So, the most amazing thing has just happened - best moment of the whole trip, possibly our lives. As mentioned in a previous blog, we left the girls at the nunnery with the promise that a signature from Virat Kholi was on the way. After having no news of its whereabouts, it had slipped from our minds until about half an hour ago when we received an email titled 'SURPRISE' from the mighty Mon (Monica). In the contents of this wonderful email Monica informed us of the news that Virat would take it 'one step further' AND...tomorrow morning he will walk through the gates of the convent accompanied by press and a band of photographers to spend the morning with the girls. To put this into better context - it's the equivalent of David Beckham visiting a tiny unknown charity full of children who've been abandoned due to an illness that is no fault of their own. These girls rifle through the daily newspaper and keep a scrapbook containing cuttings of all his pictures, hiding it from the view of the sisters, He's going to walk the sandy path that we walked ever day and drink chai made by Chenda from the same cups that we did. This tiny nunnery will never have received so much attention or contained so much excitement. Although we are OVER THE MOON we can't believe we're experiencing this from afar and only wish we could see their faces as their hero walks into their home to their utter surprise Can't really communicate via the blog how incredible we feel bringing sop much happiness to these girls who we are so fond of/ No doubt photos and press releases are to follow. WOW.
Moving on - an experience less joyful we'll recall our experience in Jaisalmer. Following the advice of many travellers we decide to ride the animal of love on a camel safari for two days in the Thar desert. Romantic our fucking still painful, bruised arses. It started well - the first five minutes was the idyllic experience we imagined; equipped with turbans we resembled four Lawrence of Arabias, bouncing gracefully through the sandy desert. As time passed by, the discomfort increased, the sweat built up and instead we began to resemble four bedraggled sweaty forms, quite ready to leave the barren landscape and return to our straw mattresses. The silver lining on our dreadful experience was the amazing stargazing we were so looking forward too. However, as six o'clock struck so did the rage of the gods - sand whirlwinds blasted past us, thunder rattled the sky and the rain began - classic us - rain in the bloody desert! The camels bolted into a sprint to shelter - our limbs flailing everywhere - even Liv wished she had worn a sports bra! Once we reached the derelict shell of a building we swept goat shit from under out feet and erected a tarpaulin. We looked up at the sky and witnessed a beautiful array of sweet eff all! What was to be the only highlight of that two day marathon was falling asleep to the sounds of Simon and Garfunkel and a cool breeze - well, not quite a breeze, more like a hurricane that whipped off our duvets every 5 minutes. C'est la vie! Next day was to take a plummeting turn for the worst. The almost 50 degree heat scorched our bodies and our bums, back and thighs received a battering that we are still recovering from Sipping boiling hot water gave us no refreshment yet we trolloped on creating mirages of salami, brie. french bread and ice cold elderflower - anything but bloody chapattis!!!! When we finally reached our conclusive destination we had never been so delighted to see an Indian man in a jeep coming to pick us up. (By the way - this is what we looked like in the desert!
After we thought we'd had our fair share of horrendous transport there was more in store for us - we then had to endure 14 hours of rock hard seats, sweltering heat and the delightful company of many a staring Indian man on a FILTHY, piss smelling coach. Welcome to Jaipur - 11.30 in the middle of bloody nowhere bundling into another rickety rick(shaw) we were so close to comfort when Lucy's bag decided to leap put of the boot into the middle of a busy, Indian motorway junction. It was speedily recovered and we arrived at our 'oasis of calm'. Our days in Jaipur were spent acquiring bizarre purchases such as a 3000 rupee bedsheet for Lucy and three identical rabbit wool scarves for Olivia - not quite sticking to the budget we set for our selves...
We're now stuck in Agra, or Agshithole due to the chaotic train booking system here in India. The Taj Mahal was of course magical, but other than that we're just too fucking hot, on and Liv has the shits, Happy Days.
PS. This blog was written a few days ago, the Virat occurrence actually happened yesterday morning. Here are some links and photos....
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/slideshows/may-17-2013/virat-kohli-interacting-with-children-in-bangalore/slideshow/20104178.cms
Moving on - an experience less joyful we'll recall our experience in Jaisalmer. Following the advice of many travellers we decide to ride the animal of love on a camel safari for two days in the Thar desert. Romantic our fucking still painful, bruised arses. It started well - the first five minutes was the idyllic experience we imagined; equipped with turbans we resembled four Lawrence of Arabias, bouncing gracefully through the sandy desert. As time passed by, the discomfort increased, the sweat built up and instead we began to resemble four bedraggled sweaty forms, quite ready to leave the barren landscape and return to our straw mattresses. The silver lining on our dreadful experience was the amazing stargazing we were so looking forward too. However, as six o'clock struck so did the rage of the gods - sand whirlwinds blasted past us, thunder rattled the sky and the rain began - classic us - rain in the bloody desert! The camels bolted into a sprint to shelter - our limbs flailing everywhere - even Liv wished she had worn a sports bra! Once we reached the derelict shell of a building we swept goat shit from under out feet and erected a tarpaulin. We looked up at the sky and witnessed a beautiful array of sweet eff all! What was to be the only highlight of that two day marathon was falling asleep to the sounds of Simon and Garfunkel and a cool breeze - well, not quite a breeze, more like a hurricane that whipped off our duvets every 5 minutes. C'est la vie! Next day was to take a plummeting turn for the worst. The almost 50 degree heat scorched our bodies and our bums, back and thighs received a battering that we are still recovering from Sipping boiling hot water gave us no refreshment yet we trolloped on creating mirages of salami, brie. french bread and ice cold elderflower - anything but bloody chapattis!!!! When we finally reached our conclusive destination we had never been so delighted to see an Indian man in a jeep coming to pick us up. (By the way - this is what we looked like in the desert!
After we thought we'd had our fair share of horrendous transport there was more in store for us - we then had to endure 14 hours of rock hard seats, sweltering heat and the delightful company of many a staring Indian man on a FILTHY, piss smelling coach. Welcome to Jaipur - 11.30 in the middle of bloody nowhere bundling into another rickety rick(shaw) we were so close to comfort when Lucy's bag decided to leap put of the boot into the middle of a busy, Indian motorway junction. It was speedily recovered and we arrived at our 'oasis of calm'. Our days in Jaipur were spent acquiring bizarre purchases such as a 3000 rupee bedsheet for Lucy and three identical rabbit wool scarves for Olivia - not quite sticking to the budget we set for our selves...
We're now stuck in Agra, or Agshithole due to the chaotic train booking system here in India. The Taj Mahal was of course magical, but other than that we're just too fucking hot, on and Liv has the shits, Happy Days.
PS. This blog was written a few days ago, the Virat occurrence actually happened yesterday morning. Here are some links and photos....
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/slideshows/may-17-2013/virat-kohli-interacting-with-children-in-bangalore/slideshow/20104178.cms
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