Many of the fellow travellers that we met along the way had nothing but warnings about India – hot, dirty, dangerous, hot, difficult, hot…to the point we shortened our time (but not our itinerary) in India.
Yes, the past two weeks have been hot, up to 46 degrees hot (115 F), with only a slight reprieve at night…but what an AMAZING place!
Our first transportation from the Nepali border to the nearest train station 2 hours south was in a small jeep – the 13 of us were all quite comfortable until it started raining and the luggage (including our two BIG packs) was moved inside as well! It also transpired that our driver was unable to produce his Driver`s License at a police check point (possibly because he didn`t have one – we couldn`t tell!).
From Gorakhpur we boarded an over-night sleeper train to our first real Indian destination, Varanasi – the final destination for millions of Hindu pilgrims each year.
Our auto (motorised) rickshaw navigated ever-narrower streets and alleys until the back wheels had just millimetres to spare on either side and we had to walk the last ten minutes down toward the Ganga (Ganges) River where our balcony over-looked temples, ghats (small river ports), houses and stairs. Sounds, sights and smells permeated our room through mesh covered windows.
The next two days were spent exploring Varanasi and sampling Indian foods. We took a two hour evening boat trip along the river, with our oarsman feeding us information about the people, places, palaces and past-times as he hauled the bamboo oars through the polluted water. To us the Ganges looked like a river you wouldn`t take your dog to – banks suffocating in rubbish and decaying matter, dead animals and beings floating in the water, and a ridiculously high faecal-coliform count – but yet here the devout Hindu were delighting in immersing themselves in the holy water. What a great lesson in perspective for us when our oarsman grinned with pleasure as he told us he was SO LUCKY to be able to swim here three times a day, everyday, morning, noon and night!!!
We met our boatman at 5 the next morning and watched as locals and Indian tourists bathed beneath the orange rising sun. They washed, played, drank, and lined up for swimming lessons in their holy water. That day Logan got our only taste of Delhi-Belly but came right pretty quickly after whatever disagreed with him was expelled.
That evening was our second over-night train, Varanasi to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Due in at 5am, we hoped to be at the marble monument for sunrise – our train was a few hours late so we got to enjoy the translucent marble, inlaid stones and jewels in the heat of the midday sun. We also visited the “Baby Taj” (actually pre-dating the Taj), which we both enjoyed with only a handful of other visitors about. This was a flying stop and the rest of the day we saw other local sights before returning at 5pm to the train station for our 5 hour trip to Jaipur.
The train was a few hours late leaving the central Agra station, but no big deal. By 8 o`clock the next morning we had made it all the way to Agra Fort – on the outskirts of the same town! By 9am, we were back where we started! We were told to get off the train – a different train, one we didn`t have a ticket for, would whisk us to our destination. 3 hours sitting at the platform and another day on the train, taking an unexpected trip to Delhi (in the north) before turning south for Jaipur – arriving 24 hours late, still at midnight just the following day, and 32 hours after we set out!
Jaipur was lovely – our time there reduced we had to contend with the heat to fit everything in. Sightseeing and a Bollywood movie at the Raj Mindir cinema (a theatre described as a cross between a temple, a meringue and a nightclub), and then out to “Chokhi Dhani” – a fancy hotel complex with an attached “Indian Village” theme park. A real treat for us, this place had air conditioning and a glorious swimming pool! We spent the afternoon in the pool before being subjected to the park in the evening…women with a stack of pots balanced on their heads, a puppet show, magician, shooting gallery, elephant rides, free henna painting, and free head massages (“ouch, please stop!” ), with traditional thali for dinner and a glass of what tasted like off sea water (they assured us it was in fact salted green mango juice and excellent for dealing with the heat!). We retired to our room and some fresh watermelon. The next morning we ate breakfast, swam, and rickshawed back to town for some shopping, a walk through the old city and bazaars, and a train to Udaipur.
The people of Rajasthan are beautiful – happy and friendly they know how to enjoy themselves. Most nap for a few (or 8 or 9) hours in the middle of the day – they are happy to open their shops late and close early – or not open at all if they need a holiday (one shop we found only opened from 6pm to 8pm 5 days a week). They swim in public fountains and love to sit and tell you about their family (often 10-15 people living in the same house – children, grandchildren, parents and grandparents all together!). There is a universal interest in cricket and every park, back alley, unused rail track or front yard can be used as a pitch, with stones for wickets if you don`t have any and a crowd of cheering onlookers. The people were curious of us and asked us about our country and our family and often wanted to take our photo. They were pleased we were married but shocked we didn`t have children yet! We seemed to discuss Steven Fleming a lot and pretended that cricket was our favourite past-time too!
With three days in Udaipur, we explored the town and palaces, scootered into the dry and hilly countryside for a day, and took an Indian cooking class one evening – so much fun and loads of great food (and recipes to bring home with our bags of spices and copper bowls). Our room overlooked the lake and the “floating palace” – built to completely cover one of the offshore islands.
We left Udaipur on an overnight sleeper bus but only made it 20 minutes before colliding with another big bus headed in the same direction – extensively damaging the front of both buses and breaking both huge windscreens. Logan got out to investigate and quickly determined no-one was injured but that neither bus was going anywhere! He was wrong! After an hour of “words” between drivers, company bosses and police, both vehicles were panel-beated on the spot (they removed what was left of the door on the other bus and our front bumper), cleared out the glass, and set off again – another 8 hours in our now fully air conditioned bus! Windy!
Jodhpur (of horse riding britches fame) hosted us for the next two days. We stayed in a restored “haveli” (mansion) in a room with nine windows over-looking the old city and fort and decorated with silk wall hangings, mirror inlaid cushions, hand painted furniture, paintings and puppets – a really lovely room! Strangely enough, Jodhpur is blue!? Many of the walls and buildings are covered in an indigo “wash” – originally indicating the owner`s priestly caste, since adopted by the rest of the city for its insect repelling and cooling qualities – the city really is blue. We ventured into the fortified palace and took a great audio tour – too much information to take it all in and too hot to concentrate but fun and interesting. We returned to the fort for dinner, indulged in delicious cheese and potato dishes and one scoop of ice cream each, and loved the view from our rampart table 120 metres above the city.
The next day we took a guided jeep around the surrounding villages, meeting traditional durrie (carpet) weavers, potters, shepherds, and farmers before lunching with a Bishnoi family – a sect of people who abide by 29 principles (including not killing animals or cutting down trees, taking early morning baths, not consuming opium, cannabis or alcohol, and not wearing blue as the dye use to be made from the indigo plant). It was very interesting to see that despite the development happening in the cities, many village people prefer to live in the traditional way.
That evening was to be our final train – to Delhi. Unfortunately the protests that had blocked parts of the rail and road network, delaying us at other times, had escalated and now no trains or buses would be taking our proposed route. We were able to organise a car and driver who knew some back roads and was willing to drive the 13 hours to Delhi over night – for a handsome price by Indian standards!
We were pleasantly surprised to see that Delhi was also much greener and cleaner than we expected. However, in saying that, it is strange that the signs saying “Plant a tree for free oxygen” and “Use Me” on the rubbish bins is only written in English. Is it just the foreigners that need to be told that dumping rubbish on the street (much to the detriment of the plastic-bag eating cows) is not environmentally sustainable? With the scarcity of drinking water and major pollution problems, you would think that educating everyone might be a good start (certainly not an answer to the problem but at least an awareness that something needs to change).
We met up with Dior and Greg again (whom we met in Nepal) and spent the day wandering the streets, trying more delicious Indian delicacies (and an ice-cream) and hanging out under a tree in the park.
Today we are catching up on mail and email, will watch a sound and light show about the history of India at the Red Fort tonight, eat our last local cuisine and catch a few zzz`s before leaving at 4am for the airport for our flight to Sri Lanka.
We have both thoroughly enjoyed the sights, the colours (saris, spices, lentils), the smells (incense, strings of flowers for worship, food cooking in the street), the sounds (prayer bells, mantras, kids playing, cows mooing – everywhere!), and the varied and delicious (and some not so delicious) tastes of India. We would both like to come back and experience more one day.
Thanks for taking the time to share our journey. Enjoy!
