OMG … all of a sudden I have 11 followers!!! How cool is that? A whole 11 followers!!!:-) (although Kelly, I do hope you logging on with two separate accounts wasn’t a kind way of boosting my ratings? If it was…I love you!:-)

For those that are new, I must warn you I seem to have the slight problem of a pirate blogger, her name being Midget. Her blatant attempts of blogging on my blog have been reported but unfortunately, I have been told there is not much I can do …and yes…she is here to stay! We will just have to love her none the less, rest assured that she is indeed harmless, and rather sweet:-)!!

Bronny hope you are well and not in labour as I write……you have about 4 months to have that baby, lose the baby fat and get bikini beautiful for my visit! Can’t wait!

OK, so I can’t quite remember how long it been since my last blog, but long lengthy delays do not necessarily mean I am sick…just simply that I actually made some friends along the way…about ‘bloody’ time I think! (sorry about the swearing…but I learnt that word from my dad so you can blame him mum!:-)

Before I start can I just add something? Those that have been following my tales might have remembered my vow not to complain about the transport anymore…well I just have to say… I feel that God has heard my vow and decided to reward me for my efforts. And what I have received was the single most amazing gift ever in India……..
Indian 2AC sleeper trains. I travelled up from Agra last night via one of them…my first train journey in India and I can’t even begin to describe how amazing it was. I GOT sheets. I got a pillow. I got a clean blanket. I had Air con…I got a working Western toilet (that I still squatted on) and I got running water to wash my hands AND I GOT ……….. SOAP!!!!!) I can’t for the life of me understand why I have even been travelling in those awful buses in the first place…..probably because Raj booked my first trip on a bus and I just kinda took over from there and repeated the process 6 times no less. I slept through the night, I woke up refreshed, I arrived in Khajuraho this morning and was able to shower and head out for the day without the usual exhaustion and frustration that I have been experiencing after the bus trips. I have been given a lifeline and I actually feel like I could start enjoying the travelling part now. So thank you, God, from the bottom of my heart!:-)

Ok sorry going to backtrack now as I just needed to get that out! I arrived in Agra a couple of days ago after another ‘lovely’ bus trip:-) Agra, home of Taj Mahal, is pretty much like every other city I have seen in India so far….except the taxi men are even more manic. After been ambushed by loads of them, I eventually chose one, partly because his price was good and partly because he was spitting so much chewing tobacco over me while arguing that his price was the best, that I just wanted it to stop. ‘Old Agra’ is built around the 3 gates of the Taj Mahal, West, South and East. On Arriving at the east gate I was informed that only Rickshaws were allowed in that area so I would have to walk the rest of the way. The entire walk down that road is just lined with auto rickshaws and cycling Rickshaws and the incessant questioning is …well…Incessant!!! “You want to ride?” “Where you go?” “where you from?” “You from England?” “You from America?”…”Holland?” “You want to ride?” “You want ride?” “What hotel you go?” “you want ride?” And as you are well past them still saying “No thank you” on repeat; they shout: “Maybe later?” “Maybe later?” “Maybe later?” “YOU come back?????” How many of these men actually make a living is beyond me, with so many of them there I doubt they would all get one customer a day. I was again very lucky to get a determined bicycle rickshaw who then followed me the whole way to my hotel…..declaring that it was full and I come back to him afterwards? But being the ‘seasoned traveller’ (that I AM), there was no way I was going to fall for that and simply walked on resolutely. 
On arriving at my absolutely gorgeous hotel of choice, I found out, yet again that it was actually full! (Am beginning to click on to the fact that just ‘maybe’, I might need to do a teeny weeny bit more preparation while in India. ) All was not lost though because another ‘lone’ traveller had also just been rejected and with one simple but mildly exasperated question….”you travelling alone?” We became best friends.

On walking back onto the road we were approached by two rickshaw men waiting outside the hotel, I signalled that I already had a man waiting and we walked over to him (and his friend that had miraculously appeared) Not sure quite what happened next but before we knew it we were in the middle of 4 rickshaw men all screaming at the top of their voices at each other. At my wit’s end I turned and yelled louder than I have ever yelled in my life at the two new men and they, backed off. They seemed mildly shocked that slim, waif-like looking, white girl could make such a big noise and they let us go with our man (and his semi-toothless friend).
Before even finding out each other’s names, my New Best Friend and I had already agreed on a new hotel and that we were going to share a room in.

And thus began my 2 lovely days with Ann from France, who lives in Spain.
Ironically …I seem to find that as soon as I find one friend I then magically start to pick up more. (Heaven forbid you start speaking to strangers by yourself….but If you have a friend to back you up…then that’s another story!)
And so it was the next morning over breakfast we picked up Andrew from England, who lives in America! And then we were 3. A strange thing happens to you when you suddenly find yourself thrown together with another traveller, or two….your whole body just relaxes, you no longer have to fend off the advances, all by yourself, you no longer feel obliged to make conversation with every single person that approaches you…because you now have a posse! Its a truly beautiful feeling and well worth waiting for. (It has been two weeks of friendlessness you know)

And so we spent the day together visiting Agra Fort, haggling over rickshaw rides, and trying to track down a swimming pool that wasn’t too overpriced. All in all a pretty ordinary day…..but just really relaxing and good. Andrew left in the evening at about 10 to get the night train and Anne and I had one more day together. We woke up at 6 am to get to the Taj Mahal. I have to say the size of it is pretty impressive….but I wasn’t as blown away by it as I had been with some of the other Jain temples! I would probably say the best part of my day was visiting a bear sanctuary for dancing bears. It was set up a couple of years ago by a lovely woman called Geeta and her partner.

Dancing Bears: For years now these sloth bears have been poached as baby cubs from their mothers. They were then pierced through their nose with a burning hot iron and a chain was put through the piercing! At the same time, all their teeth were knocked out to render them harmless. They then pretty much spent the rest of their lives chained up and forced to dance for entertainment. Thanks to this women and her partner a law have now been issued banning bear dancing and they have managed to rescue over 450 bears throughout India. The bears now live in a natural forest reserve, but come into the sanctuary for breakfast and dinner. Not only does the foundation help the bears but they also work towards rehabilitating the people that have survived on the bears for money, helping them to rebuild their lives and find other jobs.
It’s really, amazing when you see people that have worked tirelessly to actually make a difference in the world and have succeeded.
Is obviously heartbreaking to see the really older bears that have permanent mental damaged by what was done to them. Geeta said that a lot of them still hear the music in their head that they were forced to dance to. On our way out of the sanctuary, there was a really old bear with a lot of scaring, that Anne and I wear trying to get a photo of. One of the guards (Who clearly doesn’t work with the sanctuary) started hitting his stick on the wire fencing. We made him stop but next thing the bear was up on his back legs, swaying miserably, and then as if suddenly realising that he no longer needs to do that…dropped down and charged at us furiously. Poor thing I don’t blame him.
The photo above is of him, and you can see all the scaring he has on his nose.

And that brings me to the end of Agra. I left Anne, in the capable hands of Isa (Spanish girl we met at lunch) and Chandor (lovely hotel guy who had me laughing the entire 2 days ( and I got ready to catch my first train to Khajuraho.)

I guess it only natural the first time you do certain things you are nervous….well I was petrified…I had heard some horror stories about the trains and honestly didn’t know what to expect. On walking onto the station which is absolutely strewn with people sleeping all over the place…I immediately noticed a girl sitting on the floor, looking marginally more panicked than I was feeling so I walked up to her, said hello and sat down, (Hell I am getting better at this…) And thus began my 2 days with lovely Aline, French but lives in Australia.

After about 10 minutes two more Spanish girls approached us, and we sat in our little huddle of 4 white girls, and a million stares. I have to admit I have got used to the staring now, and am not really bothered by it. I find returning the stare with a smile usually gets a massive grin back, (women and kids- I not really that keen on encouraging the men) and it only re-enforces my belief that people in India are truly amazing! During our wait, we all had the privilege of meeting a little girl, called Pinky. From what we could gather, she doesn’t have a mum and sleeps outside the station with her dad and 2 sisters. She doesn’t have any idea how old she is and clearly just spends her time making money off travellers. Our train only arrived after 12pm….and she was still running around the station, with clearly no plans of going to sleep. While we were talking to her a drunk man came and sat down right next to all of us, simply staring. She kept saying ‘whisky’ whisky’ and another man approached us and said the man was drunk. Drunk man didn’t like the fact that Pinkie was taunting him with Whisky Whisky. And clearly, no amount of us asking her to stop was going to make her stop. If stirring was an award-winning skill this girl deserved a gold medal. After a while he started trying to hit out at her, to which she simply ran and hid behind us while continuing to shout at him. Luckily for us, he was pretty drunk and soon just passed out.

A few minutes later Pinkie decided it was time to leave us, and she was off…shouting goodbye at the top of her voice, grinning from ear to ear and blowing us kisses.