Eoin's Indian Trip

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India, where to begin? I touched on it in my last blog but I have to reiterate it, India is indescribable. It just throws up surprise after surprise and I love it!! I toured across the north of India, from Delhi to Jaipur, then Agra, Orchha and finally Varanasi. We travelled by car, bus, train (Day/night), Tuk Tuk, Rickshaw, horse and of course loads of walking.

The first night of the tour involved a little paper work, an introduction to our tour guide Bhupendra (Bu) and a short walk around Delhi and the India gate. There are 16 members in the tour, English, Americans, Canadians, Aussies, a girl from Denmark and a couple of Paddy’s. Bu is Indian and a true character! He has excellent English and loves a laugh. He has also visited N. Ireland previously, and like me, loves Guinness, god I miss Guinness but seems more partial to a wee rum now and again. Anyway in quite a nice hotel in Delhi called Hotel Grand Park Inn, we set of by underground to the India Gate and Parliament buildings. Delhi is definitely not for the faint hearted as a few of the girls found out in the underground! Let’s just say they got to know a few locals quite intimately. As you can see by the pictures India Gate is quite like the Arc de Triumph in Paris. It’s a memorial to Indian’s casualties lost during World War 2.

We then had our first Indian meal, and an early start at 4.45am to catch our first train. Well that’s what I should have done…After our meal, myself Rihaul and another chap in our group from Belfast called Darren, went in search of a pub to watch the Ireland v England rugby game, unfortunately to no avail. We did however manage to watch an Arsenal game live, so I was happy either way. After a few pints we made our way back to the hotel at approximately 1.30am. As much as I would like to say it was a lovely train trip and all was good. The hangover from the night before hit hard and I struggled to get over it in a hurry. No more late nights on this trip for me!!!

We arrived in Jaipur after a 4 hour train journey. Like all train stations in India, it was a hive of activity. People coming and going, public announcements, beggars, and people sleeping along the platforms. I often questioned, was that their home? It’s like that in India, people sleep when and where they can. A lot of the Rickshaw drivers sleep on their Rickshaws at night. Shop keepers, sleep on their shop fronts in the open air and tourists sleep in hotels, like me. One other characteristic of an Indian train station is the appalling smell. People, who use the toilet on the trains, do so directly onto the track. So suffice to say I don’t need to go into too much detail about what is lying about.

We made our way to a few parked Rickshaws who transported us to our next hotel. One thing I love doing in India is handing out the balloons I brought for street kids. They absolutely love them and although I would love to give them more, it’s all they require. Unfortunately some problems are just too difficult to solve on one trip. The Indian government seem to be educating their population out of poverty. It’s probably the correct thing to do, but I can’t help feeling that a few bins wouldn’t go amiss. Stupid as it sounds, despite the layers of rubbish lying everywhere, we choose to use bins when we could. Unfortunately, they were spaced miles apart if at all. People just throw everything on the ground and publically use the toilet anywhere! We went to a Bollywood movie one night and there were public health announcements at the interval, yes all you oldies intervals at the cinemas, you know you remember those days.

Our schedule in Jaipur fortunately collided with an annual festival called the Elephant festival. People travel from all around the world to see it and we were lucky enough to be there on the festival day as well as Holi weekend (described in my last blog). We couldn’t have picked a better time to visit Jaipur! I think this was why I had such a good time there. We squeezed our site seeing plans for both days into our first day. This was better, as much as I enjoy monuments etc. I think the best experiences are had with the local people. Some of the sites we visited included the Amber fort and Palace and the City Palace. This part of the day was quite uneventful really, as we were so excited by the Elephant Festival due to start at 5pm.

When we arrived at the elephant festival, celebrations were in full flight. Local elephants are painted and decorated and participate in numerous activities like tug-a-war. A huge crowd were in town for the festival. It was a great experience and as you can see the festivities continued well into the evening. We ate in a revolving vegetarian restaurant that evening and got to bed early to bring in the main Holi festival the following day. Well rested, we prepared to hit the town for the Holi festival. Bu advised us to get an early dosing of paint before we left the hotel. If you are seen without paint during Holi, you get lynched. As everyone generally gets drunk from very early in the morning, it probably was in our best interests. What I found interesting about Indian drinking habits, unlike St. Patrick’s day, everyone gets drunk very early and sleep it of in the afternoon. By 1-2pm everyone has left for home. Light weights or what!!! We had a great time in Jaipur and were very sad to leave. Taj Mahal here I come.

On our last night in Jaipur, we ate in the dodgyist den of a place. I had chicken something or other can’t remember but couldn’t eat much. It was a terrible idea, I got the dreaded DELHI BELLY! What a night I put in, up and down like a dam yo-yo! After one hour of sleep the wake-up call sounded to catch another train to Agra, just 5.30am. Everyone was on a high on the expectation of visiting the famous Taj Mahal, I was fairly miserable but determined to make the most of it. Thank god for anti-diarrhoea tablets, the train journey was uneventful, if you know what I mean. From a fairly dingy hotel we first set of to the Red Fort. Not to be outdone by its neighbouring Taj Mahal, it was an amazing complex of palaces and temples. Worthy of a full days exploring on its own, but being on a tight schedule we set of for the Taj Mahal. The Taj as we called it lived up to every expectation and more. It was utterly breathtaking. The Taj was built by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their fourteenth child. We got to enter it in bare foot where both husband and wife are entombed. Even though I was in terrible form, I really enjoyed the experience and wore my Slaughtneil Jersey with pride and was accompanied by my little elephant teddy, thanks Margaret!

Fairly shattered and still quite ill we had another very early start to catch a train. I wasn’t ready for any more tourist attractions as I was really drained. It turned out fine as our destination was a small resort of Orchha. We stayed in tents there nestled among the ruins of ancient temples and under the watchful eye of the resident vultures who circled over head ominously. If I didn’t get better soon I was sure going to be on the menu before we left. The resort had a swimming pool and we were given the opportunity to rest, which I did, happily. Orchha was our penultimate destination in India, we stayed one night and one full day before taking my first night train to the famous city of Varanasi, the home of the holy Ganges river.

Well rested and feeling much better we took the night train. It was hilarious trying to fit in the top deck of the train, check out my photo, I think it speaks volumes. However, I slept all night long and woke up 12 hours later in Varanasi. The holy city of Varanasi is the destinations of millions of Hindu pilgrims to worship, mourn or to die on the shores of the Ganges river. We took tuk tuks down the Ganges shortly after arrival, to participate in the sunset flower ceremony. This involved taking a boat out onto the Ganges and lighting candles and making wishes after sunset. It was a great experience but the bloody mozzies were deadly. They like Irish blood it seems, I’m bitten from head to toe. We returned the following morning at approximately 5.30am. This is when the most activity occurs at the Ganges. Hindus come down to the shore to bath and prey. We took to a boat again, but I felt a bit strange, I was thinking that it was slightly perverted watching locals in their knickers cleaning themselves. Even worse, we watched locals burn lost loved ones, not very private. It’s even possible to see dead bodies floating down the river. Not my scene! But for those cultural junkies it was uplifting I’m sure.

Goodbye India, Nepal here I come!

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