Last weekend I headed to Gwalior with Kate, whose photos I have selfishly claimed as my own; they are posted here.

Gwalior is in Madhya Pradesh, central India. The town wasn't really too special, but they did have a nice fort with some good views.

Gwalior is not really on the tourist map; I saw only a couple of other foreigners in the town the whole time I was there. While this can be a good thing, you tend to get a lot more attention than you might in more frequented parts of India. Everyone will say hello, laugh at you, joke about you. Sound good? On a hot day when you are doing a lot of walking, you get really sick of it and start to wish you could just blend in. Some of the people are good natured (especially in villages etc) but some of them just take the piss. It is ten times worse if you are with a girl. I know plenty of Indians who treat girls with respect; but a lot of the men here are terrible. Staring, whistling, making kissy noises, and groping girls here is common and frequently happens to all my housemates. They would never treat an Indian girl this way, but for some reason western girls are fair game. If any Indians can tell me why this is, please do. And tell me also if you think I'm wrong and Indian girls get treated the same way.

Possibly its dress? The funny thing is I consider the Sari to be much more revealing than a tshirt and jeans...you've got your whole stomach and your side showing, jeans and tshirt is just your arms. Saris are great here I have to say; you'd never catch a western woman over 35 wearing one because of the way they seem to cause your stomach to spill out over your front and your love handles to be more visible than other...but Indian woman don't seem to mind the spare tyre look, and the older woman get, the more common Saris become.

I've also posted up some photos of a going away get-together we had for a couple of my housemates, Ruth & Susanne.