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Hi guys!!! hope you are all doing good! We are but its been a bit hectic of late because of all the changes in our plans! Kind of makes it more exciting though! So thats the reason for the lack of good blog entries of late! But i have time now so will give a good one this time! However, sorry for the lack of photos! Believe me, we have tried! But the internet is so rubbish it either uploads one photo every 15 minutes - or (as the internet cafe we are in now) doesnt let you upload them at all! And this is the best internet cafe in this town apparently! So really sorry - we are disappointed too as we have so many fab pictures to show you all! But you will have to wait another week probably - i think the internet will be better in varanasi as it isnt in the middle of the himalayas! lol. So the last week....
Pretty sure we left you on the Thursday when we had just arrived in Srinigar, Kashmir and were greeted by a luxurious room on a boat house!!! Well, this luxury didnt last as the on Friday we took a jeep ride up into the mountains for a 4 day trek!!! On the way we stopped for provisions where the guides got out to buy some food! I turned to dan and said 'wouldnt it be funny if they brought back live chickens?'. Can anyone guess what happened 5 minutes later.... Yup - 2 live chickens were brought into the jeep!!! I named them pinky and perky to begin with, then changed my mind and decided (to dans disgust) that juicy & tender were much better names considering!!! Hehehe! We didnt get too attached to them luckily - but they were damn tasty!! We went for a short hike that afternoon - got ridiculously tired after about 2 hours so came back down again! Our tent is lovely - the inside was really pretty material design! That night we had a 3 course meal for dinner!!! crazy! Soup, then curry & rice (obviously!) then weird semolina stuff! Went for another short walk in the evening got caught in a storm! Ran halfway back to the camp but then took shelter in a gypsy womans "house" and sat by the warm fire for a little while! That night we absolutely FROZE to death in the tent! We had like 5 thick blankets on top of us & 2 hot water bottles each! But it was still cold! Never mind...
Saturday we went for another trek (funnily enough) with a different guide - who i thought looked like a kashmiri version of peter serafinowitch!!!! (think iv spelt that wrong but who cares?!!) We walked for about 3 hours uphill this time before deciding that we couldnt go on any further! So we had lunch then headed back down the mountain. stopped off in his families 'house' where they made us kashmiri tea and dry chapatti bread!!! Was quite awful on its own & we were already thirsty but soldiered through it! Bekki can now eat anything that is given to her - even when she is full!!! dan could already do this but never mind!! another gorgeous dinner followed by another walk up to another gypsy house - bit more house like this time! We went to the run-up to a hindu wedding! Was well cool - but quite scary! Outside, there was a tent full of men smashing up meat, a load of men chopping firewood, & a load of men stirring massive cauldrons full of food in preparation! Of course when we turned up they all stared at us! So scary! Then they gave us practically the only 2 chairs there & we sat in the middle of it all - drinking the tea they gave us & eating some more stale bread!!! Was sooo nerve-wracking!!! Then our guide took us inside where all the women were sat around the bride in one room! He made everyone move so i could sit next to the bride for a photo! Was soooo embarrasing!!! Plus she was crying! i didnt know what to say! Turns out she was crying because once she is married she moves away from her family to another village with her husband - and she has never been away from them before! Was chilly again that night - even though the masses of blankets were on top of us again!
Sunday we were meant to be going on a SEVEN HOUR hike up a mountain, making camp, then walking for another hour to see a lake!! But me & dan asked if we could do something different as we didnt think we could make it!! Seven hours up hill in THAT heat??!! I don't think so!! So we did a different shorter walk (with another stop in a gypsy's house) before eating lunch and being taken back to the wedding!! We were fed some more and stared at even more so - at one point there was actually a semi-circle of people around us - staring at us!!! creepy! We watched the procession of family coming into the house for the marital meal then left to go back to our camp. That night we found out that we had sleeping bags that we had obviously missed before and had been sleeping on top of!! We were hot that night & kicked off most of our covers!!! Silly people we are!
Monday we went for another short walk along the river, then drove back to the boat house where we relaxed all evening!!
Tuesday (Dan's birthday!!!!) was a really lovely relaxing affair! We went on a Shikara boat ride around Lake Dal - just sat and relaxed all day practically!! in the evening we went into town where i bought a kashimiri dress so i would fit in properly!!! we also chatted to an american couple (Brett & Matt - Brett is a girl by the way!! lol) and brett drew up an itenery for us for our trip to north america in a few years!!! Matt just rolled his eyes at this but we were dead excited!!
Wednesday we went around to visit the mogul gardens - where we got stared at a lot! We also visited a mosque & green temple & the local bizzar! Good day out! in the evening we learnt that our bus trip to leh the next day was going to take 2 DAYS!!! woops!! so we braced ourselves!
Thursday was the beginning of our gruelling, coxix crushing bus journey through the dangerous himalayas!!! beautiful scenery but we are so lucky we didnt fall off the edge of the cliff it was so scary! luckily everyone on the bus was nice so we chatted to lots of the people - plus made friends with an australian who was really strange!!! the drive took us along the border of pakistan!! half of kashmiri is considered in india and half is considered part of pakistan - and we were driving along the border!! We had to go through loads of security posts where the military took our passports & checked them etc! Quite scary actually!! that night we shared a room with Kristina (the ozzi).
Friday was just as gruelling as thursday - but seemed to take forever! with the air slowly getting thinner we were feeling like we should have oxygen masks with us or something! Arriving in Leh we thought - oh my god!! Its a really tiny place - you can actually walk everywhere! Well you could if the lack of air wasnt making you gasp all the time!!! lol. we booked our bus tickets to manali for monday- a 16 hour minibus ride throught he mountains again!! yay! the hotel we are staying at is quite nice though!
And here we are today - had a lie in this morning and are now in an internet cafe! Leh is a really strange place - loads of foreigners & the locals dont look indian! They all look oriental - tibetan possibly! But we dont get stared at as much luckily!!! Which is a plus!!!
Anywho, will update as soon as possible - might be on tuesday or wednesday in manali hopefully! if not it wont be for another 11 days when we are in varanasi! Next weekend we are hopefully going to the Corbett Tiger Reserve to go trekking for tigers on elephant back! Wish us luck as we are a jinx on nature!!
missing you all loads and will see you very soon!
love bekki & dan
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