India, love it or hate it????

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Aaaaaaaaah India. The Holy Land of mysticism. Where pilgrims take a bath in the Ganges with women doing the laundry a few meters further away. The land of the Taj Mahal and magnificent temples. Of colourfull women wrapped in sari's and heavily bearded men wearing turbands.

Needless to say: we were full of expectation when we arrived in India.

There is a saying about India that goes around between backpackers: “India, you love it or you hate it”. There is no road in between!

Well, we still haven't figured out which way to swing: love it? Or hate it? Perhaps time will tell, but it is in any case a disturbingly thin line between the two.

Yes, India is all of those lovely things above and much much more. But it's also the land of child beggars, too much poverty, air pollution and overcrowded cities. The description of 'land of rubbish and dirt' also fits perfect: there is more trash in the streets then you can ever imagine and everything is just dirty, dirty, dirty. Add to that all the bright colours of the women dresses and their shiny jewellery (you just got to have some bling!), the continuously honking horns of cars, beggars and sellers shouting at you and all the different smells a city can have, and you got yourself a pretty nice overstimulation of your senses. By the end of the day you are happy to crash down in your hotel room and lock yourself up. The hotel room becoming a fortress to ward off the outside world for at least one night.

There is one thing we have to give India credit for though: just when you think you have seen it all and nothing can surprise you anymore, India sweeps you off your feet and leaves you wondering (probably for months after this): what the hell was that? Love it or hate it?

We tried to figure out the love/hate question on paper and we ended up making a top 5 why we belive people should or should not visit India:

5 reasons to love India:

1.India is not a country, it is a continent and is an incredibly diverse destination.
2.It has some of the most beautiful buildings and temples we saw on our whole trip
3.Indians are a very religious people. We are not just talking about the official religions (of which there are also in an incredible amount), but also about the not-so-religious beliefs such as palm reading, tarot cards, homeopathic and aryuvedic therapy, yoga, etc, etc.... It is a country drenched in different beliefs off al sorts. Completely different from our european rational minds.
4.The colours in the streets. Impossible to catch on photo. You have to see it, to experience it.
5.The food is great!

India, you will hate it:

1.The cities. Impossible to avoid (your airplane will have to land somewhere) and completely mad. You will want to leave India immediately.
2.There is so much rubbish and dirt!
3.Poverty and beggars everywhere
4.Everybody that visits India will get stomach sick sometime.
5.The traffic. Even outside the cities. It just doesn't get normal anywhere.

Well, we were warned that travelling independently through India as a backpacker is very difficult and challenging. Especially the big cities can be pure chaos for any traveller. We didn't want to end up hating India because of that, so we booked 2 tours through India with local tour operators (cheap, we just booked it on the internet and we can recommend anybody to do the same): the boysontheroad taking the easy road, but a wise decision if we look back on it.

One tour took us from Delhi to Rishikesh, the capital of yoga, Haridwar, one of the holiest cities in India where the Khumb Mela festival takes place, and further into the Himalayas (Auli), to go back to Delhi via Amritsar, the city of the Sikhs with the Golden Temple. The transport was a combination of trains and private cars with a guide.

The 2nd tour was a so-called “budget tour” through Rajasthan in budget hotels with our own driver in a small Tata car. But we must say that it was great value for the money we paid! Most hotels were rather classy and mentioned by the Lonely Planet as mid-range.

The things we saw with a short comment:

Delhi and Agra

Delhi = No comment. The best approach to this city is: get in and get out!

Agra is the place where the famous Taj Mahal is located. You see it on postcards and on the television, but it is a whole other experience to stand there in person. The whole building is made of white marble. Yes yes, the Taj really is something special.....impressive!

Haridwar and Khumb Mela

'The largest gathering of human beings on the planet', that's what the Indian newspapers were saying about Khumb Mela, a religious pilgrimage festival that takes place every 12 years in Haridwar. Hindus go take a bath in the Ganges on certain days during this time and the bathing days are picked according to the stand of the celestial bodies. We were there on 15 January, the date of one of the ritual bathings and also the day of a solar eclipse in India. Well, the eclipse wasn't a total one in the north of India, so there wasn't much too see. But the idea of a solar eclipse during Khumb Mela added to the religious frenzy of the moment. Hindi people believe that during a solar eclipse a lot of negative energy is released. As long as the eclipse lasted all temples were therefore closed, the statues of gods and goddesses were covered up and no hymns, bells,etc... could be heard.

We are not quite sure how many people were there (we heard figures from 1 million to 10 million), but it was still do-able. At some places it seemed there was even more police and military then pilgrims! Our great guide showed us all the interesting places and knew the best spots to watch the ceremonies and the crowd. The next day she and her family surprised Raf also with a lovely Indian birthday cake! So sweet!

Short-ski in Auli

From Haridwar (where Khumb Mela was held) you can head further north in the Himalaya to a place called Auli. It is supposed to be the N° 1 skiing resort in India.

It's a long 7 hours drive and at least every 200m there is a bend. But it's worth it, if alone for the beautifull Alaknanda Valley that keeps you gazing the whole journey.
And you can amuse yourself by looking at the roadsigns advising against drinking and fast driving, of which some are rather funny :

“Be late, but don't be Mr. Late”
“Drive well = no hell”
“If you fall asleep, your family weep”
“Don't nag him, let him drive”

After a while we even started inventing our own oneliners (hey, 7 hours in a car....what to do???) :

“In a hurry? You may have eaten your last chicken curry”
“You think you become a star by crushing your car?”
Or for our Dutch-speaking friends :
“Laat die alcohol achterwege of ze komen je van't straat vegen”
“Rij met verstand of je verliest meer dan 1 tand”

Back to the short-ski. It turned out the Indian ski resorts are not really like the ones we have at home. None of the ski elevators was working in Auli, so we had to walk all the way up the ski piste with our ski's and boots. Pfff....way too tiring, so we gave up after only one try:-) There was also not enough snow on day 1. On day 2 there was a snowstorm, so again to dangerous to ski.

No problem, we just relaxed with a cup of hot chocolate, a warm blanket and a book in our room. On day 3 we were so snowed in that nobody wanted to take us back down the hill by car. “No sir, too dangerous now. The roads are snowed in. You will have to walk.” Pfff.....again the walking thing. As always, after some nagging and begging we found somebody with a car that was willing to take us down. We are getting very good at nagging!

Amritsar

We were only for one day in Amritsar, but it was worth the travelling (one day on a train to get there, one day on another train to get back). Amritsar is the religious capital of the Sikh community and the most holy temple of the Sikhs, the golden temple, is located here. It's a big temple complex that has an incredible large kitchen/cooking area and guess what: they even have a hotel in the temple! Every visitor can eat for free in the temple and Sikh volunteers cook about 13.000 meals per day. The kitchen is really massive! Every Sikh, poor or rich, has to do at least one week of volunteer service in the temple in his lifetime. The temple is the real social hearth of the community and it is busy all day with people walking in and out.

Rajasthan

Probably the most touristy province in India, but with reason. We spend 12 days in Rajasthan visiting different cities (Jaipur, Jodhpur, Ranakpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Udaipur, Mount Abu, Ranthambhore). Most of these cities have ancient fortresses and are built in the middle of the desert. They also often have some very nice palaces and temples. The most beautiful temple we saw on our whole trip was in India: the jain temples of Mount Abu and Ranakpur. The details of the carvings in these marble temples are incredible. And believe me in six months we have seen more then enough temples:-)

We also visited the desert festival in Jaisalmer in india and saw some camel polo for example. We were however, one day too late to see the mister desert election 2010 and the election of best moustache. Damn!


Some random thoughts we had about India:

• Ladies: don't forget to put your sportsbra on when you want to take a tuk-tuk ride in India. Mad drivers and very bumpy roads, a dangerous combination. The traffic is mad and traffic rules are non-existent.
• A lot of Hindu-temples seem to be designed by the creative team of Walt Disney. Is this Disneyland or am I in a Hindu temple??? The gods must love kitsch.
• After a camel ride in the desert: Camels apparently just love to fart. Real hard.
• So do the Indian men. Fart and burp. Both also real hard.
• Indians like to “pimp-up” the things they really love. You can't have enough bling seems to be the real spirit of India. From the shiny jewellery of the women to their pimped-up camels, trucks and tuk-tuk's. If it doesn't shine, it must not be worth it.
• We tasted some of the best local food on our trip in India!
• We heard some of the best local music on our trip in India! It is best described as some kind of Indian R&B or rap. Very catchy.
• Even bottled water is not safe in India. Sometimes street sellers make a little hole in the bottom of the plastic bottle to drain out the purified water for themselves. Then they fill the bottle again with river water through this tiny hole, burn the plastic hole close with a lighter and sell it on to tourists. We came across two bottles like that! Holy or not, you really don't want to be drinking water from the Ganges!
• The first time an Indian says something to you, it takes about 5 minutes before you realize the guy actually spoke English. They have a pretty strong accent and seem to be singing when they say something.
• The sari must be the most elegant dress for women ever to be invented.


We are now in Oman and allready have spent a few days in Dubai, the complete opposite of India: extremely clean, rich, nicely organised traffic,...... What a difference!

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Comments

[Petra]

Incredible India
En NU....komen jullie met die tip over een sport bh???? Die had ik inderdaad goed kunnen gebruiken >>> rammel rammel bonk bonk PLOF! (etc etc) Maar verder: jullie verhaal is ZOOOOO herkenbaar. You hate or you love it...helemaal waar ;-) Groetjes van Petra.

[anilbaree]

In case you want to see only neat and clean places on earth India is of course not for you. It is always seen that some trevelers end up stating that India is dirty and full of beggars. Yes true, but you need to understand the spirit of life, the brighter side of the coin, hardly exists at neat and clean places around the world. Happy traveling............