All about Paper High
Our Trip to India
After telling you about our Nepal’s journey, we wanted to tell you all about India!
We are sad to leave Nepal, but excited about the next chapter in India… Have a look at our previous blog article to learn more about our Nepal’s trip.
OUR ARRIVAL – conserve india
We arrived in the evening in Delhi. I miss the old days of the ambassador cars there to greet you. India has changed so much over the recent years.
We stayed with Shalab and Anita from Conserve India, and arrived to cold beer and a delicious dinner. Conserve India is an NGO that creates beautifully unique leather products, and put the profit back into the same communities to improve education and welfare.
The next day, we spent the day with them, looking through samples (made out of recycled plastic) we have been very excited to create. Watch this space, they are now in production! We then had another lovely evening thanks to their kind hospitality.
Tara projects
It was lovely to see Moon and Puneet and catch up on recent years. After a lovely chat, lunch and tour of their vast show rooms, we chose and worked on a range of glass baubles following the success of our diamond baubles last year.
The next day, we left Shalab and Anita’s lovely home and delicious food and headed to Jaipur. We arrived at our guest house late afternoon after a long day of travelling.
Handicraft villa
Today, we had a lovely day with Handicraft Villa. After a fabulous welcome and meeting the new team, we settled in the lovely new offices. We had a great catch up, had a delicious lunch with Dharmendra and his family. I love eating home cooked food, there is no comparison to the restaurants we eat in. So much work and love goes into their meals and they couldn’t even eat it as they were fasting.
The afternoon we toured their new factory and met the artisans. 80% of the factory is running on solar energy. We then spent a few hours selecting samples and working on some new products. Meanwhile the girls got decorated in beautiful henna. It was a very long day and the girls were very happy to get back and eat before a well deserved sleep.
day 6 – day off
Finally a day off! It has been non stop and the girls are bored rigid. We can’t visit Jaipur without taking Amber to the Amber palace. It was a very hot hike up the steep slope, wishing we had left earlier in the day! The heat is immense. We enjoyed a lovely wonder around and had many laughs as Rosie kept getting stolen for people’s photographs.
We then met Dharmendra and his family for a traditional dinner, the amount of food was ridiculous. See the photo below!
Pushkar
Today, we had a relatively short journey (3 hours) to Pushkar. Rosie and I had a little sightseeing tour in the morning and all was lovely until she saw a man in the drain covered in muck.
We arrived at my favourite guest house, Inn Seventh Heaven. It’s a stunning old haveli covered in vines decorated with lovely furniture and antiques. It’s such a peaceful haven after such a busy couple of weeks. I love Pushkar, it’s a beautiful town surrounding a lake which many people make special pilgrimages to as it has one of the few Brahmin temples in. We settled in and felt completely at home as if we had never left. We wandered out for dinner and saw so many familiar faces, broad smiles, and I felt so happy to be back. The only issue is, poor Rosie has discovered a huge fear of cows, which is not a good thing to be scared of as they are everywhere and all the street are very narrow.
On another day, we wandered the streets of Pushkar once again, meeting with old friends and picking up some items for the festivals. We spent another half day with the bags, went on a two hour adventure riding a camel, which was a huge disappointment followed by a wonderful group of musicians in a lovely restaurant.
Recycled leather bags
Today, we spent the day visiting our recycled leather bags producer, looking at their stock, discussing new designs, packaging… We are very excited to be furthering this range. Watch this space, it will be growing throughout the year!
Day 11 to the end… After a long and hot day travelling, we arrived at ‘our Indian family’. Our longest standing supplier… When we met, their children were toddlers and babies, and 20 years later, they are incredible young people. It was lovely having 5 quality days with them.
Sadly, Shalini passed away last year. We were devastated by the news and although seeing our family again was wonderful, it was no longer complete with a huge presence missing… It was a bitter sweet meeting!
Over this time, we slowed down the pace. Each day, we visited the factory, and spent time with the artisans and quality time with the family. We went into the old town for dinners overlooking the lake. Udaipur is such a stunning town, we love it here, me especially! Very sad to be leaving but we’re returning early next year for a family wedding, can’t wait!!
If you have read it all, thank you and I hope you liked our Nepal and India’s diaries.
To our next adventures…
