India at a glance

After a month of Goan beaches it was back to the cattle train, destination, ‘The Real India.’ We arrived at 5:30am just in time to witness the sleeping city of Mumbai manifest itself into a whirlwind of pure chaos. The morning ritual of relieving ones bladder is no different in India, some men lined the gutters whilst others found it necessary to mark their territory on nearby walls. Ahhhh, now we must be back in, ‘The Real India.’

Our accommodation resembled something like a 4th class cabin on a cruise ship. Two single beds, measuring the length of the room, a window and a bedside table measuring the gap between the two beds. It was a tight fit to say the least, especially when both occupants are six foot three and six foot four. Our great adventure in Mumbai was seeing the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Hotel. Took some happy snaps, bought some tea, had snake charmers threaten us, touts beckoning us to buy and saw some boats. Was not terribly exciting nor could I say breath taking, however, we will be able to say in the year 2007 when the English return that we were there. After achieving our tourist status, we headed to the pub for a nice, long, cold, fresh draught beer. Buuuurp, India isn’t too bad.

An overnight bus ride took us from Mumbai to Udaipur, the southern region of Rajasthan. The great attraction being a large palace perched in the middle of a lake; this is a sight no tourist could miss. Without fail we were swarmed upon by rickshaw drivers upon our arrival. Our driver just about claimed to be the mayor of Udaipur and produced an exercise book of references which had been written by previous travelers. Starting to get into the swing of India, we offered to write a brilliant reference for only one hundred rupees, he adamantly refused our offer (clearly he had not read our blogs ). He also informed us that due to the drought the lake had diminished and was now bone-dry.

Our accommodation in Udaipur was immaculate to say the least and luckily we met the owners’ brother on our bus ride over and secured a great rate, even though the owner failed to recognize his own brother. We had also coincidently arrived in Udaipur during a large festival celebrated by women. Being loyal readers of the lonely planet guide and following the guide for each and every step we took, one would have thought that between the two of us we would have read about this festival. A fellow traveler informed us of the festival and to our relief it was a three day festival. This allowed us to muscle our way in amongst the revelers with our cameras and play the role of an annoying yet intrigued tourist.

Another bus ride some more cigarettes, tea and masala flavored lays got us to the blue city of Jodhpur. The majority of buildings are painted blue providing a great spectacle from the Majestic Fort. However, the rational behind the blue buildings still does not provide any insight into the logical reasoning of the residents of Jodhpur. Originally only the Brahmin’s of Jodhpur painted their houses blue, however, the people of Jodhpur could not be fooled. They realized that mosquitoes do not hover around the Brahmin’s house and this must be due to the colour of their house. So the town decided to paint the town blue. However, greater thought invokes further reasoning, such as; mosquitoes borne during dawn and dusk, when it’s dark, and do they really discriminate against colours. And if this theory holds true, why hasn’t a company produced a blue liquid to apply to the skin to repel mosquitoes. Just for the record, I still got bitten.

There was a tough decision to make from Jodhpur and that was whether or not to go on a camel safari through Jaisalmer or kick on to the chillum smoking town of Pushkar. Jaisalmer follows Jodhpur in the lonely planet guide, the idea of not following the book was scary at first, but we bit the bullet and decided to go thirty pages backwards. Now that’s sticking your neck out!

Pushkar is a very holy and spiritual place after Brahma dropped a lotus flower into the lake. Pilgrims come from all over to wash and cleanse themselves in this spiritual place. Alcohol, photography, public displays of affection between couples and alcohol are all banned in Pushkar. That is fair enough and to be respected, although, why is smoking your brains out in this town so widely accepted? Why does the restaurant owner who refuses to sell you beer, well actually, at five times the regular price you can acquire it, offers to sell you charis. Many spiritual travellers also frequent Pushkar, and consume copious amounts of charis. I’m still trying to figure out if they do this to lose themselves in order to find themselves again, or if they are lost to begin with.

It was back on the train to head to the bustling city of Delhi. I actually came to realise that the long travel journey’s actually provided a good respite from the hassles of India. It provided for accommodation at a very cheap rate, very few if any touts, some peace and quite and above all some time to listen to your favourite music.

We headed straight for Paharganj situated in the old sector of Delhi. This is where most travellers head and stay when in Delhi. Like my mother always taught me, if you don’t have anything nice to say......... That’s Delhi for you.

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