From Jaipur, with love

India. 10 days after arriving I'm still taken aback by all the sounds, smells and sheer amount of people. The endless traffic, paired with the blaring of all the horns and people pushing their way through and trying not to get mauled.The smell of chai, pan masala, rubbish and urine. The sheer level of poverty on the streets. It's overwhelming to all of the senses.

I began my Indian adventure in Varanasi, one of the holiest Hindu city. And it was miserable. It's a very dirty city (I've heard an Indian call it dirty!), and it rained the entire time I was there. I spent two days walking around the narrow streets that were covered in a layerof mud and poo, avoiding people selling me there junk, trying not to get in the way of an ox or a cow or it's shit. The ghats of Varanasi were brilliant though; I spent 90 minutes at the burning ghat watching people bring the bodies to the river and then burning them. And the Blue Lassi Shop and the banana and chocolate lassi *u*

After Varanasi I hopped on my first Indian train to Agra. An overnight train in a sleeper carriage (top bunk is a must!) for a 12 hour journey that cost less than 4€. Once I got to Agra and my guesthouse,  rushed to the Taj Mahal in order to make it to the gates before 8.15am to get in for free and save 750 rupees. And I made it! Massive savings were made. The Taj Mahal was amazing. Big, bold, with nothing but the sky in the backround kind of takes your breath away.

From Agra I headed to Jaipur in a second class carriage at 5am. And boy that carriage gets full! 4½ hourslater I arrived in the Pink City, with a numb bottom from the train journey. In Jaipur I stayed in two different guesthouse due to one being full for one night, and it was a cheaper option two stay at one for 3 nights and 1 at the other. I arrived at my first guesthouse, and met my dorm mates: Kiran from Malaysia and Andreia from Portugal. In the afternoon, together we got a tuk-tuk and went to Monkey Temple for sunset views of the city, and so any monkeys it was insane. Met quitea few monkey mummies who were extremely protective of their young ones. Tried to avoid them and their rabies.

The next day I changed guesthouses and spent the better part of the day walking around the Pink City, taking in its sights and sounds. 6 hours later I returned to the hotel, starving and dirty. A rest and a walk later I collapsed in the hotel thinking I'd pass out and that my dormmate would turn up to one dead to the world Stella. Instead I was still awake when Evan from Minnesota turned up, and he'd met Sam from Texas and a couple of rickshaw drivers, Ajeet and Raj, and they were going for beers and invited me along. So off I went to the rooftops of the New India Guesthouse with the guys and had beer. The ride back to the hotel was rather surreal, Evan and I were in Ajeet's super pimped up tuk-tuk (he has installed a massive subwoofer in the back of it) listening to country music with his tuk-tuk's disco lights on. Trippy.

Evan and I got Ajeet to be our driver for the next day, and in the morning we set off in his pimped out tuk-tuk with tunes baring from behind us towards Amber Fort, a huge palace like fort 11km from Jaipur. It was pretty impressive, and it was astounding how big it really was. FromAmber Fort we stopped for lunch at a small local restaurant, with a huge tandoori oven by the street where they made the chapati and naans. It was pretty cool to see the guys work around it; and one of the guys was sporting a pretty impressive moustache.

The afternoon was spent seeing the sights in the city centre, and then nap time, before setting of the Nagargarh Fort for the sunset. After a lengthy ride, we made it in time for sunset and gorgeous views of the entire city. After a Pepsi and a smoke later we made the descent down to Jaipur down this extremely windy road down the hill, with Britney Spears blaring from the speakers and the disco lights on in full force. That was an amaingly surreal moment.

Ajeet took us for the best dinner of the trip so far. We went to a local favourite, Thali House, which serves all you can eat thalis for amazinglygood value. For 105 rupees (1,3€) you got a sweet lassi and a thali consisting of dhal, veg, some warm youghurt sauce, pickels, chapati and rice and these doughballs. And it all kept on coming. The food was delicious, and I lost count of how many chapatis I ate. After a few rooftop beers with Evan I slept very well that night.

The next day was spent mostly browsing the shops and returning for lunch at the same place as the day before with the tandoori oven. For the evening Ajeet managed to get us all tickets to go and see A.R. Rahman in concert. He is huge superstar in India, and thanks to Slumdog Millionaire, is known in worldwide for the song Jai Ho (The good version doesn't have Nicole Sherzinger in it). So after some gin and whisky at the New India Guesthouse, Evan, Ajeet and Ajeet's brother, Ranjit and I set off to the concert. And it was amazing! The lights and the music and the whole show of it was brilliant and vibrant. It didn't even matter that I didn't understand Hindi. And then Jai Ho came at the end, and a firewors galore erupted from the stage and everyone was dancing and singing along... In the end we were all standing on our chairs.

The next mornign I sadly had to take a train to Delhi and bid Jaipur goodbye. But I'll be returning once I come back to Rajasthan because I promised Ajeet. So it's all good. And tomorrow I'll be bidding Delhi goodbye (thank god) and making my way up to Manali on a bus. Only a mere 16 hour ride.

I've made up a game to play with all the people who ask me where I'm from and what my name is. I make up random countries and then give them a very Finnish name that confuses the living daylights out of them. And I still eat curry every day.

Pokhara paradise

Second attempt at writing Pokhara blog entry a go go. Yesterday's attempt at an entry deleted itself after more than half an hour of arduous writing. One was not pleased. Anyhoo, on with the show!

After Kathmandu, Pokhara truly is a paradise on earth. The gorgeous Phewa Tal lake that sits nestled among the green, lush hills, the little boats that sit Lakeside and the utter quiet compared to Kathmadu. Of course there are cars and bikes and vans that pollute the streets with their black gunk coming out of their exhaust pipes, but  it's not to the same scale as Kathmandu, and I actually feel I can breathe. On the bus ride to Pokhara (the travel agents I booked the tickets from said the journey should take around 6 hours, and I felt that for a trip of 200km that was very optimistic. The bus ride took almost 9 hours) I got to sit by the window, and with stifling heat outside and inside the bus, I had the window open for a bit. And then noticed my seat was by the exhaust pipe, and black stuff was being expelled from this tourist bus I was on. Once I got to my hotel I scrubbed my face for quite a while and blew my nose at least 10 times. Oh to be in a country with unleaded petrol....

I have to tell you I won't be doing any trekking, mostly due to high prices on the most popular treks (4 days and 3 nights on the Poon Hill trek will set you back roughly $300). So instead I've spent my time relaxing and seeing the local sights. I hiked up to the World Peace Pagoda, an incredibly sweaty 90 minute hike through the forest. The forest was swarming with monkeys, butterflies, buffalo taking a cool bath, and leeches that could potentially fall out of a tree and attach itself to you. Luckily I survived without meeting a single leech (leeches always remind me of that one episode of Black Adder where the doctor prescribes him leeches to cure all his medical problems).

From the top there are breathtaking views of the lake and valleys. The stupa itself is nothing spectacular, but worth the hike up. To get down from the stupa I opted to go down the "direct route", rather than enduring the leech forest again. The direct route is a steep path made of uneven stone steps that take you down to the lake, and from there you take a boat back to Lakeside. Now I shall impart a little bit of wisdom on you: going uphill is always better than going down. I barely had functioning knees when I got down to the lake level, those steps were awful. And I mean awful. My legs just shook when I stood still. That boat ride back across the lake was glorious. Followed by an even more glorious cold shower.

I also visited Davis's Falls, a small waterfall a few kilometers from Lakeside. Apprently the falls got their name after a Swiss woman named Mrs. Davies was taking a bath nearby in the river, fell and then died once she hit the waterfall... I don't really know what to say...

It's easy to spend a day doing nothing but reading, eating so much curry (dal bhat, paneer butter masala, palak paneer, malai kofta..) and drinking beer or mint lemonade in Pokhara (I should know, I've had plenty of those days). Especially if you walk on a bit from the tourist hub of Lakeside, there is beautiful little place by the lake where the locals come and do their washing or bathe, and where there is shade in which you can sit with a book and find that hours have gone by and you're resembling a boiled lobster. And I've gotten teeny weeny tiny freckles on my arms from being exposed to the sun so much. Thanks for that, Dad.

I've basically turned vegetarian since I came to Nepal, simply because seeing all of that meat sitting outside for who knows how many hours just puts you off it. And let's face it, vegetarian curries are the best I've eaten a lot of curries whilst I've been here. A lot. Anything with paneer in it... *drools*

Tomorrow morning I'm off to Chitwan National Park where I'm going to see some elephants! And hopefully rhino too. And maybe a tiger. From there the plan is to cross the border into India after the weekend, hop on a train and go to New Delhi where it's even hotter than it is in Pokhara. I may melt at some point. And I think I've finally sent a postcard to everyone who provided me with their addresses, so if you have given me your address you should hopefully be getting one soonish!

Bungy, momos and monkeys

Namaste from Nepal!

I've been here for almost a week now, and time has flown (I also can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks since I left for my travels...)!

Most of you probably know of my adreline fuelled moment to jump a bungy on my first day in Nepal. What was I thinking???

After a early wake up call on our last morning in Tibet, the group and I headed for a long drive to the border at Kodari. After crossing the border relatively painlessly, we clambered onto a Nepalese tourist bus, and drove 10km to The Last Resort; the place where we were gonna spjkdjkfjdsklend our first and and where I would spend my first hour shitting bricks.
 bhs
To get to the actual resort you have to cross a suspension bridge that stands at 160 metres above a gorge with a babbling river gushing below. The bridge is also where you jump the bungy from. I found out that I could jump it on that same afternoon, and so I spent the next few hours in a perpetual state of fear as I am somewhat afraid of heights. Jumping a 160m bungy seems like the thing to do then, doesn't it? Jeez.

Anyway,  got grouped with 4 guys from Laos, who were also jumpng for the first time, so we were all standing on the bridge shaking with nerves. I went second to last, and by that point I was lietrally shaking. The worst part was having to walk to the very edge of the platform that I had to jump from, but I did it! With a massive roar of terror and went leaping through the air and plummeted meters down below into the gorge. Aside from it being truly terrifying, it was so cool! Though I don't feel the need to ever to jump another one. Huh.

After coming down from my adreline high, it was time for a beer and some chillaxing in a cool pool at the resort. Followed by drinkypoopoos with Johanna accompanid by plenty of popcorn (I cannot think of anything better than getting free popcorn).

The next day we headed towards Kathmandu and our hotel in Thamel. After some ambling around in Thamel with Johanna, our group headed to an über fancy hotel called Dwarika's for a traditional Newari dinner which consisted of 6 courses. My beer there cost more than a pair of trousers I bought from Thamel earlier that afternoon.

The next day after visiting Durbar Square and Pasupathinath Temple (where saw dead bodies being prepared for cremation and plenty of marsupials) it was time to bid farewell to the other Finns and my Mummy with whom I'd shared a special trip to the roof of the world. As teary as it ma have been, being on my own felt good. And as relaxing as it had been to be brainless and not have to think about anything, being on my felt good. I have the cutest little hotel room in the centre of Thamel (I have my own balcony!) and doing what I want when I want is awsum.

I'm planning on doing a cooking course in every country I possibly can, and went to a momo cooking class on Tuesday with two Aussies!  Momos are Nepalese dumplings with meat and vegetables, usually steamed but also fried. We made two different veggie ones; mmixed vegetable (cabbage, onion, carrot, spring onion, coriander, spices and ghee) and then a spinach and yak cheese momo. We also made a peanut sauce and a tomato and chili sauce to accompay the momos. Making the momos is a time consuming but fiddly business, but the end result is so worth it. The momos were so good, especially the spinach and yak cheese ones dipped in the peanut sauce. And even if our momos were a little ugly, especially compared to the momos of our instructor's,  who has probably made thousands of momos in her life, they were super nom.

Yesterday I walked up to the Swayambhunath Temple, also known as Monkey Temple. The surrounding area around the temple is just swarming with monkeys. Also I saw so many teeny weeny monkeys, that clung to their mumsie's tummys when mummy had to run somewhere *u* And the steps up to the Stupa was gruelling... So many uneven, steep steps. My knees were so wobbly by the time I made it back to the hostel. That afternoon I made my way to the Kaiser Library. The overwhelming smell of old books hits you in the face as you step, and the walls are lined with old travel and history books. The amount of books about Winston Churchill that were there was really quite astounding... and odd. And amongst those was even a book on good old C.G. Mannerheim. Go figure. Very cool library, it even houses a stuffed tiger and coats of armour. Today I visite the largest stupa in Asia, the Bodhnath Stpa, that is gracefully covered in pigeon poop. Kathandu really is the city of the pigeon *shudders*

Im heading to Pokhara on Saturday morning for some hiking and breathtaking views. Also, the disarray of photos is because I'm writing this on the Blogger app on my tablet and it only allows you to attach photos to the end of your text. So bear with.