Myanmar: Inle Lake

*WARNING - This is a long blog post so be sure to have a cup of tea to accompany you!*

After a short stop in Kalaw where Sam and Rebecca booked and began their hike to Inle Lake (blog post coming soon), Sophie and Sarah decided to go on ahead. It was only a short minibus drive (just over an hour). We stayed at the Four Sister Inn which was run by a couple who were really friendly and helpful, breakfast on the balcony was also included that came with amazing views of the surrounding mountains which were always covered by mist in the mornings, it was so beautiful!

On our first day, our main priority was to find somewhere to book a boat tour for the next morning so we could see Inle Lake how it was meant to be seen! It turned out that the couple who ran our hotel had a friend who took tourists on his boat to show them the best parts the lake had to offer. After a brief meeting with the man to discuss what we'd see and where we'd be taken, we finally booked it for around $8 each (USD). During the afternoon, we decided to walk around the town to get some lunch which was swiftly replaced with amazing strawberry milkshakes and home-made brownies at a cute local cafe. We even met a group of English 60 something women who were travelling Myanmar together and had stopped for a cup of tea and cake - how predictable are the British, eh!?

After lunch, we continued our stroll around the town to discover it was just pagoda, after pagoda which we weren't too impressed with as many of them were run down and not well looked after, so we took yet another break in an internet cafe to do some hostel bookings ready for our Northern Thailand adventure in a few days. We also tried to book our bus tickets to take us to the Mae Sai border the day after our boat tour, only to be informed that the land was closed to tourists so the only way we could leave Myanmar was to book a flight to a town called Tachileik ($100 USD!!), then walk a short distance to the land border crossing! We spent hours trying to find a cheaper way to leave but after many dead ends, we gave in and finally booked the flight.

The next morning, we were up at 7am ready to enjoy our breakfast with a view before being collected to start our boat tour of Inle Lake. We rode in the boat for around 45 minutes before we arrived at our first destination, Ywama Village. Nearly all the homes and buildings are constructed on piles driven into the lake bed which means the residents travel around by canoe but there are also numerous bamboo walkways and bridges. Ywama is part of a 5-day rotating market cycle of Inle (the marker appears in different locations on the lake each day). There is no main street or square which makes it quite unique, but it wasn't long before we got sucked into the local market which takes place on the grounds of a pagoda complex. We spent at least an hour eyeing up the hand-crafted jewellery and garments that were being sold along with some delicious looking fruit and vegetables. However, much of the commerce takes place on the water as merchants, their small boats loaded with handicrafts and produce, do business with locals and tourists. We also met some very cute dogs that were wandering around greeting all the tourists with the world's cutest little faces (see pictures below and you'll agree!). The village is also home to a monastery and a stupa, weaving, metal smithing, wood carving and umbrella workshops. There are also many floating gardens where farmers plant crops like tomatoes and cucumbers on floating mats of vegetation anchored in place with bamboo poles.

On the way to the next location, we noticed our boat was gradually slowing down even though we weren't approaching a village or building which concerned us. After about 5 minutes of wondering what was going on, it eventually came to a stop and we were told that we had officially broken down in the middle of the lake in the blazing sun! Thankfully, a passing boatman stopped and let us join the people on his boat so we could complete our tour.. it was quite entertaining trying to pass over the chairs, blankets and our belongings while floating on the water haha!

Next up was a weaving factory that only use cotton produced by cotton spiders, which they weave themselves using old fashioned machinery to make scarves, cardigans, ponchos etc. We were greeted by a young girl who showed us the different machinery and equipment and answered our questions about the garments the women were producing before us. It all seemed so complicated but it was quite peaceful to watch the women work and see pieces being created right in front of us. It wasn't long before we were taken to the gift shop where Sophie decided to buy two scarves, one for herself and one for her mother. Sarah almost bought a poncho for herself but resisted when she realised how little room she had left in her rucksack!

After another short ride along the lake, we arrived at the local boat-builders and cigar makers.. weird combination haha. The lady informed us that an average fisherman boat can take up to 2 months to complete and cost around $600 (USD) which is probably the reason we saw so people with leaky boats and repairing them the cheapest way they could. We quickly popped into the cigar makers afterwards but were greeted by a room full of smoke as some tourists were testing the product before purchasing, we swiftly left after a small coughing fit! Again we were taken to the gift shop where the boatman also crafted some items out of left-over wood such as bowls, magnets, wall hangings, key chains and plates. 

We quickly drove past the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda giving us enough time to quickly snap a few photos of it before being taken to visit the Kayan tribe. In the late 1980's and early 1990's due to conflict with the military regime in Myanmar, many Kayan tribes fled to the Thai border area. According to a 2004 estimate, there are still 130,00 living in various places in Myanmar and Northern Thailand. Women of the Kayan tribes are well known for wearing brass coils that are placed around the neck, appearing the lengthen it. They first start to wear them around five years old then the coil is replaced by a longer one and more turns are added. The weight of the brass pushes the collar bone down and compressed the rib cage which gives the appearance of a stretched neck (the neck is not actually lengthened). There are many different reasons why the women wear these coils, but the tribe we met wore them to resemble to a dragon, which is an important figure in Kayan folklore. To see these women in real life was quite unsettling and made Sarah feel ill to the point where she had to leave and sit outside for a while, it really is a strange sight!

Lastly, we were taken to Nga Phe Kyuang which is a wooden monastery built on stilts on Inle Lake, just north of Ywama village. It's name means the 'Jumping Cat Monastery' because the monks used to train the cats to jump through small hoops, unfortunately they don't do it anymore due to laziness apparently haha! Upon arrival, Sarah felt a lot worse and had to run to the toilets to be ill.. it was at this point that she felt she hit an ultimate new low in life. Being sick.. in a squatter toilet.. in a monastery.. with no shoes on. Come on, that's pretty bad right? Needless to say, we didn't spend much time there as Sarah continued to get worse throughout the day due to sunstroke.

Here are some (many) photos of our time in Inle Lake, enjoy!

The incredible view at breakfast

Sunset view from our hotel balcony

Here we go!

Small rice fields in Ywama village

This cutie was trying to seduce us I think haha!

Ywama local school - assembly time!

Ywama village

Ywama village market

Met this gorgeous puppy strolling around the village, he was so happy!

Sophie attempting to walk along the floating gardens, HELP!

Growing cucumbers in the floating garden

A local leg-rowing fisherman

Of course our boat would break down.. onto the next one!

The local homes

Before the garments are completed..

.. and after! So colourful and pretty :)

The local boat maker

They also sold little trinkets for tourists to buy which were all handmade by the local people

They even sold hand-carved and hand-painted bowls, it was so hard to resist!

Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda

How the locals get around!

An elder member of the Kayan tribe

A younger tribe member not wearing as many coils as the elders

The coils - they were incredibly heavy!

The amount and weight of the coils each girl has to wear at certain ages

Nga Phe Kyuang (Jumping Cat Monastery)

Home time!

The Happy Wanderers

♥

China: Expectation Vs. Reality

*WARNING*

This post may sound quite 'moany' and 'grumpy' to some people but we just wanted to express the reality of visiting such a bizarre country like China. To most people, it may sound like a normal place to visit but it's honestly like a whole other world once you're there. Please don't think we hated our time in China because we thoroughly enjoyed the entire trip and would like to go back someday, but there were a few (okay, a lot) of things that we found particularly interesting about their way of life. Oh also, this post is quite long so you may want a hot beverage to accompany you whilst you read! :)

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Language Barrier

Expectation:

Getting in a taxi, going straight to your hostel.

Reality:

Taxi drops you off in the middle of nowhere. Takes you two hours to find your hostel.

Upon getting into the taxi at the airport, the driver signalled for us to show him on a map where we wanted to go. At that point we tried to explain we only had the name of the hostel in English. The communication barrier became immediately apparent as the driver could not speak a word of English and we obviously could not speak a word of Chinese. He eventually pretended to know where the hostel was and after a short drive told us to get out at a random location. He refused to take us any further, obviously not understanding that we didn't know where we were, so we then spent two hours wandering up and down streets, labelled all in Chinese before eventually finding our hostel. TIP: Make sure you get all street names/addresses in Chinese and ideally a screenshot of Google maps to show any drivers.


Expectation:
Getting on a bus, asking the driver if the bus goes to X location, driver agreeing, then telling you to get off the bus when you arrive at said location.

Reality:
Being told to get off the bus an hour later because you've reached the end of the route and the bus goes no further.

Again, it would have helped if we had written down in Chinese 'can you tell me to get off at X location?' The driver obviously understood that we were asking if the bus was going to X location but didn't realise that we didn't actually know where that was because we cannot read Chinese symbols and all station names are in Chinese. Many times we would get on the bus and try desperately to match up the name of the place we had in front of us with the name appearing on the electronic screen at the front of the bus, fail to do so, and end up having to get off the bus at the end of the route and do the entire route again on a new bus just to get to where we wanted to go. The struggle was REAL!

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Technology

Expectation:

Being in one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, a decent Wi-Fi connection to contact home and let everyone know you've arrived safely.

Reality:
Sitting in the corridor at 2AM when the hostel is most quiet, as close to the router as possible, in an attempt to get enough signal to send one single WhatsApp message.

Probably one of the most annoying experiences of our time in China was 'connecting' to Wi-Fi to then have absolutely nothing load at all, or a 'could not connect to the server' message appear. It was so frustrating to keep people up to date with how we were getting on because we had no means of contacting home (Internet cafes in China are non-existent).

Expectation:
Being able to travel freely around the country, undisturbed.

Reality:
Basically becoming a celebrity, subjected to constant photos and stares by almost every person we passed.

While we understand that we are a minority race in China, since the majority of Chinese tourists actually come from China itself, we found this to be one of the biggest grievances we faced. We couldn't go anywhere without being stopped and asked for photos, and even if we said no, people would take the photos anyway, disguising them as 'selfies' so we would be in the background. As if those photos were going to be attractive! As for the staring, it got to the point towards the end of our stay, that we started getting really irate and actually having to tell people to go away - a phrase we actually did come to learn in Chinese! It rarely worked, however, as people would just move to another location after being told and just stare at us from there. TIP: don't be a blonde or a red head in China! Or even a Westerner!


Expectation:
Photography being of normal, everyday things that you can put in an album and treasure as a reminder of your travels.

Reality:
Selfies everywhere!!!

And we mean everywhere! People will be alone in the middle of the street and will stop to take 5726235 selfies before carrying on with their business. Or they will take a selfie with their food/drink/random monument in the street. Pouting, cheesy smiles, frowns, etc - we've seen it all! As for the poses - people will take photos leaning on trees or a selfie of themselves pretending to take a selfie. Like seriously, it was ridiculous!

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Government Control

Expectation:
Keeping up to date with what's going on at home, and letting people know how you're getting on via social media.

Reality:
The Chinese government have decided that it's unnecessary to allow anyone access to Facebook, Twitter, Google, or any media outputs that they disapprove of.

We found WhatsApp worked (when Wi-Fi was decent) which was a relief, but had to change our search provider to Bing - annoying only because Google is default on all of our phones and just made doing anything online more difficult. Whilst in Kunming, Instagram was suddenly banned one day due to the Hong Kong protests. While we know that travelling is all about being in the moment and enjoying yourself, it annoyed us more so because we couldn't have it, and you know what they say - you always want what you can't have! TIP: get a VPN before arriving in China. This will allow you to bypass the government restrictions on any website and you won't have to be subjected to communist control - win!


Expectation:
Being able to sleep on a sleeper train.

Reality:
You will be unable to sleep past 6:30AM because government advertising will take over the TV and speaker system, which you cannot turn off and have no option but to listen to.

We have no complaints about the sleeper trains whatsoever. We had our own private cabins, comfy beds, linen and pillows, and a TV. Sounds perfect right? Until you're woken up feeling like you're in Orwell's 1984. The TV automatically turns on in the early hours of the morning, pouring out government propaganda and commercials which promote government projects, products, and people. There is no 'off' switch so you're forced to listen to it. While this doesn't seem like a big deal, in the context of China itself, and the unawareness of the population of the control they are actually subjected to, little things like this seem so much bigger to a foreign traveller within the country.


Expectation:
Visiting a country, with different cultures, lifestyles, and social attitudes, and wanting to embrace and engage with such behaviours.

Reality:
Although we are aware that China is a communist country, we definitely underestimated just how much control the government actually has over its people. (Ironic that it's formal name is the People's Republic, right?)

We found it really hard to comprehend the fact that everyone seems to share the same views. It may be the case that the government has so much control that people do not express contempt out of fear, or it may actually just be the case that the people genuinely believe the communist shpeil they are fed! Our overriding view is that Chinese people are actually real life 'Sims'. The government chooses what it wants them to do, and they do it with no reaction. Think of a Chinese cliche, and we can guarantee that you've just experienced 95% of the population. Everyone is the same. They have the same fashion, the same humour, the same personality traits. It's ridiculous just how little originality there is. Clothing is the main way people tend to express themselves, but even the outrageous fashion choices have now become mainstream as people try their best to be 'quirky' and 'cool'.

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Food

Expectation:

Getting into Chinese culture and trying out all the local delicacies.

Reality:
Being subjected to delicacies like dog meat, snake, stinky tofu, scorpions, locusts, and pretty much anything else disgusting that you would never want to subject your taste-buds to.

Even 'chicken' wasn't a safe choice - chicken meat in reality meant chicken feet. Also, all menus are in Chinese so you don't actually know what you are ordering which is definitely a risky choice when the above 'delicacies' are available. If you are lucky, you will find a restaurant with pictures so you can take a guess at what the meal is, but even then the food never arrives looking like the picture. TIP: get translations of different foods in Chinese so you can show the waiters what you want.


Expectation:
Ordering one meal per person, as a normal person would do in a normal restaurant in a normal country.

Reality:
China is not what we would call a 'normal' country because every meal is enough to feed 3 people with leftovers!! Groups of people tend to share dishes between them so they get to eat a few different things at once.

On our first night in Beijing we ordered a noodle dish each to which the waiter looked surprised but took the order anyway. When the first dish arrived, we thought a mistake had been made and all our food had come on the same plate - it was enough food to feed the 5000! Two seconds later, another two dishes arrived. We couldn't believe how much food was on our table. We were the talk of the restaurant. Everyone kept looking over at us and pointing and laughing, more so when we failed to finish even half of what we had in front of us. At this early stage, we also didn't know the etiquette for leaving food so left the restaurant stuffed to the absolute maximum so as not to offend. TIP: check around you for portion sizes before ordering to avoid making the same mistake.


Expectation:
Noodles, noodles, noodles.

Reality:
Noodles, noodles, noodles.

We knew that we would be living 'the chopstick life' while we were in China but we didn't realise just how little variety was available to us other than noodles. There were, of course, western fast food places like KFC and McDonalds but that's not what we wanted. Although it turns out we ended up spending quite a few of our evenings stocking up on Big Macs and Chocolate Sundaes. Whoopsy! After a while we got bored of Chinese noodles, so went to the supermarket to look for alternatives, and found, you'd never guess, POT noodles. And if you go to a mall, there's KOREAN noodles. As far as noodles went though, we did get some really great street food. Despite the oil which tarred most dishes and swiftly required removing, the flavours were actually really good. They were the biggest bargains too - around 80p per serving. On times, the chef would sneakily put some super spicy sauces in to the pot whilst cooking which resulted in numb mouths for hours on end! But on the whole, big thumbs up for noodle love. TIP: ask for 'not spicy' and then add spice later rather than getting it as standard, unless you love spicy food of course!

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Weather

Expectation:
China in September to be quite warm and dry, thus packing light, non-waterproof clothing.

Reality:
Severe weather discrepancies. Hot and dry one minute, then torrential rain and freezing winds the next.

While we didn't expect Indian weather, we weren't necessarily prepared for the amount of rain we experienced, mainly in Xian, Kunming, and Lijiang. Bethan and Sarah sensibly packed a raincoat in preparation but Sam ended up having to buy an umbrella which spent more time inside out because of the winds and barely kept her dry. Lijiang was definitely the worst weather we experienced, and was the place where we discovered one of China's finest inventions - waterproof shoe covers! TIP: buy these! They're basically like space boots which come right up your leg and keep your entire leg dry as opposed to wearing stupid flip flops and basically walking through puddles 24/7.

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Unique Inventions/ Fashion

Expectation:
China, as one of the world leaders when it comes to innovation, to have some crazy inventions.

Reality:
The unthinkable has been done!

It's really hard to explain just how random China is. Trying to remember all the random things we found is really hard now that we've left, but we remember always finding new things that amazed us. Here are just a few things we came across...

Fringe spirit level - yes this is exactly what it sounds like. A spirit level with a comb on one end to make sure your fringe is straight before cutting it.

Baby seat - this is essentially a bum bag that's padded for the parents to balance their child on so they don't have to carry the child's full weight on their arms, genius!

Poo pants - I know these sound bizarre but let us explain. Toddlers and young children in China wear trousers with a hole from the back to the front which is between their legs. We came to the conclusion that the parents put these on their children to save them money on nappies, but then we realised that it is to make it easier for the child to go to the toilet whenever and wherever they want. The children will squat down and do what they need to do in the street, on the train station and even on the local buses!!

Selfie stick - now we know these have recently become popular worldwide, but we believe the selfie stick began in China because they were EVERYWHERE! Whether the people were Chinese tourists or locals in the city, sooner or later they'd all bust out their selfie sticks and start their own personal photo shoots anywhere they pleased.

Flower cakes - these cakes weren't just flower flavoured, they actually contained full flower petals, WHAT!? The majority of them contained roses which unbelievably tempted Sam one day and surprisingly, she liked them.. Until two hours later when they made her sick for the night!

Meat floss - yes, this is as disgusting as it sounds! We saw this a lot at bakeries where it would be put over hot dogs, croissants and various other pastries. The first time we saw it, we thought it was stringy cheese as it looks exactly like it! We swiftly changed our minds the minute we ate it as it tasted horrific! Meat. Floss. Just, WHY!?


Expectation:
Being able to buy any colour hair dye you want - particularly important for when the dreaded roots start to appear!

Reality:
Chinese people have black hair and they seem pretty content with this. As a result, finding any shade of blonde hair dye is pretty much impossible.

It is not the case that hair dye doesn't exist. We managed to find many shades of brown, and even red which was perfect for Sarah. However, trying to find blonde dye was the biggest mission ever! Not even the massive beauty retailers such as Mannings or Watsons had it. Throughout our time in China, numerous people kept staring at our hair colour in disbelief, and couldn't understand how we managed to get it that colour. It was pretty clear that they have never found any need for hair bleach, and as a result, it is pretty much non-existent across the country. Luckily for us, we had a special delivery of it when the mermaids came to visit! Hallelujah!

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Hygiene and Mannerisms

Expectation:
Although it is very stereotypical, there is a general consensus that Chinese people lack manners so we anticipated that we would be met with some questionable manners and behaviours.

Reality:
Our expectations were confirmed almost instantly.

We're not sure of the correct term but 'hacking' or 'flegging' is one of the most disgusting things ever (maybe urban dictionary that)! Apparently, hygiene is very important to the Chinese. Many wear masks while out and about to prevent any germs/ pollution from getting into their lungs and when eating crisps or chips etc, they will pour the food into their mouths from the packet rather than use their hands to eat, and we often found people vigorously washing their hands after any contact. The worst, as we have mentioned, is definitely the way they clear their throat in such a way that we can only describe as VILE. It doesn't matter who you are, where you are, or what you are doing, they will spit the phlegm they have gathered out onto the floor, but not in a subtle way. They maintain control of it as it comes it of their mouths, dripping it down and back up into their mouths like a yoyo. (Sorry for the graphic description but it's so hard to explain just how gross it is!) No idea why this is necessary or even why people haven't realised how disgusting a habit it is. All we know is that we never want to be around it again!

Expectation:
When you want to buy something in a shop, get on a bus, or order food in a takeaway, and there are other people in front of you, you form what is known as a QUEUE!

Reality:
What is a queue?

As every Brit knows, we love a queue. Often, we will try and form a queue even if there is no queue. And we also HATE queue jumpers. So when we arrived in China, you can imagine our disgust at the realisation that the word queue means absolutely nothing!! If a Chinese person wants to buy something, they will walk right past you, barge you out of the way, and purchase their goods without the sales assistant even batting an eyelid at the fact that they have just committed the biggest crime known to man *cough* Brits! (Not dramatic, honest. We just really, really love a good queue). It's almost like we had to re-programme our minds to become 'Chinese' and commit such a faux pas - which we had to do or spend an eternity waiting and getting nowhere. It felt so wrong! Haha! TIP: be aggressive, be, be aggressive! (10 points if you get the movie reference without Google - if you were in China you wouldn't have Google!)

The Happy Wanderers

♥

Cambodia: Phnom Penh

Next up on our tour of Cambodia was the capital city of Phnom Penh. We arrived into the city at around 6pm, so plenty of time to find our hostel and get some dinner. After bargaining with the tuk-tuk driver to get a reasonable price, all five of us squeezed into the car and we were off on our way. Checking into the hostel was such a hassle - the owner definitely talks too much! After a chat at the bar for over 30 minutes we finally got shown to our room. We were so hungry we decided to just get food at the hostel and get an early night. Rebecca got more than she bargained for when she got offered a side order of tarantula legs, not one to turn down a challenge she ate them with no problems. We were not completely happy with this hostel so decided to move to another the next morning. Our new place was called Eighty8 and was much nicer and even had a swimming pool!

We arranged a tour of the Killing Fields, S21 Jail and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum for the next morning. The Killing Fields are a number of sites in Cambodia where more than 1 million people were executed and buried by the Communist Khmer regime under rule of Pol Pot during 1975-1979. However the total number of deaths resulting from disease and starvation during this time is estimated to be around 2.5 million out of a population of 8 million. Anyone suspected of connections with the former government were targeted and taken to these out of town areas for interrogation and usually executed within 24 hours of arrival. The most well known killing field is located in the village of Choeung Ek, around a 40 minute drive from Phnom Penh. Here there is a dedicated Buddhist memorial site which includes a stupa filled with over 5,000 skulls of the victims recovered from the mass graves in the area - some just tiny babies. Each of the skulls had been scientifically analysed for age and sex of victims and colour coded according to the cause of death. We all felt so shocked just how recently all this horror had gone on and that we knew almost nothing of its happenings. Even though it was a very eerie place to experience we felt like we learned so much.

Next stop was the S21 Jail and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This former school was transformed into a jail and was used to house victims before being taken to the nearby Killing Field. On arrival at the jail each victim was photographed, beaten and forced to write a very detailed story of their lives right from childhood, as a way to access the possibility of connections with the former government (a punishable offence). This often led to the capture of their entire family who were then also brought to the jail. We made our way around each of the five buildings, reading stories of the way victims were treated and of all the awful torture techniques that were used. We also learned how the guards used the old school gym equipment in the courtyard as a way of torturing victims for information. Again, it was such an overwhelming day for us especially since such horrific torture methods are almost unknown to us. It really hit us hard, again, like the killing fields, that none of this was discovered until 1979 and only because a journalist happened to stumble upon the stench of rotting bodies and followed it to the prison. Sorry for the graphic descriptions but it is really hard to talk about such tragic events in short - we wish that people knew more about this in the Western world because we felt really naive ourselves for being so ignorant to such horrible events.

We're very sorry for the lack of pictures here but we felt that taking photographs at The Killing Fields and S21 Jail was disrespectful. And we didn't really do very much else. As a city, Phnom Penh was our least favourite in Cambodia - largely because there was no real character to it and nothing really to rave about other than the above - which, although extremely interesting, was rather depressing and exhausting. We only stayed for 2 days and then decided to head on to Sihanoukville!

Cambodians love their king

Phnom Penh Palace

Enjoying your chips there?

The Happy Wanderers

♥

India: Rishikesh

Getting to Rishikesh was a bit of a mission. We had to get a taxi from Pushkar to Ajmer to get a train to Haridwar and then get a bus to Rishikesh bus station before getting a rickshaw to the old town where we were staying. However, after all of that, we were told that the old town doesn't allow any motor vehicles in it so no rickshaws or taxis could take us directly to our hostel. We were dropped off at a bridge which crosses the Ganges river which would take us to where we needed to be. We were instantly taunted by a group of monkeys - and not the traditional, cute, relaxed type that you see at the zoo but rather a clan of rhesus macaque monkeys (check them out) who began hissing at us and eyeing up Sarah's crisps which she hurriedly hid in her bag in fear of being attacked. A few locals managed to scare them off by throwing stones in their direction and we quickly shuffled across the bridge and safely made it to the other side. Phew!

Upon arrival at our hotel, Hotel Green View, we were welcomed by the manager who informed us that we had free room service included in the cost of our room which we immediately pounced on and ordered some beans on toast, chips, and spaghetti bolognaise - so Indian! We were so exhausted from all of the travelling the day before, overnight, and for some of the morning that we decided to take a 'quick nap' and woke up about 5 hours later, meaning most of the day had gone by. We really needed the sleep catchup though so weren't too disappointed. In the evening we decided to just go out for dinner and have a chilled night and managed to find a reaaaaaally cheap restaurant which served the most delicious Indian food and, as you've probably come to realise by now, we love food and we love a bargain so we were pretty satisfied by this!

The next day, we headed out into Rishikesh to explore the shops and the Tera Manzil temple. The temple is a famous tourist spot and holy multi-story temple located on the river banks of the Ganges. The holy shrine has 13 storeys and each storey has several idols of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. On the way back from the temple, we explored some of the small stalls and shops which lined the streets of Rishikesh. We found the items they were selling to be quite unique and different than others we'd previously seen so need less to say, we spent quite a few hours weaving in and out of them. Along the way we were subjected to yet another monkey attack. We hadn't quite learned our lesson from the initial taunting and were walking along casually minding our business and snacking on some crisps when the monkeys appeared and spotted them straight away. Sarah decided to surrender her crisps to the enemy in order to save herself (of course we're not being dramatic...) while Sam, as usual, was completely oblivious and subsequently became the prey of the largest monkey ever. He ran at her and jumped up onto her to steal the crisps and actually managed to graze her skin with its sharp claws in the process. However, the cutest old man came to her rescue with a large stick and managed to shoo the monkey away before warning Sam that she must keep everything hidden in her bag to avoid becoming a target again. He then gave her his stick to protect us just in case we came across any more monkeys along the way. After finding some bargains in the shops and stalls, we decided to have a pit-stop in Cafe Coffee Day for an iced latte and lemon iced tea which we would highly suggest trying if you're ever in India, sooo tasty!

The highlight of our time in Rishikesh is most definitely doing river rafting along the Ganges. It cost around 400 rupees which is about £4 for about 4 hours - another total bargain. We got picked up quite early in the morning in a jeep and off-roaded north for a while until we reached the point where we would get onto the river. We got suited up in our sexy life jackets and helmets and got given some oars and we were good to go! Unfortunately we didn't take a camera because we were worried it would get damaged if it got wet but when we got there the rafting guys pulled out a dry bag that we could have used to keep the camera dry. Mega fail by us. We got told that there were 9 rapids along the route we were going to take and that each would be a different level of difficulty - between 1-3. We started off nice and easy and came to a level 1 rapid first - it was so much fun rocking over the rough water, most of which splashed up into the raft completely soaking us and we can't even begin to explain how cold the water was! We carried on along the river and met some of the stronger rapids which were so rough we thought we were going to fall out - apparently this is a regular occurrence so a real possibility. The water was splashing everywhere around us coming right up and over our heads - there was not a dry part of us left but it was soooo much fun. After a while, the guy controlling the raft told us to get up and jump in which we were very reluctant to do (for about 30 seconds) after getting to know the water's temperature but we decided to man up and take the leap and ohhhh myyyyy god it was FREEZING! Our life jackets were up to our necks and our helmets were basically hanging off; we looked so attractive! After about 10 minutes of floating in the water which our bodies just could not adjust to, we decided we were too cold and asked how we got out. We were then gripped by the top of our life jackets and literally heaved out of the water like sardines; as we were getting lifted out our heads were shrinking inside our jackets - the crab look? We also got to jump back out of the raft whilst we were going through a rapid which was so much fun because the water was so rough and just dragging us along. It was really surprising how quickly you float along the river with the current. The views along the way were pretty spectacular too; its impossible to explain just how much fun we had. We wanted to do it all over again as soon as we reached the end. :(

Just before leaving, Bethan and Sam decided a massage was necessary. For the last few weeks we've been lugging around our ridiculously heavy rucksacks, sleeping on trains, sharing beds, getting pushed about amongst the busy streets, and just getting generally worn out. We booked for an ayurvedic massage - a bargain at just 800 rupees (£8) for an hour's full body massage. We were covered in a variety of oils and then massaged from head to toe - a perfect way to relax. We were very surprised afterwards to find that all of our chronic aches (knee and back pain) were much more soothed. Sam has been suffering with a bad back for the majority of our time away and hasn't really had any trouble with it since! We followed up our massage with lunch in a cute rooftop restaurant which overlooked the river - very peaceful and very tasty!

Rishikesh has definitely been one of our favourite places to visit so far - the atmosphere is just completely different to anywhere we've been before and is definitely much more relaxed. We think that having no traffic constantly beeping and no rickshaw drivers hassling you makes the world of difference and really allows you to appreciate your surroundings at a leisurely pace without having to rush through to avoid such hassle. In our opinion, its a definite must see in India!

Happy Wanderers

♥