During our long summer holiday, we travelled around India with some other Project Trust volunteers.
Izzy and I started off in Pondicherry and Mahabs in Tamil Nadu. Pondicherry was occupied by the French and so it has an area that looks exactly like a French town. We hired bikes and cycled round the beautifully clean streets and spent a lot of time sitting in cafes, eating crepes, baguettes and amazing cakes. Mahabs gave us the chance to do some shopping and go on the beach. We ended up running into the sea fully clothed, which was fun!
We met Sarah and Niamh in Calcutta, intending to get a train to Gaya. Unfortunately our train had been cancelled which was slightly stressful, but we managed to find 4 free beds on another train, so we managed to get to Gaya in the end. We got an auto to Bodhgaya, where we stayed for 3 days, unfortunately Niamh got food poisoning during this time. Bodhgaya is an important place for Buddhists, as it is the place where Buddha gained enlightenment. It has a temple containing a special tree, which Buddha meditated under, we also tried some meditation but we weren't much good.
Next we moved to Varanasi, which is one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities and a spiritual place as the Ganges runs through it. Many Hindus travel there to clease themselves of their sins and cremate their loved ones. We went on a boat ride down the river at sunrise one morning and it was really interesting to see all of the activity going on; washing clothes, bathing, washing cows, children playing and even bodies being burnt at the special burning ghats. We also went on a boat at sunset, where we saw the Ganga ceremony and could light a candle and float it on the water. Varanasi was a really cool place with lots of little winding streets leading down to the ghats (steps
down to the river), where there was always so many things going on. Varanasi has a famous lassi shop called the Blue Lassi, which we visted and had some of the most amazing lassis ever!
We then got a night train to Khajuraho, which has some very famous temples with very intricate, detailed and sometimes erotic carvings.
After Khajuraho, we moved on to Udaipur, which was definitely one of everyone's favourite places. It's a really pretty town with a big lake, a palace and lots of really nice little shops. A speciality of the area is creating miniature paintings, so we decided to do a miniature painting class, which was really fun and quite relaxing, especially as the teacher did most of mine, as I'm not the most artistic of the group! We also went for a boat ride on the lake, visited the palace, swam in a roof-top pool and climbed up a very steep hill to see a really beautiful sunset.
Jodhpur was our next stop, and we spent a lot of time in tea and spice shops, testing all of the different flavours. We then went up to the fort, which is very impressive and has great views of the city. It is known as the blue city, and from the fort you can see all of the blue painted buildings.
We then moved on to Jaisalmer, which is in the desert and has an amazing fort that looks like lots of sandcastles. The inside of the fort is also really cool; there's lots of little streets, shops and houses, all made of the same sandstone.
In Bikaner we met Tabs and Ruth and organised a camel trek in the desert. It was slightly scary at first, as the camels kneel down to let you on and then stand up very quickly! However, once we'd got used to the contant rocking motion, we really enjoyed it, and grew very attached to our camels! We trekked all day and then slept overnight in the desert under the stars, it was awesome! The rest of our stay in Bikaner was a bit odd, as we had a few days there, but there is not really anything to do! We visited a camel research centre one day and tried camel milk ice-cream and tea and the next day we went to a rat temple, which was really disgusting. For some reason Tabs and Niamh really enjoyed it, but for me, the idea of a building full of dirty rodents running around is vile, so that probably wasn't the highlight of the trip for me! The reason that the rat temple exists is because Hindus believe that they are ancestors of Lakhan, who was reincarnated as a rat instead of dying.
Our next stop was Jaipur, where we all unfortunately got food poisoning and spent most of the visit in the bathroom! We managed a trip to the Amber Fort, which was really nice, but we had so many requests for photos and we got a bit annoyed. In the end we told people that photos would be 20 rupees each to try and discourage them from asking, but instead they started handing money to us and we made 80 rupees!
Izzy and I started off in Pondicherry and Mahabs in Tamil Nadu. Pondicherry was occupied by the French and so it has an area that looks exactly like a French town. We hired bikes and cycled round the beautifully clean streets and spent a lot of time sitting in cafes, eating crepes, baguettes and amazing cakes. Mahabs gave us the chance to do some shopping and go on the beach. We ended up running into the sea fully clothed, which was fun!
We met Sarah and Niamh in Calcutta, intending to get a train to Gaya. Unfortunately our train had been cancelled which was slightly stressful, but we managed to find 4 free beds on another train, so we managed to get to Gaya in the end. We got an auto to Bodhgaya, where we stayed for 3 days, unfortunately Niamh got food poisoning during this time. Bodhgaya is an important place for Buddhists, as it is the place where Buddha gained enlightenment. It has a temple containing a special tree, which Buddha meditated under, we also tried some meditation but we weren't much good.
Next we moved to Varanasi, which is one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities and a spiritual place as the Ganges runs through it. Many Hindus travel there to clease themselves of their sins and cremate their loved ones. We went on a boat ride down the river at sunrise one morning and it was really interesting to see all of the activity going on; washing clothes, bathing, washing cows, children playing and even bodies being burnt at the special burning ghats. We also went on a boat at sunset, where we saw the Ganga ceremony and could light a candle and float it on the water. Varanasi was a really cool place with lots of little winding streets leading down to the ghats (steps
down to the river), where there was always so many things going on. Varanasi has a famous lassi shop called the Blue Lassi, which we visted and had some of the most amazing lassis ever!
We then got a night train to Khajuraho, which has some very famous temples with very intricate, detailed and sometimes erotic carvings.
After Khajuraho, we moved on to Udaipur, which was definitely one of everyone's favourite places. It's a really pretty town with a big lake, a palace and lots of really nice little shops. A speciality of the area is creating miniature paintings, so we decided to do a miniature painting class, which was really fun and quite relaxing, especially as the teacher did most of mine, as I'm not the most artistic of the group! We also went for a boat ride on the lake, visited the palace, swam in a roof-top pool and climbed up a very steep hill to see a really beautiful sunset.
Jodhpur was our next stop, and we spent a lot of time in tea and spice shops, testing all of the different flavours. We then went up to the fort, which is very impressive and has great views of the city. It is known as the blue city, and from the fort you can see all of the blue painted buildings.
In Bikaner we met Tabs and Ruth and organised a camel trek in the desert. It was slightly scary at first, as the camels kneel down to let you on and then stand up very quickly! However, once we'd got used to the contant rocking motion, we really enjoyed it, and grew very attached to our camels! We trekked all day and then slept overnight in the desert under the stars, it was awesome! The rest of our stay in Bikaner was a bit odd, as we had a few days there, but there is not really anything to do! We visited a camel research centre one day and tried camel milk ice-cream and tea and the next day we went to a rat temple, which was really disgusting. For some reason Tabs and Niamh really enjoyed it, but for me, the idea of a building full of dirty rodents running around is vile, so that probably wasn't the highlight of the trip for me! The reason that the rat temple exists is because Hindus believe that they are ancestors of Lakhan, who was reincarnated as a rat instead of dying.
Our next stop was Jaipur, where we all unfortunately got food poisoning and spent most of the visit in the bathroom! We managed a trip to the Amber Fort, which was really nice, but we had so many requests for photos and we got a bit annoyed. In the end we told people that photos would be 20 rupees each to try and discourage them from asking, but instead they started handing money to us and we made 80 rupees!
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