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