Day 2 and 3:The Difficult Third Album, I mean Blog. Agra, Ranthombhore and Jaipur

Day 2

You left me in my last blog at 2am in our hotel room with my first experience of India filling my head so you can imagine I was pretty tired and buzzed when I woke up the next day.

We dress and breakfasted a normal indian breakfast of curry and paratha bread or egg in a morning full of swirling fog, with the rumble of anticipation in my stomach of what a full day in India would bring. 

Our first stop of the day, and the trip, was the Taj Mahal and we make our way across the city, me with eyes wide as I experience the hustle and bustle of Agra for the first time in the day. It is literally madness and I would imagine a driving instructors worse nightmare. We arrive with warnings of hawkers, and as soon as we get out of the car we are bombarded with postcards, keyrings and camel ride offerings, all being shoved in front of us, but I take the advice of our driver and keep my head down and thankfully we are soon left alone. As we arrive at the main gateway to the mausoleum, curious to how magnificent this well talked about wonder was going to be, I realise that seeing will be a lose term, as in December and January, Agra has its winter fog and before 11am you can hardly see the end of your nose.

However as the morning started to clear, I couldn't help being struck by what a beautiful building and ground it was. Everything is symmetrical from its gardens to its steps, which I have never seen before on such a large scale. It was also built, I think, in such an astonishingly quick amount of time. It took 20 years and over 20,000 people to complete and their craftsmanship is incredible, every piece of writing you see on the marble and every picture inside is not painted but individual stone, carefully carved and stuck into the marble with one hand sized flower have up to 65 pieces in it. The Indians tell you the time scale like its a long time but it's beauty is easily comparable to the classic cathedrals which take 3 to 10 times as long. You can feel the love he had for his wife seeping out of the walls and I think it's amazing what beauty can come from grief.

We also experienced our first taste of circus freak status as our picture is taken constantly as we wander round. My hair is causing its usual curiosity but Ben is also well sort after, they love his tattoos and seem in awe of his size which makes him laugh. Ben is asked 4/5 times for his picture whereas I decline. It's not just staged photos as well, as soon as I posed for a picture , Ben will have 2 or so people around him snapping the same shot of me, ready to take home to show off as their new girlfriend our guide informs us.

Having a guide can be great as their wealth of knowledge and tricks and tips can be great when wandering around but they do have their downsides, they all have friends with shops and this one is no different. He takes us off to see a Stone "Art Gallery" which we should have clicked was just a shop when he told us it would be free to go, nothing in India is free. Although the main aim of the place is to get us to spend, it is actually really interesting to see how the stone was cut and how they put it into the marble just like the Taj Mahal and if we'd actually have £300 spare, I would have definitely bought one of their tables so it wasn't all a wasted trip.

We left our guide at this point and ventured out of Agra. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but the main traffic on the roads here is a little bovine. It doesn't need petrol or tyres, it just meanders, munching as it goes. India is full of cows. Our driver explain to us on the first night why they are so sacred, it's to do with their milk and how it keeps people alive and healthy so they just let them roam around. You can't go 500 yards without one casually strolling down the road or blocking up the traffic and the cows don't seem fazed at all, I am however and it doesn't leave me for the whole trip.

Leaving Agra reminds me of the background loops you used to get in cartoons. You'll see a food market, followed by a building site, followed by a cow, followed by a food market, followed by a building site, followed by a cow, followed by...well you get my drift, I don't think I have ever been on a long piece of straight road before.

We stopped off at a pretty red fort which was made by the grandfather of the Taj Mahal builder. He had many wives all of different religions so he made it multi religious which really impressed me. Here our polite Britishness is abused for the last time and we get coerced into charity and buy a sari for a poor child and get 3 wishes in the temple. It sounds like an easy thing to say no to but with our politeness and the pushiness of the seller and our supposed guide you can easily feel like you have no choice. We walked away from that one vowing to not be taken for mugs again and haven't yet.

Our next drive is pretty long but unlike at home, where I would be bored and restless after 30 minutes, the 5 hours fly by. Every stretch of road is full of so many things to see and its intoxicating. The countryside is nothing like we have at home, it's fields are full of brick chimneys, straw huts and greenery and then just as quick it's full of lorries and people as we reach a township. Each place has a new smell and different animals, so far I have seen dogs, cats, donkeys, camels, pigs and of course cows just wandering the streets. The dust and the multi coloured trucks are constant and I can't keep my eyes of it all. Everything is full of colour from the saris to the buildings with painted advert.

I'm transfixed and only turn away when the plane journey finally catches up with me and I sleep uncomfortably on Ben's shoulder.

I jolt awake to find we have arrived at Ranthombhore for our early morning safari the next day to a cold and damp room, and I pile up in layers I didn't think I'd need to cosy down for the night.

Day 3

I wake up after a restless and noisy night sleep at 5am sharp for our safari. Oh my kittens, it was freezing! Luckily we saw a lady with a sleeping bag, who was also due to go on our safari, before we go on the open jeep thing so we ask for a blanket but that does very little to keep out the cold of the bright 6C morning. (Tip: India, in January, can be brass monkeys so bring thermals). 

After a drive where we thought we were going to lose fingers due to the cold we arrived at the park. 75% of the park is closed off to the animals have some privacy and 25% is open to visitors so we are warned we might not see any tigers if they don't want to be seen. There are 55 tigers in the whole park but less than 20 in the bit we are going to and there was siteings the day before of a tigeress with a couple of cubs so we keep our fingers crossed.

A short, bumpy trundle into the park and we saw our first piece of wild life and it was a truly awesome adult sloth bear, which even the guide was excited about as they are usually nocturnal. We didn't get any photos of this as we were a bit too amazed by it, but it really was incredible. Next on the animal list as we carry on our very bumpy ride through the park was deer, flamingo, warthog and crocodile, all around a lake looking quite surprised to see us.

It starts to warm up now so my teeth are no longer chattering but I wouldn't have noticed anyway as I was a bit taken with what I was seeing. We now make our way to a rest stop so the guides could confer and the weak bladders can use the toilet. Suddenly there was movement as alarm calls from the deer could be heard across from one side of the park. Guides run back to their trucks, visitors hurried back to their seats and we hare off as fast as our little bouncy open truck thing can handle. Dust is billow out behind us and the noise off all the trucks must carry for miles and I think if I was a tiger, I'd be off. We travel around for 30 minutes but it turns out it was a bit of a wild goose/tiger chase with nothing to show for it than a shaken skeleton and a very dusty hoodie. We start to make our way back now and end our ride with a spotting of a family of languor monkeys, who I want to put in my bag as they are so cute.

Back, half frozen with nice sun burnt noses, we pack up and are on the road again. It's voting time in Ranthombhore at the moment so each town we drive through is crowded with colourful saris and serious looking men that spill out into the road. We begin to get a little peckish so our driver stops off so we can shop in the market for some Apples and I make the discovery that carrots here are bright red, fact for you at home.

We arrive in Jaipur early evening and as we hit the crowed streets and hear the familiar sound of honking, I start to feel completely overwhelmed again. It is full of hustle and bustle and compact streets with too many cars and too many cows. We get to our next hotel and honestly all I want to do is hide in our nice clean room with wifi and pillows. But our brilliant driver tempts us (mainly me, Ben needs no tempting) out with promise of tea and possibly something to eat. Now I'm not going to lie, I was skeptical as we turned up at his friends spice and tea shop, thinking we about to get caught with..."here's some tea, now buy my shop" and my opinion of our so far great driver falling but I couldn't have been more wrong, it was brilliant.

First, he got us some chai, the old Indian favourite which was delicious and just the perfect temperature for drinking a whole tea pot. The shop keep started to chatted away about the spices and filling us with facts and figures of their benefits, who knew turmeric was so good for you? Next up was the relaxing Himalayan Kava, a blend of a few spices and the perfect remedy for a stressed traveller like me, as soon as I hit my tongue I mellow and by the end of the cup, I'm almost horizontal. As we sipped that, we tried some raw lemon which just explodes on your tongue, sniffed some fresh cardamom pods that were amazing and checked out so many other tastes and smells. Ben spied some sandalwood in branch form and wrapped up our buying experience before we bought the shop. They were probably the first Indians we met who weren't pushy, it was just the right level of sales pitch, he let you try without feeling pressured and gave you the right amount of information to keep you interested. We finished up with some spiced green tea and whilst we sipped, watched a blessing across the road of a cow by a day old bride and the family and I marvel at what a peculiar life I'm living right now.

We head back to the hotel and as we sit down to dinner at the hotels roof top restaurant and I experience the brilliantness of a Thali, I realise that India is starting to get under my skin as so many people said it would. It still terrifies me at times but I'm starting to feel an excitement for what it can offer and I relaxed back in my chair ready to take on tomorrow with the sounds of Jaipur beneath us and fireworks above.

Day 1: The adventure doesn't start till something goes wrong, right? Delhi

So the trip has begun! We are already flying through Day 4 in a very lovely hotel in the noisy city of Jaipur. Although we have already crammed so much into these past few days, I though the first blog I'd share should be my impressions of India from notes I wrote on the first night. Because of it being written so quick, it does sound a little like rabbit in headlights, but I'm settling now, so no need to worry/despair. Sorry for the lack of pictures with is one but with everything to process we didn't have the brain power to snap as well.

If you asked me to describe India in one word, it would have to be chaos. And not the organised chaos you get in European big cities where the place is packed with so many people and noises that you can feel a little lost, but that secretly is supported by a well ordered public transport system and familiar looking restaurants. No Indian chaos is it in a true sense of the word.

We arrived in after a sleepless but fairly uneventful flight (which had the yummiest plane food that I have ever eaten, really as a vegetarian Jet Airlines are brilliant) into a clean, cool and moderately well organised airport with snazzy flushing toilets and those flat escalators that make you feel very lazy. The immigration area was well organised and there were lines of people, all calming waiting for their chance to go through, I could even see a posh looking duty free shop on the other side. My tired brain was lulled into a false sense of security that maybe isn't as crazy as everyone has been mentioned and we were going to ace this back packing malarkey with ease. Oh how wrong I was.

Before we left, we were given some good advice from my Dad about how to cope in the first hour of a new, strange country. Take your time in the airport, have a drink, take it steady, rushing will only unravel you. So we calmly wandered through the airport, staying unfazed when we realised we'd been waiting in line for 30 minutes to find the airline had given us the wrong form for going through immigration (Tip here, you need to do a separate immigration form as well as your visa to enter India, these forms are near the end of the queue) We cleverly walked away from the main doors at arrivals so we wouldn't be coming out with all the other tourists and felt ready and relaxed for what Delhi could throw at us as we ventured out. But on that first step, I realised I couldn't have never be ready for that. The first thing that hit me was the smell, a mixture of sweat, hot metal and something else I couldn't quite put my finger on (and still can't) Our clever decoy doors didn't shield us from the noise of the crowds that cover the front entrance to the airport, all mixed in with drums and singing in the centre of a crowd of people and I could see a man being raised in the air as they chanted around him, it just hit me like a ball of energy.

We moved quickly, trying to spot a taxi when a local driver came up to us and offered to take us to town for 300 which seemed fair, as a guide I collared in the airport said pay no more than 700. We dropped our bags into the boot and slipped into the seats and I tried to let Delhi wash over me as we began to drive. But you can't let it "wash", that verb is too soft for what India had to offer us, we instantly hit a motorway with 3 distinct lanes that manage to fit double the traffic, with a mixture of horns, yells and light bumps. Each roundabout we reached as we got closer to the city was full of washing and people and dogs, all of who mix in with the traffic from time to time and the noise kept getting louder and louder and to the left of me was 20-30 military looking officials riding camels down the highway. I'm sitting in the back seat, with rising panic filling my stomach as I realised what we've let ourselves in for. We can't just wing it in Delhi like we will in the back packing trails of Thailand, the city doesn't offer itself up to bring slowly discovered. It moves in a mish-mash jumble that mixes everything up at once and I bet even spits locals out, dazed and confused from time to time. 

By this point we have reached the centre and where out hostel should be, but as our driver keeps going round in circles, we all start to realise that their might be a problem. After about 30 minutes, the driver decides to take us to the "Tourism Office" (which is really just his mate, the travel agent, with a shiny looking sign) so we can call the hostel for directions. This is when it gets a bit interesting, as at this time in January is around their National Day and elections which seems to involve a lot of monuments and road closures from what I've understood. One of the road closed is our hostel road and they helpfully let us know on the phone that they have cancelled our booking and have refunded out deposit. So we are currently stuck in the middle of Delhi with no place to stay on 2 hours sleep, and all I really want is a nap and a shower. I start to feel sick.

But Ben calmly takes the situation in hand and looks to the guy in front of us. "What do you want to do in India?" He asks with pen in hand. "Why don't I plan you a route, getting you out of Delhi for the next few days till it's all calmed down and showing you our Golden triangle" (Read below for nagging doubts about this) And if all goes to plan, he has planned us something pretty snazzy. We set off straight away from leaving his office on a 3 hour, very comfy car journey to Agra, to a quite nice hotel room across from the Taj Mahal (I can't confirm that yet as the fogs pretty thick at night here) where tomorrow we have a guided tour around the city, we then set off to Ramthalbour for a safari. Then we go to Jaipur, Jodpur, Udiapur and Pushkir to see the delights they all have to offer over a 6 day period which includes Elephant rides to temples and accommodation each night and breakfast each day, we will then arrive back in Delhi to go sight seeing and we will then be dropped off at our airport for our evening flight to Hong Kong. Phew.

Crisis avert (Nagging doubts. This whole scenario could have been a ploy to get us to go with his travel company and I don't know why but that makes me feel really anxious, it's ridiculous really as this trip will now (hopefully) be 10 times better than we could have planned as we have a driver who seems to know his stuff, a car to guide us through the craziness of the cities and the chance to see temples and things we just wouldn't have been able to before. But it still makes me feel nervy. I'm sure it's to do with the shock of getting in yesterday and nothing else but it's hard to shake when you're a bit overwhelmed by it all) 

The drive to Agra was the first thing on our plans and was pretty amazing, once you leave Delhi, the place becomes so open, luscious and vast. We drove past little villages with house made from straw and mud, all the while cruising across 3 lanes of traffic with no indicators and a few beeps of the horn. Our driver is pretty funny, he's been giving us tips from what' good to fix up a funny tummy (Sweet Lissi? I think he said) to giving us a history lesson on Indian politics and grilling us with questions like "Who is God?" which is very hard to answers when your hungry and tired (it's mother by the way, if you wanted to know) 

This car journey (4 hours, never trust an Indians "a couple") gave me time to process and it dawned on me as we drove on the impressive Express Way to Agra, that the problem here is me, not India. This isn't chaos seeping out of their country but the Indian norm. The wrong form at the airport, the lack of communication from the hostel and the 3 lanes of traffic that can magically hold 6 cars, this is just how India functions and the only way to do it is to go with the flow. Which is easier to say and not as easy to do as it is to type, sitting here with all the chaos of the day rolling around in my stomach but I'm sure I will :)

I guess this is what it's like to go off to crazy places, just two wet behind the ears travellers taking responsibility for our routes.

In The Beginning, There Was Fear.

In less than 10 days, I will be setting off on an adventure of a life time, 8 months exploring south east Asia and I'm terrified.

Me and my man are slipping out of UK life to travel round South East Asia with only a rough list of countries as our guide. The first flight takes us from London Heathrow to the madness of New Delhi in India where we will spend 10 days getting used to living out of a bag and eating our body weight in delicious food. Next stop is 4 days in Hong Kong, then we jet over to Bangkok, Thailand where our over-land adventure begins including Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore. At this point we hope to hop over to Indonesia, including a pit stop in Komoda then to New Zealand. We then start our trip home which we hope will include Kuala Lumpa, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, which will end when we land back in London around early autumn. 

Things we hope to see (All pictures from Google)

I know we are going to see some amazing sights, eat some deliciously unusual foods, meet all manner of people and do it all in weather hot enough for 24/7 shorts, which sounds very appealing as I sit here listening to the wind outside my window with 3 layers on. But my over-riding emotion when I think of all this isn't excitement like everyone says it should be, but fear. I feel totally overwhelmed by it all. 

It's not that I haven't travelled before, I've already cross off 24 of the 180 odd countries in the world, a list I hope to complete before I shuffle off this shelf. It's not planes or trains or automobiles, it's not the scary diseases as I've had all my jabs (wait for my next blog instalment to hear about that little episode) it's not the possibly harmful animals or going on my own as I'm setting off with the perfect travel partner. It's the fear that I won't want to come back.

Yep, this might sound strange to many of you reading this, who doesn't want to experience an adventure because they might just love it too much?! Even writing it sounds silly, but that's the feeling that lives at the pit of my stomach when I think about jetting off around the world. The problem is that I love my life, which is another thing that sounds a little odd to be calling a problem. I'm self employed, running a business that is in essence feeding my fetish for hoarding and rummaging around in junk. I've got a close family, who I see most of each week. I am the mad aunt to two little monsters who I adore spending time with and I have a home which is just starting to take the character of me and my other half. My little life that I've crafted for myself is just right. 

But I know I'm missing something. I'm quite an open person and try to learn lessons and take stock from everything I do so why wouldn't I want to experience a trip of a lifetime that will take me to places that will blow my mind? This fear I realised, once I started to think about it, boiled down to one thing. It isn't really that I'll never come home once I start, it's more simple that that, it's the age old fear of change. I don't want my life to be reassembled, "why rock the boat on something that's so good?" mutter those butterflies that are rocking around my stomach.

So, why might you ask, as those butterflies constantly do, am I doing this to myself? If it really is the most lump-in-throat, terrifying thing I've ever done, why go? Because, you know what, it's going to be the best adventure I have done and the anticipation of that wins any day.

From Google

My realisation was that change is all relative and this adventure, instead of harming my fabulous little life here, could make it even better. All that vintage clutter will still be here to rummage through when I get back, my family aren't going to disappear and this 8 months will make my world even brighter and wider. I wouldn't be me if I didn't have some reservations about it all, I'm the lady who asked her driving instructor what to do if she was held up by an armed robber on her test (they stop it, just in case you were wondering) I'm a worrier and a prize panic-er when it comes to the what might be, but life isn't about giving in to all that noise, it's about living it. There is so much out there in the big wide world and so many experiences to see, feel and taste I would be shooting myself in the foot to not embrace it all.

So we are off but I'm not doing it the cargo pants and flip flops way, I can't leave my vintage love completely at home, it's too engrained in my blood. So to make this adventure a little more me, I'm going to take on a vintage feel to this backpacking malarkey and document my trips, tricks and tips on here. Expect vintage style hair, crumpled cotton dresses and any tip bits or vintage treats I find along the way all all thrown in with the photos and stories of this epic adventure.

So toodle pip till the next instalment and enjoy a little map of our plan trip whilst you wait :)

Our Current Route.