Road Trip

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I'm writing this two hours in to a thirty-six hour train journey, so stick the kettle on and prepare yourself for a long one. It's a bit like Piccadilly circus in our carriage and the three tier sleeper system - I'm squashed in the middle, Wilko's perched precariously on the top, hardly allows for stretching the legs. On the plus side though, we've made a few new friends - two lunatic Frenchman also traveling to Goa who seem as confused and disorientated by this whole experience as we do, a twenty-three year old Indian who looks about forty, and an old couple who insist on forcing every traditional Indian delicacy under the sun down our throats. Our contrived expressions of delight as we rubbed our tummies and silently gagged on their latest offerings we hoped would fool all but the most astute of eighty-eight year old Indians. But anyway, a lot has happened since our first night in India and after our disastrous experience with the Royal 'Paradise' Hotel, we figured things had to improve.

Our first day in Delhi we made an effort to blend in with the locals - sporting knee length shorts and massive rucksacks, whilst photographing innocuous things at every opportunity. We decided to try and do Delhi in a day and arranged a tour of the city, taking in the Lotus Temple, Humayun's Tomb, Ghandi's Garden and India Gate. Despite being fairly touristy, we were a complete novelty in these places and enjoyed a kind of celebrity status - constantly being asked to pose for pictures and regularly mobbed by Indian school children. One lad even called Joe a 'snowflake', the most affectionate racism I'd ever seen.

The next day, after an early start and a fairly mediocre breakfast, we headed West to Puskhar with our driver for the week Samir (who considered himself one of the lads by the end of the week). Driving through India allows you to appreciate the vastness of the country; Delhi to Pushkar was a bit like driving London to Manchester and we'd only covered a tiny amount of the country. Culturally, it's different to anything I've experienced. Camels, cows and monkeys routinely chill along the motorway, next to someone driving a motorbike with the wife and kids hanging off the back. There are grandly excessive religious temples next to the harrowing poverty of shanty towns, and there's huge diversity in landscape and environment.

We were greeted in Pushkar by a sign that listed things banned from the city. 'Alcohol, drugs, meat and eggs are all prohibited within Pushkar's walls. Brilliant.

In accordance with good old fashioned hypocrisy however, we'd been offered whiskey, weed and opium within about ten minutes of leaving our hotel. We were also asked to complete a 'sacred' Hindu ritual and I decided to put aside my skepticism with organised religion and give it a try. Twenty minutes later, we were collectively 500 rupees lighter and, realising that we'd been had, my faith in atheism was restored.

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