Blogs from India, Asia - page 2

22.12.23 – 10.1.24 Im letzten Blogeintrag haben wir den Text zu Jaipur unterschlagen: zwischen Agra und Pushkar liegt die «Pink City», so genannt wegen der lachsfarbenen Fassaden in der Innenstadt. Verwinkelte Gassen, laubenartige Märkte, Tempel und Paläste gibt es zu erkunden, und natürlich das majestätische Amber Fort etwas ausserhalb der Stadt. Beim Lunch im Restaurant nebenan werden wir Zeugen eines Bollywood-Drehs, respektive der x-fachen Aufnahme einer einzigen Szene, in der sich ein Paar fetzt, was das Zeug hält. Äusserst amüsant. Auch Jodhpur ziert ein grosses Fort auf einem Hügel, inklusive beliebtem «Sunset-Spot», wo man allerdings vor lauter Fotografierenden die Sonne kaum mehr sieht. Einmal mehr sind wir beeindruckt von der prächtigen Architektur und den prunkvollen Innenräumen der ausladenden Palastanlagen. Ein weiterer Höhepunkt ist der Ausflug in die Umgebung der Sta... read more

On Christmas Eve, Grace and Hattie went with Giagi to her temple and prayed with her to the different gods. She got the driver to take photos of us three, stood slightly behind each-other like prom photos, beside each shrine. She proudly told everyone that Grace was her granddaughter from England and we namaste’d our way around the temple to her friends. We were given orange painted forehead dots (like a painted bindi) and took our shoes off before entry. Bananas were scattered as offerings underneath Hanuman (the monkey god) but Giagi took it up a notch and ordered 15kg of sweets, telling us that the next day she would be ordering 20kg and the day after that 25kg! She does not mess around! Returning to the house, Hattie fell asleep (in dire need of a ... read more

On our car ride to Abohar, only a meagre 8 hours, Hattie and Iksha especially felt the effects of 10 days of non stop touristing and the intense pollution we’d been breathing in. Pinky, iksha’s father, had organised a stop for us to have our lunch. We discussed if it would be worth adding this diversion to our long journey and decided to be yes men, because when was the next time we were going to be lucky enough to take a long drive like this in India!? And oh, how much we would have missed out on!!! The town had been a haven in the 18th century for merchants (Marwari) to show off their wealth through building “party houses.” Yes that’s a quote. A very dusty town near desert and sand dunes, many of these ... read more

After our first lie-in of the trip (9.30 wake up 😮) we fought an uphill pedestrian battle against the vehicles and walkways (with one man asking if we would “pimp his ride” to which we responded “no thanks!!) to the much calmer Museum of Gem and Jewellery Federation where Grace, Hattie and Iksha found some of the most beautiful treasures of the trip. Uncle Vivek met us there and helped us pick out our treats (he has exquisite taste). Hattie has expensive taste and inadvertently picked out items exclusively over £300 - including a gorgeous silver chain belt and spice container necklace. Silly betis did the conversion rates wrong in our heads and got excited that everything was £20 (add a zero!!). Unfortunately collectively this was the budget for the entire trip so Hattie came away ... read more

With half closed eyes we ordered an Uber from the hostel and traversed through dimly lit Jaipur. We got out at a beautiful sandstone gate that was blocked by cows and dogs. We sidestepped them and began the trek up to the sun temple as the sun began to rise. Hundreds of monkeys were eating banana breakfasts and the babies were having their morning milk before we’d even had our chai! The view over the trees and mountains and the city was gorgeous and we could hear religious chanting from near by temples. This really was a memorable moment and set a lovely calm tone for the day. The block colour of different dwellings became more vibrant as the sky changed from pink to blue. We walked back down the hill now in the light, half ... read more