Where do we start????
We are less than one week into our 4 month adventure and already we have had the most amazing, exciting, funny, brilliant, breathtaking and humbling time.
We have never before filled our days with so many wonderful experiences - every moment is a wonderful blessing. We have made many friends – the people we met have been so amazing and are undoubtedly the highlight of our trip.
Our souls are free and happy and we can’t wipe the smiles from our faces…
At the moment we are in Southern Gujarat in a village called Diu – shortly to board a 12 hour bus for Ahmedabad (capital of Gujarat – 5 million people). We have spent most of the last 4 days walking through tiny villages hidden in the palm-trees and spending time with fishing families in the fishing village. The people in Gujarat are simple amazing - incredibly friendly, open, warm, funny and caring. We simply adore it here for that reason alone.
Cisco turned 38 (yay!) on the 12th – we woke up on the train at 6am – caught a rickety old bus to the Diu (which took 4 hours) and spent the rest of his birthday swimming and exploring the village.
Diu is an old Portuguese colony so Cisco feels at home with the food and the architecture. We rented a motorbike while we were here (for 1 pound per day) so we were able to get off the beaten track to meet villagers who maybe see one white person a year. The place we stayed was a rusty tin hut on a deserted beach (complete with a camel) – this place cost us ₤3.50 a night and it was perfect. We made a lot of friends in Diu and feel very lucky to have had such amazing experiences with Gujarati families. We could spend the whole 4 months here…but we have so much more to see!
In usual form, Cisco has captured some brilliant photos – some of which we will post on here. I have set up a gallery for all the photos - please see the photo gallery link. For comments/descriptions just click on them or hover your mouse :-)
Here is a run down of the highlights from our last week:
Leaving London – this in itself was a highlight because we hung out at Heathrow for an extra 26 hours due to a delay on Air India.
Mumbai – we spent a day in Mumbai walking around the slum area near to Mumbai Central station. People here live in abject poverty on the side of the road – even tiny babies are out sleeping on cardboard with only the dirty clothes they wear as possessions. We handed out the baby clothes which friends at work kindly gave us and also some money – it was like Christmastime for them and a wonderful feeling for us to have put smiles on faces that day.
Ahmedabad - Gujarat – we took an overnight train to the most dusty, dirty, noisy and polluted city you could imagine. But despite the grime & poverty– the people in Ahmedabad are simply beautiful. Everyone wanted to shake our hands, buy us chai, invite us to their homes, treat us to snacks, show us their temples, have their photo taken – and wanted absolutely nothing in return.
Although the people in Ahmedabad are incredibly warm, we had some heart breaking experiences during our day here. We met a family of 5 who live on the pavement – their tiny baby (maybe a few days old) was in a piece of Styrofoam packaging from a TV box. The baby was so small and so floppy, inert and undernourished that if this little one had been lucky enough to be born in the West it would be in intensive care. We gave the family some money but we just can’t get them out of our minds - so we are changing our plans to go back to Ahmedabad to find them, see if we can arrange for a doctor to see the baby and to buy them some food, blankets and clothes for the children. We hope the little baby is still there…
We are both very well and very happy. For those of you enquiring as to the status of our stomachs – please rest assured that all is well in that department!
Over and out for now
Lots of love Cisco and Chloe xoxoxoxoo
p.s we will be buff in no time: It is 36 degrees and our bags are 35kgs each.....
