India

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Just got back from India so I thought I would blog how it all went.

Wow, I haven't got a clue where to start really! I've heard several times that India is the hardest country in the world to backpack in and I went there alone so it was bound to be twice as hard and what with the ever present daunting prospects of getting 'Delhi Belly' at everything I would attempt to eat not helping to boost my morale either the trip was bound to be a hair raising one. But after all, this is one of the reasons why one chooses to go to India.

Beforehand I kind of knew that it would be a crazy, chaotic and action packed trip but my predictions didn't really come close to what I expected.

First of all, I flew from Seoul to Bombay on a night flight. I Llike to free roll and all of my firends could tell me that I'm not the most organised person in the world. It was nice because I could go straight from work but it meant landing at Bombay airport at 2:30am with no hotel. By the time I got through immigration and collected my bag I took a taxi to the down town area where most of the cheap backpackers places are located. The taxi's in Bombay are all 1950s Morris Minor's. It was like being in a time warp, but anyway it was quite fun taking this cab. The windows didn't work, the gear stick was shot to bits and the door kept swinging open when we were driving! Finally, I got to Bombay's downtown area at 4am. I chose a hotel from a travel book which I bought with me. My book said that it cost about 19pounds per night. The hotel manager tried to charge me 85pounds per night. I said "no way" and walked out to find another hotel. So there's me in downtown Bombay with all my money, camera, ipod, backpack walking through Bombay in the middle of the night. I saw so many homeless people just sleeping or possibly even dead people just lying in the middle of the street it was unbelievable!!! Lot's of shit (quite literally) everywhere and endless scuttles and rattles of tails and stray rabid dogs every place I looked. Three of which attacked me but luckily I was saved by a taxi driver scaring them away. Not the most successful start and pretty scary really! I checked out about five other hotels and they were all fully booked. Finally, I just gave up and went and had some breakfast in a five star hotel to try and kill a couple of hours. Actually, I went to the same Taj hotel where the Pakistani terrorists attacked in November. It was pretty nice and expensive, way out of my budget. As you can imagine not having had any sleep all night I was pretty tired by this time and thinking what the hell have I got myself into here.

After breakfast, I decided to have a walk around Bombay. In daylight it was an entirely different city. All of the architecture was on a par with Europe's grandest. All of the buildings were of a British colonial Victorian architectural style. Absolutely fantastic! A pity really because the Indians didn't seem to be taking care of the buildings and they were all falling to pieces and crumbling away. Bombay was a really nice city and everyone was playing cricket in the city centre parks. India is a really cricket mad country. It's like football back in England, possibly even more so. Then I saw the uglier side of Indian city life. All the beggars and homeless people. A man with no hands and no legs barged into me on his skateboard in the street and started asking me for money and young girl with a baby following me around the city for a good 30 minutes asking for milk for her baby. Fortunately there were quite a few churches so I went in a couple of them to chill out and get away from the inner city chaos of Bombay. Also, I got asked to star in a Bollywood film by a film director. Unfortunately I was due to leave Bombay that evening to go to Varanasi so I was forced to put my acting skills on hold until next time. And I met an Indian family and they were really kind and generous. They even offered to take me home and cook me dinner. But again, I was due to leave that night so I politely declined. Instead, they showed me around Bombay and bought me lunch and wouldn't even accept my money. Very kind people!

Then it was a 30hour train up to Varanasi near the Nepal border. Varanasi is to the Hindus what Jerusalem is to Christians and Mecca is to Muslims. It was quite a traditional town but very loud. The traffic was mental and cows, goats, pigs, cats, dogs and chickens just mingle with motorbikes, rickshaws, lorries and cars like its absolutely normal. Varanasi is the place where all Hindus want to die. People seem to wash, swim, piss, shit and die in the Ganges river and they seem to use it as a trash bin as well. A pretty amazing place. Very bizarre though!

Then it was over to Delhi on an over night 12hour train. Ummm Delhi?!! Without a doubt, Delhi is the worst capital city I have ever been to. I would struggle to put it on a par with Derby! I stayed in some real dodgy accommodation and there were so many touts, fraudsters and people trying to trick you out of a few quid left, right and centre. I reckon probably about 50% of all the Indians I met there were untruthful, money grabbing fraudsters. It was a real shame because the other 50% were really nice genuine people. They've just started building an underground in Delhi. I went on that and it was surprising and respectably modern. In London if you smoke on the Tube its an automatic 1000pound fine. The same offence on the Delhi underground would leave your pocket short of 200rupees (equivalent of under 3pounds) just to give you a look-in at how cheap India is.

I was really happy to leave Delhi after a couple of nights. Next, it was onto Agra and the Taj Mahal. I don't know why but I've always had a pretty low expectation of the Taj Mahal. I was really excited to see the Great Wall of China or the Pyramids or even the Eiffel Tower but the Taj Mahal I didn't really care about. That was until I saw it for the very first time. It was absolutely fantastic! A bit annoying seeing that Indian people, no matter how rich or poor they are, pay 25p and foreigners have to pay 10pounds but well worth it all the same. Actually I met this Indian doctor. He was at university for 12years and later I found out that he's one of the leading doctors in his field all over the world! He showed me around the Taj and the surrounding area and he even invited me to stay at his place in Jaipur later on in my trip which was kind of him. Overall Agra was a horrid place though. Just a major tourist trap and the people weren't very genuine and just saw dollar signs whenever they lay eyes on tourists. The only place that kind of comes into India's bracket that I've been to is Egypt for hassling tourists and tricking people out of their hard earned cash. India being the Man United of tourist fraudsters and Bognor Regis being Egypt, again not really in the same league!!!

Then it was a 20hour train journey near to the Pakistan border to a town called Jaisalmer. This was definitely my favourite place. It was really chilled out, off the main tourist circuit and you didn't get hassled no where near as much. It was located in the middle of the Thar desert and it was a cross between Mt St Michel in France and Warwick Castle in England except that this town is located smack bang in the middle of the desert and its been known to go without rainfall for seven years at a time. It was a big fort town and the many of the town's residents lived inside the fort walls. I think it is the oldest (still lived in) fort town in the world. Absolutely fantastic place. I really recommend it. Definitely the best place I went to in India and a sure contender for the entire world possibly! Apart from my ridiculously cheap hotel room. It came with a sit down toilet aka Khazi (no flush), no electricity and no mosquito nets. Its entering India's hottest time of the year now and everywhere I went it was mosquito alley. It got dark at 6:30pm and with no electricity in my room and not much going on in terms of nightlife, I decided or was forced into taking an early night. I got absolutely eaten alive. I slept with a T-shirt wrapped around my face and I still got 30-40 bites by the time it was morning! But I guess you get what you pay for and 2pounds a night isn't much. Well worth making the long trip out there though.

Then I took another train to Jaipur. Many of the Indians that I met along the way said that this city was the most beautiful in India. They call it the 'Pink City'. I wasn't expecting Venice, Oxford or Prague (after all this is India) but I was expecting something half decent. In actual fact this place was pretty rubbish and I didn't stay too long. Indians just don't take care of anything. Everywhere and anywhere is suitable to take a shit, be it in a toilet on the street or even the middle of the road. They don't take care where they throw away their rubbish and even the major tourist sites are breeding grounds for vermin and really just one big trash basket. A real shame, but hopefully they might get their act together as the country grows richer. We'll see.

Another funny analogy I picked up on when I was over there was their dress sense. I was leaving Jaipur and taking a flight to Udaipur (the major honeymoon town in India) and it was the middle of the night and it was 23 degrees. Pretty hot!!! I was there sweating wearing my T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops and the locals were all wearing woolly hats wrapped around thick winter blankets. Again, absolutely ridiculous but rather amusing. Udaipur was really nice. Off the main tourist route so the Indian townspeople were very genuine, kind and fair. A nice way to round off my trip really. Then it was back to Bombay and home.

Surprisingly, I didn't get sick once or robbed. I ate all the local street food and didn't eat any western food. It was a great trip and I had a fantastic time. Although it was pretty stressful and has definitely taken a couple of years off my life! I don't think I'll be heading back any time soon. However, I will go back and when I do go back I think I will do it slightly more luxurious surroundings and stay in nice hotels rather than on the backpacking circuit and paying the absolute minimum for lodgings. And as for travelling solo, it's definitely not my preferred way of lumping across the world but it maybe the most interesting and definitely the most informative way. I found that you meet far more people and locals are much more prepared to give you and insight into there culture with just one person present rather than several.

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