One year Anniversary!

Hi everyone!!

Hard to believe but it's now been a whole year traveling!
At this day and time last year I was sitting in the airport in Beijing
waiting for my friend Steve and his friend to arrive.
The year has gone by quite quickly. I bet I've probably averaged 6 days
in each location..? A few were 3 weeks or more but many were a few days
or even two overnight trains in a row!

I've seen a lot of interesting things; met a lot of interesting people
and experienced a bit more of the world. I hope I've brought a few of
you along for the ride in some way!

Justin

ps. I'm back in New Delhi at the moment... a bit of a recharge. The
camel was in Agra though ;)

Jaipur and The Taj Mahal in Agra!

I headed out to Jaipur to catch up with my German friend Silke after staying back a
day to do a computer call to a Christmas party in Calgary. I had a great New Years on the roof of the guesthouse watching the fireworks. The next day we
headed to Agra where we found out the Taj Mahal would be closed the
next day (Friday) so we joined the huge lineup and saw the Taj Mahal on
New Years day after all! I think it's a bit overrated but still
definitely a must see!

New Delhi for Christmas

Dec 22 - 30

I headed from Gorakpur to Delhi with the idea of having a few days to
find some new friends to spend Christmas with. I wasn't as home sick
as I thought I would be thanks to fewer reminders that Christmas was
indeed here. As you can see from the
picture, the Santa mask worn by the bar doorman would be better suited
to a bank heist. In the end it wasn't hard to gather a group of new
friends as many were in similar circumstances.

When I first arrived I stayed at
some of the limited cheap accomodation near "Connought Place"; a nice
tourst area with some newer western shops. I then moved the next day
to the more backpacker friendly area conveniently near the New Delhi
train station. It's more rundown but always interesting. I found a
fancy western coffee shop with free wifi access but expensive coffee
( 60 rp - still not bad ). I made a lot of great friends hanging out
at that coffee shop.