Every evening since 1959 (except for a brief period when they were at war) India and Pakistan have undertaken a nightly border closing ceremony at the Wagah crossing. It has become infamous for being a strange spectacle of overt nationalism, and involving very tall men from the Border Security Force on the Indian side and … More The infamous Wagah border closing ceremony
A 5:40am flight sounded ok when we booked it. When it actually came to it we worked the alarm had to be set for 2:30am… Not sure how we’ve managed to do this to ourselves twice but it sums up this trip so far perfectly – early mornings and packed days. With all that what … More A hop through India – Amritsar
The final day of our tour started with a 6 hour drive back to Delhi. The countryside scenery as we left Mandawa was really pretty but the inevitably slow drive and the heat in the car made it very hard for us to keep our eyes open and we kept snoozing. Every time we woke … More Delhi – Still hot, still humid but not so much hassle
Shekawati region is a collection of countryside towns that are known for its painted havelis (traditional decorated residences). While they are now in an out of the way part of the countryside in the 14th century the towns were important trading posts on the caravan routes. We were staying in Madawa in a heritage hotel … More Land of the havelis – Mandawa
After visiting the Taj, breakfasting and showering, we took a slow 1:30hr drive 40km west down the road to Fatehpur Sikri, which was once a fortified city (between 1571 and 1585) until the water ran out. The whole of the palace and pavilions are made of red sandstone and it was really peaceful. There is … More The ghost city & the pink city – Fatehpur Sikri & Jaipur
A ridiculously early start for the second morning running. This time to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise. As it had rained on our way to Agra we had opted to see it at sunrise not sunset. Leaving the hotel at 5:45am it was light, relatively cooler and the streets were quiet. Our walk down … More Visiting the Taj Mahal
Flight number ‘we’ve lost count’ involved an early start. It was dark when we got up and there was a powercut but luckily we thought this might be the case and had already packed most of our stuff up and had a torch and candle on standby. Being in Jammu and Kashmir Leh airport has … More Back into the Melting Pot
On our way into Leh we’d passed through a couple of villages with white hilltop monasteries and lots of white stupas. We decided to head back to the furthest of these. Thicksey is home to one of Ladakh’s biggest monasteries which tops a large rocky hill with layers upon layers of Tibetan style buildings that … More Sickness and Sightseeing – Leh part 2
Sitting high in the Indian Himalayas Ladakh is a piece of Tibet outside of Tibet. Leh is at it’s heart. After almost 14 hours the four of us staggered out of the jeep at Leh jeep stand, tired, with bodies battered and heads aching. In Keylong the night before we had met an older guy … More In the heart of ‘Little Tibet’ – Leh
‘Gruelling’, ‘strenuous’ and ‘tough’ are all words we’ve seen to describe the road from Manali to Leh, usually combined with the phrase ‘only want to do it once’. It is also time consuming and with time being precious and these warnings ringing in our ears we had pre-booked tickets to fly back from Leh to … More The road from Manali to Leh
Marie & Emma's Travel Journal 