1st to 4th August - Delhi / Colombo
Things i've learnt so far:
- Not wearing shoes is actually great
- Travelling is fun even when its a struggle, you appreciate the good times more
- Monsoon rain never gets boring to watch
- You can save money at every corner
- People are genuinely friendly when travelling
After yet another goodbye to all the staff at Safina boathouses and Henry who we got on with brilliantly we headed off to the airport, back to what we dreaded, Delhi. After making friends with everyone at Dal Lake it was almost torture to know we were leaving however our hopes were high with meeting Abhishekh we knew that we would experience the capital in a much better way. The flight itself was fairly horrible due to suffering with 'Delhi Belly' which had got me in Kashmir, surely its all the same. Both me and Ben had eaten nothing but dry toast for over 24hrs whilst Dan happily ate and we sat there envious. We got a taxi straight to Abhishekhs amazing house and met his lovely parents who couldn't do enough for us, made some great non-spicy food which was perfect for us along with filling us with electrolytes, natural mint water and some sort of tablet that stops stomach infections. I'm not complaining, the dizziness finally started to lift. That first night back in Delhi we headed out to surprise Joanne, one of our friends back from Lancashire who was visiting Jess who we met previously. The pure excitement from seeing us, especially Dan was great, it absolutely made re-visiting Delhi worth it! After a couple of drinks and my dizziness returning i got dropped off at home whilst the others carried on, i still wasn't on a full hundred percent.
The next day i awoke to realise i'd slept for over twelve hours and was still not feeling great but managed to pull myself together eat a quarter of an apple with some yogurt and Abhishekh took us to Cyberhub, a fairly cool area of Delhi with good food, entertainment etc. It was nice to see this side even if it was contrasting to what we had originally taken in. We headed into this kind of arcade with high-tec games, it seriously looked like Blackpool on steroids, not complaining though as it was great, we built a virtual roller-coaster and rode it, walked a fake plank whilst fighting a monster and a traditional game of air hockey, that just can't be missed out. Into the evening and we tried a very small amount of street food which was brilliant even though i couldn't eat much at all, chicken cooked in curd and pepper was the best. Wish i could of stomached it. We managed to catch up with Jess and Joanna before heading back to bed and waking up early for our flight to Sri Lanka. I surprisingly feel like India had been successful, we've made some friends, seen old friends and generally experienced several sides that the country has to offer.
Straight out of the Airport in Colombo and instantly its so different, people are smiling and its relaxed. We jumped straight into a taxi and headed to our hostel 40 minutes down town. The first thing i noticed was how damn green the area was, it was like a road cutting straight through a rain forest, absolutely perfect! Being from Lancashire i think i get to a point of missing green landscapes. We arrived outside our hostel for two nights at first terrified as it all looked closed and we thought the worst! New country and nowhere to sleep.. Sounds too familiar to India! Luckily the Australian owner comes out with a huge smile and welcomes us in, everyone here again is great. We've people from England, Finland, and Australia, not a bad mix. This hostel even has a kitchen so we've been able to cook our own food from home which has helped my stomach out so much! Beans on toast never tasted so good. Our first night started as a simple few drinks and card games which then escalated to heading towards town where apparently there was a good bar. Within 10 minutes of being there we had a big game of beer pong set up and a lot of the locals came along to watch the two tense matches! The only problem was we got through 1.5L of gin in just those two games. Safe to say i wasn't walking out of there in a straight line. Such a good night with everyone having a laugh and just chatting about travel plans and what the best things in Sri Lanka to do are, its the best knowledge you can have when tackling a new country. I don't even know how but i was invited to a big party on Friday by a local, seems legitimate but none the less i'll be out of colombo for now in just a day or so. Today all we've done is sat around and relaxed, good company and incredibly cheap luxuries such as Sprite and noodles, trust me, its not bad.
Things i've learnt so far:
- Not wearing shoes is actually great
- Travelling is fun even when its a struggle, you appreciate the good times more
- Monsoon rain never gets boring to watch
- You can save money at every corner
- People are genuinely friendly when travelling
After yet another goodbye to all the staff at Safina boathouses and Henry who we got on with brilliantly we headed off to the airport, back to what we dreaded, Delhi. After making friends with everyone at Dal Lake it was almost torture to know we were leaving however our hopes were high with meeting Abhishekh we knew that we would experience the capital in a much better way. The flight itself was fairly horrible due to suffering with 'Delhi Belly' which had got me in Kashmir, surely its all the same. Both me and Ben had eaten nothing but dry toast for over 24hrs whilst Dan happily ate and we sat there envious. We got a taxi straight to Abhishekhs amazing house and met his lovely parents who couldn't do enough for us, made some great non-spicy food which was perfect for us along with filling us with electrolytes, natural mint water and some sort of tablet that stops stomach infections. I'm not complaining, the dizziness finally started to lift. That first night back in Delhi we headed out to surprise Joanne, one of our friends back from Lancashire who was visiting Jess who we met previously. The pure excitement from seeing us, especially Dan was great, it absolutely made re-visiting Delhi worth it! After a couple of drinks and my dizziness returning i got dropped off at home whilst the others carried on, i still wasn't on a full hundred percent.
The next day i awoke to realise i'd slept for over twelve hours and was still not feeling great but managed to pull myself together eat a quarter of an apple with some yogurt and Abhishekh took us to Cyberhub, a fairly cool area of Delhi with good food, entertainment etc. It was nice to see this side even if it was contrasting to what we had originally taken in. We headed into this kind of arcade with high-tec games, it seriously looked like Blackpool on steroids, not complaining though as it was great, we built a virtual roller-coaster and rode it, walked a fake plank whilst fighting a monster and a traditional game of air hockey, that just can't be missed out. Into the evening and we tried a very small amount of street food which was brilliant even though i couldn't eat much at all, chicken cooked in curd and pepper was the best. Wish i could of stomached it. We managed to catch up with Jess and Joanna before heading back to bed and waking up early for our flight to Sri Lanka. I surprisingly feel like India had been successful, we've made some friends, seen old friends and generally experienced several sides that the country has to offer.
Straight out of the Airport in Colombo and instantly its so different, people are smiling and its relaxed. We jumped straight into a taxi and headed to our hostel 40 minutes down town. The first thing i noticed was how damn green the area was, it was like a road cutting straight through a rain forest, absolutely perfect! Being from Lancashire i think i get to a point of missing green landscapes. We arrived outside our hostel for two nights at first terrified as it all looked closed and we thought the worst! New country and nowhere to sleep.. Sounds too familiar to India! Luckily the Australian owner comes out with a huge smile and welcomes us in, everyone here again is great. We've people from England, Finland, and Australia, not a bad mix. This hostel even has a kitchen so we've been able to cook our own food from home which has helped my stomach out so much! Beans on toast never tasted so good. Our first night started as a simple few drinks and card games which then escalated to heading towards town where apparently there was a good bar. Within 10 minutes of being there we had a big game of beer pong set up and a lot of the locals came along to watch the two tense matches! The only problem was we got through 1.5L of gin in just those two games. Safe to say i wasn't walking out of there in a straight line. Such a good night with everyone having a laugh and just chatting about travel plans and what the best things in Sri Lanka to do are, its the best knowledge you can have when tackling a new country. I don't even know how but i was invited to a big party on Friday by a local, seems legitimate but none the less i'll be out of colombo for now in just a day or so. Today all we've done is sat around and relaxed, good company and incredibly cheap luxuries such as Sprite and noodles, trust me, its not bad.
Henry painting one of the house boats
"No thanks, i'm ok for saffron"
Mama, our chef for five days, looking into the sunset
The taste of my past Accrington life
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