The true India lies in the mountains

In the mountains is were the true beauty of India lives. And not just the physical beauty, although that combination of high reaching mountains covered in green trees is rather magical, and the snow capped Himalayas do leave you breathless (literally). But its the people who occupy the mountain villages that are incredible.

Summit of  Kedarkantha 

As the all the buses had decided to stop for the day because there was an election going on in the state of Uttrakhand, we tried to hitch a lift to the village Sankri, the base for the Kedarkantha trek. After ten minutes we found a vehicle who was heading in that direction so we hopped in. A man named Ron was driving who was the head teacher at a local school, he dropped us at his school and showed us around getting the kids to stand up one by one and resite in English their name, fathers name and home, they all looked equally terrified as they each completed their rehearsal.

They came out of their shell after a while

We were then taken to Ron's room and brought Chi from the one of the school teachers who Ron told to leave her classroom, as apparently making us tea is more important...I'll go with that. After some chi and chat Ron took us to his bathing spot on the Tons river which was idyllic, two logs had kindly got themselves stuck in the perfect position creating a still pool with some natural benches. After hanging out there for a while I spotted a puppy run under a hut, seconds later I was bent under the hut to coax him out when I was greeted with this...

 After an hour or so of being smothered by puppies *literal heaven* I had to drag myself away and get back to the others. It was now coming to the end of the school day so after some photos with the chillun Ron drove us up to his brothers village, Kotgaon. We haven't been used to smooth rides in India and Ron's driving was certainly no exception, 5 minutes into the trip after a hard break a tyre smashed down on the window screen "Whoops, forgot about that" was Ron's response as he picked up the tyre and chucked it in the back. We arrived in Kotgaon and were introduced to Ron's brother Kumar, Arti (Kumar's wife), their two kids and Ron's girlfriend, followed by the entire village Committee.

View from Kumar's house

We settled down to a classic Indian meal with roti's cooked over the fire and all the family and committee together in the hut. Kumar told us about the village kids and how they used to spend their time smoking and selling weed, so he formed a village committee and set up schools to educate the children. He also gave me a palm reading where I was told to stay away from 2 wheeled vehicles as there is a gap in my life line...promising.

We delayed our trek by another day as Kumar and his family wanted to show us around their village. The next morning the family (and committee) took us on the tour; the waterfall, springs, temples.
The whole family went out of their way to make us feel at home and they really did well, I didn't want to leave.

It felt like stepping into the past, the village people live completely different lives to what we know, and this village was so untouched by westerners, we got to see such a true picture of their lives.

Arti was my mountain mum, when I climbed to the top of a bridge on a walk she made the same worried squeal my mum makes, we baked a cake together-sealed the deal- (which I didn't think was possible without an oven), she cooked pasta because she heard it was my favorite, and most of all we shared the love of dogs, every time she went to check on the 5 day old puppies she would take me with her.

Arti in the middle with her kids 

I am getting quite used to some Indians being fascinated by my hair but Ron's girlfriend was next level. When we met the first thing she did was begin stroking my hair, when I asked if she wanted to braid it she looked as though she'd won the lottery. And to be honest the state it was in after a few days without a shower I couldn't see what they were all talking about as they stroked and said how nice it was. But I felt we bonded over my 'golden' hair, she painted my nails, I felt like a girl again, I've clearly been spending too much time with boys. When we said goodbye she gave me some bangals, bit awks when they wouldn't fit over my fat hands but the gesture was appreciated so I tied them to my bag as we left for the trek.

I truly feel a part of their family and the time we spent in our home in the mountains will be cherished. 

Christmas tan in Rajasthan

New Delhi - Jaisalmer - Jodhpur - Mt Abu - Jaipur 

Christmas isn't normally a time you'd think desert and sun, however Rajasthan did not fail to give us a solid Christmas experience. With old monk instead of mulled wine, chicken replacing turkey, mosque chants replacing Christmas carols and sand instead of snow. Even Indian Santa made an appearance on the back of a moped.

Jaisalmer

We began the trip with the place I was most excited about, Jaisalmer; sand dunes, a big ass fort, camels, and only a camel ride away from the Pakistan border, what more does one wish for in a holiday destination.

Trains are fast becoming my favorite mode of transport here in India, we made our way round Rajasthan kickin' it in sleeper class, with beds that fold down to seats for your convenience. And with an open train door a meter away its the perfect place to sit and listen to music, and hang out to feel that lovely train breeze, which of course I never did.

Fil not totally on board with the lack of personal space in India

In Jaisalmer we stayed at a lovely place called hotel Monica for 100 rupees a night (£1.20), tidy. We even had a view of the city and fort from the roof top lounge area which was great because it allowed us to lay out our battle plan for our siege the following day.

After a successful viewing of the fort, with many puppy stops, and me learning not to feed puppies left over curry because it will send them into a sneezing fit, we began our two day camel safari that we had booked for 2,100 rupees (£25).

Meet Rocket

The morning was spent with the camels reigns tied to each other a follow the leader formation, with the pull being from a questionable nose piercing. Seeing some of the branded marks on the camels and speaking to our guides about the training each of them have to go through did make me question whether riding these beautiful creatures is right. After lunch I requested that we take the reigns of our own camels. With Rocket on the loose it was a lot more enjoyable, and he wasn't being pulled anymore from the follow the leader style so we were both happier, although we received a lot of unwanted attention from J.P's camel, the alpha who kept biting Rockets bum. My favorite thing I learnt about camels is their mating call as we were lucky enough to ride them in mating season. I won't lie to you, when it first happened I thought my camel was having a stroke; it begins with a deep gurgling sound coming from within, traveling up to the head where the cheeks erupt and hang out of their mouths,and its neck bends to one side. It takes a special kind of camel to resist something like that.

Fil's camel, Johnny deserves a mention as he kept me entertained throughout the trip. Every time I turned around he would either be sat down refusing to move, despite Fil's persuasion, stumbling into a bush, or getting into fights with JP's camel, which resulted in Fil's hasty dismount on one occasion.

We rode through some smashing dunes, taking your shoes off and running around the dunes sounds so perfect, but in reality it is bloody tiring. However, in my dune adventures I found two village kids who had followed us so I released my inner child and did some hand stand flips off the dunes which resulted in heaps of sand in every crevice but it was worth it.

Our hotel that night was 5 star! With a dreamy spot to watch the sun set, followed by a raging fire, the best chi in India (legit), Chipatti Ala Ellie and veg curry, and the comfiest dunes to sleep on.

This was quite possibly my fav morning in India, I woke up before sunrise so got to watch the whole show as it lit up the desert, all the camels were in perfect formation, and the sand was growing warmer by the second (my first few steps in the morning felt like ice). 

We then got back on the camel as they say, and headed back to the road through some more dunes. Me and Nathan got our camels up to cantering speed, Rocket really lived  up to his name. 

Jodhpur

There weren't any camels so already Jodhpur was at a disadvantage, however it did win in the fort department, we gave this one a solid 7/10. This is were we spent Christmas day which consisted of checking out the fort, including the lake behind it and walking back through the blue city to chat to family on Skype. Whilst out and about me and Fil were playing with some puppies, it took me a little while before realizing one was dead, the other one very malnourished, with one healthy looking puppy. As I was putting some food down for the malnourished pup, I heard a loud and panicked yelping came from the healthy guy, I turned to see his paw bent out of shape as 3 young boys had accidentally ran over the poor guy on their motorbike. On our way back I was pondering going into the veterinary field, as I was feeling pretty bad about the puppy situation, I really wanted to help them. We then came across a cat in a pretty bad way, and when I say pretty bad...you could see inside him, upon realization I retracted my hand that had reflexively gone in for a stroke. To top off the death I had seen Christmas day, me and JP got caught up in a funeral that marched through the street.

You do see some serious sights wandering the streets on India. In escaping paying full price for a rickshaw (as he drove us 1 minute into traffic and then said he wouldn't take us through but still wanted money) we hastily walked down an alley which happened to be break time at a school...

We caused quite a ruckus to say the least. 

Visiting the Mandore park and feeding the Langur's was definatley a trip highlight, inspired by David Attenborough's recent Planet Earth 2 documentary. We went in with a bag of peanuts between us, 2 minutes in and these had been stolen by the alpha who actually took down a woman who attempted to escape his wrath. Apart from the big guy these monkeys were pretty chill as long as you didn't rub them up the wrong way. There was a vast area with temples to walk around and see but you could spend hours sat around watching these monkeys crack open nuts and peeling bananas, I find it fascinating. 

We ended up going up to see some temples and hitting the jackpot, an industrial sized bag of veg, I stuffed my pockets and the monkeys had a field day. We were now in mother and baby territory, the teens were the best to feed as you didn't have a protective mum after you and they were a small size to make you feel like you'd have the upper hand if they got aggressive (which these monkeys rarely did, besides being pushed into a pack of angry males by Fil). 

Not a vegetarian this one

Mount Abu 

Mount Abu had incredible ice cream and milkshakes, the main thing I'll take away from this location. It could be described as the Blackpool of India. However, it did have some nice spots, like Toad rock pictured above, Jain temple which was stunning, and some nice day treks. We visited Trevor's lake national park where we got to see some crocs and langur monkeys as well as a kitten which was the cherry for me. 

During our visit there was a festival going on, in the evening we joined the celebrations in a big outdoor concert. The host was speaking in Hindi and made an announcement, in response 1/8th of the crowd ran to the stage, I got up to join, followed by Nathan and we signed our names down for the unknown. 10 names were called out, ours being one of them, so we joined the 'lucky winners' on stage awaiting our fate. Moments later we were taken to a hot air balloon, and got to have a ride up to 30m. Turned out well for us in the end, I was half expecting us to have to perform some sort of dance on stage, which I equally wouldn't have minded.

Jaipur 

We hit Jaipur New years time, staying at a hostel was a good idea for new years eve as it meant we had a nice fire on the roof and got to hang out with new people. With our time in Jaipur we; had a gander through the pink city, visited the lake and got even closer to the Macaque monkeys at the monkey temple.

Famous for its textiles

At the monkey temple, Fil was tormenting some baby monkeys, unknown to him the beast daddy monkey was slowly creeping up on him, there was a pause before I warned him, maybe I felt he deserved it I am not sure, but when I did the look on his face was priceless. He ran straight into the temple full of now angry monkeys who were all swiping and hissing at him, his screams were apparently to 'scare off the monkeys' but I could 100% hear the fear in his high pitched cry for help.

Mr goat hassling us for the Parle G biscuits 

Going the extra mile for the parle G

Keep you're belongings to hand, cheeky monkeys will take what they can

Back to Delhi

The true meaning of brown claw & a leapord in camp

My first Indian wedding experience lived up to expectations, yes half the guests got food poisoning, but before that kicked in it was one hell of a night. The reception was located at what we normally use as a campsite for the OB programs but it had been seriously pimped up. The dancing was interesting as all night the kids surrounded me, I suppose they thought white people have good moves, they came to the right place. I ran around like a headless chicken that night trying to experience all the wedding festives; the all woman circles that danced in a jumping culty motion, the live band, getting those sexy indian hand hennas (although mine was severley smudged when someone took my hand as it was time to leave the dance floor).

The week after the wedding was a little bit of a smudge, after my body got over the food poisoning, I safety kayaked for the ex prime ministers grand daughter, with 30 armed security guards I felt a little pressure but all ran smoothly. I then began a 7 day trekking and rafting expedition with a group from Singapore which is what I'll be focusing on in this blog post.

During the trek we came across some ola fruit which was initially bitterly sour to the point my face felt it was compulsory to scrunch up like an saggy grape, then after 5 seconds of uncomfort it transformed to a dance of sweetness filling my cheeks. It was so worth the initial grim taste to then have the overwhelming sweetness. The Ola fruit is a good metaphor of my time so far in India, yes there are times when it's challenging but once I push through that, there are extremley sweet times to be had.

The trek was special for me as we were followed by a dog named bobcat (I had no say in the naming process). He slept in the doorway of our tent at night and kept the group together in the day.

  Bobcat getting the love and attention he deserves

One lady in particular deserves a mention as she acted as a motivation for many of the group on the last leg up the mountain; stick lady. Every time she see's a group trekking to the top of the mountain she stops whatever she is doing and gives them all trekking sticks that she made, the reason being; it is her dream to visit the temple on the top of the mountain but she has never been able to make it all the way, however just knowing that her sticks help some people reach the top brings her joy. I tried to persuade the lead instructor to let her ride a mule to the temple but I had no luck. The campsite had a delicious view of the snow capped himalayan mountains which turned orange as the sun came up, just looking at these mountains makes me feel things I can't quite explain.

In the morning Ajay, Debu and I went to visit the temple which had an entrance with hundreds of bells all around. Once speaking to the Sadhu and finding out the story of the temple, I also found out that the bells where brought by the people that have had their prayers answered. We all said a prayer before leaving, I hope one day there will be a bell from me hanging outside the temple.

Apres trek, we started the rafting, Bobcat couldn't quite let go and hopped onto a raft to join us. Coming to the end of the day of mostly floating, Nathan pointed out a surf wave so I paddled over for a play and saw 2 black bears on the beach, not wanting to shout as to scare off the bears I felt it was a perfect time to use the brown claw river signal. A confused Nathan looked back at me as we had previously said how ridiculous the signal was, he then saw the bears and understood. I was slightly torn between watching the bears or surfing the wave as it was a nice looking one, so I opted for both and managed to get a nice view of the bears 10 feet away from me whilst on the wave.

Bobcat all about that rafting life

David Attenborough may as well have narrated this day as once we arrived at camp the wildlife didn't let up. Chilling round the camp fire, we were disturbed by a very loud growl coming from the bushes. We went over to investigate to find 2 yellow eyes staring at us from the jungle, we moved closer to be met by an aggressive growl which sent us all falling back over the sand bank. After some discussion of what to do with a leapord wanting to come over for tea, we decided camp evacuation was too dangerous as it was now dark, so instead we set up a harbour area with 3 fires, raft shelters facing inwards, and centuries on night duty. All we needed was inches of snow and not being able to feel my fingers I would have thought I was back on one of my OTC camps in England. Armed with a paddle and river knife me, Nathan and Raju went to deconstruct our shelters which had unfortunately been put up only meters away from the leapord. After a swift operation we made it back with our sleeping bags and roll mats ready for the night. Once morning came I was very eager to check out this leapord situation, with tracker Ajay we found where the leapord had taken down its prey and then dragged it off into the jungle, there were also leapord cub prints alongside the mothers which were adorable.

The expedition was made by the extrodinary people we got to share the experience with, two instructors from Singapore Arfan and Khali, Ajay the Rafiki of India, Raju and Debu (Mario and Luigi) and of course the infamous interns JP and Nathan.

Appreciation

Brace yourselves, this ones going try and explore my feels.

On a British school trip last week with 9 yr olds from extremely well off backgrounds, part of the trip involved visiting a local village school. The school was situated on the side of a mountain, with the school playground ending with a cliff edge, half of the fence that had been put up for safety had slid off the side of the mountain. These kids lived in shacks and had very little belongings, 1 textbook which reminded me of the Bible in regards to its approach-ability, this was the main resource for each classroom. The British School kids we took to see farm animals, boating, tractor rides, things the village kids would go crazy for, and a lot of them just complained that it was "boring" and they'd "done it all before" which made me feel sad initially of how not all the kids appreciated how lucky they were. That being said, it didn't seem to bother the village kids that they didn't have much, they were so happy and excitable, more so than the British school kids who seemed to get bored with things easily. It's made me see how little money has an effect on happiness if you don't let it, and it will never dictate your worth. This trip slightly changed my perspectives on the underprivileged in India, comparing the two groups of children from two very different worlds, made me realise that I shouldn't pity these village kids, they may not have as much as we do but that by no means results in not having happy lives.
The village kids are more familiar with the actual meaning of things, and aren't manipulated or corrupted by the media which I have come to realise has such a large hold on us westerners. It makes me wonder who really is better off in terms of values and happiness? Is it better to be poor, being more in touch with life and connected to the environment around you, or being well off, having things handed to you on a plate and not overcoming hardships to then appreciate life?

A 10 year olds drawing of his home after being hit by a landslide

I learnt a lot from these British school kids when I saw some of myself in them, in the way that they are always looking for the next thrill, the step above what they have just had. Sensation seeking is a personality trait defined by the search for experiences and feelings, that are "varied, novel, complex and intense" Zuckerman (2009). For example, the kids had already seen farm animals before so they wanted to see bigger (better) animals, the rafting they had done before so they wanted to do it in a new, varied environment. For me, I have found it in everything since coming to India. First of all I got my excitement from simple things like going to the market, crossing the road, seeing a monkey, soon it became boring, the 'norm' I needed something more, something different, the river Ganges was my next big excitement and even now I find myself looking further up the river at sections we haven't run, wanting to go and find the next river, the next big wave, the next mountain, the next adventure. I guess it made me realise that sometimes you just need to stop and appreciate right now. Because all these experiences I have been lucky enough to have, so many people would give an arm or a leg for, and all too often its not until what we have is gone, that we then begin to appreciate it.

Taking a moment to stop and appreciate the beauty of Devprayag 

Last week Nathan and I were finally blessed with not just one but two days off! We both knew this meant one thing....roadtrip!! If you're going to learn how to ride a moped where better than speeding round the mountain tops with views of the Himalayan mountains and the Ganga river. Our journey took us to the town of Chamba where in an attempt to get money out of an ATM as the Prime Minister of India decided to make 80% of India's currency redundant over night cancelling 500 and 1000 Rupee notes, we came across a man named Sanjay.

Sanjay is one of those people who come into your life and leave a mark, in a brilliant way. His outlook on life was inspiring, he saw us as guests in his country and went above and beyond to make us feel welcome, under the saying "Guest is God". We met his family; wife and two sons, and sat down to a cracking lunch with a view looking out onto the mountains. Sanjay then drove us with his family to the Tehri Dam where we went on a boat ride. Finished off with a drive to New Tehri for some chi and pakora (deep fat fried veg) my view is the healthy counteracts the un healthy in this lush dish. Sanjay wanted us to see all the best bits of his home and never once asked anything of us. Sanjay is so committed he once took in 20 Japanese tourists who's car broke down travelling through Chamba, there was a great photo of them all crammed into his small living room drinking chi. In the morning his wife made us Parata's which are chipatti stuffed with veg so so good. After a sad farewell to Sanjay and his family we were back on the road. I know we will not forget Sanjya's kindness. His families hospitality was touching, they gave us the gift of temporary companionship. I found that when you're travelling it is easy to connect to a simple shared humanity, and that when you do, you emerge feeling more complete and real.

Sanjay's fam

India has shown me that there are only a few things you need to live a happy life. I feel selfish for all the unnecessary comforts I have in life when there are so many without enough just to be warm. A good friend recently said to me "I have a meal for tonight therefore I am richer than 70% of India so there is no reason for me not to be happy".

 Zuckerman, Marvin (2009). "Chapter 31. Sensation seeking". In Leary, Mark R.; Hoyle, Rick H. Handbook of Individual Differences in Social behavior. New York/London: The Guildford Press. pp. 455–465. ISBN 978-1-59385-647-2.