Gone for a Paella...

As most of you will now know we decided to end our 5 and a half month adventure in slightly less challenging territory and spend 9 days with Mummy and Daddy Bridger in Mallorca. So I write this final and special edition of the blog from the comfort of Sam´s family home. We´ve been thoroughly spoilt this week, eating and drinking to our hearts content. So many months of dreaming about steak and wine, all realised. It has been a good way of easing (or eating) ourselves back into western life, if not ´real life´.

We are still finding the calm and quiet of the roads quite novel. But a trip to Magalluf for a drink last night reminded us of everything that is bad about home and it made me miss India. So many Indians we met aspire to the Western way of life. I hope they never see what we saw last night.

And now to what we have in store for you, oh faithful readers

- the map, with route (above)

- the A-Z of India (with pictures)
- Some interesting facts and statistics
- A Poem (of no literary worth, by me Holly)
- Some extra, some previously unseen, photographs
- Bridger´s Final Thought

The A-Z of India. We couldn´t possibly tell you everything, but this should give you a good idea…
A is for Aromas. Sometimes exotic and wonderful. Very often gag-inducingly awful.

B is for Bus Trance. The state of empty mindedness that one slips into on a long, hot, uncomfortable journey. It’s a coping technique.

C is for Crows and the Call to prayer. The loud, atmospheric and very memorable sound that we woke up to on our first morning in India. “Allaaaaaah hu-Akbar!”

D is for Delhi Belly. Enough said really. Our regular readers will be familiar with the Bangalore and Burgers story.

E is for Explanations… of lack there of. In India they are reluctant to give them, even when pressed. Apparently it is not important WHY the windscreen just smashed. Or why we have to pay an extra charge. Or why we have to wait over there.

F is for Fromage. Not really. The Indians DO NOT do cheese.

G is for the Ganga. The sacred river Ganges. One drop of this (mostly filthy) water will cleanse you of your sins from a thousand life times. We stuck our hands in, just to be safe.

H is for Health and Saftey. Bugger sitting at your desk correctly to avoid R.S.I. India has bigger things to worry about. Safe drinking water? Seatbelts? Any kind of waste disposal system?

I is for Indians. There are well over a billion of them. We met some incredible, intelligent, interesting and interested people on our trip. We also met some infuriating idiots. Once you get passed the snot rocketing and spitting on the street, we realised we´re not all that different.

J is for Jobs. How many men does it take to change a light bulb? In India almost certainly 3 or 4. It takes 2 to drive a taxi. 3 ladies to wax my legs. 5 or 6 to book a bus ticket. Everyone wants a cut of any money to be made.

K is for Kites flying from the roof tops at sunset. It fills the heart with joy

L is for Loudspeakers. Always top volume. Always distorted. Always irritating.

M is for Mountains. The Himalayas blew us away. Not only beautiful, but also the home to some incredible people. Mountain life is tough.

N is for Number Seven. Not the most romantic name for the beach of our dreams, but that moment when I first stepped onto the flour-like sand and saw it, was like falling in love.

O is for Overwhelming. India can be.

P is for Peanut butter. They were joking, right?

Q is for Queues. It´s not in the Indian nature to stand in line. When they are told they have to, it can be quite funny.

R is for the Rajasthan Royals. OUR TEAM WON. We will never forget our day watching the IPL match in Jaipur. Cricket CAN be fun.

S is for Sunsets. Pictures speak louder than words… but at the same time, these pictures don´t really do them justice. Seeing the sun set into the sea for the first time in my life is something I will never forget.

T is for Travel Buddies. Special props to some special people. India brings together a mixture of odd balls from all over the world. Some are great. Some are weird. Most of them are interesting. These are some of the great ones.

U is for Underdeveloped. “India is not an underdeveloped country. It’s a highly developed country in a heightened state of decay” (Can´t remember who said that, but it seems spot on to us.)

V is for Vomit. Old ladies on buses and us in Bangalore. Nice.
W is for Weed. It grows everywhere.

X is for... Erm… Xylophone? X-ray? We´re a bit stuck on this one.

Y is for Yoga. We did some classes and got pretty Shanti.
Z is for “ZEEN. ZEEN. ZEEN” The cry of the magazine whallah on the trains. His crisp selling colleague chanted “CHEEP, CHEEP, CHEEP” which made him sound a bit like a robot bird. This had us in stitches for a long part of the journey.

Some Facts that revolve around us and our travels…
Furthest North: Leh, Ladakh
Furthest South: Varkala, Kerala
Furthest East: Neil Island, Andaman Islands
Furthest West: Jaisalmer, Rajasthan
Hottest: 47degrees, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan
Coldest not sure, but COLD. Taglangla Pass on the way to Ladakh
Wettest: A storm in the rainforest on Havelock Island
Driest: The Tsar Desert, Rajasthan
Highest: 5328m Taglangla Pass
Lowest: Somewhere over the toilet bowl in Bangalore
We went to be biggest bus terminal in Asia. It was mental.
The Deepest gorge in the world, in Nepal
The 2nd highest road in the world.
The best beach in the world. (This may be opinion rather than real fact, but who cares?)
Modes of transport used: plane, car, taxi, auto-rickshaw, cycle-rickshaw, bike, moped, boat, train, bus, mini-bus, jeep, coach, camel, foot and ferry.
Distance travelled by train: 5852km
Distance travelled by land: 3858 km
& by air (not including flights to and from UK) 1801km

Song of a Rickshaw Wallah
We may not cherish our buildings
(we let them crumble to dust)
But, we don´t neglect it, our motors
See how we pimp up our bus!

No pattern or colour too gaudy
This glitter and lights you like, yes?
The bigger the speakers the better
The interior, you see, it impress.

As I blare out a Bollywood hit tunes
I stand by my rickshaw with pride
Come check our my red leather seating
Please Madam and Sir, step inside.

Yes, Yes Sir. I make you a nice price
You fear for your life, not too much
You tell me what country you come from
And we´ll talk about cricket and such.

(a pimped up delivery truck)

And here are a few more highlights in pictures. I´m afraid they are out of order, due to technical issues.

Sam didn´t realise how close he was!
Posing at Auroville

The Shore Temple, Mam! Our first taste of celebrity life.

Our roof top hide-away in Pondicherry. Many hours playing chess and getting used to not having much to do!

Train travel, budget style

through the port hole, Neil Island

Bitten by something!

Rum time with Simon and Danny

with Nats and Goz in Bangalore

A cricket match in Kerala

Little fish

Big fish

Wonderful passion fruit crossed with a tomato type fruit

A groom.

Marie and Nils.
Malachi on the sitar

Scruffy India

Jodhpur

Udaipur at Full Moon. We saw a million bats fly across the sky that night. It was quite scary.

Leh

A Tibetan boy monk at the Thiksay Monastry, Ladakh

The incredible Road trip from Manali to Leh

Changpa Nomad Children in Ladakh

At the Red Fort in Delhi


On the ´toy train´ to Shimla

NEPAL

Nepali prints

A beautiful painted door
Bhaktipur

Nepali Puppets

Boating on Pokhara Lake.

Moments after the royal flag came down at the Palace.

Prayer Flags

We met some wannabe supermodels in Nepal.
Beautiful Nepal


So many small doors.

India again...

Varanasi

Varanasi Train Station
Lumbini (Nepal... oops)

Sam reading Shantaram. THE travel novel in India.

The Taj, Agra

A man doing water yoga in the Ganges
The Camel Ride
being Silly
The Amber Fort, Jaipur


Mr Bridger´s Final Thought
We´d like to thank you all for reading our blog. We´ve been quite surprised and touched that so many people have been interested! Understandably many of you may feel there is now no need to go to India, since you´ve read our tantalisingly, excellent blog. I would like to point out this should not be the case. No amount of breathtaking pictures and dazzling words can truly replicate the feeling (however good or bad) of travelling around the beautiful chaos of India.
We´ve had the most amazing time and we hope to be able to bring you “Gone for A bowl of Noodles“, “Gone for A Shrimp on the Barbie”, “Gone for a Taco”, “Gone for Herrings on Toast” and so on, at some point. But for now it´s back to Bangers and Mash. We are really looking forward to it.

Oh yes. We found the meaning of life! It was on a poster on the wall in a monastery. I wonder if they know they’re sitting on something that everyone is looking for? It must be worth a fortune.