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Published: March 7th 2007
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Xavier and I arrived in India on Saturday night. After working our way through the airport crowds we saw our names on a card (1st time I've ever had that... so cool!) and found our driver that would take us to our hotel, a shady looking character, who turned out not to be a shady character after all. He led us out of the airport past many other shady looking characters. Walking through the carpark we were stopped by an official in combat fatigues who talked down to our driver and interrogated him about what he was doing with us. Our driver had to show him the print out of our email booking and subserviantly explain that we had booked the hotel and he was taking us there. Many times. Eventually the guy let him go (well actually our driver just had to smile and start walking away). The whole time the official guy never asked US anything except our names. It seemed like the whole point was just to make our driver's life a little bit harder.
We got in a little van and made our way through the streets, accompanied by blaring pop music such as 'Milkshake' by
Kelis with a Hindi beat and a song Give Me Hope Joanna that X had sung in primary school. Delhi looked pretty clean until we started driving through dirty little streets with dark figures in corners. We got out on a urine stinking, rubbishy street and made our way down a dark little alley to our hotel. Time to relax, being lulled to sleep by the pigeons shuffling and cooing outside our bathroom window.
The next morning Xavier went upstairs to enquire about breakfast and came back with a green face. Our resident hotel travel agent had smeared green chalk all over him and wished him 'happy Holi', which was the festival taking place that day. We had to book a train that day, and despite being warned by our hotel manager that it wasn't a good idea to go outside because of the Holi festival, we ventured out. Anyway, part of us suspected that he was just trying to put us off booking a train so as to get us to stay another night.
Bit of a shock. Subsequently accosted, man handled, hugged, shook hands with and hit on the head by people wishing us happy Holi
by covering us in coloured dye, chalk, foam and water. One in 10 people in the world is an Indian under 25, and on Holi day they were all armed with colour bombs and spray. It was a bit much when a group of teenage boys would come up to me and rub coloured foam all over my head, and when grown leery men would come up and hug me saying 'happy Holi'. The worst was when we'd walked past two men thinking we'd got away unscathed, then one of them hits me in the back of the head. I have no idea why. Too much, I burst out crying, walking down the street completely oblivious to my new surroundings with Xav trying to ward off potential colourists.
Got to the train station eventually to find that it was closed for Holi. Came home with pink and green hair, faces, and bags, and laughed at ourselves, which immediately turned into crying again for me. A pretty full on start to India.
But things have quitened considerably since then, and physical acostings I'm pleased to learn, are not a daily occurance in India. We're enjoying being here - it's
very much a more eyes wide open place to be in than South East Asia, just for its intensity. Enjoying eating curry already - We had a scrumptious deep fried white bread snack served with tasty potato curry the other day, and we're loading up large on the cheese factor (cheese chapati, cheese parantha, cheese pakora) seeing as the only cheese in SE Asia was la vache qu ruit, about which I can safely say I am totally over.
There's definitely a subculture here of hippy travellers who've been in India a very long time, escaping the conformity of their western lives, yet they wear exactly the same clothes as each other. Indians who travel to other countries must wonder where all the hippies are. I'll tell you where - India. It is hard not to get sucked into it though, with most shops here resembling the Third Eye on krd, at remarkably slashed prices. It must seem funny to Indians that we all come to their country and start wearing their clothes - it would be much the same as foreign tourists in New Zealand taking up stubbies and swandris.
There are lots of cows on the
streets, just like you'd expect - when Xavier was buying something the other day one headbutted me... twice! (thats where the holy cow comes in) There is rubbish all through the streets here, our alley in Delhi had a couple of urinals at the entrance - just a few cubby holes that men stand in. There are countless dogs too.
We took a train from Delhi to Jaisalmer on Monday. The train passed slowly through huge slums with kids playing, mountains of rubbish and people doing their business beside the railway tracks. Then the next morning when we woke up (on the train still) we were in scrubby desert, passing the odd camel and donkey.
Jaisalmer is AMAZING. The best place we've been to yet on our travels I think. A huge sandstone fort city looms high above Jaisalmer, with intricate architecture, built in the 12th Century. Guess what - there are even hotels and restaurants and shops INSIDE the fort, and the place is full of tiny little alleys and cows and incense and men playing really good Indian music on string instruments. Women wear brightly coloured saris and the men wear turbans. This place seems like
Holi cow
Someone got a bullseye on the cow. Sorry. a superb rendering of everything you would imagine India to be. I keep on having to tell myself that it's real.
We're off on a camel safari tomorrow for a couple of days - wandering through the desert on a camel and sleeping under the stars. Feeling pretty damn good right now!
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Anna Harris
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Inspired!
It is great to get your blogs- I am so inspired about India now! I am going over in December, and Jaisalmer Fort is at the top of the list- looks absolutely magical! Again, fantastic photos, good work!