India!

well...i have to say that im a little daunted by the next 'few' blog entries...overall i have about 700 photos, which took me over 3 hours to select and compress for this...there are a million and one stories to tell, but to be honest...i may have to keep the text brief as there is too much...maybe for once if i see you and i start telling you a story, you won't have already seen it on my blog, and i may seem less boring than normal in person! well, here goes.....

...this is actually the first year in 7 years that ive had to make holiday decisions on my own, which is kind of nice to have a complete blank page of the world to choose from, and with having so many friends across the globe, my opportunities were broad. in the end, i chose india, for many reasons, mainly it seemed an incredibly interesting place to go to, plus an old friend from kuala lumpur (you'll meet kamala later) was going with a few of her friends from the uk. in fairness, she had organised everything and even booked everything for the whole trip, from hotels, to drivers etc... and very much unlike me, i reliquished all responsibility and control.

as it turned out, all of kamalas friends from the uk (and malaysia) couldnt make it, so it was just me and her. she only had a week off from work, so the plan was to spend the first week travelling the north, then i would fly solo down to the south west coast to spend a relaxing week on the beach in Goa...

in actual fact, the trip almost finished before it begun, as i was seconds away from leaving my passport on the airport train in oslo...i only spotted it on my seat as i was about to get off the train...if i had left it on the train, the whole itinery (which was tight) would have been blown.

the pic above is arriving in delhi, greeted by 1000 people with name placards...i always feel totally self conscious in these situations...everyone staring at you! in the end i managed to find our driver, and at 2.30am, we left to find the hotel...