Day 16-33, A Whole Lotta India

Days 16-17, Varanasi

After an amazing couple of days and about 800km of driving we had to once again take to the skies. We were a little nervous as there was ANOTHER storm over Dehli and our arrival was a tad on the sketchy side... To calm the nerves we thought we would be brave and try some Indian fast food in the form of Tiffin Express, where we had a Paneer Dosa. Whilst it maybe looked a bit of a dodgy spot, it was absolutely delicious.

We took off no bother and landed in Varanasi, the spiritual center of India. E-sims refusing to work, we jumped into a taxi which either runs on natural gas or has NOS to make it go faster. Clearly that's where all the budget for the car went as there was no seat belt on Kirstin's side... A short and slightly dodgy trip later we reached the hotel. There was what can only be described as a portable disco outside (a small truck thing blasting music and disco lights moving at a couple miles and hour with people dancing behind. It was really bizarre) but despite the noise we were so tired we quickly fell asleep without issue.

Early the next morning we had our first experience of the Varanasi roads, which even at 5am were chaotic. Once we met up with our guide we were treated to a morning Aarti ritual at the Assi Ghat. It's an ancient Hindu ritual welcoming the sun effectively and it was pretty cool.

We were asked to take some photos by some locals, so we felt a little famous which as cool. Following this we jumped on a boat to watch the sunset on the Ganga. It was a bit cold and drizzly, so we felt right at home. Combined with the fog and the overcast skies, everything was a bit gray but the Ghats, particularly the burning ones, were really interesting to see.

Our guide took us a walk through the streets and showed us a cool step well and told us a bit about life in Varanasi. He was a little reluctant to recommend food in case we became ill but eventually showed us to Terracotta Cafe, which is run by an Aussie, so safe to eat. It was, like all of our experience with food in India, very tasty!

Knackered from our early start, we went back to the hotel for a quick kip and in true Lloyd fashion over slept. We had to get up and ready so we could grab some food before our evening tour on the Ganga. So we jumped in a car rather than a tuk tuk in hopes of mitigating some of the pollution (but the driver had the windows down the whole journey). We earnestly and honestly looked to find some safe place for us to have some Indian food. But despite our efforts ended up with pizza (from the oldest pizzeria in India). It was actually really tasty but it does now mean we have had pizza in every country we have visited lol.

After messaging our guide to let him know we were going to be late (the waiter seemed to dislike Cam for some reason and took ages to do anything) we embarked on our evening sailing of the Ganga. It looked much more impressive in the evening, but that may be down to it being so overcast in the morning. We also set a candle on the Ganga to honor the river goddess and seek blessings for purification, or so we were told...

We saw the evening Aarti, which is the same except is essentially saying goodbye to the Sun rather than hello and had some evening masala chai from a spot we had visited earlier that morning. Masala chai is a spiced, often sweet, tea which is definitely worth trying.

Our guide then felt more ambitious and took us to a Pani Puri place to have some street food. They were absolutely delicious and had a good level of heat to them! Best of all, they seem to have settled in our stomach without issues. After the excitement it was off to bed as we had an 8 hour drive in front of us.

Day 18-19, Bandhavgahr

8+ hours and many wrong turns later we finally arrived at Kings Lodge in Bandhavgahr National park where we would be staying during our safari to try and spot a tiger. Needless to say we were very excited. So excited in fact, we went straight to bed for a nap after a lovely lunch.

Our room was on stilts in the middle of the jungle which was super cool and the room itself was really well equipped. After our nap we surfaced and went for some dinner. We caught the tail end of a talk which the naturalists do each evening on a different set of animals, had some snacks and then sat around a fire pit with the other guests. How wholesome.

Dinner was a lovely curry which had lots of different bits to it, finished off with some lovely ice cream. And then it was once more off to bed as we had our first tiger safari first thing the next day. We went back and the hotel had put hot water bottles in our bed as it was a little cold (by Indian standards). How cute!

Up at 5ish we pulled on our clothes and stumbled for some light breakfast and tea. We met a lovely older couple, Kim and Rob, which we would later realise were tiger whisperers as they saw 7 tigers on 5 outings! We jumped in the open top safari jeep and were given another hot water bottle and blanket/poncho hybrids which helped keep the cold off. We set off into the wilderness with our naturalist Vish in hopes of seeing some cool animals.

This safari was really cool as the naturalist seemed so well informed and relied on clues to track the animals. It was long before we heard the first clue. Alarm calls from the deer, short sharp bleets which can be heard from far. We were told that it was likely a leopard which the deers had spotted as the spacing between the alerts was close together. This could have been BS but we lapped it up!

And then, amongst the trees, it appeared... A sloth bear, not a tiger sadly. We had seen one in Sri Lanka so we weren't too blown away but it was still pretty cool. But the truth of the matter is that all we were interested in seeing were the Tigers.

We wouldn't have to wait long, as we had been told that there had been growls of a tiger nearby, through the trails we went until eventually on a hill about 15 meters away we saw a massive and beautiful tiger sitting watching us. It was honestly incredible. We sat and watched the tiger for about 15 mins until it got bored of us and went in hunt for something more interesting (likely his tiger girlfriend!)

We were buzzing for the rest of the tour and happily went about the park knowing that anything else we spotted was an added extra. As it happened there were no more tiger sightings in the morning, but we did see plenty of birds and Kirstin was ecstatic about that... We had a lovely breakfast in the middle of the buffer zone and then headed back into the park proper. We saw loads of deer and even more birds, it was just lovely driving through the protected wilderness with the sun coming up.

We headed back to the hotel but enroute we heard monkey warning calls in a field known as "tiger valley" so had to hang about to see if one appeared. The monkeys defintely saw something, but it was too well hidden for us. They delay meant we had to rush through lunch and we headed back out for the afternoon safari. We were feeling hopeful, given our luck in the morning that we would see some more tigers... We were wrong, but we did see plenty of monkey which were very cute as well as elephants, which is seemingly quite rare in this park.

Back to the hotel, we had some cocktails, reliving out "sundowners" experience from Sri lanka, had a gab with the other guests and sat round the fire. This evenings talk from the naturalist was about vulchers, which ewas actually super interesting. They are apparently really important for keeping off disease but they are struggling for a number of reasons. We had a meal and then absolutely pooped from the days activities we headed to bed as we had another early start the next day.

Up we popped and we were back in the national park after our prescribed Masala Chai and breakfast muffins. Wrapped up we headed back out in the pursuit of tigers. This time when we went out there was not really any sign of anything. No dears nor their calls, no alarm calls not even a curious monkey. So we had a chilly, somewhat aimless, drive around the park. Passing other jeeps exchanging intel in hopes that we we would find something. It was in one of these encounters that a late comer into the park let us know they caught a glimpse of a tiger near the entrance. So about 200m from the entrance to the park we sat and waited. About 10 other jeeps joined us, including the tiger whisperers themselves, Kim and Rob. So that filled us with confidence. Shortly after we heard loads of warning calls. So it was a waiting game. The warning calls quietly faded and the other jeeps slowly started leaving, but we were patient until it was only ourselves, Kim and Rob. Then the call of alert, not from a deer or a monkey but from our driver "oh, oh, OH!" and he pointed over my shoulder. And there, staring behind us was another tiger!! We zoomed over to it and got to watch it slowly walk away, occasionally looking back. Friggin Kim and Rob man, they definitely smell like tiger food or something!

Days 20, Jabalpur

One more great lunch and we were on the road again for another long drive, this time only 5 hours, our destination, Jabalpur, a Military city in the middle of India without a huge amount to see, but we were here for the airport. So we decided that it was chillout time. We ordered room service and had a lie in in our nice hotel and even managed to go to the gym. What was strange about the hotel was that it was this super nice new and luxury building and right beside it was a literal slum. It was quite jarring. Other than that, it was fairly uneventful, we headed to our flight in a tiny little airport and then landed in Mumbai.

Days 21-23, Mumbai

We arrived into Mumbai quite late, so grabbed a quick Dosa and a Vada Pav which is effectively a lump of fried mashed potato in a roll. Kirstin was super excited about it, but sadly it was a little too spicy for her. Cam was delighted to have her remaining half. Then it was off to bed for a day of exploring. We woke up after a bit of a lie in, had some breaky and headed out. Mumbai is cool but there is a huge amount of pollution. It was due to this that the pair of us began feeling unwell. We reached a beach and decided to get another Vada Pav from a really well reviewed stall. The queue was already massive and the stall hadn't even openeed yet, we waited in anticipation. Thankfully, Cam's animal spotting skills had been honed in the recent safari and so he spotted a rat scamper out of the vada pav stall. We had been increasingly brave with the food in India, but this was a bridge too far. As we weren't feeling great, we headed back and had a nap to re-group for our evening food tour.

Feeling fresh, we ventured out for the food tour, the meeting point: a burger king. We were confronted by a beggar who was quite insistent, which was a tough one. We met with our group and jumped on a local train to Chowpatty for our first lot of street food. We had some Pani-Puri, Sev Puri, Dahi-Puri and a Pav Bhaji. It was all incredible but the stand out, and probably best meal of the trip so far was the Sev-Puri, crispy disks covered in a host of sauces and other stuff to make a flavour bomb! This stop was finished off with some Kulfi - essentially Indian ice cream!

We jumped into a taxi with nae windows and headed to the market area. We visited a Hindu shrine and chanced our luck crossing the manic roads to get to another food stop. This one had liver and brains, uncooked and very much on display and not iced. It absolutely wouldn't be a place that we would stop if left to our own devices BUT the food was really tasty! We had a a fried chicken dish, a chicken roll thing and then a egg wrap filled with a minced meat which we cannot say with great confidence was not the brain we had seen at the start... Regardless it was tasty. We wrapped up the evening with another death defying crossing of the a busy road, dodgy Tuk-tuks and mopeds to get some icecream. Suitably sated, we jumped in an uber home (the first one for some reason accepted the ride despite having a flat tyre).

After an evening of sleep miraculously unhindered by delhi belly we were up early to visit the elephant caves which were a really cool network of caves and carvings for a hindu temple an hour boat ride away from the gates of India. The boat ride was nice and we were chased by seagulls the entire journey as the locals fed them crisps... It was really impressive monument and the sculptures were beautiful, despite the best efforts of the Portuguese who had tried to blow up the caves around 200 years ago.

Following Elephant caves we had two things on our agenda. Firstly it was getting Kirstin a new set of trousers as her other set had previously burst during the food tour the night previously, lol! She managed to get a great deal in a city where everything costs nothing she managed to get them for a steal of £30... The next stop was to get another vada pav. We wandered through the town looking at all of the great architecture and we made it finally to the stall we had heard lots about just outside the train station, which was an incredible building.

Fitting of the grande scenery, we were treated to a great bit of street food in the form of the Vada Pavs. The queue for which was filled with locals and we were the only white people, made us feel very adventurous.

We decided to get one last portion of Sev Puri from the same place we had been to the night before because it was so good. We sat on the beach and enjoyed the street food and each others company. It was just fab! The rest of our time in Mumbai was fairly uneventful, it is a really cool city with great food, the one thing we really struggled with was the pollution which made us feel a little unwell. Should be a class place to visit in the future when they sort the pollution out.

Days 24-27, Kerala

After the pollution of Mumbai, we escaped to the countryside in the form of Kerala. Our first stop was down in Alleppey in Kerela to jump on a house boat. Despite a few issues (water running brown and room not the same as on booking.com) we had and incredible day lounging on the rooftop of the house boat in the sun having a few drinks. The boat also came with a private chefs so we had some authentic home cooking which was lovely.

At this point we have covered a lot of distance and done a lot in a short period of time so we were absolutley exhuasted and wanted to just chill out. We had a hotel booked for just £50 a night which was brand new (all the photos for CGI) so it was a bit of a risk. We arriced and it was really really nice. Once we had been checked in, we were told that we had been upgraded. The room was abslutely massive and so so nice. In addition, the hotel was dead which meant we pretty much had the whole place, including the rooftop pool entirely to ourselves, and all for just £50, where the room we had should have been around £280. Great times!

Day 27-30, Goa

Extending the chill vibes we moved up to Goa for three nights where we were able to just relax and catch our breath. Again, we had a really nice hotel and were able to just relax completely. We even did a cooking class where we made a mushroom Xacuti and a veg caldeen, our efforts where pretty good if we do say so ourselves. We rounded off our time with a very indian dinner of pizza, which is pretty standard from us...

Day 31-33, Jaisalmer

After a relatively easy flight via Delhi we arrived in Jaisalmer, a small city in the north east of India in Rajistan. We were here on the basis of a recommendation to spend a night in the desert. Our hotel was a lovely wee number which has architecture that reflected the rest of the cities. It was really nice. 

We arrived fairly late so we decided to to have dinner on the rooftop of the hotel which was lovely and we were treated to some traditional music. 

The next morning we ventured up to the fort. It is one of the few remaining examples of a living fort (a fort in which people still actually live). It was absolutely stunning up there. Not just the views but also the intricately carved building facades. We had a lovely time wandering around the labyrinth of streets and managed to find out way out again.  We even managed to spot an Indian man playing the bagpipes! 

We grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to the pick up point to head into the desert. We were picked up in a jeep that was probably a little small for the purpose of transporting all of us. In traditional Indian style there were no seatbelts and the driving was erratic, adding to the usual fear whilst being a passenger in this country. The first stop before the desert was an old abandoned village which was seemingly abandoned due to a corrupt king trying to marry a local woman. The locals apparently all disappeared into the desert in protest. In order to explore the abandoned village we were turbaned by our guides and it was quite the look! It was really cool exploring the town. 

We had a final stop before the desert of a watering hole which was fine and then the rest of the tourists jumped on camels. We decided to skip this as it seemed unfair for the camels. Instead, we jumped on top of the jeep as we drove towards the dunes. We reckon we had a better view and more fun doing this anyway. 

And then we arrived at the dunes. Which, to put it simply, were absolutely incredible. We went up to the top and enjoyed the view then had some snacks whilst the camel lot slowly made their way to us. 

We then had a chat and enjoyed the scenic surroundings before heading back up the dune to enjoy the sunset, which was spectacular! 

As the sun went down and it started to get cooler, it was time to head to our accomodation which was a (fancy) tent in the middle of the desert, we arrived and we both thought it was really cool and we were buzzing to be there. 

We were then treated to a cultural show which were traditional Rajistani dancing and singing which included a fire dance which was really interesting and made for a great place to have some dinner. Speaking of which, Cam reckons that it was the best meal that we had. It included a chilli and garlic paste which was for sure the spiciest thing we ate on the trip so far, but it was dangerously tasty also! 

Following the food and the show we walked back to the tent, enjoying the showcase of stars in the sky on the way. Can fell asleep almost immediately but Kirstin was kept up my some pesky dogs which seemed to be barking at nothing. 

A quick breakfast and it was back into Jaisalmer. The drive was very scenic and more spacious than the way out to the desert. We shared some songs with our guests and they did it back which was pretty fun.  We arrived back at the hotel we had left from and enjoyed getting upgraded to a suite. Then we grabbed some lunch and got a little pissed drinking some beers in the sun and solved the worlds problems. 

Following a nap we went for some dinner, again on the hotel rooftop and had our final curry of our Indian trip. 

And that was our last full day in India. The country surpassed all of our expectations. It was not as scary as we thought it was going to be. The food wasn't as risky to eat, it wasn't as dirty or as smelly as we thought and the people were incredibly friendly. Combine that with the amazing sites and wildlife as well as incredible tasting food means we had such an amazing time. 

Highlights of the trip were:

- Bandhavgahr national park to see tigers

- Thar Desert 

- Taj Mahal 

- The FOOD!