......So straight from the camel safari and on a 15 hour bus ride to Amritsar. Suprisingly comfy considering we could have fallen out at any time, especially the way they drive out here.

Amritsar is home to the Golden Temple. A holy pilgrim site that gets more than 60'000 visitors a day!!!! There is a huge building on site around the temple where anyone can sleep, a separate area for foreigners is set up with beds and lockers. Donations are the price for staying. Also a huge catering area supplying food for free to pilgrims.

The Golden Temple is really the only good thing to see in town. It is a modest sized golden temple in the middle of a man made lake surrounded by further marble buildings...very tranquil. The water supposedly has healing powers and holy men chant from the Sikh 'holy book' continuously, echoed around the complex. Em found the temple very calming since being ill for so long. She got up early to do meditation by the lake and felt right as rain. Perhaps the healing powers work!!!

Moving on we then took a bus heading north to Dharamsala in the Himalayas. This was one hell of a journey. Firstly the doors (front and back) were permanently open on the 7 hour journey. Secondly as well as the driver trying to break the land speed record in a 1970' bus the roads for most of the way were too small for the traffic on it and very badly maintained.

We arrived in Dharamsala (home to the exiled Dalai Lama and many Tibetans) at around 7pm. Tired and hungry we set off for a restaurant with a couple of Canadians we met on the bus. We then stayed in the next town McLeod Ganj for the night before heading off 2km north to the small village of Bhagsu.

Compared to the rest of India it is very chilled up here. No one is bugging you to buy there stuff all the time, the streets are quieter, the air is fresh and life is more relaxed.

The first night in Bhagsu we stayed in a hotel not to our liking. The toilet stank and it was fecking freezing...oh and no hot water and the reception stank of piss!!! That night also I threw up all of the meal I had eaten earlier. It wasn't the food as Emily had exactly the same, but I think it may have been the whole pot of ginger honey lemon tea.

Next day we checked out sharpish, walked a little further up hill and found a lovely guesthouse with a verander/court yard. A lovely cafe 20 yards uphill is chilled and a great German bakery serves up great breakfast.

We plan to stay out here for possibly up to 4 weeks, to perhaps get in some trekking, meditation, yoga, volunteer work helping Tibetan Kids speak English and lots of chilling out.

This place is like the walk up to the stone circle at Glastonbury but in the mountains....hippies, monks, stalls, remedies, jam nights etc... love it.

Oh coming along great on the harmonica, can now play 'Happy birthday to you', 'God save the queen' and 'How many roads must a man walk down'.

Watch this space for more updates.

Jamie 'Dylan' Wentzell

One for Watson...Cameltoe!!!

Em having a quiet moment in the dunes...


Jamie and Friend!

Sunset in the desert with our friends the Italians and the camels!!!

Chilling

Good evening everyone, its 9.30 pm on Monday the 30th of October. we're chilling in the Himalayas, its been a few days since our last entry, but we have managed to do alot of stuff.
Last you heard we where just about to do the camel safari. well we did our day and half, with much groans from our thighs.
The first stage was 30km in a jeep, which was very fast and windy!! But very welcome as Rajistan has a permanant heat wave, leaving bodys overheated and sweaty (mostly jamie's sweat!) im too pretty to sweat, hehehe!
The camels themselves were the most strangely cute animals i've ever seen, big and ugly but with a sweetness in the eyes. The first day started at three o'clock in the afternoon, missing the main heat of the day, with a 5 hour journey to our campsite. It started out in an area of the desert that wasn't sand duney at all, as you see in the photos, but there was loads of old huts where familys live, and pretty much all of the children all came out along the way shouting
'da da!" while waving, i think it meant "hello!", it was sooooo cute.
Really nice chilled ride, with a stop to take photos of the sunset.
When we got to the campsite we had a meal made for us which we shared with the two Italian girls we were with on the safari. Christina and Sabrina. Hello girls if your reading this!
We all fell asleep staring up at the stars. i've never seen anything like it. The sky was full! And for the first time in my life i saw not one but 3 shooting stars!
Unfortunatly at 5 oclock in the morning I woke up in a sudden thrust of the bowls, woke jamie up and we both set off for the nearest sand dune. Now this is love, as i was in such pain jamie galantly came to my rescue and dug my sand hole for me xxxxxx which i then politly asked if he could turn away! at that point both ends went to work! (if you know what i mean!)
Next morning i felt ROTTEN! No idea why, it just came in a wave and by the end of the day i was fine, but during i could not handle riding the camal any more. We had a cart that the camal men rode so I joined them on that.
Ended the day in a sudden hurried visit to (as the sign put it) THE WORLD FAMOUS RAT TEMPLE. Not what you think, their not climbing the walls, but there are a lot of rats. Also the story is if you spot the only white rat out of thousands of rats it is very lucky........ im not very lucky!
Quick shower at the Vino guest house then jump staight in the jeep, lift to the bus station, followed by some 15 hour sleeper bus journey.

Sunset from our guesathouse and beers drunk with friends met, Karmen and Martina of the Deutchland and Bob from near Boston.

The night of Dhiwali chilling out at the guest house.... Em beating me at shit head......

....Also the lights of the local clock tower and a goat freely eating around town.

At the restyaurant at the fort and the view of the city.

View of the palace inside the fort and a room of the Maharaja's quarters of old. Also the 'Blue City on the opposite side of the fort

Traffic up to Mehrangargh Fort and thye view from top outside front gates.

This is the view of the fort from our guest house in Jhodpur. The second is taken through the binoculars. Don't be fooled by the camera perspective...it is much closer than it seems.

Em looking a bit sorry for herself....SQUITS!!!

jhodper experience

hello everyone,
emily here. wanted to say hello and give you a catch up. we have spend the last few days in jhodper celebrating diwali. the family of the guest house let us join in with their religious ceromony that worshipes the three main hindu gods. diwali overall is about wealth and prosperity, love and family. we recieved presents from the family in the form of a red cotton wrist band (red being the colour of strength and power) 10 rupees which is for luck with money( the longer we keep it the more money will come to us). the main guy we dealt with also told us the story of his grandmother. she passed away last year in a holy way. when a person has fufilled all there duties in life, and she personally suffered from extreme athritus, they go to a priest and ask for the right to complete sati. which is basically extreme meditation. they do not eat or drink until they pass away. it can take a week or a year. she was accepted, which is so rare, as only one in million have the right to do this. when she passed away she excells to a god like position, always wathching over the family. it is a very lucky thing to do for the family.

diwali was amazing with fireworks going off all night long for two days.
unfortunatly i could not celebate much, as i have been suffering from extreme SQUITS!!!!!! i havent been ablbe too eat much either, i havent been sick, but im gewtting very nausous alot. i think it might be the heat and, or my malaria tablets. what im gonna try is taking them at night time, instead of the morning. that way i should sleep through my symptoms. (what do you think mum?)
we viseted the fort which we have the photos of, but also later on the evening we went to an amazing restuarant which stood on the top level of the fort walls. it was the size of about half a football pitch but had only 12 TABLES!!!!! special treatment the whole way, and we also had a taste of our very first indian wine. very very very nice. felt like an indian queen.

now we are in a place called bikaner, where we are organising a day and a half camel trek in the desert. we have met a very nice fella who works for the company and he is also taking his time to show us the best stalls and places to go. im sure he is taking a cut from all the owners but we have been looked after so well, we dont mind. he has also been very honest by telling us when he is. he has taken us to a textiles shop to buy material and have made a few tops and trousers. indian gucci!!!!

here are some pictures of the last few days, and we will let you know about the trek. next stop in a couple of days, a place called amritsar. XXXXXX

The night before leaving we met a bloke from Barnet in ther internet cafe so went for a drink with him and got a bit tipsy. John and Kate you won't believe but he went to Leeds Uni and knows Squidgy Dave and thinks he knows you 2. At least when John had Dreads. Too small a world!!!

On our last day there we went to the old city to see the Red Fort. It is bloody massive and extremely beautiful with well kept tranquil gardens.

Something that has un-nerved us a little is the amount that everyone stares at us. I mean we aren't the only westerners here, but they stare constantly. At one point in a bar 1 man stared constantly for 45 mins. We didn't want to say anything.

In the old city it is also mayhem and there are not many recommended (lonely planet) places to eat. Emily wasn't to hungry so said she wouldn't eat. I couldn't wait considering we had a 12 hour journey ahead of us so I know as bad as it is opted for Maccy D's. Yes it is bad but had to be done. Note though there is no beef burgers on the menu, only veg, chicken or fish. The chips are how they used to be in England, really salty.

So off to the train station which is hard to understand where to go and what train to get on. After a bit of advise we were told to get on a certain carriage. We thought it was gonna be ok having to share a long seat together with our backpacks, until a multitude of passengers clambered on and squashed in. I mean it made London underground at rush hour seem empty. One thing we also noticed that they were all Men!!!
It was only until all the rush hour commuters had got off and the ticket men came on that we were told we had got on the wrong carriage and women were not meant to be on there. So then directed to the correct carriage we found we had sleeper units to ourselves. Nice.

Woke up 45 minutes after the scheduled arrival time 6am panicked, and then found out the train was late and we had to get off at the next station 25 mins away, phew!!

So arrived in Jhodpur, got a tuk tuk to a recommended guest house - fully booked - tried another - fully booked - tried another - success!!! Thank god though as this is great. Costing 7.5 pounds a night between us we have lovely bedroom with ensuite in a lovely guest house with higgledy piggledy staircases and rooms. The rooftop restaurant and lounge area is fantastic. Apparently the highest rooftop in the city. The views are amazing, with most buildings in the city painted blue and a humongous fort over looking the city built into the mountain. At this very moment all I can here are prayer chantings across the city. I will hopefully be updating the blog with some photos soon.

Had my first chance to look down the toilet pan today!!! Don't worry Mum, it isn't Delhi belly, probably just the heat and tiredness. Have eaten more curry since then and feel great.

Talking of which the food has been fantastic. Has been mostly vegetarian with a little chicken, but all scruptious.

We are taking it easy today as we are knackered. We have 3 days in the city which on 2nd day celebrate Dwhali which is the biggest Hindu festival in India. The owners of the guest house have invited us to join in with them.

I have just tried to upload photos but having problems so maybe later.

Until then hope all is cold in England.

Jamie

Electricity safety is not high on the priority list. And this was a tidy electrical spur post!!!!

Em enjoying a margerita at the metropolis bar. Played shithead for the first time of many to come. Em smells!!! A tally will be kept

This is the Main Bizaar. The main street in the tourist backpacker area. Hectic with tuk tuks, rickshaws and cows rushing past everywhere. The cows literally don't have owners but just roam the streets on their own. Locals leave out hay for them all over the street.

Here's the 2 of us at the newly built metro overground/underground. A taste of cleanliness in a scummy city.

dirty delhi

hello everyone!! emily chook here
what a wierd couple of days. ive practicly gone through every single emotion since we got here!
excitment,fear, curiosity, agraphobia, stubboness, happiness, confusion, the list goes on.
delhi has a fine line to it. you can enjoy it, but if you start to really try to take it all in, it can squash you flat like the cow shit on the roads.
ive never seen anything like this. constant beebing of cars and street dogs barking away, you walk out into a main road with tuc tucs, cars, mopeds, motocycles, peddle bike taxis, all pilled up and they will all keep moving even if your in the way. if there is a space to go down they will take it, even if its on the pavement (well what seems to be the pavement).
I can only stand a few days in this place, so tomorrow we have booked a train to jhodpur. bit scared as there was no 1st class, so we had to get 2nd class. really dont know what to expect. it leaves delhi at 6pm and gets there at 6am. hopefully will get some sleep, but i really am not sure.

im looking forward to getting on the move, there are so many people here trying to swindle you. as soon as wegot down to the hotel we where staying at, their "residant travel agent" asked us to come and have a word with her. she basically was warning us about where we were going, using scare tactics. so we asked for a quote, and she worked out a pretty good route for us, which sounded lovely, but she then told us it was gonna be just over 1000 pounds for two weeks travelling!!!! we said no and that we wanted to travel independatly, then she said she would try and do it cheaper for us. what a load of dodgy bastards! honesly from the moment we arrived in that hotel, she has been trying to get us to book something with her, even down to ringing our room at 11 o clock in the morning.
Anyway hope you are all well and hopefully it will get better once we get out of this place
emily xxx

tester