Varanasi so far

Thursday 19^th February 2015

We got up this morning and told the guesthouse we would stay another night to give us today to find somewhere better. We then had a ridiculously long breakfast on the rooftop before getting productive and getting some laundry done. The pants that I was wearing on the bike yesterday ran black with dirt from all the dust and grime in the air yesterday.

Sitting back up on the roof terrace I got some writing done only for the internet to crash and everything was lost which was a massive ball ache. So I packed that in and we went exploring.

We wandered about for a while until we found somewhere to eat the food took freaking ages but when it finally arrived it was pretty decent so it was worth it. The tables were low and the seats cushions on the floor so we chilled there for quite a while.

Next door was a Kali temple and a ton of cow and water buffalos including three tiny very new babies which we spent some time patting.

We then went on the most annoying search for a better guesthouse it seems that any better than what we are in but in our price range are full and everything else is grand but way too expensive which was a tad annoying we did have a good walk along the Ganges though and stopped and patted the millions of tiny puppies that seem to be everywhere.

 View from a guesthouse that was perfect but not so perfectly priced!

By the time we got back to our guesthouse the touts were out in full force and it was getting dark so we retreated to the roof to eat, chill an get attacked by all the mozzies Varanasi ha to offer.

Friday 20^th February 2015

We didn’t do a lot today but we did do a lot of walking. After breakfast we headed off to explore we went to the main road and turned right to see what was in that direction. The answer was not a whole lot. We did find a chat stand and eat all the samosas and other random Indian street snacks though.

Then we took a walk through random streets of shops selling paint, barbed wire and tools.

We had a wee look at google maps and decided to walk to a park that was kind of close. Along the way we stopped to look at some tiny baby piglets and their huge unhappy mama pig. We got to the park and it was set up for some random household goods sale with rugs and air conditioning units a plenty.

On the way back to the guesthouse we stopped at a lassi shop and I had an amazing pomegranate coconut and chocolate lassi that I savoured mark knocked his back like a shot.

We chilled the afternoon away before heading out for dinner it was harder to find somewhere than we thought it would be but we found some cheap thalis and polished them off before heading back to watch a movie.

Saturday 21^st February 2015

After being up or a lot of last night due to make being all sick an fevery we had a slow morning and then chilled on the roof for half of the day. Eventually we roused ourselves enough to change rooms to a bigger one with a window that overlooks the Ganges.

About 1pm I set off to go and find the yoga training centre as I wanted a reiki session. The place is renowned for its yoga and healing and is expensive by Indian standards so I was expecting a lot.

I spoke to the dude and organised a session for 2pm as that was only 30mins away I opted to just chill out and wait.

At 2pm the guy came back and explained how he does he sessions and introduced me to a girl who was there having just had her level one attunement he started the session but talked to her throughout the entire thing which was incredibly distracting. He was an amazing healer with incredible energy so it’s a shame he was one of the rudest most unprofessional people I have ever met.

After the healing I was really pretty spaced out and turned the wrong way out of the centre and was then lost for about 40mins just wondering about the side streets and back alleys of Varanasi eventually I came out onto the river and was able to walk back to the guesthouse from there.

We chilled on the roof for a bit before heading off to find food we had been fasting all day and were starving and so ordered way too much food and then ate it all and felt rubbish, to make it worse the food wasn’t even that great.

Back at the guesthouse we lazed about in our glorious new room watching parks and rec.

Sunday 22^nd February 2015

This morning I woke up early and read my book and watched the monkeys outside our window. We didn’t get moving until late and were pretty pleased about the hot water being on (it’s been nothing but cold the last few days)

I wasn’t feeling great and Mark was still all fevery so we just chilled out on the roof eating pancakes and drinking chai

I attempted to download some new music but the internet wasn’t playing ball and so I ended up just getting annoyed.

In the evening we headed out for some food and then down to the Ganges to watch the Ganga Arti. It was stupidly busy mostly with random Indian tour groups where they all wear matching hats and t-shirts (mostly in fluorescent orange) we found a little perch and sat and watched. Towards the end a man lady came up and started talking to us although I’m not really sure what she really wanted she then proceeded to drink Marks water which I found rather amusing.

 Cow going to town on a bag of chalk

 The crowd watching the Arti

 Ganga Arti

The Lady-man who drank Marks water

We walked back along the river avoiding touts selling boat trips, massages and shaves (all aimed at Mark) and up past the burning ghat which was still in full swing even this late (the fires burn 24 hours a day and on average  cremate about 600 Hindu believers in that time! )

We then headed up to the roof for a tea before bed like the nanas we are.

Monday 23^rd February 2015

Today was another fairly nothing day I was feeling even more shite than yesterday and Mark was still crook as well we didn’t do much else than occasionally eat, sleep and read. Thank fuck for roof terraces! The only interesting thing to happen was when a bunch of men from the government (including one policeman armed to the teeth) came and started smashing holes in the floor and then in several walls something about trying to determine how old the building is…

Tuesday 24^th February 2015

Sarnath is the place where Buddha first taught Dharma and it happens to be just 15km or so from Varanasi so we went to see if we could get some enlightenment. The drive out of the city was hectic as always but once we were on the road we moved without too much drama. It didn’t take long to get there and we parked up in the centre of town and had a walk around.

Our first stop was the Thai Buddhist monastery (they also have a Vipassana centre if anyone’s interested…) the grounds are really pretty with a huge 80 foot Buddha statue set at the end of a long fountain, flower lined garden. As well as several other statues dotted here and there and a prayer hall.

Next we walked along to the archaeological museum which holds artefacts recovered from the site of Buddha’s first teachings at Mrigadava (Deer Park) it’s quite an interesting museum and I especially enjoyed the ridiculous typos in the English translations. The museum is pretty strict on security, you can’t take anything in and have to walk through a metal detector to get in which is a shame because some of the exhibits were quite photo worthy.

We came out and Mark had to get a Gaylord ice-cream.

After the museum we went into the Mrigadava (Deer Park) ruins. It’s quite hard to make out what buildings would have looked like and the signs weren’t overly helpful but nonetheless it was a pretty place to walk around and the toilets were amongst the cleanest I’ve seen in India. As usual we were swarmed by folks wanting photos but we were not in the mood after feeling rough the last few days and declined every person.

By this stage we were starting to fade a bit but pressed on we managed to see three more temples a Buddhist one built by some Sri Lankan dude a Korean temple and the golden temple which was super impressive from the outside but we didn’t go in as there was some sort of teaching going on.

 The Korean Temple

 Outside the Golden Temple

 Outside the Golden Temple

From the golden temple we headed back into town (it was quite a trek out and we got chased by some scary arse dog who couldn’t decide if he wanted to eat us or run away from us) and back to the bike. 

We drove back into town and hit the traffic it was even more chaotic then usual so we parked the bike back at our guesthouse and headed along the river on foot to find food.

We settled at pretty much the first place we came to which was a rooftop restaurant with views of the river and tons of green parrots flying about. The food was a tad pricey but pretty spectacular and we left feeling pretty satisfied. We went back along the main road so we could swing past the ATM and somehow ended up in Blue Lassi having Bhang Lassi.

 Green parrot

Sunset on the Ganges

Varanasi has government approved bhang shops so ordering in a restaurant had to be done on the sly it was nowhere near as tasty as the ones in Pushkar and way more expensive but it did the trick.

Back at the guesthouse we put on a movie and giggled our way through the night. In the night I kept waking up way too heavy to move and began to feel quite ill which wasn’t ideal.

Wednesday 25^th February 2015

Today was a bad day. After feeling so great yesterday today was a bit of a nightmare. We slept half the day anyway after being so fucked last night. We got up and had a bit of food then went back to bed then got up and ventured out to go get dosas but I immediately regretted it as I felt super shit again so called it a day and showered and went to bed.

I finally leave Pushkar (and miss it) see Lucknow and arrive in Varanasi

Wednesday 11^th February 2015

This morning Marks neck wasn’t much better so we decided to stick around I woke up in a foul mood and tried to sleep it off some more but that didn’t help. It was a super slow morning and I’d read a third of a book before we even got ourselves moving for breakfast (well Mark was pretty on it despite his bung neck he still managed to get laundry done)

By the time we got into town it was pretty much lunch time anyway so we had falafel wraps and then walked back I was still being moody and so just sat in the sunshine reading.

Eventually I pulled myself together enough to take a little walk into town I ended up buying a lapis lazuli pendant and a bunch of samosas and cookies and we had a picnic on our porch.

We whiled away the afternoon reading and watching the ants that are all over our deck.

About 7pm we decided food was in order and so wondered into town for a 50 rupee thali after which I wanted a pancake as we were walking along to find one we bumped into friends who were going for dinner and joined them.

After eating we headed to their guesthouse and stayed up chatting about this and that before walking home to bed

Thursday 12^th February 2015

Another day in Pushkar. Marks neck still wasn’t better so we stuck around it was a rather late start to the day by the time we got to breakfast which was actually lunch.

Mark got another massage and I got a juice the dude at the juice shop reckons he remembers me from the last time I was in Pushkar in 2012 (but I bet he says that to all the ladies)

Predictably our day was spent not really doing anything other than reading and chilling in the sunshine and feeding cookies to a stray dog who was wandering about.

When we got hungry again we went into town and got some falafel wraps followed by a bhang lassi for Mark and a special chocolate ball for me (read hash chocolate ball) we sat chatting to friends for a while then went back to our tent to enjoy our high. I was far less stoned than the lassi made me but felt a strong inability to move much and fell asleep pretty early.

Friday 13^th February 2015

It was clear we were still not in a position to move on this morning (maybe a good thing who wants to drive 300km on Friday 13th! creepy!)  and so we chilled the morning away and then went and had a thali for lunch. The internet at the guesthouse wasn’t playing ball so I used that as an excuse to get a pancake and use the free Wi-Fi down the road.

We spent most of the day camped out on the lawn and I finished yet another book and several packs of cookies.

Later on we went and got a cheap as chips thali and stopped off on the way home for a pancake and a bhang lassi chatted to some friends then went back and fell asleep

Saturday 14^th February 2015

Today we finally managed to leave Pushkar after ten glorious days of sunshine and chilling we got up and packed and by the time we left we were about 90mins behind schedule.

The drive was pretty straightforward with lots of highways we had to double back on ourselves and go through Jaipur where we stopped for lunch, by the time we got there my arse was completely dead and I pretty much fell off the bike I didn’t think I was hungry but when the food came I demolished it and was pretty sad when we had to get going again.

The drive was pretty smooth apart from the general arsehole-ness of the average Indian road user and one stretch down a bumpy as fuck road where at one point we hit a huge dip and my arse fell off the back of the bike (luckily I didn’t join it) but the last 30km or so seemed like it was never going to end (mostly because my arse was dead)

We pulled into Agra about 7pm in the dark covered in dust and pretty tired and found a guesthouse pretty quickly we parked up dropped our bags off and headed out to find food we sat on a rooftop restaurant where we could see the silhouette of the Taj Mahal against the skyline.

Back at the guesthouse I had my first hot shower since way back before Vipassana which was amazing the only downfall of the guesthouse was that I got annihilated by insects during the night and so didn’t really sleep at all and woke up covered in bites.

Sunday 15^th February 2015

This morning we left Agra to push on for Lucknow unfortunately the universes was clearly a bit unhappy with us and the day was a bit hellish google maps told us it was closer than it was then sent us down the most horrific road and the traffic was a nightmare.

It all started off so well with a smooth highway but once we turned the road turned to shit and was just a mess of potholes, enormous bumps and at one point a huge traffic jam caused by a tree that had been cut down to fall right across the road.

Drivers today seemed to be a special kind of dickhead and I lost count of the times a car would rush towards us while overtaking something on their side of the road but pretty much run us off the road in the process, and as they were doing it flash their lights as a warning for us to move…off our side of the road.

The drive should have taken us six hours but it was about nine by the time we got there (not helped by the fact we took a wrong turn somewhere and drove for ages in the wrong direction and had to double back on ourselves!) dusty and exhausted and I was feeling pretty hangry since we hadn’t even stopped for lunch just breaks every few hours to stretch our legs. 

We got into town and google maps sent us down a road that hadn’t actually been built yet so was just an overpass ramp that lead to nowhere with no obvious way around eventually some guy pointed us down a dirt track that would have been hard to navigate in the light let alone the dark we struggled on trying to find a way back to the main road down this maze of back streets.

We came up a dirt hill and were next to the railway lines there was no way we could drive across but there was a little track going underneath that seemed to be pretty well used so we gave that a go it was all fine until we had to go back up the other side which was a super steep little hill and the bike just couldn’t make as we were so back heavy and we rolled back.

Luckily we didn’t go far before we tipped and I half jumped half fell off  causing a slight traffic jam before Mark managed to right the bike and get started and gun it up the hill while I walked. Luckily for us as soon as we were up the hill we were back on a normal road and stopped at the first dharba we found to have some food.

No one in the restaurant spoke any English and there was no menu so after establishing that it was a veg place we ordered two thali which happened to be some of the best food I have had in India to date and it was only 50 rupees so was a winner all around.

While we ate we had a looksee at the lonely planet and found a guesthouse to try out. It took some time to find as its down a maze of back streets and when we got there it was full and we got attacked by an over friendly jumping nipping dog (don’t worry she was vaccinated…as if that makes me feel better about being bitten???) the owner suggested we try somewhere by the railway station and told us she would have a room available from 6am.

We jumped back on the bike and drove about a bit first checking out another area the lonely planet suggested but we decided it was a bit flash for us and opted to head to the station. The first place we tried was full and a man came running at us saying he knew a place, the place he knew was a right rip off but we found somewhere just around the corner.

Despite being a bit dingy it had hot water, cable TV and was cheap as anything and it was by this stage almost 9pm so we went for it staying up half the night watching crappy TV.

Breakfast view of the Taj Mahal

Monday 16^th February 2015

After staying up late last night we slept all morning which was easy to do since the guesthouse doesn’t have any windows. Once we had sorted ourselves out we walked down the road to find some food it was lunchtime so we had a massive thali and then headed back to the hotel to grab what we needed for a day in the park.

Lucknow is supposedly known for its food and its parks so far the food has been a winner but after three attempts to find a park we gave up. the first was the botanical gardens (which are closed except for authorised personal only…what are they growing there???) the second was some huge park (still under construction) and the third we didn’t actually manage to find as google maps sent us down some tiny street that came to a dead end that was most certainly not a park

We gave up and headed back to the guesthouse to look at the guide book and see what it had to say about the matter only when we arrived Mark fell asleep and I just read my book instead.

Two hours later we were ready to move again but the day was gone. We trooped off down the road and got a cheap thali for dinner and then hit up the local cinema.

We went to see a Bollywood film called ‘I’ if you only ever watch one Hindi film make it this one as it’s got all you need, murder, romance, comedy, monsters, singing, dancing and most importantly it has the most ridiculous storyline ever. The basic plotline is a deformed hunchback (who was formally a body builder and model) sets out to seek revenge on those who ruined his life (by turning him into a deformed hunchback) its great and I give it an A++. I struggle to name my favourite part since there were so many but a good scene was at the Mr Tamil Nadu body building championship and all the oiled up body builders in tiny pants had a full on fight in the gym that would have left most people dead but they all walked out without a scratch.

We sat up in the balcony which are the expensive seats (at less than $2NZD it was a freaking bargain) the best thing about Indian cinema is that the crowd gets involved and all yells along and cheers with the film it’s great, oh and that at intermission the candy bar brings snacks that’s also a feature we should bring back and just having intermission that shits great.

After the movie ended at 10pm after starting at 6.30pm we were ready to head home to bed.

Tuesday 17^th February 2015

This morning we managed to not sleep away the day and got up at a reasonable hour. We headed round the corner for some breakfast at a dingy little local place no one spoke English and our order got a bit muddled up but we ended up with good food and it was cheap as anything costing about 50c NZD.

On the way back to the guesthouse we bumped into a couple on a bike they had no luggage rack and explained they were travelling across India with one bag strapped behind and one in front it seemed a logistical nightmare never mind about uncomfortable and dangerous!

Back at the hotel we got our stuff together and went sightseeing. Unfortunately for us we got swindled out of a cheap ticket as we didn’t realise there was a combo ticket to a few different historical sites and so paid for one that we could have got free on another ticket.

The first place we visited was Chota Imambara which is a tomb for Mohammad Ali Shah also buried here is his mother and there is also a mosque and a traditional hammam. Across the road from here is a clock tower which we wanted to walk to but the parking man wasn’t having a bar of it and wouldn’t let us leave without the bike so we drove and when we got there we couldn’t get in anyway as they were doing some sort of construction.

Chota Imambara

The Mosque at Chota Imambara

 So we drove through the Rumi gate said to be a copy of a gate in Istanbul towards the Bara Imambara (where we could have gotten a ticket for the other place as part of this ticket) the upper floors are a labyrinth when we went in we joked about trying to get ourselves lost which turned out not to be a joke as we got lost almost instantly and spent quite a while walking up and down staircases and down dark narrow corridors, in some places so dark we had to use a torch. It was all rather fun but not so great on the feet as it’s a holy place we had to take off our shoes and I stubbed my toes more than once.

The Front of Bara Imambara

From the Roof of the labyrinth

From the Roof of the labyrinth

Such a great sign!

The complex also has a mosque, another tomb that you can walk around and a beautiful courtyard and gardens.

By the time we had finished walking around there we were knackered (it seems the less you do the less energy you have…) so we drove to get some lunch. We went to this dive looking place on the main road that was complete with a stereotypical comedy mouse hole in the wall. The food was actually pretty amazing though and massive portions which always makes me happy. I even had an ice cream afterwards.

Feeling fuelled we drove to The Residency which is a bunch of sprawling gardens and ruins that was built in 1800 and was home to the Britishers (great word used everywhere in India!) in the time of the Raj and was where the first war of independence started in 1857 with the siege of Lucknow which lasted 147 days and claimed thousands of lives.

We parked up and walked through looking at the ruined buildings which are pock-marked with cannonball and bullet holes from the fighting. There is a museum which was pretty interesting and even had a great portrait of an Indian dude in full regalia but with his nipple out (if someone can explain why I’d love to know!)

By the time we finished in the museum we were well worn out and so parked ourselves on the grass and chilled out in the sunshine for a while.

On the drive back to our accommodation we took a wrong turn and ended up in a bustling market street we were crawling along in the heaving traffic when we got stuck in a massive traffic jam caused by a car in the middle of the road I have no idea where he was going or coming from or how he got where he was but it was holding up traffic in both directions. Most people were laughing about it I was in hysterics which the locals seemed to love and they kept shouting “welcome to India”, “this is India” or “only in India” which just made me laugh more. Eventually we crept our way though and got moving again and it wasn’t long before we were back at our place

We went down the road for dinner and had an amazing Dum Aloo which is apparently one of the veg special dishes in Lucknow its potato stuffed with nuts and Paneer (Indian cheese) in a tomato based sauce it was pretty epic.

Feeling stuffed we packed up our shit ready to haul arse to Varanasi in the morning.

Wednesday 18^th February 2015

We knew it was 300km to Varanasi and that we should have got shifting sooner but it’s hard to get up when there are no windows in the room so by the time we had breakfast and got the bike packed up it was after 10am before we were leaving the city.

Thankfully todays drive was a dream compared with the last trip the roads were shitty and pot holed in some places and there was a lot of traffic but we seemed to be moving a lot faster and I cushioned my arse with a blanket so was feeling pretty comfy.

We drove from about three hours before stopping for lunch on the side of the road after confirming it was veg we got thalis that were pretty outstanding. Back on the road we continued on for another couple of hours before stopping to stretch our legs. The road was teeming with people and finding a quiet place was near impossible so we had to deal with loads of people coming to chat.

The drive was good apart form one massive bump that we absolutely smashed into and I felt my brain rattling around in my head but other than that and that standard dickhead drivers on the road it was all good.

We got to Varanasi as it was getting dark the last 30km seemed to be pretty endless and when we got into the city it was swarming with people. We made our way to the old city and found a guesthouse down some back windy streets (with the help of the world’s most annoying tout) it was an average place but cheap and clean enough to spend one night rather than searching endlessly a the bike barely fits down all the alleyways!

We got cleaned up (my face was so grimy I looked like a coal miner!) and headed up to the rooftop for some eats which took a million years to come. We had the most anti-social social dinner as we both ignored each other and took to Facebook.

By the time we got to bed I was shattered and was out like a light.

Lazy days in Pushkar

Sunday 8^th February 2015

I woke up super early this morning at about 5am thinking that was sleep done for the night but after a quick pee stop I was back in bed and by the time I woke up it was late. I felt pretty good apart from being ridiculously tired and so got up got ready for the day and headed to breakfast.

I had a hankering for porridge so that’s what I got and it went down a treat we didn’t have anything planned for today and ended up just lying on the grass in the sun all day reading and then getting food and having a picnic.

Late afternoon the weather changed and the sky rumbled with thunder the sky clouded over and it became windy and cold. We had planned to climb another hill to watch another sunset but the coming weather put a damper on our plans.

As we sat chilling the guesthouse guys appeared setting up heaps of chairs and tables it turned out that the grassy area was to be used for a pre wedding gathering spot and so we watched as people flowed in and ate and drank and danced to obnoxiously loud drums. Small children kept climbing all over Marks bike which I found hilarious but he was less amused, I started taking photos which only encouraged them much to his annoyance (although he hid it well) Eventually they left the groom looking as if it was the worst day of his life and everyone else having an absolute ball.

The Sad Groom is the one in white

We ended up watching several episodes of Parks and Rec and chilling with the dude that runs the place we are staying before heading out for food.

We had the most ridiculously cheap Thali at just 50 Rupees each (NZ $1) and it was unlimited meaning I ate far more than was necessary for one person to eat and then got two chocolate bars on the walk back!

I felt like I was about to explode and the only thing I could do was lay in bed and read and try not to be sick.

Monday 9^th February 2015

This morning was another slow start by the time we got moving for breakfast the morning was gone and by the time we were done it was midday. The sun was shining and we were feeling lazy so we sat in the sun a bit and I finished my book.

After a while we decided we should probably make a move and so got on the bike and drove to Ajmer the plan was to chill in the park by the lake there for a while but that lasted about 5mins until a massive crowd had surrounded us all wanting pictures and we had to run away.

We hiked up a hill to Taragarh which is a temple on the hill which we didn’t actually go inside but the view of the city was pretty spectacular. The way up the hill was lined with beggars, stray dogs and plenty of goats and pigs, we also saw the most bizarre sight of two ostriches in a tiny stone cage on the side of the path understandably looking like they hated life.

After being in Pushkar which is a holy city (no meat, no alcohol, no eggs etc.) Ajmer was crazy with every second shop being a butcher with dead carcasses hanging everywhere and animals waiting to be slaughtered confined to tiny cages watching their peers be hacked up. We stopped for lunch but even after several repeated conversations the ‘dahl’ that came tasted like chicken so I just ate the (amazing) naan bread.

We drove back to Pushkar and stopped by the samosa shop for me to have second lunch then chilled in the sunshine with books.

We attempted to go watch the sunset but couldn’t find the stairs leading up to the temple we wanted to go to and we kept being mobbed by children so we gave up, turning the bike around we almost fell in a rubbish pit which would have been a complete disaster.

We returned to camp and did sweet fuck all until it was an appropriate time to eat again. We went and ate at one of the rooftop restaurants in town we were so lazy that we drove there ate a shit load (including two desserts for me!) and then went back to the tent.

Tuesday 10^th February 2015

The plan was to leave Pushkar this morning but as we got packed up Mark fucked his neck (which was a little bit karmic as id just told him off for making fun of the dude chanting in the next tent over) so we decided driving 350km to Agra probably wouldn’t be the best thing.

We went and had some munch and then Mark got a massage while I wondered about the market and resisted buying new pants.

Back at our accommodation we spent most of the day laying out in the sun reading, napping and picnicking.

We headed for food pretty early getting another 50 rupee unlimited thali. On the way to food we bumped into a friend and so after we had eaten dropped in on him at his guesthouse. Bizarrely he was sharing a room with one of the girls from Vipassana and so we all sat about chatting, drinking mint tea (and I ate a shite load of chocolate as usual)

Motorbikes and Bhang Lassis

Friday 6^th February 2015

This morning we finally got our shit together I got up about 9am and did some yoga (only about 25mins but it’s  better than the nothing I have been doing) after we were dressed and ready to go we headed out for breakfast down the road where for once the dude understood my request for no sugar in my tea.

With breakfast behind us we found shoes and what not jumped on the bike and drove to the closest hill we could find and parked at the bottom we happened to be at a temple and the men hanging about all thought we had come for a visit. It clearly wasn’t the type of temple foreigners usually visit and they didn’t seem too fazed when we walked past them up the hill.

I didn’t think we were going to make it far as it was pretty steep and the terrain was covered in cacti and prickle bushes but we lucked upon a path that led all the way to the top.  My body kind of just took over being in leggings and trainers it thought it was going for a run and I bounded up but about half way to the top started thinking about leopards and by the time we got to the top I had already come to the conclusion we would be mauled on the mountainside and no one would ever see us again. The fear was made worse by the constant rumbling and movement in the trees but once at the top we could see it was a man cutting down a tree and another guy with a herd of goats.

 Not quite at the top but we stopped for a picture

We made it all the way!

The walk up and down took just less than two hours and considering the lack of movement lately I was pretty impressed! We got back to the bike and headed straight into town for food we parked up and headed up to a rooftop restaurant so we could watch the lake and sit in the sun. We got up there and bumped into a girl who had been staying at the same guesthouse as us in Jaipur and spent the next few hours eating and chatting.

When we finally left we drove out of town and found a flat quiet spot for me to have my first motorbike lesson. The thing I was most concerned about was the weight of the bike (a Royal Enfield Bullet) but I could actually hold it much more easily than I thought I could. As soon as we stopped we drew a crowd which didn’t do a lot to help me learn but the brief instructions clearly went in ok as I managed to drive up and down a few times without stalling or falling over and managed to get between first and second gear without too much difficulty. It was just short lesson but left me excited for another ride.

The Bike i had my first lesson on!

Lesson done we decided we had accomplished a lot for the day and headed back to our tent to chill in the sunshine.

Later in the afternoon feeling pretty productive we decided to climb up a hill to watch the sun go down. By the time this decision was made we were losing daylight and despite gunning it on the bike (in a few circles since we didn’t really know where we were going) we didn’t arrive in time to see much. The hill is lined with stone stairs that we were told take about 30mmins to climb we pushed ourselves and bounded up in about 20mins.

If you look really closely you can see the tiny dot of the sun!

At the top we found a rock and got in about two photos before the bright red sun dipped below the sandy haze of the city. We walked a bit further and bumped into friends and chilled for a bit before clambering down (which was decidedly harder than up)

We got to the bottom and made plans to meet for dinner we ended up eating at the restaurant out the front of our guesthouse and then moved out to the back and had a bonfire wrapped in blankets to fight off the cold that had reappeared.

Saturday 7^th February 2015

This morning was a fairly lazy start after I had done some laundry and what not we toddled into town and got some breakfast then toddled back and chilled in the sun before heading off on a mission to find some river it was a bit of a joke to get to as we just had the place name written in English and Hindi and everyone we asked seemed to point us in a different direction and it was always 5km in whichever direction they were pointing.

Eventually we got there, the river was pretty much dried up and moved in a lazy sludgy trickle full of rubbish we went past there and climbed a hill where we sat in the sunshine and soaked in the peaceful atmosphere until some local goats herds saw us and continued to yell hello and wave at us every five minutes until we left.

The drive back was much quicker knowing where we were actually supposed to go and we stopped and had lunch at this cheap Indian shack with no English menu the food was pretty fantastic (even if the rice didn’t arrive until all the other food was gone) and watching the girl in the kitchen was impressive, the flames were huge and she somehow managed to not burn herself or catch her hair or scarf on fire!

Back in town we decided to have a Bhang Lassi and be fucked for a few hours, as fate would have it we bumped into a friend who pointed to a great time and so we parked up drank (and I ate a peanut butter banana pancake but that’s neither here nor there) and then headed back to our accommodation to settle into our high.

At its peak it was maybe a little bit too strong for me but on the whole the dose was pretty good and I quite enjoyed sitting in a chair silently for an hour or two. Eventually we got our shit together enough to meet people for dinner which seemed to go pretty well but conversation was a lot harder than usual.

We ate much more than was strictly necessary finishing off dinner with a dessert the Indian folk like to call ‘hello to the queen’ I’m under the impression that they believe it to be a typical English dessert I believe it’s not but it’s still fantastic its some sort of mess of ice-cream chocolate sauce, cookies, bananas and whatever other sweet goodness can be found with that in our bellies life was good. Walking down the stairs from the rooftop restaurant however was not so good but I somehow made it without stacking it. (Just to be clear the stairs are ridiculously steep…)

We headed to another café where friends were watching the football (yawn) and settled in for a little bit, I decided I needed more sugar so set off for chocolate and cookies, halfway through my munch I felt nauseous and was defiantly going to hurl so headed pretty quick smart to the loo which as soon as I walked into I felt fine again I hung about for a minute or so (not something one generally likes to do in an Indian toilet) but I felt fine so returned to the party.

Not long after another wave hit me and I decided it was home time. Once there I put on pyjamas got into bed finished eating my stash and fell asleep watching a movie I woke up right at the end and didn’t have the energy to turn it off it started replaying itself and I eventually managed to turn it off towards the end of its second run.

The road to Pushka

Tuesday 3^rd February 2015

Today was such a beautiful day that after eating breakfast we jumped on the bike and headed to central park I was pretty dubious that it would actually be a nice park but it exceeded expectations and was really nice surprisingly other than a few hellos people didn’t really come up to us that much and so we whiled away the afternoon with mark fast asleep and me reading my book. The park was full of really cool birds including some sort of massive bird of prey!

Eventually we got hungry and missioned it to food stopping only for mark to fuel up on caffeine at a ‘real’ coffee shop. Food was good I got an unlimited thali and ate three full platefuls along with eight chapattis and had to waddle out of there.

Feeling stuffed we decided to get moving and so drove to the monkey temple and walked up and down and then back up and down the hill not really looking at anything just charging along the path.

Back at the guesthouse we chilled on the roof terrace got another thali for dinner and stayed up late chatting to people about Pushka and life in general.

Wednesday 4^th February 2015

Today we left Jaipur for Pushka it’s about 130km and took us just less than three hours.

We got up and had a pretty chilled morning heading to the place we have been for breakfast the last few days and then back to the guesthouse where I had a second breakfast. We chilled out until about midday then got our stuff packed and checked out.

When we got to the bike there was a bit of an issue with some of the electrics I don’t really know what as in usually Georgia fashion I wasn’t paying any attention.

While mark was figuring it out a beggar came along the scooting down the road on his arse he clearly had a badly broken leg and looked pretty malnourished my heart went out to him and I was about to give him some money when he pulled a swifty and blatantly started rifling through one of the bags on the ground he didn’t even seem faze when I moved it and politely told him to fuck off he kept going down the road slightly and pulled and wad of money out of his pocket and started giving money to another beggar the whole thing had me baffled.

By 1pm we were on the road the drive was pretty easy going and was super fun weaving in and out of trucks I’m a bit patchy on helmet laws since we keep being told I should have one by police and locals but no one has actually stopped us. By the time we arrived in Pushka my arse was numb and I was hungry.

We found a guesthouse easily enough it’s on the edge of town and is actually a massive tent with another massive room that’s the bathroom best of all it has hot water! We dumped our bags and went and ate an enormous thali before chilling out for the rest of the afternoon.

We were both pretty tired and by 8pm we were in bed watching a movie on my laptop rather than explore the world.

Thursday 5^th February 2015

Today was our least productive day yet we woke up late and instead of getting our shit together we sat on the porch of the tent and smoked when we finally made it to breakfast it was lunchtime and we were half asleep with sunshine and fumes.

After eating we took a walk through the town and I got a bunch of postcards and had my eyebrows threaded I’m pretty happy about having two eyebrows again. We sat by the lake for quite a while watching the world go past and then headed back to our accommodation via a falafel stand which made a change from curry.

Back at the tent I spent the afternoon getting photos off an old SD card, reading and doing some laundry I had all intentions of doing some yoga in the sunshine but one minute it was a beautiful day and the next the sun was gone and it was getting dark.

We were too lazy to even go out for food and ended up eating at our guesthouse which meant sitting on our little porch barely able to see our food eliminated by the single bulb.

Like last night we were absolute sad sacks and sat watching a movie which I fell asleep during meaning I went to sleep at about 9pm like a 10 year old child.