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  • Shahnavaz Mehta
Actuellement en voyage
nov. 2018 – sept. 2025

India

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Good Morning Mumbai!

    18 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ 🌫 28 °C

    After leaving at 5am on the 17th we finally arrived at 10am in Mumbai. And to my astonishment we got picked up by a family friend Cyrus from the station! It was just what we needed. He then took us directly to our friends house. The drive took 2 hours, the traffic was absolutely horrific but wow... When we arrived... One of Will's friends from university has let us stay in this house. Its HUGE but completely abandoned apart from the housekeeper. We were told that this area is actually full of bollywood stars so I'll keep my eye out! We are meeting her tomorrow so I'm hoping we get to know more about the place as its beautiful!!

    When we arrived we crashed, but instead of resting we had showers, did washing and got out by the afternoon. I treated myself to a legwax. It was heaven!! Now this is a bit personal but meh.. So, it's interesting... Since travelling I've not cared that I'm actually quite hairy. Normally when in the UK I'm embarrassed about it and have to wax my legs, but since travelling I don't know why but it doesn't feel like an issue. And no, it's not what you think, it's not because I've become a lazy hippie, other people on the travels aren't hairy like me but people haven't cared. And most importantly I've not cared. Back home you put so much pressure on yourself and put ideas in your head about what other people think or might say. Would people really care? I'm not sure...

    After getting rid of my bear coat we went to Juhu beach and just sat enjoying sunset. The location of this house is soo lovely, I can't believe we are on the coast and out of the hustle and bustle of the city.

    In the evening as we hadn't eaten at all all day we decided to splash out and go to a famous Parsi restaurant called Sodabottleopenerwala, seriously that is its name! Haha As most of you know I'm a Parsi Zoroastrian and our food is actually very different from normal Indian food and so I was super excited to have some homecooked food. We really did splash out, not only did we have our first alcoholic drink of India, but also our first meat dish in India! It was sooo good!! We had Sali Boti ni Pav (Mutton in a sweet and sour gravy sauce with potato sticks on top served with bread) and Vegetable Parsi Curry with Rice. The restaurant was a super hipster place with really funny Parsi related jokes on the wall. I loved every minute of it. It was a great start to our time in Mumbai.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    28 Hours Later

    17 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ 🌫 17 °C

    Well today is going to be fun!! It's our first train and to be honest I'm quite excited. It was really 5am and it was 5 degrees so we were wrapped up to the max. We had booked 2S class seats which are supposedly the lowest... They were perfectly fine! Sure the windows weren't great and so it was pretty cold but to be honest it was better than the Darwen train at home 😂 we arrived only half an hour late in Dehli, which was fine as we gave ourselves plenty of time.

    We had been so excited to get to Dehli mainly for its warmth, I was so wrong. It was still cold! We were only here 3 weeks ago and definitely wasn't like this. I guess I'll have to wait till Mumbai to feel heat.

    We then attempted to get across Dehli to our next station. Now this wasn't as easy as expected. We ended up asking a bus conductor who took us onto his bus, dropped us off for free at a random bus stand and then we had to take another bus to the station. No one charged us the whole way! I have no idea why...

    We arrived at our train station and as we hadn't eaten all day it was time to eat! We found a guy making fresh puris and then we sat in the waiting area with plenty of reading time to spare. Just before the train we went out again for an early dinner of Aloo Paratha and then jumped on our posh sleeper train. We booked 3AC on this train as was advised by a lot of people as it was affordable still but comfortable. To be honest it was luxury and everyone was very chatty.

    Around 9pm the baby next to us decided it was time to wail and wail it did for what felt like forever so we both popped sleeping tablets and had a pretty good sleep to be honest. I remember at one point I got up needing a wee and as I was on the top bunk I avoided it as long as I physically could. Eventually I couldn't hold it any longer so in a very dreary mess I scrambled down, went and then found it impossible to muster the energy to yet back up! I went as far as I could and had to belly flop and slide my body in a very unflattering manner onto my bed. It was not my finest moment haha    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    All "cold" things have to come to an end

    16 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    So today we are going to attempt to book last minute trains, which is supposedly very difficult. All we know is that on the 17th we need to be in Dehli by 4pm for our train to Mumbai. Rishikesh is about 300km from Dehli. So hear goes! We checked out of our hotel in hope that it was all going to go smoothly and then went for breakfast. We were so eager to get on with our day that our normal Paratha or chai man hadn't setup yet! We went to another chai man until breakfast was ready and then we had our last yummy aloo paratha. It's sooo good! Why do people in the UK not have this for breakfast?!

    We had to kill time till about 11am which is when the Taktal foreigner day before train ticket window opens,so we went back to our coffee place with a gorgeous view and enjoyed a coffee with a view of the Ganges while reading our books. When 11am struck we jumped onto our phones and after a bit of too and froing we booked a train ticket from Haridwar to Dehli for tomorrow morning in hope of little delay so we can make our Mumbai train. After such relief we just relaxed for the rest of the day and enjoyed our views and the atmosphere of rishikesh. Will got his hair cut I read 50% of my book and then we had a yummy falafel dinner before heading to Haridwar for the evening.

    In the evening when getting a tuk tuk to Haridwar we had heard there are local tuk tuks a bit like uber pool so you can share them, so we went in search of these. When we found them we asked the price and obviously they just made up a price. I said OK ok and then happily asked the locals what the real price was. They happily told me and were angry that we were being charged different and told us to only pay the same and walk off. Easier said than done sometimes! Anyway we got in the tuk tuk and wow how many people can you fit in a car... Supposedly 10 including a driver!!! Let's just say the next hour was horrifically uncomfortable but it got us straight to our hotel and for barely any cost. So it worked out OK in the end. When we arrived at Haridwar it was really bustling! I was gutted to have already had dinner as the street food smelled lovely! Instead we checked in, Skyped with the family and eventually got to bed ready for our early morning.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur
    1

    We saw snow!!! Very far away...

    15 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    After yesterday's day of fun scootering, walking and birdwatching we decided to go out and do it all again this time south towards Rajali National Park.

    First stop, the most important meal of the day, breakfast. Today we had Masala Dosa, a dish that has never disappointed. How can you go wrong with a crispy pancake stuffed with Masala potatoes and doused in dhaal and coconut chutney? You just can't. Well actually I lie, I had a made up version of it once in Manchester and left utterly upset.

    After breakfast we headed along the Ganges on maps.me there was a skull and crossbones icon so we drove there first as I was just intrigued. I'm not sure what it was supposed to symbolise but it was not very deathly... In fact it was just a flat path surrounded in trees with birds. So we sat and attempted to bird watch. With a combination of the rays from the sun and the forever fluttering birds it was very very difficult to spot them. We eventually saw various bulbuls and the very impressive Black hooded oriole. We then carried on to a dam and ended up going over a super sketchy... I don't know what it was to be honest but I've put a picture on the blog...

    We then set off further not before long we were in the forest and after a while we started heading up the mountain edge. The gravel road was pretty rough going to be honest and we had a couple of hairy moments but Will is a pretty good driver now and has perfect control over the bike. Soon we are at the top and wow what a site! It was soo gorgeous! Although we were currently based at the bottom of the Himalayas there isn't snow where we are, but in the distance we could see the magical mountains of snow!! We were so excited!!!

    Along the driver back we saw male peacocks and Himalayan Goldenback which was a great spot on the moving bike if I do say so myself.

    For dinner we went and had Baijan Masala, Veg Masala and Matar Mushroom with chapattis. We ate like Kings! Then as we didn't have lunch we decided to have a cheeky look at puddings in a posh cafe. We had two amazing cakes for £1.90. Splashy!

    Well the day has come, it's time to leave Rishikesh... Although I cannot wait to get some heat inside me and not have a constant head ache and sore hands from the cold I am going to miss this peaceful and beautiful town.

    Now we don't really know what our plan is tomorrow... All we know is that we need to be in Dehli on the 17th at 4pm to catch our train to Mumbai. If we take the bus as we did to get here it will take forever so we are going to wake up in the morning and hope we can get a train for the 17th, but they only sell the tickets the day before so we need to be on it! If we get the ticket we will either get the train on the morning of the 17th or the evening of the 16th or end up getting a bus tomorrow. So who knows what tomorrow will bring. Either way I know I want one last aloo paratha, a chai and then a coffee in our lovely cafe with a view 😊

    Speak to you tomorrow!!    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Scootering in the Himalayas!

    14 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Well let's be honest we have been pretty lazy the last couple of days, so today it was time to hire a scooter and get to the top of one of these hills! First we stopped for a quick Egg Bhurji breakfast and then headed up to Kujapuri Shrine. The drive up was beautiful! It was such a perfect day. Not a single cloud in the sky!! The road was a very windy mountain road so it took quite a while to get up. After a while the road got really bad and it was basically us mountain biking up the mountain. After a while we decided it wasn't worth it and so walked the rest of the way. We had to walk 45 mins from the end of the road anyway so an extra 10 mins didn't make a difference. To be honest it was so nice walking as then I could bird watch again! I saw a red whiskered bulbul, a red vented bulbul and the himalayan bulbul.

    The walk was as lovely as the ride. The views were incredible and it was so nice to see all the local villagers getting on with their day.

    For dinner we treated ourselves to a pizza! 😊Wups it's our second in India. Shhh!    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Birds, birds and more birds

    12 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Although very geared up for an adventure today the weather was against us for the next two days and decided to rain in the mornings. So today we spent the morning at our aloo paratha stall chatting, eating and enjoying chai and then in our cafe reading our books, doing a bit more planning and just enjoying us time. By the late afternoon it cleared up so we went for a wander along the Ganges. It was really good fun. We walked a bit, sat for a while, bird watched a lot and repeated until we got to the next town along. We spotted the following birds White capped water red start, Plumbous water red start, Indian cormorant, Indian treepie, Indian grey hornbill, Pied kingfisher, Great white pelican, White throated kingfisher, Black kite, Oriental Pied Hornbill! What a fab day of bird watching.

    In the the evening we watched the fire ceremony for sunset at Parmart Niketan and then went for an open meditation. It was amazing. I've tried to do some mindfulness and meditation through headspace myself but nothing has ever been as powerful as this joint meditation. The feeling of togetherness, and the power of silence was just beautiful. It would be amazing to do some more of it. In the evening we walked all the way back and went for dinner. I had mushroom palak paneer and Will had thee biggest thali I'd ever seen! The temperature has now dropped to 7 degrees and its getting seriously cold so we have been on the hunt for a hat. I finally found one and I'm not usually one for bright colours but I love it!

    The next day was a lot worse weather wise so we basically spent the whole day in the cafe reading our books. Honestly I feel so honoured to have this time to sit and read. In the evening we went for chowmein, sat chatting with a few other travellers and whilst distracted a huge cow came and licked my entire plate off the table! It was actually pretty hilarious I couldn't stop laughing haha He deservedly won the battle haha After dinner we found Will a hat and I bought some funky trousers.

    Over the last few days we'd heard that Shanti Shanti is a cute little place to go in the evenings as they have a fire and live music, so we decided to give it a go! There was a fire and we decided to plonk ourselves right in front of it haha we were sooo cold!!! We sat reading our books in front of the fire and it was a perfect end to the day 😊🔥    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Happy 10 Year Anniversary of Pub Golf

    11 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Now only my uni students will probably know but me and Will had a funny old start of our relationship of which I won't go into here, but we finally got together today 10 years ago after properly meeting during Pub Golf. It's not our official anniversary but it was, as my mum would say, the start of our courting days. 😏

    Today we were moving accomodation... again.... We decided to move back towards our previous hostel so that we could easily access places to eat and see.

    In the morning we packed up, grabbed all our washing and went for breakfast at a Frog Life Cafe and had Egg Bhurji! At home we call this acurry, its spicy scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions and it's super super tasty. It wasn't quite my mums version but it was as close as I'm going to get so I'll take it. 😊

    Then Will took me to an amazingly cool cafe called Shanti Shanti that he discovered yesterday. Honestly I was in hippie heaven. The cafe pertruded over the river but on the opposite side to the other cafe we love and it had a live guitarist. The seats were positioned in a really cool fashion too. They were almost like sitting bunk beds and I felt like I was just hovering over the river. It was really really romantic. I do love this guy 😍Rishikesh is just a heavenly place to be.

    The day was reading and then researching what to do after our week in Mumbai ie over Christmas, New Year and until our visa runs out in mid January. Oh and drinking tea, eating amazingly fresh food (woohoo we had salad) is a given! We actually ended up spending the whole day till sunset there! It was so peaceful. After sunset we finally left and checked into our new hotel. 🤞 It seems pretty good so hopefully we don't have to move again!!

    For dinner we went to our good old falafel man and had falafel and chai. Gosh its nice to be back near the center.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Rishikesh - The Beauty of India

    9 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    I just can't explain my love for this place. Its a bit touristy and is very well known for its Yoga and has quite the hippy vibe. It's just so peaceful, well obviously it's has a bit of beeping but don't think I can ever rid of that... We checked out of our homestay as its got quite a lot of construction work so it is noisy and then we headed for Aloo Paratha for breakfast. The plan for the day is to go for a hike, but we are so chilled that I'm not sure if we will haha After breakfast we felt so calm we decided to go for a coffee again at the beautiful cafe we sat at yesterday. The sun was blazing into the cafe and it has a gorgeous outlook onto the Ganges. After having made a couple of life decisions yesterday we now feel super chilled and even more excited for our next month of travelling. (Watch this space for an update...).

    After a lazy start to the day we decided to go on a bit of a hike up a nearby hill we saw. It was super steep! But the view at the top was really lovely. Luckily I made it to the top as let's just say I was pretty sick along the way! We sat and bird watched for a while. On the way down we saw a family of pied hornbills!! What an incredible site!

    In the evening we had falafel, dumplings and chowmein. An odd combo I know but Indian food gets a bit much after a while... Dare I say it... Then we moved to our new homestay. We didn't realise how far out it was and jeeze it was far, mainly because it was uphill the whole way. Although feeling quite ill its been a really nice day... So far...

    Now the main reason we moved was because we wanted tranquility and peace. 😭 The reviews lied! It was not peaceful at all, constant bikes revving, children screaming, construction work going on and a guy constantly making sick noises. I ended up watching a film on my phone in attempt to block out the noise and eventually fell asleep at 3am. Not what I wanted when I was already feeling rotten. Unfortunately we booked 2 nights here 😔

    The next morning was very rough and I had a horrible fever and achey bones again. The positive of the situation was that they had hot water! Phew. I must admit today was a nothing day. I was either in bed or helping Will with the washing. My highlight of the day was when Will went for a little excursion and came back loaded with a chocolate croissant, cinnamon roll, popcorn and a mini dairy milk. He's the best!! As I hadn't eaten all day I was in heaven 😊

    Hope your day was better!    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    It's gonna be long old day....

    7 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    What a sleep! There were no calls to prayer at 5am,no dogs barking throughout the night, no beeping, just silence! At 4:20am we woke quite refreshed for once. We quickly got ready and jumped in the car.

    Now Ajay has now been driving us around for what will be 14 days and I have been unbelievably impressed by his knowledge of the routes and his lack of any technology. He has a phone but it must by much older than a Nokia 3310, and he calls it his apple haha Every other day we have been driving during the day and I think the dark has completely thrown him. Bless him he got lost after about 10 mins as he didn't take the correct right hand turn and we had to use GPS to get him back on track.

    Knowing it was 5am and dark we wrapped up in our coats prepped for a somewhat chilly start but I don't think I could have been more prepared... It was freezing. There was actual early morning mist on the fields like you see in the UK winter. Now I can hear you saying "Well I'm sure it's not actually cold like it is in England" and sure it isn't, but the temperature difference between day and night time is almost 20 degrees and that's what makes it feel so damn cold!

    Eventually the sun rose and by about 10am I was beginning to warm up and even took off one layer. At about 12pm we stopped for Aloo Paratha and chai before reaching a metro station in Dehli at 1pm. The restaurant was called Mannat and it had the rip off version logo from Masterchef haha

    We said our fond farewells to Ajay and we were now on our own. Ajay had told us the route we needed to take to get to Rishikesh and so we followed his instructions. First take a train direct to the bus station and then take a direct bus to Rishikesh. Easy... Haha so we were sat at the train station for about 40 mins when we realised there was no direct train to our required stop. So we asked and then jumped on the train. We arrived at the bus station an hour and half later to then find that Ajay had told us the wrong station! A local told us we needed to take another bus to the correct station and then get the bus to Rishikesh. So that we did. 2 hours later we were finally on the bus to Rishikesh! Ahhhh!! To be honest we were both just laughing at the whole situation hehe We decided to rough it and go on the local bus. Was this a good idea? I'd say it was bearable. It took 6 hours and the traffic was chaotic, our driver kept getting in yelling matches with other drivers, we eventually stopped for food where another driver was so peed with ours and so trapped our bus in completely and refused to move it for half an hour, but hey we eventually arrived in Rishikesh and I completed my book in the meantime - Andromeda Strain, I would definitely recommend it :)

    We then took a final tuk tuk, got to our guesthouse, and it was absolutely freezing. I had to sleep in all my clothes and my coat! But I must admit it was nice to be out of the crazy city atmosphere. Rishikesh is at the bottom of the Himalayas and on the Ganges. Can't wait to actually explore and see the beautiful surroundings in the morning!

    In the morning we both woke and decided today is a chill day. We had a few life decisions to make and to be honest just needed some time out to breathe the fresh air before we go exploring. We are both feeling a bit homesick and in need of fresh food so we went to a tourist cafe for avocado's and poached eggs on toast! We then wanderd along the Ganges and sat at a warm sunny spot on a peaceful beach along the river. My latest dilemma is what book do I pick next? After huge deliberation I've gone for Eragon.

    For lunch we had thali for Rs50! It's the cheapest I have ever seen it and it was so much food. I was in mini heaven.

    Then we went for coffee at a cafe looking over the Ganges, sat deliberating our next few months plans and then towards sunset we treated ourselves to carrot cake and ice cream!! Well that's what being homesick does to you :)

    We sat for as long as we physically could with all of our layers on and then went for a wander to heat up. We found a popcorn man and bought a bag of fresh popcorn as another home comfort treat. We we do have a lot of calories to make up for barely eating yesterday haha    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Mandawa - Our last night with Ajay

    6 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Although it wasn't our longest journey it really did feel like it. I slept for about an hour of it, was being thrown out of our seats for about 2 hours and felt starving and thirsty for the remaining. We did ask for filtered water at the hotel but it tasted like chlorine so I didn't want to risk it. We also had a kg of bananas but devoured them within the first hour or so. Now if I'm honest I've been very impressed by the quality of the roads here but I think I spoke too soon. It was like being in Laos again for part of the journey!

    Ajay did not disappoint us when taking us to our final accommodation. He dropped us off at Hotel Heritage Mandawa and he warned us "it will be very expensive but let's see what you can do with the price". This was now completely down to our bargaining. The owner showed us 3 different rooms first costing Rs 3,500. It was a beautiful beautiful suite, but 3.5x our price range! Next he showed us another room which was 2.5x our price range and then one that was 1.5x. I politely said they were all beautiful but unfortunately we just can't afford it. He then dropped to the price to Rs 1,000, which was bang on our budget and he asked us to not tell the other guests! I think we were lucky. :) We had a quick attempt to rehydrate and then headed off in search of the much loved famous Havelis of Mandawa, oh and of course food... That vital thing we keep skipping on...

    We found a man selling fried potato patties which was then mashed and mixed with chickpea dhaal, onions and covered in yoghurt. It was delicious!! So much so that Will ordered two. We then wandered round the teeny town, saw the outside of the Fort, a few Havelis, sat for a while as I was suffering from dehydration, I ate a somosa, we topped up on snacks and bananas in prep for our long day tomorrow and then headed back to our guesthouse to sit, read watch sunset and have dinner. Aftwe dinner we did a final stretch of our legs and had Peda an india sweet that Will's says is like Indian version of fudge.

    As tomorrow we have to get up and out for 5am we had an early night.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Bikaner

    5 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We are now in our final 3 days/ 2 nights of our Rajasthan tour and to be honest although we can't always have this luxury I am sad to have it end. Today we have a a long 6 hour drive to Bikaner. We are now basically driving back to Dehli but as the distance is so far we need to break it up into 3 days.

    Again, I'm sure we just drive on a single straight road the entire way!! Along the way we saw the norm of goats, bills, camels wandering along the highway. We even saw the Indian kingfisher fly past which was fun. At about 3pm we got to the hotel and chilled before heading out. I can't remember if I've mentioned but Ajay is a machine at driving. I think he'd do the journey in one if we didn't need to stop for a wee. But it also means that we don't stop for food, I'm sure he would if we asked, but we just power through on a kilo of bananas and then have a big dinner.

    For tonight's hotel he booked us into a haveli! Haveli's are beautifully ornate heritage buildings and this one was really lovely. I don't think we would have been able to afford it without the mates rates! I did a quick wash of clothes, we ate vegetarian biryani and then visited our final Fort of the trip. It wasn't anything spectacular but it was nice. Bikaner Fort is quite different from the others as its not actually on a hill top and is at the same level of the town.

    After we walked around around the town and ate dosa, jalebis, batata vada and something I had never had bettroot and potato kachori. Now that was a winner!    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Sunrise then Back to Chaos

    4 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    At about 6:30am we got out of our tent, moved our blankets back outside and led under the twilight sky. It was cold!!! Then when the sun began to rise we moved to the top of the dune to enjoy it in all it's glory.

    For breakfast we went back to the resort and then headed to Jaisalmer the near by city, back to the hustle and bustle and checked into our hotel. Ajay has been such an amazing driver finding us fantastic hotels for within our budget with towels and hot water!! He's definitely getting mates rates!

    Around lunch time we went for a quick bite to eat and then to our final Fort of Rajasthan. The Fort of Jaisalmer is the largest living Fort in India. It reminded me of scenes from the Game of Thrones with people living their daily lives within the walls of the Fort. We didn't bother going to the museum and instead got lost down the tiny alleys and streets of the Fort. To be honest the Fort isn't actually that big compared to others we have seen and we saw the whole thing by about 3pm. We then sat on a wall, people watched and then went for chai and did some more people watching. A friendly rickshaw driver came and sat with us just to chat and practise his English and told us all about the Fort and how he has always lived within the city walls. He didn't mention a single thing about wanting money or selling us a tour, it was eye opening!

    In the evening we were hoping to meet Alex our friend from Taiwan who happened to be there that day but unfortunately she got side tracked and then had to get her bus. We watched sunset at the Fort walls and then ummed and ahhed for AGES about what we wanted for dinner. We have been in India for about 2 weeks now and in Rajasthan for most of that. I never thought I'd say it but I'm getting a bit sick of the food. Not because it's not delicious but because in this region the food is very very samey and not refreshing. For example it is a huge no no to get salads (in case it is washed in tap water) and so you end up eating some sort of piping hot vegetarian spicy dish with rice or chapattis everyday. I'm dying for a refreshing salad. We are eating a lot of fruit during the day but I could kill for a salad in the evening.

    We did a bit of research and ended up going to a tourist restaurant as it did slightly different local dishes on the menu. We had Guttu Curry and Chapattis and it was delicious.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur
    11

    Our First Desert - Khuri

    3 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Today is going to be super exciting! We are having our very first desert experience. We are off to Jaisalmer were we will ride a camel into the desert and then decide whether we want to camp underneath the stars or stay in a hut (it's supposed to be absolutely freezing at night and they don't provide proper warmth, so we will decide later!).

    After very little sleep (attempting to sleep in any of these city's seems near impossible, it's just so loud throughout the night) we got up, had a chai and aloo paratha and then headed off on our next adventure. Oh and an update on Will, his temperature is back to normal and his tummy is on the mend too. Phew!

    For about 5 hours the journey was a single road, with barely any sign of the living. There were a few trees dotted around, the odd herd of cattle or goats, a wind farm but that's it. As far as the eye could see was dry, sandy desert land with maybe an hand full of people along the way.

    It's been a really odd feeling being away at this time of year. I've seen so many posts about Christmas, advent and that wintery feeling and although we have felt cold in parts there isn't a single feeling of Christmas. Especially now that we are in a desert!

    When we arrived at our resort we were able to have a little rest before our camel ride. The last time I was on the back of an animal was when I rode a horse in the mountains of India 19 years ago. Now I must admit there is a reason I haven't done anything like it since, it was terrifying. I had an absolutely barking mad horse that would just keep rearing. So let's just say I was feeling nervous. At 4pm we all came out and each got on our camels. Eeek!! Getting up on top of the camel was fine, but when the camel stood it did make me squeal a bit inside. After a couple of minutes I soon got used to it and maybe because I'm used to being thrown around as the 3rd person on a scooter was why I felt much more comfortable than expected. It was a really fun experience. Now, is this cruel for the camels I'm not sure. So apologies to all my anti animal cruelty friends out there and I wouldn't do it again but it was pretty fun. I've never done anything like this before and it was just super exciting, romantic and just amazing. The camels took us to to the top of the sand dunes where we watched the most beautiful sunset and then we rode back. Wow the temperature difference was crazy. At one point it was 30 degrees and then all of a sudden it must have gone down to 12!

    In the evening we were showered in entertainment from the classical musicians, the dancer, a huge fire pit and ate from their buffet. It was good fun!!

    Once it started to quieten down a few of us chose to camp under the stars in the desert so off we went in a jeep to our romantic spot. I was worried about being cold and I shouldn't have. They had humongous multiple layered thick blankets that they laid outside the tent for us to lie under the stars on. Unfortunately there were a few lights around so it wasn't perfect but it was truly a spectacular night under the stars until we decided to get into our tents.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    The Blue City - Jodhpur

    2 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Although we had a bit of a rough early morning Will slept well after his last fever episode. He was much perkier especially after I jubilated "it's a hot shower". After grabbing our leftover pizza and topping up our water bottles we jumped in the car and was soon on our way to Jodhpur.

    So why is known as the blue city? Well a lot of the buildings are painted blue. But why? There isn't actually any historical reasoning for the blue colour but their are various guesses including the Blue color was associated with Lord Shiva and there were lot of Brahmin followers of Shiva , they consider blue color to be sacred, or because blue color reflects most of the heat and because Jodhpur is known as suncity as it has sun all year round. And I can believe it. The scenery was completely different along the way. It was even drier, very little trees, flat and possibly the most real India we have seen. Although Rajasthan is seen as the Kings Home the poverty in Rajasthan is unbelievable. Ajay told us that the residents were given only 100 days work through the government and so it's very normal for families to go without food for days and weeks. Also the roads were basically rocky dust tracks that were just full of bulls and oxen. They would come about an inch away from our moving car without a care in the world of our drivers manic beeping. I must admit it gave me a few heart attacks along the way!

    We soon arrived in Jodhpur and our first stop Umaid Bawan, but it was closed. Now I believe it has made international news of a famous bollywood actress getting married. That's here in Jodhpur!

    Next was the famous Mehrangarh Fort. I think out of the many forts we have done (and let's be honest it's been daily in Rajasthan) it's my favourite. You get a free audio guide with your ticket and the views of the blue city and along the Fort walls were just stunning. I think we must have spent about 3 hours going round!

    It was now well after 2pm and I was getting grumpy with hunger so we went to our hotel, checked in, had a quick half an hour chill time and then walked out into the chaos of the bazaar. And it really was chaos! I had to bang on a rickshaw that nearly ran me over! It was a bit of an odd time for eating so we decided to just have some small street food and have dinner later. We had a bite to eat, bought some bananas from the market, feared for our lives a bit on the streets and could barely breathe because of the dust. However, I must admit it is one of the most real cities we have been to. Some of the others feel quite touristy, maybe it's the location of our homestay but everyone is just getting on with their lives. There's no tourist prices, everyone just pays the same. So although there's not much to see here it's just a really good city to sit have chai and people watch and this is exactly what we did. In the evening we had chai, went to the famous omelette man (omelette sandwiches an obvious winner), had another chai, bought snacks and then had a simple dhal and rice for dinner.

    Luckily Will is on the mend but now I'm getting a cold! Typical!    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Can we stay here?

    1 décembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    It's so peaceful here! Sure there were dogs barking at night but hey we can't have it all! Not waking up to constant beeping and call to prayer was just luxury. But.. Will really wasn't feeling very well and unfortunately had quite an unsettled sleep with his fever, so we had a lie in for once and stayed in bed till about 9am. We then got up and went for a little walk around the dam and found a trail. We'll obviously we had to follow it and that we did! It took us to a really small lake, normally it would have been huge, where we sat, meditated, bird watched and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Realising it was quite late we walked back as I'm sure Ajay thought we would only be half an hour. We've definitely been gone two!

    When we got back Will was feeling worse so we just chilled out as we weren't sure where Ajay had gone. We had only eaten a banana and orange today so we had a quick stuffed paratha to settle our rumbling stomachs and then around 4pm another guest Iver took us on a little hike around the lakes and villages and up a small hill to watch sunset. We saw a couple of King Fishers including the Indian Blue Kingfisher and a black and white kingfisher and we saw plum headed parakeets. It was really beautiful and so peaceful.

    In the evening, as Will wasn't feeling very well still, we decided it was a day to have our traditional pizza night. Even though we were in the middle of nowhere and it wasn't very touristic there was a local pizzeria with a clay oven. The pizza was really yummy, but all of a sudden Will got really ill. He's had a really bad fever, stomach cramps and is now having acid flux. We rang Ajay and he came to the rescue and picked us up. Will's hands were freezing. It was a bit chilly but with my coat I was snuggly so I began to get worried. I got lots of hot water and lots of blankets, we watched a bit of friends, he took night nurse and fell asleep. Unfortunately at about 2am he woke up really ill again so we topped up on medicine and all I could do was warm him with my body heat as he was just so cold. He soo fell asleep again and was fine till the morning. I think it'll be a doctors visit tomorrow.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Peace And Quiet - Ranakpur

    30 novembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Ajay has recommended that we go to Ranakpur for 2 days of peace and quiet in the mountains. So we got up, had one last look at our gorgeous view from the castle, picked up some somosas for breakfast and off we went in the car. Will has been getting really bad stomach cramps again in the last couple of days so I'm really hoping some R&R will get him back to normal.

    The journey was really lovely through the mountains, seeing the locals and watching everyone get on with their daily lives. The best part was that I could feel it becoming more peaceful. I was excited to arrive and when we did I was even more excited. We arrived just before lunch so we checked in, did a quick wash and then headed out in the car to see the Jain Temple. If I'm honest I have done zero research about Ranakpur and just went along with whatever Ajay recommended. Wow wow wow, I wasn't expecting the spectacle that I saw. Firstly it was enormous, I was expecting a small one room temple and its was just stunning both in its surroundings and the temple itself. We must have been there for about 2 hours around the temple, its outer temples and the grounds. It was really lovely. The only problem once again was all the disrespectful Chinese tourists who were screaming for each other around the temple. I had to shush them at one point as it was just crazy. Luckily I was able to find a lot of hidden corners for peace and quiet.

    We then visited the sun temple which was very small compared but with no one apart from us there, which was really nice. I sat in the prayer room and listened to the world around me. The rustle of trees in the wind, all sorts of birds chirping, bliss.

    Our final stop was to see the big lake full of crocodiles! A local boy at the hotel took us along a dry and baron path to the lake. As Monsoon didn't hit Rajasthan all the mountains are duty baron mounds. The lake was really low of water but this meant you could see the crocodiles in all their glory. We only saw a couple but were told there are thousands in just that one lake! We sat, bird watched and just enjoyed the sunset. There are so many different types of birds in India its so fun to just sit with the binoculars and spot the exotic birds. After a while the boy had to go back so we tipped him and let him go without us in hope we will be fine finding our way back and we did 😊 I must admit I was a bit worried about walking back as there are leopards, grey langurs, buffalo's, sloth bears, cobras and much much more.

    When we got back to the hotel Ajay was sat waiting for us in his car in the car park. He waved us over and said it's whiskey time. Haha it was so funny, we all jumped in the car, Ajay asked one of the boy waiters to bring some glasses and we sat enjoying the local whiskey. I don't actually like whiskey but this was a super smooth, white whiskey. It was yummy! First we tried it with lemonade and then with lime and soda. Ajay was using the front seat as his little bar, it was fun. He even brought us papad and snacks! We soon finished 4 little bottles of whiskey and realised it was very strong so insisted we have dinner! After dinner Will was feeling really ill again, I don't think the alcohol helped but he had a horrific fever and bad stomach. So we went to bed and drugged him up.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Venice of the East

    29 novembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Up I got and Will wasn't in the dorm room... Uh oh I've lost him again. Luckily he messaged me this time. He'd moved to an empty dorm due to a snorer in ours! As I was awake I decided to get up and shower. It was absolutely freezing! I couldn't get warm (even in the 26 degree heat) for hours!

    Although I've had a few moments of worry I've overall been enjoying my life of luxury in Rajasthan, but Will has been worrying the whole time. Maybe we should have taken the cheaper options of trains but meh it's done and there's nothing we can do. It's time to enjoy!!

    Today was a day of no travelling, to just enjoy the beautiful city of Udaipur. In the morning we sat on the rooftop for a while to enjoy the beautiful views from the hostel Fort. We then took our trousers and my backpack to a lovely old man for repair. He didn't care how much we gave him which was really sweet and then we had our morning Chai. Then it was time to sight see. We wandered around the town visiting various temples including the Jagdish temple which had prayers happening and we even bumped into some people we met in Pushkar which was nice. For lunch we had Kachori which is spinach and peas encased in a samosa like round casing. Yum. Will is doing amazingly well with the spicy food, I'm actually super impressed. Even if it might take him a while yo eat it he finishes every dish! I must admit I'm absolutely loving the food, I'm in heaven!

    In the afternoon we visited the City Palace which was beautiful and then a tibetan market where we had some shakes.

    Now the thing we've been waiting for the boat ride along Lake Pichola. A tip for anyone who comes here, go to the port near Natural View Restaurant. Here is the government run boat and for a sunset tour it is only Rs300 instead of Rs 600 which other companies charge. As we were a bit early we went to a cafe to get a cake as a trear and spoke to Simran the owner of the cafe who gave us some amazing tips for the rest of our travels in India. Finally it was time for the boat ride and finally we got to see the sunset in all its glory. It was so relaxing and really romantic. We were both finally fully relaxed and able to enjoy the luxury of the car. In the words of Will's mum "Just enjoy the luxury and it is the duty of the rich man to".

    After the boat ride we went to Natural View Restaurant which had an amazing view of the lake and sunset. We sat and drank mint tea and it couldn't have been more perfect. I'm so glad to see Will finally relaxed.

    We then rushed back to to the tailor to pick up our trousers and my backpack which needed fixing and the lovely old man did a fantastic job too!

    For dinner we went back for Thali (for those that don't know Thali is one of my fave things to have. It's a metal tray full of small dishes of Dhal, Aloo Gobi, Raita, Rice, Chapattis and Papad). Its delicious! My funniest moment of the day happened over dinner. I forgot to ask for Will's Thali to be a bit less spicy as he wasn't feeling well. Half way through the dinner Will said jeeze I just can't cope with the spiciness of this Papad. Papad is a papaddom!! It's possibly the plainest thing on the Thali 😂

    After dinner wandered to HatiPole Market which is clearly where all the locals really dine! What a shame we had already eaten! They had some amazing looking street food and although full I could not resist a Gulab Jamun. According to Will it is the Indian version of Treacle Tart without the tart and for me and in fact most Indians its a memory of childhood.

    A perfect day of finally eating 3 meals in a day and seeing the beautiful sights and views of Udaipur.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Lake City - Udaipur

    28 novembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    The pollution has finally caught on and I have fully swollen glands. But I'm not going to let that stop us enjoying. We got up first thing ready for our long journey to Udaipur which actually did take a very long time. I fell asleep for most of the journey and woke up about 3pm...wups!

    We tried to go to a famous temple along the way but unfortunately it was closed till the evening. Then we visited the Palace Gardens which was a very welcomed break from not stopping for 4 hours. Then we just went straight to our hostel in Udaipur. Wow wow wow! Two friends from Udaipur worked, lived and travelled to various countries around the world and during their travels they came up with the idea of creating a hostel. They have a hostel in Goa which is in its 2nd year and then due to its success they decided to have one in Udaipur. They decided as its their home town they would buy a castle. And that they did! The hostel is in the grounds of the old Fort and has possibly one of the best views of the city. It's really beautiful. The ground of the hostel is humongous and there are just 4 of them working on it so I think it will take years! It's truly a beautiful sight though it would be amazing to come back when it's done. For now we are honoured to see it from the beginning.

    We went for a late lunch at Millets Mewar and had Bhindi Masala and Sev chhana daal and chapattis, which was really different from other dishes we've been having. We then Skyped with Will's parents before heading out again for more food. Seriously we haven't eaten all day and even though we don't feel hungry we are definitely both loosing weight so it's not good! We found a man on the street selling Pani Puri and then found a masala chai stall. So we sat, people watched and chatted with the locals. They recommended a cheap but fantastic thali restaurant so we couldn't not go. We were definitely full now!!

    We walked around the town at night for a bit before heading back to the hostel as it was beginning to get quite cold.

    The night was really cold. It dropped down to 13 degrees Celsius from 28, so it was quite a difference. I think I might have to wear all my clothes tomorrow night including a coat!    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Pushkar

    27 novembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    In the morning we set off for Pushkar which is a smaller, quieter town centered around a lake where devout Hindus pilgrimage towards due to the abundance of temples, 300. The lake is considered the most sacred lake in Hindu mythology and many Hindus come to wash in the holy water particularly during the month of Kartika, Oct - Nov. Pushkar is also one of five places in the world that has a Brahma Temple.

    Along the way we asked Ajay to stop and help is get fruit fo breakfast to which he happily did. When asking how much the fruit should be he said he will come with us. Just as Will was about to get out he said "oh no you should stay in the car otherwise he will see you are white and make you pay a lot!". I'm loving having Ajay here. Although overall we probably wish we hadn't booked the car Ajay is really understanding with our very low budget.

    When we arrived Ajay said he has us accomodation for cheap and it was in the end very nice and a good location but at first I must admit I did feel pressured staying where he wanted us to stay, which was technically not part of the agreement. This begun to set me off in my down hill thoughts again. I've realised the main reason I don't like having a driver (although I would recommend Ajay to anyone who requires him), is that I feel a bit trapped and compelled to agree and say yes to what they want even if it means I compromise my needs.

    Once checked in we wandered around the lake and I broke. Will was saying hello to everyone under the sun and doing all the 101 Things Not To Do in India. He suddenly had a big crowd around him of people of all ages. Let's face it he's white and therefore rare in India, but he's also just seen as a dollar sign and even more when they find out he is British! I must admit I walked away and sat down by the lake as I couldn't stand it anymore as I knew exactly what all the people wanted, but he just kept thinking everyone was being nice. Some of the kids got bored with Will and then came to sit with me. Again with only one need, money money money money. With me they weren't as subtle and I got quite angry inside. In the end I grabbed Will and we just walked away from the crowd.

    This is when I broke down. I've not mentioned it yet but I've been struggling. Being in India is making me really homesick and really miss my dad. When things go wrong I just keep thinking, "if dad was here I'd be safe and fine". It's a horrible thought but if I wasn't here with Will I would probably be ignored and left alone because I look Indian. But I'm not, so I just have to get stronger and educate Will more from this craziness. We were both now super low, upset and felt trapped. Again we still had barely any breakfast or lunch so we decided to go for a shake at Sonu Shake Shop where I had a Banana, date and coconut shake and Will had a pineapple, lemon and lime juice. Then we had lunch at Ganga Falafel which I read about in a blog, where we met a mother and daughter and they made us feel 1000 times better. They said we got an amazing deal for our car and should be proud of our haggling, that we need to be more blunt on exactly where we want to go and see and they really made us feel more empowered. Phew, I think we just needed some outside perspective.

    It was now late in the afternoon and so we went to see the Brahma temple which was really nice and peaceful and then we went to the lake to watch the little sunset there was and listened to to the temples playing music. For dinner we had our first try at Indian Street food, including Bhel Puri, potato balls with chana dhaal and puri with dhaal. For dessert we even found Gulab Jamun and a cup of hot milk. Perfect end to a not so perfect day.

    It's time we forget about the money and feeling sorry for us and just enjoy it. We are so privelliged and it's sometimes easy to forget how fortunate we are to even be here never mind to have been able to book a driver for 2 weeks! Tomorrow is a new chapter.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    The Pink City - Jaipur

    26 novembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Today we woke up very very worried. As I mentioned we decided to get a driver for our two week trip around Rajasthan. Although we have overall got a really good deal (£30 a day) it's begun to dawn on us how expensive this is when you begin including all the royal sights. We try and keep our budget to £30 a day total for the 2 of us including everything, but now it's becoming more like £75 including accomodation and sights! Although it's been a really great day sight seeing, we've not felt present at all. Our minds have just been drifting and getting worried about money. We then made it worse by looking at the cost of trains etc if we had done it ourselves and it would have been around £100 total for 2 weeks for transport... anyway that's probably very boring information for you so I'll move on to the sight seeing.

    Today we had a tour guide to take us around Jaipur. First we went to the Amber Fort which was very grand sat on the mountainside. So many people took a ride on an elephant to get to the top and honestly I just felt so bad for the poor creatures. On average each elephant does 5 journeys to the top and when we were walking back down the elephants looked so exhausted and were barely walking. We were told that the female elephants were beaten from a very young age to become docile and are trained to be transport. It's so sad to see tourists thinking this is OK. The fort was built in the 17th Century and to be honest it seemed the King had rather friendly neighbours and so there weren't any major battles during its time, so it was just used as the home of the King.

    We then visited the Water Palace, a Palace in the middle of a lake, which used to be the summer holiday home for the king. Its currently not in use and the government are thinking of privatising it so that it can be restored and looked after again.

    The next stop was completely pointless and to be honest made me a bit angry. Our tour guide took us to "textile factory". Let's be honest this is the most obvious scam, they show you how to print the pattern and then all they care about is making you buy stuff. We initially went along and saw him print a really awful elephant painting onto some cloth and then he took us to his shop, but I warned him I will not be buying anything. He sat us down, offered us tea etc and I told him I don't wish to waste his time and we will not be buying anything again. He just went on and on and I said we are leaving. I was really unhappy and told the guide I don't have money and if he does this again we will leave. Ajay, our driver, saw that I was upset and he shouted at our tour guide. Ajay is just super sweet and has been really understanding of our little money the whole way.

    Next stop was the City Palace which wasn't anything special and to be honest by this point it was 11:30am and I was beginning to flag. In the Palace were the two largest silver Jars in the world and boy they were big, 345 kg without water and would hold 4000 liters each! The King at the time filled these Jars with water from the ganges and took them all the way to England as he would only drink water from the Ganges. By this point I couldn't concentrate and I was feeling very weak. We both hadn't slept with worry of finances, we were both very dehydrated and we hadn't eaten any breakfast. Just overall we were not looking after ourselves.

    Next was the Observatory. To be honest this was quite the hidden gem. It wasn't listed in any of the blogs I read and it was fantastic! It hosts the largest sun dial in the world and it is very impressive! It also had various other astrological instruments including a zodiac reader. I would definitely recommend going to the observatory instead of the Palace.

    Our final stop was Hawa Mahal, Wind Palace. We didn't go in as its empty inside and the impressive structure on the outside is actually the thing to see.

    We then walked back to the car and got dropped off for a late lunch and agreed to meet Ajay at 4:30pm to go to the Monkey Temple for sunset.

    I must admit for the next couple of hours I just felt upset and broken. I was upset that we had been persuaded to get the driver for the two weeks instead of making our own journey. Its nothing against Ajay, he's been perfect and the journey has been top class, but it's the overall cost for us. If we were here on a holiday then obviously it's great value for money but when it is our full budget per day then it's just worrying. We spent the afternoon sat in a cafe with a view of the Wind Palace and discussing whether we should cancel the trip. The likely hood of being able to cancel was basically nil but we ummed and ahhed our time away. Before meeting Ajay we decided to go for a short wander down the back streets of Jaipur. It was soooo busy. Narrow lanes filled with hundreds of shoppers and motorbikes fighting there way through. CARNAGE! The walk helped us cool down and realise we can still enjoy and do our own things even with a driver, but I think we might go through ups and downs in this journey...

    In the evening we watched sunset at the Sun Temple and then went to the Monkey Temple. Both insisted on us doing Puja, welcome ceremony, which basically just meant they wanted money. We gave them a small amount and they were clearly annoyed but it's all we genuinely had with us. I hate when a donation is not seen as a donation and has to be a minimum amount. Temples and places of worship should be open for everyone without the unnecessary greed.

    For dinner we had mutter paneer and chapatti and for 2nd dinner Will bought an I versed omelette sandwich. Instead of the bread on the outside it was cooked in the middle of the omelette! Yum!

    In the evening we decided we enjoyed being with Ajay and that we would stick with it. The rest of the evening was spent chilling and planning for Pushkar.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur
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    Who needs sleep... Taj Mahal

    25 novembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    What a night. We booked a prioty dive of a place to stay in the night before the Taj and it was ridiculously loud the whole night. Music blasting, traffic noise constantly, what sounded like dogs killing each other all night. It was just carnage to be honest. After watching the hours slowly tick by we eventually peeled ourselves out of bed at 5am and got ready to head out to the Taj.

    In the dark we walked to the south gate. One queue for women and one for men. Luckily we had spoken to a couple the night before who gave us various tips including buying the ticket online and making sure the ticket was sent to both of us as we will be split in gender queues. Great tips!

    From the outside you can't see anything. You just queue at the towering south gate and you can feel the eagerness to see the wonder behind the wall! Luckily we got there for 5:45am so we got in quite quickly and at first you enter a court yard. I remember thinking... Where is it?! And then you turn a corner and it's there. This beautiful, glowing masterpiece. It was a surreal moment. My mum had always wanted to visit the Taj Mahal and hadn't had this opportunity. I was so honoured.

    We waited for sunrise to see the golden glow and it was really magnificent. We then walked through the mausoleum like a heard of sheep and were soon out enjoying being next to the incredible structure again.

    Did you know that due to pollution the Taj Mahal is now a browny yellow colour due to pollution and the government have to actively clean the monument to get it to its original white state. Today the pollution levels were 4.3 times the acceptable allowance and I must admit I could really feel the suffocation and I've come away with black under all my finger nails and in my nose. It's pretty disgusting...

    Now if I'm honest it would have been more incredible had they had the ban of cameras etc like the temple yesterday as it did ruin the atmosphere with people just trying to get that perfect shot but to be honest it wasn't too busy when we were there.

    After leaving we went for breakfast, collected our bags and met up with Ajay for the next part of our trip, Agra Fort.

    Agra Fort construction began in 1565 and is a made from palatial red sandstone. Jeez its big. When entering we had the usual touts and "tour guides" attempting to go in with us and luckily we didn't fall for it as we saw one guiding another tourist later and they were having an awful time. The Fort was really impressive and would have been better with a real guide who actually cared then it would have been great but it was still great walking around and just enjoying its grandness. From the edge we could see the faint outline of the Taj Mahal, not because it was far but because of the pollution.

    We then jumped back in the car to begin the long journey to Jaipur. It was very long... It took about 5 hours and we arrived checked in to our accomodation around 5pm. We then did our washing, had dinner and was in bed by 8:30pm shattered.

    What a great day.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Whistle Stop Tour of Dehli

    24 novembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    The plan for today... No plan!

    Vindu recommended that we get up at 8:30am for breakfast and then he would take us to the real tourist information centre and there we can discuss what we want to do and how. So we just rolled with it. For breakfast we have paratha (seriously I'm going to get fat...) and then we jumped into the car to to the tourist information. Our very vague plan was to go to Rishikesh and then begin our tour of the Royal state of Rajasthan. Our only aim and need at the Tourist Information was to book our train to Rishikesh as it seems impossible to do online without an Indian Credit Card.

    When we arrived at the centre we were greeted with a warm and grinning Latif. I must admit my scam alert guard was still on. I trusted Vindu but didn't trust anyone else including the driver that took us here. One of the most common scams in Dehli is taking tourists to a fake tourist information and then making them pay for ridiculous things. I checked our location on the map and it seemed legit although very close to our location on maps.me were various warning annotations of "fake tourist information", so all I could hope for was that my GPS was right!

    I must admit we soon warmed to Latif and let our guard down completely. He knew his stuff, he knew our requirements, budget, he was happy to help and I must admit we fell for everything! He gave us an incredible deal that I'm praying works out. We have a personal driver for 2 weeks to take us round all the sights of Dehli, Agra and Rajasthan including one night safari in the desert. He convinced us that going to Rishikesh this early is not a good idea as it we go to Rajasthan after it gets very busy and expensive whereas Rishikesh will be a bit easier to book trains etc in 2 weeks time. So we signed our name on the dotted line and we've taken a huge risk. We've paid the full amount, again something I thought I would never do, so I'm really praying it all works out. Sometimes I hate myself for thinking the worst in people, it's something I actively try and disengage from as honestly I truly believe I should always trust in humankind first. This is the biggest risk we have taken, in terms of handing over a wod of money, but only time will tell!

    So I've been in a car a couple of times now and I don't think I've really talked about the traffic and mental driving. Is it as bad as people say and what we see in documentaries? Yes. Do I feel safe? Yes. Are there moments when I hold tight and press my imaginary break? Yes. But honestly, maybe it's because we have been travelling for a while, the traffic and crazy driving doesn't feel or seem as bad as expected. Maybe my expectations are ridiculously low... I don't know. Of course there were points that we were in total grid lock and I genuinely felt like I was in the problem solving game Rush Hour with cars facing and moving in all directions albeit with the addition of a couple of bulls pulling carts, but I have 95% confidence in our driver and am just glad it's him and not me!

    Our first stop was to pick up our bags, we also discussed what we booked with Vindu and seemed happy with it. We then went to the cash machine and after a bit of a debacle with Halifax we were finally able to get out the required amount and paid the centre for our 2 week trip. We had a poori for lunch and then head out with our driver Ajay on our journey.

    First stop was the presidential area. The presidential Palace wasn't open unfortunately but from the outside it looked enormous. Ajay told us that the Prime Minister has 366 personal rooms purely for himself not including governmental rooms! Just across the Palace was the famous Gate of India. The reminded us of an enormous version of The Mall in London. Although the buildings were very impressive it was actually the number of Black Kites, the birds of prey, that was much more impressive. There must have been at least 30 black kites circling the area! It a rare sight to see.

    We then visited Akshardham Mandir, a temple on the outskirts. Wow, just wow. The rules of temple were quite strict and you weren't allowed to take in cameras, mobile phones etc so we left everything with Ajay and went in. What a peaceful, beautiful and mindful experience. Obviously I now don't have any pictures for my blog of the mandir but honestly I'm actually quite thankful for the experience. Sometimes you visit these incredible places and you just get wound up in taking pictures, getting annoyed at others "ruining" your shot or taking too long etc but without all this it was just fantastic. We walked around the whole mandir feeling unbelievably calm. It was such a nice feeling to not have to plan or care where our next stop was and to just enjoy being in the moment. I think this moment made me realise what truly being mindful means. In the guide book it says the Mandir represents the mind becoming still and where the soul connects with the divine and I agree. Obviously if you want to look at this incredible temple, please do on Google! The Mandir was one of the most beautiful temples I've ever seen, and we have seen a lot!

    After the Mandir we began our journey to Agra! Of completely honest I was quite nervous and unexcited to see the Taj Mahal. I heard that actually the experience would be a bit of a nightmare ie getting there, getting a ticket etc but after the events of today I am feeling really excited and calm about visiting my second wonder of the world. I am the luckiest person in the world right now and I just can't believe how fortunate I am and how we really do take everything for granted. I am going to soak in every single moment!

    The journey from Dehli took about 3 hours and I couldn't believe how straight the road was. It was literally one long road for 3 hours and not because of traffic but because it was just a ridiculous straight long road!!

    Another subject I've not touched on is pollution. Obviously Dehli is world famous for being one of the most polluted cities in the world and I must admit you can feel it. Luckily the temperature wasn't so high today but not only can you feel the pollution but you can see it.

    After dark we finally arrived in Agra at our hostel. We had a quick dinner and then went straight to bed ready for our early morning start.

    I'm so excited for tomorrow's blog.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Kochi - Dehli South to North in a day?!!

    23 novembre 2018, Inde ⋅ 🌧 31 °C

    Waking up in the beautiful tea plantations was a great way to start our morning. We started the day with Poori for breakfast and then wandered around the small town where we visited a very busy local temple. Reds, golds, blues, purples, green coloured saris flow around us like a multi coloured sea. It's just so beautiful. Everyone has huge pearly white smiles beaming at us as we walked around their town. What a perfect morning. Jerry must have amazing Karma as he paid for the whole trip and wouldn't take a single penny from us. He even us gave us his Indian Sim and in return we gave him our from the Philippines where he was heading to.

    We all then jumped in the car for our long journey back. To be honest we didn't really stop until we got to the airport around lunch time and then we went for lunch before having to kill 5 hours before our flight. We sat and chatted to Jerry which helped pass the endless hours and we were soon on our flight to Dehli. To our surprise our plane wasn't a budget tiny flight! It was a boeing 787! It had huge seats, in flight entertainment and even food! Luxury, well we did spend quite a bit on it having booked less than 24 hours in advance! On the flight I watched Fault in our stars and it's such an incredible inspiring, but sad film. I must admit I was crying on the plane! As I've decided to be vegetarian in India I was a bit nervous about the veggie option as normally its just terrible but I quickly remembered I'm in India and actually they only served vegetarian food! It was super yummy!! I had mori dhal, bhajia, rice and white Gula Jamun. Yum yum and more yum.

    Although we haven't been long in India and we definitely haven't done the south justice our few days here has been fun, spontaneous and picturesque. I can't wait to come back and explore more.

    When we arrived in Dehli I was super nervous. Dehli is scam central. I've heard horror stories of people being raped, people being taken to random hotels and being told theirs doesn't exist by locals, I even saw a woman in in the toilet at arrivals in tears because she had been robbed. My scam alert and guard was on. Before we left the airport we checked everything was securely away, that we knew how and where to go for our uber and we had the address clearly marked for our driver.

    Well we tried... Firstly the address didn't save and Google offline was not working for some reason, then when we arrived at the hostel our uber fair was r200 more than it should have been. To be honest I just didn't care and I was glad to be safe in our hostel. The owner of the hostel Vindu was incredibly kind and friendly. It was 1am when we arrived and he đạt and chatted to us, made us Chai Masala, discussed what he thinks we should do in the morning and then gave us a dorm room to ourselves.

    I must admit I'm just in love with India so far and we are only 4 days in.    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Road Trip to Munnar!

    22 novembre 2018, Inde ⋅ 🌧 21 °C

    Last night Jerry had very generously offered to share his trip to Munnar with us. He had it already booked and asked if we wanted to join him. Of course we said yes and it was so much fun.

    We had a private car the whole day and we visited waterfalls, saw monkeys, saw lots of sea eagles, saw the gorgeous landscape along the way, ate endless amounts of incredible food and experienced our very first full journey on the roads of India. I must admit there were quite a few hair raising moments and moments of our life flashing before us but we arrived in the Beauty of Munnar safe and sound. Wow. Munnar is in the countryside on the border of Kerela, famous for growing spices and tea and it was just beautiful. The absolute highlight of the trip was when all of a sudden we saw all the cars pulling in and a cop sat at the side of the road. There was a family of wild Elephants!! I just can't explain their beauty. It just couldn't have been more perfect. They looked nothing like the beaten, flabby elephants in the zoos. These were magnificent.

    Our favourite Indian quote spotted for the day was from the Indian Navy, "Hit hard, hit fast keep hitting".

    That night we stayed in Munnar and did a bit of planning for our next steps. After taking a few people's advise we decided we needed to get up north ASAP before the weather gets bad and the fog ruins the beauty of the north. So we last minute decided to completely change our plans and go to Dehli! So tomorrow evening we will be in the hectic North of India. I don't think I'm mentally prepared for the craziness after all this peacefulness!    En savoir plus

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaVoyageur

    Backwaters - Boats, Boats, Boats

    21 novembre 2018, Inde ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Wow and we thought the storms were bad in the Philippines! The storms last night were absolutely crazy. I've never heard rain or thunder like it. We didn't have a proper window in the room but it was very intense. The night before we had booked a boat tour along the backwaters and with this storm we really weren't sure if it was a good idea. We asked our homestay for their advise and they rang ahead to see what the weather was. They assured us that it would be fine for the morning at the least, so we just went for it.

    The road outside the homestay was just a river and we had to walk to the end for the pickup so we just had to wade through! Luckily it wasn't as bad as it looked and the bus soon came to pick us up. We met Jerry (from Vancouver) and Charlotte (from Essex) on the bus and they were super nice and the hour sat in crazy traffic soon passed and we were soon on our first boat.

    The ride was basically silent the whole way. The boat driver pushed the boat the whole way using a stick and therefore there was no annoying engine noise just the subtle splash of his stick coming out of the water. I must admit I do wish I brought my book as it was perfect for it. Instead I spent the first part updating my blog.

    Along the way we saw beautiful eagles, a green king Fisher, lots of red dragon flies, cormorants and A LOT of coconut trees.

    For lunch we stopped in a local village and were treated to a really yummy kerela spread. I must admit I'm currently in food heaven being in India and everything being vegetarian!

    The journey back after lunch was unbelievably peaceful and still. I think the whole boat was asleep at one point. I'm so so glad we didn't end up cancelling. The boat ride wasn't eventful but it was so peaceful, relaxing and calming.

    In the evening Will, Charlotte and I went to a hip teapot cafe and then we joined up with Jerry for dinner and had a paratha thali. It was super yummy. We've been here a couple of days and I just can't get enough of the food. I'm definitely going to gain weight here!    En savoir plus

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