India the final chapter

I'm now on my way home. Can't believe how much has been crammed into two and a half weeks.
We've had highs and lows. The major highlight for me was feeding the elephants as well as all the art stuff in udaipur and the gemstone cutting and block printing in Jaipur. I also enjoyed riding in the tuk tuks and trying the Indian food and drinks.
The lows would have to be the awful train journey and the whole culture shock when I first arrived.
The hardest thing was seeing all the street dogs and knowing there's nothing I can do to help them especially the ones who look at you and you can see the hope in their eyes.
India is a place I could never forget from the constant horns to the Masala chai tea. I couldn't have done it with any other group of people and of course the amazing tour guide we had and the first person I met in India I trusted which was the driver who took me to the elephant and bear place.
The bonus of the trip as well not once did I have the dreaded 'Delhi belly'. Or even feel sick.

Goa - Beach day

Today is my last day in India. After arriving we realised fairly quickly that the location wasn't as good as we hoped. The local beach was full of Indian men who were there purely to look at women in swimwear and take pictures. It was the same for the hotel pool men were just wandering in to look and some of the group actually witnessed a man touching himself while watching them.
So we opted to go to a quiet beach the tour guide recommended. It was about an hour taxi ride away but it was worth the journey to be able to sit quietly for a few hours without being watched and having people take pictures.
The beach was a nice way to relax on the final day we found a nice beach bar where you got to use the sunbeds for free as long as you brought any food and drink at the bar. The sea was also really nice and refreshing on a humid day although not cold when you first got in and no seaweed.
The only downside was there was no yoga going on, which was one of the things I was desperate to do in India.
We spent the whole day at the beach before heading back for a shower and a final dinner with the rest of the group who hadn't left.

Mumbai to Goa

Today we boarded a flight to Goa. You wouldn' have thought getting a flight could cause so much drama we checked in at 10.45am we were due to board at 11.15am and take off at 12pm.
All of us except three had our boarding passes so we got sent to security and went through then some of the group disappeared while four of us waited for the last three eventually they got through security at 11.40 so we rushed to the gate when we got there two of us had the same seat number so basically they said there was no seat for a member of our group. Luckily our tour guide argued and argued and eventually they found a seat for her but never have I been that late for a flight like as soon as I sat down they closed the doors.
We then arrived in Goa, again another completely different side to India than what we have seen so far. There's green grass and palm trees here. There's also hardly any rubbish at all around.
There is also a lot of fish dishes on the menus so I opted for prawn Masala which was actually a lot hotter than I was expecting and a lot more sauce as well.

Mumbai

We arrived really early in Mumbai, the train got in at 6.45am and our taxis were waiting to take us straight to the hotel. On arriving we couldn't check in as our rooms weren't going to be ready until 12pm. So our tour guide treated us all to a Masala chai tea before the hotel let us have one room so people could freshen up. We then went for breakfast to a American style diner.

The group then parted ways. Some people went on a taxi tour of Mumbai while the rest of us couldn't face more travelling so decided to wander round the city ourselves. Where we came across a fashion market, 3 games of cricket and book stalls, the book stalls had every kind of book you could imagine it was like a library on the street and he was selling them for roughly £1.50. 

Mumbai is a strange city it's still quite Indian but it's more developed and there's a lot of construction going on where it is still developing. It's kind of in the middle sometimes you know your in India from the markets and the odd street dog and then you look up and there's a double decker red London bus. The other thing we noted was it's a lot cleaner, there's not piles of plastic rubbish on the streets there is also a lot less street dogs and no street cows or goats. Finally there is no tuk tuks instead they have been replaced with small Suzukis and Hondas.

Ahmedabad and the overnight train

This morning we got up and got a minibus to Ahmedabad. It was a long journey with not much air con but it wasn't worse than the train the other day.
In Ahmedabad we visited the Ghandi museum and then we went to a shopping mall for dinner and a bit of shopping. A lot of the whole were what we have at home and wasn't much cheaper.
Then it was time to board the overnight train, luckily it was more comfortable than the last train and it had air con. We were in a large compartment with little booths which could sleep 8 people. We were all mixed up so in my booth there was only one other girl from our group, there was three guys and the rest of the beds were free.

It was quite noisy with people walking past using the toilet there was also a crying baby so sleeping wasn't great and from about 5 everyone started waking up switching lights on and getting off at various stops.
Now we are in Mumbai.

Cooking lesson

Today we were invited to go to a family home where we could learn how to make 3 vegetarian dishes a bread and a rice.
The family was lovely the lady of the house showed us firstly how to make masala chai tea (yes I will be making this at home). We then got shown how to make vegetable pakoras and had the opportunity to cook them ourselves.

She then showed us kopfa, which is similar to a potato croquette but had cashew, raisin and paneer. She then made a nutty onion paste to go with it as well as chick pea masala. While these were cooking she made pilau rice and chipatties.
We then ate what had been made for lunch. The food was incredible and the spices that went in were amazing.

While we ate her husband told us about their family life and how the lady brought up 14 children and how they had an arranged marriage 35years ago. He said in their family like most Indian families the wife is in charge of the house the man goes out to work he comes home with the money and gives it to her she manages the finances, the food everything he said men are nothing without lady.
We also got an extra treat of ice cream with rose sauce as it had been their sons birthday the day before and even though the husbands mum was ill they had ice cream to celebrate and wanted to share it with us.
They also showed us family albums of his daughters wedding and explained that Indian weddings last for 5 days and the bride has different dresses for each day, he also said in one photo when he gives his daughter away he is crying because it felt like his arm was being removed.
Finally they showed us another house on their land which they have opened up to artists are crafts people to sell their work, inside there was rugs, ornaments, pashminas and wall hangings all with so much detail on and beautiful pieces which were cheaply priced considering how much time and craft must have gone into them.

Udaipur - the city of art

This place is my favourite so far there are art galleries, henna and paintings everywhere.i started the day by having a 2 hour painting session in which they taught a group of us how to draw and paint an animal of our choice. I chose the elephant, they don't use the same paints as we do for example acrylics or oils they make theirs using other materials for example to get yellow they use cow urine and for other colours they use gemstone powder. For the brushes they make them out of camel eyelashes or chipmunk tail hairs, he was quick to reassure us they don't harm the animals to get these pieces. They also paint on things like camel bone mixed with mother of pearl shell and silk as well as cotton.

After the art lesson I opted to have the guy do a henna tattoo on my wrist, I wanted an animal of some kind and he happened to choose an elephant it took him less than ten mins to complete the whole thing and the amount of detail that went into it is incredible.

The thing about this particular art studio is they are all local artists where the skill has come down through generations so they have been doing it such a long time that they can complete the work so quickly it's like second nature to them.

The guy who owns it also painted an image on each of our finger nails so I had a Indian woman on mine others had camels, elephants, peacocks, horses and roses, again he completed these in next to no time and with so much detail on such a small service area.

I then decided to have a palm reading at the same place, I am always a bit sceptical about things like this but decided to give it a go anyway. There were some things he said from my past he got spot on but other things he said I found a bit odd for example he told me my colour was green and I was wearing a green dress and after talking to others he had told them their colour was also the colour they were wearing. He also told me I'm going to live until I am 90 and that I will have two sons, but I think he meant to say two dogs.

The day ended with watching a dance show, which again showed off just how much talent is in this city, it wasn't like a dance show you would see anywhere else yes there was Indian dancing but there was also puppeteers where you got to see them performing their art not just the puppet while to controller was behind a screen, but the highlight was a lady who performed with pots balanced on her head the pile of pots got bigger and bigger until she had 10 balanced on her head and then she danced on broken pieces of glass.
The ride back was in a disco tuk tuk, the best one I have seen music and disco lights we were having a rave in the back.

Tomorrow we stay in udaipur for another full day so hopefully plenty more activities to do.