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Published: February 24th 2013
So after Davy got sick and a little better again, we had only one last day to spend in lovely Varkala. After everything that has happened in last few days, I'm taking back all my objections against Varkala (such as prices cos it got even worse in Delhi and Agra and the hassle about everything as well) and we will definitely be coming back there. We enjoyed the warmest day of our stay, the warmest sea, the nicest dinner and what was amazing, when we were in the water swimming, a tiny black and white fish started swimming around Davy, probably attracted by his shorts of the same colour and stayed swimming around Davy for maybe 2 hours. We said goodbye to our puppies and got ready for the north of India.
It was a very long two day journey from south to north. Getting a taxi from Varkala to Trivandrum airport, Davy getting his dodgy tummy again (thanks Angela for that expression 😉, flying from Trivandrum to Delhi with a Mumbai stopover, having like 8 hours to spend in Delhi and taking an overnight train to Ramnagar, waiting another few hours and getting a bus to Sult Mahadev. Delhi,
from the very first second, is the craziest place ever, so busy, so dirty, so noisy, so many poor people sleeping everywhere, begging children... We decided to see a bit of the town and got an expensive tuk-tuk to drive us around for a few hours. We pretty much made it only to the Delhi gate. That was cool, all enlighted, we got a warm chai and took a few pictures and wanted to go and see other places but our tuk-tuk driver said everything was closed and too far away and it was too late and he had all the excuses so we went to see the gate again and then I think as a punishment we wanted to see more, he drove as back to the train station on a main motorway and it was so polluted and we could hardly breath and got stuck in the evening traffic jam and just couldn't wait to leave Delhi.
We found our first overnight train and got the worst beds close to the exit door and it was absolutely freezing as people kept them opened all the time and close to the toilets so it stunk and you can't
imagine how terribly Indian toilets can smell. Then when trying to sort out on which bed to sleep as I'm a wuss and I'm scared of sleeping on the top beds and falling down, I saw this guy leaving the toilet with his pants opened and his dick hanging out and then I completely freaked out and refused to fall asleep on the train. Very very early of the following morning we arrived to Ramnagar and it was sooo cold. Indu's cousin Shyamu was waiting for us and took us to his home and kindly let us stay there to have a rest and we met his amazing sons. They were two and three and were crazily hyperactive at five in the morning, running around with lollies we gave them and touching everything with the lollies so leaving everything extra sticky. Then we were brought to a bus station and had bus tickets bought from Shyamu's family and it was so nice of them to take care of us. We knew the bus drive would involve lots of hills but our imagination was far away from the reality. We had seats right beside the driver so we had a great
view of the narrow muddy path with its crazy turns, cliffs and it was really scary drive and I was actually praying so we would survive without falling over the mountain cliff edge. Despite of being scared to death, we already knew we loved this place with its high mountains and pretty landscape and wheat fields looking like paddy fields and we saw our first monkey on the way up.
When we reached a mountain village Sult Mahadev, we finally saw Indu waiting for us and that's when the absolutely best part of our stay in India started. Indu's brother Puran and his wife Laksmi donated a bell to a local Siva temple and we were invited for the donation ceremony. It was a lovely tiny temple and we were present for the whole ritual, we got our Tika blessing and we were able to be part of the ceremony not as tourists but as a part of the whole community and it was amazing. You would imagine that such a ceremony is a quiet and sacred when only the priest is performing the blessings and readings and sacrifices but this was very intimate and all the people involved
were interrupting the priest and shouting at each other and it was kinda messy but very magical and very spiritual. There was a small reception after the ceremony and lots of people from the village came to have a look and we met lots of lovely people and were running around with Puran's children Vishal and Priya and every second of that day felt very special. The village was surrounded by high mountains and we still didn't know that it's not our final destination. Later in the afternoon, some of the people started to be nervous that they should go home and feed their cows. That's when we realized we still had a good walk ahead us. Actually not a walk but proper treck up the mountain and as we were walking, Indu pointed out on a few white houses on the top of the mountain and that was our final destination, her native village Reetha. The climb up itself was an amazing experience, some of the people took our bags as we wouldn't be able to bring them up and we stopped in every village because all the people know each other and are amazingly friendly and in every
place we got something yummy, chai, lassi, sweets... And the higher we were getting, the more amazing view was arising in front of us and you could feel the peace of this place. It took us maybe another two hours to reach Reetha and finally we were there. On the top of the mountain and completely out of this world. I was joking that after this, we could just go home because we can't experience anything better than this during our travels. We stayed with Indu's parents for 3 days and they are lovely people and it was very touching to see how they live. So modestly but in such a harmony with the world around, so friendly and welcoming. We ate with them in this tiny kitchen and it was amazing to see Davy eating things he would never ever touch before in Ireland and he wanted more and everything we had was so tasty, home made rice pudding with home made ghee, home made chapattis and curries. The only tough one was when they wanted to make something special and got a hen for us. What we didn't know they would just cut the whole hen into pieces
and cook everything so we got this broth with hen pieces which were like bones and organs and the good thing was the kitchen didn't have much light so we couldn't really see what we were eating 😊 The best part was yet to come. We went for a day trip to Devi (pronounced as Davy 😊 temple and were drinking chai with the priest in his kitchen (prepared by Indu) and I'm not sure how that happened, they made Davy to start putting red bangles onto my wrists and all the people were laughing at him that he will have to marry me no matter what now. And as the priest had a good laugh out of that as well, he decided to go further with the wedding ceremony and gave me a wedding chunni and we exchanged flower garlands with Davy and kissed and the priest put his hands on our backs and that was pretty much it. We are married. At least here, in this special place out of the real world 😊 We had an absolute blast in the mountains, Priya and Vishal running around shouting uncle...auntie... all the time, trying to take pictures with our
camera and playing with Davy's iphone and Indu's parents have the cuttest puppy ever and we just wished we could stay for much longer.
Puran and his family were invited to a wedding so we got the opportunity to join them and see real Indian wedding. Had to take the crazy bus down the mountains again to much colder Ramnagar and quickly buy some new clothes as everything we had was filthy at this stage of our trip. Then we experienced our first drive on the back seat of a tuk-tuk, facing the road, holding a bar so we wouldn't fall out and being in the middle of the madness. It was freezing and it was great. We were driving for ages and then we saw this noisy parade with lights, loud music, people dancing and that was the wedding. The groom was sitting on a chariot and on the way from his house to the bride's house so we joined the parade and felt instantly bad as all the attention of all the people turned from the groom towards us. Everyone was waving and everyone wanted to take a picture of us and we thought that maybe we
should rather leave not to spoil the wedding completely. The wedding itself was a little bit strange, people didn't really care about the groom and by the time the bride arrived, everyone was dispersed at dinning tables and munching their dinners. The groom and the bride had to spend hours just posing for a camera with lots of different people, including us as we were forced to join them at the stage, during some ritual, and pose with them for the pics. It's hard to describe how it feels to be in the middle of the attention of all the people, a little intimidating and awesome at the same time. Davy definitely loved it, he said he felt like a movie star and it was amazing to be part of the real Indian wedding.
Nothing can stay perfect and the next day, anothe dodgy tummy changed our plans. We were supposed to go with Indu to Nainital for the day but Davy felt sick again so we had to cancel it and decided to come back to Delhi together with Puran's family. Waiting for a local train, Davy got better but I got really bad fever and it was
an absolute nightmare to be waiting hours for a train. Everyone at the Kashipur train station was starring at us and everytime we moved somewhere less crowded, it didn't take long for the crowds to make a new circle around us. Two different trains and pretty much the whole day, it took to get from the north back to Delhi and as Indu agreed to join us for an Agra trip the following day we decided to stay in a hotel close to train station. Ridiculously they refused to let her check-in as Indu had only her ID and not her passport, so wrecked after the journey, sick, tired, we spend another hour or more trying to persuade them to let us stay. We had to get up at 5:30 of the following morning and I still felt sick and we rushed to the train station and then I lost the train ticket... thank God Indu ran back and found it and we sat down for 3 hour journey from Delhi to Agra to see the famous Taj Mahal. As soon as we got out the train in Agra, it started raining and by the time we reached Taj Mahal
it was lashing maybe even worse than it does in Ireland. The way I always imagined Taj Mahal is this huge huge beautiful building... the rain probably did its job but it looked tiny. Very cute. But tiny 😊 As it was pissing raining, we took just a few quick pictures, the only cool thing about it was, that we have pretty much pictures free of the usual crowds and got completely drenched. Indu had to leave to catch her train back to Delhi and her flight back to Pune, which she actually missed as all the trains were delayed because the whole north of India was flooded. We quickly ran through the inside of the Taj Mahal, yeah you guess correctly, took a few quick pictures and got into our taxi and instead to other sightseeing places, we asked our driver and our guide to take us to a shop so we could buy something new and clean and mainly dry! And of course, this is India, so they were driving us around into touristy shops so they could get their commission, like leather shop with belts, marble shop with stuff and it took a good few hours until
we got our new clothes and could change into something dry. And finally a dinner in a touristy restaurant, the highest bill of our Indian stay and a "nice" souvenir in a form of a dodgy tummy for me.
Then we had to wait for a train from Agra to Mathura, which was delayed because of the rain and then we thought we were going to miss our train from Mathura to Varanasi, but that one was luckily delayed as well. It meant lots of waiting at the train stations, freezing cold, lots and lots of poor people sleeping on the ground, cows and monkeys on the platforms and no need to be repeating that it was stinking out there as pretty much the whole train station is one big toilet. We found our train to Varanasi and our beds and got ready for an overnight 14 hour journey and Davy fell asleep and I think it was the first time ever I actually hated India and wanted to go home. It was stinking in there, it was cold, I was sick and then a mouse ran over our bags.
Getting closer to Varanasi, everything looked better again,
we were enjoying the trip, watching people living along the railways in muddy houses, dirty children running around, brick factories and mustard seed plants fields and it was getting warmer and sunny again. The moment we arrived to Varanasi I liked it there, big time. Varanasi is exactly how I always imagined what real India is like. Cows everywhere, people everywhere. It is noisy and crazy but not too much in comparison to Delhi or Mumbai, there are tourists so people don't stare but it is not that touristy so it still feels real. With lots of tiny streets and tiny stalls. And big and small temples on every corner. And of course it is a very special place. Holy place. You can feel there is something different about this place. And the River, Ganga, the mother of Life. And Death. We wondered around the first night and walked towards the nearest ghat and bought two flower candles and let them flow on the River for a good luck. While walking around the next evening, we reached the main burning ghat where people are burnt so they escape the circle of life and death. Such a strange feeling looking into
the fires and then gradually starting to recognize parts of human bodies. Head. Arm. And local people trying to take us around, trying to make us take pictures and pay for that and making comments such as "it is a good day" meaning there is lots of people being burnt now or trying to make us go closer saying "come on, you will like more from down there". One gets completely different perspective when seeing all of that together with all the people bathing in the River, doing laundry, bathing their buffalos and as it turned out cooking chai out of the holy water. Yeah, the chai we drink when we walk along the river.
There is lots of monkeys around so it is like being a part of a nature documentary film, Davy feeds them, nicely from hand to hand but we also saw scary moments when monkeys attacked people. They are running around on the roofs and stealing things and it's mad. What kind of sucks about Varanasi is the fact that the huge Kumbh Mela festival with its millions and millions of people is happening just around the corner in Allahabad and all the people leaving the
festival are coming to Varanasi to bath in the River. So Varanasi is super packed, super crowded and it is pretty much impossible to find an accommodation and the prices are sometimes up to 10 times higher than usual. And I also thought that Varanasi would be the perfect spot to sink into the Indian philosophy and spirituality but it didn't really happen. Maybe it is just too busy now for a quiet mediation or maybe I am not ready for that yet. So we are leaving the holy city a little bit earlier than we planned (just in two days) and we will try to reach some nice and quiet beaches near Kolkata to recover from all the madness and hopefully to celebrate Davy's birthday somewhere nice.
And big thank you to Indu for showing us her home and for introducing us to her amazing family and sorry for any misspelling. xxx
Back on the blog again and so after our southern indian tour it was off to Delhi and the north but not without a little trouble first because after i thought i was over my sickness so of course
i had a beer or 2 to celebrate and woke up the next morning dying, stomach cramps from hell so basically we were going to have to cancel our flight tickets again. these are the tickets we had cancelled from my first sickness. not cool, but i sucked it up after vomiting a few times and got on the plane, very tough journey. So we arrived in Delhi but only stayed a few hours as we were heading for Ramnagar up north in the mountains to meet our indian friend Indu who we know from back home.We killed a few hours by getting a tuk tuk around the city until our train that night. We got to ramnagar at 5 in the morning hoping that Indu's cousin was going to be here to meet us and after a little while of getting really nervous and starting to think the worst' a man came up and said 'david ', we shook hands and introduced each other and he brought us back to his house where we waited for the bus. We met his family and they gave us breakfast so everything was going according to plan. We then got the bus
to meet Indu in the the village called Sult Mahadev in the mountains. The bus journey was 2 of the longest hours of my life, as we got further up the mountains the roads became thinner so much that only one vehicle could fit but they made 2 fit, it was absolute madness, the edge of the road on 1 side was just looking straight up a cliff and the other side was looking down a shere drop off a mountain and of course we got the 2 front window seats. Honestly it was like something out of a james bond movie so I told the bus driver afterwards that pilots have it easy and he should be paid a lot more and so after nearly shitting my pants we finally arrived to meet Indu.
The mountains were just amazing, its so hard to describe but mostly just peaceful.The first day we were introduced to a good few people in the village, apparently there were many people awaiting our arrival and as we soon realised that foreigners dont really make it up this far it became clear why they all wanted to meet us and touch us and just
stared at us all the time constanly and sometimes when you make eye contact they smile and look away shyly, its really weird but really cool.There was a ceremony for Indu,s brother and wife (Puran and Laksmi) and we met their son and daughter (Vishal and Priya), the ceremony was cool, our first in a temple and after that it was almost a 3 hour trek up to meet the rest of the family high in the mountain and to where we would stay for the next 4 or 5 days.The trek was great cos the villagers wanted to take all our bags and insisted that we carry nothing, these bags were heavy so after the initial feeling of guilt it was actually pretty sweet.The next few days were some of my favourite, living like the flinstones and getting a real taste of indian culture. Lots of pictures and walking and seeing amazing sights and how people live up here and watching and learning from them was just an incredible experience.Thanks to Indu and your family. Awesome.
After that we went back to ramnagar but changed our plans as we got invited to a real indian wedding, simona was
very excited and the fact that we were going with Indu and the family it really felt like there was no pressure, we were both relaxed and in a great state of mind after the mountains so why not go to a wedding, ha. We got there and everyone just flocked around us, just watching and starring at our every move, most people actually stopped looking at bride and groom cos white folks were more exciting, it was as if we were celebrities. I got invited straight up to the main car to have a few whiskeys with the father of the groom and some other important people of the wedding, so after cleaning up the whiskey and a few photos with other important wedding officials it was back to the wedding itself and when i walked in everyone in the whole place was just starring at Simona , like she was a god or someone from another planet and soon after we became the life of the wedding, we got great food, met so many nice people and danced the night away. it was really different than back home and i did feel a little bad cos we basically
stole the show at the wedding but even the bride and groom looked delighted that we were there, strange but really cool.
The next day guess what, i was sick again for the 3 time and thought maybe its not the food thats causing it maybe its the drink so i kinda stopped drinking for a while. We went back to dehli for 1 night and from there went to Agra to see the famous Taj Mahal,boring. Shit weather and a pretty shit day had, i must say, we went and after getting inside the gates the heavens opened up and the rain was actually hurting is was coming down so hard and so fast it was almost like a river. we cut our time short inside as we were drenched and just wanted fresh clothes which we didnt have cos all our cloths were dirty, like all our stuff was filthy so we got the taxi driver to take us to a clothes shop asap. this took him 4 different stops and over an hour of us being soaked and freezing in the back of a taxi but finally we got to the market for cheap warm clothes
at which stage our wet ones were nearly dry. alot of the time they smile and nod at you as if they know what your talking about but mostly they just dont understand. So from there we go onto Varanasi, a 14 hour train jouney awaits us before reaching the holy city.
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