Diu turned out to be a welcome break from the hectic Indian city life we had been living. The streets were almost deserted  and we easily found accommodation in a converted church. We had a pretty lazy couple of days, but did find time to rent some bicycles and take a leisurely ride around the small town.

My first attempt at hiring a bicycle resulted in me riding off in a delightful pink number that lost its chain after 1 km and left me walking back to the shop with greasy hands, but the next place I tried offered a more reliable product, and we had a pleasant afternoon's cycling before catching the bus to Udaipur. I think I have actually managed to lose all my photos from Udaipur, so I will upload some if they turn up, otherwise I will just have to describe what was an incredible visit to the 'city of lakes'. This really was like no other place we have been in India, and as our first taste of Rajasthan provided all the colour we had been promised. We took time to visit the Shilpgram cultural exhibit and saw the dancing show at Bakore e Haveli, both of which I can recommend, especially the Rajasthani puppet-shows which revealed the inspiration for Sooty's annoying squeaky voice. After Udaipur we took a 5 hour bus journey to Mt Abu, a holiday resort near a nature reserve in the hills of Southern Rajasthan.

The air was a lot cleaner (and colder) here.

We took the opportunity to do a bit of hiking, with the chance of seeing bears and cheetahs in the wild. We had no such luck, but did see crocodiles and mongoose, and had a good day with our guide Ashok from the Shri Ganesh hotel.

From Mt Abu we took a (queasy) bus ride down to the nearby train station, then it was a 6 hour journey to Ajmer. 

From here we were just a short bus ride from Pushkar, where we offered our own Puja in the bathing Ghats, and fondly recalled our time in Arambol surrounded by tourist stalls selling T-Shirts, Ali-Baba pants etc.

Post-Puja

Ajmer train station

We also visited the Dargah, one of the most important Muslim pilgrimage places in India, and heard the qawwali there.

Next stop: Jodphur

We arrived in Ahmedabad in a similair manner to our arrival in Pune i.e. kicked out of the bus on the outskirts of town at about 6 am. We managed to find a hotel pretty easily though (don't want to tempt fate but I think we're getting better at this). After we had dropped our stuff off and got something to eat we headed off to Ghandi's ashram.

This is where Bapu spent th first 15 years of his struggle against the British and the march toward Indian independence. It was a real eye-opener as well as being a lovely way to spend an afternoon. The next day we checked out an old fort in the middle of the old town before taking a guided tour of the old mosques and temples in the area.

Our guide Jagdish even took us for a spot of lunch at his place. The next morning we just had time for a spot of breakfast before we had to catch a bus to Junagadh, our next chosen destination. The restaurant had a tree growing up through the middle of the floor, as well as mausoleums everywhere you looked.

We arrived in Junagadh just as the sun was going down. In front of us we saw Mount Girnar rising in the distance, a challenge if ever we saw one. 

 So we rose early the next morning and tackled the 10,000 steps to the top. It was actually more of a challenge getting back down, due to the amount of people stopping us and asking if they could take a picture. 

Later on we looked around Uperkot Fort in Junagadh town, and our tour guide Vinod asked us to dinner (bit of a theme emerging here), so we got to feast on some authentic Gujrati fare for the second time in three days.

The well at Uperkot fort

Vinod and his friend Uday

That was it for our Junagadh adventure, it was a lively little place but we had found the last week or so pretty hectic, so we headed off for the island enclave of Diu, another ex-Portuguese colony like Goa, but much smaller and without the hippies.

Its been a couple of weeks since I arrived back in India and there's been a lot happening since then, elections went ahead in Bangkok in the end but I'm glad to be out of that particular fracas. Today in the Indian parliament a brawl ensued over the creation of a new state called Telengana, which ended up with one MP pepper-spraying another! Democracy is clearly thriving across South Asia.

After meeting up with Sarah again we spent a few days in Arambol before deciding enough was enough. We waved goodbye to the farm and started our travelling adventure for real. The cows were sad to see us leave.

We started off with a couple of days in Ajuna, which is only about half an hour down the Goan coast. We had a night out at Shiva Valley, but neither of are big trance fans so we decided not to stick around. We got the bus down to Panjim and booked a coach to Pune, which is in Maharashstra just a few hours outisde Mumbai. We had a bit of time to kill so hung around outside the church for the afternoon. I had my guitar and a few wannabe rock stars asked if they could pose for a photo. I was happy to oblige.

Meanwhile Sarah was busy making friends.

And then our time in Goa was up, we boarded the overnight coach to Pune and settled in to our sleeper bunk. After being dumped on the outskirts of town in the small hours we negotiated our way to a hotel in the centre, then headed out for a day trip to Sinhgad, a mountain just a short bus trip away. We got there OK but the bus needed a bit of help making the return journey.

Sinhgad boasts a fort at the top of a mountain, so we hiked our way up in the midday sun. A couple of hours later we were rewarded with a panoramic view of the Maharashstra countryside.

We met plenty of tourists on the way up and if Pune hadn't been enough of a wakeup call it began to dawn on us that Arambol isn't really representative of the rest of India. English isn't as widely spoken everywhere as it is in Goa for a start. European tourists are also a lot rarer so we are getting used to the disbelieving looks. 

We hung out in Pune for another day then took the advice of a bloke we met in a park and boarded a bus to Shirdi the next morning.

Pune station at sundown.

Shirdi is a major pilgrimage town as it is the home of Sai Baba, a major figure in Hinduism. He lived here in the early 20th century and is regarded as a saint or even a living God. We queued for an hour with the thousands of pilgrims that pass through this town every day for a glimpse of the holy idol. We British love a good queue after all (sorry no cameras in the temple). We only stayed one night in Shirdi before boarding a tour bus that would take us to a few more sites of pilgrimage for Hindus, the main one being the Ellora caves, which were cut down vertically into a mountain side and fully deserve their status as a UNESCO world heritage site. There are both Hindu and Buddhist caves here, but our group only had time for the Hindu ones.

Kailisya Temple at Ellora

Indian selfie

Sarah making friends again

After Ellora our tour finished in Aurangabad, a small town that acted as a base for another spot of cave dwelling the next day, this time the Ajanta caves which lie about two hours further North.

These Buddhist caves are cut horizontally into the mountainside, used for shelter during the monsoons. They lay undiscovered for centuries after the civilisation that built (cut?) created them suddenly collapsed. There are paintings inside some of them that date back to the second century BC (this one isn't that old though, it dates from the 5th century AD so is comparatively recent)

The caves are supported by intricately carved pillars, I thought I saw one slipping so stepped in until they could arrange a more permanent support.

After a troglodicious couple of days it was time to wave goodbye to Aurangabad, but we had a day to kill before our bus to Ahmedabad was leaving, so we grabbed a spot of breakfast for heading off to - the Aurangabad caves!

This is a smaller set of Buddhist caves just outside Aurangabad, nowhere near as exciting as Ajanta or Ellora, but at least we had them to ourselves.

It was almost time to board our bus, but Sarah found time to make a few more friends so hailed a passing auto-rickshaw.

And with that we were off to Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat.

The (caretaker) government has declared a 60 day state of emergency after a series of violent attacks on and around the protest sites. 9 people have died already and there have been gun and grenade attacks in the city. Armoured vehicles have been spotted in the city as well, but the army says its definitely not got anything to do with a coup. Which is nice.

View from My House guest house in Rambuttri where we are staying

Toby and I have been soaking up some culture, visiting the national museum and the Calypso Cabaret starring the ladyboys of Bangkok. We have both got Big Lebowski T-Shirts now as well.

An actual scene from Thai history

Ladyboys

I found a protest site on a bridge near our guest house the other day, there weren't many people there and the few that were seemed happy to sit around in the sun. I caught the end of this guys set before the speeches started again.

I also visited 'Adhere the 13th Blues Bar' the other night, and heard some excellent blues covers of songs like Is This Love (Bob Marley), D'yer Maker (Led Zeppelin) and House of the Rising Sun (trad)

But mostly I have been passing the time playing guitar and waiting to get back to Goa. It is Sarah's birthday today and its a shame I will be missing it, but it does give me a whole extra week to sort out a present!

The protests are still happening, it gets quiet during the day then more people start appearing after they finish work. I saw a huge crowd of protesters singing along to a band playing 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' on Tuesday night.

This was on one of the main shopping streets (called Sukhumvit) in Bangkok, which was close to where we stayed on the first few nights. We've moved to near Khaosan Road now which is the backpacker central, and it is a bit further away from the protests. We're not too worried about them as there have only been a few minor incidences of violence, but its reassuring not to be smack bang in the middle of all of it. This part of town has more to see and do as well - museums, galleries, the ladyboy cabaret - its all here. The hotel is not as nice but we're saving a lot of money. I've also seen one of the other protest sites which is further south and based in a park. There are slightly less people there I think but there are still large crowds listening to the speeches.

I got caught up in a bit of a procession today but everyone seemed to be in high spirits.

Its not clear whether the protesters will achieve their aim of postponing the election, I have seen a lot of riot shields being moved around at the police station, though thankfully none have been deployed yet. I try and steer clear of it as it is exhausting negotiating the throngs of people, but I always end up gravitating towards the protest sites as there is so much good food there. I got some kind of fish cake thing today, I can't be any more specific but is was very good - chewy and spicy.

I have managed to find some quiet parts of the city, but I had to walk for quite a while.

This is called the big swing.

It is very big, but I was disappointed to find out that you can't swing on it. I found a little outdoor cinema today. 

The show hadn't started yet so I cam back later to see what they were watching. Something with Bruce Willis, Katherine-Zeta Jones and John Malkovich ageing disgracefully. It was dubbed in Thai so I couldn't understand a word, but I enjoy the atmosphere of a cinema regardless of what's on the screen.

There wasn't any popcorn going round, dried cuttlefish seemed to be the only munch available for the movie goers.

For those of you wondering what has happened to Sarah she is in Gokarna with Kat, they're having a good time and we're all looking forward to meeting up in Arambol in a couple of weeks.