Travel in India

Visakhapatnam (or Vizag) wasn't on the radar. It is one of the cleanest places we'd been India. I had no idea it was a city in South East India or how to pronounce it. Only learned it existed because when we tried to get our boarding passes in the airport in Sri Lanka to come to India we needed to show an outbound flight. Walking across the boarder to Myanmar wasn't accepted. Next time will remember to book on a site that allows cancellation after 24 hours, but in the early morning panic that didn't happen. Then it turned out to be overly complicated and expensive to cross overland from India to Myanmar, so we decided to use the flights to Kuala Lumpur and come in from the South. Vizag was now in the itinerary. Get there We took a train from Puri to Khurda junction. And then transfered to a sleeper to Vizag. There is a waiting room in Khurda upstairs to charge phones and sit. Eat, drink, sleep - Sree residency was a great spot to sleep. It was cheaper online. G

A site noted that the sun temple at Konark is in the top 10 architecturally. It was on the way to Vizag, so seemed like a good place to stop and boy was the temple impressive. Get in It's a 8 hour train ride from Kolkata to Puri. Arriving at 12am wasn't ideal as tuk tuk drivers were limited and many guest houses full or closed. Eat, drink, sleep - The Pink House is a relic from the 70s. I'm guessing the cockroach in the bathroom has been there that long as well based on its size. Rooms are very basic, somewhat clean, and ours along the walkway was loud. However for Rs. 600-800, you can't complain too much. We also had decent food there. What we did - Puri beach is sadly a mess. Children playing on the beach and using it as a toilet (you had to watch your step). There is trash all over, the only upside of which is the boys use the styrofoam to make boats. Dude asking for photo on the Puri beach.  Children playing with self-made styrofoam boats

Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, was a jewel of the British. There is some debate over the beginnings of the city. One theory is it was the British, but I think there is no debate that the British influenced it heavily with a number of buildings. Get in We took the day train, a first, as I was sick so wanted extra rest. It was meant to leave at 9:18am, but was 3 hours late. For the first time, we used the handy websites that track the train, so that we could spend more time reading the news on wi-fi. That meant we got in at 8pm instead of 5pm. There is a prepaid taxi stand, so we got a cab there. Eat, drink, sleep We'd hoped to Couchsurf, but we're a bit last minute so didn't get any bites. Instead we made our way to Sudder street and checked out a few places finally landing at the Tourist inn. It's got some hipster touches, which I suppose is why they charge over Rs. 1500, but should really be avoided as it's not clean for the price tag. Other places we

It was a pleasant surprise to discover that Bodhgaya, where the Buddha attained enlightenment was just a 5 hour train ride from Varanasi. How pleasant to go walk in the footsteps of this seemingly kind and thoughtful man. Having not done much research, I wasn't sure what to expect. What we found was a religious center for Buddhists and Hindus around the world and a struggling town, working to make ends meet. Get in We took a train from Varanasi which was 2.5 hours late and got us in at 1 am. After spending 2.5 hours at the train station in Varanasi with a sore throat and stomach bug, we decided to use the various train tracking websites. Then you can get auto (Rs. 120-150 is what we bargained) to Bodhgaya. It seems possible to jump in a shared auto for maybe Rs. 10. Eat, drink, and sleep Buttshinji temple is associated with the Japanese temple and has rooms for a Rs. 800 donation for two. Supposedly they charge for wi-fi, but we weren't charged. The wi-fi is ridi