India continued

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So last time I wrote I started the 27th April!

27th April - MY BIRTHDAY and it started with a 9am 5 hour bus journey which was suprisingly ok - public bus 90rupees - !.50 - brilliant. We arrive in Pushkar and with backpacks visit the White Marble Temple since we were dropped off right next to it. Might as well! We then were walked down to the ghats' muddy baths of water were your supposed to throw flowers and chat rubbish then oh yes give a large donation to god! Ha! Instead we wonder the streets untill we find our guesthouse - a really lovely family run placen painted yellow with lots of plants, a roof garden and decorations everywhere. We fall in love with it straight away and take time to chill out. On my way to the roof garden I even got bit by a bird that had decided to use the hanging basket next to the hand rail to have her tiny chicks very cute! Later that day we strolled around the streets/main/only street - looking at all the stalls and then going to Rainbow cafe to have pasta and falafel for dinner! We met a fab ozzy couple who were enjoying Bhang Lassi - which is like a milkshake with pot in! Only in India! The 4 of us then settled down to watching an approaching thuderstorm! When we returned to our hotel we met Josh a Canadian - who told us many horific story of his travels alone - funny now but some sad times for him to begin with!

28th April - Still loving Pushkar - very relaxed town with lots of shopping so easier to bargin for a better price, although Olive and I are being very good and sticking to veggy burgers from a street vendor - absolutely amazing - potato patty, eggplant, tomato, cheese and cabbage for about 30p. That day we went to visit the Brahman temple and it just so happened to be a religious holiday so the place was rammed with Indian tourists in brightly coloured dresses. The temple was ok, but the buzz was really good and Olivia even got told off by the police for taking photos! On the way back to the hotel we stopped in a silver jewerly shop and chat with the owner for about 4hrs and then we may have bought a ring each! Well its hard to say no for long. Afterwards we met up with the Aussy couple again and had dinner in another roof top resturant slightly expensive but there was a lemon shortbread tart - freshly made so took forever but tasted amazing.

29th April - After making friends with another person from our hotel we again chilled out, went the post office, more shopping this time for Tara, guessing she forgot about her budget and ate another veggy burger! In the evening we planned to walk to a temple known as sun set point but instead the rain came down and we abandoned our plan. The locals were sooo excited as they haven;t had a good rainfall for about 25years and their lake that they were once renowned for has now dried up. So with the streets flooding and the excitement we decided to get wet and check out the town. We go the lake and sit in a marble shelter and watch the world go by. Women washing topless (not a problem, but westeren girls in a strappy top = hussy) and we were joined by the monks who payed hommage to the rain by chanting - all very surreal and amazing to be apart of!

30th April - Our last day in Pushkar - so Olive and I get up at 5.30am - yes that early! And went to watch the sunrise which was pretty cool although a little hazzy from where we were - at 30min treak up a hill to a temple. We choose not to go back to bed but to pack and stroll around the town with Tara saying goodbye to the veggy burger and Vikas the silver man and then end up buying a wall hanging each - they are amazing and we will have to send them home before Thailand. But they;ll be fun to return to. That night we get the bus to Udiapor and say good bye to Tara. It was another sleeper bus which was pretty compfy as we got the double compartment and were able to play cards untill it got too dark and then we slept for most of the journey. Very surreal to be in your own compartment on a bus.

1st May - Arrive in Udaipor. We on recommendation stay at Lal Ghat in the mixed dormatory for 100rs per night - dirt cheap and really nice with concreate walls deviding every two beds. This is where we met Humphry - amazing name! from Ireland - he was leaving the next day but took us on a tour of Udaipor which is really hilly and filled with tiny streets with little shops and guest houses everywhere (and tiny)- we even visited the City Palace which had some interesting clothing in there. That night we all went to a free sunset point and saw the sunset over the lake when thousands of fruit bats came and started flying over the lake drinking water before setting off on the nights feed. It was amazing to see them all nearly collide and then swop in the other direction - similar to the driving over hear!! We then stuffed ourselves on a Thali - veg curry and went to bed and said bye bye to Humphrey!

2nd May - We are starting to get a handle on this chilling and doing nothing bit - which I must admit is harder than you think as I always feel I should be walking around seeing the sites etc. But today is spent catching up with our written journals, sitting in the sun and enjoying doing nothing in perticular. Our plan in the evening was to watch Octupussy - James Bond that was filmed using the Lake Palace but instead we were able to join another friend who had come from Pushkar the day before to do a Indian cooking class - which was absolutely, 110% amazing and I loved every minute of it. A long evening 5hrs but we made the most amazing food, from Chi to Pakora, chutneys, masala, rice, naan, chapati's and loads more. The woman who teaches it is so nice and has had to fight for what she had as her husband died when her children were small and she had to work secreatly washing clothes to support her family as her sect is not aloud to work. Her family was also amazingly close and she had her sister visiting while we where there and it was really touching to see. They present us with lots of little gifts - a friendship bracelet, a good luck elephant keyring, a charm thing and a bindi.

3rd May - Good bye Udiapor - there is still loads to see here but we have to move on and make sure we see the rest of the country - so we book to leave that afternoon on a 16hr sleep bus journey. That morning we join another couple we have met and go for another roof top breakfast - or juice for us as we are still soooo full from the night before. When below us we hear loud music and watch a parade of people going past - with all the women carry gourds on there heads wailing and woberling them around. Very interesting to watch. We then go and buy snacks for the journey ahead - crips, bananas. bread and buscuits oh how healthy of us! That afternoon we go back to Shashee's the cooks house and have Chi with her family and are presented with another gift of a picture each she had just bought from the market for us incase we did come back - what a cutie. We sat there most of the afternoon just chatting to her and her family. She is currently training to be a teacher now so that she has a second trade for when tourism is slow and we watch her prepare for the class that night and chat to her sons and learn more about Inidan culture and Udiapor. For instance in the smaller cities villages no one pays for water everyone puts a gourd outside their house and passer-bys help themselves. Sadly even this water would probably give us stomach problems so we stick to filtered! So good bye Udaipor and hello bus - well all I can say is oh my god! Lovely beds but no form or even pretence of suspension! It was funny to begin with but imagine 16hrs of horrific airplane turbulance and you still wouldn;t have covered it. ANyway we are on our way to Mumbai so thats all that matters!

4th May - With little to no sleep due to the painful - back breaking - being on the front of a speedboat the entire time journey - we arrive in Mumbai and get a rickshaw to our hotel and the bus man lied we are no where Colaba, Mumbai. We decide to stay in another dorm as the last one was so nice and its really expensive here. So Salvation Army it is - and its not great as in no shower using a bucket of water to clean ourselves but its not terrible either. We dumb our bags and decided to find a train staition and book our next part of the journey first. So half an hour later we are victorious and manage to book our first train ticket -using the emergancy tourist quota - clever us. We then get a local bus and find the gateway to India again clever us and then decide that we have no plans and follow a western guy getting a boat somewhere! Somewhere being Elephanta Island. So we get there befriend some girls on there tour and walk up steps only to find out its another 250rs to see the stone carvings - being on a budget we say no and wander off to see some old free canons. On this journey we befriend 3 jewish guys who also had refused to pay and chatted with them - fed monkeys then ran from them when the food ran out and they got pretty upset about this! We then stumbled around and found a free way into the caves anyway! The carvings where really great and I'm glad I got to see them, however due to rubbish lighting I didn;t get great photos. On the boat home I recieved some rubbish heena on my arm and hand - terrible in fact! Anyway after a crap meal and Olive in a rubbish mood that puts me in a bad mood too we dont meet the girls and crashed out instead - the sea air really does take it out of you!!

5th May - We are still in Mumbai and leave tomorrow - so we wonder off in to the streets and buy some light weight baggy trousers for peanuts and then buy some salad to eat later and fruit all the things we miss eating as you need to be careful of not eating the skins here as they are washed in local water! We then see oranges amazing and as we try to haggle for a decent price when a friendly Emerati (UAE person) arrives to help and then purchase some for us. He then says there is a boat to see if we are interested and with nothing better to do follow him and it turns out we are actually off to another island - not what we wanted to do for the day, we thought he ment we where just viewing an old one or something. Oh well he does by our tickets so what are you going to do and we feel obliged and get on the boat with Mohammed - to be fair a nice guy. Unfortunatley its takes 1.20hr which is such a waste of a day and then on Mohammed's recommendation we get a free bus to the middle of no where!! It turns out it isn;t a tourist island and we get dropped off in a random town only to pay a rickshaw to take us back - a very confused Mohammed apologising that this is not the same place he went last time. So slightly dull and off key day out all payed for by Mohammed who we then ditch as he is becomming a tad annoying. That night we are supposed to meet a girl from the sal army but she is late and we are board so we went to Leopald's a pretty famous bar with bullet holes in the wall - nice and being expensive I have a beer, olive has a fruit juice and we share some chips and good bye daily budget - god how sad life has become!! We then meet an Aussie and an Irish guy who take pitty on us and buy us more beer - yay and the best part is Olive hates beer and I drink hers too and eat the free peanuts the boys have been given all 4 bowl!

6th May Happy Birthday Hayley - love you lots lady! Today is the last day of Mumbai and we havent really achieved anything but we fly out of here so will be coming back and doing the Slum tour out of an airconditioned bus (seems a little hypercritical) - thats for you Carley xx and hopefully be spotted for a bollywood film extra which is quite common here. With not even a dribble of water and a terrible sweaty night sleep we awake have the breakfast they make you pay for and chat with other travellers. One guy bless him was stuck in India as he had his passport stollen. He was ment to be leaving for Thailand and even though he could get his passport in a couple of days they wouldn;t let him leave the country until it had a new india visa put in even though he wasn;t going to be staying - poor bloke was looking at 2wks in Mumbai. Salvation Army is pretty cheap and wouldn;t let us store our bags for free and us being pretty cheap didn;t want to pay to leave them so we chilled for as long we could and then with bags in baking stroll we went for a wonder from some lunch and walked to the train station - yes even more sweat - our tops are now constantly damp where they haven;t been able to dry out. Sexy ladies! Our train was at 2pm and as we were the bottom and middle bed they are turned in to seats for everyone else. We were to be fair soo lucky with our nieghbours. 3 men - a lady and 2 families. Everyone was joking giving us wierd food to eat and telling us about their lives. I must admit Indian kids are actually very cute and soo self sufficient. At one point about 8pm a guard comes round yelling to close all windows as there are rebels in the area that attacks the trains. After a while we gave in and opened the windows and were attached by rocks so quickly closed them again - ooppps. The rest of the journey was ok and again very sweaty - dont think the deodrant is working anymore!

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