1st December, 34 degrees at winter season here in India! Oh it's Glorious.
Early morning start, woke up to insidious (horror film) and Scott poking me in the arm! 8.30 is a struggle at the moment I don't know what's wrong with me! Surely I've caught up on my tiredness now and I've recharged my batteries!
I told Scott I'm not paying anymore than 1500 for return trip to Ponda, which is about 3 hours journey return trip. He didn't think I would get that for someone to stay there and wait for us!
Oh but how wrong was he! We got it on the first taxi man we saw!
Grabbed some water and a bar of dairy milk chocolate each, it's not quite the same over here as it is home but it will do! I don't recommend the cadburys silk or toblerone - yuk!
The trip wasn't too bad, a lot of hills and there is a lot of work being done on the roads!
Over here the work men work in flip flops with axes not in JCBs and they remove the rock to a different place with women in saris carrying buckets of rubble on their heads; they work half the pace as people at home and have less machinery but I guarantee they will finish it twice as fast as if they were doing it at home, no health and safety, no risk assessments, no moving onto other jobs here there and everywhere or stopping at 5pm on the clock, no rain to prevent them doing anything. Here they work right through till 11pm (ish)
We got to the spice plantation Scott got so excited when we seen an elephant, like a kid at Christmas! Mind I was too; I love these incredible creatures!
We got to this bamboo made bridge that took us over a lake onto a sort of island, here was the spice plantation; we got welcomed a Hindu way with the red dot between the eyebrows and a flower chain, chai tea (lemongrass tea) for welcome drinks was lovely! Scott didn't realise it was hot and took a gulp, quickly regretting it and burning his mouth haha!
It was lovely though, I've found another thing he likes which is really good for him - result!
Time for the tour, it was around 45 minutes, learnt lots about spices and their remedies, I didn't know how good they really are for you! Got a a few tips ;)
*ghost pepper originates from north India and can also been know as naga chilli; hottest in the world, you have to have gloves on to handle it otherwise it will burn you for 24 hours. They usually piece a hole in the bottom of it and just dip it in a sauce and take back out again to get the spice flavour because it's that hot!
*Vanilla is from Madagascar, it's the laziest creeper in the world because it feeds off other plants to live and takes four years to grow. You can put a dried pod in 2kg of sugar into a tight jar for 3 days and you will get vanilla flavoured sugar.
*Cinnamon bark lowers cholesterol helps joints and muscle pain, although you have to check the bark that it gradually goes darker the further in it goes. You just have to chew a little piece every morning. Tried to get Scott to buy a bag only 50 rupees, cheap skate wouldn't get any! (Dad want me to get any it's real jazz over here no like Aldis or tescos rubbish) haha!
*nutmeg, if you chew a tiny bit every evening and swallow it, ithelps you sleep and makes you drowsy... Mum I bought some! Haha.
*nutmeg shave a little bit of the nut into milk every evening, it helps babies with colds, coughs and bad stomachs and is proven to work.
*ginger is really good for digestion and gas, chew very small amount once a day, three times a week and it helps the stomach!
*tumeric powder helps to prevent cancers, especially beast cancer and is an antiseptic if you rub a little on your cut it is good.
*(ROSS this is for you) lemongrass oil - 2 spots of that and 8 spots of almond oil - it helps acne if you put it in a figure of right over your face and smoothie it one way down your skin, leave it overnight and wash it in the morning, you have to keep at it for about 2-3 months though! It's also a mosquito repellent!
*lemon grass is good for colds and stomachs in tea.
*peri peri pepper is the most common pepper and only grows 1 cm maximum. Grown in India, biggest money they get from selling it is nandos.
*clove oil (different to the actual clove we have at home) it helps prevent gum problems and mouth cancer!
basil leaf (known in India as tusmil) is different here than home it has flowers, it's a healing god, they worship it, you can find big monuments with plants growing out of them. It Helps asthma 2 drops in teaspoon of honey - bought that one! I'm going to claim it as my own if it works, I'll get my first million before Ross then, muhaha!
*Palm trees - 4 rings on the trunk equals 1 year of growth (3 seasons, winter summer and monsoon)
After my cooking theory lesson we had some food, was lovely, lady's finger was gorgeous don't know what it was, might have been peppers! Don't be out off by the name.

The elephants were so good, we didn't get in the lake with them like we thought, we were on an Indian male elephant first, he still had huge tusks, they sound so hollow! We climbed on separately, sat on the elephant bare back and was sucking water water up his trunk and spraying it all over us it was so funny!! Scott loved it, after he finished spraying him Scott laid down on him and gave him a cwtch! I never laughed so much, I'm honestly coming home with a six pack from laughing at him, you thought I was blonde! He's coming up with some crackers this trip - already! We went on a separate elephant for the ride, her name was Jon Jon; what's with Indians and naming animals opposite names, last time we had a male camel named Claudia! I mean it's just mean.
Jumped on, I seen the poker -_- it was metal and had a hook. Absolutely gutted, thankfully he didn't use it. He would have known about it if he did! He would have had more than scowl.
We were stroking her afterwards and she kept making a sort of purring noise in her throat, it's sign that she happy. I told Scott you have to look them in the eye and talk gentle to them.. Haha! I think he thought he was stroking twinkle the cat. Aw he loves them, beaming from ear to ear, hugged her trunk and just smiled like a Cheshire Cat with his eyes closed hehe!
Could not get us away from her though, we didn't want to leave.
But another great experience! Another tick off out bucket lists!

On the drive back I realised something, forget recycling in Britain and making us 'Go Green' jog on over here to India! They're lacking recycling bins, massively! Forgot how bad it is for rubbish on the streets here, although don't get me wrong nothing as bad as Jaipur! That was just dirty landfill sites everywhere.
Went to the beach to catch some afternoon rays, Scott gained another beach friend whilst I was staring the Russians down, strange specimen I tell you, strange.
Anyway, His name was Sam... He's from Mumbai, he admitted that most Indians dislike the Russians very much, wanted to high five him but they were say either side of us. Oops.

Basic wage at the beach huts and shops is 500rupees per day (if they get good business in a day may go up to 700-800 rupees per day) they work for 18 hours a day to get that wage! 18HOURS! we both earn more than him in one hour.
They only have 6 months of work a year because of tourism then the other 5-6 months they go home and try to find work, he said he goes up in the mountains to build things and move bricks And what not for about 200 rupees a day if he's lucky!

Indians are so fascinated by Europeans people because the lighter the skin the more rich and famous you are seen because when they watch hollywood films they see them on there and Bollywood films only have pale coloured actors, and the Bollywood agency is taking in billions per year because it has more ambassadors now than ever before plowing money into it.

So Scott has decided he's going to get rid of me find an Indian girlfriend so he can be seen as rich and wealthy, and he will have someone to do everything for him because they're more so housewives and house proud. Whereas i would give him a clip round the ear and tell him to pick his own mess up and not stop nagging till he done it - properly. Muhaha! I love the power!

We went a little over budget today with the elephants so cheap night with cheap grub, in desperate need to find some wifi for hotel searching!


Not such a bad Monday after all!