Enchanting Pokhara

Once again, we had been given great advice by fellow travellers. Pokhara is wonderful! We're staying by a huge lake, surrounded by mountains. The air is so much fresher than Kathmandu so I no longer feel like my head is in a vice, and the people here are so friendly. Nepal is much more laid back than India, and the people are more reserved, so you get bothered so much less when walking around, even in the super-touristy areas.

Within a couple of days of being here, we both realised how happy we were here and how much we love the place. So our plans have completely gone out of the window and we're staying put for a while! I'm off in a minute to extend my visa for a further 30 days.

After asking around, we got told about a little orphanage up a hill about 5km from Pokhara. We went to visit it and found 9 gorgeous children there, everyone was so welcoming and really pleased to have us help out. Nikki is currently trekking the Annapurna sanctuary (not my cup of tea so I'm sticking around to enjoy the other activities available in Pokhara, such as horse riding and kayaking). Once she returns, we'll spend a couple of weeks working with the children and doing something worthwhile with our time for a change!

Yesterday I went for my own mini trek with a Kiwi guy we met on the bus here up to the World Peace Pagoda. We firstly hired a boat to cross the lake then walked up stone stairs for about an hour to get to the top. Quite hard work for an unfit person like me, but at the top we could see the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas so it was well worth it!

Retail therapy in Kathmandu!

However sad I felt about leaving India, I felt ready to start the next part of the trip and so was ridiculously excited about Nepal. I didn't really know what to expect, obviously I knew about the mountains, but otherwise thought it might be quite similar to India but a bit colder!

Well, Kathmandu was same same but different to the cities in India. Lots of pollution, and lots of shops for me to spend my money in! Nikki and I spent the bulk of our first evening in Thamel (the backpacker area) happily haggling away for jewellery, yak wool blankets, woollen socks and all other bits and pieces. The taxi driver on the way to the hotel told us that Nepalese don't like haggling and we shouldn't ask for less than 90% of their price. What nonsense! I eventually bought a blanket for 200 rupees, starting from 500, and a new pashmina also for less than half price.

Our hotel was absolute luxury in comparison to the cell we had in Mumbai - we had soft beds (it had been literally weeks since we'd had a mattress that you could sink into), big windows and best of all, hot water! AND the hotel provided not only soap and toilet roll but slippers to wear in the bathroom and a toothbrush with mini toothpaste! Only 10 USD a night, such a bargain. 

On our second day, we headed for Durbar square, which was like a little preview of China, pagodas everywhere and lots of Chinese looking statues. Very nice but touts everywhere unfortunately, plus we were given a lassi made from gone off yoghurt which wasn't too pleasnat! Since then I've been avoiding dairy in Nepal. The biggest problem I have with Nepal is the electricity - they have a really bad grid so they have to plan daily power cuts to keep things from running. This means that you have only a few hours a day to charge phones and camera, get on the internet, and make sure the torch is close to hand for the evening! I think for this reason it must be hard to keep food fresh for long.

We decided not to hang around in Kathmandu for too long as we'd heard so many good things about Pokhara, and so far none of our recommendations given by fellow travellers have let us down (namely Hampi and Gokarna). So the next morning, we got the 7am bus for a gruelling 8 hour trip to Pokhara.

Holi in Mumbai

After our final and longest train journey in India (a whopping 15 hours), we eventually arrived in Mumbai. I wasn't particularly sure how I'd feel about the city after not enjoying Delhi, but it immediately seemed less daunting and cleaner. We found ourselves a cheap room near to the main tourist area - only 450 rupees, but our room was windowless, bathroomless and with beds so short we couldn't straighten our legs! Understandably, we didn't spend too long in the hotel room, and immediately got out and about. We found a really cool taxi driver called Ken to take us on a day tour around the city. He showed us all the main sites, such as Gandhi's house, Marina drive, the beach, etc but then took us to a little gypsy village where we spent some time with the locals. They were so friendly and great fun, we got given galleons of chai and were treated like royalty, it was so much fun that we agreed to spend time with them the next day, which was Holi.

When we woke up on Holi day, we were expecting absolute carnage, so we had prepared by buying some cheap outfits ready to be destroyed by all the paint. Instead it was all rather tame - the area by our hotel was very quiet although it was a predominately Muslim area so we weren't hugely surprised by that. When we went into the city centre, there were a few people playing Holi but still less than expected.

We met up with Ken again, and he took us to Dharavi slum, the largest slum in Asia (and the one featured in Slumdog Millionaire). We didn't really know what to expect, although we were definitely not greeted by poverty or miserable people. Instead, there seemed to be a thriving industry, the area we saw in the slum was built up and people were going about their daily business the same as in the rest of Mumbai. There were a lot more people playing Holi here, and I took a water bomb to the back from a child with good aim! The rest of the day was a bit of a disappointment though as when we returned to the gypsy village, we were unable to stay as a fight had broken out and the police had been there. So Nikki and I had to get our paints and water pistols and play Holi together!

Overall, I had a really enjoyable couple of days in Mumbai, it was by far my favourite city in India, and if you ever plan to fly into India, Mumbai is a much more relaxed and easier introduction to the country than Delhi.

4am the next day we set off to the airport to wave a sad goodbye to India and begin the next part of the trip... Nepal!!

Hampi - home of the Flintstones?

Although  it was very hard for us to drag ourselves from the beautiful beach, we eventually managed after two trains and 24 hours to get to Hampi, a strange town full of temples and massive boulders. It was an amazing landscape which seemed a perfect setting for the Flintstones! We certainly had a yabba daba doo time there as well, climbing on the boulders (well, I watched and Nikki climbed!) and visiting some unusual  temples such as an underground Shiva temple, which we had to wade through shin height water in the dark to walk around, with literally hundreds of bats flapping overhead. It felt like being in Tomb Raider, it was great!

The rest of the time we had there was spent relaxing round the river area, watching elephants get bathed and watching Indian life go by amongst a backdrop that must have barely changed in hundreds of years. I can't believe the Indian leg of the trip is nearly finished now, I'm writing this whilst in transit between Hampi and Mumbai, our last stop before flying out to Kathmandu on the 21st. We arrive in Mumbai just in time for Holi - should be interesting! 

Beach life joy in Gokarna

After Fort Cochin, we planned to head to Goa and soak up some rays and enjoy beach life there. However, we'd heard so much from other travellers about a little place called Gokarna just south of Goa, so when we saw that we'd reached Gokarna Road station we made a mad grab for our bags and jumped off! And then we got stuck here longer than planned and have now decided to skip Goa altogether. What more could you ask for than  clean empty beaches (not a sunbed or parasol in sight), a room with a direct view of the sea which costs 4 pounds a night, and good cheap food?! The sea is wonderful for splashing around in the waves and swimming, and there is a real community atmosphere about the place (possibly as it's so small and also sharing squat toilets and bucket 'showers' is guaranteed to bring you closer together!)

Unfortunately we leave tomorrow, although our next destination, Hampi, has been equally raved about by fellow travellers. Whatever it's like, I'll definitely miss the beach life and I wish I had more time to soak up the rays!

A relaxing week in Fort Cochin

After our time in Alleppey ended, we took a bus up to Fort Cochin, a little town with Portugese and Dutch influences everywhere to be seen. We stayed in a wonderful homestay (called Green Woods Bethlehem if you ever head that way) where the family were incredibly friendly and cooked us up some mean breakfasts! We stayed for about a week in total, which was more time than originally expected due to us getting through the backwaters quickly.However, it was a great place to while away a few days,with various interesting sights such as a Dutch palace, Jew town, and Chinese fishing nets, plus we had the unexpected treat of seeing dolphins not far out from the shore. We also went to see a Kathakali dance performance, we didn't have a clue what was going on but the customes and the wailing, I mean singing, didn't half amuse us. Which isn't good when you're in the front row! 

I think the most amusing thing that I did during my stay was having a go at driving a tuk-tuk! The driver let me try during a short tour of Fort Cochin, and I made sure I beeped the horn at every necessary occasion, Indian style! They are surpring heavy (I guess no power steering!)  and depite probably going no faster than 10mph, really quite scary! The driver would've let me carry on further but seeing as I value my life (as much as anyone who will get into a tuk-tuk does) I politely declined and let the professional take over again! 

Alleppey and backwater cruising

After staying in relatively cheap and simple accommodation for the last month or so, it was rather wonderful to spend 24 hours in the lap of luxury on a houseboat in Alleppey. We could've saved a few rupees and gone for a small boat, but instead we decided to splash out and get an obsenely large boat for the two of us!

We had an upper floor sun deck all to ourselves, which we lounged about on, sunbathing and playing bananagrams (look it up if you haven't heard of it, it's a great game!). We had our own chef on board who whipped up delicious feasts for us, the fish fry in particular was divine (fish fried in masala spices). Our surroundings were incredibly lush, palm trees and lily pads everywhere, with village life going on around us; women washing clothes by beating them on the rocks, boys playing cricket, and men fishing from their small wooden boats.  

The only downside of our 24 hour luxury cruise was the heat. We saved 1000 rupees by turning down air-conditioning, but we didn't half regret that decision when trying to sleep in above 30 degree temperatures with nothing but a measly fan pushing around the hot air. In the end we had to brave both mosquitos and the crew by sleeping with the windows and bedroom door open - we survived unscathed on both accounts happily, and managed to get a few hours' sleep at least.

It was a wonderfully relaxing time for us overall, and as Lonely Planet says, it was worth every darned rupee!