Category: India
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Agra; Holy Sites and Holi Festival
It was almost inevitable that we would end up in Agra at some stage; although we had both visited India before, neither of us had been to see it’s most famous of sites. Instantly recognisable and known as the ‘greatest monument to love’ in the world, our visit to the Taj Mahal was cemented when…
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Hyderabad – starting a riot in a school.
Our arrival in Hyderabad involved another epic cycle across a huge city, the traffic, the noise and the heat combine to make urban cycling considerably uncomfortable – the suffocating fumes from bad engines fueled with even worse fuel must be what its like closing your garage door and sticking an exhaust pipe into the window.…
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Hampi – a tale of two sides of the river
After 145km of cycling, the last thing anyone wants to do is go and view a variety of accommodations, haggle over prices and then choose somewhere to stay. But we didn’t really have a choice. Tired, dusty and just about ready to punch anyone who looked at me sideways, I deposited bike and baggage with…
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Forts, fevers and some really feckin hot weather
Leaving Bangalore was never gonna be easy, a city of 8 million people sprawled in all directions from the city centre, a city in perpetual motion as people commute to and from work, deliver goods and go about their daily business. The ring road to the city limits stretched 30km in front of us, a…
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The Taj Mahal in pictures…
Instead of writing about India’s most famous monument we thought it would be best to just post some pictures…. we had quite a few so have worked hard to reduce the amount to a reasonable level so you don’t pass out half way through! The Taj is in the city of Agra – not the…
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Holi festival in Agra
Yesterday was the Hindu festival of Holi – the festival of colours. Talking to people in Agra, it wasn’t particularly clear what the festival symbolises or the reasons for its origin, but everyone knew what the day involved – throwing colourful powders, spraying people with water and if you are a guy above the age…
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Through the tiger gauntlet to Mysore.
Neither of us has had a sip from a coconut since we had visited Malaysia a couple of years ago. On that occassion, under a sweltering Langkawi sun, we had tried the taste. It was bitter and nasty and didn’t go down well. Today we were pretty much coerced into trying one for the first…
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In India, Yes means No. Don’t believe everything you hear!
Nobody knows how to be quiet here, and they don’t seem to understand why you would want them to be. At 6 o’ clock this morning for some completely unknown reason, someone released a whole coachload, in fact a rabble, of young school boys in our 6 room guesthouse. They ran amok, screaming and shouting,…
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The Nilgiri Mountain Railway
This morning we traveled once again from the hot low lying plains to the cool air above 2000 meters. Instead of breaking our lungs with what would have been another relentless two day climb, complete with clouds of chocking toxic bus fumes we opted for the more civilized and relaxing UNESCO toy train – time…
Sam and Sheena Cycle 