Giraffery's Insights.

We've been travelling for 6-7 weeks now and are feeling pretty settled into the lifestyle. As some of you may of heard the start of our trip was not particularly successful. Whilst nothing of major consequence happened it was fairly stressful and provided a certain lack of control.

As our plan to leave Delhi was ruined we needed a new one. One of the many 'tourist information centers' of Delhi was more than happy to provide us with an alternative. For anyone who is planning to come to India it is particularly important to take businesses, information and offers with a pinch of salt. Our original plan was to head around a loop of the north via Rishikesh-Manali-Leh-Srinagar. The alternative was to head to Srinagar first.

This is an extremely common destination for bewildered tourists in Delhi. The 'tourist information centers' have a large network of friends and acquaintances who run hotels in Delhi, drive taxis in Delhi and most importantly some who own houseboats in Srinagar. They'll charge you around 8000rs (80 pounds) for a bus ride and houseboat stay. Upon reflection this equates to a 1400 (14 pound) 24 hour government bus ride and 3 nights in a houseboat, the owner of which gets a cut of the remaining charge. Some of the money also goes to the friendly characters and taxi drivers that sneakily steer you from the streets of Delhi to their mates 'tourist information center'. As our initial situation led to us being under-prepared and lacking knowledge of places to stay in Delhi it was all too easy for us to fall into this hole. It's all linked and well-oiled.

As a result the houseboat accommodation ends up being too expensive, depending on your budget, but relatively it's still not too bad. After all Srinagar and Dal lake is a beautiful place. The hardest part of the whole process is the feeling that you've been herded and milked. This feeling inevitably passes with time.

One of the big reasons Srinagar and the houseboats is such a popular place to funnel unsuspecting tourists towards, is that it works very well as a large scale sales environment. Houseboats moored 15 minutes plus away from shore make it hard for a quick retreat should you want to leave. Moving around the lake takes time and requires a boat to be provided. They can take you to their friend who sells jewelry, scarves etc and some interactions become unavoidable. As long as you are confident and say no, when you feel you need to, nothing bad will happen. Regardless it can be somewhat stressful and some may feel trapped.

It is just a feeling though, if you want to leave and you ask to do so, no one will make you stay.

Most owners directly sell, or are linked to people who sell, treks and sight-seeing tours. The prices are always heavily inflated with some people reportedly paying close to 150 pounds a day for treks in the local area. We feel we were certainly pressured into our final decision but importantly we were very keen to purchase what was being offered. We haggled and threatened to leave until we were offered the trek and a ride to Leh for close to 25 pound a day. In hindsight it's clear that this is still a large amount of money and that the atmosphere and situation had the desired (in their eyes) effect. In other circumstances I doubt we would of parted with the money.

I advise travelers who are thinking of trekking in Kashmir, or have found themselves in a similar situation, to be assertive and to shop around first. Be conscious that a stern no is a useful tool. So early in our trip and directly after our experiences in Delhi and the trip north we failed to exhibit such vigilance.

Although slightly overpriced, even with halving the original cost, it was certainly hard to remain sour about parting with money. The trek was breath-taking and the insight into the mountain people's lives and culture was extremely unique. An experience we will cherish forever. Our guides told us that some people ignore them while trekking or only talk to order them about. The friendship we formed made it so much more special. Even if they did find a talking Giraffe a little strange!

Uncertainty is the case with many transactions in India, it seems dodgy and strange but, almost always, you get what you asked for or where you wanted to be.

Most importantly the events of the first few weeks, followed by a peaceful time to reflect upon them, have done a marvelous job of preparing us for India and its nuances. We have had a crash course in false-advertising, pressured sales environments, haggling and general trickery. The result isn't paranoia, it's a heightened sense in regards to such things and an alertness that brings us comfort. I truly believe that we're better off for the experience. I'd rather it happened to begin with than subtly tripping us over throughout the rest of the trip.

With these conclusions fresh in our minds we arrived in Leh 3 weeks into our trip and for the first real time since Delhi we were completely free and in control. From that moment forward we have been assertive and relaxed, able to soak in the brilliance and insane diversity of the small slice of India we have seen so far.

Anyway, that's it for now,

Love to you all,

Giraffery.

Nek Chand's Fantasy Rock Garden!

It's safe to say our stay in Chandigarh was a fairly downbeat one. Jon and Eve both got ill (I was fine, small Giraffes don't get ill) and the whole thing cost too much. However, regardless of these facts one special place managed to make it worth all the suffering!

We took a trip to 'Nek Chand's Fantasy Rock Garden' not really knowing what to expect. It cost the equivalent of 20p to get in and was worth ten times more.

So much so we wanted to give it it's own special post in our blog!

Nek Chand started creating the garden outwards from a small shack in the middle of the garden's first section. Everything in the garden is made from waste created from the destruction of villages in the area when Chandigarh city was being built. The garden is purposefully flowing and erratic so not to mirror the regimented modern grid system that makes up Chandigarh.

The corridors continue and the intricacy of his work becomes more and more apparent. It still feels natural though.

The corridors open up to reveal a huge temple like complex, each rock laid by hand.

At first glance these huge roots on one side of the open area appear to be from huge manipulated trees. On closer inspection they are hand made from steel wiring and concrete. Even up close they are convincing.

You have to keep your eyes open or you're likely to miss the small things hidden in corners. Like these small houses tucked up a wall.

At this point we were beginning to realise this place was a bit more than tastefully placed rocks and some shrubs. 

When you look closely at a lot of the constructions you can see what they are made of. This archway is made out of concrete and plumbing ceramic. Nothing went to waste.

These walls are made of broken plates.

After a while figures started to appear. Frankly they're the best thing ever.

After the barrage of strange faces the garden opened up again.

It presented us with a spectacular waterfall. The walls of this artificial canyon were constructed by pouring concrete into sacks, waiting for it to set and taking off the sacks. The result is very convincing.

The garden had some pretty awesome art work!

As you walk through the door marked exit, thinking it's all over, you're met with more of the gang...

My personal favourites were these rather disgruntled looking women...

Here are our choice favourites:

and..

Beautiful.

It finishes off with the colourful dancing ladies made with broken bangles!

It was a wonderful place and I wish it all the best as it continues to expand. The garden covered 12 acres of land and was the only genuine thing about our stay in an otherwise artificial feeling city.

I hope these pictures put across some of the feeling we had whilst walking around the place.

Anyway, we'll keep you all up to date with our adventures in Rishikesh!

Lots of love,

Eve, Jon and Giraffery!

Shifting through Shimla.

Hey everyone, 

Hope you're all well. We've moved on from Manali and have just arrived in Rishikesh. This is one of our most anticipated spots. It is situated on the river Ganges and is a hotspot for Yoga. There's also a number of places nearby that we want to visit so this should be our base for a little bit. 

To get to Rishikesh we travelled through Shimla and Chandigarh. We both fell ill in Chandigarh which was unfortunate because it was by far the most expensive place we've been. We stayed in a room somewhat equal to our 400rs (4 pound) a night room in beautiful Manali but it was 1200rs and in the middle of a fairly uninspired city. There was one very special thing in Chandigarh though and we'll show you that in the next post!

First of all Shimla!

Shimla was built by a British guy in the 19th century. It started out as a hill retreat for the British and their lackeys. As a result there's loads of British architecture and characteristics. Whilst it was beautiful and interesting at points, it has evolved into a more upper class Indian tourist retreat and was a bit shiny for our liking.

We arrived in the late afternoon and only stayed 2 nights before moving on. On the day in-between we went to find the Hanuman temple which boasts this massive statue.

 Hanuman is the Hindu Monkey God and true to his name his monkey mates were everywhere!

And the big guy himself..

This cheeky guy nicked someone's sunglasses!

One of the main reasons we traveled via Shimla was so we could go on the 'Toy train' from Shimla to Kalka, near Chandigarh. It was definitely worth it!

The views from the train were wonderful.

So whilst Shimla itself wasn't quite our very British cup of tea, the diversion and surroundings made it more than worth the effort.

Talk to you later!

Lots of love,

Giraffery, Eve and Jon.

Leh to Manali.

Hey everyone!

We've been holed up in Manali for about 10 days now, it's extremely chilled here and we found a really nice guesthouse to stay in. The guesthouse is in the old part of Manali and is surrounded by gorgeous little houses with slate slab roofs. Also, plenty of cows! We've been a bit ill over the last 3-4 days but we looked after one another and have been lucky to have a calm, clean and friendly guesthouse to roll around in.

We'll be moving off to Shimla in the next couple of days so here's some pictures from the Leh/Manali leg of our trip.

Some of the scenery on the way to Leh. The terrain was so dramatic, it's strange to see landscapes like it firsthand. You've seen them on TV and the internet before but when you're there it's overwhelming. It's almost like your not supposed to be there. Most of the time it doesn't hit you properly until you think back on it.

Walking up to Leh Palace. A little underwhelming to be honest but the views from the top were pretty special...

From the Palace you can continue upwards to a Buddhist Monestary. We chose to climb the wrong way rather than take the path.

The top the Monestary is mostly ruined save for a tiny temple room. It was very peaceful as most people find it a little too hard, because of the altitude, to get right up there.

On the other side of Leh is the Shanti Stupa, a large shrine that was constructed by the Japanese. You have to walk around it in a clockwise motion otherwise everyone looks very upset.

Moving on from Leh towards Manali we were treated to more epic landscapes and some pretty hairy roads!

A lot of the Manali to Leh highway is a plateau.

We arrived at our stop over point, Keylong, pretty late but just in time to see the moon rise over the mountains. It took about 3 minutes for it to emerge from behind the mountain, you could see it move with your naked eye.

The next day we moved on to Manali and ended up in a quaint part of Old Manali. This is one of the views from our balcony. The room is big, clean and perfectly situated. It costs the equivilant of 4 pound a night for both of us.

The other view from our room.

The little resturant at the 'Leki guesthouse'.

The guesthouse's garden.

Exploring the surrounding mountains we follwed a sign for a cafe near the top of the valley. Of course it was closed, good view though!

The Beas river that flows past Manali.

Hope you guys all enjoy these photos. We all send our love!

Eve, Giraffery and Jon.

Kashmiri Trek.

Hi all,

We're currently in Manali on the way south from Leh. We finished our two days of bus journeys yesterday. 14 hours on the first leg to Keylong and 6 hours from there to Manali.

The internet is much better here so I'm going to take the oppurtunity to upload the pics from our trek in Kashmir! Enjoy.

This is the river down the hill from our Guide's house. The village is called Naranag.

This resourceful young lady took a particular shine to Eve's watch. She had to settle for a necklace!

Although Jammu & Kashmir is predominantly a Muslim area Naranag boasted a ruined Shiva Temple.

After a brutal 3 and a half hour climb up the mountain we made camp and went even further up! This is one of our guides Zakir (Left) introducing us to some of the mountain nomads. They walk all the way from Jammu over the mountains so their livestock can graze and move back when winter comes.

Our first camp! Not a bad view.

After two nights at the first camp we move on to a camp next to an amazing coniferous forest.

I found a small cow. I miss my giraffe kind.

Fire at the forest camp.

Football!

We moved on from the Forest camp to a lake right at the top of the mountains. It's called Gangabal and it's situated under the highest mountain in the area Harimook.

Sheep invaded. The shepards walk miles every day taking their sheep up and down mountains to find good pasture.

The view from under Harimook facing towards our camp.

Jon had to have a swim but it was very cold! Eve braved the waters as well.

Our other guide and talented cook, Akter. He's a complete legend.

We moved on and stayed on the other side of Harimook for one night.

Akter took us to a secret lake tucked away up in the mountains.

We went back to the forest camp for the last 3 nights and had a well deserved wash!

The trek was amazing, there was hardly another soul about apart from the locals. On the way back down we saw more tourists than we had seen the whole time we were up in the mountains. Completely unplanned, it happened to be Ramadan whilst we were up there so it was very quiet. It ended just as we were leaving.

As usual we both send all our love and we'll be back soon to show you some of our snaps from Leh and Manali!

Eve, Jon and Giraffery. x