India: Agra

We finally arrived into Delhi, with nowhere to stay except the airport floor once again! Missing our flight meant that we missed our only planned day in Delhi and with our itinerary already jam packed there was no room for changes. We had a few hours sleep before jumping into a taxi in the early hours of the morning. We arranged to meet the Spicy Mermaids at the train station to begin our 2 week journey - first stop, Agra for the Taj Mahal!

After 48 hours of being homeless all we wanted was to meet with the rest of the group, check into our hotel and have a well deserved meal and catch up. We already boarded the train and were eagerly waiting to catch a first glimpse of our friends. Spotting them we were banging the glass and shouting so they would notice us. Luckily enough they were seated only a few cabins down and it wasn't long before they'd heard all about our first 5 weeks of travelling. Jack was kind enough to offer us the most revolting prawn flavoured crisp snack - thaaaaaanks!

We had booked AC 3 Tier tickets, which are middle ground prices. These are set up as separate air conditioned cabins housing eight beds, six of which are like 2 sets of triple bunk beds and the remaining two just a standard bunk bed. However, looking back now there was no need to book sleeper beds as the journey took little over 3 hours, a standard chair seat would have done just fine (and saved us a few pennies). 

First thing we did on arrival into Agra... eat! Our hotel had a decent roof top restaurant with views of the Taj Mahal. In about 10 minutes we'd sent plenty of 'Taj Selfies' to family and friends haha! All fed and rested it was time to do some exploring and experience our first Rickshaw ride - what an experience it was! The streets of Agra are sooo narrow and our driver wasn't shy about squeezing into any gap, inches away from people, cows, cars and trucks - our hearts really were in our mouth. He must have noticed we were getting nervous, telling us "don't worry, chicken curry", hahahaha! 

We survived the ride to Agra Fort and enjoyed wandering around the site for a couple of hours. We paid 300 rupees (£3) for entry which we felt was worth it as it helped us get more of a feel for the history of Agra. The fort can be better described as a walled city, the centre of Mughal Empire, containing many palaces. Rumour has it that Shah Jahan (the emperor who built the Taj Mahal) was placed here under house arrest by his son after he become ill. He is said to have died in one of the palace towers which overlooks the Taj Mahal. 

A very early 5.30am start for the sunrise at the Taj Mahal (750 rupees, £7.50) was next on the agenda. We arrived even before the ticket counter had opened, there was no way we were missing this! After waiting eagerly for the doors to open and walking what felt like an eternity through the security checks and pretty gardens, we were finally met with this epic wonder of the world! It felt kind of surreal being there as it is such a sceptical. We had to pause for a few minutes just to pinch ourselves. It wasn't long before the site was filling up so we hurried along to take photographs before it got too crowded. 

The Taj Mahal is a white marble mausoleum built in 1632- 1654 by Shah Jahan as a resting place for his late wife. We were asked to remove our shoes before walking on the marble, which we enjoyed as it felt more sacred. Inside the mausoleum itself there is a replica of the tomb (the actual one is underground and is closed to the public) and the walls are covered in Islamic calligraphy messages. Shah Jahan himself was later buried here next to his wife after his death. We were lucky enough to step right inside the mausoleum as we got there very early, however we heard you can expect to queue for up to 2 hours just to enter the building at around midday. After wandering around the site for around 3 hours we decided to just sit and watch as the sun rose and reflected off the white marble, changing its colour from pink to orange. It wasn't long before our tummies started rumbling, so we headed back to our hotel for some yummy breakfast. 

Here are our favourite pictures from our time in Agra:

Travelling like locals in the deadly rickshaws.. *Note Jack in the mirror*

Agra Fort

The rumoured place of Shah Jahans' death

Cute paraquet

The Taj Mahal

Heeeey Spicy Mermaids!

Our honorary Happy Wanderers :)

Sarah modelling Jack's 'man bag' (which was pink..)

Mermaid Temple!

Within 24 hours of being in India..

.. we all had henna!

Happy Wanderers 

♥

China: Lijiang

This time our move involved a 1 hour domestic flight from Chengdu to Lijiang. Apparently, talking on a plane in China during daylight hours is a serious offence as when Sarah and Sam were having a conversation, a Chinese man started tapping Sam asking her to 'shhh!!'. After we refused to stop talking, his girlfriend then began kicking Sam's chair and persistently hitting Sarah's arm demanding that they be quiet (even though it was 2pm and she wasn't trying to sleep - ridiculous!). The fun police are definitely on board all China planes! However, we chose this option as opposed to an overnight sleeper train because Lijiang is not supported by a frequent rail service. Being semi-rural you can only get a train there from Kunming (the capital of Yunnan Province) which meant extra time and cost.  

Arriving in Lijiang, we were greeted by the most torrential weather conditions! Rain, and thunder and lightning were prevalent almost every day. We were dropped into the centre of Lijiang and decided to get a city bus to our hostel although within 2 minutes we were literally soaked through from the rain so we gave up and got a taxi. 

We stayed in the Panba Lakeside Lodge during our stay. This hostel is a little out of the main area, however, the view from our balcony made up for the 20 minute walk into town. It is located alongside a gorgeous lake (as the name suggests) and in the distance you can see the famous Jade Snow Mountain, which looks particularly beautiful in the morning. We're sooo glad we chose this hostel; it was truly amazing! The hostel is family-run and all of them were very welcoming - they could never do enough for us. They offered us impartial advice on trips of the surrounding area and one man even gave us his mobile number so we could phone him if we got lost - he was very concerned for us for some reason. He had amazing English and was always around when we needed him - most often to translate everything into Chinese which was required pretty much 24/7. Unfortunately, whilst in Lijiang Sam got quite ill and had to stay in bed for 3 days. The family were always checking in on her to see how she was doing and even allowed her to stay in bed 6 hours after check-out time so she could rest before getting our next train. As small as this gesture was, we really appreciated how caring they were; we felt like we were staying at their house rather than at a hostel which was so different to all the other hostels we had experienced so far.

We were mostly interested in visiting Lijiang because of its history - it was hit by quite a severe earthquake in 1996, killing 322 people and injuring 14,000. Around 300,000 people were forced to leave their homes because of the damage. In the years following the earthquake, Lijiang city had to be completely rebuilt and the Old Town reconstructed. It is now listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. We couldn't get enough of the town - we absolutely loved it! It's a series of alleys filled with cute trinkets, textiles, leather, and food shops with flowing streams running through. It had a very traditional feel, however, with it being fairly newly constructed, it was pedestrianised (which anyone travelling China will know is a massive plus!) and extremely clean. We enjoyed a naxi pastry in the centre of the town - one of our favourite snacks of China (it was basically like a Gregg's steak bake - heavenly) which we enjoyed in a cute little bar with live acoustic music and free lemon juice - win.

Most people who visit Yunnan Province visit Lijiang for the famous Tiger Leaping Gorge. Although in true Happy Wanderer style we missed out on the 'norm'. As previously mentioned, the weather was pretty horrendous which meant the hiking paths were shut off with overflowing waterfalls and rivers. We read that people were having to sign a waiver before being allowed to enter the park because it was pretty dangerous. As a group we didn't think a serious hike would be on our itinerary so didn't bring any good hiking boots. This mixed with the bad weather and torrential conditions meant we had to give this wonder a miss. :( A girl who was staying in our dorm room told us that she had to get carried along most of the way by a group of Chinese men because she physically couldn't do it herself which made us feel a little bit better about missing out though.

On what seemed like a reasonably sunny day, we hired bicycles from our hostel so we could explore a few other old towns in the area. The hostel provided us with a hand drawn map and off we went! Cycling on the roads of Lijiang didn't prove much of a problem as they were fairly quiet and we were glad of the exercise after the amount of junk we'd been eating over the last few days - cookies, chocolate, crisps, and Chinese pot noodles - nutritious! However, after about an hour of cycling and enjoying the scenery, the heavens opened and we were drenched once again - standard Lijiang. Sam resorted to tucking her umbrella into her jacket to make it back to the hostel - skills!

Here are our favourite pictures from Lijiang -

The view from the balcony at the hostel (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain) 

One of the bridges on the lake

Lijiang Old Town

Mastering the classic Chinese photo pose

Effortless with this nifty gadget!

Thanks for visiting! 

The Happy Wanderers 

♥