Oasis of Calm in Smelly Delhi

We arrived in Delhi very late on Wednesday night. We knew we wanted to treat ourselves to a nice hotel but we didn't want to waste the money if we were getting in late so we went to a cheaper hotel on the night we arrived. As soon as we got off the train we were swamped by touts again! They are very intense here and it can be quite scary when they surround you in their masses shouting things at you about their taxi/rickshaw/hotel. I have learnt to call the hotel in advance and get them to advise me on a sensible price for transport from the station to them so that the drivers don't take advantage.

Millions of hotels!!

The heat in Delhi is suffocating, even at 11pm at night, and it is dirty, dusty, noisy and there are people sleeping on the roads and under bridges. It's an attack on the senses. Here you have to have five arguments before you get what you need be it transport, drinking water or even a shower. The next morning (after a good few hours of arguing over rickshaws in the street in the ridiculous heat) we finally reached our next hotel; my maximum spend on a room for the night would normally be £9 (on average I spend £5) but I promised myself that once a month I would go somewhere decent to recuperate plus I was splitting the cost with my friend so we spent £27 a night on this one and all I can say is, WOW! It was gorgeous and probably would have been several hundred pounds in England.

A big soft bed after sleeping on narrow wooden boards for a month!!

The hotel reception.

After the stresses of Delhi we felt on top of the world to be in a clean, quiet, luxurious hotel room - we were so HAPPY!!!

The pool at night.

The hotel was in the south of Delhi which is much less hectic and it was in a rural, gated complex on large grounds so we escaped the usual car horns and shouting. We didn't leave the hotel for two entire days and spent our time relaxing, having room service, going in the pool and to the restaurant.

Mojitos in the pool = heaven!!!!

Underwater camera fun!

One night we noticed they were preparing for what looked like an extremely extravagant event so we asked what was going on and they explained it was an Indian ring giving ceremony (an engagement). The wedding industry is massive here and the celebration looked bigger than most weddings we are used to and so we wondered what the wedding would be like if this party was only the engagement!

Preparations for the Indian engagement.

At first the all-male staff were polite and kept their distance and we were grateful to finally escape the intense, unwanted attention from the men in Delhi. This gradually changed though and towards the end they started to make us feel uncomfortable so we knew it was time to move on. Nevertheless we were able to forget we were in India for a while and we felt sufficiently prepared to face Delhi again after that!

Crazy Monkey Day...

At 6am on Wednesday morning we arrived in Shimla after barely sleeping an hour on our broken seats in the ancient overnight bus. Before the coach had even stopped a gaggle of touts had gathered at the door to fight over the potential business they might get from us whether it be a taxi ride or a hotel room. Our plan was to spend just a few hours in Shimla to see the giant statue of the Hindu monkey god, Hanuman, whilst we waited for our toy train ride to Delhi however we didn't know whether there would be train tickets available, when the station opened or how far away the statue was so we moved away from the bus to figure out what to do. Fifteen to twenty touts stalked us whilst we collected our luggage and followed us all around the bus station before surrounding us whilst we opened our bags to retrieve our phones and maps. We begged them to stop harassing us but they moved closer and closer grabbing at our arms and our luggage- we were exhausted and at breaking point. We eventually decided to go to the station and book our tickets as early as possible because the thought of having to stay in this town for a night because the train was full was not appealing. We patiently waited for an hour until the booking office opened and when it did several local men barged past me in the queue; finally I got to the counter only to be told that last minute toy train bookings could only be done in two hours time and there was a complicated four step process for doing so. We were so unbelievably agitated at this point but nevertheless we decided to make the most of the two hours so we dragged our luggage to get a taxi to the statue. Whilst walking we spotted loads of wild monkeys right near us; suddenly I felt a gush of hot liquid fall down on me from above and I screamed and looked up and realised a monkey had urinated all over my head and face!!!! Paula thought from my scream that I had been bitten and in a panic she accidentally launched herself into a massive bush of stinging nettles! There we were at the side of the road - I was bent over and almost throwing up because I had monkey wee in my mouth and Paula was jumping around itching herself all over! Paula gave me some antiseptic liquid to wash my mouth with because in our panic we were worried I might contract rabies; just as a taxi pulled up for us I started foaming at the mouth and let's just say I was panicking like crazy because I was now convinced I was infected. Thankfully Paula quickly explained that it was the antiseptic that made that happen. The taxi driver looked at us like we were insane so I tried to tell him - "A MONKEY JUST WEED ON MY HEAD!!" - he didn't understand and I felt like he needed an explanation for our hysterics so, at the side of a busy road in north India, I dramatically mimed a monkey weeing on my head. We eventually got in the car and asked to go to Jakhu temple where the giant monkey statue was. Once I was almost certain I didn't have rabies we took one look at each other and burst into fits of laughter; Paula had angry bumps all over her body from the stinging nettles and I had a massive, acrid damp patch on my hair and clothes and a sour, musty taste in my mouth...

The giant pink statue of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman was worth the visit! 

The monkey statue happens to be surrounded by thousands of actual monkeys -coincidence?

My surreal, 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'-style photo. That guy better look where he's going otherwise he could be the next monkey wee victim.

Just after I took a photo of one of the monkeys that lived in the statue grounds it started hissing at Paula in a really threatening way and started to quickly approach us; we'd had enough monkey drama for one day so as it started to chase us we grabbed some rocks and it scurried off. We navigated our way past gangs of monkeys and sprinted back to the taxi clutching piles of rocks just in case. It was time to leave Shimla. Thankfully we managed to get our tickets on the toy train; the Shimla toy train refers to the slim, old fashioned train track that winds around the sides of hills and mountains for six hours and looks just like a child's train set. Whilst the steam trains are long gone it is still a slow, rickety, scenic little train with dramatic views. The seats were so small and uncomfortable and every hour or so the train would stop and men would try to sell us chai tea and food through the windows however we didn't need to eat because we'd bought a 'super deluxe packed lunch' for 55 rupees at the station before the train left; this consisted of rice, daal, chapati, curd and chickpea curry (an extremely traditional Indian meal). We sat squashed together with one bum cheek each on the minuscule seats and ate the curry that was balanced on our laps with our hands whilst hundreds of strangers stared at us.

This is the evil monkey that tried to attack us - you can tell from this photo that he has an attitude problem!!

The Shimla to Kalka toy train.

The impressive view from the carriage - it was (almost) all worth it!

After six hours on the toy train we boarded a regular train to Delhi which was packed full of men selling samosas and omelettes wrapped in tin foil at every stop. We were stared at continually for seven hours (there were no other women or tourists around). Finally we reached Delhi after twenty seven hours of travelling, several days without a shower and far too many hours covered in monkey wee.

Something About Blondes?

On Monday my friend from Chile, Paula, and I decided to go for a walk uphill to a local waterfall overlooking the town of McLeodganj. On our way a Tibetan man started talking to us and without us realising he became our guide. He took us to a natural swimming pool underneath the waterfall and we were dying to go in because it was really hot but it's extremely offensive and inappropriate for women to swim in India unless fully clothed! Ahhh it's all fine for the Indian men who were stripping down to their see-through underwear and having a whale of a time whilst the women gingerly lifted up the bottom of their saris for a paddle taking care not to show too much ankle!

Jealous.

A lot of Indians are very keen to have a photo with a westerner, particularly a blonde one, and barely a second passed at the waterfall without a photo being demanded. Here is a selection:

Our 'guide' then took us to a few temples and he was so lovely that we decided to pay him a small amount despite us not ever asking for his help or agreeing to any guidance. It turned out that being what we called a 'surprise guide' was what he did all day to make money and we hoped that other people didn't take advantage of him.

Hindu temple.

McLeodganj is a small town which, at the time of year, is gloriously sunny all morning and then in the afternoon a strange mist descends and enshrouds the mountains and at that point it often rains. Yesterday it chucked it down so we sought refuge in an Italian restaurant and had a really tasty meal and then we went for a few beers after. There weren't any other travellers in the hotels and restaurants we went for a drink in (there are no bars and definitely no clubs here!!) and the local men would come up to us giggling and saying something that we couldn't understand - it turns out all they wanted was a photo with us and then they would scurry back to their friends giggling!

Strange afternoon mist.

On the TVs in the restaurant they played a sport that I didn't recognise; it involved men holding hands in pairs and dancing around trying to block another man and everyone was going wild for it! We were told it was called Kabbadi and it's extremely popular in India.

Swinging chair!

On Tuesday we decided to go to the local 'cinema' (a freezing room in a basement with 10 chairs and a projector) and watch Khundun which is a Martin Scorsese film about the current Dalai Lama and his exile from Tibet. That evening we got on a 13p bus to the next town so we could go on an overnight coach to our next destination, Shimla. I've heard that there is a huge monkey statue there as well as the Shimla toy train plus it's on the way to other places of interest in India.

This dog is not dead. It is merely having a snooze at the bus station, much like the local men like to do as well!

India's Latest Tourist Attraction!

I packed my stuff ready for my next bus journey; I needed to pay for my room before I left but I couldn't find the people running the guesthouse so I planned to leave the money in the room. The only problem was that I didn't have change (only a 1000 rupee note, this is equivalent to £10) so I went in search of change and planned to buy something small but no one accepts these notes despite the cash machines giving them out all the time! One shop owner shouted at me really angrily saying "No! No change! Get out now!". It was an almost impossible task but I got there eventually and started my journey. It's too bumpy to read on these bus rides so I find myself watching the scenery unfold: women and men squatting down to work on the roads with small children asleep on the road next to them, babies sat on motorbikes with their parents, cows roaming the motorways, men having their morning wash in a bucket at the side of the road and miles and miles of mountains and trees. It started raining heavily (it is the tail end of monsoon season but so far I have been in the north which is unaffected) and the door to mini bus wouldn't close; the driver seemed perfectly okay with letting us all get soaked for miles until some of the other passengers made him pull over so they could try and fix it.

I arrived in the small hillside town of McLeodganj in the evening after a wet yet scenic mini bus drive.

The town is on a hill above Dharamsala where the Dalai Lama lives. 

McLeodganj is full of hippies and people who look like Jesus because of the spiritual influences and all the massage, yoga and meditation courses that are on offer. I was due to meet a woman from Chile called Paula that I had met a few towns ago and on my way to meet her I was surrounded by a family of about fifteen Indians (from another part of India on their holidays) demanding a photo with me. I had my huge backpack on me as well as my other backpack that I was wearing on my front (I probably looked a bit like a carrier mule) and it was pretty embarrassing because there were lots of people watching as they took a series of photos of me with different combinations of their family. "This husband and wife", "This cousins" they announced. After each one I said I was leaving but they held me in place for more so I eventually asked for one from my camera as well!

I felt like the latest tourist attraction!

I met Paula and she'd arranged a cheap room for us to split with its own bathroom and a TV (two commodities that I would usually take for granted but haven't had in the last month).

We had a tasty meal in a rooftop restaurant where we met a very weird man from Brighton who was holding a bottle of whisky like it was his baby. 

We went to visit the Dalai Lama's place of residence however he is unfortunately in Germany at the moment so I wasn't able to meet him! His 'house' looks like a big concrete school; it was full of hundreds of monks and we'd caught them at dinner time so there were buckets of food on the floor that they were sharing amongst themselves. The monks seem to live a very nice life and are well fed and looked after as most of them have sponsors. We visited the place where the Dalai Lama sits and carries out his teachings and lectures (we weren't allowed to take photos inside).

Little monks on the street.

We went into a crystal and stone shop to look at rings and Paula started to feel ill so the shop keeper tried to make her feel better by 'transferring good energy through her chakra third eye with crystals'. I personally didn't know if I believed in all that stuff...until I was looking at rings and picking a stone that I liked (apparently you don't pick the stone, it picks you) and when I looked it up in the reference book it spookily related to me a lot! A few minutes later I had the strongest déjà vu ever! It was a very weird experience!

Paula being 'healed'.

I just got back from a Tibetan cookery class led by a really lovely Tibetan refugee called Sangye. I met two English girls there who had taught English as a foreign language (what I will be doing in Thailand in April) so I was chatting away to them as we made momos (dumplings made of dough which are similar to stuffed fresh pasta) with spinach and cheese as well as chocolate-filled sweet momos.

All kinds of momos!

Naughty Cow!!

Yesterday I went paragliding! I had arranged it the day before and I went with five other people in a car on the bumpiest hour-long car journey ever! We were basically driving on rocks, that's the only way I can describe it. We went higher and higher and eventually had to get out and climb until we reached the launching place. We hadn't been told anything about what was going to happen or what we had to do and once we'd climbed high enough some men unpacked the giant parachutes and then strapped me into one with the instructor behind me. They were talking away in their language to each other and I asked, "What do I need to do??", and one of them simply said, "You run", and with that the instructor immediately started running off the cliff with me attached and so I ran like a crazy person and then suddenly we were in the air! Much like the sky dive I did in the UK a few months ago it was the initial launch that was the best bit and then after that it was calm and peaceful and so I guess I was hoping it was going to be a bit more scary! It was brilliant though and the views of the mountains, valley and sunny sky were amazing! 

View from launch area.

Paragliding selfie!!!!

The view!!

We flew through clouds!! And there were massive eagles soaring beside us at one point. 

After being dropped off I went exploring the area and walked through a forest.

The village I am staying in is a 50p rickshaw journey away from the main town but I have found that I can walk it in thirty minutes and save money. I have to walk along a road for a while however (I have discovered that Indian drivers think they can drive as wildly as they like as long as they honk their horns one million times a minute) and the way back is very steep uphill although I do get to walk past a waterfall where there are absolutely loads of massive lizards hanging out in the sun!

This lizard was about 4ft long.

While I was in the village last night a massive cow walked past and sniffed my toe and then licked it; it's owner came along and told it off and then dragged it across the square saying angry things to it whilst everyone was watching and laughing!

Naughty cow!!!

The village I am staying in is called Vashisht and it is famous for its temple that houses public baths. There are separate areas for men and women and they consist of a massive stone bath with really hot water inside surrounded by stone walls with no ceiling so it is open to the sun and you have a great view of the pine tree-covered mountain above. I went there last night as well as this morning as they also have hot running water taps and the guesthouses don't always guarantee hot water.

There is strictly no photography in here so I had to wait until no one was looking or standing naked in shot!!

I took the opportunity to relax in the baths as much as possible because tomorrow morning, after three nights in Vachisht, I will take a ten hour bus journey across India to Dharumsala which is where the Dalai Lama lives.

Julley to Leh!

'Julley' is the Ladakhi word for hello, goodbye, welcome and thank you - very versatile - but this time I mean goodbye! The town of Leh has been my Indian 'training wheels' because it is so much calmer, quieter and cleaner than many places in this country; now I have been eased in gently I think I am ready to take on what the rest of India has to offer! I left Leh in the dark on Tuesday morning and started my long, long coach journey. When booking most trains and buses in advance in India they often appropriately seat you (i.e. they wouldn't put a young single female like me next to a man on his own unless he was really old) which suits me because this time I was sat next to an old Indian granny who was small and quiet apart from the odd giant belch! We drove over the world's second highest pass at 17800ft (we were so high that at one point we drove through clouds!) and the driver stopped so we could take photos; he ordered me to bring my camera and insisted on taking a photos of me at the top of this pass with various other male passengers.

Awkward bus photo.

The roads were so horrendously bumpy that, when I was half asleep, I kept knocking into the granny beside me. Every now and then we would stop at little villages with chai cafes and I would ask where the toilet was, people would vaguely point their arms towards a building so I'd go to investigate but it would just be someone's home or a locked building; it took me a while to realize that the the 'toilets' they were referring to were the open spaces next to the building i.e. in the middle of a field next to a road in broad daylight.

Chai stop.

Precarious mountain roads.

The roads were so wonky that the bus would tilt over the cliff edge and it really felt like we were going to fall over (plus there were no seat belts). The driver took great pride in pointing out the wildlife such as wild horses, herds of ibex and marmots which look like dog-sized hamsters. One road had a dizzying 21 loops to get down the side of a mountain.

My Markha Valley monkey enjoying the view.

We arrived at our tent stay and a few of us immediately went on the hunt for beer! A man emerged with some warm, ancient looking, dusty bottles and we sat outside enjoying the 8% Indian Kingfisher.

Our tent stay.

Driving through clouds.

The next day we left early and the views just got better and better as we drove through beautiful valleys. I had been recommended a funky and cheap place to stay in the town we were heading to (£2 a night) by another traveller so I had called ahead and booked a room. When the coach finally got to Manali I took a crazy ride in a rickshaw (these have open sides and slippery seats, you have to brace yourself and hold on for dear life!) on potholed roads up a rocky hill and to my guesthouse which was wedged in the mountain overlooking a valley; when I got there, without me saying a word, a man said "you must be Jennifer!" and took me to my room!

Hotel 'Babushka'.

The view from room. Manali is like an alpine ski resort in summer - not what I expected to find in India at all!

I have decided to try something I haven't heard of every time I eat (I call this 'menu lottery') and this time I pointed to something called channa pori for 20 rupees.

That night I went for dinner with three people from the bus (one from Belgium, one from France and one from Italy) and we went to a rooftop restaurant. I have to make a conscious effort not to talk so fast because people can't understand me, it almost feels painful to talk slower than I usually do but hopefully I will get used to it and it may force me to change a bad habit of a lifetime! I once again played my menu lottery game and had a really tasty Indian meal. Later on I had an even crazier rickshaw ride home in the dark, it felt like being on an ancient roller coaster and was made even better by the fact that I'd had a few beers!

Rooftop restaurant.

White Water Rafting

Today I went white water rafting! I had to meet at the company's office at 9am however when I got there they said they had made a mistake and nobody else was going on that particular trip; they asked if I minded swapping to another route with a small refund which was fine with me. The strange thing was there was nobody else at the office and as I was bundled in a jeep by myself I started to worry what was happening and the driver didn't speak English! We drove for half an hour to the middle of nowhere and I was left in the van for twenty minutes not knowing what was going on; then a group of seven Indians emerged out of a house, got in the van and started chatting away to each other in Hindi. I didn't want to go the whole day in silence whilst surrounded by a group of people so I suppose you could say I 'forced' my way into their conversation! They turned out to be amazingly nice, about my age and with similar jobs and by the end of the day they were feeding me their homemade Indian sweets (laddu), all speaking English and inviting me to their houses in Mumbai when I go next month. In fact I have been invited to stay at people's homes all over India (and the world!) with people I've met in the last three weeks and I've also made plans to meet up again with other travellers I've met along the way (for example in a few days I will meet up with a woman from Chile that I met at the meditation retreat).

Suited up!

Whilst we were in our wet-suits waiting to get into the rapids it was so unbelievably boiling that I thought I was going to faint! However when we got into the raft and it nearly capsized I felt how freezing the Indus River was as it comes down from melted snow at the top of mountains. There were three rafts in total and we were having splashing fights in the icy stretches of water between the rapids. Someone fell in and a little bit later a few of us decided to jump in; I spent almost twenty minutes travelling in the rapids beside the boat holding on to the life line (there is NO WAY they would allow that in England!)

On the raft!

Afterwards I saw a pet monkey attack a stray dog whilst the owners looked on, laughed and encouraged it.

If you can put up with twelve men in a cafe relentlessly and unashamedly staring at you then you can eat dinner reeeally cheaply at the non-tourist places here. I had two samosas, which were made from scratch in front of me, with homemade chilli sauce and a cup of chai tea for 30 rupees (30p). They were amazing and I ended up chatting to two American girls that came in a little while later so it wasn't too bad.

Samosas filled with potatoes and spices.

There women everywhere on the street selling tiny, sweet apricots for 40 rupees for a massive bag.

After spending three weeks in the state of Ladakh and using Leh as my base town I will start to slowly head to the south of India, visiting many places on the way. I leave at 5am for Manali and it is apparently a "spine jangling" twenty hour coach journey through valleys and mountains split over two days with a night in a tent. The owner of my current guesthouse has given me a stick because she thinks I will need it in the early hours of tomorrow morning when I walk to the coach station because of all they dogs, cows and donkeys roaming around in the dark!