I had just spent 6 weeks in India and although I look back on that time now with only fond memories, at the time I couldn't wait to get out, away from those staring beady eyes, the morning scent of fresh rubbish and human excrement wafting in the air, the daily battle with humidity/ hair (the struggle is real) and to finally eat some meat that I could trust had not been laying in the blaring sun and feasted on by flies all day.

Getting there was a near death experience! It was 12 hours in a non air conditioned car along questionable roads from Delhi to the Indian/Nepalese boarder. I didn't mind this so much as I got to see parts of India that not many people fall upon and got to taste some exquisite fruits and raw cane juice from the villages along the way. 
We walked across the border and settled down on our backpacks under a tree for our six hour wait before our over night bus to Pokhara. 

The bus pulled up, we boarded and sat on the front row, there was space for say 20 people on this bus, I remember turning around and counting 56 people, 7 chickens and 13 bags of rice. How!? I still don't know how!
The bus stopped every 10 minutes so the locals could hop on or off and barter over rice and fruit.
It stared to get dark and we started to climb the mountains, finally I thought it was time to get some shut eye, think again lady!
The Bollywood music came blaring out, my glass window shook with rattling force next to my ear and every 30 mins we were pulled over by the Nepalese army who would barge on and shine torches in our faces and demand passports, if thats not terrifying enough, we were flying around the mountain tops at full speed in the torrential rain with little to no light, passing over turned and crashed lorries, I thought...'this is it, were going to die, I'm really sad I never got to have my own pet cat'

18 hours after boarding the death trap and much to my amazement the sun started to rise and we were still alive, hooray! This is when I got my first glimpse of Nepal. The spectacular backdrop of snowy peaks, serene lakes and an abundance of green, I felt an incredible sense of serenity come over me. We hopped off the bus into the crisp, refreshing mountain air and made our way to the lodge.
Now this was heaven! after India I feel like anywhere would be heaven, we had a kingsize bed with clean sheets, not a questionable stain in sight, cockroach and rat free floors, the lights worked and to top it all off we had a bath, a bloody bath, in my delirious state I think I might have cried when I saw that!
 

Fewa Lake, Pokhara. This is just round the corner from our lodge.


Our first port of call was to take the worlds most extreme zipline. Flying through the Himalayas was something I just couldn't miss out on. The zip line has a vertical drop of 2,000 feet and a distance of 1.8 Kilometres, that makes it the tallest and steepest zip line in the world, and when you have the wind on your side you can reach speeds of 140km/h (87mph) The closer to the top I got the more I started shitting myself. It was an experience I will never forget.

Delhi, Indepence Day street parades.

Udaipur, the blue city.

Morning time at the Ghats.

Varanasi Holy Man

Sneaky snap of this guy getting ready for his morning ritual on the roof.



Lastly we come to Jaisalmer, the golden city, placed around the breathtaking fort. I came here for the exotic camels and desert mystery. 
This is where I got told by every traveller to try the infamous Bhang lassie, Bhang has been used in India since Vedic times, and is an integral part of North Indian culture. Sadhus and Sufis use bhang to boost meditation and to achieve transcendental states. Bhang or cannabis is also used amongst Sufis as an aid to spiritual ecstasy. 
I opted for a banana bhang, within 15 minutes I was appropriately nonchalant, but the next hour was something of a lucid whirlwind, I remember laughing a hell of a lot and finding the bright lights, sounds and animals fascinating, this went on for about 12 hours. I awoke the next day pondering over the possible outcomes of how we made it back home and just how long had we been in this room!? Turns out you must be very carful where you get your bhang lassies from as a percentage of them will also include LSD extract, so there we have it, mystery solved. 

Jaisalmer Fort

Camel in Jaisalmer desert

Desert Kids singing for us.


If I could sum up India......intoxicating, squalid, overwhelming, devotional, dazzling, body soul and mind changing.

We headed down south, with its promise of a gentler, more relaxing and less taxing introduction to the magical wonders of India. Just what we needed after the hustle bustle and jostling crowds of Mumbai.
The first stop was Panjim, the Capitol of the state Goa. It lies on the banks of the Mandovi River estuary in Tiswadi Taluka. We stayed at the beautiful Alfonso Guest House which is situated in the quaint Latin quarter of the city. The roof top is where I spent most of my time (nursing a Kingfisher beer hangover) looking out to the Jungle grown mountain side and the whitewashed St Sebastian chapel. This is also the best place to get your traditional Goan fish curry! 

From Panjim we took the long but beautiful train journey through the Western Ghats to Hampi. 
This place will leave you speechless, it had an almost eerie feeling, heaps of boulders piled high over miles of undulating terrain, paddy fields, banana plantations, and the ancient ruins of scattered temples, to me it looked like a movie set, something out of Jurassic park.
We crossed the little river by boat to get to the hostel side. Not such an easy task when the boat resembles something paddington bear floats around in and there is 8 of you with backpacks trying to balance and screaming out in fear of falling into the bog of eternal stench! We found a great place for only 200 RPS a night, no fan, electricity or water but a bed with a fly net, and a fully stocked bar, I was happy! 
My favourite spot was Nargilla Guesthouse and restaurant, this is where we met all the weird and wonderful hashed to the max hippies, I played jambe drums and didgeridoo with the local music man and partied my night away surrounded by the UV glow of the mushrooms and pixies on the wall. Hampi was my favourite place in India, the rugged beauty and peaceful sunsets made me smile from the inside out, truly a breathtaking experience.

July 2012 is when we landed in Mumbai. I had heard so many conflicting stories about India, its dangerous, its full of mutilated beggars, you will get sick and shit yourself a lot etc, but the more positive reviews were what got me curious, the spiritualness, the colours, the cultures, the food! 
The first thing that happened is a huge swarm of taxi and rickshaw drivers came around us like bees on a sticky nest, this was quite terrifying for the first time and I will never forget having that first indian armpit shoved in my face (it happened many times over the next two months) you know there is no word in Hindi for privacy, this is because it simply doesn't exist. 
That first taxi drive was mostly spent on the edge of my seat trying not to have a heart attack, from not only the fact that our backpacks were hanging out the boot with nothing to secure them in, but also the insane and ridiculous driving! They remove their wind mirrors so they can get within inches of each other, there is no order or road markings and by some miracle no crashes! They even open their doors mid drive to spit out fountains of bright red saliva from chewing on the paan.
We drove for a few hours and it was so much to take in, the mounds of rubbish pilled high, the tiny children barefoot sifting through it, the beggars banging their bowls on the windows, the brightly coloured Hindu gods splashed on every billboard, poster and wall, the amount of cattle standing smack bang in the middle of road (I now understand the saying 'calmer than a Hindu cow') and the smells...oh the smell, one minute putrid fish the next beautiful thick rose oil, it was tingling my every sense and invoking my spirit. 
This is when I realised you have to surrender to India, her whims and people take you by the throat and drag you in unimaginable directions, and I was ready for the adventure I was about to embark on.


Gateway to India, Mumbai. 

My travelling adventures began at the ripe old age of 19. My three best friends and I decided it was time to escape the cold miserableness of England (and our boyfriends) and set out on a year long journey packed full of debauchery and adventure.
This was the first time we had ventured outside of Europe so we picked our destinations, the popular back packing route of Thailand & Australia.
I would like to say 'I found myself' and 'a path for the future became clear' but the the main thing we became passionate about that year was passion pop! (a sweet fizzy Australian wine, mildly more classy than boxed goon) Yes I fell in love with the excitement of waking up every day to a new (drunken) adventure. 
We spent most of our one year working visa for Oz at a surf camp working in the kitchen. No matter how heavy the night, we were always up before breakfast shift for a surf and we were always there, over-enthusiastically entertaining the backpackers come sunset, it was the perfect lifestyle. 
This is where I caught my travel bug, meeting all those people from other backgrounds and cultures, being forced out of my comfort zone and becoming more confident. And many years down the line this surf camp became a very relevant part of  my life again, but I shall get to that in a later post....suspense haha!!


So as the year came to an end I knew it wouldn't be last time I took off to explore, and this is where my story starts, 5 years later in 2012....