The English Mademoiselle Diaries

//Jacket - H! by Henry Holland//Shirt - M&S//Necklace - Homemade//Shorts - Primark//Shoes - Toms)

Of course the day I want to shoot a really summery outfit it was grey outside, until I changed my clothes into leggings and a t-shirt ready for my afternoon out in the city. Yep you guessed it, it became warm and sunny, and I was thankful for the air conditioning in the cinema (I went to see How to Train Your Dragon 2). Anyway back to the outfit, I was flicking through my instagram feed the night before and saw Teen Vogues post of a really cute tropical inspired outfit, with the suggestion to make your own with the hashtag #TVTropical. I am a sucker for outfit challenges so of course I had to take part. I will admit I had a few options but I settled for this as it felt like something that you would see in the American High School films.

As the shorts are very bright I kept the rest of the outfit relatively subdued to highlight the tropical print. The shorts I will confess are my sisters but as we are the same size I figured I could borrow them... If you had to create an outfit with a tropical theme what would you wear?

XO, Miriam

So I flew in from Nepal, dropped of my main rucksack at Victoria Bus station and set off to South Kensington tube station. Because I love the Albert Hall from the outside and that is the closest tube station that I know about in relation to the V&A.

I honestly regret not hopping on to a Borris bike for my explore around the capital but the tube and walking let me see a fair bit as well. Not knowing London very well meant that I chose to stick tot he areas I did know, South Kensington, and St. Pauls/Tate Modern. I wish I had, had a chance to venture into the Tate Modern once again but for a few hours I settled for the V&A and a peek outside the Tate.

I know that you shouldn't really busk outside the Tate but this guy was just the coolest. I didn't get him to write anything for me but he did look pretty cool. Once I had stopped for a light lunch in Yo! Sushi in Victoria station I headed to catch my bus, leaving our fine capital once more.

Oh hey there bridge that gets destroyed by death eaters in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

And for those that are curious these are my stamps and visas for my Indian and Nepal Adventure.

XO, Miriam

How does anyone find anything on these streets?

Day 1: This was essentially a day of travelling. 10 or more hours on a coach is not exactly my idea of fun, so naturally I listened to music and slept for most of the journey. Massive shout out to our hotel which had functioning hot showers and enough room to wash some clothes ready for the next few days. Once we were all clean, off we set into the busy and highly confusing streets of Kathmandu in search of water and a restaurant called Rum Doodle. Rum Doodle is a restaurant from what I could tell for travel groups and trekking groups, who at the end of their journeys go to and create these feet:

Day 2: The last day (morning) of the tour, which was spent grabbing some breakfast and seeing the group for the last time. Which was actually quite emotional, but then again we had essentially done six months bonding in two weeks. We were to go home and as Susan said "creep on each others Facebook profiles". The rest of the day was spent wandering the streets and getting lost multiple times on the way back to the hotel, where we just chilled out and played Jelly Splash until Becky had to leave. Then Jess and I organised all of our stuff ready to fly out the next day.

Day 3: We spent the day with Charlotte who was on the same flight as us back to our homes in the UK. But the trouble was Jess and I had the wrong flight times and accidentally missed our original flight, and spent one and a half hours waiting to see if there would be enough seats on the flight we thought we were on. There were. So off we flew.

If any of you are considering India or Nepal as places to go, do it. I could not recommend these countries enough, I would love to go back to Nepal for some trekking (maybe even to Everest Base Camp) but first I am going to visit all of my wonderful friends in their respective countries: UK, Norway, Iceland, Germany, America, and South Africa.

Day 1: After what seemed to be the worlds longest coach ride we reach Pokara. Before we could get settled we set of on an orientation walk where we discovered that we could go out on to the lake with self row boats. Flora looked up the lake in her guide book and discovered that if you row to the middle you can swim in the lake. We knew how we were going to spend the rest of our afternoon. After a quick dash back to the hotel to change in to bikinis and other swim wear/grab the correct amount of money, six of us jumped into two boats and rowed away. Naturally we got some weird looks from some other tourists as swimming in the lake when it is raining is considered a little bit weird in most places, however the lake was really warm and despite the green tinge very clean.

After the worlds quickest shower and change we headed out into the town to find something to eat, we ended up eating pizza as it began to rain very heavily, some may even call it monsoon season. At the aptly named pizzeria "Pizzeria", they served us popcorn while we waited for our pizzas which were stone baked. Following this several of us headed to a club/bar/cafe called Busy Bees for a few drinks, that was the intention until we discovered that they had shishas on the menu. This was a first time experience for me so resulted in s few coughing fits, but I wouldn't be adverse to using them again.

Day 2: I would like to say I went and visited many sites near Pokara on day two but alas that is not the case, instead four of us went on a hunt for a present for CP. On the way we found a German bakery where we stopped for breakfast and some chai. We also invested in a few cashmere items and a pedicure (as shown above). Yes those are all men doing the pedicures. That night we dined in a restaurant named Moondance and went back to Busy Bees yet again in monsoon rains that had created rivers in the road.

XO, Miriam

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.