India: Udaipur

So, we were the original three Happy Wanderers again and with all of India at our feet it was a hard decision where to go next. After a hectic two weeks with our friends, it's fair to say we were exhausted and could do with some chill out time. Reading up on place after place, we decided on Udaipur, Rajasthan which is described as 'The Venice of India' - ideal! We hopped on our 7 hour train journey and settled into our hostel in no time. We stayed in yet another Zostel which had the most amazing views across Lake Pichola. It wasn't long before the peace of the city was ruined by a large family staying at the hostel to celebrate Diwali, all of varying ages from around 4 to 40. They spent all day and night sitting on the roof terrace making so much noise it was unbearable - we were beginning to think that sleeping for more than 4 hours was a crime in India! Luckily the family were only present for the first 2 nights of our stay, which meant we eventually got the rest we so desperately needed. 

Udaipur is like no other place we visited in Rajasthan, it's very much a safe haven for travellers. We had very little hassle from shops and rickshaws, no beggars or street children and the most amazing selection of cute cafes - what more could we ask for! Pretty much all we did during our time in Udaipur was eat, eat, eat... chat to the locals, chill out, then eat some more haha! Anyone who has travelled in India will understand that getting into a conversation with a local can sometimes cause trouble as they are more than likely just trying to sell you something. It starts off as a friendly chat of 'Where do you come from?', 'What is your job?' etc.. but ultimately they are interested in how much money you are going to give them. We get it, they're making a living, but sadly this makes you weary of getting chatting to the next person for fear of letting them down when you genuinely can't buy another pashmina! You'll be happy to know that Udaipur was not like this at all. We chatted to countless people whilst roaming around the shops, all of which were just interested in getting to know a little bit about us and our culture - it was like a breath of fresh air. 

We ate more food and visited more cafes than we care to admit during our stay in Udaipur. The best of which were Millets of Mewar and Lotus Cafe. 

Millets of Mewar: Strives itself on serving healthy vegan foods. The variety on the menu was amazing, all at a decent price. For dinner we ordered pizza, chickpea masala and cookies. We enjoyed so much that we went back for breakfast the next morning where we ordered mixed fruit porridge, nutella pancakes, breakfast burittos and coffee and ice-cream (all of which was claimed to be healthy so we didn't feel too bad!). The atmosphere in the restaurant was what gave Millets its personality - the entire first floor is covered with floor seating and you can get some great views of the lake. The service was a little slow on occasion, but this was understandable considering how busy it got during dinner time. 

Lotus Cafe: Conveniently located in the centre of the town, we stumbled into Lotus Cafe on a whim after looking for somewhere with a decent menu. Once we saw the cheap prices we decided it was worth a try - turns out it was soo yummy we went back a total of 5 times! Every time we were met by the cutest waiter who was happy to accommodate any request we had - swapping salad for baked beans was a Samantha special! Lotus Cafe was located upon a rooftop with views across to the City Palace which looked so beautiful lit up at night time.

After all the delicious food we thought it was time for some culture so we gave Jagdish Temple a visit. This temple is right in the centre of Udaipur so cannot be missed. Walking around the temple itself the detail of the building is so intricate with tiny elephants, people, flowers and patterns carved into the pillars. We stood at the back of the main shrine to watch and listen as women and children chanted and sang to worship Lord Vishnu, it gave the entire place such a magical feel which gave us all goosebumps. 

On our way out of Jagdish Temple we were distracted by really loud music and a crowd of people covered in coloured paint. One man pulled us to the side of the street and requested we follow him shouting "Hurry, you're going to miss it!". Intrigued we followed him through the small streets, into a cafe and out the other side where we were met with the most incredible sight. The entire street filled with people dancing to music so loud we couldn't hear each other speak. We had to insert a video as we couldn't explain the experience in words. We were later told that this was all in celebration of Navratri. A celebration spread over nine nights in worship of the Hindu deity Durga (the goddess of power and energy). 

Next morning we thought some more down time was in order so we entered one of the fancy hotels to use their rooftop pool facilities. It was so lovely to have this little luxury, and for only 300 rupees (£3) each for the whole day! We enjoyed soaking up the sun whilst listening to some music and catching up on writing our journals. 

There are numerous other activities available in Udaipur including a boat tour of Lake Pichola, a visit to the City Palace and Monsoon Palace and a cable car ride up to sunset point. We had every intention of covering all of this whilst in Udaipur but it seemed time just ran away from us and before we knew it, it was time for us to get on the road again. 

Here are our favourite pictures from our time in Udaipur: 

Jagdish Temple

Elephant with love heart! awwwh

Inside was filled with ladies chanting and singing - very magical

Navratri Celebration

The trucks playing music were stopped near the lake for dancing to commence

Food was so good...

...we came back for breakfast! COFFEE AND ICE CREAM!

Buying anklets - can't resist a bargain

Lotus Cafe - Look how cheeeeap!

Sarah cannot contain her excitement for her butter masala 

Pool Day!

Thanks for allowing us to recuperate Udaipur :D 

Happy Wanderers 
♥

India: Jodhpur

We faced our first overnight sleeper train in India for our journey from Agra to Jodhpur in Rajasthan. This was scheduled to take 10 hours, however when we arrived at the train station in Agra we were informed of a 3 hour delay. By this time it was already 8pm so we were not too happy to hear of this. Although there was nothing we could do about it so settled onto the platform and played our favourite game 'how much..?'. This has kept us entertained for hours upon hours during these sorts of times and we were keen to share it with the Spicy Mermaids. It's basically a game where you test how much money it would take for somebody to do something awful. For example, one question was "how much for you to take a bath in henna so you turn orange for a few weeks?", or "how much to shave your head?". We really enjoy this game as it tests how high or low peoples standards are and you get some hilarious responses! After a few hours had passed we noticed the train getting more and more delayed until it finally arrived a massive 7 hours late! We were all so exhausted by this time, I'm pretty sure we were all sleeping before our heads hit the pillow. 

Waking up in Jodhpur we got a pre paid Rickshaw to our hostel. Getting a pre paid taxi service whenever available is sensible as it lowers the chance of getting an inflated price - standard when your a white person in India. We have been told that almost every price you are quoted is at least 50% more than its value. We met one group at the hostel who paid 2,000 rupees (£20) for their journey from the train station, when we paid 80 rupees (80p). It really pays to do some research before heading to a new destination to find out how far away the hotel is from the train/bus station so you know what kind of price you should be paying. Also, barter like hell! If one man wont give you the price you want then there are about 80 others all lined up to take you. Walk away and they usually come running after you with the price you want. 

We stayed for 3 nights at the one and only hostel chain in India - Zostel. We were lucky to have an 8 person room all to ourselves which was ideal! After some home comforts in the form of baked beans on toast we were ready to do some exploring. We were dropped off near the clock tower of Sadar Market, which consisted mainly of textile shops. We got roped into going into one which claimed to serve all the big designer brands such as Kenzo and D&G. They sat us down and proceeded to display all the different types of items we could purchase in store. They showed some amazing blankets/throws and scarves made from cashmere, pashmina and alpaca wool. One of the guys got very into the display, draping the blankets over himself and a friend demonstrating how to get 'cosy' on a winters night, haha! His show worked a treat as our friends bought some souvenirs and gifts for family members.

That evening we got a few drinks, chilled on the balcony of the hostel and listened to music. This was a great opportunity to meet a few others staying at the hostel along with the hostel manager. After a couple of hours and a few too many drinks for some (Sinead crawling onto her top bunk), we were ready for some well deserved rest. 

The next morning we visited Mehrangarh Fort. Inside the fort there are many palaces and one of Rajasthans' best stocked museums. It felt so magical walking around the Fort, the detail in the buildings were exquisite. The palaces were all very lavishly decorated with the most spectacular views across the Blue City of Jodhpur. A guy we met at the hostel recommended we visit Flying Fox for a Zip Lining adventure around the Fort. This cost us around 1,300 rupees  (£13) each for 6 zip lines, lasting a total of one hour. The group felt a little mixed about this experience. If your a total adrenaline junkie then this is quite possibly not scary enough. We didn't dislike the experience we were just expecting something a little more.

Later that afternoon we attended a cooking class at Spice Paradise. We stumbled upon this the night before completely by chance and thought we'd take a look at the different spices on offer. We were met by Rekha, the most grateful, humble lady you could ever wish to meet. Immediately we were welcomed into her family home as if we were old friends and we did not hesitate to book a cooking class with her. Our cooking class cost 1,000 rupees (£10) and lasted 5 hours. We felt this was definitely worth it, we cooked such a variety of dishes including chai masala tea, biriyani, paneer curry, mixed fruit and veg raita, chapatis, garlic naan, sweet paratha and saffron lassis. Rekha also talked to us about each individual spice and its medical purposes and gave us a massive 15 page cook book to take home.

Our day of the cooking class marked the beginning of Diwali - the festival of lights, which is as big as Christmas in Asia! Rekha and her husband Anil could not thank us enough for being their 'lucky charm of the year'. We wish them all the luck for the future, no doubt they will do very well - we will remember their warm welcome and honest faces forever. 

For our last night in Jodhpur we did a home stay outside of the city. We decided this deserved a write up of its own as we did so many activities and had such a brilliant time - keep posted!

Here are a few pictures of our time in Jodhpur: 

First glimpse of Mehrangarh Fort - 400ft above the city

Jodhpur Centre

Jodhpur Centre

The Clock Tower

Deciding on our purchases

Jack jumping on the henna wagon

Mirinda King

Mehrangarh Fort

View across to the Blue City

Palace within the Fort

Young boy singing

Off she goes!

Team Zip Line!

Rekha teaching us all about spices and their medical properties

Ingredients for our Biriyani

YUUUUM! - The silver is for presentation when you have special guests 

Now we're all happy!

Thanks Rekha!

Happy Wanderers 

♥

China: Chengdu

Our trip from Xi'An to Chengdu was an overnight one which meant we got to experience our first sleeper train of the travels. Fortunately we managed to get a 'soft sleeper' cabin which meant we had actual beds for the impending 16.5 hour journey - some CRAZY people did the whole journey on hard plastic seats! Each cabin sleeps four people which meant we ended up sharing with a cute Chinese lady, and has a door so is basically private. We were really surprised to find our cabin came complete with a TV (which we soon came to hate when we found out we had no control over when it was switched on or off), a cute little rose, a kettle (for the obligatory english tea craving) and even complementary flip flops. We would definitely recommend the soft sleeper for journeys of this length if affordable - the beds were really comfortable and came with a duvet and pillow for extra comfort so we managed to sleep right through the night (excluding the occasional train jerks which made us feel like we were going to end up flying across the cabin).

Our First Overnight Sleeper Train - Excited Teds!

The hostel we stayed at whilst in Chengdu was called the Flip Flop Hostel and was really cosy. It was really central (about a 5 minute walk away from the Pedestrian Street and the subway) and had a really cute park next door which was often filled with locals playing games, exercising, or just generally chilling out which was really nice to see. The staff at the hostel were really friendly and always ready to help with any questions we had. We also had our first experience of laundry during our stay which was eventful. Apparently hanging clothes up to dry in your dorm room is a criminal offence to the maid who ranted at us for about 10 minutes after we did so.

We spent a lot of time wandering around whilst in Chengdu - the city is so huge that we had plenty to do. One recommendation we had from our hostel was to visit Master Kong Chef's Restaurant - rated as the 'best beef noodle restaurant in Chengdu'. Although it took us absolutely ages to find, (the map of the city we had was more of a hindrance than a help because half of the streets were missing) it definitely didn't disappoint - we ended up going back for a second night because it was so good. Although a little more pricey than we had recently been spending on meals because of our traveller budget (¥28) it was sooooo worth it. We tried both the beef and mushroom noodles and the beef and mushroom with rice - both were delicious.

The highlight of our stay in Chengdu was our visit to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, home to the most beautiful animals eeeevvvveeeeerrrrrr. As with all of our trips, we decided to do this by ourselves rather than going with the planned tour by the hostel because it would save us money. We had to get two local buses to get there which were only ¥1 each per person and entrance fee was just ¥58 when we arrived (the hostel tour was over ¥100!) The park is filled with bamboo forests and woods to simulate the pandas' natural environment and there were lots of climbing apparatus for the pandas to play on - they all looked really happy and had so much room to roam around. There are soooo many pandas there, of all different ages and lots of signposts to explain which panda you were looking at, how old they were and their personality etc. which was really cute. We were told before going that the best time to visit was around 9:30am because that is when the pandas eat and following this they tend to sleep for the rest of the day. We were able to get really close to them whilst they were eating, playing, and resting, giving us the perfect opportunity to take 12894269619437 photos and make multiple 'awwwww', 'eeeeeeek', and 'ooooooh' sounds simultaneously. They are seriously the most amazing animals - many of them genuinely look like men dressed up in suits - it's crazy just how human-like they are in some of their mannerisms. As cute as the giant pandas were, when we finally got to see the baby pandas in their nursery we literally could not stop cooing over how adorable they were - definitely worth the ridiculous queue to see them (the biggest queue of the whole day). There is also the opportunity to spend a half day actually holding/feeding/learning about the pandas but that was around £200 and unfortunately a bit too over-budget for us.

Another one of our favourite spots in Chengdu were the Jinli Ancient Streets which were a number of streets filled with local food, handmade ornaments, bars, live music, and pretty lanterns. The atmosphere was thriving which made it a really nice place to spend the evening. We spent hours just wandering up and down and sampled some street food whilst sitting amongst the locals which gave us a real feel for the town.

Here are some of our favourite pictures of our time in Chengdu:

Flipflop Hostel, Chengdu

Flipflop Hostel, Chengdu

Someone is happy she found 'real' milk!

Hellooooo Pandas!!

Tough Day?

The babies having a nap in the nursery

Jinli Ancient Street

Peace out Chengdu!

The Happy Wanderers 

♥