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Delhi was one of the craziest places I have ever been to, not wholly unexpected of course, but I wish I spent longer than 12 hours there! Even just the drive from the airport to the hotel was an eye opening experience!
People would randomly take a leak on the side of the road, not bothering to hide behind a wall or similar, just let it out for all too see! Security guards would huddle in groups of 4 or 5, all carrying massive guns that looked like plastic machine guns you can buy from Toys R Us, although probably slightly deadlier. Cricket inspired billboards littered the streets, Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting probably making a good deal of money selling bubble gum and Vodafone plans in India. Streets dedicated to single themes, such as Wedding Street, with stores selling everything from invitations, decorations, and jewellery, to thank you cards, DJ’s, and flashing neon lights. We passed FireCracker Street, about 30 stores carrying firecrackers in dubious looking packaging, with laughing babies holding sparklers on the covers: it’s definitely not safety first in India! We spent time at the Friday mosque and the Sikhism temple, our first chance to mingle with
the locals and take part in daily life!
We had a great group of people on our tour, there was 12 of us, 2 Aussies, 2 Kiwis, 4 Brits, 1 Welsh, 1 German and 1 Swiss and myself!
After spending only about 12 hours in Delhi, we boarded a local train and headed to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal! Agra is not at all what I expected, it is home to the biggest attraction in all of India, yet it is a tiny, almost derelict town, it makes you wonder where the money from the ridiculously expensive entry fee goes. Before the Taj, we were taken to the Red Fort, a massive monument that I can’t for the life of me remember what is used for (note to self: must listen). The place was amazing, a massive moat surrounded the whole fort, which was once filled with crocodiles to avert enemies. If any invader passed the moat of inevitable crocodile doom, they would then face an Indiana Jones style array of death traps from massive boulders falling down the hill, to burning oil, flaming arrows and I think they mentioned tigers?? Talk about intense security!
Our hotel
was within walking distance of the Taj Mahal, and it began to rain on our parade as we made our way there. How unfortunate. But the Taj does not disappoint, it really is spectacular, we just look like drowned rats in our photos! A couple of us spent about 20 minutes just standing on a nearby ledge thinking how lucky we were to stand in front of the Taj. It is truly amazing, and no matter how many pictures I have seen of it, I was still in awe. We spent about 2 hours just roaming around the grounds and inside the Taj itself, taking about 200 photos, of which I’ll probably keep only 3 of!
The next morning we got up before sunrise to take in the Taj as the sun rose. We got on this incredible dodgy boat (and I use the word ‘boat’ very loosely) to make our way across the river to get the best view of it. So pretty 😊
That day we took another local train to Jhansi, this time in 3rd class seater, with no air con and very tight squeeze with the locals! It was a great experience though, the family
sitting opposite us kept staring at us while we would say ‘Namaste’ to them, they would say it back and then ask us other questions in Hindi that we could only answer by nodding or shrugging our shoulders because we had no idea what they were asking us! Midway through the trip, the mother took out these little newspaper bundles from her bag, each one containing a different type of curry, naan bread or chapati, and fashioned the paper into little plates and handed them out to her entire family. She had basically created an entire elaborate meal just for the train trip! We took out our packet of shortbread biscuits and tried to offer them to the family, but who would want a dry biscuit when you’ve got curry covered garlic naan?
The train ride lasted only 5 hours, though it felt like about 10 hours, and we boarded a tuk tuk to the small town of Orchha to spend the next couple of nights. Orchha was amazing, and so, so HOT. Oh my goodness I haven’t felt heat like that in such a long time, and there was just no relief from it! We were lucky to
have air conditioning in our ‘deluxe Swiss tents’ but the air con was so cold that honestly we just couldn’t win! Then I got sick. I’m not sure if it was the food, or the fact I was going from one extreme temperature to the other, or maybe even a little bit of both, but I got sicker than I have ever been before in my life! Oh it was hell, and I really wanted to call home but I was too afraid I would break down and book a trip home because all I wanted to do was be in my own bed! I managed a few temples before I got really bad, and they were incredible, particularly the massive palace in the middle of the town, but I missed the cooking class which I was so looking forward too.
The people there were so friendly, there were heaps of kids wandering around, one group of kids would come up to us asking to be our friends. I automatically grabbed hold of my bag and kept it close, and this one girl came up to me and put a little bracelet on me saying that we are friends
now this is for you. I kept telling her that I didn’t want it because I didn’t want to spend money on something I didn’t want, but she was so insistent, saying we are friends, I want to give you this. She tied it on me and ran away, not even asking for money. I felt so bad about judging this sweet little girl, when she was really just giving me a gift. I am such a bad person!
I did get rammed by a cow about 2 hours later so I guess karma caught up with me!
We were standing around talking to some locals and there were all these mangy dogs jumping up at us and I felt something hit me hard on my butt and I turned around to shoo the dog away and noticed it was a massive cow hitting me! I screamed like a girl because it was so unexpected, and then curled up on the floor laughing until I cried. It was so funny.
The cows would just wander the street randomly, they would even walk into people’s homes trying to find food. God knows what they actually ate, there was hardly any grass or ‘regular cow food’ around.
After Orchha we drove a few hours to Allahabad to begin our River Ganges boat ride, where I downed a whole packet of Immodium, just in case. 😊
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Sarah
non-member comment
Loves it
That was such a great post. Very funny and to the point, unlike my posts which are an essay just to describe one thing. And very funny. Your response to the little girl is pretty understandable after what you went through in China, although if karma is going to hit you, where else but in India?