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Art Class in Udaipur, India

Published by Sheree Milli

Udaipur in Rajasthan is such a lovely, peaceful town – set around a dazzling lake (featuring a swanky 5* hotel that I was sadly not staying at) – this creative place is famed for its miniature artists. You can find intricate paintings adorning pretty much every surface and wall plus you can buy yourself a piece of art or two to take home.

Being a little bit of an artist myself *toots own horn* I decided to take in an art class with one of Udaipur’s many miniature art schools. I painted a camel because one nearly killed me in the Indian desert and I thought it might work as a kind of ‘face your fears’ therapy. It didn’t.

While I wasn’t cured of my camel aversion I did come to appreciate the immense skill of the miniature artists, their brushes are soooo fine and they grind their own paints out of all natural colours – needless to say, my camel didn’t turn out quite like the instructors, but I had a great time painting it!

Udaipur Art Class 400IR (£4)

Cooking and Eating at The Sikh Temple

Published by Sheree Milli

There are many religions practiced in India, it’s a very spiritual place, Hinduism is probably the most common faith, but there are Muslim, Christian and Sikh people too. In Delhi I was lucky enough to attend a Sikh temple, and what an experience! I absolutely loved it.

On entering the temple you must cover your head, I donned a lovely orange bandana (ever stylish even in India), remove your shoes and wash your hands and feet – then you enter into the temple to the sound of rhythmic drumming, chanting and singing – it’s quite a meditative experience just silently sitting cross-legged in thought, listening to the prayers beings called.

After a quick prayer (I’m an atheist but it doesn’t hurt to put out some positive vibes into the universe) we went to the temple’s kitchen.

Sikh temples (depending on the size) can feed hundreds or even thousands of people for free each day. Sikhs volunteer their time to cook chapattis, dahl and vegetable curries for anyone who wished to eat. Sikhs also see all human beings as equal so lords sit on the floor next to beggars (or backpackers next to New Delhi Locals) and all eat the same food together.

I was lucky enough to join some Sikh women and men in the kitchen and lend a hand making flatbreads for the afternoon meal. I think I was pretty good and no one can tell me otherwise! Regardless, helping to make the food is considered really good karma so ‘yay’ for me.

After being India’s answer to Mary Berry I ate my lunch in the temple AND IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!! Excuse my shouty over-enthusiasm but this food was fee and probably the best Indian food I’ve ever eaten. Where do I sign up for the Sikh conversion classes?

The experience was wonderful but made all the more special because my little cousins Niall and Harvey are Sikh so it was nice to understand their culture and faith a little more.

Pushkar – India’s Hippie Oasis

Published by Sheree Milli

In the mountains of Rajasthan there lies a small but very holy town by the name of Pushkar. In Hindi ‘push’ means ‘flower’ and ‘kar’ means ‘hand’. The town is home to India’s most holy lake where each year thousands of hindus make a pilgrimage to the sacred waters.

Legend has it that the lake was formed by the tears of Lord Shiva who was distraught after the death of his wife Sati. When Sati died Shiva cried so long and so hard that his tears created two holy lakes (in Pushkar and Ketasha – which means ‘raining eyes in Sanskrit).

While visiting Pushkar it is possible to take part in a ceremony at one of the 52 ghats surrounding the lake. I obviously took part in such a ceremony at sunset (when in India…) where a holy man leads you in a series of chants and offerings, sugar, rice, pigments and flowers symbolising health, love, prosperity, for good karma. The experience was awesome, especially in such a picturesque setting – I honestly found myself welling up. After the offering a baby cow came and nuzzled our group, he must’ve felt the good vibes coming off us.

So Pushkar is a very holy town, and a very beautiful town, but there are also a number of backpacking hostels which mean it’s a little bit of a party town too (if you’re into that white-boy dreadlocked thing). If you want to smoke a Chillum (Indian weed pipe) then this is your place. In fact the souvenir Pushkar tee is emblazoned with the slogan ‘Chai, Chillum, Chapattis’.

Pushkar is also home to one of the few temples (and the most famous) of Lord Brahma, the four-faced god of creation, so that is most definitely worth visiting while you’re there.

All in all, I would go back to Pushkar in a heartbeat, it has a vibe unlike the rest of Rajasthan, and the stunning vistas, numerous yoga classes and vegetarian cafes make this the perfect holiday spot for anyone in touch with their chakras.

The Blue City – Jodhpur, India

Published by Sheree Milli

5 Items You Must Take in Your Carry On

Published by Sheree Milli

Not the only five of course (hello Passport and money) but important nonetheless…

A Diary

You might use your phone, laptop or tablet you child of the 21st century you, but you tell me when the last time a good old-fashioned diary suddenly stopped working? Technology isn’t infallible, dead batteries, weak signals and general ‘WTF?!!!’ bugs can prevent you accessing important info. So get a mini diary to write down all your important dates and information. You’ll thank me.

Your Smart Phone

Like a mini computer your iPhone (other brands are available) can let you surf the web, but you can also use it as a camera, video camera, voice recorder, alarm clock… the list goes on. Download some useful apps and this piece of kit is indispensable. I cancelled my phone contract but use Skype and Whatsapp to talk to friends.

My favourite apps >>>

A Good Book

Take a Kindle of course – the Kindle for books is what the iPod is for music – the best thing ever. But technology can fail, or the battery can die. Take a paper book so you always have something to read. Shantaram is nice and long and practically a backpacker rite of passage.

Books to load on your Kindle >>>

Sunscreen

I am a woman of colour with dark skin but for some reason I wear sunscreen more than my pasty white pals… seriously, wear f*cking sunscreen. Your skin is the largest organ you have and the first line of defence against disease, infection and the like. Protect it as well as you can. To be honest the main reason (by a long shot) that I’m so militant with the SPF is that I want to look like J.Lo when I’m 45 – i.e. like most people look when they’re 25 – sunscreen will not stop you tanning but it will stop you burning and wrinkling up like an old prune.

Have it in your hand luggage to slather on at the end of your flight, this will act as a moisturiser and ensure you’re protected as soon as you step out of the airport.

Skin safety 101 >>>

Jennifer Lopez is 46!!! That’s the power of sunscreen (probably) Ph. Credit: Mirror.co.uk

Earplugs

Sod’s Law, or Murphy’s Law if you’re Irish, means that you’ll be sat next to someone whose voice makes you want to impale yourself on your complimentary airplane spork. Or a crying baby. Or a fat business man who won’t stop breathing mega heavily. Earplugs let you block it all out and get stuck into a book or sleep soundly. I wear them underneath my headphones for total noise cancellation.

So there you have it! Happy travelling.

The Day We Ran Over a Cow and Almost Got Stranded in The Middle of The Desert…

Published by Sheree Milli

In India getting the train is all part of the experience, they love a good train, and it’s the easiest and cheapest way to cross the country. So they’re pretty much unavoidable if you’re a backpacker like me and you’re on a budget!

Luckily, I love Indian trains, there’s a sense of excitement about getting on one – Will it ever arrive? Will it stop midway through? Will it breakdown? Have you seen the Wes Anderson film The Darjeeling Limited? If not, see it, it’ll make you want to ride an Indian train.

My first experience on a train in India was uneventful as it was a sleeper train so it was mostly sleeping that I was doing, but my second Indian train was certainly an experience…

To get from Bikaner to Jaisalmer it’s a 5 hour train ride (or 6, or 7, or 8) on a local train – the kind where people hang out of the doors when the train is going and people wander up the aisles selling samosas.

On this train ride is where it started getting exciting, halfway through our journey we ran over a huge cow – now this is bad in any country but in India cows are considered holy so everyone on our carriage was up in arms.

Because I’m a nosy beeyatch I decided to jump off the train with everyone else and check out the now splattered cow – there were guts spread all the way along the tracks, bright red intestines swinging from the underside of the carriages and entrails everywhere. No idea what became of the head. So as my Scottish traveling companion Kerry and I were making our way further back on the sandy tracks to see more cow THE TRAIN STARTED SETTING OFF!

We sh*t ourselves obviously as the train was going pretty fast and we were running alongside it hindered by not only the soft sand but these little prickly seeds that were absolutely everywhere – they were flying in the air and sticking to our skin (the sharpest things ever, I was in agony!) – so any sort of pace was impossible. Thank Shiva we made it to the last carriage and both grabbed on in the nick of time… it was honestly the most movie-like moment of my life! Also any sense of camaraderie went out of the window as we hoisted ourselves up onto the moving rain, it was dog eat dog… if we’d have been left out in the desert it would’ve been camel eat human though!

Anyway, all’s well that ends well – and Indian train rides are anything but dull.

Not the cow that died but another equally lovely one. RIP train cow.

My Fave Travel Apps: Insta Emoji

Published by Sheree Milli

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE EMOJIS! I even had an Emoji birthday cake (the black side eye moon in case you’re asking) so when I found out you could accessorise your photos with them I was like ‘show me how, now’. This app is easy to use and lets you put LOL faces, hearts and even fake Emoji suns onto your travel snaps – I love it.

Insta Emoji FREE Apple App Store

Hotel Bhairon Vilas, Bikaner

Published by Sheree Milli

I love a good hotel – I stay, I lay, I unpack and I snap. This one’s a bloody great one too so read on…

The hotel Bhairon Vilas looks, to the untrained eye, like a palace, elegant yet totally homely, the ancient residence is crafted from the red sandstone native to the town of Bikaner in the north of India. It’s literally the most beautiful hotel I have ever stayed in… period.

The owner Harsh is one cool character, an Indian man in his early forties, he rocks (with aplomb I might add) a handlebar mustache., salt and pepper ponytail, a serious amount of silver bling and an old English tweed smoking jacket. He looks like a cross between a pirate and a Bollywood heartthrob.

I met Harsh holding court in his bar, which looks like a 19th century Opium den – the dark walls lined with all manner of curiosities (many of them family heirlooms) – and he told me that the hotel is his ancestral family home, built by his great grandfather. Lucky him!

Over some really very good Indian wine, he told me how he designed the hotel all by himself, decorating it with trinkets from his extensive travels and his families furniture and hand-me-downs – the effect is stunning. He should totally be an interior designer.

My room was fit for a princess in pistachio green, hand-painted with gold gilt flowers – and overlooking the sprawling gardens. I did check out some other rooms though, they’re all different and unique, and some of them were jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

Although the hotel is located in a small historic Indian town it definitely competes with any Western boutique hotel – in the bar were a cool, black American girl and a dashingly handsome Parisian (from Bushwick and Pigalle respectively) – if that’s no a measure of ‘hipness’ I don’t know what is. Add to that good food, roof terraces, an outdoor pool and air that smells of incense and intrigue and you have one hell of a hotel!

I’d travel back to Bikaner for this hotel alone, it was an experience that I’d like to repeat.
* A standard room is roughly £27. Breakfast and dinner for £3.50

Hotel Bhairon Vilas, Next to Junagarh Fort, Bikaner – 334001 Rajasthan

48 Hours in Hauz Khas, New Delhi

Published by Sheree Milli

My mate Akash told me that I had to visit Hauz Khas Village when I came to India, so I did and here’s what I found…

GETTING THERE

Get the Metro (yellow line) to Hauz Khas metro station, this cost me just 18p each way. Then get a tuk tuk as the walk is a little long, and not a particularly scenic one. Don’t pay more than 50IR to get to Hauz Khas village. If you must walk, just follow the road round to the left and I reckon it’d take 30 – 40 minutes.

EATING

The street food is plentiful and varied here, each district seems to have different dishes (so try them all). The prices are very cheap but go to the busiest stalls, they’re busy for a reason. And watch how much the locals pay so you don’t get given the tourist (higher) price. If you fancy something familiar there’s peri peri chicken, burger joints, pizzerias and crepe shops in Hauz Khaz, there is a definite European influence here, plus it’s one of the more affluent districts. There is also a Starbucks if you’re having withdrawals. Everyone in there was a loud American student…

Not sure what it is, but it was 30p and damn tasty!

Blueberry pancakes at Hauz Khas Social

DRINKING

Hauz Khas is one of the few places in Delhi where drinking is ‘a thing’ – they openly advertise alcohol deals – cocktails, buckets, beers for 70 IR (70p). The coolest spot to drink is definitely Hauz Khas Social, it’s full of the young and the hot (thanks to an exclusive door policy) and has an extensive cocktail list. Plus it overlooks a beautiful lake, plays pretty stellar music and does some great food too. I had some blueberry pancakes as finding sweet food in India is hard! It’s a little hidden away so ask someone to point you in the correct direction or you’ll probably walk right past it.

The Social 9A & 12, Hauz Khas Village, New Delhi, Delhi 110016

DOING

Visit the old Madrasa – it’s free! Established in 1352, the Madrasa was one of the biggest and best institutions of Islamic learning anywhere in the world. It’s a majestic, sprawling complex of pavilions, winding staircases and secret alcoves overlooking a beautiful lake – which is actually a reservoir. This is where all the teens and young Delhi kids come to snog in dark corners. It’s so weird to me as a Brit to visit a relic or historical site and see people climbing all over it, smoking, chilling on dangerous ledges. If the Madrasa was in the UK there would be rope and ‘Keep off the grass’ signs. It’s a cool place and I felt like Indiana Jones navigating the ruin.

I also (accidentally) walked round the back streets, I won’t say slums, but they were a contrast to the affluence of some parts of the village. I mean 5 minutes from where people were sipping expensive lattes in Starbucks there were families doing their washing on the street, feral dogs and cows sucking ON THEIR OWN UDDERS (I did not know this was possible but I have seen it – anyone know if that’s normal?).

The people are all really friendly and happy though, and although they live in poverty they’re all upbeat. Or maybe that wasn’t even poverty that I was seeing… It might have just been a normal Indian community. I dunno. Whats striking is the litter, it’s rife, and it is dirty but then contrasted with these beautifully dressed people and bold bright colours. Cray.

OVERALL RATING

Definitely one of Delhi’s cooler areas, and if you’re a Shoreditch Shorebitch at heart like me, it will appeal to the hipster in you! I loved it.

Make Your Own Hardcover Book with Artifact Uprising

Published by Sheree Milli

When I saw this amazing idea I knew that this is how I wanted to commemorate my round the world trip – with a stunning hardcover photobook by Artefact Uprising. The sister company of my favourite photo editing app VSCO Cam, Artefact Uprising take your photographs from either your app, iPhone or camera and let you turn them into your own book. Choose the layout, number of pages and colour of the book and arrange your pics anyway you want. I think this is SUCH a great way to collate all your travel memories and create a beautiful reminder of your trip.