camal safari & Thar desert

So, I'm back in Jodhpur after a sojurn in the great Thar desert. I've been on a two day camel safari that had me sleeping under the stars on top of a 100 foot sand dune with the expanse of the desert stretching in all directions - wow! Sunset and sunrise were both wonderful and I was inspired to resume yoga under the moonlight after a couple of months omission of the routine.

Away from Jaiselmer, we were in an area where no-one else does camel safaris and it was just me and the two local guides, so I had a real treat of peace and silence away from the bustle of the Indian cities. Just a small bottle of whisky with the dinner they cooked and we had all we needed. The chapati breads were baked by throwing directly onto the buffalo shit fire! I considered that the fire must sterilise them and so just enjoyed the added flavour that this heating method imparted....

The guides both slept under the camel cart, but I opted for an unobstructed view of the night sky and periodically awoke through the night to see the milky way, Leo (my sign), shooting stars and finally Jupiter rising over the horizon.

The desert was not an empty 'Sahara' type sea of un-ending sand dunes. Rather, there was plenty of life around. Deer, foxes, birds, strange-shaped trees dotted around. An enchanting place altogether.

Our small travel group seems now to be going their separate ways, with Melissa having left already and probably me resuming my eastward travel tomorrow. I did a couple more paintings of the fort here, which has been keeping my occupied.

I still haven't resolved how I'm going to get across to SE Asia without flying - there is no obvious way :-(

This website looks interesting though, sent an email to 'Tom'.

http://karaka.site.voila.fr/

Sleep well all

tight Jodhpurs

So, it took a bit longer to leave Dharamsala than expected as the trains were all booked up, so we spent New Year there also.

We were out partying, playing the guitar (I got Auld Lang Syne chordsfrom the internet) etc till 4.30 am, so a good evening. I've been inlaid back mode with my fellow travellers - Ollie, Hugo, Sherrie and Melissa - and the five of us have now finally moved onto Jodhpur in Rajastan. Very nice, at the Cosy Hotel.

Yesterday it was wandering around the maze of twisty, narrow streets of the old city and then a long visit to the magnificent fort of Jodhpur. Today Melissa and I have been up on the roof of the Cosy Hotel doing our watercolour paintings of the fort and the blue houses of the old city laid beneath it. Good subject matter, but v. challenging in the amount of detail to be committed to paper. Apparently, the indigo paint that covers much of the old city wards off insects; maybe it works as I haven't seen many flies here.

Ollie and Hugo are feeling a bit under the weather, so we've postponed our plan to move onto Jaislemeer tomorrow.

It's certainly a different dynamic travelling as a group - consensusdecisions on what to do next, negotiation, not getting as much done as I would onmy own etc. Pros and cons - but overall I'm really enjoying myself, as this group are all really good company (they might be reading this, but I do mean that - no, really!! ;-) )

I'm having a great time travelling though I also have feelings attimes of missing something (along the lines of the protestant workethic etc). I had been writing an article on Dark Matter for Kindred Spirit magazine in Dharamsala. Slow going, but good to have got it under way and should have it finished soon, perhaps before leaving Rajastan

The mountains in the north of India were good, but I like having a warmer climate now and afterRajastan I'll probably head across India via the sights and a wildlifepark (Kanha) to the east coast beaches and Orissa state. I don't know if the others will be going that way.......

All for now.