So long 2011

I admit I failed pretty miserably at keeping my blog going after I came back from India, maybe one day ill go back and fill it all in.

Heres one last post for 2011 and a fresh start for 2012..

I left you guys in the Thar desert, I wish I could tell you me and Giselle loved it so much we couldn't leave and have been riding around on camels ever since....In my dreams. Though it would of meant we would of  missed out on riding Connors motorbike in Jaisalmer, going for tea at Michael Jackson's (aka Sonu's) house in Pushkar. Having and Indian cooking class with the Indian version of Jamie Oliver in Udaiper. Being seriously grumpy in Mumbia (humidity beyond belief). Being even grumpier on the nearly 24 hour bus journey from Mumbia to Goa. Arriving at Palolem beach in Goa looking and feeling like the most disgusting person to walk the planet but in time to watch the Royal wedding at a beach bar. We spent the last ten days of our trip in a beach hut which cost around £3 a night between the two of us...crazy I know ! Despite a family of ants who tried to make home in our bed it was the most relaxing ten days of my life. We even managed to with the help of a lovely young man called Sanjay rent out a moped and go explore and play a game of cricket with the locals on the beach...of course both me and Giselle were pretty horrific! On our last night our friends Sanjay and Vijay set off some fire works on the beach for us ( the local dogs were less impressed by this). We got up before sun set and got in the taxi in the pitch black, unable to hold back I looked at Giselle and was like fuck man this is it, Im not sure if im going to be able to live in England after seeing this amazing country. Looking back I laughed, 2 months ago i was cursing Giselle for bringing me to this place, telling my self i just had to make it to the other end alive. Now I was dreading going back home. We arrived in England with no sleep and serious culture change, only to find our parents thought we were coming home the next day. "WHAT!?" I was about to have a breakdown, with £10 left to my name we headed to get the tube to Giselle's friends house. To make it worse half way there my shoes  that had lasted me the whole trip broke, I mean the whole sole of one of my shoes fell off. I sat on the tube with one shoe on thinking how the day before had been spent lazying on a beautiful beach. People asked me was it life changing. I thought for ages probably not, it was fun though, now im not sure, nearly 8 months later Im still babbling on about it. The most mental 2 months of my life ! So thanx Gis for dragging me along.

The Summer was as always packed fall of festivals and amazing people old and new. Trying out naked sauna's, Sky diving, flooding tents and getting dreads. Mine and Giselles last festsival was greenbelt, hanging around in Cheltenham we went for a meal at a gorgeous Turkish restaurant. Just as we left the man told us to wait and gave us both a turkish/ cyprus good luck charm. It was the same charm Giselle had insisted on taking to India that I spoke about in my first blog post.  What a nice way to end an adventure packed gap year.

So long 2011 you were pretty intense.....(do you know what else is intense???....Camping !)

"I could keep a fish alive under my arms today" Giselle (15th April)

Back in Jaisalmer, My bag seems to have most of Tharu desert in it.  We tried to change to a more expensive room with an en-suite but was unsuccessful, so am still have to run across their living room to get a shower.

Woke up missing the desert and not enjoying the return of mosquitoes. After asking if my hair looked ok Giselle replied saying I looked like a female version of Russel Brand, but I could work it. I'm sure there was meant to be a compliment in there some where.

The day was spent wondering round a folk museum, folllowing a family of pigs and trying to get away from staring men on boats on the tiny lake jaisalmer has to offer.

That evening we met up with Connor and some French-Canadian guys (they possibly had the most attractive accent any one could ever have) That night instead of treking back to our hotel room we just slept on the roof.

This is carzy, as if I'm sleeping on the roof of a massive fort in the middle of a desert for free !?  Have got less than a month left of this amazing adventure. But right now i couldnt be any more content :)

OHH WOW ! (14th April)

The morning was well spent doing jump shots in the sand :)

high five jump ! 

Kamal said goodbye to us and we were on our way. It wasn't till we stopped for water that we realized Connors saddle wasn't attached to his camel "OH WOW !" Abai continued to moan about how rubbish children were (Kamal was meant to of done Connors camel).

"Abia ! can we stop I'm starting to feel dizzy"..... Abai stopped straight away, jumped of his camel "Oh WOW" he said while helping Giselle down. We sat under a bush for awhile and Abia squeezed water over her head scarf.  

Either because he was worried about Giselle or because we were running late he started to make the camels run/ jog. My only thought was thank god I was wearing a sports bra. 

Your making my mustache droop. (13th April)

Connor told us the story behind his mustache today. Apparently when he had gone to an Indian barber they had refused to shave it off. "No no I think I want it all off " Connor had replied. The barber then got his friend who also insisted on Connor keeping it. In the end Connor figured if more than one person thought it looked good he should keep it. He then proceeded to tell us about a phrase that we had not heard but apparently everyone in India says it, 'Your making my mustache droop,' you say it when some one has made you unhappy. Me and Giselle tried it out later in the trip and got a very blank response from the Indians, we now think Connor may have just made this up.

Kamal returning with our water bottle.

At lunch time we had settled down for a nap under a tree, when Abai started chanting something. I was just ignoring him but he started getting louder and more intense. Me and Giselle sat up to see Abai stood up with his hands out chanting staring at a mini whirlwind coming towards us. AHHH ! Sadly Abai's chanting didn't stop it. Me and Giselle curled up into a ball and Connor ran behind the tree. No damage was done except that Connors turban fell off and we were covered in twiggs and little thorns that had been all over this part of the desert. The whirlwind had taken our water bottle with it but Kamal ran after it for us. 

Sun setting on our last night in Thar desert.

Kamal was sat on his camel behind me and after being in conversation with him for a while he came out with "guess how old I am"... hmmm, I thought he was about twelve, but to be safe I aimed higher. "um 13 ?"..."Higher !" he grinned. "um 14"..."um 15" ...higher than that ! hmmm he is definitely not 15... "16 ?"..."YES !.. I am a little bit short for my age". He later informed Giselle that he was only a few years younger than her sister. Oh dear.

Oh last night in the desert, I think me and Giselle have decided we are going to stay in Jaisalmer a couple of extra days.

First night in the desert ! (12th April)

Giselle and Connor on their camels :)

The 3 day camel trek was incredible and Giselle now officially loves the desert and wants a pet camel even more.

Our treking companion was called Connor and I think since being home I have turned him into a crazy charactature. A canadian guy with a thick moustache fashioning full white linen with black boxers, a dark green turban and sandles which had been patched up with a pink leather square. If only every one dressed like this. He was a lovely guy and I think made me and especially Giselle feel alot better about the amount of bad luck we often get.

After lunch on the first day as we were getting on our camels Connor climbed on only to tear a hole in the top back of his trousers. Me and Giselle found it incredibly hard not to wee our selves laughing. I felt a little bad as we didn't really know him, I only hoped he didn't mind. "It's fine, it's funny, I'd be laughing too if I was you" Connor replied everytime we apoligized for our hysterics. Once we arrived at the village Connor was trying to decide what to do about the medium sized hole in the back of his trousers. Abai the camel leader insisted on Connor using his turban to wrap it around his waist to cover the hole. I don't think Connor was too enthusiastic about the idea but Abai left him little choice. So off into the village we went with Connor now wearing a wrap around skirt.

Me and Giselle at lunch time in the desert.

Once we had invested in what was very expensive fanta we were off again. This time a young boy joined us who ironically was called Kamal. Giselle "Are you alright camel", Kamal "Yes thank you".

That evening we were treated to traditional desert songs and a scrummy meal  (I can now make chapatis! YAY). I also learnt where the northern star is which is always usful if you get lost in the desert, and I now have a million jumping shots of Giselle along with a million shots of me not quite jumping (this is evidently a skill i need to work on).

And whats a good evening if you cant have an indepth conversation about how amazing Lord of the Rings is ?

Connor also managed to break his sun glasses :(
Sleeping under the stars, so peacful.
night night xxx

Jaisalmer Fort basically a giant sand castle (11th April)

We arrived in Jaisalmer at around 6.30 am, a man knocked on our door and asked if we were German, I grumpily replied no. It turns out he owned a hotel in the fort and was just trying to find all the tourists on the bus.
Normally we would find our own way and look around a few hotels but he offered us a really cheap jeep to the fort. We looked around and decided to stay in their cheapest double room, 100rs a night, bargain ! It had a shared bathroom which at the time we didn't realised would be so annoying. Everytime you needed the bathroom you had to run across their living room, in front of the Tv which usually had a group of young men watching it, only to get to the other side and find out the bathroom was already engaged.

We have booked a 3 day camel trek with our hotel, I think Giselle is paranoid which is annoying me. I'm looking forward to it and have a good feeling about it. Giselle hates it when I say I have a good feeling "YOUR JINXING IT !!!" she normally yells back.

Typical Indian keyboard

After Giselle had sent a paranoid message to our parents telling them exactly which hotel we were in, which room and the exact time we were leaving tommorow and that if we hadn't emailed them again by 15th April to panick as we had most likely been abducted or worse. I'm sure the email was of great comfort to our mother.I sent her one telling her Giselle has a paranoia problem and that everything was fine. We went to a lovely restaurant called 'OM restaurant' and had some scrummy rice pudding. They do the best rice pudding out here. I burnt my tongue though, I think its just ultra sensitive as Giselle managed to gobble hers down without any burnt tongue related problem.

"Giselle is being a grumpy piss head and now I'm annoyed and stressed and am going to sleep" Alicia's diary.

Bye bye Pushkar......see you in a few days ! (10th April)

This is a horrific photo, but we were just so happy
in our bus bedroom !

"WHAT!? This isn't the right bus stop?" I look at Giselle who I imagine was mirroring my horrified face as we try and work out if the Indian man is just trying to con us into using his rickshaw or if we really are at the wrong bus station. "Who decided to put two bus stops in Pushkar anyway?!" Giselle looks at her watch, we have about 20 minutes till our bus is due to leave....can we run across Pushkar in time to catch it?

We decide yes... there was no way we were going to pay 100rs for a rickshaw.

Unsure of how to get there we set off on a speedy walk/ jog shouting at the people of Pushkar with our rucksacks which are around the same size as a hobbit on our backs. Eventually we got there exhausted just in time. I have never had such a high after a low, "ahhh WOW look its like we actually get a mini room!" Over night buses are more exciting than we had antisapated. It did feel like god was playing a little joke on us though as the bus slowed down after about five minutes...yep the bus was stopping at the bus station we have just run from half an hour earlier. Oh well such is life.

Me and my favorite waiter  Sunny.

Earlier that day we had said our goodbyes to Steve and Vera who were heading to Bundi and exchanged emails. We went for a last meal in 'Out of the Blue'. Sunny went serious for a moment " Your good girls, now if any one trys and sells you anything on the bus say no". Michael Jackson even left his group of friends as we walked past to say goodbye to us."You have to shake my hand" we hadn't noticed his hand that he had stretched out for us. We informed him we would be back in about a week to meet up with our friend Marcus.

As the bus drove away (from the second bus stop) I almost felt I could form a tear, I've most definatly fallen in love with Pushkar.

Sun setting in Pushkar.

Giselle has done a perfect poo (9th April)

Pushkar has started to make me very relaxed and starting to really love it here. When i first arrived i couldn't understand why people hung around here so long or 'got stuck' as we were told, now I can, it's not to do with the temples or the landscape, there is just something that keeps you wanting to stay.
We can't actually remeber how long we have been here. We haven't done anything productive, we have however still managed to spend over budget.....massive fail.
Giselle did inform me though that she did a perfect poo today which is rare and exciting when you in India.

Today feels like that first day that I've stopped counting down to when I'm going home.

"BITE BREAKDANCE BITE!" (8th April)

Instead of saving our camel experience till Jailselmer we decided to spoil ourselves and go on a hour camel ride with Vera and Steve.

As we got to where our camels were relaxing there were 3 boys around 11 years old, they were the funniest children we have met. Though i'd be just as happy as them if my life was taking my pet camel for a walk with my two best mates. The boy who was clearly in charge introduced him self as something that sounded similar to Shelia, he then continued to tell us his friends name but burst into laughter straight after and his friend didnt look to pleased, we therefore don't think it was his name.
The camels were called Breakdance, Lucky hands and Johnson. I don't think I could of picked better names if I tried.

At the half way point we got off to take pictures, Shelia (for the blogs sake this is what i'm going to call him) got breakdance and started nuzzling his head, he then proceeded to shove his hand in the camels mouth and started shouting "BITE BREAKDANCE BITE", this boy was clearly a mental.

On the way back to the hotel we bumped in Micheal Jackson he wants us to go for some Chai with him. We said no.


That night was really hot I think 25 degrees celcius, couldnt sleep. Also bought a book called Shantaram by Gregory David Robert.

"I don't think i've ever seen some one move so fast" (7th April)

Giselle couldn't sleep when we got in from our mini party so had stayed up to read, me on the other hand had got my self nice and cosey in my mummy liner ready for a nice sleep.

" AHhhh fuck dude" I said while running fast out the bed in my mummy liner flapping my arm around. A giant and i mean giant black bug had decided to land on my shoulder and woke me from my sleep. Now i wasn't wearing my glasses, so when i felt something on me to begin with i thought it was Giselle trying to get my attention,but once i realized what it was i really panicked.

Giselle a little flustered commented on the speed that i moved then was annoyed that I'd made her panic so much. The bug had flown away as soon as I'd started flapping about. It was hiding in the bathroom in a corner of the steps. It looked like a giant flying cockroach. Giselle couldn't get it so we left it.

"Whats making all the noise?" yep that's right it was a singing bug. A loud singing bug. I think i must of upset it as it sounded a lot like it was crying. I'm going to apologize to the bug now as it didn't bite me or hurt me, in fact it was very nice and potentially could of been trying to cuddle me. But my shallow ways came out and due to that fact it looked like a giant scary bug i flipped out. Don't judge a book by its cover. 

We went to sleep listening to it crying or singing not sure which and the next day Bablu caught it for us, laughing all the way as he often did.

The rest of the day was yet again spent relaxing. Invested in some new clothes, saw Sunny who claims he still hasn't slept and had a tasty Paneer korma. We told Sunny that it was good, his reply was "Really ?"

"Ten days, no sleep, no problem!" (6th April)

Most of today was spent wondering around and having a gander at Pushkar. We spent alot the time chilling out on the roof of our hotel. I finished my book 'Noughts and crosses' which is a childrens book but was a nice easy read and i enjoyed it though the ending was shocking. Unlike Giselle who decided to bring along Tolkiens 'Silmarillions' (you douche), despite both our attempts neither of us have got very far reading it.

In the centre of Pushkar there was another festival going on for one of there many Gods. There was a big marching band, the clarinetists still managed to smoke while playing, wedging the fag in between there fingers while playing and taking a quick drag in between each section. Local people carried a statue of the God which we think may of been Krishna (a few people told us different things but the people were partying in the Krishna temple) and people were drawing with powder paints on the pavement. They seem to have a festival every night here.

Later in the evening we met up with Steve and Vera in 'real out of the blue' again. Where Sunny looking particularly off his face told us that he hadn't slept, "Ten days, no sleep, no problem!" he said dragging every word out. When we asked for some chai his response was "Whhhhhyyyyy?", then after that every thing was followed by "Whhhyyyyy nooottt?" he said with a massive grin on his face, i mean a grin that used every muscle in his face and made his eyes squint. I can still see his walk in my head, it was a slight strut but not in quite a straight line, with a tea towel thrown over one shoulder and a joint in his other hand. What a character, all i could think was this is actually his life, every day. Yep you can actually live like that, crazy!

We got Kicked out of  'Real out of the blue' at around midnight as they wanted to close up. Me, Gis, Steve and Vera wondered back to our guest house. But not before having to walk past all the sleeping dogs. Pushkar is full of dogs, most of them mind there own buisness, some are overly friendly and annoying and the odd few like to bark at you. But when they are sleeping and you wake them up they are not the happiest. Most of them just barked at us to let them no they wernt impressed, then just as we went round the corner Steve said something loudly and a black dog got up and started barking angrily at us, we just carried on walking but realised it had started walking after us,we then started jogging, then decided actually this was one peed off dog and ran away from it very fast ! It was reasonably terrifying but it was followed with a few giggles which makes up for the scare.

Our hotel was in front of the Krishna temple and as i said earlier they were having a party. As we walked past a man at the door ushered us to enter. We all hesitated a bit but Vera and Steve decided they were going to see what was happening. We figured we were in safe hands, a girl who can speak quite a bit of Hindi and a big bold guy who looked like he could be scary if he wanted to be, so we followed.


Admittedly walking up the steps to the temple I felt a bit nervous (nearly certain they were out to murder us or steal all our belongings), took of my shoes and walked in. It didn't have a ceiling so you could see the clear sky and stars. There was a group of guys playing some music in the middle on the floor and ladies and children sat on some mats around the edge. I went with my bag and sat next to a lady who had made a space for me. Smiled and said 'namaste'. Vera and Giselle followed and sat next to me. Vera started a conversation in Hindi and the ladies looked very happy, we told them our names and shook hands. They handed out chai, we took it while putting our hands together and saying thank you a few times and bowing our head slightly (this was what Vera did so i just followed). After a while they took us all out into a court yard bit where the men sat in a circle one end smoking, this is where they took Steve. Me, Vera and Giselle got sat on a mat further down and they brought out the tastiest chapati ever with curry and some sweets that look like sweetcorn. It was tasty but spicy spicy ! I tried to eat as much as i could so as not to be rude. The girl then poured water over our hands while we washed them. Vera gave them some sweets to say thank you, which both me and Giselle made a note of to invest in. The rest of the evening or early hours of the morning i should say was spent dancing with the ladies, or me, Vera and Giselle doing our best attempt at Hindi dancing with two of the ladies. It was one of the best experience's of the trip, they didn't ask for any money or any thing in fact, they were just grateful and happy we had come and celebrated with them. And it nearly didn't happen because me and Giselle were too scared of being ripped of or taken advantage of.
This was the point that i think we decided to let go a little bit whether for better or not.

"Try to relax completely, and go with the experience. Just..... let yourself go. Sometimes, in India, you have to surrender before you win." Karla ( Shantaram an amazing book I'm reading atm)

"People get stuck here" (5th April)

"Giselle's kidneys hurt, so does her leg and her scarf keeps falling off and it apparently is all my fault, what a poo head." Quote from Alicia's diary.

Giselle's paranoia is slowly growing. She seems to have the need to jump up every morning and run in her mummy liner across the room to look through the eye piece. I'm not sure what she is expecting to see. But i've decided just to leave her to it.

Last night we enjoyed watching ice age, Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Giselle pointed out the strong likeness between me and the character Sid. It was uncanny.

Today we leave for Pushkar YAY, i am not upset in the slightest to be leaving Jaipur, sorry just too many annoying people about. We caught a public bus to Ajmer (we have decided we like public buses and there a lot cheaper). As soon as we stepped of the bus a man rushed up to us, "Pushkar" I nodded, "come,come with me", we said no and that we were catching a bus. "no, no the buses to Pushkar don't run from here, i will take you in my rickshaw". Giselle looked at him like he was stupid and said "yes they do, thank you" and walked in the direction of the buses. It didn't take long for us to find a man shouting Pushkar repeatedly at the top of his voice out of a bus. The journey was very cramped but we were in a jolly mood and it was only for half an hour.

On the bus we met a lovely German man who told us that his hotel was rubbish but walked us to the main road through Pushkar where he said we would find lots of hotels. Walking through the street we noticed a few things, firstly lots of tourists secondly no rickshaw drivers !!  Plodding along minding our own business,this  middle aged bold man with a strong London accent came out of  nowhere. "You leaving or just arriving?" we told him we were arriving. He was stood next to a German girl who looked around our age. They both excitedly told us that they were in a guest house that was really good and cheap. The Londoner told us he would walk us there. We followed him despite only just meeting him and feeling a little paranoid. He was right the guest house was really nice and cheap.

The Guest house was called Maruda Guest house and was owned by an oldish man who had amazingly big glasses and even more than most Indians liked to waggle his head around. But the guy we saw the most of was called Bublua and was around mine and Giselle age and was lovely.

Later that evening we bumped into the Londoner and German girl again who introduced them selves as Steve and Vera. We spent the evening with them in a great restaurant called 'real out of the blue' you can't go to Pushkar and not go there. Also met one of the waiters called Sunny, the best way I can describe him is imagine an Indian version Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean and that's close to what Sunny was like. We think he had potentially had had to many bhang lassies for a life time.

There was some sort of festival on tonight but my tummy was feeling a little iffy so i went to bed. Giselle how ever stayed up on the roof top and saw a shooting star :( . We also got told that some people get stuck in Pushkar, and that the guy in the room next to us has been here for 2 months. It's nice but small and the lake is no way as pretty as Phewa Tal in Pokhara, or the mountains for that matter. There are two cool looking mountains (maybe hills) that have temples on them, i think me and Gis are going to get up early one day and climb it.

"Nice Moustache" (4th April)

Woke up with a big blister on the bottom of my foot. It hurts. For along long time I couldnt find the first aid kit. We both sat on the bed wanting to blame and murder the other person. Admittedly the first aid kit was meant to be in my rucksack but in my defence i was really quite ill when we left Agra and just shoved everything i could find in it.

After a long stressed morning we found it under the pillow on our bed "see it wasnt in my rucksack" I joked. Though it seems we didnt bother investing in blister plasters. "We decided it was a con and that we could just use normal plasters" Giselle reminded me. Ohhh stupid past me.

I don't think i ever bothered mentioning this in my previous blogs but while we were in Nepal people kept on calling me 'Sir', now i didnt think it was personally aimed at me, but the longer i stay here the more concerned i get that they may think im actually a man.
Hobbling through Jaiper nice and sweaty and not feeling the most attractive i've ever felt. Two men in a rickshaw came and swerved past me, "Nice mustache! hahaha".......oh :(  Giselle looked like it was the funniest thing anyone had ever said, EVER. Me on the other hand am now more paranoid by the day that my little moustache is more prominent than i would like it to be... it also put me in a foul mood.

Giselle was very excited about seeing the Observatory and it was very exciting. It was however very very sunny which meant i was practically forced to where my prescriptioned sun glasses which aren't the most fashionable thing to put on your face (I'm sure they made mustache look good though). "If you hold onto my arm you could look like a blind person" Giselle told me as though to make me feel better, thanx Gis, I stated that it would be pointles for a blind person to go to an Observatory.

We wondered around dotting from one bit of shade to the next. We also saw the largest sundial in the world, it was very big. We were looking at the last sun dial when two guys walked up to Giselle and asked for a photo, Gis clearly said one, they took it, then one of them put his arm round her, Gis wasn't impressed. They went away and then returned because the other one wanted a photo with her, she kindly said yes (I would of definitely yelled at them to leave me alone by now.) I left them to it. Then one of them asked for a kiss, Giselle said no, but he went to go kiss her one on the cheek anyway and tried to get a photo of it. Me being a big stress head yelled at them. "SHE SAID JUST ONE PHOTO!" then grabbed Giselle and we went. I'm certain the two guys hate me, but they were most definitely pushing their luck.

On the way back to the Hotel we passed a guy prodding man who was half slumped up against a wall and half laying on the ground. We didn't want to hang around as there was already a small crowed forming. The man on the ground had clearly past away. I didn't know the difference between a sleeping man and a man who had just died could be so different, but he was completely lifeless.

"You have nice boobs.....if thats alright" (3rd April)

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MUTI !

All the guys were out in force today. I think it took double the amount of time to get anywhere. "Would you like some chai with me?"..."You look like Shakira"..."You Swedish"..."Why do girls say no when they mean yes"..."Why are English people always in a rush"..."don't you want to learn about our culture and not just look at the buildings"... I could go on.

My favourite was a guy who started talking us."Your very pretty"..."thanx" I said (convinsing my self that he really meant it and didnt just say that to every girl he sees.)  We walked a little bit more. "You have nice boobs"...Interesting...i'm going to admit i'm not used to some one being quite that forward. I just stared at him with what i imagine was a very confused and 'what's wrong with you' look. To which he replied in a slightly nervous voice "umm if thats alright"...my look just got more confused and intense. If thats alright !? he slowed down walking, I obviously was not giving him the response he was looking for.

The hawa mahal wasn't as good as i wanted it to be and people seemed more interested in taking a photo of me and giselle than the actual building anyway. We sat down in the shade drinking some nice cold water. YUM. Opposite us was a young guy sat by himself, looking hot and stressed, I had seen him earlier trying to tackle a bunch of rickshaw drivers. He sat with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Me and Gis turned to each other, yep "He's been in India too long".

The City Palace was exciting and alot of it was in the shade YES! But it was ruined when we left to walk home and a rickshaw man wouldnt leave us alone. Giselle was far nice to him than i felt like being. He found it funny.

Not much happened today....but i still miss carlos now. (2nd April)

I realise I have missed out the 1st April, my bad im not sure what happened on that day but im guessing it wasnt that exciting.

I'm not sure what is wrong with the people at our hotel but so far no matter how much we try and make it easy for them to understand they still like to serve us stuff we havent ordered. They also keep offering us beer and their laundrey service.

After eating the breakfast (that was different to what we asked for) we headed into the city, very busy with the most rickshaw drivers ive ever seen. We told them we liked walking and they always replied "Yes, yes walking is good for the health".

We had planned to go to the City palace today but after getting into town we realised we still had our pen knife and bits on us which we didnt think we'd be able to take in with us. Instead we just wondered and looked in lots of shops. My favourite was a clothes stall which we had been yelled at to have a look at from the other side of the street. We thought why not and went to have a gander. The young guy who worked in the shop was called Carlos and was one of the funniest people ive met in India. I mean none stop laughing and was throwing high fives all over the place. We didnt buy anything from him in the end but did have a lovely time. 

On our way back out the pink city (which isnt really all that pink) we went in search of a tasty dinner option. I mean there is nowhere to eat in Jaiper ! we bumped into a couple who were also having a similar problem.
Eventually found some where. WHoopps.... hmmm accidentally walked into a slightly pricey upper class restaurant. Ohwell we thought, lets just treat our selves. It was very tasty and there ice tea was the best.

We went home and watched Robo cop and robo cop 3 (dunno what happened to robocop 2)

Jaipur - If i find out it was a monkey that messed with the TV signal im going to kill them all (31st March)

Last night was the worst night of the whole trip, woke up with a bit of a fever and spent a lot of time in the bathroom. Despite us finding a giant half eaten bug in there. We don't know what it was and worse what ate half of it, but it wasn't there when we arrived.
We considered canceling our bus and leaving for Jaipur once i was better but it would of been a waste of a lot of money and we wanted to try and find a cleaner hotel. The bus journey was surprisingly good and i wasn't ill at all, some one nice must of been looking down on me that day.
Jaipur was the most metropolitan city we had been to, with real cars !! Our bus pulled over for its last stop not in the bus station just to confuse us. Luckily Giselle had worked out where she thought we were and we headed of with out the aid of rickshaw drivers. Jaipur seems to be expensive. We settle for a  hotel which has clean rooms and a TV YES ! ( Even in India its  nice to sit down and watch a film occasionally)

Though to remind me i was still in India that evening half way through watching something the signal completely went. I sat and watched the black and white fuzzy screen cursing who ever had fucked with the signal. (Ill and feeling extremely sorry for myself).

Please Please take some time to read about Read International, if you think it sounds like a worth while charity a few pennies would really help as little or as much as you like thank you.
http://www.justgiving.com/Alicia-Silvester

"What happens if i'm sick on the Taj Mahal?"......"They'll probably arrest you" (30th March)

Made it to Agra in one Piece, yessss. Though it seems something in the train was trying to eat me alive. My feet are covered in bites.
We booked into a hotel that had a nice view of the Taj Mahal and had some breakfast. I didnt end up finishing all of mine as i was put off by the two dead ants floating in my drink. I'm unsure how many I'd already drank.

We had decided we were only going to stay in Agra one night as this is what was advised in the blogs and the travelers we had spoken to.We regret this and think we could of stayed longer.
The Taj Mahal cut a massive chunk out of our budget but it was beautiful (750rs each). Unfortunately as soon as we had made it through the gates I felt reasonably ill. "What happens if I'm sick on the Taj Mahal?"...."They'll probably arrest you." I then proceeded to find the toilets.
Unfortunately for Giselle her trousers split due to all the sitting i was wanting to do. She later found a safety pin at the steps of the Taj. (She took this as a good sign). We ended up splitting up as i was spending alot of time in the toilets and Giselle was spending alot of time not sitting down.
The toilets were not the nicest, the taps didn't work but the floor was covered in water which just annoyed me. There was also a lady out side who I think was wanting me to pay, I'm not sure, I wasn't going to though it would of cost me a fortune, and there was a sign saying tourists didn't have to pay which i pointed at angrily as i left.

Me and Gis met up later, "I like the Taj Mahal" Giselle stated, "I like the toilets" I meant to say I like the dogs. Oh well, it had been a long day.  That evening we watched the best bits of the cricket semi final, India against Pakistan, India won and there were a few fireworks. Well done India !
A young English man who was also watching the cricket broke one of the chairs when he sat on it which was pretty entertaining and me and Giselle had to refrain our selves from laughing to much.

The one thing I regret was not buying a mini Taj Mahal in a snow globe keyring. We joked about it but thought it may be a waste of our money (how wrong we were). We have been looking for two ever since.

"Whats my name?...I dont' know my name"....."You can call me black...because im black! hahaha"......awkward laugh (29th March)

Today is our last day in Varanasi, we leave this evening for our first over night train ride to Agra, ahhh ! Hopefully we make it alive and with out getting our stuff stolen.
We managed to catch the sun quite a bit yesterday I'm guessing from our long walk. We spent most of the day on the roof top of our restaurant as we had to check out early and couldn't travel to far from our hotel. Sambo didn't seem to be working but another chatty waiter was. He had decided to nick name us Chocolate and Honey as we had ordered one chocolate and one honey pancake the night before. "Good morning Chocolate and Honey" he said cheerfully. After not believing we were sisters, then asking when our birthdays were and looking at our Zodiac signs (I had the same one as him which made him happy). He came out with "What's my name?....I don't know my name" me and Giselle looked at each other, I nearly asked him what he liked on his pancakes as this seemed to be how me and Gis got ours, but before I could he came out with "You can call me Black" me and Giselle unsure of what to do again looked at each other. He laughed out loud patted us both on the back and continued "because I'm black, hahaha"...(This reminded me a lot of Ishaw and his white trouser bad, white people good statement.)
Black seemed to find him self reasonably hilarious. I'm nearly certain if i called a black person Black in England I'd get punched, or at least called racist.

We found Sambo downstairs watching the cricket, we said our goodbyes and headed on our way. I think we upset our hotel because we refused to take there rickshaw as we new they were over charging us and we could get one cheaper. Later we found out they forgot to charge us for some of the food we had. Sorry guys we didn't intentionally rip you off.

On the train most of our carriage was full of tourists, we were sharing our section with two Turkish ladies and two Swedish girls.

Bye Varanasi till next time.

It is at the Ghats of Varanasi where we get to see life and death together. (28th March)

Up around 5 am and onto a rowing boat on the Ganga's ready to see the sun rise on what is considered the most sacred river, where its said you can see life and death together. The sun rising was pure bliss, it felt so peaceful in a city when i first arrived felt so busy. As we got rowed past all the ghats, we went from family's washing together, to a middle aged man dressed in white meditating at the waters edge completely at piece with the world to the burning ghats, where a body was being cremated. It was like seeing every step of life in front of you.
We think we got over charged for our boat ride as we had gone with our hotel id recommend just going down to the ghats and bartering with the boat men yourself, we paid 100rs each but i know some people who got it for 50 rs each.
It felt quite breezy today (i now think its just we had never been up that early before). Because of this i left my scarf in the hotel room when we walk down the ghats, i instantly regretted this as there is little shade and the sun soon picked up. Giselle kindly lent me hers (thanx dude) We walked for around an hour round the ghats and passed lots of woman washing meters of fabric which then covered the steps and made multiple rainbows. After awhile the heat was getting a bit too much so decided to try and get a rickshaw back to our ghat. We came across a group of auto rickshaw drivers, told them where we wanted to go and they started arguing with each other occasionally shouting prices. It was great they were just bartering between them selves. Out of no where a cycle rickshaw man came and shouted the cheapest price, "yes, well go with him"..."noo nooo he cycle rickshaw you want auto rickshaw". We explained we didn't actually care as long as we got from A to B . "oooh auto rickshaw to the back, cycle rickshaw win" he replied..

That afternoon we decided to start on our postcards, our mum had kindly got us blank postcards for us to draw our own pictures on. Yes! time to bring out our artistic talent and you'd think after a year of studying pure art id have some. It appears not, Giselle finds it reasonably hilarious that all of my drawings look like a five years olds done them (id like to say quirky). I'm afraid we have failed to send any ones postcards, so if you were expecting one and haven't received it don't take it personally it is just that me and Giselle are rubbish and not that we secretly hate you. we love you all.
Giselle had spent a lot of time drawing an accurate drawing of a monkey holding a kite for our little brother which she gave to me to look at. ( At this point i had a mini premonition that the card got caught by the wind and blown away.) I gave the card back to Giselle, and then a monkey jumped onto the roof top and was trying to get into the restaurant kitchen. I turned to watch, heard Giselle do a little squeak behind me and assumed it was just a like scared squeak in response to seeing a monkey, it was actually that Giselle's monkey holding a kite postcard had blown away. I am now nearly certain i have psychic powers.

"I think Mary Poppins would really like it here" Giselle (27th March)

Never under estimate monkeys. I'd just started to think that they wernt that bad and they wernt really that bothered about us humans. Then a silly baby monkey had to go ruin their reputation.
We had just had breakfast on the hotel roof top YUM! and had started to head down the stairs to our room. On the way down i spotted a mummy monkey and two baby ones sat right out side the window. The window had no glass but had some bars in the way. "Gis look at the monkeys, haha they can't get us cuz theres bars in the way !". I should of realised then i had jinxed us. We had got quite close to the window to look at them, the mum didnt seem bothered in the slightest and neither did the babies to begin with, then out of nowhere one of the babies went mental and launched its self at the window screeching in a horrible monkey way and rattling the bars. Obviously me and Giselle freaked out. As soon as the baby had jumped the mum had followed also looking like she wanted to kill us."Ahhh shit man !!" we ran away very very fast. "Dude did you see that monkeys arm! i thought she had got you!" I was too busy running away to notice but apparently the mummy monkeys arm had stretched through the bars and had tried to grab my sleeve. It may not sound that dramatic to you but im am definatly counting it as a near death experiance.

The rest of the day was slightly more relaxing. Giselle broke some guy called Mogallys heart by not going to his tea shop. We saw a cow and bull being forced to make babies or as the indian man put it "they make sex." we also tried out Dolphin restaurant which was nice and had a lovely view of the sun setting and all the kites (not the bird kind) being flown all around the city, which braught Giselle to the conclusion that Marry Poppins would really like it in Varanasi. After waiting along time to order a pancake we gave up and went to pay the bill, the waiters were all sat round the tele watching Cricket (If people didnt no its the Cricket world cup atm and india are obsessed with it).

Every evening at the main Ghat they a have a Puja celebration, the purpose is to communicate with the gods of the Ganga. The young priests perform it with a mixture of prayers, songs and rituals. We hadnt bothered going down yesterday evening so decided we should check it out. We headed down and there were crowds on crowds of people, it involved a lot of standing around and people wanting you to buy flowers to give to the gods and people wanting to put a thumb print of paint on your forehead only then wanting us to give them money.We stayed for most of it, it was pretty with lots of candles and bells being rung. We were quite far back and couldn't see all that was going on, because of this and to avoid getting stuck we decided to leave early and head back to the hotel.

Another early morning start tomorrow :) night night Varanasi                                                                                                                                              

Varanasi with all its wonders (26th March )

I'm afraid as things have got busier i have been on the computer alot less, im sorry ! Varanasi is slowly turning into a distant memory so these blogs may be less detailed and shorter but i shall do my best to make them as exciting and accurate as possible.

Varanasi turned out to be one of my favorite places and definitely my favorite city. While we were there we came across a treasure of a restaurant that did the best mint and lemon mocktails ever which was very refreshing. It was called Phulwari restaurant and was off the main street, had comfy seating and lovely staff. Though one of the waiters was a bit strange and reminded me and Giselle of either Quasimodo or Igor. After refreshing our selves with one of their drinks we went of on a mission to find our selves a nice Shalwar Kameez, we wondered around a few shops and settled on two that we liked. We had no idea how much some one would pay for them, so just tried to use our initiative and ended up paying 500rs for each of them which is around 7 pounds i think. I love mine, and feel a lot like a princess in it.  
The nice thing about Varanasi is that because it is so busy if you say no to some one they tend to just move onto the next tourist which meant we could wonder around fairly quickly and not have to stop for a conversation every 5 seconds. This is however where we first experienced people wanting to take photographs. Some people make it obvious, some ask and some try and sneakily hide and do it. I have now got used to it and in less I'm in a foul mood just let them get on with it, though i think half of India have a photo of me looking reasonably pissed of at them.
Alot of Varanasi was spent on the roof top restaurant of our hotel, it seemed this is also were all the other tourist spent most their time. We loved it, the view was amasing and the food was tasty. But the restaurant was way over staffed which meant the waiters had alot of time to sit next to us and have extensive conversations about anything. The most memorable waiter being Sambo, who first came up to us when we were watching the hundreds of monkeys jumping around on the roof tops. Giselle later thought that Sambo might of been a bit 'special' as she put it, i now also think this is a possibility.
Sambo told us all about Varanasi and the millions of festivals that go on in India. In return we tried to tell him about some English celebrations. Pancake day for example "hahah you have a day for eating pancakes!"..."You eat them all day!?, hahahaa!?" and easter "You give each other chocolate eggs! Why? hahah" and he found that some people decorate boiled eggs and roll them down the hill even funnier. We continued to try and explain halloween, bonfire night and in Ireland St.Patricks day.
He had seen on a documentary that somewhere has a day for celebrating Tomatoes and seemed reasonably disapointed when we said that we didnt think it was England. Sorry Sambo.

In the near future you shall be hearing about our adventures in the desert with a lovely Canadian guy called Conner, but until then here is the link to his blog http://www.connormckenna.com , I hope to be this cool when I'm 26.

Varanasi "Brace your self"... 25.03.2011 (because i am so behind im going to start dating the blogs :))

I'm sorry if this post isnt very good, this is the second attempt. The first time a computer man came along and pulled out a wire, resulting in my computer blacking out and me loosing everything..."ooo woow, were you writing lots?"....yes, yes i was. Oh well.

Underneath the title Varanasi in the lonely planet it tells me to brace myself for one of the most blindingly colourful, unrelentingly chaotic and apologetically indiscreet places on earth. . This did nothing but scare me. It seems to be like Marmite, either people love it or they hate it.

What if i hate it !?!

The train journey was ok, but everyone was staring at us. That i can generally handle, but then a guy came and sat next to me who was nothing but annoying. I just tried my hardest to ignore him, and did not give him my phone number or email address (how ever persistent he was).

Finally arrived, its the first place I've felt really nervous about going. Stepped off the train and straight away a man started talking to us and wanting us to follow him. We tried to ignore him, we walked out and while Giselle was telling him to go away an officer opened a barrier for us to walk through. On the other side were a few other scared looking tourists and a nice tourist information's. They gave us a map, pointed us in the right direction and told us the name of the street we wanted to be on.
Off we went to brace the swarm of rickshaw drivers. We got in the auto rickshaw and told them where we wanted to go. First they said they couldn't take us there, then that it was a big place were abouts did we want dropping. I was getting stressed. "just somewhere on that street" we told them. It carried on for a while. "Just drop them off and then they'll pay you" one of their friends laughed. It felt like they were being rude so i grabbed my rucksack and headed of to find a different rickshaw man who was actually going to take us some where. After a few more arguments we got one.

As we were driving down the street i gradually began to relax, this doesn't look so bad ! Colour every where, it was busy but in an exciting way! got of the rickshaw put our rucksacks on and headed in the direction he pointed us. Fabric shops filled the streets, along with rickshaw drivers shouting at us and cows just wondering as they please. We got so happy we even started singing "noo, nooo" at the persistent shop keepers, one of them even laughed at us.

WUHOOOOO I DON'T HATE IT ! :D

As our rucksacks began to get heavier we decided to go find our hotel. In the distance we saw a young guy who looked like he could be English, we headed in his direction. "Are you English?" we asked maybe a bit too enthusiastically. "Yes" he laughed. His name was Daniel, he told us where he had stayed and we had a short but sweet conversation with him before he had to leave to go to Pushkar. We didn't end up staying where he stayed but found a nice place called Puja guest house, with an amazing view of the Ganges river and of all the monkeys that were jumping from rooftop to rooftop. This is also where we met Sambo one of the waiters who liked to talk alot, but was very lovely all the same.

"WHATS YOUR QUALIFICATIONS?"

One of my favorite Quotes is "Everything is exactly the way it is meant to be" George Faulkner (from the film 'a single man').When i say it in my head it makes me just except whats going on, but even that didn't make today feel any better.

Got up early and got a rickshaw to Sonauli where we wanted to cross the border, it was very busy with lots of people shouting at us, we went to the tourist office on the Nepal side but it was very unhelpful so we just literally walked across the border. Once we got to the other side we got pointed to a very shabby small looking shack like building. We went in and gave them our passports, they looked through and told us that we needed to sign out of nepal before we could enter India. This meant we had to recross the border (i was a little concerned they weren't going to let us, actually nobody seemed to care how many times we crossed the border). We got our passport stamped on nepal and filled in some paper work. Then crossed the border to India again, to then fill out even more paper work and get our passport stamped.
We had no Indian rupees and people kept on wanting us to change our nepal rupees even though we had explained a million times we only had like 20 rs left so it would be more than pointless trying to change it. The man in the Indian office said we couldnt change our english money on this side and there weren't any ATM's. We were already feeling reasonably peeved off, and had crossed the border a million times.
At this point our biggest boo boo of the whole trip came (thats how Giselle later put it). A man came into the office and told us to come with him and he can get us some money, at the time it felt like he was one of the Indian border people so we went with him. Across the road into a corridor in a building. We gave him 40 pounds to change, but he protested saying that that wasn't enough for 2 people. We new it was, that was our budget for two day's nearly. "no no the ATM's are all closed for 5 day's because of festival". It sounds completely stupid now, but we were stuck at the border with no money, with our rucksacks on and very hot and stressed. We could of just of ignored him, but then what if the ATM's were closed we would have no money. We gave him another 20 quid. 60 pounds in total, he gave us the money, we took it and in a rushed manner he ushered us into a jeep to take us to Gorakhpur. We got in and only then did we check the money (big mistake). Yep thats right they completly ripped us off and only gave us about 30 pounds worth of rupees.... who ever you are we hate you.
We were both sat in the jeep filling up with rage when a child beggar kept on coming to the window, she wouldn't go away so giselle shouted no in hindi at her ( i think giselle just wants to show of her hindi skills, i on the other hand don't have any so just stuck with 'no'). The little girl went away, but then a little boy came to my window, i said 'no, sorry'... he didn't listen, so i turned to him looked him in the eyes and very firmly said "NO". He went after that, sorry but we had just been ripped off, we werent going to start handing money out willy nilly.
We had sat around for ages on buses before, were never generaly in a rush. But today we werent taking any of it. Giselle marched off the jeep and yelled at 3 guys who were just hanging around outside the jeep "We want our rucksacks down now ! we are going to take the bus"... the man hesitated and tried to change her mind, but that wasn't going to happen. The man nodded at the man on top of the jeep who then proceeded to hand us our rucksacks. We ended up getting on another jeep later, oh well. It was nearly worth it just to see the terror on the guys faces as Giselle yelled at them.
The jeep ride was fine. We got to Gorakhpur it was very busy and very few tourists, we were still unsure whether to go straight to Varanasi or to stay a night there.We would of gone straight to Varanasi but nobody seemed to speak English and the i quote the 'very helpful tourist office' that the lonely planet mentioned was closed. We waited a long time and tried to find a hotel but the ones that were near were all booked up. We then went back to the train station. It seemed the only person that spoke English was a strange man who approached us, he asked us the normal questions. Where you from? How long you been in India for? Is it your first time? then he asked us what our qualifications were. Giselle tried to answer him. But no, he wasnt taking any of it. Giselle was stood trying to say as many possible ways of describing a theater degree as possible and the man was getting more and more angry and loud for that matter. "NO, YOU DONT UNDERSTAND, WHAT ARE YOUR QUALIFICATIONS." We were drawing A LOT of attention to ourselves, and a boy that for some reason kept on getting hit with a slipper came and stood right next to me (we suspect he was a robber or something). I'd had enough, i don't think I've felt so mental as i did at that moment, Giselle had been doing all the talking up until that point but i stop her and said "NO, we understand you perfectly your the one that doesn't understand us!' and then told Giselle that we should leave.
We later bumped into him "haha, your trying to tease me" I'm not sure he was all there.

What a horrible day, i was sat feeling sorry for my self ( i think it always helps)....that's it we're going to be stuck in Gorakphur FOREVER!....

What are parents for if you cant ring them up really early in the morning from India slightly distressed? (and they thought they had got rid of us). Dad picked up the phone, Giselle "I'm sorry it's so early but were stuck in a place called Gorakphur and the lonely planet guide lied about the helpful tourist office being helpful (it had now been closed for around 2 and a half hours even though the security guard said it would be open an hour ago) we cant find an internet cafe and no one speaks English." After telling dad about the scary qualifications man we asked him if he could look online and find any information on how to book tickets (as the foreigners ticket desk seemed to be none existent) or if that fails, if he could see if there were any nice hotels that had a free room in them. He found us some hotels, thanx dad ! :)

After finally finding a hotel we settled down and tried to relax. The hotel manager booked our tickets for the train to Varanasi for 6.30 the next morning, I'm sure it cost us more than it should of but we weren't in much of a place to argue.
We also got a tv in our room YAY, theres always about two english channels, we watched 'so you think you can dance?' with some pretty talented little boy on it. Then settled down and watched 'The Prince of Persia' which we enjoyed and made the day feel a little better. :) Thank you Jake Gyllenhaal for looking so beautiful and taking my mind of being in such an unhelpful place.

"Wednesday 23rd of... fucking hell"...(Giselles mosquito net falls of the wall)

Today we are going to be enlightened i can feel it.....Off to Buddhas birth place, they actually have the exact stone Buddha was born on in a glass box (me and Giselle are a little dubious to how they new the exact stone but who are we to say any different.)
We got on a bus very easily, no suprise there, but we were a little suprised when we jumped on and it was just a few polish men sat there (Hmm thats unusual), they all said hello and asked us where we were from and then carried on talking in Polish. Some of them went and sat on the roof, i was wearing a skirt and in the lonely planet they advise you to be on your guard to duck, i decided i should wait untill my ducking skill were improved. The bus driver pulled over just down the road "we just have to wait here abit." Polish man "thats fine, just chill man." We had a chat with the polish man infront of us and found out they were making a documentary on a man who has an orphanage for the blind children in Kathmandu (I think thats right). Oooo exciting ! They had a nice big video camera with them. The man the doccumentary was on was very lovely and looked quite alot how id imagine Jesus to look.
Polish man turned around to us again looking rather pleased with him self "Do you know what this is?"... It was a little flat tin with a strange picture on... me and Giselle "um no"...."hahah, its white Indian snuff......do you want some?".... I tend to avoid snorting strange white substances as a general rule, and when its from a strange Polish man in Nepal who's baught it in India the answer was pretty self explanatory. "Hahaha, not today thankyou".
The bus journeys was one of our best, though i would like to say if you ever watch a polish documentary theres a high chance me and giselle are going to be looking awkard sat behind a lovely bearded man on a bus.
We got to Lumbini and said goodbye to the film makers. Buddhas birth place was really quite lovely and relaxing, we walked alot and past alot of Cows that all seemed to have a duck following them (if anyone knows why all the cows had a white duck as a friend let me know.) We wondered around, i got stressed as i was hot and everything was so far away, then Giselle got stressed cause i was stressed, we nearly got a rickshaw then didnt cause it was expensive and it wanted to take us some where that we thought we might of already been (rickshaw man wasnt best pleased.) We then went to a nun temple and spoke to some German guys who told us there was a Peace Pagoda right the other end (we really like the last one so decided to check it out).
We would like to apoligize to the rickshaw man who had to cycle us all the way there, it was a long long way! we just assumed it wasnt, sorry im sure it did your legs good.
Last day in Nepal but off to India tommorow YAY
I'm a little terrified of venturing into Varanasi though!

That night I decided if were to come back i would dye my hair brown and get a major fake tan to try and draw less attention to myself, Giselle reply was..."except in Pokhara...In Pokhara you can be freeee" We miss you Pokhara.
The sticky hooks dont really keep our mosquito nets up, thankfully weve only had to attempt to use them once :) Giselle also found a dead mosquito in her bed.

Also Fusion Garden Restaurant in Lumbini was very lovely and would reccomend, they also ran after a bus they thought was ours to stop it, it wasnt.

"life why are you so hard" Giselle

I cant remember what part of the day the above quote was said but rounds the day up reasonably well :)

Bye Bye Chitwan you will be missed with all your elephants and Rhinos.
We got on bus for a Bhairwaha (i really have no idea how to spell it). The family that had shared our jeep to the elephants were on it as well, they were locals but spoke very good English especially the little girl. The journey was very hot and felt like it lasted forever, we seemed to stop for a ridiculous amount of time in each location. Once we got to Bhairwaha we were the only Europeans left on the bus, and the last to get off. WHAM as soon as we stepped off the bus every man and his dog had rushed to us, "Do you want to go to Lumbini"..."stay in my Hotel blah blah blahh"...."You want rickshaw?". Me and Giselle grabbed our bags from the man on the top of the bus refusing any help, while shouting no at them all. I would like to of had a birds eye view video of it, as we moved away they all and i mean all followed us !They weren't normally this persistent. The dad of the family we had been with came over to help us and directed us in the way of the market. (thank you). But it was too late my angry voice came out and i shout "NO! WE DON'T WANT A RICKSHAW TO YOUR HOTEL!" I must of been at least a little scary as most of them left us alone (not all though). We walked most the way but then couldn't work out our little map and eventually got a rickshaw (but  with a man who wasn't yelling at us).
Checked into a hotel, we seemed to be the only people staying there but we did manage to knocked 50rs of a night (ooooh yeaaa). We got to our room, YAY full length mirror. The toilet was however just a whole in the ground (that was our first experience of such things and our last so far) the toilet did have a flush though. Giselle went to go try it out. It was fine until i heard Giselle do a little scream, naturally i just assumed she had had problems squatting and had just weed on herself. "Alicia !! oh no wait i don't have my trousers on !" I now tried to think of another reason  she may of just screamed, I couldn't....... "The taps come off !" after she had managed to put her trousers on i went in, she had managed to put the tap partly back on but there was a lot of water squirting every where. This was one of those catch 22 moments, do we go tell the hotel owners and risk them wanting to pay them some money for damage or try and fix it our selves. Well, naturally we chose to try and fix it ourselves. My thoughts were "Let's just try and gaffer tape it on"..."don't you think we should tell them"......"No, you pulled there tap off they might want us to pay some money". This was all discussed while holding the tap to the wall. Giselle got the gaffer tape and we tried to fix it. It didn't work. Then came the removing of the tape. "Ahhhh" The whole tap came off again and water went every where ! We eventually called the hotel man up, and we felt immensely bad as he also got soaked, the only difference being was we were in rubbish clothes and he was in a suite. He apologized and moved us to another room, that he said was the same but i didnt think was as nice, the tap didn't brake though :)
Bhairawha is nearly as bad as Dumre and they don't sell toilet roll any where !! (we found some packets of tissues eventually)

"White trousers not good,............white people good though" Ishaw

The early bird catches the worm.....breakfast at 6.30, pancakes YUM ! Ishaw came to meet us and took us down to the river (im afraid i didnt find out the name of the river). It said in our paper work that there would be canoe rides, i was worried they were going to try and make us row (i wasnt feeling particularly adventurous and didnt want to do that) thankfully they didnt. It was a lovely boat ride down the river, Giselle was sat in front of me and ishaw in front of her, he was telling us all about the birds and pointing them out. Behind me was another man who i hadnt seen before, he was talking alot in what im guessing was hindi but occasionally he would say the odd word in english, like 'deer' (when there was a deer). I didnt know if he was talking to me or not, it was fairly awkward as i wasnt sure what to do, so i just occasionally turned round and said thankyou.
We got to the river bank and Ishaw was very happy that we were the first to set of on our jungle walk (the man who was sat behind me followed us). We'd only been walking for a couple of minutes, "im sorry i need to go to the toilet" Ishaw said and put his hand out to tell us to wait there. Me, giselle and the strange man. I looked around to find lots of silver like spiders in webs, thankfully they stayed where they were. Giselle "do you speak English?"... man looked slightly scared and shook his head. Giselle then beautifully mimed a spider biting, to see if they were biting ones.
Ah Ishaw appeared from the bushes and waved us to follow him. All of a sudden the floor had lots of red scary looking bugs on the floor. "err what are these"... Ishaw turned around "they are Red cotton bugs, not poisonous"...man "Red cotton bugs, not poisonous". Ishaw then proceeded to pick one up, they freaked me out alot and some were really small and some were massive ! it was a task and a half to avoid standing on them, i think i managed it though.
Ishaw being the genius of a guide he is after following rhino foot prints, looking at their poo and climbing some trees got us amazingly close to some ! I was very impressed and terrified ! We also got to see a crocodile across the river (Giselle was dubious to whether it was a plastic one or not though, i don't think it was). We also saw some sloth bear poo and foot prints sadly no bear though :(.
On the walk back we stopped of in a tall watch tower to have a rest. Ishaw started to tell giselle that here bag was a good colour for jungle trekking  but here trousers wernt. "White trousers not got....... White people good though".... hmmmm me and giselle did a little laugh here, only a little politically incorrect. Ishaw had a strange sense of humour but thats why we loved him.
Back at the hotel we had a quick change of clothes and then out to the river again we went. Lots of baby elephants were all playing and spraying water every where. The man told us to take are shoes and glasses off, we did. He then ushered us on top of the elephant, what !? how are we meant top climb on that. He put his hands out and gave me a leg up, pretty much threw my self on and put one leg over. WOW on an elephant bar back, crazy! The baby elephant soaked us and i mean wet through. I was no longer too hot any way. I have probably got some horrible water related disease now.
That afternoon we went on an elephant ride in the jungle, sitting bare back on an elephant was pretty comfy, sitting on the weird seats they made on the elephants how ever were not in the slightest comfortable. (we were sat there for around an hour to an hour and a half, i am now covered in bruises.) Recently i have started to get motion sickness, i haven't worked it out fully yet. I'm fine in cars, trains, buses and on small boats, but put me on a ferry boat or make me try and watch a hand held camera film or doc and i feel like i could be sick every where (nice i know).  Sadly the elephant ride goes into the latter category, i wasn't sick but i sure didn't feel my best! It was all made better though when we came meters from a rhino in the open air ! He didn't seem too bothered and just ate some grass. There not as big as i expected but they sure are incredibly cool. We also saw some spotted deer, a mongoose and strangely enough a chicken (it may of been lost, ran quite fast when it saw the elephant coming.) Our elephant was the cutest thing, it kept on picking up massive sticks and wafting them around in a jolly sort of way, me and Giselle were sat at the back and our feet ever so often got hit by its tail that was constantly wagging.
Chitwan was well worth all the pennies, and a special thanks goes to Ishaw, thanks for finding me some Rhinos!

Second Holi...........not so cool

I'm going to apologize in advance if this blog doesn't make sense, the key board is awful and the writing on the screen doesn't come up until ages after i have written it. It does how ever have spell check so i can see what is spelt wrong this time. I also haven't been writing in my little book the last few days as so much has been going on, so this is all from memory ( and i can ask Giselle as she is seated the other side of the room this time.)

So we left Pokhara and butterfly lodge despite being tempted to stay there forever, and for the first time we had decided to book one of our visit with a tour group as the price seemed reasonable and we both felt like we wanted someone else taking charge for a few days. We got on our tourist bus and to know ones surprise the bus had literally been double booked. A couple came on "seats B 5/6" yep they were meant to be sitting in the exact same seats as us. They didnt mind and just sat some were else, the people who arrived later were less than pleased and had to be moved to another bus. Off we went around an hour later.The bus journey wasn't particularly comfortable (On the other hand the public buses we had previously taken had been surprisingly nice.) But we did have a nice conversation with a man who i think had been living in India for two months and was in the process of designing a pair of trousers with lots of pockets. Part way through the journey two young local lads came on and started singing and playing a small strange violin thing. Admittedly it was fairly good but i did not want to hear it, simple as really, so i just put my ear phones in an tried my hardest to ignore them, as did everyone else (even when he did come and sit on my arm rest).
We finally arrived and me and giselle went of in a jeep to Hotel Riverside, gis was in pain for the most part of the journey as she banged her head on the jeep bar (wuups) We also tried are hardest to avoid yet another Holi celebration. Hotel looked nice and we did get complimentary drinks. After settling in we got our lunch and a young man came and told us he was going to take us on a village tour, he never did, i think we were possibly eating to slow and he got impatient. Instead the man in charge got another young lad to take us to the Baby elephant sanctuary, "can you cycle?", yes i replied because in my eyes i can. We went to get our bikes and straight away i knock over two of the nicely lined up bikes. "oh sorry !" (turn round and knock another one down), "im really sorry !" i say while trying to stand them up again. They laughed and didnt seem to bothered. I was then reasonably nervous. I was paranoid about getting hit by a car, getting attack in colour  from strange people who were to busy enjoying Holi to care about my cycling ability, I was also a little concerned about breaking the bike.While wobbling around on my bike with giselle behind me laughing (sisterly love) I tried to explain that i wasnt particularly good at riding bikes. "you dont ride very often" he said,"no i cycle lots, i just haven't improved" the sad but honest truth. I made it to the sanctuary alive and only got a little colour on me from the festival celebrators.
The boy tried to makes us pay (we had already paid as we had decided to opt for a package trip.) Giselle got stressed but we decided to just pay and just take it up with the big man at our hotel. The sanctuary was nice but out guide (the young man/boy) couldnt really speak very good english so he was just there being awkward. My favourite bit of the day had to be on the ride home, when i over took an elephant on the road with my bicycle it was crazy. We got our money back but felt abit cheated, so we weren't really in best of moods when we went for dinner. We had finished and were nearly ready to hop of for a good nights sleep, when a man came and sat next to us "you going to culture programme?" eurghhhh yes we were meant to be doing it but we thought every one had forgotten about us and we just wanted to be boring and sleep. We acted a little confused to begin with and then said "yes i think so".
Of we went with this man in the dark to some dance thing i was hoping it wasn't going to just be us trying to dance with locals. On the way the man introduced himself, Ishaw was his name and he was going to be our guide for the next day or so. He seemed friendly enough and could speak pretty good english. "I've also wanted to ask an English person what Swindy means".... um i thought, i didnt even know what swindy meant. The next time he mentioned it he said "Windy" (i could only guess he meant the weather). He was looking at a sign so i turned to look, in big letters 'Wendy's Hotel'. Oooooh Wendy. We tried our hardest to explain Wendy was just a name, "Wendy's hotel, Perhaps Wendy also means something different" he said. He didn't seem convinced or satisfied with mine and Giselle answer, oh well. The 'Tharu culture programme' Was really just a dance show, but an amazing one, people in Nepal sure know how to strut their stuff. We all got up at the end and danced on stage (we being me, Giselle, Ishaw and a lovely lady called Nia who we had met previously in Pokhara).  I went to bed happy even though our hotel did try and make us pay again and i did knock over a few bikes earlier in the day :)

Im now going to say sorry that i am so behind on my blog ! we have been unable to get to computers the last few days and i now want to go listen to some music and drink nice tea so shall carry on tomorrow. There are lots of exciting things to come in the next few blogs so it will all be worth it ! thank you :) xxxxxx

HAPPY HOLI !!!!

So me and Gis went to bed and woke up terrified and concerned about the festival Holi which i think is the festival of colour and water or just colour. Turns out it has actually been loads of fun ! and met some lovely tavelers as well which we had a drink with and heard there thought on india (as they have just left india). Were also meeting them for dinner which should be nice :). Basically the festival consists of people throwing and rubbing coloured powder on your face and wishing you a happy Holi, people also though spray water at you, throw water at you from the roof tops and so on. It can also be coloured water.I think we were very lucky to be in Pokhara for this as i think they are very tame compared to places like Delhi. Everyone seems very happy, ive only seen one person get annoyed.
We woke up at around nine and got in our clothes which we had baught for 100 rs each especially for holi (they were old once from a laundrettes) and went down into our hotel garden. We really didnt no quite what to expect, but the hotel people all went out together tourists and locals. I felt abit like a group from gangs of new york meeting  other groups on the cross road. As we walked through the main street we got covered and covered everyone in our path wishing them a happy holi. We got to the end of the street where there was a band and everyone started dancing (including us). I struggle imensly with a dance move that you do crouched down, but i think they just liked that we were taking part. It was crazy, its like every one had just gone slightly mental with children just running every where. The dancing and the band started moving forward, people throwing the powder up into the air and children jumping up to put colour on your face. It really has been the most bizaar experience. I ended up being head to toe in coloured powder. But i wasnt as bad as some people, it got slightly worse when people from roof tops started throwing water down on the crowed and shouting "Happy Holi!", still it was ok, and them from nowhere me and gis got a rather large bucket of purple coloured water thrown at us. Giselle had just seen it and turned away so it only got her back, me on the other hand got drenched head to toe in purple stuff. "you look like the girl that turns to a blueberry in charlie and the chocolate factory" giselle stated. Thanx i thought. Oh well i was happy and it was holi so i survived. Though because i looked like i had really got into it people took it as an invitation to cover me even more in the stuff. still i dont think i looked as bad as some people (giselle might disagree). Today me and giselle have been asked atleast 3 times by strangers if we are twins. We are not twins. We are though nearly wearing identical clothes and shoes and do both have glasses on and are covered in colourful stuff, so maybe we do look like twins.
We also got interviewed by a man asking us about holi and if we have it in england, so we may be in a Pokhara newspaper. Quite a few people also took our photo (significantly more after we got drenched in purple water). Its our last day in Pokhara which is very upsetting as its been nothing but fun, i am sure that i shall one day return though :)
Anyway we are of to Chitwan national park tommorow for a few days.
Good bye Pokhara ! you will be missed.

Also just a reminder to check out my justgiving page. Im jumping out of a plane in July for a charity called Read international, about the charity and everything will be found on the link http://www.justgiving.com/Alicia-Silvester and if you feel like donating it would be massively appreciated :)
Thank you !

We have decided today is going to just be a relaxing day so dont have much to write about. Last night we went to an italian restaurant which was nice and they were showing the cricket. The man who was serving us like to repeatedly tell us that england was playing. We left with nice full tummys to head home for an early sleep (we had got up at 4.15).  On the way we ended up passing the young man that we see every night (i spoke about him in an earlier blog, he guessed we were sisters then laughed at us when I tried to say namaste). At first he didnt notice us then shouted "ahh it you, yea yea i was just thinking about you two". Later down the road another man "where have you been, been waiting for you all night". If we new the whole of Pokhara had been waiting for us we wouldnt of sat eating by are selves oh well. Tonight I tihnk we are going back to the dancing place to strut our stuff.
Also read Giselles blogs for the first time earlier, they made me laugh if your not reading them you should :)
Special thanks goes to you guys for reading my blogs, Thanx ! and much love xxxx

"I hope you have a beautiful journey....just like you"

Today was a nice and early start, up at 4.15 am !! anyone that knows me knows im not the best in the morning but i was in such a jolly mood that getting up at 4 felt like the norm. We wondered out the hotel in search of a taxi (a man in the hotel assured us that there are always taxis about). Ahh weres a taxi, it seemed there wernt loads of taxis waiting for us. It was not to long though until one drvoe up to us pulled over "TAXI ?"....."yep, to sarangkot point". The taxi man told us it was going to cost 600 Rs, at first we thought this might of been abit expensive but after looking through our 8 year old lonely planet guide which said it would cost 500Rs we thought we had probly got a bargain.
As expected despite it being half 5 in the morning when we left our taxi there was a man ready in ambush us. "you want a guide yes?". we said no as we figured it couldnt be that hard to find the path up.
we hadnt been climbing for that long when a local lady ushered us into her cafe/ shop. "the best view is from here, tea? coffee?"....."um no thanx". we wondered around and then climbed her stairs to get higher. When we looked up we could see that the mountain definatly went up alot higher so we asked a young lady who was near what was up there. "tower"... the other lady came back "no no its army up there down here much better." We decided she was probly lying and there was no harm in finding out for our selves anyway so we left to carry on up the mountain. It felt pretty adventures climbing up in the dark with our torches but after awhile it was like when will we get there !
It was a little disapointing but that is nearly all to blame on the mist. The hope of seeing lots of mountains was gone it was just an awful lot of mist. The man up there said it had been like that for 2 days now. Oh well.
Giselle wanted to walk down abit and get some food and see if the mist cleared. I on the other hand was to busy feeling sorry for my self (i always thinks this helps when your ill). Although i have managed to avoid the runs so far (YAY) and any funny tummys, my skin how ever seems to not like it out here. The one thing i didnt really think about getting was heat rash or dermatitis ( i have now learnt my lesson).
We walked down abit until a local lady offered us tea or coffee, so we accepted. She was very lovely and there was a child there who got out her english book and started singing a song about a dog and cat (she was very good). The tea was also very nice. But on the other hand i couldnt eat her food ( i felt very bad and did pay her anyway)The scrambled egg did really look like it had been cooked for very long at all, and the toast (was a little bit just like bread) had just got a blob of honey and two blobs of butter on them (it also had an ant on it, nice). i had one slice of toast and couldnt eat anymore. We also got a snicker bar that was 6 months out of date, tasted fine thou.
The mist didnt clear so we decided just to start heading down the lonely planet said it would take aorund 2-3 hours but was farely easy path to follow (this was a lie). We walked the little bit we new down to where the taxis were, turned down a taxi "it's a very long way down, you want taxi?" we said we wanted to walk and giselle did actions just incase they didnt get it. He did and directed us in the right direction. After getting a little further down we bumped into a group of young men. "you want taxi" ..."no no we want to walk"(insert walking action". "you dont want taxi, you want to walk, you want a guide?" they all laughed at this point. "no were ok"..."you dont want a guide, you might get lost"...."no were fine we can find our way"...."its a free, you can have a free guide"...his friend then shouted "two free guides".... we said no again and laughed. They shouted tata and some other things along with "i hope you have a beautiful journey... just like you." we were a little worried they might follow us. They didnt.
The path home did take around 2-3 hours but we dont think we did it right though. We bumped into lots of lovely people on are way including a boy in his bike whp just rang his bell and confessed his love for us (not sure if he just learnt this at school or if he didnt no what he was shouting but it was a little strange.) We walked past a little girl "namaste, give me money" we didnt they dont seem to learn please. The main reason we new we had taken the wrong turn some were is when the path ran out, it was either go back, slide down a steep maybe once path that looked anything but safe or go through some ones house. We chose to attempt the latter. "Namaste !" giselle shouted this a few times into there garden, it felt reasonably dramatic. After a few shouts two ladies came out. We just asked where lakeside was and she pointed away through her garden we could take. It was pretty comical and im sure we looked like stupid tourists as we tried to find our way through her garden while getting a quick shower as we had to walk under her flower sprinkler. We could hear the old lady laughing, i hope we made her day, if not im sure we left her very confused. Special thanks goes to her.WHAM yep we saw some more monkeys ! i got some more photos as they were swinging in the trees this time so were less scary but by no way less cute, part of me now wants a pet monkey. We made it down the hill safe and soundly while passing some one who i think has a large resemblance to Robert Pattison, i have seen him 3 times today, giselle told me to shout Rob at him next time. Maybe i will.

"Just give them your lip balm!!'

What an amasing nights sleep ! With the best nights sleep behind us and going to bed on a high we woke up raring to go. Had our first proper breakfast of the trip and went down to the lake. Today we have decided to go to the peace stupa and to a waterfall. We got a boat ride across the lake by a lady called Mia who was lovely. We had decided we were going to hike up to the stupa, which the lonely planet said should be a 2 hour round trip. It wasnt as hot today about 26 degree celcius so was quite looking forward to it. Once on the shore we past a restaurant called 'Typical restaurant' which made me chuckle it looked very typical. Then up the rocky steps "its like the steps up to mordor" and yep they did look very similar to them. The views were amasing and i got my first glimpse of snowy mountains !! very exciting. Apparently im not as fit as i thought and was pretty out of breath but i made my self feel better by reminding myself that i was now on my way to becoming the next steve backshall or Nick backer. We stopped of at a little shop on the way and baught some  fanta (which was very flat). We finally arived at the top, the stupa was very beautiful, so were the views and we could see lots of snowy mountains now ! We took our shoes of and walked around the stupa which was nice and cold on our feet. I saw lots of butterflys, ladybirds, buzzing things and a spider ( i now want to be nick baker). We sat down in a cafe to work out how we were getting down and had a quick chat with some other travelers. In the lonely planet guide it said there was a waterfall near by that we could walk to so we decided to try and find this. On are way though we bumped into some other travelers who said that it was rubbish and wasnt worth it. So we didnt bother. They pointed us down a path and said its steep and down hill but just keep on going and you'l come out in Damside and from there can walk to lakside. We decided to listen to them and take the road down hill. It was no way as good and well used as the path up but it was some sort of path all the same. We didnt see anyone on the way down but there was always some sort of rubbish on the path which we took as a good sign that at one point not that long ago some people had been that way. It was pretty exciting but there were lots of insects and occasionally leaves falling on you which can be just as scary when you dont no what they are. We were a little concerned we had been walking for a while and not seen anyone and at some points the once upon a time path split up but we figure as long as we were going down hill towards the lake it would be some where close. After doing a few little runs from groups of flys and scary bugs giselle stopped me. AHH ! right in front of us were 2 monkeys just walking along on the path away from us. "OMG ! what do we do?" "I dont no! What does it say in your book" it said that they tend to hang in groups of 50 and that they like to try and take you glasses untill you give them food. "we dont have any food" umm "They can have my water bottle if they want" i started looking around my bag thinking what do i do if one starts running at me or trys to steal my glasses ! "I have lip balm".."yes just give them your lipbalm!" I only got 3 photos but there were quite a few but i was a) very shocked (the lonely planet guide said if you were very lucky your might see some monkeys, so wasnt expecting it) and b) i didnt want to scare them and i didnt want them running of with it. We carried on walking really slowly but loudly enough so they new we were there. One of them sat on a log stared at us but was quite content eating its branch, and the others just walked away from us further into the forest. I can easily say that has been the best bit of the trip so far, if not of my life. Really cant get into words how amasing they were. (I'm also thankful they didnt bite, thanx monkeys)

also im going to apologise for allllll the spelling mistakes ! im trying to write them very speadly ! maybe onday i will go back and correct them :)

You English?...um yes...Your rubbish at cricket....Oh

Phewa Tal, the lake in Pokhara. It was beautiful.

Mmmmm honey and lemon tea

Up up and away! I dont think we have ever moved so fast out of a place! we had planned to grab breakfast but as soon as we were out of our hotel some one came up to us "you go to Pokhara?". We went on a local mini bus, it was abit bumpy but overall was a nice ride. They dropped us off  in Pokhara and after learning our lesson well we had read up what the best thing was to do when we got there. We got a taxi to lakeside, be warned the taxi man tried to take us sight seeing so just be clear what you want and where you want dropping. YAY tourists. We got lunch at a really nice korean restaurant and booked our selves in at Butterfly lodge (which we had read about in the lonely planet guide). It is very nice ! Every one is lovely and khem who owns the lodge is particularly lovely and speaks English amazingly well. We just spent the Day wondering around and settling in. In the evening we shared a buffet selection type meal and both tried our first lassies, banana flavoured (they taste similar too milkshakes). This is when a waiter commented on how rubbish we were at cricket. The night life here seems more lively and lots of places were playing loud music and had multi-coloured fairy lights outside. We wondered down the street and past a young Indian man who was handing out leaflets, "you sisters" he shouted "yes yes we are!" we replied happily. A little further down the road some one else also stated the same thing. "hmm this is weird, why does every one know were sisters!?" After walking around abit, seeing a rather cute dog and the locals all lighting candles in the street with a sign 'pray for Japan' we went to a restaurant by the lake which was too expensive for us to have dinner there but we could manage an a apple crumble and tea. They had dances performing for everyone, they were very good ! and really enjoyed it. But at the end they came down and tried to get every one else to come up and dance.At first we said no, but then we didn't want to be party poopers so went up. It was a strange experience, my partner was lovely but I really had no idea what I was doing. I was happy to look over and also see Giselle looking just as scared as I imagined I did. It was fun though. Once the song had finished I said thank you. "you wait for me after" ahhhh god (sure my facial expression was similar to what I was thinking) "um yea." I didn't wait for him and do feel a little bit bad but I was scared of him and feel the situation would of just been a little awkward. Later on Giselle stated "maybe he just thought you were really good at dancing and thought you had potential." I doubt this a lot, but who knows future career maybe ?