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Published: November 5th 2009
Taj Mahal
Sorry there are no ther pictures, working on uploading them from my camera!Hello everybodyy!
WOW, what a past 5 weeks!
I arrivied in india knowing that it wasn't going to be the easiest place to start but i think i still underestimated it, as i walked out the airport there were litrally hundreds of indians on either side of the barrier being held back by police all shouting stuff at us westerners as we walked through.
Our first destination was Delhi, this is indias capital it doesn't however feel like it, alot of the buildings, homes and ways of life are very very under developed, we came across the main hospital, which, if you had seen in england you would have classed as an abandonned building.. scary. The accomodation we had booked before we left the uk turned out to be down a small, smelly, alley way, full of dodgy looking charaters, one which you would'n't even consider walking down in england let alone staying the night in. However, we did, some of us being more happy than others to embrace the travel culture straight away!
There were cows on our door step and dogs everywhere we looked, every single man in india seemed happy to help us if not a little to
happy as one man was so happy he walked us about 5 miles down a road to the nearest government tourist office, we later found out this man claimed massive comission on our booking of a trip around the golden triangle and we had spent far too much money!
However what was done was done so we made our way with a little old man driving a taxi called Babloo, We then made our way down india towards Jaipur, 'The pink city' my friend Andy who i am travelling with was reall excited about the prospect of going to a city where EVERYTHING is pink, he was however to be very disapointed. The buildings are 'pink' because the materials alot of the buildings were built with in Jaipur were very bad quality, a cheap way to hide the poor quality was to paint the buildings a 'pretty' colour, PINK. I didnt however think the buildings were very pink at all more of a browny colour, possibly a dark red at a push. It was however still a very beautiful city with what seemed to be many many silk shops, it was obvious all the tuk tuk men earnt commision if they took us to a silk shop along the way and so i am now a fountain of knowledge on silk as we were sat down every time and told how it was made, where it came from, how the print was done etc. Not something i feel will be particularly helpful in the future but you never know!
We made our way down through india to Agra, this is where the Taj Mahal is. This building truley is incredible, i was unsure what to expect as my breath is very rarely taken away by pure beauty, this however was one of these times, as you walk out into the Taj Mahal Garden, this massive off white building suddenly comes into view and towers above you, the size of it was what took my breath away to begin with and then the way each and every cm of the marble had been smoothed down to create this magnificent building. (did you know the white marble changes colour throughout the day depending on how the sun hits it?) I was not however impressed with the inside, it was very hot and very crowded in there, there were two coffins in the centre which were the centre point to the entire Taj Mahal, i wasn't sure what to expect inside at all, but i was hoping for it to be as ammazing as the outside.
We then made our way further down india towards Varanassi, this is where the river Ganges is, the river Ganges in Varanassi is where Hindus prilgrim to, they useually do this twice in their life, once in their twenties and the second time when they belive it is time for them to die. We went to the river Ganges at sunrise, i think all i am able to say is i really do feel as if it was a life changin experience, you walk down these steps and you are suddenly bombarded by a rainbow of vibrant colours, men, women, children all washing themselves in this dirty river, women washing clothes, bedsheets, you name it, it was probably there.. and yet, less than 50m down the river there were bodys, some being cremated, some being pushed out into the water to float down the river, some even being taken out with a rock attatched and sunk. It was a very moving thing to watch and i felt very uneasy watching it, i did say before i left i wanted to experience the 'culture' and this was part of theirs so i sat for about thirty mintues watching the goings on of the pilgrimage to the Ganges, i found it difficult to understand how the people washing and brushing their teeth in the river were not getting ill from the bacteria in the water from all the bodies, it is said that legs, arms, heads etc have all been regularly found by them whilst washing... After being taken by a boat further down the ganges to get the view from our on the river we returned back to then make our way towards Mumbai by Train.
The trains in india are intense, we were preparing for a 14 hour train ride on a sleeper train, we spent 4 hours at the train station before hand where many people in poverty slept under cover in the station, you litrally had to step over them to get anywhere. The men in india are very pervy and stare at western girls constantly, there was one man at this particular station which followed the girls we were with around for hours until me and Andy had to turn around and physically push him all the way out of the station and make it quite clear we did not want to see him again. once we were on the train you walked into a carriage full of very thin beds squeezed together 3 tiers high, there are 6 beds in a sort of compartment within the carriage, 3 on each side, bottom, middle and top. You are unable to sit up properly in the bed and are pretty much expected lye on you're bed for the duration of the journey, it is especially unpleasent if you get stuck with horrible people in the same compartment or men which smell like they havnt washed for weeks. There is one escape which is if it all gets to much you can hang out of the train door whilst it is doing 100mph and that quickly sorts you out. I don't think India has ever even heard of health and saftey yet.
We only spent a night in Mumbai as a sort of stop over and then carried onto Goa so i will come back to Mumbai.
Once in Goa we stayed in a place called Anjuna, unfortunetly we had arrived smack bang in the middle of a massive storm which apparently could carry on for 10 more days, we were all slightly gutted about this as this was supposed to be where the beach fum started and the tan began. Instead we all got mopeds and used Anjuna as a sort of base, we visited a place called baga for a few days which had alot to do and see, the seafood was also fantastic. After about 2 days the rain let off and we were able to enjoy the next few days in blissful sun, we soon made our way even further south in Goa to a place called Palolem, this place was Idylic, alot more touristy than any where else we had been but a good place to mooch around all day and let you're hair down at night, we spent a little too long here a feel and maybe could have spent a few more days in real india but everyone was in the need for a break from such a different culture.
We then travelled back up to mumbai on yet another sleeper train, by this point i was getting quite used to them and found myself chatting with this group of indian guys and girls who were just on their way back from visiting family, they introduced me to an indian comedian which i felt was really racist but they all laughed at themselves and so i laughed with them still feeling a little uneasy about laughing at such politically incorrect jokes on a train full of indian people.
Once back in Mumbai we were suddenly approached by a man who asked whether we wanted to be in a bollywood movie, we all jumped at the chance but were very skeptical. We got taken in a paid for taxi to these massive studios just outside of Mumbai, we were then taken to have clothes fitted and make up puto on us and then thrown on set of a Real Bollywood movie, apparently it was a big movie coming out in june 2010 so watch out! There were many apparently very famous indian stars and all the indian girl were all over these guys but i had never heard of them before. Anyway i ahd to do some ancing with a girl a got put with and a bit of extra work which i was used to due to Harry Potter PAHA. The movie is called 0800 Love. and i was paid for it, there must have been 100s of thousads of pounds worth of equipment there so i am pretty sure it was genuine. The next day we visited the largest slum in the world, i was shocked by it if i am honest it was nothing like how i expected it to be. There is an entire community within the slum and they do have running water, they have jobs too, it is mainly recycling plastic and some metal back to its raw form. The reason the slums are always covered in so much rubbish like plastic chair and kids bikes etc is because this is what they get sent to recycle and the only place they are able to keep it is on their roofs, hence why when you look at a slum their roofs are always covered in crap! It was a dirty place there is no denyiing that and yes they do have it exteremly tough, one girl invited me to her 'house' i went with her and it was just a room no more than 5 metres squared which her and 6 other members of her family shared, no toilet, just a corner with a sort of barrier to stop it leaking out onto the resyt of the floor. That visit to the slums will be something i never forget.
That pretty much concludes the 4 weeks i spent in india, obviously alot more happened and we did alot of other things too but i have tried to pick out some of my favourite parts of the trip. i am in south east asia at the moment and am going to write another messaeg in a week about what i have been doing up to now, to be honest i will be surprised if anyone has actually bothered to read this far!
Hope you are all well and am missing you all!
Much love, Josh xxx
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Daisy
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Josssssh, i read the whole thing! It well made me smile the whole way through! I can't believe you've like learned so much!! What you're doing sounds well amazing, i can't believe you're actually doing all this stuff! The movie bit made me laugh so much aha, we should all watch it when you're back! The photos look so good aswell, upload more more more :) I can't believe how many indians you've met! That sounds stupid seeing as you were in India at the time but im sure you know what i mean aha! And bless that girl who lives in the slum, awhhh. Glad you're having such an amazing time, i well can't wait to read the next bit, this blog things a well good idea! Miss you loaddddds hammy! Dave xxx oh and "my breath is very rarely taken away by pure beauty" - the last time it was was clearly when you first met me you sly dog!