Jodhpur, India (Rajathan)

Jodhpur was our next stop in India and it came with a added bonus...

Mark returned from traveling with his lonely self (dramatized photo of actual event) and was eager to spend some quality times with his good friends. The time apart for Mark had not gone well as he is easily frieghtented.

Jodhpur is an interesting busy city with lots of markets and historical sites. The most notable attraction being Mehrangarh Fort, definitely the most impressive fort so far.




This temple was referred to be some of the locals as the mini Taj Mahal. We later would find out that was a bit of a stretch but cool regardless.

This guy makes a mean pair of shoes you can count on that.

This palace built by the royal family and at one time was just a residence. Now however it is both a residence and a hotel. Unfortunately you were only able to see a fraction of it if you weren't actually staying in the hotel. Collective disappointment was high.

By the end of a couple days Mark set off to tackle another part of India on his own once again. Lets hope he doesn't get lost.

Udaipur, India (Rajasthan)

After a great time in the south, we headed up north to the province of Rajasthan. It was a long 2 days of travelling, taking back to back overnight bus and train, so we were pretty spent when we got there. We ended up checking out a guest house our rickshaw driver's dad ran, which turned out to be new, clean, and really cheap (200 Rs for the double room, about $5). The view from the rooftop restaurant was great, though the food left something to be desired.

Though the city was actually pretty big, it had a small feel because most of the sights were all on the lake. All the streets were very narrow, many of them only accessible by foot.

Like a lot of cities in India, everyone does laundry and baths in the lake, which is absolutely filthy. Apparently it's less evident after the monsoons because the water level rises significantly.

T put it best..."I would rather drink the water from Lake Ontario than bath in this water."

There is a palace up an a hill above the ghats which over looks the lake. On the lake there are also 2 palaces, one of which has been turned into a swanky hotel. A chunk of the James Bond movie Octopussy was filmed in Udaipur, and it's become standard at every guest house to play that movie every single night. No other movies are available.


Dinner on a rooftop restaurant, lovely.

The second day there we booked our rickshaw driver to take us around the city. His English was excellent and he was a pretty good guy, a little pricey, but we figured worth it. Of course, he gave the job to a friend of his who barely spoke English. The tour turned out to be fine in the end, however we've found these kind of sneaky deals standard issue in India.

Above is a local vegetable market, below T is testing out some

We finished off the tour with a trip up to a palace on top of a hill which overlooked Udaipur. The palace was nothing special, but had a great view and a great sunset.

Hampi, India (Karnataka) - Moped Diaries, Part II

Before heading north to see some of the classic sights of India, we decided to stop into a town called Hampi which we had heard good things about from a couple other travellers. It was a good move. It turned out to be an unbelievable place, which has received surprising little hype given how cool it is. The town is quite small and remains very rural given how great a tourist attraction it is. The town is set amongst ruins from the Vijayanagara empire which was apparently one of the largest empires in India's history, roughly 1300's to mid 1500's. The hole area is surround by jungle amongst massive boulders which were used for the huge temples. Below is the main street of Hampi....

T and I walked up to see a view over the town on our first day...
And like all south American villages where all the kids play soccer, everyone in India play cricket...

T and I got blessed by an elephant...so we got that goin for us, which is nice.

The monkeys hang out on the main tower, waiting for the ladies selling bananas to let their guard down so they can make off with bananas. I saved them the trouble..

In Hindu religion, cows are often considered to be sacred, and thus beef is not eaten anywhere in India. As well, cows cannot be killed for the same reason. We're not sure where they all came from then, but for some reason, every town place we've been to is full of stray cows, like you have stray dogs. Literally cows all over the place, eating garbage, lounging around, getting in the way of rickshaws. This fella here was just looking for some love....

And once again, we headed out on the open road on the mopeds. There really was no better way to see all the ruins which are littered throughout the surrounding area.

The some of the ruins were very impressive, and unlike a lot of other places you may see ruins, they were free to enter and we seldom saw another person inside.

It was nice buzzing around because the roads were all but empty. The traffic we encountered was the odd heard of goats.

After a siesta to pass the afternoon heat (it was really, really hot), we headed out to a waterfall we heard about. The trail there was a beautiful walk through palm trees and banana plantations.

As it turned out, the "waterfall" was more of a fast moving river, but it turned out to be really cool. The rock had been carved into really cool shapes over the years.

After that, we headed up to a temple on the highest peak in the area for an awesome sunset.

The monkeys in the area also like to enjoy the sunsets up there.

There was a snake charmer outside our hostel the next day which was pretty cool.

Now remember kids, don't try this at home...

Our rickshaw driver to the bus station was Mr. Paul. He had very professional business cards..

Us with the Irish boys...good fun lads...hopefully do it again in Thailand. Grape!

Pete (Aka "the body Maloney) decided to stay behind in Goa to be with a lady, and we actually never got a picture with him. All we had was this one from the bus to Goa. Apparently he sleeps with a bag over his head, hostage style, when he's on buses.

Palolem, India (Goa) - Moped Diaries Part 1

After a very short 17 hour bus ride from Mumbai, we arrived at Palolem, a beach town in the province of Goa. The bus tickets we bought were for a sleeper with AC. We got neither, India Travel Agents 1 us 0.This beach is supposed to be one of the better party beaches in India although it still seemed tame. Regardless we had an awesome week.

Hugh our Irish buddy suggested that we rent mopeds and tour around the mostly rural area, defiantly a good call.

Paul was really hoping that the mopeds came with a leather one piece suit. It didn't so he decided to go shirts off, that's just how he rolls.

Riding around on mopeds allowed us to see allot of the area that wouldn't have gotten to see. Added bonus the four of us on mopeds looked pretty rough.

Along the way we ran into this temple and had a look inside.

This lad is the third Irishman of the group Dermott. He was a big fan of the mopeds as well.

Sweet bucket T

Along the way we stumbled upon this small secluded beach. It was a bit of a trek to get to but completely worth it.

That just screams badass

Another week in Paradise, I'm getting used to this.