Travel plans Feb 12-Mar 03

Our time in Varkala is drawing to a close. We will be sad to leave, but are looking forward to the adventure of being on the move and seeing and doing marvelous things. Of course we plan to keep posting stories of our travels, but there may be some longer gaps between posts depending on how easily we find Internet Cafes.

Note: click on the underlined names to link directly to websites with tourist information about the place.

Our plan so far is as follows:

Feb 12 we catch the 7:30 am express train north, and after 2 changes and 30 hrs we arrive in Ooty. Udhagamandalam, is the official Hindi name for Ooty, one of the best known hill stations that the British built up in the hills to escape the heat of the plains. We should be able to visit a tea plantation.

Then on to Mudumali National Park where we hope to see wild elephants and domesticated ones working at logging.

From Feb 16-18 we are in Mysore, an lively ancient city in Karnataka state, famed for its palaces, silks and sandalwood.

After a brief stop to change trains in Bangalore, we take the overnight train to Hampi the vast ruins of what was a major trading city in the 14th C.

Our next stop is Badami site of a series of cave temples carved out of rock in the 5th C.

If all goes well and we have time we will stop in Bijapur to see the Islamic monuments that are thought to have inspired some aspects of the Taj Mahal. The actual Taj is much farther north and we will not be going there.

From Bijapur we take trains for two day and a night, arriving in Varanasi on Feb 25th. Varanasi is probably the most holy of Hindu cities along the Ganges river, and thought by some to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the world.

March 3 we fly to Kathmandu, and after a couple of days at my old haunt, the Kathmandu Guest House, we go trekking in the Himalayan mountains for 3 weeks.

April 3 we fly Kathmandu-Sharjah-Luxor, and plan to spend 2-3 weeks in Egypt.