Agra from Jaipur

Wow, Jaipur was amazing. Rather than a dusty old fashioned backwater city, we witnessed a full on metropolis complete with pink cities, hilltop fortresses aplenty. revolving skyscraper restaraunts, camels, elephants, monkeys. This city has it all.

We stayed two nights and had our first (and only) full day off here. Still get treated like an alien or a walking cash machine (depending on who stops you).

The road to Agra was so very easy to travel. Only a couple of miles of potholes the whole journey. 250km covered in less than six hours. Silencer still playing up. Have to get a mechanic to fix it tonight. Up at 5am to see Taj Mahal at sunrise before setting off on the long route to Pokhara via LuckNow.

Signing off.

DH

Colva

So here I am in Colva, at the starting point of this epicly stupid journey across India.

The small beach village is home to the usual fare of seaside hawkers, ice cream sellers and tie-dye clothing shacks. Tried to check into Longinhos but its full to bursting with Rickshaw Runners. So I spend the next few hours scouting out alternative places to stay and find Soul Vacations just down the road. Its a four star spa resort complete with whitewashed everything, luxury pool and Ibiza Chillout music playing on loop. This is great but it can't last.

I was cycling down the main street yesterday minding my own business when a tuk tuk sped past nearly knocking me off. Cursing and looking up I saw through the dust cloud it kicked up, the sight of the rushed paint job I had ordered by email in the UK. The Muppet Labs tuktuk had arrived.

More soon. Got to go. Paying for having ice cubes with my drink.