Author: hereandthereclaire

I spent the morning chilling at the hotel and finishing my blog. 

It was so lovely just relaxing up on the roof terrace. I tried my first cup of Masala Chai….so good! 😋

I then got a taxi to the hotel that the tour is starting from, I’m a day early but figure that should be OK. 

The hotel is around a 20 minute drive away, or it would have been if the driver had any idea where we were going! He stopped and asked about 6 people for directions 🤦‍♀️ 

We eventually arrived, and it’s not the greatest place I’ve stayed, possibly not the worst. It’s in a really busy smallish road opposite some sort of vertical car park, it’s an area with lots of hotels, that all claim to be 3* I’m not so sure! 

My room is unfortunately at the front of the hotel facing the very noisy street. 

There is a sign in the bathroom saying to contact reception before showering so they can turn on the boiler. 😳

The hotel doesn’t seem to have any communal areas, they offer food but it’s room service only and I think they order it in from outside. A guy at reception did point me in the direction of a nice restaurant, which was just up the road and turned out to be pretty good, a sort of fast food Indian place with a bakery, small shop and all vegetarian food.  It was quite busy so I sat here for a while with a cup of Ginger Tea and a samosa reading my book. I then went back again for dinner, I had an Onion Rawa Masala Dosa, which was an onion and green chilli crispy pancake over some potato curry served with a very spicy Dahl and some mint sauce. It was pretty tasty, after I’d picked off all the green chilli’s! And a Bargin at £3. I bought myself some bottled water and an emergency packet of crisps! 

It doesn’t feel like the sort of area I want to walk around at night, so I headed back to my hotel and an early night! I thought the noise might lessen at night, but sadly not. There is constant honking, shouting, cars revving and then at night there now comes very loud music! I have a few sets of ear plugs that I’ve carried around in my backpack for years, they finally had their moment! 

I ordered breakfast this morning, tea and toast. I tiny cup of tea, 4 slices of white toast and a tiny sachet of jam on a paper plate, with a wooden knife. 

To be honest, it’s not the greatest first impression of what to expect from this tour. I wasn’t expecting luxury but i did expect a little better. 

I have booked & paid to stay back here the 2 nights after the tour ends and before my Tiger Safari starts. That’s not going to be happening! I have now booked another place that at least has a restaurant and an outside space.

That’s enough loaning for now! 

I’ve managed to make good use of the time in my room by booking buses and flights and hotels for my onwards travel in Thailand and Turkey! So all good. This also includes meeting up with and traveling through Turkey with my Grantley!! I’m so excited. 😍😍 I haven’t seen him since last April! ❤️❤️

So, the time came to meet up,with my fellow travellers. 

We had a group meeting with our CEO/Group Leader, Vik and the other 12 people. There are 11 women and 1 man. A mix of ages and nationalities, 2 Germans, 8 Canadians, 2 Brits (including me) 1 American. Everyone seems really lovely, quite a few have done G Adventure Tours before. 

We went through our itinerary. Which sounds fantastic. Lots of great activities, working with and supporting local charities and projects, which is wonderful. One issue was highlighted, which we need more clarification on. That is our journey on the night train to Varanasi. The problem is there is a huge festival called, ‘Maha Kumbh Mela’ this festival is being held in Prayagraj in Utter Pradesh from 13th January to 26th February. It happens every 12 years and celebrates the full orbital revolution of Jupiter around the sun. The end of the festival coincides with another festival in Varanasi. We are due to travel to Varanasi by night train on the 26th February. 

To give you some idea of how big the festival is and why it might prove difficult to travel. The festival will attract between 400 – 500 MILLION people over the 4 weeks!!! 😳😳 There have already been issues of stampedes at the festival with 30 deaths and also here in Delhi at the train station where 18 people were killed. 

We are looking at the possibility of flying to Varanasi, although this may still be difficult. Varanasi itself is going to be mobbed. I will keep you posted on what the plan is! 

After our me we all headed out to dinner, I was a little dismayed when Vik took us into a restaurant called Hooters! However, the name had a different meaning and the food was delicious. 😀

We grabbed water and snacks on the way back to the hotel. 

I’m pleased to say that the group seems really lovely, friendly and fun. 😍❤️

Our first full day started early,  8am with a walking tour organised and run by an organisation called. Salam Baalak Trust. This organisation helps street and working children here in Delhi. Our guide, Kajahl, was helped by the organisation herself, and gave us a wonderful insight into the fantastic work that they do. They support over 10,000 children a year providing shelter, food, education, vocational training and mental health support. 

I was incredibly impressed with the work they do and the fact that G Adventures are an active supporter. 

From here we visited the Jama Masjid Mosque, which I visited the other day and had another walk around by Chandni Chowk area. We also visited another Sikh Temple, once again I am blown away by the community work that the Sikh Temples offer. The religion itself is based on acts of service. Beautiful. 

Then the group split up, some choosing to,do a food tour, which sounded great, but it was quite expensive, especially for me as I probably wouldn’t eat very much! One lady went off to do a sightseeing tour and a few of us travelled back to the hotel and went out for lunch. Vik helped us choose by explaining the menu. 

One of the things I’m going to love about the next few weeks is having someone else make most of the decisions and organise everything, but still affording me a level of choice. I suspect it’s going to be full on, but that’s OK. 

Apparently we also had an earthquake here at 5.30am this morning p, which I slept through! 

I’m feeling happy, relieved and excited.

Early start tomorrow so early to bed! 

Books read. 

All the wicked Girls. Chris Whitaker. Brilliant. I really love this author. 

Have a great week everyone.

💚🧡💚🧡💚🧡💚🧡💚🧡

The journey to the airport was a dream.  It was a public holiday in Sri Lanka due to it being a Full Moon! This meant the drive was much quicker than anticipated. We even had time to stop and take a pic of the Lotus Tower. 

Check in was also pretty straightforward, a slight wobble when she asked to see my Indian visa, which I had not printed. I managed to log on to the wifi and show her an email. Unfortunately I was unable to check in online, for some reason the site would not except my phone number, either my uk or my Sri Lankan one, this meant that the only seats left were window or middle 🙁 luckily it’s only a 3 hour flight. 

Colombo airport isn’t the best equipped, I debated paying for a lounge, but it was packed and I didn’t feel it was worth the money, so I mooched about, had a cup of tea, mooched some more, read my book, more mooching and then it was time to board! 😁

There was a huge group of Sri Lankans all dressed in white with matching travel bags, mixed ages and ex, all on my flight. I was intrigued to know where they were going, who they were etc. I ended up sitting next to 2 of the women, they are all on a 15 day pilgrimage to India ending in Bhopal. They were lovely and wanted me in all their photos! 🥰 

Even though it’s only a 3 hour flight, Sri Lankan airlines give you a meal and drinks! Result. I opted for water and vegetable curry. 

The majority of the flight is over India and I would have loved to know the route (I might google it) just to understand where we were flying over. The geography changed quite a bit. 

We landed at 17.15 in Delhi, it didn’t look like the pollution was too bad, it has been dreadful in the preceding months. So that’s a positive. 

Immigration was pretty easy, the biometric machines didn’t seem to work, so I just went to immigration, queued up in the very short Business Class Passenger line! 😀 The chap was very helpful and I was through in no time. 

I then stopped to get an Indian SIM card from the kiosk. Sad to say the young man that served me was a total knob, rude, belligerent, stroppy. In the end I asked him if he’d had a bad day, to which he nodded, so I said well that’s not my fault, so stop being so rude! He then handed me over to someone else! Arsehole. 

My taxi driver, seemed very pleasant. Although at one point he stopped, said something then ran off! I was a tad confused and a little concerned! He did return, it transpired he didn’t have the car keys! 🤦‍♀️😳

The drive to the hotel was interesting, huge volume of traffic, being early evening. Lots of cars & Tuk Tuks, lots of beeping but not anywhere near as bad as I’d anticipated. I think this is due to being in the less densely populated area of New Delhi. 

My hotel is in an area called ‘Defence Colony’ which I think just means a residential area. 

My room is nice, I was a little surprised to find the bed had 2 quilts and 2 blankets on! Seems a lot! It’s Delhi not Nepal! 

However when I went up to the rooftop for dinner, I realised why! It’s a little chilly 🥶 Breezy and fresh. This is less than ideal for me, as I left my denim jacket in Australia and sent all my warm clothes back to the UK in a Box! Thankfully the hotel provides lush, soft blankets to wrap around yourself. 🥰❤️

I ordered a Beer, Kingfisher, and a vegetable biriyani. I didn’t realise it came with quite so many accompaniments! But it was yummy. 😋 

The hotel seems to be full of older English couples, who all seem very lovely. 

I had a reasonable nights sleep and woke up with a plan to go and buy a jumper/cardigan/wrap and some Rupees and possibly have a look around.

Breakfast was on the rooftop again and again it was a little fresh, but nice. To clarify the rooftop restaurant is open. It’s a lovely space just a tad chilly at the moment. 

I got chatting to a lovely couple of ladies, Hilly & Carrie who are from Devon & London respectively. 

They travel often and extensively and were so interesting, friendly and a pleasure to meet. Carrie even gave me her number and said I would be welcome to come and stay with her in London. How kind and generous. They are now heading to Jaipur, I may well bump into them again somewhere in India. 🤞

My excursion went very well, unfortunately I was unable to find a cardigan, jumper or wrap although I did find a M & S Lingerie shop! 😂 I was hoping they might have a cardigan (and possibly a bag of Percy pigs) but sadly just fancy nickers & bras, which aren’t going to keep me warm. 

After the failed shopping attempt my next stop was India Gate. 

India Gate is a war memorial commemorating Indian Soldiers who died in WW1 and The Third Anglo-Afghan War

It stands in a complex that’s has Gardens, Archives, The National Stadium and the Prime Minister’s Residence. It was a vast area and busy but not mad!

The area around here is very nice, long wide tree lined roads, parks and flowers. It’s where all the embassies and government buildings are. Not really what I was expecting from Delhi. Traffic is a little easier during the day and we battled through to my next stop ‘Qutab Minar’ 

I paid my £5 entrance fee, Indians pay 50p. Then got collared into having a guide for a further £5. I did debate not going for the guide, but as I knew nothing about the site I figured it would be Informative. 

My guide, was very good, he never told me his name, but the history and information he gave me were great. 

Qutab Minar is a Minaret and Victory tower. It was built in the 13th century. The surrounding archeological area has Funerary buildings and the magnificent Alai-Darwaza Gate of  Indo-Muslim design. 

It also has the remains of the first ever Mosque in northern India, Quwwatu’I-Islam, which was built by using the remains of the destroyed Hindu temples. 

All of the faces on the stonework from the Hindu temples have been destroyed, but the mix of Hindu, Jainism and Muslim motifs is really unusual and unique. 

It’s a beautiful site, and I’m really glad I had a guide. From here we made our way back through the traffic to the hotel. 

I figure that’s enough for day 1!!

I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the rooftop, drinking tea and writing this blog! ❤️

I slept pretty well, after a nice meal of rice, Dahl and potato & Cauliflower curry! 

Today I have organised a day tour of New & Old Delhi. The car picked me up, without the guide, strange! Apparently we were meeting him somewhere. He did appear after a short wait at our first stop, Humayun’s Tomb. The Tomb was built between 1565 – 1572. It is a fabulous building and was the design copied for the Taj Mahal. Rikesh my guide was incredibly knowledgeable about it as he is an archeological historian, and has apparently shown many people around the place, including Boris Johnson! (He didn’t like him! 😂) The history is extremely interesting as well as all of the symbolism. I won’t go into it all, but it was fascinating. According to Rikesh it is better than the Taj Mahal. We’ll see!

Next we visited a a very old Step Well, this one was built in the 17th century and was used for drinking water, irrigation and Rikesh also said that many female babies were thrown into it, as girls were not wanted, only boys. How bloody awful. 

Next was a visit to the largest Sikh Temple in Delhi, Gurdwara Bangala Sahib Temple. This Temple I really loved, not only was it beautiful and quite peaceful. The temple also provides Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner to thousands of people from every religion, race or caste, for free every single day! They do this with the help of donations & volunteers. They also provide medical help, free or at a greatly reduced price. 

The kitchens were enormous, using huge industrial machines, and volunteers making thousands of parathas, Dahl and curries! It was incredible. Surely this is what religious places should all be doing! 

From here we visited a large Hindu Temple, Shri Laxmi Narayan Temple. Another beautiful building, not quite as old, it was completed in 1939. And Mahatma Gandhi ensured all Castes could enter the temple. 

Next we headed towards the Red Fort. The fort was built in the 17th century and was the residence of the Mughal Emperor’s. Emperor Shah Japan commissioned it after moving the Mughal capital from Agra to Delhi. 

The fort fell into decline after the end of the Mughal empire and the interior was destroyed by the British in 1857 after the Indian Rebellion. It is now a world heritage site. 

We didn’t go inside, just admired the building from outside. 

From here we walked to Chandni Chowk the famous, bustling (understatement 😳) market area in Old Delhi. It was insane, so busy, noisy and full on, I Loved it!! 😂😍 It is crazy and amazing. 

So much going on. The sights, sounds and smells are wild. 

We made our way to the spice market, I had been warned about how intense it was, dusty and so much spice in the air it makes everyone cough. Most of the sellers are wholesalers, with a few selling retail. There are people hustling everywhere, carrying huge sacks of spices, pushing carts, tending their stalls, shouting, coughing, spitting, It’s noisy,   Chaotic and mad! 😍😍

We walked through the streets for a bit, where I managed to get myself a wooly wrap for £3! 

Then moved into some smaller lanes, that sold all manner of colourful items, mainly decorations, materials and other items for weddings and celebrations. It was again mad busy and so vibrant. 

This has been my favourite part of my stay so far. 

After the madness of Chandni Chowk we visited the largest Mosque in Delhi, Jama Masjid. This Mosque was also built by the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan in the 17th Century. It was beautiful. It used the same marble as the Taj Mahal. 

We then walked back to the Red Fort, my feet were starting to ache a little now, I’d done around 15,000 steps by then and a lot of stairs! 

We got a Rickshaw the last bit by the Red Fort to the car park, and managed to squeeze myself, Rikesh and 3 other men into quite a small space!! 😳😁 The guys ended up asking to take photos of us all together, respectfully. So I agreed.

The next place Rikesh took me was supposed to be a ‘shop’ which technically it was, as it was selling items, unfortunately it was a private place and I was the only customer! No pressure then! 😬🙁 I really hate this sort of thing, and was a little miffed. The place was lovely and sold beautiful things. Lots of gorgeous handmade Rugs, Cashmere pashminas, lacquered items and jewellery. 

They bought me out some tea and bourbon biscuits, then proceeded to start unwrapping numerous gorgeous pashminas in a variety of colours. I was getting more and more uncomfortable, so I told the gentleman that whilst they all looked gorgeous, and I’m sure they are of the highest quality I would not be buying anything. He said but you don’t know the price, so I asked the price, he told me the prices of the ones he had out, they ranged from £40 – £80 I said in that case I most definitely wouldn’t be buying anything. He offered to negotiate and I remained firm and said, No, I didn’t want or need anything. He tried again, I continued to say No and eventually he realised I wasn’t going to change my mind (unlike several of the people I spoke to later at the hotel, had! 🤦‍♀️) And he relented. He was always polite and never rude or particularly pushy, but it’s uncomfortable and awkward. 

We left, I’m not sure how happy Rikesh was about my lack of purchases, but that’s not my problem. 

Our last stop was the Lotus Temple. There was a huge queue to get in so as myself nor Rikesh were that bothered I just took a picture over the fence and left! 

It was a long, enjoyable day. But time to have a cup of tea and a sit down! I did 16500 steps! 

I chatted to another guest whom I talked to yesterday morning. I don’t know her name but she was a beautiful, glamorous lady from Liverpool, who was also incredibly friendly and kind, and who had the most fabulous Tiffany Sunnies! 😎🩵

Her and her husband have had a great time in India but were off to the airport.  

After they left I had a bit of a rest, wrote more blog then grabbed dinner. More Rice, Dahl and veg curry. Yum. 

So that’s it for my first few days in India. All very good so far.

Things to note:

There are huge numbers of Eagles everywhere! 🦅 ❤️

There are also lots of large groups of men at the attractions I’ve been to, there are some family groups, but it’s predominantly males. 

New Delhi is very different to Old Delhi. 

Everyone has been very kind and helpful so far. 

I’m leaving my hotel today and heading into Old Delhi to my tour hotel. The Tour officially starts tomorrow.  This is going to be a new experience for me, doing an organised trip. I think I’m looking forward to having everything planned for me! I’m also looking forward to meeting my fellow traveler’s. 

I’ll let you know how it goes!! 😁

Have a great weekend everyone.

💚🧡🇮🇳🧡💚

Books Read.

I’ve not finished one yet! 

I’m coming to the end of my time here in Hikkaduwa, I have enjoyed it but it’s time to move on. 

The weather has not been playing ball at all, with more unseasonable rain! ☔️ it’s not too bad if there are big thunderstorms and then it clears but we’ve had a few days of all day drizzle, which as my English friends can relate, is no fun! It also causes the Mossies to come out in force! ☹️☹️ The Mossi situation is particularly bad down around the pool which is a shame. 

I spent a morning visiting the Tsunami Museum, I visited in 2018 but I felt it was worth a revisit. 

Sri Lanka was one of the worst hit by the 2004 Tsunami. With a total loss of over  35,000 people. Hikkaduwa was the site of one of the worst train disasters in the world. 

A large passenger train had left Colombo with over 1,800 passengers. It was just reaching Hikkaduwa when it was hit by the first wave. The first wave flooded the carriages and trapped people inside. Those that could escape and many people from the surrounding homes climbed onto the carriages to escape the water. Sadly the second, bigger, (50ft) and more devastating wave hit 30 minutes later totally derailing and destroying the train and all of the people on it and around it. Only 150 people from the train survived. 

The museum holds one of the carriages and when you see how big and incredibly heavy it is, it gives some indication of how devastatingly powerful the Tsunami was. 

The museum tells the story of what happened and also shines a light on the many, many people who came to help the survivors, particularly an Australian Doctor called Alison Thompson. 

It was also really interesting to learn that whilst Yala National Park was one of the areas worst hit as well as the whole of the coastline, very few if any animals were killed. All of the Elephants and other animals in the area headed to higher ground in the 2 hours between the earthquake and the Tsunami. 

I enjoyed my solo, expensive, tour around the Mangroves! 

The tour sorted with a quick stop at the Tsunami Buddha statue, which I had visited the day before. Then onto a lovely spice garden & Ayurvedic  clinic. It was a lovely spot to walk around, and interesting to learn what they use all the different herbs and spices for. Also very weird seeing how Pineapples grow. Never really considered it before, but strange!😳😂 

The next stop was a Turtle Sanctuary, and to be honest I was a little unsure about it. However I spoke to a couple of young British volunteers who assured me that it was ethical. They had quite a few disabled and injured turtles, which was sad to see, they also release eggs from the females. 

We then made our way to the Madu River and my Mangrove Safari. 

I’m pleased to say that I got in and out of the boat several times with absolutely no injuries!! Miraculous! 😂

I managed to see a couple of large water monitors, a kingfisher and a very distant crocodile! 

I was also blessed by a very nice Buddist Monk, who also gave me a cotton wrist tie. 

The mangroves are huge and made up of lots of islands and waterways. Only 3 islands are habitable. 

It felt very calm and peaceful on the water and I could have stayed out there all day! 🩵💚💙

Hikkaduwa has been interesting, I’ve met some lovely people and I’m really loving the food, back to my favourite veggie rice, I’m also loving the Roti’s & the local Lion Beer! 🍺 

I’m looking forward to investigating Galle and visiting some new places. 

I arrived in Galle on Thursday morning in time for a lovely surprise catch up with the lovely Lisa & Matt. ❤️

Lisa and I worked together for many years when we were School Family Workers. 

It is so very odd meeting people you know in a completely random location! 

Lisa and Matt have been in Sri Lanka celebrating Lisa’s birthday and they have had a great time, they have already visited some of the places I’m heading to so they were able to give me some useful hints and tips! 

Such a fabulous couple of hours catching up! Thank you guys for making the time, it made my day/week. 😘😍❤️

My hotel here is a little place called “The Entrance Galle Fort” it’s a small family run place and my room is perfect, small, spotless, quiet and close to everything. 

Galle fort is a beautiful place to walk around, nice narrow streets, great Galleries, Cafés, shops and interesting architecture. I spent the rest of the day mooching around and just enjoying seeing everything. 

I found a wonderful Middle Eastern Restaurant for dinner called ‘Chambers’ the food was amazing 🤩 I also got chatting to a really nice women called Gemma, who is here scoping out hotels and areas for the travel company she works for. (Rickshaw Travel) We had an animated and interesting chat about all the wonderful places there are to visit in the world, where we’ve been, where we loved, Brexit & WTF is going on in the USA! 😳😄

It is these random, spontaneous, fun interactions that I love about traveling alone. 

As I’ve mentioned before the weather in Sri Lanka is not great and today it has chucked it down all morning and is set to continue all day. 😟

I’m not expecting any sympathy, as you guys in the UK are about to get battered by Storm Éowyn!! 💨⛈️ And there has already been a genuine Tornado in Newquay!! 🌪️🌪️ So, please batten down and stay safe. ❤️

I’m going to spend the day mooching between the rain and drinking a lot of ☕️ and possibly later swap the tea for a beer or 2! 

It’s only 4 more sleeps until Tracey arrives!! Exciting. 🎉😍❤️

Laura, I hope you had a fabulous Birthday.

Brenda, sending you a big hug. 

Lesley, holding you in my heart. 

Stay safe, stay warm.

🩵💙🩷🧡❤️

Books Read

The ten thousand doors of January. Alix E. Harrow. I loved this book, great storytelling, a little bit of magic just a fabulous read. 

Carrie Soto is Back. Taylor Jenkins Reid. Not my usual thing, but I really enjoyed it. 

The Four Winds. Kristin Hannah. Another beautiful, powerful book featuring strong female stories. If you haven’t read any of her books I would highly recommend them.