Andy & Anita's adventures

Well we have made it safely to India with mostly intact. We are currently in Lucknow in the provence of Uttar Pradesh with plans to take the night train to Delhi tonight.

We made it across the border quite easily thanks to a guy named Gary whom we met in the hotel in Lumbini. He is a crown procecutor or something and had the means (i.e. money) to make the crossing very simple. He shared a ride to the border with us and then offered to share his lift all the way to Gorakapur. It was a bit out of our way but we took it anyway and it saved us alot of trouble. He dropped us off at the train station in Gorakapur and we jumped on a train here. It was a 7 1/2 hour journey and we arrived pretty late at night without a hotel booking but thankfully our book made some good recommendations and we did not go without a bed that night.

Yesterday we spent the day looking around the sights of Lucknow and doing some shopping. We have also done a pretty thorough cleanout of the bags because they are getting a little too packed for our liking! They are very difficult to carry!

Our first impressions of India are probably pretty similar to everyones first impressions... It is noisy, dirty and an assult on the senses. That said, Nepal definately prepared us to an extent and we have not experienced the culture shock that we expected. There are definately more cows here though - if that is even possible!

Anyway, we have to go figure out the trains and make sure we have a place to stay tonight. We hope to fit a few days in up north of Delhi before our tour begins on the 28th.

Sorry, still no photos. I cannot get it to work anywhere. Hopefully we will have more luck in a bigger city.

Namaskar.