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

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