Holi moly

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06 March

We started the day with a sunrise cycle rickshaw to the Indian border. Because of the road blockades, we'd weaved in and out of hundreds of parked cargo trucks the night before and now all of these trucks seemed to be lined up at the border to get to their Nepali destinations via India. Our poor cycle rickshaws were too bulky and unable to maneuver between the trucks, so we walked the last bit to the border. We stopped at the Nepal immigration office, then walked under two gates, down the road a bit and directly to the Indian immigration office. Once the formalities were completed, we were on our way in a private taxi to Varanasi. Immediately, there was no difference in scenery from Nepal to India, but then we started to see pigs and a general increase in the numbers of roaming cattle. Horns are a necessity in both countries if you plan to be taken seriously as a driver. Use them often and get a unique sounding one.

After our arrival 8 hours later in Varanasi, we hopped on a boat for a sunset ride along the Ganges. For one of the holiest rivers in the world, you'd never guess it by the murky brown water and floating debris. Perhaps it was best that our introduction to the Ganges was at twilight. We lit 101 candles and released them in leaf bowls with marigolds into the river. It made for quite a sight, even though I had to fight back my guilt of having just dropped a kilo of wax into the river to enjoy it. From one of the main ghats we then watched the evening prayer rituals, which involved Ganges water, incense, marigolds, and a heap of metal apparati. After this, we walked to a charming restaurant, though along the way I lost all patience with Varanasi, as a cycle rickshaw ran over my foot in the hustle and bustle that is an Indian street. And back at the hotel, I succumbed to the dreaded Delhi Belly.


07 March

We got off to a later start with a walk around the corner to our waiting taxis -- 1960's ambassador cars! They built 'em tough. We had an hour ride to a point upstream of Varanasi so we could float right back into the city by the next day. Along the way, we had our very first encounter with a 4-lane road and quickly learned that lane markers are only suggestions and you should drive where you please, so long as you avoid the cows trying to sleep in the medians. Once we got to our little sailboats we had a quick pitstop in the sand dunes, then had an all-day sailing adventure downstream. The best part? THE KITCHEN BOAT. Absolutely the BEST food in India. Hands down. Palak paneer and eggplant and dal and rice and everything you could ever want. We sailed past fishermen, little children on the banks, and my favorite - herds of buffalo getting a nice scrubbing in the river. In the evening, we stopped along the banks and the boat crew pitched our tents and we had another meal dished up by the kitchen boat. Lucky for us, the moon was insanely bright and no torches were needed. The Ganges is brimming with horrible mothy bugs that are a nuisance during the day and apparently are ten zillion times worse if you've got a light in the dark.


08 March

Up early for a picnic brekky on the beach, then back onto the boats. Too much morning chai meant an early pitstop for our boat in the most inconvenient place. Lacking sand dunes or any sort of cover, our boatmen sent Cassy and I ashore with a blanket to use as a blind. Standing downhill of someone who's weeing on packed earth and trying not to look or get peed on is a challenge. And we learned our lesson: no tea before travel. Ever again. We had one more scrumptious kitchen boat meal before hopping off the boats in Varanasi. Exhausted from doing absolutely nothing for two days, we opted to go watch a Bollywood movie in a big fancy theatre. I must say it's the first time I remember having a security check going into a shopping mall. The movie, "Billu Barber" is a must-see. The popcorn, however, should be limited.


09 March

Up even earlier for a sunrise boatride on the Ganges to Assi Ghat. We passed heaps of people out for their morning Ganges bath (I resisted the temptation to go for a holy dip) before passing by the crematorium. We hopped off the boat and made our way back on foot, winding along the narrow streets full of goats and puppies around the temples. Some of the tiny roads even have tiny little stables for the cows, which makes for one horrid stench. We had the rest of the day off until 3:00 when we took auto rickshaws to the train station. We waited on our platform for a little while, then loaded ourselves into our fancy pants sleeper car. Without cabins. Just open bunks. 60 of them. All a beautiful blue vinyl. And surprisingly, home of one of my best nights' sleeps ever.


10 March

After nearly 16 hours on the train, we stepped back onto solid ground in Jhansi and after a tuktuk ride through the city, wound up in a beautiful riverside resort on the outskirts of Orchha. From here, we went to Taragram, a recycling plant that employs mostly local women who would not otherwise find employment. They even provide a daycare service while the women work. The plant turns recycled cotton, paper and cardboard into new paper and produces all sorts of paper products from picture frames to greeting cards. It was a nice chance to interact with some of the local people and see how everything works to recycle the materials.

In the afternoon we headed to the Raja Mahal, one of the palaces in Orchha. The city houses more temples than is necessary for its small population, all of which you can spot from the tops of the Raja Mahal. The palace, huge and intricately decorated, has not been maintained the best though some of the original paintings are still preserved. The Raja Mahal was built for a visting king to the area and took 16 years to build, only to be used for one night. In India, once a gift is given, it cannot be taken back or used by the giver, thus after the visiting king left, the palace was abandoned, as he never returned to Orchha.

The evening borught one of the highlights of the trip: a cooking class! We learned the ropes for making real chai, aloo palak (potatoes/spinach), rice pulao, and delicious chapati! Each of us had a turn at rolling out the dough for the chapati while the grandma of our cooking teacher fried them for us. The food was a tad on the salty side, but it was till scrumptious! And afterwards I got my very first henna tatto. Which turned out to be an inconvenience, as we hopped into a tuktuk to head to the temple to observe the evening prayers before Holi!


11 March

HAPPY HOLI!!!

After a bit of a holiday sleep in, we donned our worst, ickiest clothes to prepare ourselves for the Festical of Colours. We'd bought our powder the night before, so Cassy and I started the traditional coloring of everyone around us, which basically involves smearing as much color powder on everyone within reach. Once everyone had an adequate amount of green and blue, we took our tuktuk to the middle of Orchha to join in the real Holi festivities. Immediately, all of the local kids jumped at the chance to color the Westerners, as did some of the older Orchhans. Of course, we wouldn't let them color us without coloring them and after purchase of a few more colors, it was an all-out color powder war in front of the temple. We convinced the kids to color any passing Westerners silly enough to have come outside on Holi, which was not greatly appreciated... We fought our way slowly with our gang of children towards the home of a friend of our tour leader. At one point behind the temple, we stopped for a street dance party with the under-12's. Naturally, our dance moves impressed them faaaar less than their moves impressed us. But we tried? After a few songs and drawing far too much attention to ourselves, we headed further towards our destination, only to be mauled by small children with buckets of colored water, hands covered in blackish dye, and more powder! Once we arrived at the house, we were provided with our own bucket of colored water and we armed ourselves with the water guns we'd bought beforehand. We had quite the waterfight with the local kids, drenching them as much as they drenched us, and ended up looking like we'd been standing too close to an exploding Crayola plant. Soaked to the bone and colored beyond recognition, we finally gave up the fight with the kids and sought shelter in the courtyard, drying out in the sunshine and trying in vain to wash some of the color off. We were served a delcious lunch with cabbage, dal, rice and chapati and ate in the true Indian style - with our hands!

Semi-dried, relaxed, and full-bellied, we mad eour way back to the center of Orchha to take a tuktuk back to the hotel. Here we witnessed how some people over 12 experience Holi - too much alcohol, likely illegal substances and then a ride on the motorbike. In the time we stood at the corner, we saw one crash, one motorbike almost hit us then ran over a cow's foot, the policeman got out his beating stick and starting yelling and whistling at the hooligans, and there were several more motorbike crash near misses. Finally we hopped in the tuktuk and headed back to the hotel. We decided the best way to start the cleaning process would be a good dip in the river, so we headed down, fully clothed and took a nice swim. Unfortunately, the river swim and long showers didn't clean all the Holi out of everyone, and I spent several more days with green, pink and yellow highlights.


12 March

Still slightly colored, we headed out in the drak to the train station at Jhansi to hop a train to Agra. In the late morning, we arrived safe and sound and headed to the Red Fort for a guided tour. One of my least favourite things is a guided tour, and this one seemed particularly restrictive, with little time to wander and really explore the area. There's only a tiny bit of the fort available for tourists, as the rest is used to house infantry. It was quite an impressively large area and it's a shame we couldn't have seen more of it.

After lunch and a good nap, we headed to the lovely and fabled Taj Mahal. It was built by the emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial to his wife Mumtaz after she died giving birth to their son in 1631. At THE bench where everyone sits to have their photo taken, we narrowly avoided fist fights with Indian tourists who lack any ability to queue! After this, we wandered the length of the gardens, stopping often for photo ops, and finally made it to the actual mausoleum. Herein are the tombs of Mumtaz and the emperor and this is the only real lack of symmetry in the entire complex, as her tomb is centered and his is alongside and slightly higher up. Again we encountered a ridiculous lack of queuing, which frustrated us all even more. After this, we headed to the mosque to the left of the Taj Mahal for a few more photos, then Cassy and I sat on the opposite side, waiting for the sunset. Sunsets in India tend to be quite dreary, as the sun is lost in the smog, but this one did provide quite a nice light shining on the Taj Mahal. The real downside was waiting for sunset and becoming a subject of far too many Indian tourists' photos.

To make up for our rather lousy Taj Mahal experience, we had a great dinner, big beers, and listened to sitar music at an outdoor restaurant.


13 March

An early wake up was rewarded with a view of the Taj Mahal just after sunrise. We walked down to the river, then tiptoed around piles of rubbish and shit to get the best angles for our photos. The contrast between the filth of the river and the shining white Taj Mahal was incredible. In any other place, you'd expect the area around such an attraction to have high property values and be clean and cared for, but in Agra, there are dozens of filthy monekys and stray dogs and loads of garbage.

After breakfast, we went for a wander around the streets of Agra, talking to local children and seeing how the people live day-to-day. The most interesting facet was perhaps that we were there on gas day, where large crowds with every sort of jug and container were gathered around small shops to get gas. In each, a man sat with a ledger book, taking down exactly what was given out and to whom. Further along, we met some of the most charming local kids, all of whom were eager to be in photos. The whole street seemed to be watching our every move and they all seemed to be quite intrigued and amused by our presence.

A quick lunch and we were back on the rails, headed to Delhi! The trip ran rather smoothly and we arrived at our hotel in the evening. After cleaning up, we wandered around until we found a delightful restaurant where we were ushered into the aircon basement and served quickly with some of the best food I've had! This was also our last dinner together as a tour group and was quite a fitting farewell.

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