Day 107 - HOME & Thank You

Over 14 weeks, around 3.5 months..

..we've stayed in 49 hostels..

.. in 38 places..

..in 9 countries..

..we've flown on 9 planes..

.. travelled on 35 buses..

..2 trains..

 ..and 14 boats.. 

..We've read 30 books between us..

..seen two Wonders of the World..

..have accumulated about a million bites.. 

..4 injuries.. 

..about 60 'worst sleeps of her life' (Marie).. ..lost 19 things (all Jack).. 

..we've seen sharks..

..and elephants..

 ..and sex on a stage.. 

.. we've ate centipedes, cockroaches and mushrooms..

..been tattooed by a monk..

..jumped out of a plane and over waterfalls..

..been on crazy treks and in deathly caves.. ..partied on mountains, beaches and in basements...

And we've somehow made it out alive with memories to last a lifetime, meeting some amazing people along the way!

Thank you for joining us on every step of our journey and sharing this amazing experience with us.

Who knows where the next stop will be?

X 

Day 106 - Delhi

We had an overnight bus from Pushkar to Delhi.

It was kinda better than we thought at first, until a load of people piled on arguing about who had sleeper beds and who had normal seats.

It stopped quite frequently and each time it did we were roasting!

Around 10 hours and very little sleep later.. we were in Delhi!

Bonbarded by rickshaw drivers from the offset, we had an idea of how Delhi may be.

Jack and me were both ill so we weren't up for much but we did drag ourselves from the hotel room and to the Red Fort.

It was good just driving there too, as it Really gave you a flavour of what the city is like.

One thing we couldn't get our heads around whilst walking around, is that a lot of men hold hands as they're walking and are really touchy feely with each other.

Of course, there would be nothing odd about this in most places but for a really anti-gay country, it just seems a little confusing.

We also found it surprising, that although it's frowned upon to touch the opposite sex in public, or for women to show their legs or shoulders, the Karma Sutra is everywhere - hotel statues, paintings, handicrafts etc.

Just another one of Indias ways which we appreciate but don't really 'get'.

We had a lovely meal for our last supper..

Then had an early night in prep for the airport the next morning.

Next stop....homeward bound!

Day 103-105 'Bollywood' and Pushkar

Our glamorous Bollywood filming experience lay ahead of us. We just kept getting assured of how brilliant it would be!

We got picked up around 9.30pm and got in cars with 5 other people, that didn't really have the foggiest idea what was going on either.

At about 12.30am, we arrived at the hotel.

Our room, of course, was fit for a Bollywood movie star, complete with hard mattress, a gross toilet and bugs everywhere. We had a wonderful sleep '_'.

At 5.10am we were woken up and then we waited until 5.50am for the men in charge to get up.            

Jack stayed in bed because he was still sick, which they weren't happy about.

After we got to the location and had breakfast,  we waited...and waited...and waited.

God only knows why we had to get up so early?!    

The next thing we knew, Jack walked in! One of the men went back to the hotel, banged on the door and said he had to come to filming (after we'd been told the day before if he wanted, he could stay at the hotel).

We were summoned to another location, where we waited some more.

Then moved around a few more times, before we finally seemed to be shooting something.

We were all sat on blankets on the floor anf suddenly everyone was worshipping some guy at the front.

The directions were obviously only said in Indian because me and Marie had no idea this was happening and had to just join in with very giggly hand movements.

Jack (pale and constantly about to spew) was even told to do his own speaking part?!

After lots of waiting around in the heat and commands from people that went a little like "foreigners, come with me!" "Foreigners, go up there, move fast!" "Lets have three foreigners down here fast...." we finally got some more food and called it a day. 

Thank goodness!

It was an experience and very funny to look back on but I don't think any of us will take up extra work in 34° heat again. Even for £15 each and free food.

We got a lift to Pushkar. And then disater number two struck.

We found a room online with an amazing discount because it's low season. The site promised a family room at R.R Hotel, with four beds, a TV, aircon, mini bar and breakfast included. All reduced from £21 to £3. 

It did kind of seem too good to be true but we obviously jumped at the great saving and booked.

When we got there, we were in a standard double room with a fan. We got it up on our phones and showed them the site which clearly showed that we were right about what was on offer.

The man refused to believe it was their fault, blaming the website and refusing to let us have what we had rightfully booked. He said there would be no breakfast and a nice room with aircon would need to be paid extra for.

To cut a long story short, it ended with the lovely man shouting "get out you b****" to Marie, as we bundled a very poorly Jack in  tuk tuk to get to another hotel.

Our next hotel 'Lake view' was the total opposite though, run by lovely helpful brothers and with our doors swinging out to a beautiful view of the lake.

As Jack was still recovering the next day, Marie and me got lost in the charasmatic market town, repeating over and over again how much we loved the place. 

It's known to be quite a peaceful 'hippie' place, with nice food and amazing things to buy.

We got henna tattoos and sunk into a happy bliss having an Indian head massage whilst waiting for our turn.

With a view of the lake, drums beating at a nearby rooftop and monkeys playing below, we very happily killed the last couple of hours just doing nothing at all, aside from reading a little. 

Next (and FINAL) stop...Delhi!!