Delhi and Bangkok: A Bollywood Ending.

The Indian Odyssey ended, of course, in Delhi. It’s big, it’s smelly, it’s dirty, and it’s big. There’s nothing super special about Delhi, but that doesn’t mean it’s boring (boring cities in India don’t seem to exist). There’s a heck of a lot happening – particularly in Old Delhi, which is absolute chaos in the most Indian way possible. And there are a couple of fairly impressive monuments hanging around the place.

 Can’t believe we almost blogged our way through India without mentioning the amazing street food. It might look unappetising with the flies and crowds of sweaty Indians hanging around the stalls, but by the lord Shiva is it cheap and delicious. Chapati, samosa, papri chat, lassis, aloo dum, paratha and every

 other fried little treat you could imagine.

Sweet, sweet chaos.

 Even among the chaos, Delhi still has an amazingly colourful and addictive vibrancy. Felix had to hold Phoebe back from purchasing Saris for everyone we know.

 We went out for dinner with a couple of Phoebe’s sister’s friends in Connaught Place. Complete contrast to Old Delhi: Big fancy malls, air-conditioned restaurants, fast food outlets… Our meal was def one of the best veg thalis we’ve ever had.

Alright this was pretty impressive – India’s largest mosque, Jama Masjid. As you can see, Phoebe is delighted that as a white woman she had to pay extra to borrow one of the gorgeous dressing-gown robes, even though she was covered from hair to ankle anyway.

On our last day in India, we had planned to visit New Delhi, but something a bit out of the ordinary happened. We were on our way to breakfast when someone asked us if we wanted to be extras in a Bollywood movie for the day. No Indian experience is complete without having acted in a Bollywood, and 5 minutes later we were swept off in a big van to a fancy hotel where they fed us, made us wait around for hours, filmed us, then paid us. Keep an eye out for us in Youngistan, hitting cinemas all over India in March 2014. We’ll be the ones in the background with the brightly coloured pants.

A young, appropriately dressed camera-woman preparing for her very important role of press conference filming.

Sharma. Vishu Sharma. Full-time professional photographer, born and educated in Mumbai.
(You really gotta know your character well if you want to be a convincing extra.)

ACTION!

Even Bollywood stars need rest. In Delhi airport.. Because even with our recent pay packets we are still too poor to pay for accommodation.

From Delhi we flew to Bangkok, for one final weekend in the Thai capital. After India, Bangkok seemed like a far more relaxed, clean and nice place to be, with a noticeable lack of animals roaming the streets. We love India, but man it was nice to not have to avoid human faeces when walking down the street. We managed to catch up with Tom and his travel companions for some temple-visiting and a night filled with Chang beer, reggae music and scorpion-eating - components that all good nights should have.

The backpacker pit which is Khao San Road. A super fun place to hang out; it's basically just one big market selling just about anything, most importantly pad thai and coconut ice-cream.

Street food that isn't fried?? Get those delicious pork noodles into me, stat!

The Grand Palace. What a stunnaaaah! Phoebe's shoulder-covering shirt that is, but the temples are alright too.

Background defocus: the only setting Phoebe ever uses on the camera (mostly cos it makes food look amazing).

The murals all around the temple walls in the Grand Palace complex are amazingly detailed. Sometimes they were so detailed that Felix got a bit scared and had to take a bit of time out.

There was no explanation as to why this giant Buddha had been beheaded but we were most concerned and appalled by this.

Grabbing a bevvy in Chinatown with the lads...

...And then, after a Thai massage to help with the hangover and to get our thoughts in order for the return home, we headed to the airport for our flight...... home.

It's been a better year than we ever could have imagined, thanks to every person who we have met, stayed with, been employed by, hung out with, shared a beverage or even just a laugh with during the year. We will never ever ever forget it!

And of course thanks to anyone who read this blog along the way, as you may have guessed we've grown quite fond of it, so we hope you enjoyed it! Kisses and hugs to all xoxo

Next time....?