Advertisement
Published: November 19th 2007
Since our last blog we have been cutting a swathe through North West India. First we took an eleven hour train journey to Agra, of course to see the Taj Mahal. This was our first experience of Indian trains and we have to say we were pretty impressed. We booked two sleeper seats so we each had a bed to stretch out on and the train staff come round with a constant supply of food and drinks (much better than standard british rail fare).
We spent two full days in Agra which we both felt was about three days too long. Agra is a large industrial city and a haze of smog hangs over the town. Moreover, the centre area is one big tourist trap. However, while the stay in Agra itself was not that pleasant, the visit to the Taj Mahal made up for it. We arrived at the Taj Mahal at 6am when it first opens to the public. Going this early means that you miss the crowds and also at this time of year you get to see the sun rise. The first sight of the main tomb was quite magical. The early morning mist gave it an ethereal quality. We took plenty of photos but we dont think any of them really do the building justice. We watched the sun rise from behind the minarets at the front of the tomb. The sun rose a deep red colour - very beautiful although probably the colour was due to the pollution over the city.
We spent a couple of hours at the Taj Mahal. By about 7am the crowds had turned up. Lots of western women wanted to get the 'Diana shot' sitting alone with the Taj Mahal and the reflections in the background. Of course this is impossible because of the crowds. Only a princess can get an exclusive viewing of such a monument.
On the way out of the Taj Mahal you have to run a gauntlet of people selling all kinds of souvenirs. The most surreal item being sold was a perspex dome with a model of the Taj Mahal inside which, when shaken, produces a snow storm - just like the real thing.
During our time in Agra we met a young Indian guy who runs a shop selling marble table tops. He lured us in by telling us that he was trying to improve his english and could we spend some time helping him over a cup of chai (a sweet tea). Like suckers we went into his shop. We did actually spend about an hour talking to him and helping him with some words he had come across that he didnt fully understand. Then of course, the selling started. These table tops are very nice but really not something we would want to buy (or carry around for the next ten months), so after a while Dee feigned sickness and we escaped. During the conversation he asked us for expressions in english that meant that something was top class.
If any of you are in Agra sometime and hear a purveyor of fine marbleware describe one of his tables as being the 'dogs bollocks' you can blame us.
We left Agra by train to Jaipur. We were booked on the 6.15 am train. We were told however that this train, which starts in Varanasi, is always late (apparently two days before we were due to travel the train had arrived at Agra roughly 14 hours late). So when we arrived at Agra station and found that the train was only running about 3/4hrs late we felt we were doing ok. Waiting at the station we got talking to an off duty policeman and his son. Their english was quite broken and communication was difficult. The son clearly had an eye for the ladies - he kept pointing them out and saying 'very nice'. I think he may have wanted us to arrange an introduction as he was too shy to do it himself. We exchanged the usual information that Indian people like to know about visitors (how old are you, how many children have you got, what job - or 'service' do you do). The father then got talking about marriage aspirations for his son (who was 21). He asked me several times 'it is possible for my son to marry english girl yes?' I explained that this would be possible but he would have to meet one first. However it occured to me later that these questions came just after he had seen a picture of all of our kids which of course included Claire. With the communication difficulties I may have unwittingly agreed to an arranged marriage between the families! The two guys were actually very sweet and invited us to their home outside Jaipur for lunch but we wanted to get to our hotel and relax so we politely declined. It is an Indian custom to invite people to their home even if you have just met. Most people are very hospitable; it is one of most endearing things about the country.
If anyone reading this is planning a visit to Jaipur, they must stay at the Pearl Palace. The room cost us the princely sum of 550 rupees per night (about GBP6.75). The room was quite small but very clean with air conditioning and that rarity in Indian budget hotels, a constant supply of hot water (we have never had so many cold showers since we arrived in India). This was exciting enough but more was to come. The hotel had a lovely reading room with a reasonably well stocked library and internet access plus on the rooftop, probably the best restaurant we have come across so far. The restuarant was packed out every night and we had a few great evenings meeting other travellers and exchanging stories. One evening we got talking to a couple of young Spanish guys who were spending a few weeks travelling aound. They told a great story about an overnight taxi ride they took from Jodpur to Jaipur. Apparently in the small hours of the morning, on a pitch black road miles from anywhere, the taxi driver announced that he was tired and needed some sleep, and one of the guys would have to take over. So the driver curled up on the front seat while one of the Spanish guys took the wheel. He said he was pretty scared.There was no lighting so the road was very dark. He was nonetheless aware of objects on the roadside which could have been anything - people, cows, water buffalo, etc. Of course, like most Indian roads the surface would be pretty uneven and there would be no pavement, so anyone out would be walking at the side of the road very close to any traffic. To make matters worse, drivers in India do not dip their headlamps at night for oncoming cars so he was frequently blinded. His ordeal lasted a couple of hours and he came through ok (just as well because as a foreigner, if you do have an accident things can sometimes get quite nasty).
Our stay in Jaipur was very pleasant. This was partly due to staying in a fantastic hotel, but it was also because of a new friend we made upon arriving in the city. Raj is a young auto-rickshaw driver. He dropped us off at the hotel and offered to give us a two day tour of the city. He seemed a very personable guy so we thought why not. It turned out to be a great decision. Not only did he look after us really well, he also had one of the coolest autorickshaws in Jaipur. Apart from the decorations on the front, he had rigged it up with a sound system, so we were touring Jaipur with western dance music blaring out (we both felt we needed to do something about his taste in music however so we have agreed to send him some cds when we get back to the uk).
He was also very knowledgeable about the sites we went to and in a couple of places gave us his own guided tour. We visited all the main sites, but one of the most interesting places was the tomb of Maharana Bhupal Singh III, which doesnt receive many visitors as its a bit off the main tourist trail. The monument also includes the tomb of his father and his son, who died in 1977. Raj told us a wonderful story (apocrychal I'm sure) about the father (Maharana Bhupal Singh II). Apparently he was a very large gentleman, measuring some 8ft tall and 3.5ft across. While these dimensions seem highly improbable, he was clearly a big guy. (We later found out where the 8ft myth could have come from - we were reading about another prince in the Punjab who would also have been around in the mid/late 19th century, who commisioned an oil painting which exagerated his size, so this myth probable came from a similair portrait). Anyway, apart from his gigantic size, the most interesting thing about this chap was that he had 150 wives but very few children. When we asked Raj why, he said that it was because very few of his wives survived more than a few days into the marriage, so we had this vision of a huge Maharana crushing his poor hapless wives to death in the marriage bed as soon as he had married them. We asked where the wives were buried but he couldnt tell us - the Maharana would have needed a pretty big family plot!
After visiting the Palace in Jaipur, we wanted a coffee so Raj took us to the tea hut that the rickshaw drivers use while waiting for their customers. As soon as we walked in we were asked where we were from. When we told them england one of them immediately said 'oh - lovely jublee'. So Del Boy has clearly reached Rajastan. We had quite a laugh with these guys, generally with them taking the micky out of english people and particularly the english cricket team. Sadly, we had no come back when it came to cricket.
We only spent three days in Jaipur which was about the right amount of time. We then headed on to Pushkar, which is only four hours away by bus. Pushkar is another holy town. It is built around a lake and has the only temple in India dedicated to the god Bramha, who in Hindu mythology is the creator of the universe. Apart from the numerous holy sites, the thing that draws many people to Pushkar at this time of year is the Pushkar Fair, which combines a camel and cattle fair with a large holy festival. We arrived about ten days before the festival started, so we were able to watch the activity in the town build up. Over the years more and more western tourists have been visiting Pushkar, mainly because of the fair. As a result the town is packed with restaurants and cafes catering to western tastes which has made the town feel a bit like a theme park for tourists. We imagine that the town was very different before the influx of tourists and it seems to have lost some of its character.
Many of the best moments in India come when you have little encounters with local people away from the normal tourist activity. We had two such encounters in Pushkar. The first was at a Diwali party. The guy who runs the hotel we are staying at invited us to be the guests of his family for dinner on the eve of Diwali. This is a religous festival which has many similarities to Christmas in that it is seen as primarily a family affair (although people exchange sweets rather than gifts). On the eve of Diwali, the custom is to let off fireworks, which Indian people seem to have a particular liking for. So we joined Mr Ragu and his family for dinner and a fireworks party in the garden, at which we learnt a great deal about firework health and safety/etiquette in India. We have summarised these below in case anyone reading this has the opportunity to attend a fireworks party in India.
Health and Safety rules for Roman Candles etc.
- Holding the firework firmly in the left hand, put the blue touchpaper to a naked flame
- Wait until flames and sparks are shooting from the firework and then place on ground
- Retire a safe distance; no more that 2ft unless you want to look a bit girly.
Catherine Wheel Etiquette
- Invite your guests to pull their chairs close together so that they are sitting in a circle of no more than a four foot circumference
- Holding catherine wheel firmly, place blue touchpaper to a naked flame
- Drop catherine wheel in the middle of the circle and watch as it careers violently out of control towards the feet of the guests
- Laugh and repeat several times.
(Dee did rather let the side down on a couple of occasions by running away as the catherine wheel starting shooting towards her feet).
Diwali is a bit of a riot. Fireworks were going off all night and there was a constant string of explosions from some pretty meaty sounding firecrackers. Then the next day the streets were calm and everybody was dressed in their best clothes visiting relatives and going to the temples.
The other interesting encounter we have had while in Pushkar was with a group of Rajastani folk musicians. We came across them one morning at a tea stall in the camel fairground. They were playing for some tourists and we got chatting to them. In a rash moment we decided to buy their CD so they took a bit of a shine to us. Then we bought them a round af drinks (only cokes - this is another alcohol free town) after which we were their best friends. They insisted that we meet them the next day in the same place and they would take us to their tent for some tea and chapatis. (The coke drinking was a bit of a performance - they all started burping really loadly one after another). The following afternoon we met them as planned and after standing them another round of cokes (mainly so we could hear again their synchronised burping) we walked off into the desert with our new friends. Actually their tent was only about a five minute walk from the camel showground so we weren't really walking into the wilderness. When we arrived at their tents we saw that they all had their families with them, plus a family of goats - all sharing two rather makeshift tents (apart from the goats). We were asked about the animals that we keep in the UK.
-'so you have no camels or water buffalo, but you have cows and goats - hmm - so how many goats do you have'.
- 'none, we dont have any goats'
- 'your family doesnt keep goats! Most odd'
One of the wives was busy cooking our chapatis over an open fire fuelled by cow dung. Yes, we realised this was going to be a different sort of experience. They served us with chapatis and a spicy vegetable curry, which tasted really good. The guys then started playing and singing for us and some of the wives joined in. The instrument they play is interesting. It has a body formed from half a coconut with what we think is goat skin string stretched over it. Attached to this is a large bamboo handle which holds two sets of strings. One set consists of thirteen fine strings - the other consists of two thicker shorter strings which splay out from the body of the instrument at an angle of about 20 degrees. The instrument is played both by plucking the strings and by using a bow. It thus has a very wide range of sounds and expression, from chirpy foot tapping songs played by plucking to some beautifully mornful sounds produced on the thicker strings with the bow. We had a great time with the musicians and their families - we feel this will be one of our abiding memories of India.
We are leaving Pushkar tonight - heading North to Bikaner on an over night bus. We will be staying in Rajastan for about three more weeks and looking forward to more impromptu Indian experiences.
Glad to hear that england can still qualify for euro 2008 - hoping we have a tv in our room in Bikaner so we can watch the game with Croatia.
Thats all for now. Everybody take care and we will be in touch soon.
Dee and David
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0433s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Clint
non-member comment
Hello Dee and Dave, your blog entry made me laugh so loud that Harry came in to see what was up with me!!! Im so glad youre enjoying your adventure and hope Bikaner is as pleasant as Pushkar was. Take care, love Clint.