Today was quite a foggy day. We woke up near noon and it was quite a low-beat atmosphere, I guess everyone was feeling a bit under the weather. Me and my cousin dressed up in matching Christmas sweaters. I had an alright lunch that my aunty cooked. Went in and got our respective presents. I received some cologne and some T-shirts.
We watched a film together and then I went to sleep bare early. Guess you could say I wasn’t feeling it that much today. Don’t have much else to write. I will be honest I am writing this stuff in the second of Jan so my memory might be a bit hazy on the events that may have happened and this will be true for the other ones as well.
Also, our Christmas tree was like a fucking midget. I don’t know how my mum picked this tree but I can’t help but laugh every time I look at this shit.
We woke up at my friend’s house after the party. I helped him clean up and got dropped back home by another mate. I was so fucking hungover and sleep-deprived today. I met my mum, who told me I had to go to the beauty parlour to help out. Today would be one of the busiest days of the year due to Christmas Eve.
So I went to the parlour in Uxbridge and helped to man the till there the whole day. I tried to sort out my phone contract as I got another number, and being on call with them was pretty frustrating. I stayed there till 6 p.m. which was closing time, and came home and literally slept without even having any dinner.
I know it’s a pretty dead day, but I think this entry reflects how fried I was today.
Anyway, tomorrow is Christmas, and this will be the first festival this journal will write about. Wow, that’s so exciting. I will see you guys tomorrow.
It was another early day today. This is like the 100th day in a row that I have had to wake up before 6 a.m., and I can’t be asked for more. But the flight from Ahmedabad was at 8 a.m., so we woke up at 3 a.m. to leave for the airport.
We got to the airport about two hours before our flight and just chilled in the lounge. This was the busiest lounge I had ever seen; I had to wait 5 minutes for a free seat before someone stood up. I had some bananas, and we went on the flight. We actually nearly missed it, and they had to announce our names 3 times before we made it to the gate. Our next stop was Bombay.
We got to Bombay, chilled in the lounge, and went around the duty-free there. I got some shampoo and went onto the flight. Now, here is where events take an unexpected turn. I was chilling in my seat when I saw one of my mates I went to Italy with walk past me. I called out to him, and we said that I would come to say hi when the plane took off.
When the plane took off, I went to him, and we couldn’t believe we were on the same flight. We caught up and decided that we needed a celebratory drink. We called the flight attendant and got some whiskey. That started an endless drinking chain. I went up to business class and got some Black Label with Coke. This guy probably poured 2 to 3 shots worth of drink in a single cup. I think I had like 7 glasses and was about to die.
I also tried to get my friend into business class, but someone snitched on us and got him kicked out of there. At least we tried. Now, we were on the seventh hour of the flight, and we had been drinking for the past six hours. I ordered another drink and drank one sip of it; I nearly puked all over the seat in front of me. I think that was the sign that I was done for the flight. I said goodnight to my friend, went up to my seat, and slept for the remaining two hours of the flight.
My initial plan for this flight was to probably watch a movie and go to sleep for at least seven hours, but I think this was the better option. I’ve never had such a fun flight in my life before.
We landed at Heathrow Airport, and my dad had come to pick us up. Today was another one of my mate’s birthdays, so I was meant to go home, get ready and drive straight to his. But I was still too drunk to drive, so my cousin and I decided to go straight to his from the airport. He lived very close, and we were there in 20 minutes.
I thought that it would be a very chill motive, like he said, but this man invited me like every girl in the world, and I was there in my grey trackies, smelling like I had just gotten off a flight. One of my boys gave me a spare top, and I went and showered during the party. We came down and started to party. It was pretty fun and we were drinking and dancing till like 2 in the morning. Bear in mind that I had not had a proper sleep in like over 24 hours as it would have been 7 in the morning in India.
Everyone eventually started to filter out until there were just a few people left. We were meant to smoke up and play some Monopoly, but I don’t think anyone could actually be asked to, so we put on a movie. I fell asleep before we even pressed start for the movie.
Anyways, today was quite an unexpected but great day. I will see you guys tomorrow.
Today, we visited my mum’s hometown of Modasa to see where they grew up. It was an early morning; we were up and ready by 6 a.m. as Modasa was a 4-hour drive away from Vadodara. We had to be back by 6 p.m. to pack our bags and get ready for the flight, which was early tomorrow. We got in the car and went off, picking up my uncle on the way.
It was a good drive there. We stopped here and there to take breaks and get refreshed. So we stopped at a service station, and when we went to use the toilet, there was this suspicious guy in there just looking at people coming in and out. I knew instantly that it was a gay man, so I avoided him, but one of my uncles didn’t know. So when he went into the stall, the gay guy went in behind him. Now my uncle probably thought that this guy was a cleaner and just wanted to clean the stall but, the gay guy went up to him and asked to “you know what”, my uncle pushed him aside very hard and shouted at him to fuck off. Well, that’s why you got to be careful in service stations in India, but this was just a very funny situation.
Now we get back on our way and reach Modasa by 11 p.m., and I finally get to see my grandparents’ house. It was very run down, and the trees and shrubs had overgrown due to the property being empty for nearly 20 years. We couldn’t go through the front stairs due to the shrubs, so we got a ladder from the neighbour and climbed to the porch. We were opening the door, and a lizard scurried its way across the door; it was a very old house.
Once we got inside, it was in much better condition than I had expected. It was just dirty and a bit old, nothing a bit of renovation couldn’t solve. We explored the different rooms and my uncle and aunty were telling me some stories from their childhood about the house.
We met the neighbours and went to the first house they grew up in, which was also run down due to years of neglect. They showed us the store they always used to hang around with and introduced us to the neighbours. They also showed me the houses of the uncles and aunties who were their neighbours and whom they still speak to to this day.
We finished that tour, and by 1 p.m., we were on our way back to Vadodara. We stopped over for some food at a restaurant on the highway and went onwards back home. Once we reached Vadodara, we were on a packing spree, as we had to get the packing done. I just ate some McDonald’s and went to sleep.
It was a good day today, and I’m glad I got to see my grandparent’s house. Both of them had passed away before I was born and I do wish I could see them. But it was great to see where I came from.
Oh, and I also saw a bus fall into a ditch on the way back to Vadodara.
Anyways, I will see you guys tomorrow. I will be in London by this time.
Well, today was a pretty chill day, not much to write about. I woke up at like 11 a.m. and went to do some banking stuff and took some passport pictures. I came home and watched a movie. I packed my bag to go to London and have some dal bati, which is an Indian dish consisting of lentils and round hard bread. It was alright; my stomach was fucking filled after I had it, and I literally could not move.
We chilled outside the place, got some dessert, and headed home. It was a pretty normal day.
I am not writing about other stuff right now cause I’m on holiday, but once I get back to the UK, I will be writing more broadly.
Today I had to attend another wedding. My mum’s friend’s niece was getting married. Now I thought that I would be getting a nice long sleep today and wake up at like 1 in the afternoon, but my mum comes into my room and wakes me up at 9 in the morning to get ready as we have to go the pre-wedding rituals, and the venue is an hour away. So I got dressed, and off we headed to the wedding. We left at about 10:30, and when we reached the venue, most of the rituals were already done, and people were just eating. The rituals had apparently started at 9 a.m. (talk about Indian timing). Now when we got into the venue, it had like 200 women just sitting in there and chatting away, these man invited the whole fucking village. All of them were holding a cheese grater, which was given as a gift.
We stayed at the venue for about two hours and decided to go to Anand to do some shopping, as we had time to kill before the actual wedding celebration. On the way, we stopped by my uncle’s house for a quick meet. We headed to the market, and all my mum wanted to look at was cooking utensils and jewellery. Now, bear in mind that I am in a full suit roaming an Indian market in about 30-degree heat; I stick out like a sweaty thumb. I go back to the car and just chill there with my uncles and wait till my mum gets back.
She finally returns at 5 p.m. (when the wedding is meant to start). So we rushed to a relative’s house to get changed for the wedding, and we finally reached the wedding venue at 6:30. Now, this was the largest wedding I had ever seen; there must have been around five to six hundred people there. The groom’s party hadn’t arrived yet so we were actually not late. We ate some food, which I didn’t really like – they made vedmi (sweet-stuffed roti) with a fig stuffing, what the fuck – anyways, we ate and just sat near the stage and watched the whole procession.
I told you earlier that this was a very distant wedding, now my mum has brought me, her sister, my cousin, my uncle and aunt. We were just sitting there, and we knew no one out of the 600 people there. It was a pretty beautiful wedding, though, and finished on time, which I can’t say about the one that was a week ago. Overall, it was a pretty chill day; my cousin and I had a good time with Snapchat filters to kill the time during the wedding because Indian weddings are bloody long.
Today was the day we headed back to Vadodara, the flight was at 6 in the morning, and my stomach was still fucked. We got back, and I saw my dad off. He went back to London today on a flight. After that, I went home and went to sleep.
I woke up like 9 hours later with the worst stomach pain I’ve had. I took a shot like 7 times, and I still had diarrhoea from two days ago. I called my mum, and she got me some soda, but the pain was still not going away. My aunty then said that my stomach might have shifted; she did a quick check by making me lay on the floor, pressing my stomach and confirming that this was the case. Well, lucky for me, there is a remedy for this. You basically get some rubber bands, tie them very tightly around both of your big toes and don’t take them off until you can’t bear the pain.
Well, this felt like shit. Apparently, it helps to pull your stomach back into place, and I did not believe this would work. But what do you know, it actually worked. My pain stopped for the first time after three days. My toes were kind of blue at the end of it, but I think that it was worth it. I then watched like three films had my grandma’s food, which was pretty good and went to bed.
Today was also another early day; we were heading to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. My stomach is still fucked, by the way. We got ready and left at around 8 in the morning. Now, when we left, the air was literally grey. They were not lying about the pollution in Delhi, it is fucking bad. I don’t know how people even live in this place.
But moving on, it was a 4-hour drive there, and I slept for most of it. We got there and hired a tour guide who actually knocked on our car window while we were driving to get business. Now, bear in mind it is foggy the whole way to Agra, and I have gotten an alert on my phone on how bad the air quality is today. We start to enter the Taj Mahal, and it looks like a fucking painting. It is beautiful. We snap a lot of pictures, and I mean a lot of pictures.
We are done after an hour of going around the Taj Mahal, so we head towards the market outside to do some shopping. Now, the tour guide tells us that he knows a better market called Meena Bazaar, which is a bit further away, where we will get better items. So we listened to him, and he came to our car and came with us to show us where it was. He takes us to a fucking shop. My mum literally flipped out as she wanted to buy some stuff from the market, and he stopped us to take us to this rinky dinky looking place. The same goods here were twice as expensive as the market outside the Taj, and cause of this, my mum started to fight with the tour guide; bear in mind my stomach was still fucked throughout this whole thing.
We tell him that we don’t require his services anymore, pay him what he’s owed, and send him on his way. Now, we decide to head for lunch and eat at some overpriced joint (the tour guide’s recommendation). We curse him once more and start to head to the holy city of Mathura.
Mathura is the birthplace of Lord Krishna, and we were going to visit a temple there. We got this tour guide there again to take us around the area, and he was this little kid—bless him—he did a good job. We went to the temple, did some shopping, and went to the next place, which is Gokul.
Gokul is an interesting place; it has a population of about 5000 and 10,000 cows and is 100% Hindu. We visited a temple and met a guy who guided us to the temple, and we were the last visitors there for the day. We got fucking bamboozled here. They asked for a £120 donation and made it seem we wanted to give them that much money. We don’t even know what happened, but the sweet-talking priest did a ritual on us and said that the donation must be 120 quid. Bro was moving mad. Donating to God only matters when it is given from the heart and not asked of you.
Well, my stomach is still fucked after all this but I will see you tomorrow.
Today was an early day; I woke up at around 4:30 a.m. to go to the Golden Temple. I’m not complaining though, as I’ve always wanted to see the Temple during sunrise and pray there. I showered, got dressed, and headed to the Temple with my mum, which was a 5-minute walk from the hotel. It was dark out and the first glimpse of the temple was beautiful. It was glimmering against the water of the Amrit Sarovar; what a sight to see.
We headed in and made our way to the line, which didn’t look that long from the outside. Oh, did I forget to mention that it was also bloody cold. We got to the line, and it was making very slow progress; we got to about a third of the way through in 30 minutes. When we were about halfway, the sunrise started, and that initiated the morning prayer, I guess. Everyone in the line started to sit on the floor to join the prayer, and we were there for another 30 minutes for the prayer. I wasn’t complaining, though, as I got to pray with the Sikhs during their morning prayer at the Golden Temple, which is a one-off experience. We finally got into the actual temple about 30 minutes later, and let me tell you, I was beautiful and worth the wait. I would highly recommend at least visiting here once in your life.
Once we were done, my mum and I decided to go do langar (community meal); now my feet at this point were frozen, it felt as if I was walking on rubber. The marble was very cold and the whole temple is surronded by marble but we still took pictures and headed to the langar. Langar is basically a free community meal available to everyone who visits a Gurudwara. The food was delicious, it was a vegetable curry, and I had some dal makhani and rice along with it. Now here’s where the story has a twist. So because I didn’t want to waste anything they had given us, I drank the water they had poured for us, both my mum’s and mine. As soon as I drank this water, I was finished.
I don’t know what happened, but my stomach started to hurt; I thought it wouldn’t last that long, so I firmed it and moved on to the next thing, which was visiting Jallianwala Baag. We walked there, and now I felt like puking. I thought I would, and as we entered the park, it got even worse. I thought I was going to throw up in there, but luckily, I didn’t. I actually wanted to explore this place as well because it is where the British massacred the local Punjabis during their occupation, but I was in no mood. We took a few pictures and headed straight for the exit and took a taxi home.
We got home, and I went to sleep for an hour; after I woke up, I felt a bit better, but my stomach was still hurting. I went to the toilet and found out I had diarrhoea. But the holiday must still go on, and I wanted to explore the city more, so next, my mum and I went to the partition museum, and it was a great visit. I learnt a lot about the events that led up to the partition of the Indian subcontinent and British colonisation and what happened after India gained Independence. I would highly recommend visiting here if your in Amritsar.
But my stomach was still hurting, and I just wanted to go home and shit. We exited the museum and tried to look for the rickshaw driver that had brought us to the museum, but he had disappeared:
ON A SIDE NOTE: so when we exited Jallianwala Baag, we found a rickshaw driver to take us back to the hotel, when we got back we made a deal with him to take us to the museum and then to the airport; we agreed on a price and then went to the museum an hour later. Once we got out the museum, this guy had completely disappeared, we tried calling him ten times from two different phones, but he wouldn’t pick up. Now, where he was parked, we saw the rickshaw driver that was taking us around yesterday. He said to take another one and was pushing us to take his friend’s one home and not wait for the current driver. Now, obviously, we ignored him and waited for a bit, but after he didn’t appear for another 10 minutes, we took a random rickshaw and went to the hotel. Bear in mind we haven’t paid the current rickshaw guy any money yet. Now what I think happened is the yesterday rickshaw driver saw us making a deal with a new guy and got a bit jealous and threatened him to fuck off so that he could take us back to the hotel. This is because of how much he was pushing us to take his friend’s one and was just standing there at the exact same place where we had parked outside the museum. Now, this is just speculation, of course.
Moving on, we went back to the hotel, had some food, and headed to the airport. At this point, my stomach was flaring up again, and I was in no mood to do anything. At the security line, there was no queue, and everyone was barging in. I got into a fight with this one guy who cut in front of me. We exchanged quite a few slurs at each other, and he went to the back of the line. Like I said, I was in no mood.
We got on the plane and headed to Delhi. We got to our hotel, which was five minutes from the airport, and I went straight to bed.
Well fuck being ill, I will see you guys tomorrow.
Today was a very early start. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to prepare for the flight to Amritsar. It was pretty uneventful the whole way to Amritsar, as I was sleeping for most of it—oh, but we did get the extra legroom seats by coincidence, so big up to the lady who checked our bags.
Once we got to Amritsar, we hired a taxi and made our way to the hotel, now hear me out, the hotel’s called Heaven View, so I thought it was going to be some fucking fancy hotel but to actually get to the hotel we had to switch the car for a rickshaw. It took half an hour to go 1km due to how narrow the roads were, and some retards were bringing tractors down it blocking the whole way. On the way, we passed this extremely nice-looking hotel, and I thought this was the one but lucky me, I got fucking blue balled, and what actually appeared was a hotel that looked more like a motel. But i’m not going to complain, it was pretty clean and a literal 1 minute walk to the golden temple which is pretty convenient.
After getting refreshed, we headed for lunch (it took us 30 minutes to go 1km again). We had some kulchas for lunch, and let me tell you, they were fucking banging, we had a total of 7 kulchas between everyone, and we were stuffed. We then made our way to Wagah Border to watch the closing ceremony. It was pretty cool; we got to see the full-blown patriotism of the Indian crowds and the seemingly lackluster performance from the Pakistani side, but I guess they might have been out of view for me. It was a fun ceremony, and I’m glad I got to see it.
We then made our way to the Vaishnodevi mandir, and I think that this temple was made for midgets. The ceiling was fucking 2 feet tall, and I think I had back pain from walking around in the labyrinth that was this temple. But it was pretty cool, and they had depictions of the different Hindu stories hidden around the labyrinth. The Ramayan one was especially cool, and I really liked the designs of the murtis; it was nice to see something else from the ordinary.
Once we were done with the temple, we got some spices to take back to London and then headed for some food. I had Sarson Ka Saag and Makki ki roti. It was pretty banging, but I already felt rough eating so many kulchas earlier in the day.
Anyways, it was a good day today. I do need to wake up early tomorrow to go to the Golden Temple, so I will see you tomorrow.
