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Published: November 17th 2010
New Delhi So we arrive in Delhi, and obviously we found ourselves well and truly in the tourist ghetto that is the Pahar Ganj, a cesspit of touts, cows, rubbish, flies and s**t... It was here that I realised that the sacred cow, supposedly revered by the people around us is really treated quite badly. OK, so they're not abused or anything, but they're just left to their own devices, grazing on the piles of rubbish in the streets eating plastic bags and who knows what else, and if one so much as moves a little erratically (as cows do, quite often) the surrounding people just scatter, scared witless. I'm not sure what I expected, but I just assumed that such an important animal in the Hindu religion, would be treated with a little more respect, and not generally neglected. Granted, I only witnessed cows in the city, so cows in rural India may be treated a little differently when they're given a bit more space to roam around being cows.
While wandering along the street doing some shopping and being assaulted by all the sights and smells that make India so unique I got chatting to a guy,
and lo and behold, he turned out to be a travel agent and not just a friendly guy curious as to my 'good name' and profession. The strange thing was, after a while what he was saying started to make sense... it must have been the heat or something as I'd normally not give these people the time of day. After some more discussion I agreed to hire a car and a driver for 15 days to take us from Delhi down to Agra, then through all the towns and cities in Rajasthan we wanted to see before dropping us off in Udaipur, our final destination before ending our Indian adventure and also our entire RTW trip in Mumbai. It didn't take a lot of persuading though, as at this point in our travels I was refusing to let Faye carry her own backpack as of course pregnant ladies shouldn't be doing any heavy lifting. This meant I was lugging around about 35kg of stuff, and the thought of someone else doing that sounded like a great idea. We'd pick up the car when we got back to Delhi from Amritsar so I also got them to book our train
tickets there and back and also the train from Udaipur to Mumbai. After some negotiation, these tickets, the car, the driver and all accommodation for the 15 days came to about £21 a day, this didn't seem bad at all, so I was left wondering why I hadn't thought of it earlier.
After all the negotiation we rather guiltily went online, solely to find out where the nearest western fast food place was... it turned out it was a Subway in Connaught Place. I've tried my best to eat nothing but Indian while we've been here and it finally caught up with me and started playing havoc with my digestion, so I really fancied a taste of the familiar. Thankfully all the guilt disappeared when we took our first bite, it just tasted too good to feel bad about it. In fact, Faye went back and had a second sub, pulling the whole 'eating for two' card.
Although there's little to love about the Pahar Ganj, it's damn convenient when you've got an early train to catch. Our train for Amritsar departed at 6.50am from New Delhi train station, so we had an early walk along the Main
Bazaar, navigating our way around the rubbish and cows, through the swarms of flies, whilst trying our hardest to dodge the many piles of cow s**t to get to the station. Leaving the station that early in the morning meant we were witness to many of the poorer members of Indian society living along the track going about their daily ablutions, which pretty much meant that we got to see loads of people squatting, taking a crap, honestly I've seen enough Indian arse to last a lifetime. Once we left the urban areas the view from the windows became a little more pleasing, so we started to enjoy the Indian countryside as it flew past.
Whilst on the train we got chatting to a gentlemen sitting opposite from us (pretty much everyone wants to speak us, it's like being a rock star), and while we were talking, he told me I could throw the empty bottle I was holding out of the window. I said it was OK, I'll wait till we're off the train and chuck it in the bin, but he took it out of my hands anyway and threw it out of the window. I literally
had to bite my tongue... this one gesture pretty much summed up how Indians feel about their environment, this was an educated guy and yet he still didn't care, littering might seem insignificant in the life of the average Indian but one billion people behaving like this IS significant, this country is rapidly turning into a giant rubbish tip and I fear there is no hope for it.
Amritsar Once in Amritsar we checked into a pretty expensive hotel, but the price of things started to matter less and less as all the careful budgeting earlier in the trip meant that we had loads of money left, so why not spend it?
We were in Amritsar for one thing and one thing only, the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine. After resting for a night in the hotel we flagged down a motorised rickshaw and headed to the temple, which didn't take too long as it's not a big city at all. The entrance was pretty busy and by following the crowd, and with some instruction from the guide book we managed to store our bags and shoes, don head scarves (10 rupees), wash our hands and cleanse
our feet. Once this ritual was complete, we walked through the gate into the complex and got our first glimpse of the temples beauty. Sitting serenely in its sacred pool, the sun striking its gold plated surfaces, it was a really amazing sight, dazzling us with it beauty.
We started walking around the Parkama (the marble walkway surrounding the temple, and the only place where photography is permitted) and took in the surroundings. Once a little way in, we found a quiet shady spot and sat and watched... and watched... there was plenty going on, with people bathing in the sacred pool, strolling around chatting. The place was full of colour, life and noise, but still with an amazingly tranquil atmosphere, I don't count myself as a particularly spiritual person but it was hard not to be moved by the experience. The only thing we didn't understand was that while we there we only saw two other western tourists, I thought this place was firmly on the tourist trail and somewhere as amazing as this really should be.
While we were trying our hardest not to intrude on events we kept getting accosted for our photos, with queues
forming with families wanting their picture taken with us. I've never really understood what happens to these photos, are there a hundred photos of me stashed in albums or hung on walls in homes all over India, I understand that with the piercings I'm quite 'different' to most western faces they see but why would anyone who isn't close to me want to see what I look like? “Hey Grandma, come look at this picture of this guy I met... look at his face, weird or what?” It's one of those experiences I just put down to 'cultural differences', and hey lets be honest, being treated like a celebrity is kind of fun!
Once we walked around the walkway, we were contemplating joining the masses slowly shuffling along the Gurus' Bridge to the temple itself, but in the end were hurried along by some people who told us it would be OK. This is where we felt the truly inclusive nature of Sikhism, we were in the queue for about 20 minutes, we were the only westerners around, we stuck out like a sore thumb, but we were never made to feel like it. While we waited we chatted
with the people around us about the place and they were all so welcoming.
The temple itself was just as impressive up close with beautiful marble delicately inlaid with flower and animal designs. Many people were sitting quietly reading from the Sikh holy book (Guru Granth Sahib) and we could watch the four priests chanting (four priests keep up a continuous chant from the holy book which is broadcast all over the complex). Before leaving we also made our way up to the roof, where we could get a good view of the complex. We left the temple in the early afternoon with the intention of coming back to see how it looked at night.
After having something to eat and relaxing for a bit we grabbed a taxi to take us to Attari 40mins away, to see the famous border closing ceremony. This theatrical performance starts every evening when the Indian and Pakistan military meet at the border to officially close it. There were huge stands set up on either side of the crossing which were rammed with people so we didn't manage to get a particularly good view, but we could see everything so it wasn't
too bad. While we waited for the 'show' to start there was loud
bhangra music playing and people dancing in groups, there was also a compère, who was whipping the crowd into a frenzy, encouraging (not that they needed a lot) them to shout 'Hindustan Zindabad' (long live Hindustan) and generally keeping everyone buzzing and full of energy.
Once the ceremony started the crowd went wild as the guards quickly marched and paraded up and down the strip to the gate on either side of the border, high kicking, shouting and scowling at each other. The gates were then thrown open, the commander from each side shook hands, saluted and then the flags from each side were lowered keeping exactly the same level as each other all the way down, before being folded and marched back. This officially closes the border between India and Pakistan and marks the end of the show. It wasn't particularly long, but it was a great show and well worth witnessing.
Afterwards we jumped back in our taxi and got it to drop us off back at the Golden Temple as we wanted to see it at night. We only spent a short
amount of time wandering around the parkama, but as expected all lit up at night, the temple was really beautiful so it was a good idea to come back.
The next day we had no plans except we had to catch a train back to Delhi, only this time it was an overnight train we had tickets for. We got to the station quite early so we could sort out where we were going from, and also sit on the platform and people watch for a bit. We really wished we hadn't though as it was disgusting. Indian train stations seem to be a magnet for whatever filth there is around, granted there are no cows, but they are full of rubbish and dirt and the tracks are splattered with human faeces as that's where the train toilets dump it. This particular station was swarming with flies too, and as we sat on our packs we literally watched a carpet of black flies crawling over some of the surfaces... eurghhhh. They didn’t seem too interested in humans though and didn't tend to land on us, but it still made our skin crawl watching them. Thankfully the train was pretty
clean and the journey uneventful, otherwise I think we would have just got the hell out of India and gone home, we were both feeling quite low at this point, trying to protect Faye and our unborn child from all this waste and filth was just getting too tiring...
Delhi Once back in Delhi we felt a little better though as this is where our 'tour' would now start. All our travel arrangements and hotels up to Mumbai had now been booked and paid for so we could relax a bit... assuming we hadn't been ripped off, and all the hotels were going to be complete flea pits. Thankfully the first guesthouse we were in, just off the Main Bazaar in the Pahar Ganj was really quite nice so no complaints so far.
This first day we were supposed to do a Delhi tour but the agent (and us) forgot that it was the festival of
Holi, so it was postponed till the next day. This festival is celebrated by people throwing brightly coloured powder and water at each other, and we had every intention of getting involved but read in the paper the day earlier that
some of the dyes and powders used can be tainted with heavy metals (not sure how true this is, but better to be safe than sorry). Developing foetuses and heavy metals don't mix, so we were forced to observe, which wasn't too bad, the atmosphere was great and everyone was enjoying themselves.
The next day we met up with the agent who then introduced us to our driver for the next 15 days Anwal. He then showed us to his car, a fairly small Tata model, which sadly had no A/C, but at least the windows worked. We decided to skip the Delhi tour and instead visited the
Akshardam Temple a massive, fairly new temple (opened 2005) on the outskirts of Delhi made of exquisitely carved pink sandstone and marble. It felt a little like a theme park, but there was a load to see and we spent a good few hours wandering around trying to appreciate the work gone into every detail.
Agra and the Taj Afterwards we made our way to Agra, the location of the famous Taj Mahal, and once we got there stopped at Akbars Mausoleum, an incredible sandstone and marble tomb commemorating
one of the Mughal emperors, before checking into our hotel. Again the hotel was fairly nice, basic but clean, and also our room was on the roof and had a view of the Taj which was amazing. There did seem to be a lot of mosquitoes about though, so I had to do a sweep of the room making sure they all felt the wrath of a man bitten far too many times. SPLAAAAT!!!!!
In the morning we woke early to ensure we got to the Taj for when it opened, and ended up second in the queue for tickets. Once the gates opened at 6am we quickly walked to the main archway, getting there before anyone else and got our first proper view of the Taj Mahal. The sun was just starting to rise and the beautiful morning light gave the monument an incredible glow in the still cool air. It was amazingly tranquil and peaceful, for about 1 minute before the crowds caught up and started spilling into the complex. We spent about two and a half hours walking around getting up close and personal with the exquisite inlaid marble monument. By the time we left the
crowds were getting quite large, with loads of people milling around the 'famous' bench trying to recreate the famous Princess Di, Taj Mahal shot, and loads of other people trying to create false perspective photos of them holding onto the roof, which I didn't quite understand. We really enjoyed our time at the Taj; it's an undeniably beautiful and magical place and does deserve its place amongst the wonders of the world, due to the large crowds though we felt it lacked the atmosphere of the Golden Temple.
After the Taj, we checked out of our hotel, loaded up the car with our stuff and took an hours drive to
Fatehpur Sikri. This large fortified ghost city was only inhabited for 14 years but due to water shortages was abandoned. It was a really impressive site, with a magnificent gateway leading to a huge courtyard. We strolled around the outer walkway to keep out of the blazing sunshine but unfortunately it was full of really pushy touts that just wouldn't leave us alone so we didn't hang around long, making our way outside to the old city. This city had an admission charge which must have kept all the undesirables
out, it was much more peaceful, giving us plenty of undisturbed exploring time before making our way back to the car and a long 4 hour drive to Jaipur our next destination.
Rajasthan We arrived in Jaipur late, so once we found somewhere for dinner and checked into the hotel we didn't do anything until the morning, when we went on a city tour around the so called pink city. Our first stop was the palace, most of which was closed to the public but it was still pretty good, and also had a couple of museums which were pretty interesting.
After the palace we made our way across to the
Jantar Mantar, a huge observatory housing many sculptural astronomical instruments. I found this place really interesting, even if it was hard to imagine what each piece actually measured. It did contain the world’s largest sundial though, which was so large it was actually possible to see the shadow moving before your eyes, this I thought was very cool.
Afterwards we took a drive to
Amber (pronounced 'amer') Fort where we had to leave the car at the bottom of the hill and climb up to the fort itself, which
in that harsh sun was really hard work. The fort was really interesting, and pretty much a giant maze with plenty of stairs and countless courtyards. We took our time wandering around exploring everything and taking in the fine views from the ramparts before making our way back down to the car and to the hotel.
In the evening we took a walk to explore some of the old town, taking in the bazaars and stopping for a McDonald's as it's been so long. Of course they don't serve any beef so I made for the Chicken Maharaja Mac, which is just like a regular Big Mac, but with chicken patties and a curry mayonnaise instead of 'special sauce'. It was pretty good tasting but sadly didn't agree with me at all, that night I was really sick (my first since being in India), so it goes to show, even the 'safe' option is not always the best.
From Jaipur we drove for 3 hours to the town of Pushkar where Anwal, our driver, said we would be able to relax as it's quite small and well set up for tourists. We checked into a pretty nice place
which was fairly new with all the mod-cons but didn't venture far for the rest of the day, just out to get something to eat while I got over the illness from the night before. We did see what Anwal meant though as it was full of shops selling all kinds of tourist crap which Faye looked forward to exploring further over the coming days.
So over those few days we relaxed and enjoyed what the town had to offer, good restaurants and café’s, shopping and a relaxed atmosphere. Pushkar is supposed to be quite a spiritual place and an important pilgrimage site for Hindus, but was full of tourists so didn't really feel it to us. It was probably not helped by the fact that the majority of the tourists present seemed to be of the crusty type, who delight in being as scruffy and unwashed as possible. I'm not the type to judge, but it was a stark contrast to the local populace... India and its people are a great paradox, the country is undeniably filthy yet its people are scrupulously clean (obviously there are exceptions), almost all the men are well turned out in collars and
trousers and the women adorn their beautiful sari's or salwar kameez. I just wonder what they think, when they see people who are considerably better off (materially), but look and dress like crap walking round.
From Pushkar we made our way north to Deshnok to visit the infamous
Karni Mata Temple. This temple is literally overflowing with rats, and these holy rodents are treated as sacred and given sanctuary within the temple. The temple was crammed with the little critters but neither Faye nor I are squeamish about these things so we were quite impressed by it, what was more disgusting than the rats are all the pigeons and subsequently all their s**t everywhere. You could feel it underfoot walking around especially as you're required to be barefoot when in the temple. Eurghhhh...!
After the temple we went to
Junagarh Fort in Bikaner, a pretty impressive fort filled with palaces, pavilions and a museum. A guided tour was included in the price, but we were the only westerners in the group so it was conducted mainly in Hindi with important parts translated into English for our benefit, it didn't really matter though as what we were seeing was impressive enough to
hold our attention.
From Bikaner our original plan was to drive to Jaisalmer to go on a camel safari, but neither Faye nor I were that interested in doing that, and although it does have another impressive fort, we were starting to tire of them, especially knowing we were seeing
another one afterwards in Jodhpur, so instead we drove straight to the
Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, one of the largest and reputedly (according to our driver) the best in Rajasthan. Included in the ticket price of the fort was an audio tour which is much better than a guided tour as you can take everything at your own pace, and it was really nice to just wander round at our leisure, taking in a bit of information whenever it was required. It was definitely one of the better forts we visited in Rajasthan, but it's hard to say it WAS the best as the memory of them all just kind of blends together, it was definitely worth seeing though. After the fort we went shopping in the city, mainly for some spices to take home so we spent a good chunk of time in
MV Spices which had an amazing variety
and excellent service.
From Jodhpur we drove a few hours to Ranakpur, a tiny village widely known for its magnificent
Jain temple. The main temple looked a little small and disappointing when we first set eyes on it, but once we entered we were stunned by its beauty. Made from milky white marble, there were many halls and walkways covered by the most intricately carved ceilings all supported by a forest of exquisitely carved pillars... of which no two are alike. Apart from some workmen restoring some of the carvings it was also completely empty, so incredibly peaceful. There were also some other smaller temples outside of this one, all covered with carved marble too, but none of them had the same visual impact as the main temple.
After staying the night in Ranakpur we headed to our final destination in Rajasthan and our last place on this 'tour', Udaipur. We said goodbye to our driver and gave him a massive tip as he'd been an absolute joy to have around, keeping us full of smiles on the long drives, and providing us with an Indian history lesson whenever we required it.
Udaipur is seriously beautiful. Spreading
around the shores of the shimmering lake Pichola, back dropped with a majestic ring of rugged green hills and with the captivating floating lake palace featured in Octopussy centre stage in every view it was incredibly picturesque. Standing on the banks of the lake are series of palaces and dazzling white
Haveli running down to the Ghats where locals wash laundry and bathe. This city is the India of the imagination, both romantic and enchanting. Due to skipping Jaisalmer we had four days in Udaipur, and it turned out to be a good decision as we really loved the city.
It was a pretty busy city and very popular with tourists, this meant there were plenty of restaurants and shops to work our way through after we were done sight seeing for the day. We saw all the major sights and spent the remaining time relaxing. We did experience a few heavy rain showers while there, our first rain since being in India. This rain seemed to catch the locals unaware, as while we were sat on the steps of a shop waiting for it to stop, we witnessed numerous motorcycle crashes as people took a corner outside a
little too fast. No one was injured, they just brushed themselves off and either drove off if the bike was till functioning, or pushed it away.
Mumbai From Udaipur we caught an overnight train to Ahmedabad, then a quick 30 minute connection, and then another train to Mumbai taking about 17 hours in total... It was a long and tiring journey so once we got checked into a reasonably priced hotel, which are few and far between in this city, we crashed out for the entire day as we were both wiped out and Faye was feeling very sick.
Faye's sickness continued for the entire duration while in Mumbai, so we didn't venture out of Colaba, the area of Mumbai where we were staying. We visited the limited sights in the area and did some final shopping while enjoying any café of restaurant which had A/C as the humidity was very oppressive compared to the dryness of Rajasthan where we had just came from.
One of the days that Faye was just too sick to leave the room, I ventured out alone to visit
Elephanta Island. This island, about 10km by boat from the Gateway of India,
is home to a maze of cave temples carved into the islands rock. A lot of the statues and sculptures within the temples weren't in great condition, but considering they were well over a thousand years old, they were wearing up pretty well. It wasn't a patch on most of the other ancient temples I'd been to over the last few months but well worth the half day trip.
Going Home So this was it.... We'd come to our last country, our last city and our last airport on the trip... We'd been counting down the days up to this point. On the drive to the airport in Mumbai we were both filled with excitement and apprehension. We were excited to be seeing family and friends and settling back down again for a while to start raising our family, but nervous about everything else. Has it all changed back home, have WE changed? We didn't feel any different but once we were thrown back into the familiar would the changes become more apparent?
The flight was pretty painless at only 10 hours but we were both really sick. We don't get travel sick so it couldn't have
been that, maybe Faye could pin hers down to the pregnancy and getting over the bug she's had while in Mumbai. Had I caught it too, or was it the prospect of going home? We were both ready to go home but would have loved to continue on travelling, all that careful budgeting meant we still had the funds to continue on, but we had contracts ready to start back at work in a couple of weeks, and also we had a baby on the way which meant this wasn't really an option. In the end I just attributed it to the Indian experience catching up with us, once we were back in London, in the loving embrace of our families who had come to meet us at the airport, we felt a whole lot better.
On the drive home from the airport, it felt really strange. Nothing had changed, it was freezing cold, the M25 was still just as s**t as ever and everyone was in a hurry to get somewhere, it just felt different somehow. Maybe our time away had given me a new appreciation for our fair isle, I know whenever we saw pictures or articles
about it while on the road I got a warm glow of pride, this is my home and I'll always love it.
So, the big question.. What did we think of India?
We get asked this a lot, we've been told it's a Marmite country, you either love it or you hate it. When we were asked straight after our return we didn't hesitate in saying we hated it, solely because it's so damn filthy. We couldn't even begin to describe some of the disgusting stuff we'd seen while in the country, but I think we may have been a bit more sensitive to it solely because of the baby. We've been to heavily polluted, badly littered, seriously dirty places before but they've never seemed to have bothered us, I think trying to protect our unborn child from the experience that is India was just too tiring, and I wouldn't dream of doing it again.
Now some time has passed and our son has been born and left unaffected by the experience, the bad memories have pretty much faded away and now no longer shadow the good times. We're now left with some really fond memories of India. Its people are welcoming, and its sights awe inspiring. Darjeeling was one of our favourite destinations on our entire trip away and the Golden Temple sticks out as a particularly beautiful and memorable experience.
When we returned I wouldn’t have even entertained the idea of returning, but I now find myself wondering what it would be like in other parts of the country we haven't visited. I see pictures, movies and TV shows based in the country and raise a smile. With a little time for contemplation India HAS captivated me and surprisingly, I'm left wanting a little more. 😊
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steph
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I love your blog so much, the way you describe things just brings it all back to me and I deffo want to experience more of India. It is a defo a love/hate relationship I have with the place though!