I didn’t think that Hiroshima would be as moving or emotional as I thought that it would be, the peace museum has a wealth of information that takes you through the whole story of the atomic bomb and it’s after effects to the point that I had to stop to take a breather.

The city is well worth the visit for the Peace Park alone, because not only is there enough to do but it is just such a great place to sit and relax, read a book and watch the world go by, such a well designed place and typical Japanese style everything has its place as you can see from the A-Bomb dome to the Flame of Peace.

The nightlife isn’t that bad either, I was looking for a beer and granted that I had to walk a couple of kilometers but I found a Irish pub where I watched the Fiji vs South Africa game with a whole lot of expats and locals, haven’t had as much fun yet.

Transport around Japan is ridiculously easy, it is almost too easy all I have to do is check out at the hotel go to the JR station in town and tell them that I want to go to Kyoto next, they tell me when the next train is, I show them my JR Pass and I get a reserved seat. Trains run so often that it is never a problem and because these are the Shinkansen they take hardly any time to run between cities. I sometimes feel a bit cheated because coming from India where travel can often be difficult and it is so easy here, but the amazing side of Japan more than makes up for it.

I took the option of doing a day trip to a place called Miyajima Island, which is just off the cost of Japan about an hour away from Hiroshima, it is famous for the Tori gate that it has which looks like it floats when the tide comes in. Unfortunately I was there during low tide so didn’t get that most famous of views, but the island was still excellent place to visit if not for the tori gate & shrine, there are some fantastic views and walks around the parks on the island as well.

Beppu was such a nice town to just laze about it, I had a great time travelling to the onsen just out of town and had a real experience for the first time. I got such a great vibe from Beppu, I think that it was just because it was a town in the south of Japan, where a lot of locals like to come on weekends or on days off to just relax, I meet some great people here and would have liked to stay longer.

The first onsen that I visited was a free public one that took about 1.5 hours to get to, but it was well worth it, up in the mountains and hidden by bushes and a cemetery. I had a few broken conversations with some other Japanese men which was hard but the hardest part was actually going through the onsen ritual of washing yourself and then getting in naked, once you do it though you are right, I was in and out of different onsens for the rest of the day.

My second day I tried to go to Aso-san to see a live volcano, but as with live volcano’s it was closed due to dangerous fumes blowing in the wrong direction, it was a nice journey but felt a bit wasted.

I had planned to make my way to Nagasaki, but unfortunately I cannot find any accommodation so I had a to change plans and go to Hiroshima instead.

The transfer from Bangkok was long, but the arrival in Japan was a little bit confusing. The first thing that I noticed - nothing is in English writing. First road block.
Through some manner of communication I was able to get to my hostel that I was staying at, which was designed in traditional tea ceremony style so had the tatami mats and futon and seats low to the floor and everything.

Fukuoka is a great city and probably no better place for me to start. It wasn’t that exciting there wasn’t that much to do which didn’t matter because all I really did anyway was sleep and rest. I did go and see some shrines and temples and walked around at night.
I do plan to make my way through to Beppu and Aso and then to Nagasaki, I didn’t say long which I think was good for me. I am starting to get itchy feet travelling on my own again.

It is not an easy place to travel but it is rewarding, if you keep an open mind. That is how I would describe India for me and what I got out of it. Like I said that I didn’t like it very much when I first started, but it grew on me to the point that I began to enjoy it and be comfortable.

The poverty is never easy to deal with and I don’t think that I will ever get used to it, there were moments that it was crippling to the point that you couldn’t watch while some helpless child tugged at your clothes, they didn’t want clothes, food or water, they wanted money.

Culture shock is something that you have to expect but can’t really prepare for of course, the way that India does a lot of things is different to the way we would image doing it. As an example more buses at home would have signs on them saying where they are going or what number they are - not some dude yelling out where it is going and finally hearing him as he speeds off into the distance.

There are great things about India, there are some people that are nice and actually want help you, the place is like nothing else that I have seen so I won’t be forgetting that too soon. The scenery is magnificent and so is the history.

I don’t know if I will go back again, only time will tell, but I did know by 22 days I had enough.

Like I said I was sad to leave but I was very glad that I was going.

Getting to the end of any journey is always sad, I just wish that I had more time to spend with new found friends than I actually got. Again another killer train journey.

After finding out the day before that our scheduled train had been cancelled it was further delayed when we got to the station, when we finally did get to Kolkata we didn’t really get much time to look around because we were all very tired and wanted some rest. Plus we were all very busy planning some presents for our tour leader.

The day went well, I don’t know how else to describe Kolkata as a cleaner than usual town (as far as Indian cities go) while there were bits and pieces of what I had seen through the last month, the wide flat roads didn’t seem rite, and there wasn’t much of a smell and…no cows. It was a nice place but just lacked that interesting streak about it, I guess that I was just too tired from all the travelling. I was done, but more the prospect of leaving the group that you have travelled with for the last 22 days just seemed more depressing.

One of the holiest places in the Hindu religion and so an important place for the majority of Indians, it was a bit of a tough time getting to Varanasi for us, with a cancelled train (and of course no announcement of cancellation) while on the platform we would have been lost if not for out fearless leaders who was able to somehow organise us to get on the train that was actually on the track all without us loosing a beat. It is moments like these that I’m glad that I joined a tour group, too think that I was going to go it alone, what would I have done in this situation, could I have been stuck at the train station overnight or until I worked out that the train wasn’t coming.

Again a well chosen hotel that offered us excellent views most of the way down the right Ganges we relaxed a bit before starting a short orientation walk so show us the sights that had to be seen. I found Varanasi an interesting town - and this might sound weird to you - but it smelled so much more different to other towns that I had been in, there was the rubbish, the cows and the sewerage all the usual stuff but there was something else different, I couldn’t pick it then and I still can’t pick it now. I do know that I haven’t seen so many cows about the place in India yet.

The 5am cruise down the river Ganges was the most significant event that we did which proved to be quite interesting. The first pass that we made was quite some distance from the river edge, but on the way back we came a lot closer, this provided a much more intimate view of the bathing, but I just wasn’t comfortable with taking photos so close to people. I am sure that if someone walked into my bathroom and starting taking photos of me while I was showing I would be pretty pissed off. On another note, did you know that they actually catch fish on the river, I assume that they eat it to, but I don’t like to think about this because of the septic state that the river is in. What with all the dead animals, rubbish and what ever is put in there.

Some bad news at the moment, we were told that all trains to Kolkata has been cancelled because of flooding in the area so nothing is going that way by land, our options could have been a different train or a plan either way it was going to cost us more money. We were all worried throughout the day until we finally found out that we indeed had to take a different route, that it would cost us more money and that we would have to leave much much later than expected. We were supposed to be out of Varanasi by about 6pm instead we left at about 11:30pm for a 12:30am train.

On the plus side, the storm hard actually moved up into the country towards us resulting in the biggest storm that I have witnessed to date. If you can imagine me standing on a roof watching lighting roll acorss the sky, it was hours and hours of fun I tell you.

Of all the places that you should go to while in India, Agra would be right at the top of the list (Varanasi next) for one obvious reason - The Taj Mahal.
The place that we stayed was a mere 50 meters walk from the east gate of the Taj complex so getting there was not a problem. The whole area is dominated by the Taj Mahal everthing from the people, shops, transport and food. So it should be, in a lot of ways it is hard to describe in a manner that would do it justice it just has to bee seen to be understood why it is so popular.

We also went to the Agra for and explored that, which was interesting to see because the design and architecture is different to the structures in Rajasthan - where here it has more variety in building styles which influence from all religions a races.

These are pictures from Fatehpur Sikri (I think)

I am somewhat confused as to why Bharatpur was put on the list, we were told that it was a recent change in the tour schedule. Bharatpur is famous for it’s world heritage bird sanctuary, that unfortunately due to poor rains it hasn’t seen much wildlife, but as I was to find out later this was somewhat incorrect. Based on this information I decided that it would indeed be a good time to just sit and relax and take a break from the travel.

There isn’t much to report, I didn’t do much because there wasn’t that much to do besides relax by the pool and drink beer which we did. As I did find out later a trip to the sanctuary would have been a good idea because there were plenty of other animals as well as birds to see.

We only stayed one day and we were off again moving on the next bus.

After the slow pace of the last couple of towns that we went to it has been a change to get into Jaipur, it is a busy busy town.  The bus ride is was supposed to be on a good private tour bus, suffice to say the bus ride wasn’t fantastic which wasn’t the problem the problem lay is having to tip the bus driver for a comfortable ride, which it certainly didn’t warrent.

But at least there has been plenty to do, unfortunately our hotel was rather far away to make it easily accessible by foot so an auto-rickshaw was needed. It is almost like they are a necessary burden, because they are needed to get anywhere but I am just sick have having to deal with them and the bargaining and the lies but luckily our tour leader is able to get some good prices for us or at least tell us what something should cost.

Sadly enough, even though there is plenty to see and do little is worth the time and effort. The city place was rather over priced and the only attraction that was interesting was the palace of the winds.

One thing that confuses me about India is that the most trafficked roads in each city which seems to see hundreds of vehicles (2, 3 & 4 wheel) are so badly maintained it like going on consistent speed bumps, there are pot holes everywhere. They would put some country roads to shame. But then again this is India.

There were two birthdays on this tour so it was decided that we would hit an Indian disco or as they call it. Our tour leader had a mate who helped run a disco, so most of the day was spent running around organising the mini party, dinner and after party.
We went to a restaurant the specialises in chicken and I had the best butter chicken that I tasted, but I’m sure that isn’t interesting to anyone but me.
On to the club, being a Friday night we unfortuanly got the after work male crowd, which made things a little odd. But the night turned out great, myself as usual had a bit to much to drink and made a fool of myself on the dance floor, while most others where having fun I decided that I looked cool going waving my arms and legs. I clearly didn’t but who was to know, who else in the club would see me again (well besides the other 11 people in the group). Obiously everyone tried their hand at the Indian dancing, it is energetic and different to what we do that I found it impssible to keep in time with what they were doing.

Everyone is the group is looking forward to some rest and relaxation after the pace that we have been going on this tour, I am too. The next stop Bharatpur has a pool and not much else to do.

A very holy town but nothing to be excited about, admittedly it was one of the direst towns that I have been to and rather unexciting, except for one thing - shopping.

The multitude of shopping that is available in Pushkar is enough to fill one day, which is essentially what I did for the most of the day was shopping, I think that I did buy enough presents but then when trying to fit everything in I noticed that I had bought too much.

As with most places that attracts tourists there will be those that offer scams, two of which that I almost fell for where the gypsy girls who would come up to you and talk to you, I thought that they were friendly locals. I wasn’t going to be rude to them so I did talk but then something weird happened they tried to drag me off somewhere and buy them either drinks or clothes. That’s when I realised what was going on and walked away.

The second thing that happened was with beggar children as they usually do. I had one boy come up to me and beg for me to buy him something to eat, I thought that this would be a good idea and started to follow him and then I was watching him and realised that his clothes were fine and he didn’t look malnourished at all in fact he looked perfectly healthy.
I felt bad refusing him but then felt better when I saw him sitting and eating later that day with what seemed like friends.

Didn’t take any photos of in Pushkar, probably should have though.