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)