Feb 23rd Bus to Pokhara

We left Pandar Nagar mid-morning and walked for about a mile or so to catch the bus that would take us out of the national park and onward to Bhaktapur. This turned out to be a bit of an adventure. When the bus arrived there was no room to sit, and so as long as the bus is within the national park, passengers are permitted to sit on the roof. And so we did! Amazing views of the jungle from that high vantage point, as we spotted wild boar and other wildlife, despite the odd collision with tree branches. Quite exhilirating with the breeze cooling us down on what was another hot day.

Leaving the national park, the change in landscape was quite sudden, as we passed some Nepali villages with small fields of wheat, potatoes and other vegetables. By now we were seated on the bus, which subsequently broke down with water leaking from the underside. So we walked for a short time, got another bus and finally reached Bhaktapur.

At some stage I decided that instead of going to the other national park, Bardia, I'd get to Pokhara rather than plan another trek. I was feeling pretty tired after the jungle safari, and doing another of those straight away didn't seem as exciting as it had a few days earlier.  At Bhaktapur I said farewell to Ravi and Krishna, it had been a wonderful couple of days.

I got a connecting bus to Pokhara, but due to road developments, it wasn't until around 3pm that the road to Pokhara was opened, and i'd opted to switch buses to what I thought would be a more comfortable one with air conditioning and WiFi access, but it had neither of those, and I ended up in a very cramped space in the front of the vehicle. The journey was made even more disconcerting by the driver taking unbelievable risks in overtaking other vehicles on bends at high speed, not for the faint-hearted and it was nice to finally reach Pokhara and find somewhere to stay late in the evening.

On the roof of the bus (second from right)

Ravi

Krishna and me

Feb 20th - 22nd Jungle safari at Chitwan national park

Inspired by the wonders of Ranthambore safari park, I decided to visit Chitwan national park. This involved taking a 6.30am bus from a stop pretty near to the hotel where I'd been resting up, and which arrived in a town called Sauraha that is on the border of the national park. I used the tourist bus, which was not too crowded and pretty comfortable. Reaching Sauraha I'd decided to find a hotel on the hoof rather than book one online, as its often better to see the room rather than rely on a recommendation, and there's also scope for negotiating on price, particularly when travelling slightly out of season as I was. The drawback is that you can find yourself slightly short of time, particularly if trying to book a jungle safari for the following day, which was my situation.

Having found a reasonably priced resort hotel, the main street in Sauraha had a number of jungle tour operators. I spoke to a couple of them, and decided to opt for Jungle Explore Tours, mainly because Ravi was such an accommodating person who spoke quite a lot about his Tharu culture and community (which is said to have originally come from an area near to India's Thar desert, hence the name), its relationship with the jungle and I thought it might make for a more interesting journey. Also he was quite willing to help me carry my stuff, given that I'd potentially planned to visit another national park, Bardiya, and so was carrying my entire backpack with me. The safari turned to be a brilliant experience, and I'm so pleased I chose to go with Jungle Explore Tours.

The following morning I walked to Ravi's office and soon after, he, Krishna, his fellow guide and I walked to the river bank, on the other side of which was the national park. This was to be a two-day walking safari trek into the jungle of the national park.

Ravi and I had discussed different routes to take, and the first stage involved a canoe trip down the Rapti river that separates the national park from Sauraha district. I wasn't really that enthused about the canoe trip - not sure why - but it was really enjoyable, with Ravi pointing out flying peacocks, and different species of crows, ducks and storks, in addition to a stunning piebald kingfisher and mugger crocodiles. There was a heavy mist initially, but even so we had a great vantage point being so close to the river bank. After an hour or so, we crossed to the other side of the river bank and into the national park, at which point Ravi gave me a pep talk on what to do if confronted by a tiger. He advised that you have to stand your ground, scream at the tiger while pulling an angry face so the tiger knows you will not be easy prey. Hmmmm .... theory is a wonderful thing, but in reality ...... !

Quite soon into the walk, we passed another guide who had spotted a rhino, and soon we were within a few metres of it. The rhino had been in some kind of confrontation, probably with another rhino, and had wounds on its back. It also looked as if it hadn't eaten well as its ribs were really prominent; I felt sorry for that poor rhino. An endangered species, the anti-poaching system developed at Chitwan, including night patrols and army checkpoints, has been hugely successful in recent years.

Along the way, Ravi spoke about how his family had lived in the jungle before it became a national park in the early 1970s. He told me about the alleged medicinal properties of flora, and how the Tharu had used their natural environment to improve their health. On a couple of occasions he stopped our trek to tear off different pieces of vine: the first tasted quite peppery, and its flavour remained in my mouth for some time, and the second tasted very sweet. Apparently both of these vines are boiled, and their juices when drunk are thought to act as a cough remedy.

Walking through the jungle surrounded by tall grasses, the sounds of birds and other creatures all around was a fantastic experience.  So much more interesting than sitting in a jeep, where you feel comparatively much more detached from the jungle. Over the two day trek, there were so many times when we saw butterflies of incredible colour and beauty, and I would love to have taken more photos of them.

We walked through an area called Dumaria, and then crossed a stream barefoot, before having lunch in a watchtower at Gaura Machan. It was a really warm day, around 30 degrees C, and the morning mist had completely cleared. After lunch we continued the trek, and when we reached Jarneli watched a sloth bear for quite a while. At one point I thought the bear was going to charge at us from the other side of the stream, but the sound of the guides' heavy sticks being beaten against the ground helped dissuade it. Eventually we reached Ghatgai village, on the other side of the river and hence out of the national park, where we had a beer, some dhal bat and an early night.

The next morning was much less misty than the previous morning. We left after breakfast at around 7.30am, taking the canoe back over the river into the national park, where we walked to the military post to access the permit for the day's trekking. Soon we were at Lami Tal, a huge lake with different varieties of birdlife. There were lots of mugger crocodiles too, as well as purple swamphens, but the birds that really stood out for me were the bronze-winged jacanas. These are wading birds that have enormous feet and claws that enable them to walk on fragments of floating material on the water. We also saw more spotted deer, peacocks taking to flight and landing and a crested serpent eagle. Stunning in flight.

Soon we reached Kasara, site of an animal orphanage, as well as a turtle / gharial crocodile hatching farm, where we rested for a short time. We then came across a small shrine in the jungle called Bikram Baba, a place sacred to Hindus and the Tharu people who worship a saint by the same name. The centre of the site is a tree that is fenced of from its surroundings. It is the site of an annual festival every year from March to April when much livestock, mainly goats, are ritually slaughtered. Apparently many childless couples attend if wishing to have children. Hard to imagine such slaughter in such a beautiful location.

We then walked to Tammar Tal, a gorgeous lake, and rested for a short time, and then had lunch at Thapalia Tal, another lake. Afterwards we carried on trekking to another lake, Kamal Tal, where we saw a couple more rhinos. Later we crossed another waterway barefoot, and spent some time on a cliff overlooking a river in the hope of seeing a tiger but without succeeding.

One of the most interesting aspects of the trek was the extent to which the landscape changed. On the first day it was mainly high grasses, and in some areas there was lots of bamboo that were selectively burnt, and some of the bamboo was used to form roofing and walls in village buildings, including the place where we stayed. More latterly it was largely dense forests of huge sal trees, with a high canopy, and the sal wood is also used in house-building. At the cliff point, the soft earth of the jungle had turned to sand dunes.

We then reached Pandar Nagar, where we spent the night after having our evening meal and sampling the local homebrew drink made from fermented wine. In both of the places we stayed, Ravi knew the guesthouse owners really well, and they were extremely helpful.

Misty morning on a canoe

Spotted deer

Wounded rhino

Mugger crocodile

Sloth bear

Jungle waterway

Beer at sunset after first day's trek

Crossing a stream

Butterfly

Pandar Nagar

Pandar Nagar

Roof of accommodation - use of local trees

Strangler vine

Bikram Baba: religious site

Feb 13th - 20th Kathmandu - Other Sights

During the week I also visited some other historic sites in the Kathmandu valley: Pushpatinath temple, Changu Narayan and Bhaktapur.

The Pashupatinath temple is the most important Hindu shrine in the whole of Nepal, dedicated to the worship of Shiva. Although the main temple building was closed, the complex set of structures was fascinating all the same, particularly as I had arrived approximately a week before the annual Shivaratri festival, dedicated to celebrating Shiva, which attracts many sadhus, or holy men, from different places in India. A number of them were there when I visited, draped in their saffron robes, as well as female sadhus, who I hadn't known existed.  Fortunately on the day I was there, a guide who had approached me offering to show me around took me to some more obscure parts of the temple complex and showed me some fabulous Hindu stone carvings that I suspect many visitors to the place remain unaware of. The guide was also kind enough to rescue my glasses when they fell into the polluted river that is used as a burial site, a heroic act in all circumstances!

However, the visit to the temple complex was also pretty unsettling: the Bagmati river running through it is considered a propitious place to end one's life or be cremated.  So there are people literally at the point of death wrapped in white clothing lying on the ghats and attended to by priests, and further upstream there are bodies awaiting cremation. It can seem a little ghoulish, but perhaps this reflects my own discomfort around death and dying. Yet these were extremely personal rituals attended by close family, and it didn't seem right that a couple of hundred people on the other side of the river should sit and observe such rituals as some kind of public entertainment.

I also visited Changu Narayan, a small temple complex that housed some fantastic carved temples dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, dating back to the 5th century AD. One of the pillars outside the main temple has an inscription dating from 454 AD. The temple carvings depicts Hindu mythology relating to Vishnu and his different incarnations.

I also took the chance to visit Bhaktapur, which was once the seat of power in Nepal. The old town has an incredible collection of Hindu and Buddhist shrines that are stunningly beautiful, and generally there doesn't seem to be quite as much earthquake damage to them as in Kathmandu. I wish i'd had more time as the light quickly faded on the day i was there, and the intricacy of the carvings was amazing. Bhaktapur is also famous for its local pottery, and dotted around the narrow streets leading from temple to temple, there are small kilns used to fire pots, as well as artisan workshops with potters' wheels in operation.

Sleeping Vishnu at Pashupatinath

Kailash Palace of Shiva at Pashupatinath

Shiva Temple at Pashupatinath

Sadhus at Pashupatinath

Intricate carvings at Changu Narayan

More carvings at Changu Narayan

Metal work at Changu Narayan

Bhaktapur Temples

Bhaktapur Temples

Bhaktapur Temples

Pots ready to be fired

At the potter's wheel

Feb 13th - 20th Kathmandu - Swayambhu, Durbar Square and Boudhanath -

So back in Kathmandu I spent a few days post-trek resting up and hanging out in an area called Thamel, which is a popular tourist haunt. I did make a trip to the Swayambhu temple with a fellow traveller, Nele. It is one of the most sacred and important Buddhist temples in Nepal, with a stupa that dates back to the 5th century. It is a very beautiful place as you climb a number of steps with statues of the Buddha dotted around on either side. I arrived fairly early in the morning, and it was fascinating to see pilgrims spinning the huge prayer wheels and making offerings in front of various shrines dotted around the stupa.

I also visited Durbar Square, home to an incredible set of intricately carved temples and a world heritage site, and perhaps the most famous site in Kathmandu. The royal palace and the other historic buildings date from around the mid 1500s, and they are stunning, built by the Malla kings who governed Kathmandu. There's also an eerie palace, Kumari Chowk, home to the Raj Kumari or 'living goddess', a young girl who is said to be the living embodiment of the goddess Taleju. The courtyard of Kumari Chowk is really lovely, and the Raj Kumari makes an appearance to worshippers from time to time, but I didn't see her. The current Raj Kumari is a mere 10 years old, and apparently the tradition of the Raj Kumari goes back centuries.

The old square is such a tourist attraction, yet the terrible earthquake that struck Nepal in 2015 and took thousands of lives has created so much damage to these famous structures, some of which have completely collapsed, which was really sad to see. During my stay in Kathmandu, people in shops and cafes often commented on how badly the tourist trade had been affected since the earthquake. Hopefully those structures can be rebuilt sooner rather than later.

A few days later I visited some other famous sites just outside the city but within the Kathmandu valley: Boudhanath is the focal point for Tibetan Buddhists with a huge stupa that pilgrims walk round, with the Buddha's eyes painted on 4 sides, and above this the 13 steps needed to achieve nirvana. Not really knowing anything about Buddhism, it left me feeling a bit non-plussed, although if i'd had the time it would have been interesting to attend some classes which were provided by monasteries in the area.

Carvings at Swayambhu Temple

Swayambhu stupa

Buddhist statues at Swayambhu temple

Swayambhu shrine

Durbar square palace

Carvings at Kumari Chowk

At Durbar Square

Feb 4th - 12th Annapurna Circuit Trek

The flight from New Delhi to Kathmandu took around an hour, and the aerial view illustrated just how small a city it is. Arriving at the hotel at around 2pm, there was quite a short time period before meeting up with Ghelu, the sherpa who was leading the trek that was to last 18 days from today, and the rest of the group.

At the welcome meeting, Ghelu went over the itinerary, mentioned the stuff we would need for the trek, the opportunity to buy stuff later that evening, etc. The group of 9 were a mixed bunch from Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Norway and a couple of Austalians.

After the meeting we went to the local stores to stock up on stuff; I bought a waterproof pair of trousers, as well as a pair of gators and some yaktraks. We then went to buy some dried foods (biscuits, etc) for the days ahead, and later went for a meal in a local restaurant. It hadn't occurred to me that the district of Kathmandu that we stayed, Thamel, essentially survives on meeting the needs of trekkers, with a vast number of shops selling all kinds of camping and outdoor equipment (although the plentiful 'North Face' merchandise didn't seem particularly authentic!).

We returned to the hotel at around 10pm, and gathered in the lobby at around 4.30am next day to begin the long bus journey to a place called Besi Sahar. Terrible congestion getting out of Kathmandu with a fleet of lorries conveying stuff from India, and for long periods the bus barely seemed to move, but we eventually arrived. Some stunning views of the terraced style of farming in Nepal, with relatively small plots divided upon into serried tiers of land. Apparently the soil is extremely fertle, and this way of farming allows for good crop rotation and a few decent harvests during the year. The mountains looked pretty amazing too, and there were some great river views!

After lunch and a further long bus journey, we walked for a fairly short time to Jagat and stayed in a small eco-hotel, and had our first taste of dhal bhat, which is the staple food of trekkers and is essentially lentils with rice, with some vegetables on the side. The accommodation in the tea houses was really basic. I shared rooms with another trekker from the UK, Luke. The rooms were small and it was really cold, but extra blankets were provided so it was warm enough when you got into the sleeping bag, but desperately cold when you emerged from it!

The next day we then trekked from Jagat to Bagarchhap, setting off at around 8am and reaching the destination at around 5pm, with the occasional short stops for rest and lunch. It was a tough hike, often uphill, and we covered a distance of 17 kilometres. The mountain views were spectacular, but this was a really challenging day for me physically, and I started to realise that I would have benefited from being stronger to take on board the demands of it all.

From Bagarchhap the next day we trekked to Chame, a distance of 21 kilometres, and this was when things started to go awry. It was just so physically tough and made worse by walking through heavy rain for the last couple of hours, and when we reached Chame I was feeling quite unwell and completely exhausted. Later on I wondered whether shorter treks over those 2 days would have helped me avoid falling ill, but perhaps not, although I think when you over-exert yourself, you do become a bit weaker and maybe that makes you more susceptible to illness. Without going into the gory details, I really was not well and I carried on the next day to partially walk to Pisang, which was around 16  kilometers. But when I reached Pisang I really didn't feel too great at all, and Ghelu, who was really kind and supportive throughout, concluded I had acute mountain sickness and that I needed to get down from the mountains as soon as possible.

Ghelu was constantly encouraging me, which was great, but my energy levels were so low and made worse by having completely lost my appetite, and the thought of consuming any food was too awful to contemplate. We were to have 2 days of rest in Manang to help our bodies adjust to the altitude, which Ghelu hoped would give my body time to recover and adjust, but the morning after reaching Manang (3,500 metres above sea level) things hadn't stabilised, and we decided it was best for me to come down from the mountains and so that was arranged. It felt very odd coming down, almost as if it was happening to somebody else rather than me.

Ironically the rest of the trek, albeit at higher altitudes, was nowhere near as long as those first two punishing days covering 38 kilometers.

So I ended up back in Kathmandu, was checked over in a hospital and after a few days of rest felt pretty much back to normal again, apart from feeling quite tired. Having mentally geared myself to the trek through those long days, it felt very odd to be back in Kathmandu although I was very grateful to Ghelu for arranging it all. I also felt I'd been pretty unlucky not to still be on the trek enjoying the mountain views! So I resolved to try and get up to the mountains once I'd properly recovered.

Reflecting upon it all later in Kathmandu, I felt it would have made much more sense to have arranged the trek from Nepal itself rather than the UK, which in hindsight had been quite a naive thing to do. Not only would it have been so much cheaper, but as I came to realise, treks can be organised to suit the trekker through so many trekking agencies, and being able to talk through with a good trekking agency about how far you felt able to trek each day would have been very beneficial. There were porters who conveyed our stuff from place to place, but it was equally feasible to hire a porter and guide independently through an agent.

No doubt there are definite social benefits in trekking in a larger group - and the group I was with were a really nice bunch of people - but the disadvantage is that you are kind of stuck on a treadmill with little or no flexibility in needing to cover so much distance every day in order to reach the next tea house as everything has been booked in advance and you are on a tight schedule, which creates considerable pressure. Whereas going independently, as I later discovered, you have more flexibility to take alternative routes and amend plans as you go along, without having to stick to a rigid agenda.

More generally I also wondered at the profits made by the UK-based agents, given that the guides / porters seem to receive little from the agents, and neither do the tea houses, which are extremely basic. One of the places we stayed in provided no electricity, and some had no flush toilets. Even though you're informed that the accommodation is very basic, and of course Nepal is a very low income country, I couldn't help thinking that with all that hard currency going to the trekking agent, you would hope some of it would go to helping to provide a better standard of accommodation, and supporting the people who make the trek happen, and actually when I did arrange an independent trek a few days later from Pokhara, the accommodation provided was much better than that which the group had received. There seems little incentive for the agents to give a better accommodation service, and as a trekker you have very little information about where you'll be staying or what the facilities will be like. Somebody somewhere must be making an awful lot of money, and it isn't those at the sharp end of delivering the trek!

My other bugbear was the poor porters who carried these huge bags on their heads. Each of us had a large heavy bag. It was hard for me to lift my own bag, but the porters carried 3 or 4 of these at a time with a band draped over their forehead to carry the weight. When I raised this with Ghelu, he said that they earned more by carrying more and that that was their choice, but what about the pretty pitiful wages that push them into doing that in the first place, which must increase their risk of sustaining injury? I'd much prefer to hire a porter independently to carry my stuff alone and pay them (and the guide) a decent rate. As a supposedly ethical and responsible trekking provider, I would have hoped gadventures would have enforced limits on how much the porters carried, but that did not seem to happen. The porters work so ridiculously hard, and coming on a trip like this should offer some means of enabling rich foreigners to alleviate some of their economic distress.

Oh dear, the above probably reads like a bit of a rant, and its not intended to. I suppose its only when you've had these kinds of experiences that you reflect on what's really going on and how things could be made better.

River view

On the way to Chame

At Manang

Temple view near Pisang

Mountain view near Chame

Feb 3rd Bus to New Delhi

After breakfast, I spent the afternoon with my cousin Vineeta, who I hadn't seen since I was around 12 years old, and her husband, Rajiv. We visited a fantastic South Indian restaurant, and then it was a race against time to catch the bus back to New Delhi. They had booked me on a Volvo bus, which are a bit more expensive and a lot more comfortable than the regular buses. But the bus got caught up in the most horrendous traffic getting into New Delhi, and arrived around 3 hours late.

This time i'd got a hotel room quite near to the airport as my flight to Kathmandu was the following day. The autorickshaw driver got lost, but eventually located the cheap hotel, but hugely unimpressed with both Trailfinders, who i'd paid for the trek, and GAdventures who were delivering it in failing to send me proper information that I finally received at about 1am by email on the night before my flight for Kathmandu, and this was after numerous email exchanges. Not great!

The following morning, I got a taxi to New Delhi airport for the flight to Kathmandu.

Feb 2nd Train from New Delhi to Chandigarh

I'd planned to visit an uncle and aunt who live in the city of Chandigarh, a city famous for being designed by the architect Le Corbusier. My dad had sent a small parcel to Chandigarh for me to collect, but incompetence by DHL and the Byzantine bureaucracy of Indian Customs officers (you would have thought I was trying to import a huge quantity of industrial machinery rather than a guide book to Myanmar!) meant that it never materialised. It became a bit of a saga, but not one with a happy ending. DHL expected me to send them an electronic copy of my uncle and aunt's electricity bill in advance of my arriving there for them to deliver it. Trying to explain to DHL that as a backpacker this was completely unfeasible fell on deaf ears. The logic of the madhouse!

So I left the New Delhi hotel in an autorickshaw with enough time to catch the train, but the mother of all traffic jams meant that I got to the station with about 7 minutes to spare. Standing on platform 1, with no information available on the electronic noticeboard regarding my train number, a man on the platform assured me that I was at the right place to catch my train, only for the man at the bookshop behind me, who had overheard our conversation, to shout that my train would be at platform 10. Who should I trust? A middle class lady with excellent spoken English backed the man from the bookshop, so off I hurtled up a long flight of stairs to the bridge, dragging one foot in front of the other, my backpack feeling as heavy as a sackful of coal and getting on the train with seconds to spare. Only to realise that the compartment I had entered was around half a train's length from where I needed to be! So began an unpleasant trudge through the train's narrow passageway, my backpack and me colliding with numerous commuters, many of whom had started on their home-prepared evening meals. Thankfully I kind gentleman came to help me out, walking ahead and creating a kind of pre-emptive human shield. Suffice to say that if I stood for elected office based on the votes cast by my fellow commuters on that train, I wouldn't have retained my deposit!

Around 4 hours later, the train reached Chandigarh and I reached my uncle and aunt's house shortly afterwards, lovely to spend an evening with them after so many years. Great fun.

Jan 31st - Feb 1st On safari at Ranthambore

There's a choice of transportation around Ranthambore safari park: a large open top bus that can carry around 20 people, or the jeep that carries around 6 people. I opted for the jeep, which was a lot more expensive but which I felt would give a more intimate experience of the jungle, and maybe provided less disturbance to the wildlife.

The major draw at Ranthambore, of course, is the opportunity to see a tiger in the wild. However, the chances of doing so are pretty slim, particularly at this time of year, whereas in the summer months when the jungle watering holes run pretty dry, its much more common for them to be coaxed out of the jungle forests and into the more open spaces, where there are large lakes and watering holes that are easily visible to tourists. But the best approach is to try not to focus on the tigers as there's loads more to see.

So the jeep arrived at 6am, and a bit of a miscommunication regarding breakfast meant hardly any time to eat anything. Barely daylight but pretty cold sitting in the open jeep with the guide and driver wearing hat and gloves, the vehicle speeding off to a hotel where it picked up some other tourists, and soon we were in the park. Really thrilling to be there, although you could see how the noise of the vehicles could be off-putting to wildlife, but we saw quite a few birds, monkeys, deer and the backdrop of the 1000 year old Ranthambore fort was fantastic. The guides are really knowledgeable, picking up on the sounds of the wild, and can identify things I would never have noticed if they hadn't pointed them out, really attentive.  The whole experience was compelling.

In the afternoon I went on an interesting tour of the fort, but was really focused on getting back on safari the next morning. This time we were in zone 4 and the guide, Ved, was a study in concentration as he took up various vantage points to try and pick up a tiger's location, listening carefully to the cries of other animals. There was a real sense of tension in the air, then suddenly he asked the driver to veer of a path down a dirt track that led to an open space, and as we got to the verge of where the land fell away to a small stream, there was the tiger below us, maybe 10 metres away, and there was a collective gasp in the jeep. What a magnificent sight, and a fantastic few moments. As marvellous as it was to see the tiger in the wild, Ved's intuitive ability to track and locate it was just as impressive. As the jeep reversed at high speed, the woman behind me took a fair blow from a low-hanging branch, and when Ved asked if she was OK, she replied that she was a bit bruised "but it was worth it", which kind of said it all really. Just thrilling moments.

I then caught the 12.30 train from Sawai Madhopur to Delhi, bit of a rush in the end, but the journey was a delight, watching the red dirt of Rajasthan turn darker and give way to more verdant landscapes with gentle pictures of rural life unfolding. There was an excited group of young people on an extended trip to various places with their school teacher, a very engaging group curious about my thoughts on India and keen to find out more about my links to the country.

At various times, vendors would appear selling delicious sweet Indian chai, surely the economic bedrock for all Indian dentists, who I assume give daily thanks for the umpteen millions of gallons consumed. The best Indian chai is a fabulous coming together of ginger, cumin, cardomom and black pepper. As I lay on the sleeper sofa filming a video of the landscape, I casually remarked to one of the boys that it was a pity that the window was a little grimy as it compromised the quality of the film. To my acute embarrassment, the young lad repeated this to one of the vendors, who at the next station appeared on the platform in front of my window and proceeded to clean it with a cloth, as I squirmed with discomfort, watching the veneer of dust gradually being erased. Somehow I can't imagine Northern Rail staff being quite so obliging ..... I spent the night in a hotel near to the main train station in an area called Paharganj, which I think is the most crowded place i've ever been, and slept very soundly.

Jungle warbler

Peacock

Samber deer

Male deer

Male long-tailed langurs

Red-wattled lapwing

Blue bull antelope

Banyan tree

Tiger

Ved (guide), Mubarak (driver) and me