Hannah’s Weblog

Col James Ted wrote in 1829 that Udaipur is the most romantic spot on the continent of India, the lonely planet chooses to disagree. I on the other hand would like to take a risk and say that there is a possibility this Colonel Ted was spot on. Sitting on one of Udaipur’s many sun-kissed terraces, the windchimes singing, the echo down below of children laughing and the gorgeous India sun bronzing my dry tierd skin Udaipur is truly full of love….

Down below, the busy streets are narrow and very clean ( by Indian standards). The tuc-tucs compete with the ever so righteous ‘holy’ cows that meander their way along, completely unaware of anything but themselves and the slender figures draped in saris precariously balancing their entire belongings on their heads. The view from the terrace is breathtaking, the coloured roofs and white washed walls, stacked high litter the landscape. A landscape which has been lovingly protected by the strong defensive mountains for thousands of years.

This city belongs to the sunshine, and we are thankful to it as India is experiencing a northern cold wind chill (the coldest in 40 years..)  We go to bed armed with our thermals, hat and socks. Tonight we attented an Indian dance performance, set against the ruins of one of Rajestan’s many palaces. It was colourful, enchanting and amazing watching this joly old lady balancing 9 clay pots on her head whilst thrusting to the beat of a drum….tomorrow we are going to treat ourselves to a full body massage, and maybe some cooking lessons. I am sat in a tiny store surrounded by batteries, domex bleach, camel cigarettes and golden fish chocolates……any thing you want, this charming owner with find.

Udaipur has exceeded my expectations, and I will be sad to move on…but move on we will further up north on our travels. I will leave you with my horroscope that Kim found this evening in The Indian Times….

‘Your ability to deal with your life situation is good and you will tackle any projects that you have been unable to motivate yourself to start recently. Trust your inner voice more than you ever have before, and pay attention to your dreams. Look on it as a great learning opportunity’

all I can say is, India beware…..

Redemption song, cool breeze, Arabian sea, gorgeous gorgeous day. Palm trees, coconuts, coca cola umbrellas shivering. Kingfisher premium beer, fresh fish, tropical fruit. Sand, dust and volcanic rocks. Hippy lazy and incredibly chilled out. Ants, busy, busy ants. Flies, ocean breeze, cooling sunburnt but nicely brown skin. Saris, braids, Indian hippy-chic trousers. Travelling, travelling, travelling. Stories, conversations, accents. Histories, past, future and present. The here and now. Meditation, inner peace, deep breath. Body and soul, mind, tranquility. Time to be, time to think, contemplation, consideration, worn, tierd, peeling, rusty red earth. Used and used again….Smiles, hospitality, humble and warm. Subdued with all the time in the world. We will wait, we wait, waiting……..Anjuna beach, Goa, a little piece of paradise.

After returning to Mumbai from Aurangabad pretty much in luxury…(an over night train with 3 tier beds, the comfort of not being pestered as the carriage is locked to everyone we dont want to be bothered by, and a good nights sleep) Kim and I decided to take a cheeper option to our next destination, Goa by overnight bus.

Why oh why we decided to ignore all of the Lonely planet and Rough Guide’s advice of staying well clear of these forms of transport we will never quite know and probably never forgive ourselves for….

The bus was dark, dingy and crowded with pervy single men who im sure enjoyed seeing our discomfort. First hot and sweaty due to the lack of a/c then freezing cold due to the broken windows our 13 1/2 hour ride out of Mumbai was nothing short of hurrendous!! I was planning on describing this journey in more detail, but seeing as now I am tanned (if not a little burnt) nicely full of juicy sweet pineapple and over looking the Arabian ocean I cannot find it in myself to complain….

We did eventually arrive in Goa and this lazy, hippy town stretching along a gorgeous but still laid back sandy beach, it is just what the doctor ordered. The clean sea air and smell of chocolate crepes has cheered us up no end. My feet are sandy my hair all saltly and I am happy!  We plan on staying on the beach for about 5 days, before heading back up north. The thought of morning yoga and chilling in the 30 degree heat with hopefully recharge our batteries and condition us for the next few months of traveling…….

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/22866882@N04/ this is the link to my photos xx

If anyone was to ask me how long I have been in India, I would have to think pretty hard, honestly it feels like weeks, months a lifetime…. 5 days into our trip going over what we have seen, eaten, spent and endured we can only hold our breath and prepare for the unexpected! Mumbai is definitely the most insane place I have ever been, after our long flight on Air India ( which graciously prepared us for our Indian experience) a long wait for our huge backpacks and then being litterally pushed into the smog filled, mosquito infested streets of uptown Bombay I asked myself, was I scared? hell yeh! Our first two hotels (if you can call them that) were pretty basic. Hotel Samrat, the first stop welcomed us by a huge foreign guy projecting curry flavoured vomit on to our door at 2 am thursday morning. Our porter/manager/cleaner/chef casually stepped over him and ushered us into our fairly large but severly grim room, but we slept well

Mumbai is a difficult place to describe. Kim and I spent the first 24 hours hardly saying a word to eachother, simply taking in all the madness through my over tierd and increasingly dirty spectacles…….Once settled however the charm of this cosmopolitan melting pot of 1st class hotels, third world slums, and millions of people is truely indearing. We became settled and comfortable in our hotel and surrounding areas,  the food is delicious, but paying its toll…curry everyday for 3 months???? can we do it? The people if not a little aggressive will and do go out of their way to help, and we have met so many cool and well traveled people.

 We are now in Aurangabad, and let me tell you when we first arrived after a 8 hour train ride I seriously thought I would never say a good thing about this place. The harassment we endured trying to find a hotel, and the dangerously high level of pollution hanging in the air was enough to make kim and I think “lets go!!” But we have come to accept that the fear will and does subside, and there are two sides to every coin…..well lets hope so! After being scared to death by a dog, starred at by everyone in sight and coming close to being hit by the maniac tuc-tuc drivers we found a wonderful haven, in the smokey miriage of Hotel Shree Maya. This is 5 star luxury to us, we have  a toilet with a flush, a shower that produces more than just a drip of freezing water and a group of really nice people to hang out with!

India is proving a difficult but truely rewarding place to roam, Kim and I have experienced so much in so little time, I can only grin with excitment thinking of what is to come……

(I apologise for my spelling and grammatical errors….I am on a tight time scale and the heat has caused my hands to swell….I hope you catch my drift!) I am going to try and upload some photos so click on the link for some visual stimulation)

Well, at long last I have a blog!! Woo Woo!! About bloody time I should say, as I have been meaning to establish myself of the web for a long, long time now. So here I am!! A big thankyou to my oh so very patient older brother for helping me out. I have always enjoyed (mmm maybe enjoyed is not the right word) thrived on keeping diaries, feeling it an essential forum for maintaining my sanity and controlling my ever so hectic thoughts and feelings. I am living proof that writing things down clears the mind, (note to self: must add comment on mum’s blog referring to this) and allows for evaluation, consideration and the use of hinds sight which as it turns out is a very powerful thing. Also of a way of seeing how utterly stupid and melodramatic I can be, therefore I have found my diaries to be useful tools for developing self restraint and a way for me to learn from my mistakes.

Ok, enough said……for now anyway. This is going to be a challenge, as my diaries have always been locked, hidden, disguised to keep from being found and ultimately discovered. This is something new, the beginning of something perhaps beautiful, yes, lets hope it is beautiful! hahahha ok, I am being melodramatic! Great start!!

I am off to India in 7 days, so all I can say is watch this space…………..