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Published: April 25th 2005
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Yes its still mad here in India. The last month through Rajasthan and UP have been an experience to say the least. Since the last blog we left Pushkar and headed eastish to the blue city of Jodhpur which has an excellent fort and we met lots of really lovely people here but that is the total of my positive remarks about that city (!!!) Then we headed north to the desert to Jaiselmer. This city is amazing. You actually get to stay in the old fort. The fort rises out of the desert so majestically you could imagine that it is a couple of hundred years ago. Inside the walls are little pokey streets and lanes filled with guest houses and little tourist shops and restaurants. But its also filled with peoples homes and children running around playing in the streets. Jaiselmer has been my favourite city in the trip.
One of the things that people head here for is the Camel Safari trip out into the desert so needless to say off we went. We took off on our two day-two night safari with six other people and our four guides, two of which were under the age
Bikaner, Rajasthan
Gangaur Procession of 12 and adorable. The camels were the most vocal animals I have ever come across. They make noises like a cross between a blocked gurgling drain and an OAP giving out about the youth of today. Their breath smells revolting and they look so snotty but really they are gorgeous especially mine - LaLa (I may be slightly biased). The scenery was stunning in the desert and the silence a well needed rest from the constant beeping and dodgy Hindi music. At night we slept under the stars on the dunes. The first night I was a bit apprehensive about the outdoor living as, while we had been sitting around chatting, a SNAKE slithered over my foot. I nearly died especially when the guides started yelling and battered it to death with a stick. I'm not kidding. Three years in Australia and I haven't even seen a snake in the distance and in India one crawls over my foot.
One of the guys on the trip had brought his guitar with him so we had a sing song each night. The guides were all so disappointed in our terrible shyness and the fact that none of us knew
Jaipur, Rajasthan
Gangaur Procession the words to any songs, so they played the guitar like a sitar and sang for hours. Indians love a singsong more than the Irish. One of the kids sat behind me for some of the trip and the only English song he knew was Jingle Bells so we had a few renditions of that. A bit surreal considering it was about 40 degress and we were surrounded by sand and cactus plants.
We left Jaiselmer and headed west to Bikaner, for the purpose of visiting a temple which is dedicated to rats. We arrived at the town where the temple is and took off our shoes and headed in the gate. Immediately you notice the rats. They are everywhere. Running around the ground, climbing through rails, falling out of crevises in the walls. I felt like I was in Indiana Jones. We had met some people who said that they are healthy because they are fed and looked after. Forget it. These do not look like pet rats you see in a shop. There were dead ones, infested looking ones, bleeding ones. I spent the entire time on my tip toes to reduce the amount of foot that
Agra, UP
The Taj Mahal at sunrise they could run over. People were sitting on the ground in the midst of them and all I could think of was how much I was going to scrub my feet with antiseptic when I got back. Glad I went - will not be returning!!!
We were lucky enough to experience the festival of Gangaur while we were in Rajasthan. It lasts for two days so we saw one procession in Bikaner and one in Jaipur. In Bikaner it is primarily a woman's festival. All the ladies had their "good" saris on and the colours were breathtaking. The statue of Gangaur is dressed up in a sari and jewellery and there is a procession of a brass band, camels, horses and of course cows. I was allowed into the back area where the ladies were dressing the Gangaur. I got interrogated in Hindi/Ragasthani (I am brilliant at charades at this stage) by about thirty women as to why I have no children... again! In Jaipur the next day the procession was a lot more formal and had about 40 elephants all dressed up in their Sunday best. There was traditional dancing which we were delighted to see as we
Varanasi, UP
The Ganges River had missed the place in Udaipur that shows trad dancing because of the Holi festival.
After getting lost, hot and bothered about a hundred times on this trip we gave up and got ourselves a rickshaw driver to bring us shopping. Someone is getting commission anyway so it might as well be a driver we liked. Raja was classic and I can recommend this for a day. I think you could get addicted to just having a driver all day long. Don't think I should get too used to it though. Whats the going rate for a chauffuer in Dublin these days?
So off to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. What can I say. It is beautiful. I had such high expectations and I was not in the least disappointed. There are not many things in the world you can say that about. You just have to see it for yourself.
Then to Varanasi. We stayed in a lovely guesthouse and had a fantastic view of the Ganges. Every day thousands of people come to wash in the holy water of the Ganges. There are people at all times of the day and night singing and
on processions. There is a huge ceremony everynight on two of the ghats (piers) and there are two ceremortial ghats. Our guesthouse was right night to one of them. Within five minutes of leaving the guesthouse on our first day here we were nearly knocked down by four men with a body on a stretcher. There is just a shroud, no coffin. The body was then put on a fire and burned. It seemed to be quiet unceremoneous but that has prob more to do with us not understanding what goes on religously.
I think Varanasi is supposed to be the holiest city and one of the oldest in India. It is also in my opinion the dirtiest. My God, it was unbelievable. The air was blue with pollution, the streets were destroyed with cow dung, and the litter and smell were just awful. One day Bryan went to the ATM machine. This is about a 20 min return journey. B was gone for about 45. On the way he was approached by about ten high opium dealers. There was an out of control cow that no one would pass because they were all terrified (sounds ridiculous I know but I've met a few people who've been hurt). Then there was a funeral procession and the stretcher bearers just plonked the body in the middle of the narrow lane. The traffic got sick of waiting so drove around the body and people stepped over it. In the end Bryan had to walk around the dead body.
So we have arrived in Kolkata or Calcutta as it used to be called. And it is surprisingly lovely here. I think we were expecting a lot worse and I think in some ways for us travelling the medium sized cities is harder than the big international ones as no one really takes any notice of us being western here.
We are nearly finished in India and its just as well. IT IS HOT here. Its been between 38 and 44 degrees everyday for the last two weeks and the humidity is unbearable. The budget is not stretching to airconditioning so there is a whole lot of moaning going on at the moment 😊 So next stop in a national park to try and spot some tigers and then off to the capital Delhi. The next blog will prob be from Thailand.
This blog is in the memory of our happy evening escaping the chaos of Agra when we through the budget out the window, I put on some mascara (makeup...wow) and we went 5 STAR to the Taj Hotel. We got given
clean glasses with not a dirty bottom in sight and
cold beer...ahhhh the beauty of it.
P.S. to all the Aussies - Happy ANZAC Day.
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anonymous
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Did you visit Ajmair City?
Very interesting travel experience in rajhistan. Did you visit Ajmair City? if did, please post some details about the city, cuz i am planing to visit soon. http://Traveldeals.150m.com - Arif