Change in climate..

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Since I last wrote I have travelled from south to north india, and my god am I feeling the difference.

Firstly I left Kerala and flew to Bangalore to meet friend Jane, who picked me up at the airport. Was lovely to see a friend from home when so far out here, but in a way it was not weird at all.. Jane had sorted us out with a very swanky studio apartment (serviced apartment, for business types) in central Bangalore, which was very swish, and had a rooftop pool with views over the city. This was to be our home for 3 days as we hit the shops, drank cocktails in a nice bar, treated ourselves to champagne at the Oberoi and generally lazed around. It was a nice time. Jane was heading off to the same yoga place I was in in November in Goa so we headed to the airport together, said our goodbyes, and then I flew to Delhi.

As predicted (by me) I found Delhi to be a walk in the park, compared to how crazy I found it when I first arrived 4 months ago. I had visions of wall to wall traffic, manic cows, leering people, unfriendly crowds.... it was none of that. In fact, it all seemed completely normal. Just shows how much I have acclimatised.. Anyway, the weather here was noticably colder than Bangalore (it is winter there), so I took myself shopping and snapped up a new jumper and a shawl, to complement to fake timberland fleece/jacket that I bought myself in Bangalore. Who says I am not prepared for any eventuality - that get up and my swiss army knife (so far only ever used to open beer bottles), and I can conquer everest Im sure.. I had loads of fun in Delhi just wandering around, and even took myself to the fateful tourist office where I hired Deepak the driver all that time ago. Now I know that Deepak was a bit of a perv, especially with the french girls, but being that he was the only person I actually knew in Delhi, and when I left him he was really worried that I was not going to survive - I decided to pop in and say hi. He wasnt actually there, but the manager of the tourist office called up his mobile and we had a chat. He said he might swing by the hotel and say hello - but I knew the front desk wouldnt allow this, so I was not that bothered really.

When heading back to my hotel (45 mins after I left) I turned the last corner to get to my road, and couldnt help but notice that about 2000 people had suddenly lined the streets out of nowhere. There had been noone there previously. It was a total mob of people - the police had even put up rope boundaries to create some sort of semblance of order.. I had no idea what was going on. I got caught up in it all, and then trucks started driving past and it was clear they were floats of some sort, with gangs of jolly people onboard throwing out, very hard and fast, lots of oranges into the crowd. I ended up having to duck to avoid them, the crowd was wild and very noisey, and it was pretty much a hair-raising 10 mins spent almost swimming my way through the crowd to get to where I needed to be.. turns out this was a Muslim festival celebrating something or other.. when I got back to the hotel I told them what had happened and the reception guy was just like "oh yes, very dangerous, no go out today" - thanks for telling me...

I decided my route would be to head north west - up to Amritsar, home of the sikh Goldent Temple, and also close to the Pakistan border. The train was at 7am, so I left the hotel about 6:20am and who is standing there but Deepak! He had driven back from Agra late at night, arrived at about 2am and waited in the car outside the hotel for me to leave!! He is a nutter. It was actually really nice to see him - and I had to refrain from giving him a hug (definite no no), but he patted me on the arm and smiled and told me to take care and then just turned and walked away back to his car I presume - probably just glad that I was in one piece.

Amritsar I stayed for 2 days. It was absolutely brilliant - and I think they should tag line it, Amritsar - Probably the friendliest city in India. For a start it was totally freezing - baltic. I was wearing all afore mentioned new warm clothes items and I was still freezing. The hotel owner gave me 2 blankets, but the room was freezing, and I ended up sleeping in all my clothes as well. On tv the next morning it was saying that the weather conditions were extreme with Amritsar hit very badly (was +1 degrees - so not freezing, but almost). So I woke up not feeling too chuffed, and not really wanting to get out of bed. But I headed down to the Golden Temple which was simply beautiful. Step 1 - remove footwear - was not a great thought - but after a while you feet kind of go numb, so I just got on with it and walked around - it is very beautiful and peaceful, in the midst of quite a crazy busy town. I loved it and got some good photos. Also met a woman from Uxbridge whilst walking around who had flown her entire (sikh) family out to see it for the first time. They were having a total laugh going around, which Im not sure was very appropriate, but they were nice people.

The afternoon was spent getting my onward train ticket (to Haridwar, where I am now), and then I got a taxi to take me to the Pakistan border (which is only 30Km from Amritsar) so that I could watch the border closing ceremony - which takes place every night. What followed was probably the best hour I have spent in India so far. It was amazing and am sitting smiling at the thought of it even now.

The taxi driver dropped me off at a gate in the road, which had a number of roadside cafes and loads of people milling around. At 4pm this gate opened and the crowd surged forward and starting walking, very quickly, to a gate in the distance - only about 200m in the distance. It was one of those crowds where the walking just gets faster and faster and you can tell people are really excited and in a hurry.. as we reached the main gate, there was a charge of Indian people who broke into a run and speeded up the stairs to the left of the gate and into the outdoor seated area - leaving a bunch of about 10 westerners in their wake, standing looking bewildered. It was dead funny. The seated area is open air stadium like seating which faces a stretch of road between initial gate and then the actual border gate. Over the border gate (flanked with both the India and Pakistan flags) the Pakistan setup is identical and a similar, if smaller, crowd was forming. We must have had about 300 people in total all revved up and getting excited in the stands. There are some really smartly dressed soldiers wandering around not really doing anything, and then an MC came out and basically whipped the crowd into an absolute frenzy. There was a really loud pa system blasting out the tunes, and the MC had everyone on their feet, clapping in unison, shouting out Hindustan! Hindustan! Hindustan! at random intervals. The atmosphere was absolutely amazing... like a rave (or a football match.. you get the idea).. then actual members of the crowd themselves got involved and two by two, people got to run the length of the crowd, down to the border gate, and then back to the start holding an indian flag aloft.. the crowd were going mental by the this point.. this was nationalisim gone crazy. I was loving it and sort of wanted to join in (the shouting, not the flag running), but felt that it would be fairly ridiculous of me to be shouting Hindustan! at the top of my voice. Some teenage girls got up and did some impromptu dancing which got loads of applause as well, and the whole place was rocking. Presumably a similar scene was going on in nearby Pakistan - but at this point, I had kind of forgotten why I was even there. After about 30mins of this party atmosphere, someone blows a bugle and then the ceremony actually starts. It is short, and involves the soldiers marching in a crazy fashion, really really fast toward the border gate which is flung open, the two sides (India and Pakistan) kind of salute each other, might have been a bit of hand shaking, the flags are lowered and then the gate is slammed shut for the night - and that is it - ceremony over. It is amazing and I loved it. I even bought a copy of it on dvd from a street vendor and am going to play it to all my friends back home (joke).

Bouyed up from this, I came back to town to have a beer, and hooked up with a lovely Australian couple - here for an Indian wedding, but without their luggage which is lost somewehere between Singapore and Delhi. They were dressed up in their travelling tracksuits and a new shawl each and were taking it all in good humour.. good on them (they were in their mid fifties). We drank some beer, chatted to the hotel owner, and then headed off - early(ish) night as I was due to get up early to catch 7am train.

I got up and left my hotel early to head to the train station, and who was standing outside but the bar/hotel owner from the night before - Rajiv. It was pretty weird, but things became a bit more clear when he handed me a folded note and wished me well.. uh-oh. I got to station and then opened the note, hand written, pink pen, proclaiming a whole lot of love... praying to god that I would remember him and miss him like he misses me, and hoping that I would call and we could meet in Rishikesh! What IS it with waiters and me.. he was telling us the night before that he was married, all about his teenage children, his business activities - he seemed like a really nice family man... it is madness... As IF I was going to invite him to come to Rishikesh!!!

Anyway - weird as that was, I had a nice journey here to Haridwar - which seems lovely. It is a very holy place, one of four places where the god Shiva apparantly spilled drops of netcar onto the earth.. and many pilgrims come here to worship, and also bathe in the Ganges.. my hotel room looks directly out onto the river and the ghats with pilgrims there - it is great. Am planning to be here for 2-3 days and will write more once I have explored. Photos to follow also..

PS got over bout of homesickness which I had last week as a good friend was getting married at home. Meeting Jane was good, and breezing through Delhi was a major turning point and made me realise that I can keep going for sometime... no-one tells you about these dips in emotion, but they do form part of the trip for sure.. am back in fine form and really enjoying being on my own...

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Photos

Glamourous as ever
Janey and I take a wander around Bangalore

Delhi streets
This street was deserted not 45 mins earlier

Winter wear in Amritsar
You are no-one without a stylish blanket come shawl to keep out the cold.. essential winter fashion

Golden Temple
Looking on in wonder to the beauty of the Golden Temple. It really is fabulous

India Pakistan Border Ceremony
Flag runners, sending the crowd wild..