Goodbye NZ, Hello India

A pavement marking

YO! I learnt yesterday from a fellow traveller that YOLO means "you only live once".. whilst we were on the subject of yo. Anyway - I have left NZ! My Australasia experience has come to a temporary end so I can experience the mentalness of India. And it is mental. But first:

Thank you so much to my Uncle Pete, Aunt Carol and my two gorgeous cousins Carmen and Dean. They were so good to see, were excellent at getting out of bathrooms at speed when there was no stopping the morning after 12 beers vomit, wonderfully regailed me in tails of Africa (which has watered the already planted seed of want to go-ness), and were excellent chefs! I was very well looked after and can't thank them enough for all the effort they went to to make me feel welcome. Cheers guys :) Also, thank you so much for putting the dogs rope toy on the antlers of the goat. That was the most funny thing I have ever seen.

Carmen and me on a road trip!

From my time in NZ I have learnt I like the calm and serenity of no people, but that I miss the beach. If I could pick anywhere in NZ to live it would be the south island, and probably Wanaka. If I was to pick in the world though Australia still tops the list. Melbourne prodominently. Beautiful beaches, amazing city, sport all the time. I miss it dearly. I'll be back.

This is a very normal photo

But right now it's all about India. Without meaning to cause offence, I now completely understand why all of my Indian friends have abandoned their country. It is a shit hole. I have SO many questions:

• why are there no litter bins?
• why is the country so poor? 
• what does India have to trade?
• if it has nothing to trade, why can't we create an industry for them?
• why don't they enforce traffic rules to make it less chaotic? Paint a fucking lane!  

Day One and Two
Day one was pretty much shopping in a local mall and being stared at by locals. And of course meeting the first half of my new crew who I will be rocking around with for the next 5 weeks! All good.

Spade of rice anyone?!

The second day in New Delhi to be honest, apart from meeting the second half of the crew, was a bit shit. First we went to a Sikh temple which was an interesting experience. Shoe less, bandana on, and camera ready we walked around a HEAVING temple learning nothing. Mr Tour Guide was full on shite and pretty much explanied nothing. He whisked us around the temple before he left us slightly stranded with no idea where he had gone in the kitchen, which was to be fair quite an interesting specticle. The temple feeds 20,000 people A DAY from donations given. Can you imagine how much curry this is??!! Check out the pictures and notice there is a pot with a SPADE in it... to shovel rice!! An actual shovelling rice spade!

Ok we got korma, masala, rogan josh and chicken orange!

Next was the gates of India which was swarming with "hawkers" which are people who refuse to move out of your way in an attemp to sell you tat, then for a drive around the presidents house before going to Ghandi's house. For 3 minutes. This seriously fucked me off. I wanted to spend at least 30 minutes in this place learning about him, looking and thinking at his shooting site and generally just taking some time to understand what happened. But no. Mr Tour Guide who we HAD to tip had other ideas. Carpets. Clearly much more important.

Shuffled into a carpet shop we were taught how carpets and rugs were made before being told how "cheap" they were to buy in India as opposed to home. A 3 foot by 2 foot carpet would only cost £250. And if you thought that was too expensive, they would follow you around the shop begging you until you are rescued by the others. The whole day I think was 3 hours, and an hour of that was spent escaping a bloke running after me with various sizes of carpet. Unhappy.

Day Two

The spot where Ghandi was shot

Today we drove from Delhi to Agra and the scale of poverty was displayed - and apparently we didn't even drive through the bad bits! There were people just lying (dead or alive not assessed) on the streets, there was rubbish everywhere in massive massive piles, there were people and children going to the toilet outside their houses, there were herds of cows just lying down on the motorway, and people begging. It was horrible and it was then I started noting down my questions to ask.

The main part of the day though was the visit to the Taj Mahal - a travelling dream of mine for quite some time. I had always imagined my visit to be really spiritual, insightful and peaceful. I imagined padding quietly through the marble floored rooms, in awe of the vast white marbled space, down to the bottom of the room where I assumed would be a shrine where the Dalai Lama sat to offer me, the wisdomus tourist who had travelled so far, some virteous saying.

A beautiful picture taken by Tyler, one of the funniest people I have met!

Reality.. WRONG! Imagine a BILLION people pushing and shoving each other in white net socks in the tiniest room you could imagine on the hottest day the world has ever experienced and you have the Taj Mahal. Whilst it is undeniably absolutely breath taking to see, the experience of being inside it is not how I expected at all. I was completely taken aback by how busy it was.

Perfectly in the middle!

I got to handstand in front of it though - score! Equally matching Del almost :D just got to get to the GWC and have the balls to do it in the middle of the crossing in Tokoyo! Crazy fit as fudge boy.

The evening was really nice. We all went for a nice dinner before heading back to the hotel to drink sensationally out of date beer and play "never have I ever", which of course I shouldn't play seen as I have my mums genetics. Like she said one day "your my daughter for sure. Kinky to the point of whoredom". Too true. Too true.

Alright so I have wrote loads on this blog and I'm pretty knackered so I will update you on days 3-6 in a couple of days - it includes a photo crazy trip to Amber Fort and Palace, henna application, filming Bollywood dancing and chasing a little boy that turned out to be a girl called Dapussy. Awkward.

See you in a couple of days!

The Gang from L to R: Tasha, Allie, Me, Fran, Tyler, Sarah, Sheena, Andy, Louise, Random Indian Boy