Honking Hell- Only in India Would You See a Monkey Crossing the Street Eating Naan Bread

So India;
We got to the airport and soon realised after boarding the plane that there were only about five other Westerners on board- we were leaving backpacker territory....
We arrived, clueless as usual, in this crazy and diverse country. For once, we had arranged an airport transfer; however, after waiting for an hour at the gate and not finding anyone there we eventually took a taxi to the hotel we had booked. Our driver had no English and didn't quite seem to grasp where we were going so when he pulled up outside a travel shop to get directions we were all quite relieved to be confronted with a young man who had perfect English.... long story short; he told us that the hotel we had originally booked was in a slum and a car couldn't even get down there so we ended up booking quite an expensive tour with his company instead. Fortunately for us our original hotel owner then got in contact with us encouraging us to get in touch; he believed we had been scammed. After visiting another travel shop we soon realised we should have paid half the price that we had paid for our tour. We were confused and decided to let the original hotel owner guide us- this was the best move we have made as he helped us to get the money back from the tour we had booked, found us a much cheaper option and gave us lots of helpful advice.

After all the drama of getting our money back (including a trip to the local (corrupt) police station and several tears) we were ready for some sightseeing round Delhi. We went to see several temples- the second was a bit of a shock. We had to take a rickshaw ride to get there which I felt terrible doing as there was the skinniest man pulling Gwenda and I along on his bike- I felt like offering him a hand. When we arrived at the temple we had to walk through a market to get to the steps; once inside I saw a man walking around with bare feet- he had no toes on one foot and a cut that looked like it had an insect living in it. As well as this, the entire time we were inside there was a little chianggar (our name for a child Indian beggar) following us around. He kept telling us his name and asking for money, it’s heartbreaking when the little children do this but you can't give them anything because the moment you do more beggars immediately swarm round you. I felt quite intimidated here and didn't really have time to enjoy the temple. However, the next one we visited was my favourite- it was called Humayun’s tomb and is said to be the inspiration for the Taj Mahal.

I won't lie and say that Delhi was my favourite place but it was very interesting to watch such a different culture in motion. Whilst there we saw lots of monkeys roaming the streets- one casually eating a naan- we were also given a huge amount of attention, people asking for pictures and money, we saw cows everywhere, rickshaw drivers and tuks tuks. There is so much noise- they have no lanes in India, just a system of honking that they use to pass other vehicles. I think it will feel extremely quiet when we leave.

We left Delhi to go to Agra where we were all excited about seeing the Taj Mahal. It was so nice to get out of the city and after a four hour drive, through motorway, villages and across dirt tracks; we arrived at our hotel located five minutes from the Taj. Our lovely driver Karam took us to dinner and introduced us to a dish called Thali which is a mixture of different curries, breads and rice. The food is incredible, it’s so full of flavour but not too spicy, although I think the locals take it a little hotter.

We woke up and got ready to meet our Taj Mahal guide at 6.00am (ouch) and walked through a nice little park to get there. Our guide was very informative but may have been a strict teacher in a former life because he kept telling Gwenda off when he thought she wasn't listening and he wouldn't let us see the Taj until we had repeated back to him what he had just told us. Despite the early start we were grateful to arrive at that time because our first view of the Taj was unspoilt by tourists. It was magnificent to see it up close and appeared huge until we walked around it and got inside. After leaving the Taj (closely followed by our guide until we tipped him) we left for Ranthambhore. This journey was exciting to start with but after our second flat tyre it wasn't so fun. Our nifty driver had changed the first within minutes but with only one spare tyre we had to roll for five minutes and found a place where they could repair it. To get the weight out of the car we had to all get out which was funny as we were in a tiny village where they're not used to seeing white faces and at one point there were sixteen men sat on a bench just watching us.

We were extremely excited when we arrived because we had lovely rooms and a huge garden that we played cricket in with our driver and some of the hotel staff. It was crazily hot outside- about forty degrees so was strange not to be sunbathing but having to be fairly covered in such hot weather. We went on the safari in the afternoon and about five minutes after we got inside we were lucky enough to see a wild tiger. We were excited because she was really close and we had been told we would be very fortunate to see one at all. We carried on into the dry, hot jungle and saw lots of monkeys, deer a crocodile, peacocks and a kingfisher and were soon so lucky that we saw our second tiger. This one was sat down so we were able to take lots of pictures. The guides also know the tigers really well as there are only thirty five so they told us that this one was the oldest female in the park. We were extremely hyped up by the time we got back and ended our night playing card games in the garden with our driver whilst drinking some kingfishers and whiskey.

After Ranthambhore we left for Jaipur which is known as the pink city because it's full of pink buildings. I was really excited to be visiting this city as we were having an elephant ride here. Unfortunately we didn't really get to stroke the elephant or anything but it was still good because we rode on it up to the famous Amber Fort. The view was really good although our guide was quite crazy and kept humping the elephant.

In the afternoon we decided to strike out on our own and go to the markets- after five minutes of leaving our driver we were debating calling him back. As soon as we stepped out of the car people were hassling us but we held our own. We also had a bit of a treat when we saw a naked old man walking down the street playing with his bits. We had to deal with a lot more chinaggars but I now have a system for getting rid of them- saying "Ne Heeng" (no) with a scowl on my face, followed by "go away"! Seems to do the trick...

Whilst in Jaipur our driver took us to his cousin’s shop where he said we could buy whatever we wanted with discount and then we would share a home cooked meal together. I have one thing to say about his cousin- the man was a moron. He kept pressuring us to buy things and told us about a million times how their textiles were made; I was actually quite interested in this the first time he explained it as they use old clothes to make new fabrics. Despite this I couldn't complain about the meal, it was probably the spiciest food we have had but really delicious- our first Indian takeaway... in India.

Before leaving Jaipur we decided to get some henna tattoos; I got a Ganesh up my arm. It looked good but we were a bit limited in what we could do with our wet henna and Gwenda had smudged hers within about five minutes. We didn't really know what to do after it had dried but luckily the lady in our hotel helped us out. Then she asked us for a tip. 

We now had another long journey to a place called Pushkar. We were looking forward to staying in the hotel here because our driver told us it had a pool- we were not disappointed as it was a really nice pool and, after double checking we were allowed to wear swim suits, we were straight in. We did go and see the village though which was really nice as it has a big spiritual lake in the middle where we watched the sunset. We also got some Italian food which was quite welcome after eating curry for an entire week. The next day we spent entirely by the pool and soon noticed some Indians peeking through their curtains at us. We decided that we would climb up to the temple before we left; it was a hot walk but really well worth it when we saw the whole of Pushkar on arriving at the top. It also meant we could see how far into the desert we have now come.

Phi Phi, Koh Lanta and back to Bangkok

After leaving Krabi we took another boat ride across to the party island of Koh Phi Phi. As I've said it is a big party island so there's not a huge amount to say about what we did in the day because we were mostly hungover... It was my birthday whilst there though and a big group of us did a snorkelling trip to Maya Bay for it. Maya bay is infamous for being the location where 'The Beach' was filmed. It was a really spectacular beach and the trip, combined with the night out after definitely made it a birthday to remember.

After five nights of partying in Phi Phi we finally said a sad goodbye to Bryce, Brian, Jon and Robbie and went off to relax in Koh Lanta where we were lucky enough to find accommodation for £5.00 a night which had its own pool and gardens. We didn't see much of Koh Lanta because it was quite expensive to get around but we had a bit of a stroll along the beach and it seemed quite a quiet place. After two nights here we had another tiring journey all the way from the south of Koh Lanta up to Bangkok. There was a bit of a contrast in the room we paid a fiver for in Bangkok... we were down rabid dog alley which I hated walking through.

As we had arrived in Bangkok at 6.00am we had a pretty full day in the city and spent some time taking a tuk tuk around- lucky we had time on our side here as he kept taking us to shops where if we bought something he would get a free gas coupon. It was a good time to be in Bangkok because it was a bank holiday so there was a mini celebration happening at a big temple. As a result of this when some people gave us food to feed the pigeons for "good luck" we believed it was part of the celebration, not that they would snatch ten pounds out of my hand to pay for the corn.




We spent our last day in Bangkok visiting the famous floating market which was really interesting. We were fairly spent out by this time so didn't buy a lot but it was good for the novelty. Another positive was that we had a free lunch included and there were some really snobby people on our tour who didn't want any so we got double- jackpot. In the afternoon we went to visit the River Kwai Bridge. It was really good because they run a train across it but you can still walk along at the same time.

This was pretty much the end of our Thailand experience; once again it was a country I was devastated to leave because of all the friends were made there and the beautiful and unique sights that we saw.

Cracking Krabi!

After leaving Koh Samui in we headed towards Krabi. I didn't really know what to expect about this place as it was inland and, apart from Bangkok, we had only visited islands.

We spent our first night at a hostel and met two nice girls from Rugby; Nic and Jess who we ended up spending all our time in Krabi with. I loved Krabi because we did so many activities there. On our first night we climbed up to Tiger Temple which is 1327 steps to the top. It only took us half an hour but we were absolutely exhausted when we got to the top. It was completely worth it when we took in the view and witnessed a gorgeous sunset. We had also taken beers up there to celebrate when we got to the top... we didn't realise the entire thing was a temple until a lady walking by told us off and said  it was as bad as drinking in church- oops. On our way back down (which we thought would be the easy part) we got caught in torrential rain and ended up wading through calve deep water to get back to our bus.

The following day was the start of the Thai celebration of the New Year that they call Songkran. The first day of this is basically a nationwide water fight- what could be better?! So we spent the morning standing on the corner of the hostel throwing buckets of water at people passing by and getting equally soaked by the locals. At lunchtime we went to Railay beach which was a short boat ride away and is absolutely beautiful. We got further soaked when we arrived and had our faces covered in clay. I wish we had a festival at home like this, it was great fun.

The next day, after listening to a tip from one of the guys at the hostel, we hired bikes and cycled to a small fishing village. We cycled about 14km to a five star infinity pool we had been recommended and were lucky enough to use it for free. The village was such a contrast from what we had seen of Thailand so far- there were goats everywhere and little children running out to wave and shout hello to us. After leaving the pool we decided to go to a fish restaurant that we had seen signs for. This was a real novelty because it was one of those restaurants that I have only ever seen in pictures that float on water. The tables all surrounded a netted area where they kept the fresh fish. I think the staff could tell it was a first for us so fed the fish while we were there which meant we were able to see small sharks jumping out of the water and a huge blow fish. The only thing the restaurant wasn't built for was the torrential rain we then had as we were eating our dinner; luckily it eased off enough for us the get the boat and cycle back.

The last activity we did in Krabi was rock climbing. This had been recommended to us as its one of the top ten places in the world to do it and you are climbing on real limestone cliffs. I really enjoyed this and would probably say it’s one of the best things I've done whilst travelling. I was also thrilled because both Gwend and I succeeded in climbing a thirty metre wall. It was so tough and at one point I was clinging to a flat piece of rock like a lizard moaning that I couldn't do it, but with a bit of encouragement I got there. I was so glad that I did as the view from the top was beautiful and I whooped excitedly the whole way down.

The following day, before we left Krabi we had a real treat. One of the boys from the hostel (they had become a bit of a family as so many people had stayed there weeks longer than planned) cooked twenty four of us a roast dinner. It was a welcome change from noodles and we also got the chance to catch up with the three girls who we had met on our Whitsundays sailing trip in Australia who were staying in Krabi at this time.