Let's do stuff

2015 gap year. Travel April-July. Studying Biology in September

[mattsgapyear-blog]

Day 23- TO SINGAPORE

We woke up at the airport at 5:30. We had a horrible sleep but we were off soon so it didn't even matter. We checked in and passed through security, apparently in Delhi airport it's fine to go through security with many tubs of Vaseline in your hand luggage. I don't know why one person had that much Vaseline but hey.  We flew out of Delhi at 9:20. We were with Singapore Airlines who were excellent. I watched bob's burgers for the first time on the flight and I loved it. They had two food dishes, paneer curry or roast chicken. There was no contest. #nomorecurryever  During the flight my bowels were quite erm unbalanced? So that wasn't fun. We arrived in Singapore at 17:30. The flight was 6 and half hours long.  We went to the toilet as soon as we landed and probably went into the nicest toilets ever. Changi Singapore airport has it's toilets on point. Coming from a hole in the ground, #startedfromthebottom At the airport we brought a hop-on hop-off bus ticket for the next day. We travelled to our hostel using the mrt subway system. Which was a good decision since it was cheap and the fastest, most direct mode of transport.  After 2 transfers we got to our hostel which was located in Chinatown. We shared our room with 4 other people. We met two really nice girls from America. One was considering ditching her friend for a British guy she met the night before which was funny.  We got changed and went out for a walk around the beautiful city and to get some food.  We spent most of our time looking upward at the many skyscrapers, quite the opposite to India here we spent most of our time looking down so we didn't tread on shit. Comparatively Singapore was clean. Very clean. Its reputation of being a 'fine city' is so true. $1000 for smoking, $500 for chewing gum, $500 for littering and $500 for eating or drinking in the metro stations. It seems to be doing a great job, the only mess I saw on the floor is dead leaves on some occasions.  We walked to a Hawker centre, this is a large building the government has put all the street vendors so that their hygiene standards can be closely watched.  I spent $12 and ate all the food. I had a drink, quite a bit of dim sum, and a large bowl of noodles. After our very satisfying meal we travelled to the marina. We got lost first, it took us a while to get to grips with the map, but after walking for 30 minutes we found it. We went down Marina boulevard, went into Marina Sands and then travelled to gardens by the way just to look at the super trees light up.  We went back by taxi because after walking across the city Pitman's ankle wasn't feeling great. It cost $10 back to our hostel.  We had the joys of good internet at the hostel, a pleasure we hadn't had in India. I could of uploaded many blog posts but I didn't. I am 100% not cut out for this blogging thing in every sense, but I've started so I AM FINISHING! 

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 22- Lounging in Delhi

I woke up several times in the night to go to the bathroom which was worrying, perhaps that street food spring roll caught up with me. We went down at 10:30 to say goodbye to our tour guide for the last time and we had lunch at a café. I had a lemonade and it tasted of piss.  For the rest of the day we just played cards, went on the Internet and just hanged in the hotel until there was only 3 of us left. We travelled to the airport at 11 and found a row of seats free. We were in front of a tv which was showing the devastation of the earthquake in Nepal.  It was difficult trying to get to sleep in some uncomfortable seats at the airport but we weren't paying another £10 on a hotel we would of checked out at 5. 

[holyhoee]

How to recover an unsaved draft on Microsoft Word

 This literally saved my ass a few minutes ago. Yes, you can recover those files that you accidentally closed and thought you couldnt get back. 

Right after that happens, open Microsoft Word again and click File - Info - Manage Versions - Recover Unsaved Documents.

It is literally that simple.

[thelawgraduate]

Reblog to save a life.

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 21- Delhi round 2

I got some sleep surprisingly, I woke up at 6 to more snores so I think I got 6 hours sleep. I caught up on all my writing. Actually I am currently writing this in the present tense! Wow. I'll probably come back to writing this post in the evening. Update: Snorer is awake. Excellent. I'm back. So we had an abrupt exit from the train and had to quickly grab everything it was quite manic.  However it felt so good to be in Delhi. Delhi is definitely my favourite Indian city just cause you are less likely to be ripped off, there are more things to do in the city, it's easy to get around and I am a bit more familiar with it as I have kinda remembered where things are.  So we went back to our first hotel and checked-in, showered and everything. Then we went back to the India because last time we didn't really get to enjoy it because of the crowds of people attacking us. We got some ice cream and enjoyed the sun while watching kids play in the dirty fountain. Later we walked to the modern art museum 

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 20- day three in Varanasi

So I had a lie in until 8:30 where I budgeted a bit for Australia, because it's only like 5 days till Australia which is crazy since I'm there for 6 weeks!  At 9:20 I meet up with others (pitman stayed in) to go to a Bakery which they went to yesterday and apparently is was pretty good, so I went trusting them. I had to buy my own rickshaw, at 50p for a ride I might have to call home, I'm just breaking the bank. I will miss how cheap India is.  We got to the bakery and after many many stairs, we got to this nestled rooftop which plants everywhere it was like Apu's rooftop garden from the Simpsons (episode where Lisa becomes a vegetarian, special guests Paul and Linda McCartney).  So I got the big buffet option where I had unlimited amounts of fruit, bread cheese, spreads, muesli and porridge, AND we got bacon, potatoes, sausage and eggs. I had a great time. I had some mango juice and some coffee and literally ate my weight because after paying 500 rupees for breakfast I ain't paying for lunch or a big dinner. So breakfast was amazing and I am so glad I went out.  We got rickshaws back to the hotel and I quickly had to shower/pack before we had to check out of our rooms at 12. After we kinda just hanged round the hotel, our tour guide wasn't really selling going to this temple very well and he expressed it is very similar to others we had seen. So today I just saved my money to do something amazing in Singapore/Australia/Cambodia rather than doing something to pass the time.  Plus it gave us a chance to hang out more with our new friends considering we all part ways in a couple of days.  We boarded our night train at 7 to head back to New Delhi for the last two days of our tour.  On the night train Pitman and I were sat next to locals and we talked to the family opposite a bit, they came to Varanasi for a wedding (not surprising we saw about 82392 weddings on the streets, Indians don't really have private parties, I actually don't think private is a thing). After we discovered the father of the family was a SNORER! It was one of those painful snores where you can tell there something inside his nose blocking his airway. I literally wanted his nose and pull it so hard it would detach from his ugly face. Being British I didn't confront him, naturally I got the packet of crisps out of my bag and purposefully crunched loudly. He woke up then started snoring the same way while he was awake, BREATHE OUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH YOU FULLY CONSCIOUS HOE!  I didn't get much sleep

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 19- day two in Varanasi

We woke up for sunrise at the Ganges. Pitman was feeling ill so she didn't come which was sad because she was feeling ok the whole then it got her at the end.  The sunrise was ok, it was slightly cloudy but we could see it. It wouldn't say it was my favourite bit on the tour, the buildings next to the Ganges are not very pretty either, meh.  After our sunrise we went to this bakery close to the river. I ordered a coffee and pancakes with lemon and sugar. My coffee was the worst coffee I ever had, when I took my spoon out the unfiltered coffee granules formed solid. My lemon was a lime and my sugar was thick and lumpy. Later the guy asked me how my meal was and I said it was bad and listed everything wrong, he just stood there and then asked everyone else, cockface.  We went back to the hotel and I checked on Pitman who was feeling slightly better, an then we both fell asleep for a bit.  People were meeting to go to the market at 11 but I overslept and woke up at 11:30. I didn't really mind since the market will just be a generic Indian market with clothes, bangles, souvenirs, and pushy vendors. So we just stayed, I caught up on writing this stupid blog thing which I was 5 days behind.  We called room service, I got chow mein, pitman got ice cream, a nice balanced lunch.  I went on an expedition to find a money exchange better than the hotel but after 20 minutes walking around there seemed to be no money changer near the hotel. So I exchanged my £50 for 4500 rupees, 1:90, where is should of been 1:93 so I lost £1.5 but I would have lost more than that if I used an ATM so whatever.  We all met up at 4:30 to go back to the Ganges for sunset and to watch the evening prayer.  We waiting around for a bit until our boat came and during this period several people took their cameras out and took photos of us. Imagine in the UK if an English person just took photos of Indians walking down the street.  We got on the boat and lit some candles which floated on the river Ganges then watched the cremation ceremony where several corpses were burnt and their ashes were poured into the river. I felt sorry for the lake. I am down for anything which makes you feel better about life and eases the pain of losing someone close but wtf, everyday so much ash is poured into this river and everybody just accepts it as a religious practice rather than polluting a once clean river. It just made me angry and I just couldn't get past this to see the spirituality behind it.  We watched the prayer ceremony which was 5 priests symbolising the 5 elements which make up the body and basically they wave round candles and incense for 2 hours tbh. Hahahahaha, I know I am really selling Varanassi. It was ok it just was long winded, as all religion kinda is.  So after the river we went to a restaurant and it turns out it was a steak house. Obviously because it is India they used buffalo (which are TOTALLY different animals to cows). The temptation was too much and I made a steak with pepper sauce. The steak was good, it was a bit porky. The pepper sauce was non-existent and it was like meat sauce but meh I enjoyed it and haven't had any irregular bowel movements yet.  We didn't leave the restaurant till gone 11 and then I got back to the room and found Pitman watching Harry Potter on TV, typical. 

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 18- Varanasi

So I woke up on the train when everyone was eating bananas at 10, so I had a banana then some biscuits then went back to sleep. Suddenly it was 4o'clock and I had to wake up, I was having a great time on the sleeper train and fully embracing my inner sleeper. So we left the Varanasi train station at 4:30. I almost fell down the stairs with my bag which could of ended very badly but s'alright.  We got to our hotel by tuc tuc. I love when we all travel by tuc tuc because we require like 8 tuc tucs and we create this convoy/posse/gang.  Our hotel was ok I guess, the aircon couldn't be changed or turned off, it had an annoying amount of switches everywhere and 70% of them did nothing. This was especially irritating when you were desperate for the bathroom but you had to go through turning on every switch to find the one switch which turned on the ONE FUCKING LIGHT.  Because our train was delayed we couldn't do our evening activity so we just went out for dinner to a place called lemongrass. I had Tom yum soup (lol, wtf it was just basic chicken soup?), a dal, some nan bread and some pakoras. I think the only thing I will miss from the Indian cuisine is pakoras, they're like shredded pieces of vegetables bound together then deep fried, what is there not to love.  So after such a short day I was actually tired. Apparently sleeping 13 hours on a train really takes it out of you, offttt, life is so hard for us travellers. So we got back to the hotel and GUESS WHAT, I fell asleep!  Stay tuned for the next instalment of Matthew sleeps around the world in 80 days.

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 17- day two in Agra

We got up at 4:30 and left the hotel at 4:45 to go to the Taj Mahal. We waited in line for about 40 minutes in front of a bright red light so all the mosquitos came towards me and now my foot looks like a raspberry.  But we got into the Taj Mahal as one of the first ones and it was so beautiful. The sun shimmered on the white marble. We walked round, took some photos and then returned to the hotel before we fried under the sun. We got back and had breakfast at the hotel which was bad, it's hilarious in India somehow they find cooking eggs and toast so difficult, idk if the staff have any idea or they are intentionally trying to piss us whities off. After we got our breakfast I had a nap because waking up early isn't fun. Then we just stayed in our hotel lobby until 5 where some of us travelled to Agra fort. The fort in my opinion was the most interesting that we had seen (we have been to 3 more forts previously, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaipur). The fort was only attacked twice, once a failed invasion of the fort and secondly a successful defeat by the British who simply cut the water supply. It was a little depressing that the gold and sliver on the walls had been stolen like dudes wtf, back off. The ruler who built the Taj Mahal grew up and died in the fort and the story of his life was quite interesting (you should probably read on it, lazy shits, I ain't no history book and would probably get everything wrong).  The Taj Mahal was built as a burial site for this guy's wife, Taj Mahal translates into crown palace.  Also the beautiful wife had the most amazing bathroom, the ceiling was decorated with reflective glass and jewels. She had 24 dancers holding candles which created the most beautiful patterns above. Lucky bitch.  As we were leaving in the last courtyard there was a burial site for the British governor who defended the fort with his life against Indian independence. I don't know I felt this was kind of like this was disrespectful, in this great Indian fort there is just one symbol of British dominance right in the centre of the courtyard. Anyway I really enjoyed the Agra fort, it was great.  After we travelled back to the hotel and found that our train had been delayed and it wasn't arriving till 1:30, it was meant to arrive at 7:30.  So we played cards, went on the Internet and just passed the time until we finally left for the train station.  I had a snooze while sitting on my suitcase until our train arrived and we got on at 2:30. I fell asleep.

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 19- day two in Varanasi

We woke up for sunrise at the Ganges. Pitman was feeling ill so she didn't come which was sad because she was feeling ok the whole then it got her at the end.  The sunrise was ok, it was slightly cloudy but we could see it. It wouldn't say it was my favourite bit on the tour, the buildings next to the Ganges are not very pretty either, meh.  After our sunrise we went to this bakery close to the river. I ordered a coffee and pancakes with lemon and sugar. My coffee was the worst coffee I ever had, when I took my spoon out the unfiltered coffee granules formed solid. My lemon was a lime and my sugar was thick and lumpy. Later the guy asked me how my meal was and I said it was bad and listed everything wrong, he just stood there and then asked everyone else, cockface.  We went back to the hotel and I checked on Pitman who was feeling slightly better, an then we both fell asleep for a bit.  People were meeting to go to the market at 11 but I overslept and woke up at 11:30. I didn't really mind since the market will just be a generic Indian market with clothes, bangles, souvenirs, and pushy vendors. So we just stayed, I caught up on writing this stupid blog thing which I was 5 days behind.  We called room service, I got chow mein, pitman got ice cream, a nice balanced lunch.  I went on an expedition to find a money exchange better than the hotel but after 20 minutes walking around there seemed to be no money changer near the hotel. So I exchanged my £50 for 4500 rupees, 1:90, where is should of been 1:93 so I lost £1.5 but I would have lost more than that if I used an ATM so whatever.  We all met up at 4:30 to go back to the Ganges for sunset and to watch the evening prayer.  We waiting around for a bit until our boat came and during this period several people took their cameras out and took photos of us. Imagine in the UK if an English person just took photos of Indians walking down the street.  We got on the boat and lit some candles which floated on the river Ganges then watched the cremation ceremony where several corpses were burnt and their ashes were poured into the river. I felt sorry for the lake. I am down for anything which makes you feel better about life and eases the pain of losing someone close but wtf, everyday so much ash is poured into this river and everybody just accepts it as a religious practice rather than polluting a once clean river. It just made me angry and I just couldn't get past this to see the spirituality behind it.  We watched the prayer ceremony which was 5 priests symbolising the 5 elements which make up the body and basically they wave round candles and incense for 2 hours tbh. Hahahahaha, I know I am really selling Varanassi. It was ok it just was long winded, as all religion kinda is.  So after the river we went to a restaurant and it turns out it was a steak house. Obviously because it is India they used buffalo (which are TOTALLY different animals to cows). The temptation was too much and I made a steak with pepper sauce. The steak was good, it was a bit porky. The pepper sauce was non-existent and it was like meat sauce but meh I enjoyed it and haven't had any irregular bowel movements yet.  We didn't leave the restaurant till gone 11 and then I got back to the room and found Pitman watching Harry Potter on TV, typical. 

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 17- day two in Agra

We got up at 4:30 and left the hotel at 4:45 to go to the Taj Mahal. We waited in line for about 40 minutes in front of a bright red light so all the mosquitos came towards me and now my foot looks like a raspberry.  But we got into the Taj Mahal as one of the first ones and it was so beautiful. The sun shimmered on the white marble. We walked round, took some photos and then returned to the hotel before we fried under the sun. We got back and had breakfast at the hotel which was bad, it's hilarious in India somehow they find cooking eggs and toast so difficult, idk if the staff have any idea or they are intentionally trying to piss us whities off. After we got our breakfast I had a nap because waking up early isn't fun. Then we just stayed in our hotel lobby until 5 where some of us travelled to Agra fort. The fort in my opinion was the most interesting that we had seen (we have been to 3 more forts previously, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaipur). The fort was only attacked twice, once a failed invasion of the fort and secondly a successful defeat by the British who simply cut the water supply. It was a little depressing that the gold and sliver on the walls had been stolen like dudes wtf, back off. The ruler who built the Taj Mahal grew up and died in the fort and the story of his life was quite interesting (you should probably read on it, lazy shits, I ain't no history book and would probably get everything wrong).  The Taj Mahal was built as a burial site for this guy's wife, Taj Mahal translates into crown palace.  Also the beautiful wife had the most amazing bathroom, the ceiling was decorated with reflective glass and jewels. She had 24 dancers holding candles which created the most beautiful patterns above. Lucky bitch.  As we were leaving in the last courtyard there was a burial site for the British governor who defended the fort with his life against Indian independence. I don't know I felt this was kind of like this was disrespectful, in this great Indian fort there is just one symbol of British dominance right in the centre of the courtyard. Anyway I really enjoyed the Agra fort, it was great.  After we travelled back to the hotel and found that our train had been delayed and it wasn't arriving till 1:30, it was meant to arrive at 7:30.  So we played cards, went on the Internet and just passed the time until we finally left for the train station.  I had a snooze while sitting on my suitcase until our train arrived and we got on at 2:30. I fell asleep.

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 18- Varanasi

So I woke up on the train when everyone was eating bananas at 10, so I had a banana then some biscuits then went back to sleep. Suddenly it was 4o'clock and I had to wake up, I was having a great time on the sleeper train and fully embracing my inner sleeper. So we left the Varanasi train station at 4:30. I almost fell down the stairs with my bag which could of ended very badly but s'alright. We got to our hotel by tuc tuc. I love when we all travel by tuc tuc because we require like 8 tuc tucs and we create this convoy/posse/gang. Our hotel was ok I guess, the aircon couldn't be changed or turned off, it had an annoying amount of switches everywhere and 70% of them did nothing. This was especially irritating when you were desperate for the bathroom but you had to go through turning on every switch to find the one switch which turned on the ONE FUCKING LIGHT. Because our train was delayed we couldn't do our evening activity so we just went out for dinner to a place called lemongrass. I had Tom yum soup (lol, wtf it was just basic chicken soup?), a dal, some nan bread and some pakoras. I think the only thing I will miss from the Indian cuisine is pakoras, they're like shredded pieces of vegetables bound together then deep fried, what is there not to love. So after such a short day I was actually tired. Apparently sleeping 13 hours on a train really takes it out of you, offttt, life is so hard for us travellers. So we got back to the hotel and GUESS WHAT, I fell asleep! Stay tuned for the next instalment of Matthew sleeps around the world in 80 days.

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 18- Varanasi

So I woke up on the train when everyone was eating bananas at 10, so I had a banana then some biscuits then went back to sleep. Suddenly it was 4o'clock and I had to wake up, I was having a great time on the sleeper train and fully embracing my inner sleeper. So we left the Varanasi train station at 4:30. I almost fell down the stairs with my bag which could of ended very badly but s'alright. We got to our hotel by tuc tuc. I love when we all travel by tuc tuc because we require like 8 tuc tucs and we create this convoy/posse/gang. Our hotel was ok I guess, the aircon couldn't be changed or turned off, it had an annoying amount of switches everywhere and 70% of them did nothing. This was especially irritating when you were desperate for the bathroom but you had to go through turning on every switch to find the one switch which turned on the ONE FUCKING LIGHT. Because our train was delayed we couldn't do our evening activity so we just went out for dinner to a place called lemongrass. I had Tom yum soup (lol, wtf it was just basic chicken soup?), a dal, some nan bread and some pakoras. I think the only thing I will miss from the Indian cuisine is pakoras, they're like shredded pieces of vegetables bound together then deep fried, what is there not to love. So after such a short day I was actually tired. Apparently sleeping 13 hours on a train really takes it out of you, offttt, life is so hard for us travellers. So we got back to the hotel and GUESS WHAT, I fell asleep! Stay tuned for the next instalment of Matthew sleeps around the world in 80 days.

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 17- day two in Agra

We got up at 4:30 and left the hotel at 4:45 to go to the Taj Mahal. We waited in line for about 40 minutes in front of a bright red light so all the mosquitos came towards me and now my foot looks like a raspberry.  But we got into the Taj Mahal as one of the first ones and it was so beautiful. The sun shimmered on the white marble. We walked round, took some photos and then returned to the hotel before we fried under the sun. We got back and had breakfast at the hotel which was bad, it's hilarious in India somehow they find cooking eggs and toast so difficult, idk if the staff have any idea or they are intentionally trying to piss us whities off. After we got our breakfast I had a nap because waking up early isn't fun. Then we just stayed in our hotel lobby until 5 where some of us travelled to Agra fort. The fort in my opinion was the most interesting that we had seen (we have been to 3 more forts previously, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaipur). The fort was only attacked twice, once a failed invasion of the fort and secondly a successful defeat by the British who simply cut the water supply. It was a little depressing that the gold and sliver on the walls had been stolen like dudes wtf, back off. The ruler who built the Taj Mahal grew up and died in the fort and the story of his life was quite interesting (you should probably read on it, lazy shits, I ain't no history book and would probably get everything wrong).  The Taj Mahal was built as a burial site for this guy's wife, Taj Mahal translates into crown palace.  Also the beautiful wife had the most amazing bathroom, the ceiling was decorated with reflective glass and jewels. She had 24 dancers holding candles which created the most beautiful patterns above. Lucky bitch.  As we were leaving in the last courtyard there was a burial site for the British governor who defended the fort with his life against Indian independence. I don't know I felt this was kind of like this was disrespectful, in this great Indian fort there is just one symbol of British dominance right in the centre of the courtyard. Anyway I really enjoyed the Agra fort, it was great.  After we travelled back to the hotel and found that our train had been delayed and it wasn't arriving till 1:30, it was meant to arrive at 7:30.  So we played cards, went on the Internet and just passed the time until we finally left for the train station.  I had a snooze while sitting on my suitcase until our train arrived and we got on at 2:30. I fell asleep.

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 16- Agra

We got up early to catch our morning train. We got on at 7:30 and it was very pleasant, for once the toilet on the train smelled ok and there was decent leg room.  We arrived at Agra at 10:30 and stepped out of the train station. The heat hit us like a slap in the face, it was 39 degrees. We quickly got into our minibus and went off to our hotel which was positioned between a Costa Coffee and a Pizza Hut.  After settling in our hotel room Pitman and I spared no time in going to Costa to get a cold drink and wifi. The wifi didn't work but my mango and passion fruit shake was on point.  Because it was too warm to do anything we stayed inside playing cards and then had lunch at Pizza Hut (once again hitting all the authentic eateries). There was some trouble when we got our bill which took up another hour of our life but hey we sorted it.  Then we went to the baby Taj and the gardens opposite the Taj Mahal. Apparently we went through an unofficial gate to the gardens so we ended up paying for entry when we didn't need to.  That night we went to a roof top restaurant where I had tandoori chicken and veg biriani. I asked for it spicy and yet to this day I have yet to experience a spicy meal in India.  At the hotel I had a great sleep in what was a very very comfy bed. 

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 15- Day two in Jaipur

India 15- Jaipur 2 We woke up at like 8 to get to Jaipur fort early to avoid crowds and the very hot midday temperature.  We arrived at the fort and were instantly attacked by people selling identical junk. One guy tried to sell me pens, he was very enthusiastic.  On the way up we saw that elephants were used to transport tourists up the fort.  When we entered the main fort complex we got given a bindi which was not helpful considering the warm weather and the temptation to wipe our sweaty foreheads.  Going round the fort was draining because it was like 36/38 degrees and it wasn't the most fascinating fort because it wasn't involved in a Great War or anything (Jersey Elizabeth castle 1 Jaipur fort 0).  After we went down to see the lake palace which looked very beautiful looking out on the river, well when you didn't see the stretch of rubbish at the end of the river.  We then went to a fabric shop which I spent far more than I should have... Moving on.  We had lunch nearby at this hotel and I had some chow mein because you know still wasn't feeling the curry.  We then went to see the Jaipur wind castle (pictured in every advertisement for Jaipur) but it was highly disappointing and it had been portrayed better than what it actually is.  So after looking at it for about 2 minutes we went into the jungle of markets and somehow got lost in the Muslim section.  It was very fun just wondering at the stalls and passing the overly excited vendors.  Later we went back to the hotel and played a few games with other tour members and then went out for dinner.  We came back to the hotel, had a rather regretful hot chocolate and went to sleep. 

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 14- Jaipur

We woke up at like 9:30 and then travelled by 4x4s at 10:30 to Jaipur. I slept the whole way except a small break at like 1 where I had some mango juice at a roadside stall.  We arrive at the Jaipur Inn at about 2:30 and had lunch at the hotel cafe. I had chips and chicken nuggets (stop judging me, I STILL wasn't feeling great with my stomach/bowel movements). Then Pitman and I did some washing in our room.  Later we took a cycle rickshaw around the city of Jaipur. Our rickshaw had very little headroom and it didn't do my neck any good. But we had a lot of fun roaming the chaotic traffic. At the end we were taken to a local cinema where we watched a new Bollywood film "Mr.X". The cinema was huge and was kind of like an opera house. I brought a samosa and some nachos from the food stand, both were meh.  The film was hilarious, and was based on a police officer who was betrayed by his higher officers and somehow survives an explosion with the superpower of being invisible unless he is in direct sunlight.  It wasn't what anyone was expecting from a Bollywood film and it was more like a really crap James Bond movie.  After the film we went to this really nice restaurant which was a bit on the pricey side (well for india). I had tandoori chicken and it was really tasty. It was probably my first Indian meal since I got the shits. At the restaurant there was dancers who were pressuring us to tip and dancing in our faces.  We drove to our hotel rooms using the wide empty streets and I put my clean laundry back in my suitcase then fell asleep. 

[mattsgapyear-blog]

India 13- Tordi

Pitman, Linda, Alyssa and I got up at 5 in the morning to travel to the highest point in Pushkar to watch the sunrise. We climbed the 600 uneven steps up the mountain until we arrived at the temple up top. We had some chai tea and waited. The sun crawled it's way above the hills of the Pushkar and it was beautiful.  As the sun rose the monkeys awoke and began to join us. One local started to feed one with his open hand. There was a friendly dog up there who chased the monkeys away it was hilarious. We got back to our hotel and had breakfast, I had a cheese and mushroom toastie thing which was ok. At about 10 we travelled by 4x4s to the village of Tordi. It was a very cramped journey and a very bumpy ride over the underdeveloped roads, but that didn't stop Pitman having a couple hours of sleep while swinging into me.  We arrived at the Tordi hotel which used to be a palace however it was infested with flies and birds. We just hanged around the seating area with others until 5 where we took a village safari where we went into the village and saw how people lived and then watched the sun go down over the beautiful sand dunes.  We went back to the hotel and had a large dinner with two other tour groups and then we had a few drinks and danced on the terrace until we were the last ones standing at 2:30. I was awake for 22hours and I collapsed on the bed.