Bangkok Bitches!!!

Hi everyone :) hope the weather back home isn't getting you all down too much hahaha, Janurary is such a good time of year to have started this trip, I'm really not a fan of the cold weather and especially the snow!

So I'm currently sitting in our hostel's cafe with my netbook, a cup of tea and a cigarette and I feel like Carrie Bradshaw.. just without the designer clothes, complicated love affairs and the glamorous life!

So Monday we arrived in Bangkok! We had a bit of a long wait as our flight from Ahmedabad arrived in Delhi at 830am and our flight to Bangkok wasn't until 2, it was delayed too but luckily we have all been getting along so well that we got by by having a good laugh! We were mucking about with the webcam and doing different effects while having a beer for lunch!

We eventually flew into Bangkok around half 8 in the evening and had nothing booked, we just knew we had to head to Khao San Road; Lora had stayed there before and was lots of hostels we could just turn up to. 

We got a taxi (our last one as we're on a budget so officially we are "bus wankers")

Best taxi ever, the driver had a pimp my ride! Built in speakers all over the car, neon lights and a massive subwoofer in the boot, he had a DVD cd player and had music with girls pole dancing along to the music lol! 

He dropped us off a couple streets away from Khao San Road and pointed to a road to go up to find accommodation, we walked up there and went to the first hostel which was fully booked. We walked in to the next one and they had a room for the 3 of us, took a quick look round before agreeing to pay. 

It was similiar to a prison cell... but more basic! But... 430 bht a night which is about £8 between the 3 of us, we didn't complain.. you get what you pay for! No hot water, or air con and no blankets on the bed but to be honest the cold showers were so nice as Bangkok was so humid and the ceiling fan was perfectly good enough for us. We didn't think there was electricity in the room either until the last day when the receptionist pointed the socket out to us! We stayed there 3 nights and was very central to Khao San where all the other travellers go to. It's one long road with market stalls and street food all the way up and lots of bars and people everywhere! Reminds me a bit of a club resort like the Zante strip or something like that, very lively and lots of happy people! 

The first night we got there we went to the Rooftop bar which overlooked Khao San, had live music and a good atmosphere, we had a couple of cocktails and ended meeting 3 girls from London who were sitting next to us and pulled our tables together and got a little drunk. It was such a good feeling being able to drink again and was safe to go out at night and not to worry like we had to in India :) Lee was the first one to eat a Scorpion and after the bar shut we headed back to our hostel and had a foot massage followed by a Swedish oil massage, all for less than a fiver! 

We didn't hear of a lot of things to do and see during the day, so we went for a bit of a walk the second day, Lee got his hair cut and we were browsing the market. Got a couple pairs of baggy pants and vests (Now I really look like a traveller!) Lora and I treated ourselves to a manicure, pedicure and our eyelashes tinted and Lee got a facial.. you wouldn't believe how cheap it is, it was like a tenner each or something for all that! We booked our bus to Chaing Mai, 500 baht each which was £10 for a 10 hour coach journey! We found a cheap hostel there too, so booked that online at 100 baht each a night (£2), cheap or what! 

Headed to Khao San the 2nd night and ended up in an Irish bar sitting by the street looking out over the road, we got hounded by the looky looky men & women which were over every 2 minutes trying to sell bracelets, jewelry  wallets, hats, wooden frogs and all sorts of crap you buy when your drunk! Lora being Lora bought a few bracelets lol..! We met a couple of Yorkshire lads who were sitting next to us and a couple of Welsh lads from the same hostel as them and were chatting to them for most of the night, I was bought a Scorpion to eat, Lee had 2 1/2 more and  we ended up going to "The Club" with them after. Lee got pretty drunk as we were from the beer towers and so we left the club a bit before Lora as she was chatting with the Welsh guys so me and Lee made our way home and had another foot massage which turned into a back neck and shoulder, went on Skype for a bit  and didn't get to sleep until 6am! 

Honestly is the weirdest thing to eat; the pincers are so hard they are almost impossible to crunch, I nearly broke my tooth trying to eat it! The body was alright but I didn't go as far as eating the tail! 

We had every intention  of going to visit the Grand Palace on the 3rd day but after such a late night no one was in any mood for going anywhere so we got up in the afternoon, had some lunch, picked up our laundry and got ready for our last night out. 

We went to the bar again and bumped into the Welsh lads, we ended up playing ring of fire and Lee got smashed, ended up eating another scorpion, had a dance off with one of the girls selling roses to Gangnam style, ended up back in "The Club" and had a dance off with a gay Thai boy and was sick just outside our hostel lol! Definitely the funniest night out we've had.. lots of jokes - obviously I won't go into the stories hahaha..!

4th day; again as we didn't go to bed until very very late we checked out of our room late and  went to the travel agency to wait for our coach to take  us to Chiang Mai. We bumped into the Welsh lads again as they also were going to the same place, but on a different coach.

The journey wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, found it difficult to sleep on it though and Lee picked the worst seat; the only one that wouldn't recline right back. I swapped with him half way through the night and must have had a few hours kip each. We got dropped off at a petrol station which looked to be in the middle of nowhere at 6am and that was it! We were so glad we'd booked somewhere to stay, a few taxis were waiting for us and took us to our hostel. Only problem was no one was there until 8am so we had to wait around, but got chatting to a nice young lad called Max who ended up sharing our room (we went for a mixed dorm room with 9 beds) 

Anyways i'll write about Chiang Mai when we've left as we've got a couple of cool excursions booked for the next two days :D 

Hope everyone's ok!

Love Hannah xxxxx

Day two Beckie & Chintans Wedding - The Ceremony

Hi everyone,

So Saturday was the actual Wedding. The only reason we ventured over to India - it was D day!

Unlike English Weddings the "ceremony" didn't start until 6pm so we got a taxi over to the Gadani's for 4pm so we could get dressed properly (We needed help as our Sarees needed pinning on our shoulders) Beckie's family were there too, everyone looked amazing!

We all had lots of photos taken and it's a funny feeling wearing a Saree. I didn't like my belly being out, but everyone else did and to be honest it wasn't as bad as I thought it was, just best not to slouch sitting down - more rolls than Greggs bakery lol.
Beckie had her hair and makeup was professionally done and just as we were getting our pictures taken she walked into our room... One word. STUNNING! She looked great as an Asian bride! Like Princess Jasmine :)

After a few pictures were taken we made our way to the venue, and already set up was the two chairs on the raised platform for Beckie and Chintan to sit on and where the ceremony was taking place, there was chairs all around it for spectators and actually so different to English weddings, the family participated.

While we were waiting for everyone to arrive there was two young lads who were playing the drums, quite a few of the ladies got up and started a circle around the drummers and started a little step, clap dance. It was so fun! Everyone got involved; Beckies parents, Paige, Johnny and us. It was great to participate and feel welcomed enough to be able to join in with their traditions.

We were dancing a short while and Beckie and Chintan came out and joined in with us, I can't tell you how much fun it was.We danced until the sun went down :) maybe about an hour i'd say.

Once we'd finished the dancing everyone sat down and the ceremony began, it's not like in churches where everyone sits in silence, we sat down to watch but we couldn't see what was going on, so went to the other side where it was being filmed and took a few photos from there, I liked it how a lot of people are involved in it, very spiritual. 

I was standing up just watching and this young girl came over to  me called Rinku (think thats how its spelt) she was 14 and started talking to me, the sweetest girl there is, and her English was great! I think she wanted to practise what she's learning with someone, we ended up talking for hours and she was explaining what was happening and also traditions with Hindus. Did you know in the villages if a Hindu girl is set to marry a Hindu boy and he dies before marriage that she must not ever leave the house and is often killed by her parents?? That's crazy!

I learned a lot from such a young girl :) 

I absolutely love this photo :)

The gist I got was that everyone sitting in with Beckie and Chintan had to pour water onto Beckie's toe, and I think rice  (I could be wrong though) Don't be employing me as an RE teacher... seriously lol

So a cord was put around them and called upon Lora to help them put over Chintans head.

United as one

Once the spiritual events were over the chairs were turned next
 to each other and was an opportunity to take photos

Beckie and Chintan then went over to a stage and sat on thrones and everyone queued up throughout the night to have photos taken with them :) Food was then served by caterers at the back of the venue and Rinku my new friend (or Pingu as we called her) took me around and told me what each thing was and what was supposed to be eaten with what. It was really good food! Hundreds of people turned up to eat and then I swear they left not long after, but the only thing that we could have done with was a dance. After everyone had finished and the couple had all their photos taken, they finally sat down with their two families to have dinner and everyone else went home. 

All of us having our photo with the Bride and Groom (Pingu's in the middle)

So overall we had a great time at the wedding, we got taken home by one of Chintans dads' friends was a bit of a squeeze, Lora, Lee, myself and his daughter in the back and him and his wife and child in the front of a tiny car lol! (No laws in India like we have here!) I saw a scooter with a whole family on! 2 adults and 2 kids - one of which was hanging off the side being held by the mum in her arm :/

Sunday we didn't do much, packed up and was invited over to the Marriott where Beckie's parents were staying and had dinner with Chintan and her family which was lovely and resided by the pool after dinner for coffee and really was a giggle. It just proves that you don't need alcohol to have a good time (but it does help!!) One thing I will say though is don't book a room at the Marriott in Ahmedabad, the staff are useless! 

We got back very late as the hotel tried to rip us off and charge us 4x the amount the taxi cost on the way here so called our hotel and they sent a driver to get us. It was about 12.30 by the time we actually got back and we had to be up at 4am to leave for the airport!! 

Big thank you to Chintan's family & friends and especially his father for everything he did for us. Also thanks to The Sears for Sunday and was great to spend some time with you all :D we really enjoyed ourselves but we really were ready to get out of India, it was a complete culture shock and when Lee and I were standing outside our hotel people were just so amazed by us that they stopped dead in the street and stared, we just waved at them all and the look on their faces, they were so happy lol!! I wished I would have recorded it, just the strangest thing ever. 

Anyway over and out - we're in Thailand now been here a couple days. I'll put a post up when I've left Bangkok xxxx

Good luck Beckie & Chintan and congratulations xxxxxx

Day one of the Beckie & Chintan's wedding - The Blessings

Beckie and her parents Jo and Richard :D

Hi everyone :)

So Wednesday evening we arrived in Ahmedabad, we got picked up by the hotels' taxi man and he was no where near as friendly as the one in Delhi, his English was non existent and he stunk of BO... It was 10pm by the time we got to our hotel and all we wanted was something to eat and something alcoholic to drink. Ahmedabad is in a dry state so drinking alcohol is illegal and also they don't eat meat here, the restaurants just serve paneer (like cottage cheese) in dishes. So we've 5 days of being sober... probably a good thing for our livers!

We had a bit of "Delhi belly" so we have tried to steer clear from hot curries as we didn't want to encourage anymore spells so we've been eating fruit raita (its like sweet yoghurt with fruit in) that's pretty much been our breakfasts for the last couple of days.

Anyway back to what we did... Wednesday night just went to the hotel after getting some food and slept until lunch time Thursday, we contacted Beckie and arranged to meet up. We went over to Chintans parent's house and met his family, ohh they were so nice and welcoming :) Johnny and Paige (Beckie's brother and his "wife" were there too and oh my gosh it was so nice to speak to other English people!) We went off for a coffee and our taxi driver took us home via a shop so we could get Indian attire for the blessing which was happening the following day.

Friday Morning we had to be at Chintan's house for 9am, the same unfriendly smelly cab man drove us over there after being half an hour late; the first blessing was in full swing.

First blessing - morning session

Chintan's house 

Everyone looked so good in their Indian wear and again lots of friends and family of the Gadani's were at their house welcoming Beckie into their family and the Hindu Pujari (priest) was chanting to Beckie and Chintan, i'm not so sure what was going on but a couple of the younger girls there were explaining it to us as things were happening. We participated in the rituals that were being done throughout the day.
There was probably about 40/50 people in their house during the day and everyone was so nice to us :)


After the blessing finished we were all invited over to the Hindu temple for lunch and there was religious significance to this trip too, the men had to pour water over a statue in a worship area of the temple (sorry i'm not describing things well and any Hindu's reading please don't take offence lol)

After lunch (which I couldn't eat as my Delhi belly hadn't settled and my appetite was lost) we went back to the house where the second blessing was done. There was quite a bit of waiting around and the blessings did go on for quite a while so we hovered around in the room for a bit and went off as it was hard for us to understand what was going on. The Pujari was chanting a lot and there was a goddess that went into this body at one point.   We spent the afternoon on their roof terrace to catch the sun. 

Chintan's parents organised a caterer to come in for the evening and served us all South Indian cuisine, this was lovely but very spicy and luckily my appetite returned lol :)

After dinner one of Chintans Dad's friends dropped us back to our hotel in Old Ahmedabad and I went straight to sleep, such a long long day as we didn't get back until 9ish

Will post up the actual Wedding later on today, internet is very slow here! :) The best is yet to come! xxxxx

The rest of Delhi

So my last post finished on Tuesday when we just had a wonder around the streets near our hotel, we had a rickshaw ride around the shopping area of Delhi and then our taxi man Baljinder invited us into his home for the evening for dinner.

We didn't think he'd show up but Tuesday night at 7pm we got a call from reception telling us he was there waiting! Lee and Lora weren't too keen to go because his English wasn't the best so to make conversation would be a little bit too much like hard work, but after convincing them to come with me, they reluctantly agreed and turned out we had the best night so far of our trip :) 

On the way over to his house (and before us agreeing we wouldn't drink as it would be disrespectful on his religion) he stopped by the wine shop to pick us up 8 cans of beer and a bottle of whiskey for himself! He then poured his whiskey into half a bottle of water he had in his car and downed it whilst driving us to his home! When we got there he then pulled another bottle of whiskey out his pocket and was drinking that all night... don't think he's that religious lol...

That's Baljinder's family, they have a very small place to live, it's one bedroom come living room come dining room and then a kitchen. Their toilet is outside (hole in the floor) and I didn't see a proper bathroom. I think that's outside too... There's a double bed in the main room and two beds leaning up against the wall which they move into the kitchen at night for Mum & Dad to sleep on... It's a completely different world from ours and was amazing to be invited into their home to see the differences. 

He actually is building his own house right next door, so he won't be living that way much longer and his family showed us around it, it's literally just bricks and staircases.... in UK you'd have to have entered with a hard hat and hi viz, but that doesn't seem to matter in India.. anything goes!

We were somewhat of a local attraction when we arrived, and at one point there must have been about 10 of their neighbors friends came to see us while we were there. They all wanted to shake our hand and they were so happy to see white people! 

There was a couple of young girls about my age who came and stayed with us for the evening and they were so amazed that they were taking videos of us talking and stuff, it was so bizarre.

Overall we had such a great night, ended up getting a little bit drunk and was the perfect ending to our time in Delhi :) We got fed loads of food, his wife even cooked chicken for us! It just kept on coming!

The next day Baljinder came to pick us up and took us to the airport, he gave us his card and said if we ever come back to Delhi (or friends and family do) that we should stay with his family and not in a hotel as his house will be complete in 4 months.  

My next post I'll talk about Ahmedabad but right  now we need to get ready for Beckie's wedding this afternoon, so I've got to go. 

Hope everyone is ok back home and sucks about the weather lol :P 

love Hannah xxxxxxx

First few days in India

Well Hello :)

So the 11th January saw me embark on a new journey in life, I left my mum and sister at the airport and a lot of good friends a home to start my travels.

First stop was India. A lot of emotions running through my head, a lot of things I'll be missing being away from my friends and family for a long period of time, excited but nervous and apprehensive for what I was going to experience in India.

We arrived on Saturday lunch time in New Delhi, our taxi man Baljinder Singh was waiting for us at the airport with my name on a sign (always wanted to be one of those important people with their name on paper lol) 

Lora, myself and Lee waiting for the flight to take off!

Baljinder our taxi man

My mums friend Kiran arranged for us to see her Aunt to help us plan our time in Delhi as she lives a few houses up from our hotel, but as we'd not slept much on the plane and it being a night flight we got to the hotel for a nap! 

A quick nap turned into a full on sleep and we woke up at 7pm. I asked our hotel reception to call Koshi and we arranged to meet the following morning. We had room service and went to bed. 

Sunday we were up at 9am to meet Koshi and she showed us a few things on the map to do and showed us her house and invited us in for tea and biscuits, tea is exactly the same as England (I was worried :/) 

Baljinder picked us up at 10am and we went on a tour of Delhi. He showed us several cool buildings like the India Gate, the Lotus temple and a Sikh temple.

The gate of India

Lotus temple, I cut my arm on the barbed wire on the fence protecting it.... apparently it's good luck?

Sikh temple on Sunday was crazy, but a good insight into Sikhism

We went shopping for Sarees as we have a Hindu wedding to attend on the 19th and had lots of fun trying those on... but when the total came to £800 for the 3 of us, we had a heart attack each but handed over our cards.

We had lunch out in Pindus and outside there was a snake charmer... little bit scared I have to say when he put the snake round my neck and charmed a python out of his box, it was attacking him whilst I was sitting right next to him :/

After the day, we went back to the hotel room, put on G.I Jane on my netbook, ordered room service and went to bed. 

Monday saw us go to the Taj Mahal, we had to get up super early as was a 4 hour drive. We met our taxi man at reception, made him wait 40 minutes while we had  some breakfast and then set off at 7am,  he had brought his 13 year old son along with him :) 

We literally couldn't see anything on the way, I've never seen fog quite like it in my time... we couldn't see the car in front unless right behind it. So that turned into 5 hours drive but we got there!!!

We had a guided tour of the Taj which was really interesting and then had a late lunch. On the way home we got stuck in really bad traffic as apparently there were some protests going on in Delhi, so our 4 hour drive turned into 6, so asked Baljinder to stop and get us some beers. 

Got back to the hotel late around 9pm, had 2 Kingfishers each (8%ABV) chucked on some music and just chilled for a few hours. 

Today, we needed a lie in, so woke at half 12, got ourselves ready and its just gone 2 now and we're off out to get some food and have a wonder. 

Overall conclusion on India so far... It's very noisy, dirty and complete culture shock, but I've never met so many people who can't do enough for  you and most importantly, they are very happy :)

Love Hannah xxxxxxx