Mexico... the first 3 days of our holiday... and the quest for WIFI andInternet Access!

I’m very fortunate to have been on holiday in many places in the past 5 years, up mountains in Nepal over 2500m high, in remote parts of India in a Feudal Lord’s homestay, and have always managed to get online pretty successfully.  When we booked to come to Mexico and Cuba back in March and chose relatively “upmarket” hotels, I complacently assumed that internet access wouldn’t be an issue and pictured myself and Alan watching Netflix after a busy day of sightseeing in the hotel room.

The reality has been somewhat different.  

We could buy internet access in the hotel in Mexico, but for extortionate amounts, so we purchased some roaming data instead for our phones (which was also pretty pricey) and we were able to be online most of the time we were in Mexico…Cuba however has been entirely different and I’ll come onto that in a later post.  Needless to say that the digital detox has been at the same time frustrating and freeing - being totally unable to check work emails for the first time in 5 years when on holiday has been quite relaxing and refreshing.

We arrived in Mexico on the 8th November after a very relaxing flight.  Alan had upgraded our seats to extra legroom as he’s 6”4 tall and it was totally unnecessary for my little legs, but made for a very pleasant 10-hour flight.  During the flight, I managed to watch the David Brent film, Absolutely Fabulous and a very odd coming of age type film called “Goat” that was apparently critically acclaimed, but in reality, was just a lot of examples of “hazing” for people to get into an American frat house, if there was any deeper meaning to it, it was certainly lost on me.  We collected our luggage…eventually as Alan’s was literally the last case off the belt, in fact he had to climb onto the belt to grab it as the belt had just stopped!

Our transfer was smooth to our resort – Occidental and we checked in and got our bags into the room before venturing out first to try and book some excursions as we knew we only had 5 days in Mexico, but unfortunately they were closed, so we took some leaflets and headed down to the beach club for our first buffet experience.  The air was warm and humid and the resort had familiar tropical plant type smells that I remember from being on holiday in place like Bali and there was a buzz of crickets as we walked along the lantern lit paths down to the beach club.  I’d spotted some small lizards on the walls as we’d walked to our room.

I’d had a slightly nauseous flight and this had continued once I was off the plane and I probably should have taken it a bit easier on the buffet, but I managed to tuck into various salads, meats, cheeses and plenty of dessert!  We wandered around the huge resort and jumped on a little golf type train back to where our room was and by this point it was probably the equivalent of around 3am UK time and so we had an early night at around 10pm. 

After around 5 hours at 2am Mexican time we were both aware that we were both awake and that the room next door was playing extremely loud Mexican music through the TV – Alan went to reception to ask to be moved, and I could hear their telephone ringing (I don’t think they answered) and then a security guard managed to knock at their door and got them to turn down the music and we managed to get back to sleep.

We woke up at around 8am and decided to head down to book our excursions.  We booked for Xel Ha a waterpark with natural rivers and caves to explore that Alan’s brother had recommended and for Xichen Itzu which was the main reason that I’d wanted to go to Mexico.  

We met some Scarlet Macaws that were in Lobby area and looked like a cute couple grooming each other and squawking.  We then headed for breakfast at the buffet which had been temporarily moved to the Beach Club and we feasted on a whole range of continental and Mexican breakfast food as well as the mythical “breakfast pudding” where I sampled some lovely hot chocolate with croissants to dip in.  Buffets are never a good idea for me as I love to try everything which usually means even if I only put a tiny portion of each thing on my plate, I end up massively overeating. 

We then we exploring the Occidental resort and started nearby where we had eaten breakfast which was the saltwater swimming pool and were delighted that there were Sergeant Major fish and even a puffer fish swimming around our feet and nibbling our toes!  We relaxed on some sun loungers and I read a little more of one of the books that I had brought on holiday “The Art of Travel” by Alain De Botton and we got to enjoy some of the “all inclusive” perks by getting some cocktails brought to us.  It then started to spot with rain, and then it rained a bit more so we decided to head back towards the room.  We took a quick look at the gym and the spa and ended up booking for 4.30pm a relaxing “Moon and Stars” couples massage…as the name suggests it should have been outside, but in the end due to the torrential tropical rain, it was in one of the very nice treatment rooms and included a bottle of wine.

We headed down for our massage and got to enjoy half an hour in the hot tub and drink some mint water before we went in for our treatment.  The massage we booked was 80 minutes long and enjoyed a very relaxing time and I was delighted that my back (which had been sore before we travelled anywhere and had been made worse by all the flights) felt much better.  After the massage finished we put on our robes and went into a room to drink our wine and it was very cute that there was a heart made from tealights and rose petals on the floor.  We drank the wine and then headed back to our room in theory for a rest before dinner, but ended up falling asleep and waking up at 10pm!  So we decided to just carry on sleeping – we must have been very relaxed indeed!

The following morning was an early start for us as we were going to Xel Ha!  The frustration was that breakfast didn’t start until 7am, but our pick up for the excursion was 7.15am!  We managed to find a small coffee stand that wasn’t in the “all inclusive” part of the deal and bought some coffee and pastries and made our way to the pick-up point where we were given our wrist bands for the day.  The coach didn’t take too long to Xel Ha, what took the most time were the multiple pick up points at the Hard Rock hotel. 

We arrived at Xel Ha and followed our guides instructions to one of the larger changing points “Brown” and I put my neoprene socks on as well as my swimming costume.   Xel Ha is like a natural water park and we saw beautiful trees and greenery surrounded by turquoise water.  We walked up to the bottom of the river and jumped on some bike to cycle around 1km up to the top of the river.  As we walked to the bikes, Alan nearly tripped over a huge Gecko lizard at the side of the path!  The bike ride was about 1km and I made sure to track it on Strava, the forest was humid and smelled of a fresh jungle smell and it was a refreshing ride with a bit of a breeze as we cycled and swerved to avoid trees.

We got to the top of the river and took the option of jumping in an “inner tube” rubber ring and putting on some life vests to float down the river and we let the very gentle current pull us along the mangrove section of the river and spotted a few points of interest like the “Cliff of Courage”.  

We got to a section where we got off the rubber ring and climbed up some “Ninja Warrior” type ropes and tried to cross from one platform to another – I gave up quickly and just jumped back into the water.  Alan managed to get across the whole of the rope bridge in one go, I gave up when my arms felt like I was having to stretch them out of their sockets to reach the rope.   

Jumping back in the inner tube, we continued to the “end” of the river signified by a checkered flag and jumped onto the zip line which was one of my favourite bits of the day.

By 11am we were pretty peckish and I was keen to try out the Mexican buffet, but after we’d wandered up there it wasn’t open until 11.30am so we walked over the floating bridge to the other side of the inlet to use up some time.  The bridge was very wobbly and it was if you were drunk trying to cross it!  Around Xel Ha there are lots of points where you can scan a bar code on your wrist band and then look at the nearby camera for a photo and so we spent some time swimming in a cave and trying to get photos, but managing to look the wrong way! 

Back at the Mexican buffet we were first in the queue and I took full advantage to sample as many different Mexican dishes as possible including some Mexican coffee with Churros to dip in and lots of Guacamole! 

After restocking our energy levels we biked back up to the start of the river and picked up some snorkel equipment and this time we snorkeled along the river and clipped our life jackets together so we could point out different fish to each other.  We saw parrot fish, scholes of little neon tetra, more seargeant major fish and some huge deep blue coloured fishes.  When we got to the “Cliff of Courage” again we decided to investigate whether we had enough courage to jump off.  We got out of flippers and snorkles and walked over a bridge up to the jump off point.  It was probably around 4m high, but looked much higher when you go there.  Alan went first and then I quickly scanned my wrist band and jumped getting loads of saltwater up my nose! 


         

After swimming back to the end of the river and dropping off our snorkel equipment we had a couple of drinks and then booked to go on the “Zip Bikes” that were not included in the “All Inclusive” price and walked up to the start of the Zip Bike tour.  The Zip Bikes were sit down bike on a wire that took you on a tour around the forest canopy and down and through some caves, all powered by your pedal power!  The pedaling was harder than I anticipated at times, but it was some amazing views and we got to go quite high up above some of the mangroves and then down into the caves.   There was a wonderful moist rainforest smell as we pedaled away. 

It was nearly time to head back to the bus to get taken back to the hotel so we got changed and walked back past the dolphin area.  We had debated swimming with dolphins, but I wasn’t convinced that it was right and kind for them, from a quick google it didn’t seem like most felt it was good for them and the enclosures looked a bit small, so we decided that it was best not to.  I’m still not sure whether in general it’s good for them to be swimming with humans, more research will be needed.  We bought the photos that we’d taken around the park and look forward to downloading them later.

My stomach had not been well all day, and so we opted for a trip to “Pacos Tacos” for tea and Alan had a spicey taco dish and I had a very simple, but really nice pizza to hopefully be kinder to my stomach than all of the buffet deliciousness!

The Color Run 5KM

Back in March this year Alan and I booked our first holiday together.  I had always wanted to visit Mexico and see Chichen Itza and perhaps add in a Caribbean Island as well, so we booked a trip to Mexico and then Cuba.  We also somewhat reluctantly booked onto the Abbey Dash again this year a few weeks ago as it's part of my run club's "road" calendar - I do quite like the race, but I get a bit bored/fed-up/irritated that it costs around £24 to run up and down Kirkstall Road, even if the atmosphere is usually really fun and it's great for PB Potential and I'm still chasing my sub 45 minute time for a 10K.  

So how did we end up in Spain today running an untimed 5K colour run?  Unfortunately we found out less than 2 weeks ago that Alan's Mum who lives in Spain needed an urgent operation.  As a self employed miniaturist, she would miss out on being able to go to an important fair in Madrid if her husband Frank was looking after her after the operation.  The best solution was for Alan to fly out the day Frank was to set off for the fair and look after her.  The only slight issue was that the dates fell exactly before we were due to go away and so we are ending up visiting 3 Spanish speaking countries in 3 weeks and having more time away from work that anticipated.

We both drove down to my parents in Surrey and then flew from Gatwick to Seville where we picked up a cute Fiat 500 in a jazzy red colour and drove just over an hour to Rio Tinto Hospital which is set next to a mining area and is fairly rural in location.  Fortunately Alan`s mum Angie was in good spirits and was recovering well.  We spent most of our time at the hospital with Angie for the first 3 days and she was discharged around lunchtime on the Saturday.  Unlike England they don`t have set visiting hours so we were able to stay with her for most of the time and try to keep her amused as well as run errands for her like getting cups of tea and conditioner.  I found it interesting to try and pick up some Spanish as I have never studied it at all and did German and French at GCSE and then French A-Level...but that was all 18 years ago!  In Rio Tinto and the smaller village where Angie lives of Campo Frio there are very few English speakers, so I had to learn how to order Coffee and orange juice to give Alan a break.

Alan & I are still training for another marathon which is only the weekend after we return and should be flat, but challenging as it goes along the canal, but with only 50 entrants I suspect there won`t be too many water stations!  We were keen to keep up the training, but the last time I managed to get in a run was at Bradford 10K as I`d had a few late nights at work getting ready for being on holiday.  Alan had researched potential races in Spain and the only one that was in a reasonable distance was a 5K "The Color Run" so we entered in the hope that Angie would be well enough to either watch us or at least be ok at home for a few hours.  In the end on the Sunday she wasn't quite well enough to come with us, but had a restful few hours whilst we were at the race.  We were definitely overdue a run - I can't go more than a few days without feeling really twitchy that I've not been out for a run!

We set off before dawn to drive to the start of the race (slightly annoyingly we'd had to pick up our race numbers from a Skoda dealership the day before which was a bit of a faff.) and initially went to the wrong location, before realising that we needed to get to the start which was at the Olympic Stadium.  We were in the first wave at 9am as the later waves had all sold out so we were there really early and managed to park with no issues and visit the toilets before we got in the start pen.  We were wearing our "The Color Run" t-shirts and headbands and we noticed that everyone was also wearing their green mini rucksack bags, so we grabbed them from the car and got ready to run.

There were loads of groups wearing various colourful additions to their costumes like wigs, stripey socks and tutus, groups of children and general lots of excitement!  We moved from the start pen to stand near the start in front of the stage where a lady was revving up the crowd in Spanish - I had no hope of understanding it...but for some reason we were told to run backwards when we started.

There was a countdown (in Spanish) and we were off!  There was a lot of tripping over with the running backwards and we were quite far back from the start and so it took us a while to be able to actually get to a position where we could "run" and we weaved our way around various groups of people jogging and walking.  At 1K we hit the first colour station and got covered in blue powder (I cursed the fact I'd forgotten my sun glasses!) and the people in front of us had massively thinned out.  We were at a comfortable "parkrun" pace and overtaking most of the other people who were mostly ambling along and enjoying the experience.  One thing that was rather annoying was the green rucksack bag flapping around me.  At about 2K we hit the second colour station and were covered in pink powder (the powder didn't taste as nice as it did at Color me Rad that I ran last year!) we overtook a small group of children who appeared to be taking it seriously and then by around 3K we realised that there were only a few people ahead of us and we could see the pacer car within the very near distance.  In fact I saw the pacer car passenger get covered in paint by a mischievous volunteer!

By the time we'd gone through the 4th colour station which I think was orange I said to Alan that if he wanted to go for it he should and he caught up with the lead group of 3 Spanish lads who were pushing each other on and giving it a good effort and then pushed on up to the pacer car.  I could see him in front and people were cheering him on from the out and back section saying  "está primero!" and he was clapping them on.  He ran on with a sprint finish to the end and crossed the finish line first and I followed about 30 seconds later in 5th place.  I'm not sure how much of a real "race" it was, but it was certainly fun to be at the head of the pack - not something that either of us have done much in the past at all and Alan was delighted to have the experience of being first over the line.  

Of course there was no prize and no time as it wasn't that sort of race, but we got to enjoy walking around the festival at the end and picked up a few freebies like some skittles and some photos.  We went to the stage and waited for it to get a bit busier and then enjoyed throwing pain powder around and dancing to music - interesting experience when completely sober on a Sunday morning as the sun started to pick up.

It wasn't quite the Abbey Dash, it wasn't quite the long run we should have done for our marathon training, but it was a fun way to get some exercise in before we left Spain and gave Alan the first finisher experience.  And as the announcer at the start claimed...it was a very happy 5K!

What a difference 5 years makes....and how "not" to train for a marathon...

These days I don't seem to blog about anything other than holidays or running...the craft has taken a bit of a backseat.  Even so I've not updated since last August, but then again this is the first time since then that I've had a proper good go at cracking my marathon PB time again.    My last marathon PB was at London last year where I managed to knock off a small matter of 42 minutes from the previous year!  I wasn't hoping for anything like that sort of reduction today!  I was aiming for at least 9 minutes off my previous 4hr 9 minute PB, secretly hoping to get somewhere near good for age of 3.45 if I felt really strong...but I knew my training and prep had been pretty limited to say the least!

I've probably been "running" for about 11-12 years now since I changed jobs, recognized how large I'd become at that point and decided to do weightwatchers and train for a 5K race for life to have a positive impact on my health.  It took me about 2 years to do my first 10K and then the next year I did The Great North Run under encouragement from a friend, and then as I turned 30 in 2010 I decided to do my first full marathon and since then I have run all manner of races including an ultra (30 miles) and I'm now up to a total of 7 marathons including today - Phil Hammond in our running club - Hyde Park Harriers has managed a total of 100 in exactly the same time...

This year I've definitely done too many events... Alan and I got together this time last year and encouraged each other (probably my obsession of entering races contributing the most!) to enter lots of really fun events and all very varied disciplines - we've ridden the Tour De Yorkshire, completed a sprint and Olympic distance triathlon, run the Yorkshire 3 Peaks 10 minutes quicker than I did last year and entered all manner of races and all manner of distances from 1 mile to the marathon today. 

The race today was particularly unfinished business for me.  In 2013 I was really excited to be participating in the first Yorkshire Marathon until 3 weeks beforehand I was mugged in my work car park and hit hard on the head twice, I didn't quite have concussion, but the shock of the event affected my immune system and I came down with tonsillitis a few days later and was left feeling extremely vulnerable and lost all my confidence in running outside.  My first attempt at the Yorkshire Marathon was a DNS (did not start).  If I'd not got into the London Marathon ballot a few days later I think there is a good chance I'd have just stopped entirely.  I had a year of very lonely and difficult training and running either on treadmills (including up to 20 mile training runs) or entering loads of races to feel "safe" running outside by myself.  Fortunately this all changed with a series of very positive events. 

My friend Gemma introduced me to parkrun for her birthday and gradually I'd recognize faces and started to feel a bit more part of the community.  I then spotted James Booth at a work conference and talked about running as I'd seen him at parkrun and he introduced me to Hyde Park Harriers who (I might be biased here) have been one of the friendliest and most inclusive clubs I've come across and made me feel very welcome and safe as well as helped me push myself and develop hugely as a runner and in 2015 I was delighted to pick up a good amount of PBs.  I made some really good friends and when out for a training run with Sam Scarlett in August 2015 she suggested that I might get on well with one of her friends Alan and so through the power of Facebook we became friends in virtual reality and offered to help me with my search for a running buddy in training for the White Rose Ultra and so after parkrun we met up and ran 12 miles around the beautiful Eccup Reservoir and Sam was right, we did get on very well :-) and it was the first of many runs and adventures together. 

Alan and I have been attempting to train for this marathon against a multitude of distractions including training for triathlons, entering too many events to go on "proper" long runs, the decision to move in together and the not insubstantial amount of work that needed doing on my house to get it on the market and then Alan had to go to the states for 2 weeks with work and ended up picking a cold/flu type illness which meant he decided yesterday running the marathon wasn't going to be a sensible decision.  We'd already decided to enter a further marathon along the canal in Leeds in December (which I've just realized has only 50 entrants!)  so Alan could spend the morning getting Glastonbury tickets and booking us onto Chevin Chase for Boxing day!   I'd only really got up to 20 miles in training with a lovely run with Caroline, Phil and Richard 2 weeks previous out to Addingham with the promise of pie and peas to keep me going!   I was nervous about the limited long runs I'd done. 

I carbo loaded on a very tasty meal of orzo pasta, courgette, tomato, chorizo, mossarella, basil and cheesecake.  Then I made a last minute decision to get the train last night and booked my ticket - I was a bit worried as to whether the 7.43am would get me to the start on time, but the next earliest was at 5.33am which seemed a bit too early.  I got an early night, but worrying about race logistics was playing on my mind and I kept waking up and remember vividly at 3.25am not being able to get back to sleep for about an hour - I even woke up poor Alan by mistake and said that I couldn't do it and even though he was half asleep he managed to reassure me I could and so when the alarm went off at 6.15 I was able to leap into the shower and get ready.

I'd bought some soreen for breakfast and demolished nearly an entire loaf and managed to drink a cup of coffee and felt totally exhausted - I could tell that I hadn't slept well.  Alan kindly dropped me off at the train station and I met up with a couple of Hyde Park Harriers - Catherine and Robin doing there first marathons and Paul doing the 10 mile route.  We wandered onto the platform which was busy, but not as bad as I'd imagined, but the train guard pointed out that the train arriving was very full and that we might not all get on - there were lots of groans!  We'd met up with a few more Harriers by this point (Ben, Claire, James, Tom, Rachel, Rodrigo) - fortunately a huge amount of drunken people who were coming back from their Saturday nights out got off and we managed to all squeeze onto the train and arrived into York at 8.10am giving us a good amount of time to get to the start for 9.30am. 

The shuttle bus queue moved quickly and we got to the University of York with time to spare, Catherine kindly let me be her "team" so I could use the Jane Tomlinson toilets and Phil Hammond kindly let me borrow some sun cream - necessary as the sun was strong for October!  I dropped my bag at the bag drop and kept my "spare" t-shirt on to keep me warm.  Phil got interviewed briefly before the race and then we all walked towards the start. 

I was in zone 2 and at 9.20am I decided I needed a nervous wee!  Fortunately the queue moved well and a lady let me jump in front of her as she was doing the 10 miler which started at 10am.  I managed to splash that lovely blue stuff from the toilet down my legs - not the best start to a race!  By this point it was about 9.35am so I had to jump the barrier into zone 3, but a minute later we set off - I'd set a target on my Garmin for 3hrs 50 - part of me wanted to push for 3hrs 45 which would give me good for age, but that just felt too ambitious based on my poor training.  My last PB I still ran with a chunky 3 litre Camelbak so I figured I should be able to knock off around 10 mins without the extra weight.  I felt good for the first few miles and was well ahead of my pace and contemplated slowing down - but decided as I wasn't panting or out of breath to keep it going and see what happened. 

The support from Hyde Park Harriers was strong and extremely helpful and running through York past the Minster was lovely and by about 5 miles I'd managed to overtake the 4 hour pacer who I knew would have been in front of me on the start line - my PB felt safe and I relaxed into the pace.  I count down my runs in miles, kilometres and numbers of parkruns left...because you're always close to a milestone!  I was pacing today in KM as Alan runs in KM so it makes it easier when we run together and I ended up in the habit!  My Garmin gives an estimated finish time and up until the harsh out and back section around 18 miles I was on target for a very scary time of 3hrs 38!  I made sure to drink at all the water stations, cool down my hands (which always swell on long runs) and take on a couple of shot blocks as the stations were spaced out for every 3 miles and it turned out to be a decent strategy - I was never too thirsty or felt low on energy. 

I was delighted to see some of the Hyde Park Harriers next to the flag around 19 miles and the lovely Anne Akers who was cheering awfully loudly!  I enjoyed some of the out and back to be able to cheer fellow runners on, but at this point I started to slow down considerably, some of this was that the course seemed to be more challenging, there was a burst of rain, but more my knees and the soles of my feet started to ache!  I knew I'd finish, but the dream of good for age started to slip, so I returned to my 3hr 50 target and pushed on through.  It must have been around 22 miles that I saw a huge gang of Hyde Park Harriers - Kay, Clare, Teejay, Claire and then a few metres further up Tina, Jaz and of course the super enthusiastic Liam and Sam who kindly gave me a jelly baby!  It can't be underestimated how much these cheers and support help as you can't help but pick up your head and your pace when you are cheered on!   I remember seeing Emma who had cycled out to a small village and was a nice surprising boost.

The last 4 - 6 miles were tough, pretty country roads, but some patches of really quiet areas which felt a little lonely and so as we hit the suburban slog back to York I was pleased and kept telling myself that the quicker I ran the quicker I could stop!  Daniel offered some words of support with about 2 km to go and as I came into the finishing straight and I could hear music I punched the air and started to run (I have no idea why, but then marathons and music have always done odd things to me!) I ran the last 500m punching the air and sprinting and even jumped for joy nearly crashing into a photographer, I knew I'd done around 3hrs 50, but was delighted when my text came through at 3hrs 47 and 36 seconds - Time hop on Facebook had reminded me this morning that it was 5 years since another marathon PB at the Eden Project of 4 hrs 47 - what a difference 5 years makes - a whole 1 hour off my marathon time!

I bumped into the speedy Tom, Rachel and Farhad at the end and Farhad grabbed me a foil blanket which I was very grateful for.  I picked up my bag in a bit of a daze and drank a sports drink and Alan called to say that he was close to the drop off area, but there wasn't much opportunity to park so I walked or hobbled (Alan couldn't recognize me as I was doing an "old lady" walk) and he kindly drove me home.  I loved reading all the updates and photos on Facebook and felt really proud for everyone who had taken part.

So I'm of course delighted with today - It's the last of my distances to have been PBed this year (by a not insubstantial 22 minutes) - I've managed to improve all of my times on all of my distances in the last year.  I'm not sure today was to do with my training or nutrition particularly, but I think it's been mostly about a bit of self belief - Alan has pushed me a lot over the last year to challenge what I believe about my capability as a runner and helped and supported me to believe I can try harder and achieve more - this coupled with the support that you get from a running club like Hyde Park Harriers, or more importantly the individuals within it has really helped my confidence as a runner, but in lots of other areas of my life.  Thanks to everyone today who cheered me, ran with me and looked after me - My legs are sore, but my heart is happy!

The longest day

After a busy, but not especially active couple of weeks when we had the opportunity to do a sunrise walk to a temple at the top of a hill it seemed like a perfect idea.  Half of the group met in reception at 5.45am and had to ring Raj who I think had overslept - but we were soon on our way, although the cloud meant we didn't actually see a sunrise.

It only took us a sweaty 35 minutes to climb up the hill/mountain and when we got to the top there was a temple, a dog apparently guarding the temple from monkeys and most excitingly a Chai man.  

The view of the Holy Lake in Pushkar was beautiful, even with the clouds and the  temple was quite basic in decor, but interesting.

We all had some chai and watched the monkeys and dog in some sort of strange standoff and then the monkeys looking after their babies.

It was a free optional activity, but is up there with one of my favourites of the whole holiday.  We walked back and I jumped in the shower - which was a shame because if I'd waited I'd have been able to visit a school.

I had a fairly random breakfast - not all of what I had inmy order arrived, but bonus plates of rice and pancakes did to confuse me!  I spent the rest of the morning mooching around the hotel as we checked out at 12 and then didn't get the taxis to Ajmer train station until 2.30pm with a train ride back to Delhi arriving at 10.45pm and my flight at 4.45am the following morning.  I had my last curry dinner of Kadhi Paneer and rice and then it started rained just as we were getting in the taxi. 

Ajmer train station is 20km from the hotel in Pushkar and we left an hour before our  3.10pm train in 4 separate cars.  The rain was heavy and the roads aren't always great and I started to worry as Raj who is usually always calm started to chat heatedly to our driver as we attempted a number of different routes to be met with roads flooded to the height of the handlebars of a motorbike.  Our driver tried hard to get us there overtaking cars and traffic jams sneaking into the wrong side of the road and driving through very high water levels.  Raj took a call from Joe who was in another car and then finally we arrived at the station along with one of the other cars with the other 2 still on the way even though they left before us. 

Raj sprinted to see if he could hold the train, telling us to grab our bags and wade through the knee deep water to the platform, but it had already gone.  We turned back, got back in the taxi and Raj assembled all the cars back together again at the bus station.  Raj was permantly attached to his phone as it wasn't as simple as us catching the next train as the subsequent trains are all overnight trains which would have got into Delhi after my flight, so he was arranging a solution.

The bus station was filthy and loud with men shouting "Jaipur, Jaipur, Jaipurrrrrr!" We had a toilet break in an extremely grim toilet and stocked up on crisps and cookies for our journey ahead that would no longer include an at seat meal service.

Joe and Janet arrived and Joe went to get changed as he'd had to get out in thigh-waist deep water to push the car he was in when the driver had gone through a road that we'd turned back from and flooded the engine - they'd got into a TukTuk to get to the bus station that then took them down the same flooded street.  Joe managed to commandeer what he thinks was possibly police jeep to get him and his mum safely to the bus station.

Raj had a plan - we'd get a public, but air conditioned bus to Jaipur which would take 2 hours and then a private bus to Delhi which would take 5-7 hours - my flight was 12 hours from takeoff.  He said not to change the flight for the time being as we should still be able to make it.  The bus was fairly comfortable and air conditioned and was going straight through until Jaipur.  After 2 hours it dropped us off just before we reached Jaipur on the side of the road and then literally a mere 2 minutes later our private bus arrived to take us the rest of the way to Delhi.

The private bus was pretty comfortable, air conditioned and with plenty of seats, I had both my bags with me to allow for a swift transfer to the car to take me to the airport.  Raj estimated that it would take a further 5 - 7 hours back to Delhi to cover around the remainder of the total of 220 miles from where we were in Ajmer.  In the UK we'd expect that to take no more than maybe 4 - 5 hours in total, but in India it's a different story.  The roads aren't always in great condition and even the better ones have pot holes and bumpy sections so the maximum speed is around 50 mph at anytime and feels plenty fast enough as you bump along up and down!  I will feel much less irritated now when I hit the 50 mph zones when they are repairing the roads as it means that we have smoother and safer journeys in comparison!  

About an hour or so into the journey there was a bang followed by lots of bumps - the bus had blown a tyre!  Cool as anything and very tongue in cheek Raj our guide explained that we would be making a brief toilet break stop for circa 15 - 20 minutes whilst the tyre was changed and that facilities were available in the bushes.  We all got out and used the "facilities", but unfortunately changing the tyre took over an hour and the Indian Police came along to supervise/watch/not contribute much to the proceedings.  They used rocks to jack up the bus and we were finally on our way again.  Around 50m up the road we pulled in and Raj very kindly bought us all some snacks and a drink at a cafe that was open with seating and most amusingly - a tyre place that was very open!  

We bumped our way North across India until we hit an extremely slow traffic jam and as we crawled inbetween huge lorries with cars overtaking on the hard shoulder.  And of course at that point I needed the toilet!  I had the mild indignity of having to wake up Raj and ask him to come with me to find a suitable bush at the side of the road - the first one I attempted saw me end up knee deep in a bog, so I found an alternative tree and had wet feet again for the rest of the journey!

I fell asleep and woke up to Raj telling me to get ready to move into the taxi, and to call him either way if I did or didn't make the plane.  My flight was 4.45am and this was at 3.20am.  I said a hurried goodbye to the group, grabbed my bags and got in the taxi and made it to the airport for just before 4am, the guard on the door said that he didn't think I'd make it, but I pleaded with him to let me try and ran to the check in desk, showed the people in the queue my ticket and they let me go in front and I was sent down to the supervisor who checked in my luggage and issued my boarding card.  I ran across the airport to passport control and showed my boarding card to the queue of people who pointed me towards the non-existent queue for first class and a very nice guard sighed and let me through.  I then queue jumped again through security smiling and pleading with people - of course I couldn't go through smoothly - I beeped and had to be taken into a room behind a curtain and frisked by a lady and then I sprinted from one end of the airport (of course my gate said 15 minutes walk away at the farthest point from where security came out!)

I reached the gate to again see the "last call" sign flashing, but gauged that the queue gave me enough time to catch my breathe and buy a bottle of water from the vending machine.  By the time I got on the plane I was sweaty and definitely not looking my best still wet feet up from the monsoon.  The plane took off and I grabbed my bag as soon as the seatbelt sign went off and went to the toilet and changed all my clothes - leaving some in the bin!  I definitely think this made me look like a terrorist, although no-one seemed to mind!

We arrived at Abu Dhabi without incident, early in fact and so I then had nearly 4 hours to wander around the airport.  I was not feeling particularly inspired by all the luxury brands when I was pretty sure I smelt like monsoon...although I did sneak into the perfume area and took a rather large free sample.  I also ditched my trainers in the bin - they were wet, heavy and smelly and only my 3rd reserves for running!  I had a coffee and then walked across to board the flight back to Manchester.

The plane was a large one with 3 seats either side of the plane and a block of 4 in the middle.  As I got towards my seat I could hear a very dramatic John Malkovich sounding voice telling his wife "If these people won't help us, I will make it work, I will sort this out".  It transpires that this "gentleman" had wanted his family to sit together - his 4 year old son, his nervous flying wife and him.  Apparently 3 seats next to each other aren't close enough if there is a aisle in between... he started asking people to move, but one chap reasonably said that he'd specifically asked for a window seat for his son.  The wife went to the toilet and was sick due to nerves.  Eventually the Ethiad staff asked if anyone was traveling alone - 3 of us in my row were - and whether we'd consider moving - I said "if it means I get an aisle seat absolutely!"  We all swapped seats and a very wrinkly, overly orange tanned I think Mancunian woman who had paid for one of the extra leg room seats one row in front glanced over at the dramatic American who asked "Is everything ok?" to which she replied "Yes now that you are moving" and the overly dramatic American then went on a 5 minute rant using *all* the swear words and saying he was in front of his 4 year old son calling her a bitch etc.

Things settled down and the plane took off, I watched "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" which already made me nostalgic for India even though I'd left only a few hours before and I fell asleep to another film that I can't even remember anything about other than Ben Stiller was in it looking a bit old.  I was awoken by the Overly Dramatic American's (ODC) wife bashing her rather large hip into my shoulder and heard "did you see that" from the Wrinkly Mancunian Woman (WMW) - apparently (and there were witnesses) the ODC's wife had walked towards the WMW with her fist outstretched on the way back from the toilet and made contact with her face.  There was again a flurry of activity as the poor overworked stewards and stewardesses calmed down the situation.  There was discussion as to whether WMW wanted to press charges, but in the end they just let her off very quickly to avoid any further confrontations.  So even my second flight was eventful with a near punch up next to me!

In the context of some of the sights I saw in India and how I saw people just get on with life seemingly untroubled in extremely tough conditions such as monsoon weather, lack of money and roads and infrastructure that is far inferior to ours in the Western world.  It made me think about how many people I would see crammed into local buses and TukTuks I wondered how often near punch ups occur over seating arrangements?

I rather optimistically booked my train back to Leeds at 16.33pm when the flight landed at 15.45pm.... my bag of course was nearly last off the belt so as I strapped both backpacks on at 16.25pm I wasn't sure if I would make it to the train...there were of course others, but I'd have needed to buy a new ticket so I though why not make a run for it again?  And I made it!  With exactly 1 minute to spare.  The train ride was uneventful other than talking to a couple, one of who had done a very similar India trip and the other who had traveled with Intrepid.  I got off the train and made my way to M&S Food to buy all the food I'd been craving for the last few days - Avocado, parma ham, salad, blue cheese and ale!  After a taxi ride I got home at 6pm a mere 31 hours of traveling!  

I'm almost reverse culture shocked - the air smells fresh and herby and there is a sense of quiet and calm - no beeping horns every few minutes.   India I need some time to fully digest all that you had to show me, but I will miss you.  Such an amazing trip!

Holy Pushkar and Camel Safari

Another early start for a 6am train which meant it was trusty breakfast biscuits again although I did make it even less healthy by adding a bottle of Pepsi and packet of salt and vinegar crisps that I bought at the station.

The TukTuk ride in the dark was quite a scary experience - at least the driver seemed able to predict and swerve the potholes!  The train was more like our first train ride and assigned seats and more room.  

4 hours on a well worn seat did make me glad to be off although the station was almost more crazy than Delhi with and I think our taxi driver fancied himself as a getaway driver overtaking cars to skip through what appeared to be a roadblock!

We arrived at our very nice hotel and ordered lunch and settled in - I had another shower as my hair is still full of oil from my massage yesterday!

Lunch was pleasant enough, but more basic to some of the food that I've become accustomed to and was a very mild palak paneer and vegetable Biriani.

At 4pm as it started to get cooler we headed off for our camel safari.  I was nervous because I've never ridden a Camek before and they are so tall! It was actually great - my camel - Maharaja was so placid and well behaved (until his few detours on the way back to eat flowers) and it was much easier to get on and off than I had anticipated - the key is to lean back when they stand up or sit down.

Our safari took us through the village into sand dunes where we stopped so that the camel handlers could start a fire and boil up some chai.  We all had a little cup of chai and a biscuit whilst the camels had a rest and some gypsies who'd spotted us came over to play us some music.

We set off again to get to Pushkar and have a city walk.  We stopped briefly to visit a very holy temple of Brahma which was interesting, but strictly no photos and then we walked through streets with many weapon and clothes stalks as well as some selling creepy looking dolls!

Pushkar is a holy city which means no meat or alcohol and the most holy place is the lake.  

To get back to our hotel the quickest route was via the lake, but we had to take our shoes off to walk past it and cross a footbridge!

I took another shower before dinner and signed up for a voluntary early start for a sunrise hike tomorrow.  Dinner was a bit disappointing as the "kebab" I ordered was more like a dry veggie burger, but the Gulab Jalam dessert was delicious!

Palm reading

Today didn't start as planned, my second  bout of DB meant that the prospect of Yoga first thing was not going to happen which was extremely frustrating.  I rested some more before getting up for the cooking class at 10am.

The cooking class was attached to our hotel and run by the owner who had a very witty style and unusual tone to his voice.  The first thing we learned to make (after smelling all the spices first) was masala tea which Joe was tasked with preparing.  We all got to sample the tea which was very tasty.

We then moved onto the next recipe, but unfortunately at that point I started feeling  quite faint and so ended up lying down on the floor on a tiny corner of the room before deciding to head back to the hotel for a lie down - one of the class helpers walked me back which wasn't far and I came away with the recipes to try out back home... Although I was really disappointed to have missed it.

We met up again as a group at 2pm and organised which order to go in for Palm reading.  Raj also arranged a massage for me first - it was certainly an experience!

I love having massages - mostly due to the amount of exercise I do there is usually at least one niggly bit that benefits from some pummelling and I also find it very relaxing.  I've had massages in a few different places around the world and having had a very "thorough" massage in Nepal a few years back I wondered in this would be the same!  

The massage place was just a few doors up from the hotel and was tiny and had only 2 massage beds.  The lady I don't think spoke much English at all, so I did as I would for a UK massage and stripped to my underwear and lay on my front on the bed.  She unhooked my bra, which didn't alarm me as that's happened before during massages and I had a good back, arm and leg massage.  She then she instructed me to "turn" and I imagined she would place the towel over my chest and continue with my arms and legs.  "Nice" she declared (although not quite sure what she was referencing so I'm going to assume my shoulder tattoo) as she then proceeded to spend a good 10 minutes massaging my chest (even more thorough than Nepal!), but I wasn't quite sure how to communicate that I was fine with the full body massage not being that "full" so I just went with the flow. I then had a fairly painful stomach massage and a more pleasant Indian head massage (when in Rome...) and she used lots of oil.  I then got dressed and paid 1100 rupees including a tip for the "experience".

Back at the hotel it was time for my palm reading which took half and hour and was extremely thorough - here is a summary:

- my palm was apparently the best he'd seen all day with a strong life line predicting I'll live to 99 - 101 years old (my Grandad was 33 hours off being 100 so this isn't totally unreasonable)

- I am a good person whose greatest skill is communication and that is how I make my money and it could be either in business or as a teacher.

- I'm a helpful person, but people haven't always helped me in return and do lots of charity work which should continue

- my brain line was strong, but he said despite having lots of ideas I struggled to put them into practice.

- he said I'd had several previous relationships and separations, but it wasn't my fault because they were Librans...

- he said I will have one fulfilling relationship in the future and I will meet that person between the 19/08/2016 and 19/09/2017

- I will have one daughter who will be very wise

- I have a teacher like relationship with my Dad and my Mum and Dad quarrel often (this is definitely not true!)

- my lucky colours are dark blue and black

- I should therefore wear a blue sapphire on my middle ring finger and also an a green onyx on my pinky finger

- I should fast every Tuesday and only have one meal and fruit and liquids

- I should meditate for 5 minutes every morning

- I should worship the sun every morning by climbing onto the roof and taking a copper pot filled with water and pouring everything but the last drop into a plant pot and the last drop should drop onto my middle finger.

- my luck line breaks up from ages 28-48 so anything I achieve I can achieve, but through my energy rather than luck.

- I have lots of energy at 85 I will have the energy of a 35 year old

- my lucky years will be 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022

- at 32 years old a guardian angel came into my life

- I will never have any problems with money

Some unusual ideas!  Even if none of it is accurate it was an experiences do he gave me his email address in case I have any questions.  He was gentle and earnest in his demeanour and I think even if it's absolute rubbish he probably offers calm to some people.

I then went and did some shopping, accidentally queue jumped a German family at the ATM who were very unimpressed and managed to eat some chips.  I picked up my tailor made dresses which fit perfectly and are amazing quality for less than 24 hours work.

We went for early dinner at Charcoal on the rooftop of our hotel and I managed paneer and vegetable skewers and more chips.  Rather worryingly the 16 year old waiter knew my room number without asking and was very chatty pointing out the location of The Best Marigold Hotel.  An early night as up early to catch a 6am train!