I had been to Goa a few years ago, and decided then that I would like to return to India one day, and travel around to see some of the places I had heard of. Three years later, in '98, I found myself reading more and more about India, and thinking where I'd like to go.

I realised that I could not attempt to make it to all the places on my list, some were hundreds of miles apart, so out came the guidebooks, and the maps, and I got down to some serious planning. Northern India appealed to me, so I concentrated on that area. Even then, it was going to be difficult to work out an easy route between all the places I wanted to go.

I had not allowed myself much time to spare, and had planned anything from a couple of days to nearly a week's stay in some places.

The planned route was :-

Delhi ... Dharamsala ... Rishikesh ... Vrindaban ... Agra ... Varanasi ... Pushkar ... and back to Delhi.

When I eventually arrived in Delhi, (after a tiring flight, which included a whole day's delay in Copenhagen), I wanted to book my first bus trip, and got talking to a travel agent in the Pahar Ganj, who quizzed me about my plans. He was sure that what I had planned was impossible in the time I had. It was now turning into a race against the clock, there was no time to spare! ... (this is not the best way to see any country, you need to give yourself plenty of time, to take it all in, and to experience all the sights and sounds).

One thing I quickly found out was that, although it sounds great to travel overnight, especially when it means around twelve hours or more on a bus, and arriving at your destination early in the morning, then having the whole day in front of you to explore, I, like most people, could not sleep at all on the buses, and was usually too tired to do anything much the following day, so ended up losing about a day anyway. Quite a lot of time was spent just travelling. Looking back through my diary, I'm surprised at how little I slept during the whole month.

All went according to plan, and I did make it to all the places on my list, I was surprised at how easy it was to arrange everything, the travelling, the accommodation, etc. I was quite envious of all those I met who had several months in which to travel, and not worry about keeping to a schedule. A month seemed a very short time, and it flew past so quickly.

To date, I have returned twice, in '99 and 2000.

Where to next?

Who knows......

Stay tuned !