Jagmandir Island, Cooking Classes, Horse Riding

These past couple of days have been some of the best in India. Udaipur is such a great city and there's a ton to do. Yesterday we took a boat around the lake and visited Jagmandir Island Palace - a gorgeous complex with quaint little courtyards and amazing views over the lake. We even got to look around the spa area (like we could EVER afford to go there!). We loved just sitting on white patio chairs watching the boats coming and going - such a beautiful place to journal as well! Then, last night we went to Shashi's cooking class below the Sunrise rooftop restaurant in Lal Ghat. If you are ever in Udiapur, you HAVE to go here - it was a 5 1/2 hour class filled with fun and we learnt over twenty new recipes, including most of the basics for Indian cooking. Think parantha (stuffed, butter, coconut), naan, aloo tomato masala, mango chutney, coriander chutney, pakoras (veg, paneer, onion, potato), vegetable biryani... and so much more! We took the class with a couple from the French West Indes, who are studying in Paris and India, and a Kiwi who is living in Kolkata/Calcutta working for an NGO which works with people in the slums. Talk about an interesting night! And then, of course, there's Shashi - a lovely lady who started the business after she was widowed at 32 and felt held back by her caste's rules. You'll have to take a class to find out the rest of her story, but she is truely amazing. We returned to our hostel at 11pm, exhausted, covered in flour, with a bag of sweet parantha for this morning! Today we have been on a hack/horse riding safari in the Udaipur countryside for 4 1/2 hours and are very sore as a result! We went with two German girls, a guy from Finland, another girl from Spain and our guide. We stopped for chai masala in the rural villages and there was this gorgeous little girl with no clothes and absolutely WILD hair! It was very funny. We stopped by a lotus pool for a break, and came back to the hostel at 2pm very sore, but very happy. Tonight we might try and find the cinema in Udaipur - which, according to the Spaniard, is no easy feat. There's a new Bollywood film out, however, and we can't wait to see it!
(pictures will come later!)

Udaipur, Rajasthan

We've been in Udaipur a day and LOVE it. It's gorgeous - loads of tiny winding pathways, crazy traffic (as per usual) and temples dotted around the lake. Our hostel, Lal Ghat Guesthouse, is awesome - we pay only 100 rupees (about 2 dollars) a night for a bed with curtains, a storage locker, hot(!) showers, and an incredible rooftop view of the lake. Yesterday we wandered around town and managed to find an Israeli restaurant which served humus and falafal for lunch - yum! We went to the City Palace for the afternoon and walked around the King's Palace. The princess of India is having a wedding there on the seventh of March, so it is all being renovated ready for the occasion. We understand why it's called the romantic city - everything is bleached white and reflected in the lake, and the city is nestled in the mountains. Our favourite part of the palace was the peacock mosaic courtyard - it was made with glass imported from belgium and was very beautiful with the light bouncing off the mosaics and creating a glow on the walls. After the palace we went to a yoga ashram in ashtang yoga. It was alright, but not very challenging and the instructor talked for most of it - not quite what we had been expecting! After that we went to a rooftop restaurant to see a James Bond movie. Octopussy was filmed in Udaipur, and all of the restaurants screen the movie from their rooftops so you can just look around at the buildings in which it was filmed. It was a lovely night - we had delicious thali (a platter of four different vegetable curries, chapati, papad, curd and salad) and there were fireworks going on in the distance. Perched on top of a nearby mountain was the Monsoon Palace, all lit up and towering over the city. This morning we awoke at 8am for a morning rooftop yoga class but the instructor was absent. We did, however, continue the class as like a community yoga class with a lady from Ethiopia, a man from Bangalore and another man (we have no idea where he's from). It was really fun and we got to learn all about the different types of yoga people do. Camilla did her first real attempt at a headstand to questionable success. It was a lovely start to the morning doing yoga on a rooftop overlooking the lake! We had breakfast afterwards at a rooftop cafe sitting on a raised sofa in an alcove with chai masala and omelette and porridge. So far, Rajasthan is looking great!!

Agra, Mumbai, Goa

The Golden Temple at night

The Taj at sunrise

The market in Fatehpur Sikri

Depictions of Lord Shiva in Elephanta Island, Mumbai

Shopping at a mall with friends in Delhi

 

Humayan's Tomb in Delhi

With India-Pakistani Border Guards

The Golden Temple in Amritsar

We have just returned from a relaxing beach trip to Goa, where we spent four days lounging around and drinking iced tea and fresh lime sodas. It was beautiful there, and one of our favourite nights was wandering around the Saturday night bazaar in nearby Anjuna. We spent yesterday in Panjim, a colonial Portuguese town and really enjoyed the calm streets and colourful houses. We are now back in Mumbai, which we had explored before leaving for Goa, and are preparing for a bus ride to Udaipur, Rajasthan, tonight. Mumbai was really special - we both agreed we liked it the best out of any other Indian city yet! There are tree-lined avenues, a beautifully architectured old university and the famous gateway to India as well as the queen's necklace - night lights lining the Chowpatty beach. We spent four incredible days here - while the necessity of obtaining our Chinese visas (it took forever) made us stay here that long, we had plenty to do in the city. We especially enjoyed the modern aspects of the city - we watched a chick flick in the cinema and were able to enjoy coffee and cake at an atmospheric cafe. We made a day trip out to Elephanta Island, where there are some very ancient carvings out of stone in caves depicting Hindu gods. It was exceptionally beautiful, and the ferry ride there was also very fun. We also had a great time in Agra - doing the usual tourist things like seeing the Taj Mahal, making a trip to Fatehpur Sikri and wandering around the Agra Fort. We befriended a rickshaw driver, Shabbu, who took us around everywhere for hardly anything, and even let us drive his rickshaw! It was very scary as the traffic here is insane! We are now looking forward to heading to Udaipur to do some cooking classes, and yoga! We'll keep you posted!!

Amritsar, India

We had our first horror train experience coming from Old Delhi train station to the Amritsar junction, but got here safely in the end! We accidentally booked a ticket on the notoriously bad train that is routinely delayed, so we ended up sitting in the Old Delhi (worst in Delhi) train station for seven hours (9pm - 4am) on a bench in the freezing cold, watching people relieve themselves onto the railway tracks. All announcements were in Hindi, so we had no idea which trains were at our station, and when ours would finally come. When we did get on the train, we were in the sleeping berths, which were disgusting, but really fun. It's a good thing we've come from Tanzania and are used to less than sanitary conditions so it didn't bother us much. Our beds were suspended from chains from the ceiling and we felt like we had been put in a jail cell. We shared the cabin with many people who helped us and bought us questionable food from the vendors walking up and down the train. We slept well until a drunk guy burst into tears at the policemen who had come to escort him off the train, and lurched into a long-winded account of his life story. Anyway,. we are now in Amritsar, at the border of Pakistan, and have been wandering around the street bazaars and having delicious mango lassis. The city is much nicer and more manageable than Delhi - less traffic and we're less rushed. This afternoon we will go to the border closing ceremony and last night we went to the Golden Temple and walked around the square with many Sikh devotees. It was an amazing sight to see it all lit up and surrounded by people praying, and we are looking forward to returning tomorrow to see it during the daytime.

Delhi, india

We have safely arrived in Delhi, India and have spent the last couple of days staying with friends and touring around the city. India is very unlike what we had imagined and has been a huge change from Tanzania - it feels very strange having constant hot water and electricity!! The traffic here is just as crazy - if not, more so, than in Morogoro. People ignore lanes and traffic cones and instead drive anywhere they want and squeezing into any gap they want to. We have been kindly escorted to see many of the attractions in Delhi by the family we are stayng with. We have been very busy since landing on Wednesday. About that, some sneaky person in Qatar managed to upgrade our seats so that we got to sit first class! Our favourite sights so far have been Humayun's tomb which we saw at sunset last night and the Lotus temple, or Bahai House Of Worship, which is a temple in the shape of a lotus flower with 27 marble petals and nine pools around it's edge. We've also had a lot of really delicious Indian food and have been stuffed at every meal time! We plan on spending the next couple of days in Delhi and will then head up to the Pakistan Border to see Amritsar and the Golden Temple.