The Wong Blog

Monica September 25, 2019 Travel Jaipur

The Ultimate Travel Guide to Jaipur, India

Jaipur is my favourite city in India. Welcome to the ‘pink city’. I’m so thrilled that you are here to join me for a sun-soaked, salmon-pink adventure.

As the last stop on the golden triangle tour, Jaipur is one of the greatest cities in the world to shop. Alongside an abundance of luxurious hotels, it’s a real-life Aladdin’s cave. Go on a hunt for gemstones and tribal textiles; this is where insiders buy handmade, traditional crafts and design.

Right, let’s plan your itinerary!

1. Amber Fort (Amer Fort)

Out of all of the attractions in Jaipur, I urge you to see this fort. Okay, it is a drive away, but the devil is in the detail; it’s an architectural goldmine. Prepare for your best pics yet, with intricate detail on the walls and views across the city and countryside. The king lived here with 12 of his wives – and 350 mistresses. Bet he was busy!

2. Hawal Mahal

Fun fact: this is a building with a law to stay pink, and I’m here for it. It’s a honeycomb-shaped ‘palace of the winds’ dotted in peekaboo windows. Architectured for the royal women who would watch the street parades from above, the king had many anonymous wives. It’s next door to City Palace so pop over to the following location once you’ve got your Hawal fix.

3. City Palace

The royal family once ruled their terra-cotta homeland by painting all of their sandstone buildings. Today, it’s an artistic masterpiece built in the form of courtyards, gardens, gateways and buildings. A striking blend of Rajasthani and Mughal architecture, this palace represents the richness of Indian history. It’s built right in the centre of the old city, so the journey should be easy-peasy.

4. Jantar Mantar

This one is a bit random, myself and my travel buddy were wondering why they built this here. But, don’t rule it off just yet. It’s the world’s largest stone sundial — I highly recommend a visit for the science, space and astrology enthusiasts. A good one for the kids, I would describe it as an interactive outdoor museum. Nineteen instruments allow you to see planetary positions and how they were used to calculate date and time by the sun’s positioning. There is a craved monument for each star sign. I loved seeing the symbol for Scorpio: intense and romantic. Hmm, that’s almost accurate.

5. The Iconic Stepwells

I didn’t manage to fit this one, but I Instastalked other travel bloggers piccies, and they’re beautiful. I luckily managed to find similar steps in Rajasthan, but the Jaipur ones are incredibly popular and a photographer’s dream. It’s a chance to see authentic India, and the surrounding areas, filled with friendly curious locals.

The places I didn’t get to go but would add to your list: Galta Monkey Temple and Nahargarh Fort. Oh and don’t miss the beautiful palace floating in the middle of the Man Sagar Lake: half of the building is still hovering, but the bottom half is submerged. They’re currently restoring it so you can’t go inside, but you won’t miss the viewing spots filled with tourists.

Transportation

You’ll be pleased to hear that Uber is in Jaipur and it’s safe! There is also a similar service called Ola. All drivers are, of course, tracked. Jaipur has developed well over the years and is incredibly modern. If you want a full day of sightseeing, I would recommend hiring a private driver (the preferred mode of transport for many Westerners). For cheaper options, book a tour here.

Accommodation

Three – five days is enough to see all of the beautiful Jaipur.

Backpackers – I haven’t stayed in a hostel in India, but I will always recommend hostelbookers.com and hostelworld.com. I used both of these when I went backpacking.

Vacay-ers – Jaipur has many Western hotel chains like Marriot and Holiday Inn etc. I stayed in Hilton Jaipur, which as a global hotel, is a great all-rounder and is very accommodating to all cultures. Honestly, you have to check out their breakfast & dinner buffet — I’ve never seen so many world foods stations under one roof. There is also a rooftop pool which I didn’t get to use, but it looks incredible! The most ‘Instagrammable’ luxurious (pricey) hotel is Jai Mahal Palace, which I went for dinner. Otherwise, ITC Rajputana is a great budget option that all of the essential amenities at an affordable price.

Food

I highly recommend booking a reservation at Jai Mahal Palace for an I’m-on-holiday-so-might-aswell dinner because the palace itself is truly magical. The restaurant at the Hilton Jaipur is decently priced and well-known for its famous Rajasthani speciality dishes.

*Subject to affordability, food may be a tad pricey.

Closing

I hope you found my guide to Jaipur useful. India has been on my bucket list since I was a little girl, and I’ve never been anywhere quite like it. Jaipur well exceeded my expectations. I’m always keen to answer any travel questions so don’t hesitate to fling me a comment!

Jaipur, India

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Monica July 14, 2019 Travel India, Agra

The Ultimate Travel Guide to Agra, India

Welcome to my guide to Agra, the city after Delhi on the golden triangle tour. Agra is home to arguably one of the most beautiful attractions in the world and architectural hotspot to lots of other charms bequeathed by the legacy of the Mughal empire. With lots of tombs and mausoleums, there isn’t a dull moment in this hustling, dusty, boisterous, intense and entertaining city.

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve wanted to see the Taj Mahal. I’ve always been fascinated by India’s history. I arrived, and overheard a tourist‚ “he built this palace for his wife, and I can’t even get a text back”. If you’re this funny traveller or have this sense of humour, I’d like to be your friend.

Right, let’s fly to Agra, together!

Top 5 Things to See and Do in Agra, India

Taj Mahal – this world wonder is more breathtaking than I anticipated. It’s utterly magical. I’ve been to my fair share of overhyped tourist attractions — this isn’t one of them. Located on the picturesque Yamuna River, it’s a snap-happy wonderland! Wear bright colours; the backdrop is a lush white marble. Prepare to be hassled like a celebrity, it’s flattering at first, but if you feel uncomfortable, don’t be afraid to decline (politely!). Top tip, If you want: A) a decent photo without random body parts B) not to be elbowed, I would advise arriving super early! I appeared in the afternoon, and as a bizarre punishment, I got crushed. Don’t be me!

Mehtab Bagh – this is where you can get the best views of the Taj Mahal from across the Yamuna River. If you like your viewpoints, I thoroughly recommend a sunset visit. Perfectly aligned with the Taj Mahal on the opposite bank; these gardens were where the black Taj was supposed to be. I’m fascinated by the story of Mehtab Bagh, but I won’t give too much away – as a tour guide will be bursting to tell you. Get your archaeology hat on as you can still see the remains. Want a memorable photo? Hire a boat in the day during the non-monsoon season.

Musamman Burj – you have to see this place, it’s where Shah Jahan lived out his last years before he died. Our jaws dropped when we got there as it’s so beautiful. It’s an octagonal tower with poignant views to the Taj and Agra: an architectural goldmine, the lattices are carved in delicate, white and bright marble. There are heaps of snap-opportunities at this glorious monument.

Sikandra Fort – a hidden gem which is located about 13km away from Agra Fort. The disadvantaged locals are newly benefitting from this tourist attraction. It isn’t as popular as the more prominent attractions, yet so worth it. It’s the last resting place of Mughal emperor Akbar. His beautifully carved, red-ochre sandstone tomb is set amidst a lush garden and pays tribute to his love of arts, literature, philosophy and science.

Agra Fort – I wasn’t as impressed with this monument as the others, but it’s worth a visit. This strong Mughal red sandstone fortress manifests many fairytale-like palaces and mosques. High walls surround the area designed to keep invaders out. Beware of the cheeky monkeys running around!

Transportation

India can be a bumpy experience when it comes to hopping between attractions. There will be hordes of keen rickshaw-wallahs, souvenir peddlers and unofficial touts & guides outside most attractions, whose persistence can be bothersome. A tour will make your journey a smoother experience, and they will pick you up from your hotel or hostel and take you back. If you’re a backpacker, I recommend here. For day tours hop over to here and here. For all-inclusive golden triangle tours which are hassle-free click here.

Accommodation

Around two to three nights in Agra is all you need. There’s not much to see in the city.

Backpackers – I haven’t stayed in a hostel in India so that I won’t recommend one, but I will always recommend my hostelbookers.com and hostelworld.com, I used both of these when I went backpacking.

Vacay-ers – the best hotels will have a view of the Taj. Want five stars? This one is for you. Otherwise, this one is decently priced and has everything you need with a view. We stayed here, which has fun Indian craft activities and entertainment during peak season.

Food

My friend did some research on best places to eat in Agra, and we saw good reviews for Pinch of Spice. It’s not the best for decor, but it’s cheap and ideal if you like your Indian food accompanied with other cuisines. I had a paneer curry with fried rice and prawn toast, which felt like a blessing as I had been eating only Indian food that week. The Thali at our hotel (Taj view) is tasty too; we ate on the roof terrace with a picturesque view of the Taj.

Closing

I hope you found this post useful. India has been on my bucket list since I was a little girl, and I’ve never been anywhere quite like it. Remember to come back for my ultimate guides to the beautiful Rajasthan and Jaipur! I’m always keen to hear about your travels so fling me a comment if you have anything to share or any Q’s!

Agra, India

Snake Print Dress |Blue Dress | White Trainers| Bag | Sunglasses

For delayed and cancelled flight compensation go here. *AFF

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Monica May 21, 2019 Travel

The Ultimate Travel Guide to Delhi, India

India is fascinating. At every turn: whether shocking, enlightening or confusing, there is a scene to captivate you — that’s the beauty of going to a country with an extraordinary, culture-rich and fascinating history.

Delhi is a character: manic, unpredictable and not for the faint-hearted. With great tourist attractions and markets, Delhi’s economic development is seriously booming.

I have to be honest with you; I don’t recommend spending a lot of time in the capital as there are more breathtaking places in India. Delhi is a stop shop which will facilitate you to your next ventures, like Agra, Rajasthan and Jaipur. I highly recommend going on a tour from Delhi. If you’re a backpacker, I recommend this and this. If you’re going on holiday, I booked this package. Otherwise, this, this and this are all reputable.

This is the ultimate guide for Delhi though, so go to the places I recommend and you’ll have a wonderful time. I’ll be doing guides for Agra and Jaipur too so look out for those.

travel-guide-to-delhi-india-Humayun’s-Tomb

Top 5 Things to See and Do in Delhi, India

Jama Masjid – Built by Shah Jahan (the emperor behind Taj Mahal), this holy mosque is truly remarkably beautiful. It is a place of worship so please dress conservatively (cover up your shoulders, chest and legs) and take off your shoes at the door, put them in your bag or leave them at the door for a cheerful 100 rupees (£1). Attire is available for hire at the entrance. I received mine as complimentary with my tour; below is a pic of me sporting the yellow trend.

Humayun’s Tomb – this UNESCO heritage site is the perfect introduction into India’s architecture and an opportunity to learn about the history of the Mughals. The Tomb rests through a walkway of lush gardens, I highly recommend it as your first trip of the day, we went early, and it was empty! Insta-yay!

Chandni Chowk Market – This market is an experience and a half, keep your wits about you. A maze of streets, with local sellers encouraging you to buy their goods, spilling out from every stall. It’s a long, narrow road. Walk on the left of the street, or you’ll risk a thump by a passing rickshaw. If you’re not planning to buy anything, hail a ride instead. Known as Aladdin’s cave, buy your spices, fashion to jewellery here. Remember never to accept the first price and come equipped with haggling skills. Don’t feel pressured to buy if you don’t want to. Just say “no, thank you” and walk away.

Red Fort – I became way too invested in the history of this monument. I even Googled more information at dinner to get the full scoop. If you are heading to the Taj Mahal, you need to come here. I won’t give the story away, but it’s a red sandstone fort designed to keep invaders out and houses many museums.

Qutub Minar – A sun-soaked, tall, red sandstone minaret; It’s one of the most popular attractions in Delhi. An archaeological minefield, roam around ancient ruins and tombs decorated in detailed Arabic inscriptions.

travel-guide-to-delhi-india-Humayun’s-Tomb-Jama-masjid

Transportation

We flew via Virgin Airlines as we found a bargain on the Secret Escapes Golden Triangle package, otherwise I recommend shopping around on Skyscanner, Sta Travel and Holiday Pirates.

Local city transportation is cheap, but be careful. To be on the safe side, get an Uber instead of a taxi. If you’re going a reasonably short distance, you can hail a rickshaw ride but remember to bargain! Most Westerners hire private drivers as the norm in India; your hotel will have a travel desk where you can seek advice. We booked a mix of both Ubers and private drivers.

Accommodation

Backpackers – If you’re backpacking (first of all, I’m very jealous because that was me four years ago and I hope you’re having a wonderful time), I recommend booking through HostelWorld and HostelBookers. As it’s India, please do your research thoroughly. Grab a cuppa and get yourself ready for a big review-checking sesh.

Vacay – For safety reasons, I recommend five-star hotels in India. I was sceptical, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Our local tour guide warned us about makeshift hotels in the city. There have been horror stories including dodgy cameras in the rooms (I know, wtf?!). Hotel prices are decent. We stayed at The Suryaa New Delhi, it’s located a touch further away from central but was handy for our driver to get us to our next destination: Rajasthan. If you’re willing to splurge, the most ‘Instagrammable’ hotel is the luxury Taj Mahal Hotel or any of the Taj Group owned hotels. Top tip: book a hotel with a well-rated restaurant as you do not want to wander around Delhi in the evening.

Food

Food is very cheap in India. But be careful! You’ll be so lucky to miss out on Delhi belly. I would love to tell you that it’s easy to avoid, ahem, stomach issues due to poor food hygiene. But this is just one of those risks with eating foods that are unfamiliar in your usual diet. As a general rule, hotels are fine.

The places I recommend are The Varq at the Taj Mahal hotel. I will never forget the mouthwatering Varqui crab dish. I’ve decided I won’t be eating curry in the UK anymore because it does not compare, ha! Dhaba at Claridge’s does a tasty Thali (seven different mini dishes of curries, dal and rice), the interior is set up as a very cool ‘dine on a truck’ theme. Otherwise, to save you a trip running around Trip Advisor restaurant reviews, Delhi’s version of OpenTable is called Eazy Diner, scroll through reviews written by Delhi locals!

The Varq

Wifi

Wifi is like gold and is expensive in India. Even the five-star hotels charge for Wifi! I recommend buying a sim card (which is cheap) and using the data from that; it’s also useful for emergency calls. As always, check out what your network provider charges for calls in India, O2 provides free local to local calls in India as part of my monthly contract.

Departure

I know what you’re thinking, you’re debating whether to add India to your bucket list?

I would tell you to go in a heartbeat. Keep your wits about you, be smart & open-minded and you’ll be fine.

I hope you found this post useful. Remember to come back for my ultimate guides to the beautiful Rajasthan and Jaipur!

Dhaba

Location: Delhi, India
Secret Escapes Golden Triangle

White Top | Brown Trousers | White Trainers

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Monica April 18, 2019 Life

How to make money from blogging

Once upon a time, blogging was nothing more than a digital diary. Today, it has empowered a generation of #DigitalBosses. I’m so proud of the Blogosphere community, but there is still a lot of scepticism and speculation when it comes to the topic of monetisation.

The most common question I get is ‘how do you make money from blogging?’. Last summer, I wrote a 101 guide on how to start a blog, I solemnly swore that I would save the money-making side for a full-length post because I knew it would be a detailed cracker.

I have the best of both worlds; I worked in Digital Marketing (Affiliate) for years before I became a #LifestyleBlogger, Model & Digital Consultant full-time, so I have an inkling of what advertisers and influencers want.

If you’re a blogger, you probably know how a lot of this works, but for ease, I’m going to explain how it works to a complete beginner so that everyone can understand it.

To make this easy to digest, I’m going to split up the sections: Brand Partnerships, Affiliate Marketing, Display Advertising and Public Relations (PR).

Brand Partnerships (Fixed Fee)

Brand Partnerships is primarily ‘Sponsored Content’; this is when a brand pays you a fixed fee to write, YouTube and/or Instagram about a product or service.

The way it works is that a brand would contact you with an introduction of a product, and if agreed, a contract is drawn up with objectives of the campaign. A brief usually has all of the deliverables required, and this includes information about the product, which key messages should be said, hashtags to use and social media handles to tag.

This form of payment has the most scope of flexibility because the brand marketing department usually has the highest budget (some companies assign this budget from the same pot of TV and radio advertising).

Affiliate Marketing (Variable Fee)

Affiliate Marketing is my expertise, so I’m hoping, I can explain this simplistically for newbies. It’s when a brand (e.g. ASOS, Amazon, Groupon etc.) pays out a commission to a publisher (blogger, or any website that promotes products) for every sale generated.

E.g., when someone clicks on my blog and then spends £100, I earn X% of total basket value (excluding delivery & VAT).

Commission (X) range averages 5-15%, and it’s not paid out if the buyer returns the item. If you want to know how the technical side works, it’s all tracked by through the URL which drops a cookie and captures the data. The data goes to a network so they can calculate how much each everyone earns, but you don’t need to know any of this unless you work in the affiliate industry. You just need to know that there is no additional fee for the buyer who is purchasing the products.

There are lots of Affiliate Networks, and I started my career working at one of them, but I currently use RewardStyle who power my shop widgets, I find them very easy to use. Do let me know if you would like me to refer you and I’ll hook you up!

Display Advertising (Variable Fee)

This is when a brand (or media agency working on behalf of a brand) pays you per 1000 impressions or views (CPM cost per mill) or clicks (CPC cost per clicks) generated from your website or YouTube.

I currently don’t work with any display partners because I personally find ad’s on a website super annoying, I also don’t have YouTube, but an example would be:

E.g., when someone clicks on a banner advertisement on my website or YouTube video, I’ll earn £XX per 1000 interactions (impressions) or clicks.

CPM’s used to be fixed, but YouTube has created an algorithm, and each YouTuber’s rate is dependent on content, time of year, how many videos you make etc.

Public Relations – PR (Fixed Fee)

You can build great relationships with PR agents; they tend to be the most friendly! Once you’re on their mailing list, they will send products, gift cards or services for you to trial. There is usually no obligation to promote products unless you sign a contract.

PR’s will choose their influencers based on their audiences being the right fit for the product, for example, McDonalds PR isn’t going to contact a fitness influencer (unless it was some ironic promotion) because that wouldn’t be a right fit for the campaign.

On the topic of audiences, this video explains how to build them.

Remember that Influencers do also have to declare if there are paid, this is seen in hashtags using #ad or #gifted or #presstrip. I’m being paid to write this article by promoting the links in the post.

Like any other job, Bloggers do have to pay taxes (this company is making tax digital) so it’s useful to monitor regulations changes. Videos like this are helpful.

And that’s that! I hope the above advice helped explain the monetisation side of blogging and that you’re all clear as a consumer.

What are your thoughts? I would love to hear from you.

Primrose Bakery, London

Snake Print Skirt |Black Blouse|Black Boots

Photography by my favourite Parisan friend: Constance Doyle

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The Ultimate Travel Guide to Jaipur, India

1. Amber Fort (Amer Fort)

2. Hawal Mahal

3. City Palace

4. Jantar Mantar

5. The Iconic Stepwells

Transportation

Accommodation

Food

Closing

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The Ultimate Travel Guide to Agra, India

Top 5 Things to See and Do in Agra, India

Transportation

Accommodation

Food

Closing

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The Ultimate Travel Guide to Delhi, India

Top 5 Things to See and Do in Delhi, India

Transportation

Accommodation

Food

Wifi

Departure

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How to make money from blogging

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