Reflection

I have found it quite difficult coming back to work after being away for so long, especially as Holly is still away on her holiday. It is strange being on my own at the hostel after being with such good friends for the last 10 weeks! But I just have to get on with it and keep myself busy at work. It's only six weeks until I fly home! I do feel like I've hit a point where I'm almost ready to come home. India is an amazing country and I really love it here, but it's so exhausting. You have to be on good form every day in order to tackle it and if you're not it just swallows you up. It is so full on all the time and there is no escaping that when you need space to breathe. I have had so many days when I just want to build a wall between me and India because I just can't be bothered with any of it. But I've also had some incredible days, some of the best in my life. And although I feel completely drained, it's not a bad thing because I know I have used up all my energy doing something truly amazing that I will never forget.

So now it's time to get my head down and finish up all the work I have been doing this year. I want to enjoy the next six weeks and try not to focus on going home too much, but I also know that when the time comes I will be ready.

Summer Travels Part 4

Mumbai:
We didn't plan on staying in Mumbai long because we knew it would be expensive but we ended up really liking it and stayed for six days! We stayed in a really nice area of the city, but in a really cheap guest house. Our rooms were like open-plan offices with two small beds, and it was unbelievably hot at night! The climate in Mumbai was probably the worst I've experienced in India. It was incredibly humid so every time we went outside our skin was wet with sweat! It was horrible. Other than that, Mumbai was great; there was so much to do! We took a tour of the city and saw India Gate, the slums, the harbour where the Pakistani bombers came from in 2008, Gandhi's house where he lived for 17 years, the most expensive house in the world (from a distance) and Marina Drive. We got a boat to Elephanta Island which wasn't actually that great, I wouldn't recommend it. We went to shopping malls and bought clothes, went to cinema to see Million Dollar Arm and X-Men. Had a night out and went to a nightclub for the first time since we left home! We went to a museum and art gallery. We went to Pizza Express and Starbucks!! We went to an IPL cricket match which was so much fun! We were extras in an Indian tv commercial for the FIFA World Cup. We were actually really sad to leave Mumbai..

Arambol:
After Mumbai we headed down the coast to Goa and started in the North in a place called Arambol. In the high season I think Arambol is full of tourists with loads of parties and events but when we were there it was very quiet. It was actually a bit depressing! Most of the restaurants and hotels were closed and it just felt like the leftovers of the party season. We hired scooters for a day and drove down the coast where we found some nicer, deserted beaches and just enjoyed the beautiful scenery! Goa is really beautiful with its blue sea, white sand and palm trees everywhere! And the seafood is delicious..

Palolem:
We then travelled further south (which took us 4 buses and a stop at pizza hut) to Palolem which was much nicer. It was still quiet but there were more shops and restaurants open and the beach was much nicer! We spent a few days exploring the beaches and swimming in the sea all day which was really nice. Sadly, Martha and Tati then had to leave us to go back to work! It was really sad waving them off, after two months as a four it felt weird with only two. Ellie and I stayed in Palolem a few more days and both ended up feeling really ill, probably from exhaustion. So we spent two days in our room watching Made in Chelsea on youtube and ordering food to our room from the restaurant next door! Then the water in our hotel stopped working and there was a day-long power cut so we knew it was time to leave.

Gokarna:
We got a train to Gokarna with our American friend, Daniel, who we had met a few times on our travels. The train was supposed to take one hour but it stopped on the tracks for four hours so ended up taking five hours. This meant that we arrived in Gokarna as it was getting dark and still had to trek down to the beach to find accommodation. Well this didn't work out very well and the three of us ended up getting lost on a tiny, rocky path in the jungle when it was dark. It was really scary and its probably a miracle that none of us got bitten by a snake! We ended up going back and finding the first guest house we had passed. I then had the world's worst sleep as our room was full of every creature imaginable: mosquitoes, beatles, frogs, mice, flies and fireflies. I got eaten alive by the mosquitoes and they were whining in my ears all night! Now I'm sure Gokarna is a lovely place and I was probably tired and in a bad mood, but after our first 12 hours I couldn't wait to leave haha. I didn't even take any pictures!

Hampi:
I had already been to Hampi in November but Ellie hadn't so we went there next. It took us a 10 hour public bus to get there which was bad enough, and to top it all off I left my purse on the bus. Amazingly, I got a call from someone a few days later saying they had my purse and would use the money to send it back to me in Hyderabad, which was so kind of them! We spend a really nice day scootering around Hampi and seeing all the main sights and then got an overnight bus to Bangalore.

Bangalore:
I came to Bangalore in March to stay with my distant relatives, Dawn and Matt, and their two kids, Jack and Alexandra, and had such a nice time that I had to go back at the end of the holiday! So Ellie and I spent a week there recovering from our travels before heading back to work. We had such a lovely time doing nothing, watching tv, eating nice food, swimming in the pool and playing with Jack and Alexandra. I can't thank Dawn enough for taking care of us! I was so sad to leave, hopefully I'll be able to see them again in Scotland when I'm home!

Summer Travels Part 3

Jaisalmer: 
We had a pretty horrendous (1200km) journey from Rishikesh to Jaisalmer which consisted of a seven hour bus to Dehli, immediately followed by a 17 hour train. It always amazes me how in India you can start a journey in one place (in the hills, along the Ganges) and end up somewhere completely different (the middle of the desert)! In Jaisalmer we did a camel safari, which was an amazing experience, but not something I think I will do again. It was incredible to spent the day riding through the desert with nobody else for miles around, but oh my goodness, the camels were so uncomfortable! My bum was sore for days afterwards. It was so much fun sleeping on the sand dunes under the stars, but there were quite a lot of insects crawling around! It was such a good experience, and I'm so glad we did it. I also got head butted by a cow in Jaisalmer which has made me a lot more wary of cows on the streets. I used to think they were very calm and peaceful but apparently not!

Jodhpur:
We spent quite a few days in Jodhpur and I'm not really sure why because we didn't do very much! Unfortunately Ellie's camera broke so we spent quite a bit of time in a Sony shop. We went to the City Palace which was beautiful and really interesting, and we also did a zip wire course around the fort which was really good fun! Jodhpur was a really nice place to visit; the 'blue city' was very pretty!

Pushkar:
Pushkar is supposed to be a traveller haven but sadly when we were there it was pretty empty of tourists. It did have a good market where we did some present shopping, and we found a hotel with a pool and paid to use it for the day! There is also a lake in Pushkar but our only experience of that was being dragged down to the edge by religious men who made us chant and then preceded to demand money from us and threatened us with bad karma. One night we were eating falafel wraps and mars bars nutella pancakes at a street stall and there was a massive thunder storm! There were massive hail stones and all the drains overflowed so the streets were completely flooded (probably with sewage). It was so funny trying to get back to our guest house while avoiding the water! It didn't work - we got soaked.

Udaipur: 
I really liked Udaipur, it was one of my favourite places in Rajasthan! It was really beautiful with a massive lake and hills all around. This is where the James Bond film, Octopussy, was filmed so every restaurant plays the movie at seven o'clock every night haha! We watched it on our first night and I actually enjoyed my first James Bond film. We took a boat trip out to a hotel in the middle of the lake (where James Bond stayed and where Shakira got married last summer) which was very nice! We also did a painting class and a cooking class. The family we did the cooking lesson with were really lovely and had adorable twin girls. Hopefully I will be able to repeat some of the curries when I get home! Due to Martha being a massive Arsenal fan, we also watched the FA Cup final in Udaipur!