The end of India

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Due to visa restrictions our six months in India came to an end. So here is the last installment of our Indian adventure.
From the colour and craziness of Holi Festival, we headed to the blue city of Jodhpur, where all the houses are...you guessed it, painted blue! Apparently the colour reflects the sun and keeps the mosquitoes away.
The old City is over looked by a magnificent old medieval fort that remains in beautiful condition and is still run by the descendants of the Maharajas. Not sure how she did it but Rosey managed to blag us free rides on the 'Flying Fox' which is a series of zip wires that run from several rook ridden turrets of the fort and over the old moat and stone walls, which was oodles of fun.

Due to the bloody history of kingdoms in the northern state of Rajasthan, you're never far away from another fort, and sure as we love curry, our next destination, the desert town of Jaiselmer, had another. However, this one is a little special, as this one is almost 1000 years old and it’s still inhabited through a labyrinth of cobbled alleyways within its stone walls. Unfortunately, the sewage system is in a right old state and is leaking all over the place, washing away the foundations. As a result the fort is literally crumbling away like a sandcastle that has been met by the oceans tide.
Jaisalmer was also the starting point of our Indian camel safari. After a brisk jeep ride and a thorough slop of Factor 80 we climbed aboard our humped friends and lumbered off through the arid planes of the Thar Desert. After a few hours in the saddle, passing isolated villages and goat herders, we rested under the shadow of a lone tree. We exercised our nostrils to the comforting smell of our lunch being cooked on an open fire but we're seriously put off our grub by the constant camel guff's coming our way. Honestly, these creatures can fart even Andy under the table, it was a non stop fart-fest the whole trip!
After lunch and a wee nap, we headed for the golden sand dunes where we spent the night sleeping directly under the moon and stars to the sounds of howling wild dogs.

From the peace and isolation of the desert, we made our way to the busy but atmospheric Hindu pilgrim town of Pushka and its sacred lake, bathing ghats and unique temple. Unfortunately, to utilise the mountain fed waters for their own crops, the local farmers have sneakily built their own makeshift dams along the river which has stopped the natural flow and caused the highly sacred and religiously significant lake to be as dry as a nuns flange!!
As pleasant as Pushka was, like a majority of the key sights in Rajasthan, it's understandably super popular and has more than its fair share of European and North American package tourists on their own mini tour, being led by a vocally enthusiastic guide, dragging them from location to location like camera wielding, socks and sandal wearing lemmings. So, as a rest-bite from the tourist trail we slid along to the sublime and quaint town of Bundi, which as yet, remains undiscovered by the rowdy hordes...and what do we discover? Only another friggin' fort!! Yesssssss! Although this one has really been left to the mercy of nature and as a result has collapsed battlements and fallen towers and is slowly being suffocated by the surrounding forest. It isn't open to the public but we climbed the skirting hill to eventually find our way into the grounds...and into monkey hell! It was completely over run by hundreds of mad, aggressive and territorial pink bottomed little buggers all laughing and screaming at us as we tried to show them who was boss and protect ourselves with anything we could find before screaming like a pair of tarts and making a run for it!

From the un-touristy Bundi, we traveled to the outrageously tourist filled Agra, with the wonderful Taj Mahal! There's no need to say much about this famous symbol of love and devotion as everyone knows of it. It has to the most famous structure in the world and everyone recognises its classic image. In the flesh though, it really is a thousand times more beautiful than you imagine, which explains the 500 plus photo's we took from every conceivable angle.

Our next destination was the Punjab City of Amritsar, famous for its Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple. Sikhism has welcoming values and therefore the doors are open 24hours for all to visit the temple, stay in its accommodation, eat in its canteen, all for free....Kurrrr-chinnng!!
Being so close to Pakistan we decided a little venture to the famous border show at Attari was well in order. It turned out to be one of the most fascinating and entertaining experiences of our time in India...Each evening, as the border between these two neighbouring and feuding countries closes, an amazing ceremony is performed. On either side of the border gates there are huge grandstands, each filled with patriotic crowds. A compare jeers the crowd up, encouraging cheers of 'Hindustan Zindabad!' (Long live India!)
Visitors are pulled out of the crowd and proudly run up and down in front of everyone, parading the Indian flag. Hindi music is boomed out of the loudspeakers and the boarder approach road is filled with dancing, jiggling and wiggling spectators having a great ol' time. After a while the road is cleared and the boarder guards storm out. Each takes it in turn to holler out a single note and hold it for as long as possible, trying to out-do the other team on the other side of the border. Then in turn, they square up and with a threatening stare do a quick march up to the border gates. All of this display is also happening on the Pakistani side (but Team India were by far the best) then they both try and out-high-kick-each-other one final time, fiddle about with the ropes and flags a bit (we're sure its far more complex than this) and do an about turn, all as quick as a flash...the border is officially closed, until tomorrow.

From the pomp and parade of the border ceremony, we took ourselves to the yoga capital of the world Rishikesh. I suppose this place is most famous for its 1968 visit to the Maharishi's Ashram by The Beatles, where they stayed for several weeks and wrote most of The White album, except for Ringo who got bored and went back home to play with his train set. As Beatles fans a visit to the famous ashram was well and truly in order, the fact it was closed down in 1998 and reclaimed by the forestry department was no problemo...this being India, a cheeky little bribe got us a sneaky peak, I even managed to have a pee in John Lennons meditation cell.
Rishikesh sits sweetly on the river Ganges not far from its starting point in the Himalayas. Daily chants carry through the mountain air from the many ashrams and yoga centers. People gather on the banks of the river to bathe, pray and meditate or sing songs in small gatherings. As in most holy places there are a whole lotta cows roaming the streets and holy men wander and amble around... Its a thoroughly chilled place, so we thought bugger the yoga, and chill is exactly what we did.

The Kumbh Mela festival happens just once every 12 years in the city of Haridwar. The festival runs from January- April and is the largest religious gathering on the planet. It attracts tens of millions of Hindus from all castes including the pot smoking Naga Babas (stoned naked guys) with their long dreadlocks and ash covered bodies. During this time there are a handful of significant dates where they parade through the streets, displaying feats of endurance or fantastical yoga positions and bathe in the river Ganges to purify their souls. Make shift camp sites are set up within the city to home the pilgrims at an estimated cost of $6 million to the Indian government. We took a little walk around one of the sites and got invited in to a tent and had some tea with the Baba's as they got happily stoned. They showed us some polaroids of themselves displaying various feats, including picking up a stack if bricks with his penis...the old brick and prick trick.

We had a sweaty 29 hour train ride across the north of India to get us to Darjeeling. When we got there, it felt like a transfer to another country due to its Nepalese and Tibetan majority and a cool, refreshing climate....just what the doctor ordered, a nice welcoming break from the hustle and heat of India. We spent several lazy days appreciating the different culture, cuisine and desperately trying to catch a glimpse of Mount Everest and failing...opting for lots of tea drinking instead.

Our final destination was India's second biggest city, Kolkotta where we spent a few energetic sweat filled days eating as much delicious Bengali cuisine as possible and seeing the key sites which included a visit to Mother Teressa's house and the Kali Temple. The temple is particularly significant to Hindus and where goats are sacrificed as an offering to Kali, a Hindu goddess. Morbid curiosity got the better of us when we heard about this place and we quickly got ourselves there and hustled our way in to get the best view in the house. At first there was quite a pleasant ritual of washing the goat and wrapping flowers around its neck, we were thinking just how civilised it all was when the drums started and quick as a grease lightening the goat was scooped up, legs up around its head and wedged in place between the stocks, ready for its fate. The executioner, a sweaty, pot bellied, wife beater vest wearing type, stood over the poor little bleater and in one foul swoop of his machete, decapitated him like a true pro. While the locals all rushed to get some blood and mark their foreheads, we just stood there amazed to see his mouth still silently bleating and its body and legs still fighting for its life even though they had been completely detached for easily 2 minutes. We knew it was time to go when we saw the decapitated goat kick his own head, sending it spinning across the blood drenched floor...goat decapitation is one thing but dead goat kicking his own head across the floor!? Well, no one likes to see that.

Ahhh....and here we end our Indian exploration, as we head south to Madras and a flight to Sri Lanka. We leave India with hearts filled with love for an amazing nation and minds saturated with fond memories. It's a crazy kinda place that overwhelms your senses and is full of surprises and full of some of the warmest, friendliest and poorest people we have encountered. It's a truly interesting and humbling place indeedy, with its own culture and outlook that seems wonderfully frozen in time. A place, in our opinion that everyone should definitely visit at least once in there lifetime.

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Comments

[Sally Moss]

WOW!
What a super account - except maybe the decapitated kid kicking its own head into touch!! You are having a great trip...see, I've actually read it! Love to you both; see you in the Autumn. Sally.