The English Mademoiselle Diaries

We arrived in Chitwan during the evening so went and found a lovely spot to sit and watch the sunset over the park. We didn't expect to see anything so naturally we saw one wild elephant and a group of white spotted deer. We were up bright and early the next morning to go on safari, Susan, Becky, Jess and I chose the elephant safari. Because who doesn't want to ride and elephant?! It was something to cross off the bucket list that was for sure.

Following the elephant safari we jumped into a jeep that took us to the river where in pairs we were washed by elephants! If you ever get the chance to do this always say yes. And as you can see I got some pretty awesome photos of everyone. That evening we went out for dinner, where Stefan and I decided that talking in french would be a good move...

XO, Miriam

P.S. My journal keeping dwindled in Chitwan so I lack the ability to say what else we did besides get caught in monsoon rains for the first time.

Day 1: In order to get to the India/Nepal border we took a 6 hour train, and spent 6 hours in cars. Once we reached the border we were stamped out of India ready to cross the border and purchase our visas in Nepalise border control, which required some USD, a passport photo and so form filling. Then we were in, so we hopped onto a bus, which the armed police also hopped onto shortly after... and we reached the hotel. It was by far the most modern hotel we had been in for a while.

Day 2: An 8am leaving time, what is this madness. We were travelling by private bus to Chitwan National Park via Lumbini. Why Lumbini I hear you ask, well Lumbini is home to the birth place of Buddha. And as you can see from the photos there are prayer flags everywhere, the atmosphere was very peaceful and quiet which was such a contrast to all of the places we visited in India. The only other difference so far was the weather, it was inbetween weather, cloudy but the air was warm and swampy.

After an hour or so there we set off again in our bus, by the end of the journey I had a sunburnt right arm, having sweated off all of my factor 50, I had drunk some bright orange fanta and sung along to Disney songs with Jess.

Day 1: It was 2am and we were still at the train station waiting for our sleeper train to arrive, it was already 2hours delayed. And having been in a road accident the day before Susan, Stefan and I were less ready for this journey. I couldn't get comfortable on the bed, Stefan threw up on a man, and Susan couldn't move for the whole night. However once the sleeping part was over with we had quite the enjoyable journey, even if by the end the train had a 7 hour delay attached to it. A few things I did on the train: change sleeping position about 20 times, eat 4 dry plain biscuits in order to take pain killers, drink 3 litres of water, hang out the door of the train because that is a thing in India, and make friends with a group of Indian students in university on the bed opposite us.

That night due to the train delay we ventured out for dinner on to the busy streets of Varanasi, which more traumatic than it should have been. Afterwards we went back to the hotel for a room party with the whole group, which involved ring of fire, never have I ever and more rum than any of us are willing to admit to... CP, Flora, Yaz, Hilder and I stayed up all night...

Day 2: On the way to the sunrise boat ride Yaz co-drove out tuk-tuk still slightly drunk... Once on the boat the view of the city was stunning, the riverside is full of beautifully coloured buildings and hundreds of boats. Flora fell asleep for a large part of the boat ride, and once we had grabbed some breakfast (French toast) I took a nap which turned into 6hrs.... but at least I was fresh for the night time/sunset boat ride which was my favourite. Partly because we travelled by cycle rickshaw to the boat, and because we watched a Hindu prayer ceremony.

XO, Miriam

Day 1: Agra the home of the the massive white building called the Taj Mahal and the place everyone associates with going to India, so we couldn't miss it out! To get to Agra we got on a train really early in the morning as with all of our travelling, and once we had relaxed and used Costa's wi-fi (yes there was a costa next to the hotel) we set off to visit the "Baby Taj" which was built before the Taj Mahal so is really a "Father Taj".

After that we travelled by tuk-tuk to the site of the possible black taj that was meant to be build opposite the the White taj. As you can imagine lots of touristy photos were taken! And of course we went out for dinner afterwards to a roof terrace restaurant where we drank a bottle of gin between us al, which if I am honest all of us kinda needed!

Day 2: 5:30am and we are running to the Diana bench in front of the Taj Mahal with two men in suits so we could get photos at sunrise, but of course some clouds got in the way... So once we had taken photos and wandered around the building and the gardens surrounding it, we were told that if you stand opposite the Taj and walk backwards focusing on the Taj it will get closer and if you walk forwards it will get further away. This does work and at that time in the morning it is really trippy.

^^ The group of people I toured with ^^

Now I reckon you are wondering why on earth there is a picture of me with bandages and tape on my leg, well something scary happened two others and I were in a tuk-tuk accident, we pulled out into the road and the car coming towards up didn't break until 5 or so metres before he hit us and drove off. Susan (Sat next to me in the white in the group photo) was sent to hospital as she landed on her back, Stefan (the guy in the grey t-shirt) and I treated ourselves back at the hotel using sugar for shock and small first aid kits along with ibuprofen. Looking back it makes a great story but at the time it was really quite scary. We didn't see a road accident before the event or after, except some overturned trucks on the mountain roads of Nepal. We were lucky.

After the rest of the group had visited the Red Fort in Agra while me and Susan watched Indian telly (the Bollywood channel was excellent) we headed off to catch a sleeper train. But more on that in my Varanasi post.

XO, Miriam

Next up was Jaipur.

DAY 1: We caught a public bus which was more of a coach, and saw more of the weird road system that we had seen in Delhi. When we arrived at our hotel we discovered that not only was it an ex-palace and without the extravagant decorations it would be an English Heritage house but it also had a swimming pool! So naturally after lunch we went and took a dip in the pool to cool off after such along time in a hot cramped space on the bus.

Along with three others I took a wander down to the closest market only to be witness to a gas explosion. As you can imagine we left promptly after this event. Following this we met up with the rest of the tour group and went on a walk through what is known as the Old City. As you can imagine it was full of bright colours and vibrant market stalls. It is known as the Pink City (pink it the colour of welcome) but if you look at the buildings they are definitely terracotta.

We walked out of the North Gate on to MI (?) road part of the new city, about half way through our walk down this road we stopped for a yoghurt drink called Lassi. Mango flavour of course. From there we walked past the cinema that we would be going to the next day, and a school called ST. Xavier (x-men anyone?), on our way to a cooking class at a local family's house.

The cooking class was fantastic. The family was really welcoming, and the food was delicious, the mum (who did the cooking) even gave us the recipes. The weather even timed it well, we experienced our first Indian rains just after we had finished eating. The rain was warm on the skin and I almost wanted to stay out in it, but instead we climbed into some tuk-tuks and headed back to the hotel.

DAY 2: The Amber fort. It was exactly as the guide books said it would be, but you still cannot comprehend the shear size of it. We had a guide take us round the fort after he had explained the first area he said:

"In the past women welcomed men, now it is the men who welcome the women"

It turns out Ganesh the god of good luck and fortune in Hinduism is placed in a lot of gates and doorways to give guests good luck.

The Lake palace (for the women of the court)

There was endless love advice on the back of the tuk-tuks, like this gem.

After seeing the lake palace we visited the city palace in smaller groups, where several of us had henna (mehindi) done. Having explored and noticed the obvious British influence we headed off on what turned out to be a 45 minute hunt for a recommended restaurant, we ended up hailing down some tuk-tuks and using them to get there. I opted for a Masala Dosa which it actually a south Indian dish and some watermelon juice which had small pieces of water melon instead of ice. The we set off for a spot of shopping and discovered the flirtatious nature of the shopkeepers in India....

Our last venture into Jaipur was to go and see a Bollywood film:

XO, Miriam

On the second day of the trip we woke up at 4am, packed our things back into our rucksacks along with as much water as we could humanly carry, ready to jump into some taxis to get to the train station. The taxis were like mini campervans, they were black with green, white and yellow stripes around the middle. Once we reached the station CP informed us that we were on "Platform number second" and that the Indian flag isn't Orange, White and Green but SAFFRON, White and Green. One of the many things I noticed on our train journey was the amount of colour on the houses and other buildings, along with the number of people on the tracks, but then again the houses were only about 10m away from the farthest track.

Once we made it to the hotel, most of us took the chance to take a quick dip in the available pool and grab a bite to eat. The temperature was considerably lower here, or maybe it was the lack of exhaust fumes. After getting changed we took to the market streets of Pushkar for half an hour before we went on a camel ride!

Before we got onto our camels we were dressed up in traditional dress, which made sitting on a camel very uncomfortable but then again why would you wear a skirt riding? The clothes we really bright and the scarves despite their appearance were made of an unbreathable fabric. Now for the camel ride, which was awesome! It was something that I could cross off my bucket list before it was on there. I also have a new found respect for cross-country horse riders.

Our first taste of Masala Chai, with a Magician of sorts performing. The idea was to catch his tricks but this guy has had years of practice and none of us knew the tricks. The evening continued in the desert with a fire, some great food, and the sunset.

XO, Miriam

So on the 9th of June I jetted off from Heathrow airport with my friend Jess in search for India. We landed at 7:15ish am in New Delhi airport ready to start the G-Adventures Delhi to Kathmandu YOLO adventure tour. Having collected and un-tied our rucksacks we headed to the taxi rank, pre-paid taxis only mind you. Despite being early in the morning it was still uncomfortably hot in the taxi, trying to get to the hotel was a challenge in itself because as TripAdvisor had predicted the driver didn't know where it was and had to pause to ask a friend.

Once we reached the hotel and made ourselves comfortable, one or our fellow tourmates(?) Veronika asked if we wanted to explore Delhi with her before the tour began. So that is what we did.

We started with the Red Fort. The fort itself is made with red sandstone, but the many buildings inside are built with ornately carved marble. The one thing I noticed on entrance is the amount of colour that the people in India wear, specifically the women who to my surprise wear nearly all in traditional dress.

I will admit to stealing this photo from Jess from her Facebook album, this will be a recurring theme as I lack many photos of myself.

We didn't actually enter the Lotus Temple, but I tried to get a sneaky picture of it as it was so different to anything that I have ever seen before. I later found out that the lotus means beauty and non-attachment (to allow rebirth) in Hinduism.

Our final stop before heading back to the hotel was Humayun's Tomb. I really didn't think massive oversized and really quite fancy tombs was something that was done outside of the Egyptian Pyramids. I was very wrong. Regardless of the size of this place it was a gorgeous building and was really interesting to see the different ways that cultures bury their dead.

Once we returned from the quick sightseeing tour we met up with the rest of our tour group and out tour guide for a quick overview of what we would be doing for the next couple of weeks from our tour guide CP, a quick visit to the governmental buildings and India Gate which are perfectly in line which we had already seen via taxi. And of course our taxi driver was pulled over for an illegal U-turn on our way back to the hotel before the group meet up. Next up was our first meal as a group, I opted for Butter Chicken with Plain Naan as I didn't want to start the trip with an upset stomach....

XO, Miriam