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Published: April 12th 2016
I can't believe Jodi has let me write part 3 of the India blog. It will be really difficult not to swear and get angry over every little difficult situation but I'll give it a go. There has been some epic moments but it has been a spirit breaking challenge to stay in India for a month.
We’re now back in New Delhi (not my favorite city in the world) after a whistle-stop tour of North India. We returned to our original hotel, Hotel Perfect, (which should be renamed Hotel Adequate to be accurate) for the final night with the 13 other travels we spent the last 10 days with. We had a lovely curry in a nearby restaurant and some fairwell drinks on the rooftop bar. Jodi and I had to make our excuses fairly early as we were getting the train to Rishikesh the next morning at 05:45.
Arriving at the train station that morning we needed our wits about us as usual. We sidestepped the pretend security guard wanting to check our tickets. Presumably to tell us there were no good and make us buy new ones. We made it through the baggage x-ray machine which
needed perfect teamwork to minimise the risk of getting our bags nicked on the other side. Jodi did have a bit of a panic when someone else was trying to grab her bag from the conveyor but thankfully it was me she was wrestling with. Once we were on the platform full of the hippy white people, we knew we were in the right place. We got asked to mind some bags for a middle aged woman. I thought she mustn't have got the memo about not trusting anyone. We must look quite safe.
The train journey was really good, railways is one of my favourite things about India, (the others are Dominos and Air-con). We got a good selection of free food and tea which is always the best type. Our train took us to Haridwar which is a holy city like Varanasi where they also cremate bodies by the Ganges. Thankfully this time without all the rubbish. It does have the advantage of being the second town down from the Ganges source which always helps in India. It seems so much more spiritual and holy than Varanasi with the wildlife treated a lot better. We briefly had
a walk round as we looked for the non-existent tourist office and the derelict bus station. We ended up getting separate rickshaws and having a race to the new bus station which was just a gravel car park with marquees.
Rishikesh is such a peaceful and beautiful town surrounded by the Himalayan mountains. It's full of hippy dippy people that Jodi and me so wanted to be for a while. We thought a week of yoga and vegetarian food would calm our brain, soul and body and we would be much calmer, happier people. The yoga definitely did something to my body but it's wasn't always good.
We wanted to stay in an ashram which is a building which you get your accommodation, yoga lessons and food all in the one place. Unfortunately the Anand Prakish Ashram was full so we had to stay in a guesthouse which was round the corner. This was a bit of a pain as we felt a bit isolated from the other people in the ashram. The food was amazing though and well worth the walk. We got breakfast (9am), lunch (1:30pm) and dinner (6:30pm) every day. About 40 of us would
sit crossed legged in a box room with little tables in front of us. We would sing a mantra in Hindi which was hypnotising, especially in the morning when we weren't allowed to talk. The food would be dished onto our metal segmented plates by helpers who walked round the room with massive bowls. This routine was good to start with but it got a bit monotonous after a few days. Once we finished eating we would wash our dishes and head back to our rooms or for a walk depending on how tired we were.
The first yoga session was at 6am every morning, this was hard work before breakfast. After that we could do a fire worship thing; we only did this once as it was a bit weird. We also had an evening yoga lesson at 4pm which was demonstrated by trainees. Silence was required between 9pm and 9.30am every day. We were usually so tired we would be in bed well before 9pm anyway. Doing yoga and breakfast in silence was really refreshing as I could really concentrate on doing my poses and on eating my food, like an expert. It also meant that if Jodi
didn't want breakfast I didn't have to do small talk with the hippies.
The cross legged sitting was always the hardest part although my favourite pose was savasana which involved lying flat on my back and pretending to be asleep. I could do that for hours easily. My least favourite was child pose as I found it impossible to sit on my own feet without crushing them in pure agony. Our guru was a fantastic man with a great sense of humor and a high pitched contagious laugh. He always gave great advice, to me he said “I don't think you realise how tall you are” as he pushed my hands and feet further apart. To the group he said “if you can't do a new pose revert back to the mountain pose, as if you can't do something in life you should hide in the mountain until you master it”.
Between food and yoga we would explore Rishikesh. There is a couple of pedestrian bridges nearby that takes us across the Ganges. They were about 2km apart so it's a nice walk on one side with quite country roads and a death gauntlet on the other trying to
avoid the speeding trucks and buses. The other side of the closest bridge was called Lakshman Jhoola which was a small town with nice coffee shops. We also spent most days trying to buy bus tickets to Shimla which was virtually impossible.
On one of the morning yoga sessions we got a visit from a man who at one point was India’s strongest man. He was a large man with his previous muscle now turned to fat. We were amazed when he demonstrated star jumps and lunges and all sorts of vigorous movements to help our breathing. He also introduced us to laughing yoga which was hilarious. On another occasion we all trekked down to a sandy beach beside the Ganges with our roll mats and learnt yoga as the sun rose above the surrounding mountains. It was so amazing with the water rushing past as we all postured. Some of the people even jumped into the river after the yoga but it was a bit cold for me, I only dipped my toes in.
After five days in Rishikesh we made our way to Shimla on the easiest method we could find, a local bus. When they
say local they mean really old, slow, stops everywhere and pretty much scares the s**t out of you. We spent 10 hours getting swung from side to side, teetering over the edge of a very deep Himalayan cliff. The speed limit said 25kmph but we must been doing at least 40 with our rally driving bus driver trying to power slide round every corner. There were so many times he also overtook cars on these very very blind corners. At one point the little boy who we were sitting beside got his fingers slammed in the back door by some college kids. It looked like the collage boys were saying your hand shouldn't been there and ignoring his screams. Jodi jumped to the rescue with plasters and chocolate. Though no thanks or smiles were exchanged to her. Then they chucked all the wrappers out the bus window which in typical for India. We were nervous wrecks when we finally stopped near Shimla.
Shimla really is a gem. It's so beautiful, clean and most of the town centre is traffic free which allowed our ears to heal from the usual horn pressing. It was also the summer capital of British
India meaning most building in the old town were in a tudor style. It was almost like walking through Stratford-upon-Avon. There was one noticeable difference, Stratford-upon-Avon doesn't have a massive 35m orange monkey statue watching over the town.
We spent 3 nights in Shimla and loved it. It even hailed at one point soaking both of us to the skin. It got to the point that we considered putting on our thermals. One day we had a long walk to the Viceregal Lodge which is where the British would be govern 1/5th of the world's population from in the hot summer months. The building was stunning. It was designed by a Scottish architect and built in a Jacobethan style. It was like stepping back into a English manor; It was very surreal.
On a Sunday we managed to get up for Sunday worship and the local church. This was coincidently the first English service of the year. It was also the first time Jodi and I had been to church together since our marriage. We had communion on what was almost 4months to the day of our wedding. It was a really good service only spoilt by the people
behind us nicking our service book while we sung a hymn. This was typical. people love to push, shove, elbow and rush as much as possible to get whatever they want without any concern for anyone else. It is such a culture shock when we're so used to letting people go first or holding the door for someone. This is one of many incidents that leaves you feeling broken spirited and missing home like crazy. We really tried to give India a second chance after being ripped off in Delhi but every day we were left angry and annoyed over something, even in the most wonderful of places. This isn't what we are normally like.
After church we decided to climb up to the orange monkey statue on Jakhu Hill overlooking Shimla. It was quite a walk and we needed to stop a few times to catch our breath. We thought of our friends who had climbed Kilimanjaro and Everest Base camp and presumed this must be of a similar level ;-) Two things happened to us on this little adventure, both involved monkeys. The first was about halfway up the climb we noticed a monkey holding a bright
yellow pair of glasses. We watched this guy for a while and realised he was holding the glasses up to his eyes and looking through them. It was amazing to see him wave his hand from side to side to see how much closer his hand looked through the glasses. We stood mesmerised for 10minutes before the monkey actually put the glasses on his head. It was so funny how he waved his hands around and grabbing at objects that weren't there.
The second monkey episode was at the top of the hill. We had seen the massive monkey statue which stands about 35m tall. Near the statue was the Jakhu temple which we admired from outside. There was a lovely monkey filled park which we commenced walking round. Monkeys were just lying around, scratching each other and playing about. We even seen a monkey with a purse. I hadn't realised monkeys had jobs and could buy stuff like bags and glasses. As we walked we seen a small family of monkeys. Mum, dad and new baby monkey. They were all lying on top of each other chilling out. I thought this was a great photo opportunity. I tried
to take a photo from the side but there was some barbed wire in the way. So I slowly walked adjacent to the family and raised my camera. I still remember vividly the gasp of the baby money as it was shocked. Maybe by my height of bad dress sense. But none the less if was terrified. It tried to scurry back only to fall over his mum. His dad didn't appreciate the threat to his family and yelled out a massive grunt before charging towards us. Jodi gave an equally impressive yell and ran faster than I've ever seen before!! I took off in the same direction as Jodi trying to keep up. After about 10 steps I slowed down and looked around only to find the monkey was right on my heals. I ran at full force this time only to find Jodi had dropped her bag. I still think this was an effort to make her run faster and she knew that I would pick it up so equally slowing me down. We were so glad to get back to the crowd of people and safety. All of them were staring at us as if we had
hurt the monkey or something.
We were a lot more cautious on the way back down avoiding every monkey we seen in case they got word of our incident.
That day we also visited the simla train museum to appease my train fetish.
The next day we took the Simla-Kalka train which they describe as a toy train. It takes 6 hours and slowly meranders round the sides of mountains and cliffs to get back down to the plains. This was a great way to get back down the mountains without fearing for our lives. It's was also a great way to meet new people. We talked to a Canadian couple who were doing India in style with a personal driver waiting to pick them up at the second stop. We hoped they would invite us along for the ride.
We also met a couple and family from India who had gone to Shimla for a honeymoon and a holiday respectively. The couple were lovely; asking questions about our marriage. They asked if we were a arranged marriage or a love marriage. I think I said love and Jodi arranged. She still hasn't forgiven me for being groomzilla!! Jodi
still keeps in contact with the couple on Whatsapp.
We continued on the train to Chandigarh and spent one night there. The hotel we had booked didn't know we were coming and was fully booked anyway. We had to move to another hotel further away from the centre. We did treat ourselves to a dominos to compensate for our pain.
The next day took us to Amritsar the city of the golden temple. This must be the most dusty city I have ever been in. There was road works everywhere and the crowds were extreme to the point where we had to shimmy our feet to move forward. I found out just before we arrived that our hotel was strictly for married couples and Indian residents only. We were half expecting to be turned away as soon as we arrived but this wasn't even mentioned. We have a feeling that this restriction is a back-handed way of saying no Pakistanis, as we were only 20km from the border. We found a lovely restaurant and had two lovely meals there. We met a fellow traveller, who had just arrived to India. He seemed very upbeat about the experience. We
hoped he was going to enjoy his trip, we know he would find it hard, especially being a solo traveller.
We got up at 6.30am to see the golden temple and watch the sun rise above it. The temple is on a water surrounded pontoon in the courtyard of a massive white building. This was a spectacular sight with it all lit up and dazzling. There were men taking dips in the water and stalls to give donations and receive free food. We tried to get into the golden temple but this involved crossing a pontoon bridge that had a queue of people on it. We joined the back of the queue and thought it should move fairly quickly. We were wrong. We were pushed out of the way, elbowed, rammed, and generally abused as everyone tried to get to the front of the queue with no consideration for anyone else. We left the queue after 5minutes and the complex shortly after before the sun even rose. It didn't end up a nice experience after all.
Amritsar is also the location of where the
Jallianwala Bagh massacre occurred. This is when the British army opened fire without warning
on a group of nonviolent civilians who were celebrating one of the Sikh holy days. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people killed that day, many of which were shot while trying to escape the area. We visited the park where the shooting occurred. There was still massive bullet holes in the surrounding walls and buildings. It was unbelievable the distance the people were shot from. Pretty much the entire width of the park.
It was now a lovely park with a monument and flames to remember those who were murdered. It was bizarre that the bushes in the park were all shaped into British soldiers holding guns. It was even more weird when people were taking sneaky videos as I walked round.
We finally got to the Amritsar airport and found our fellow traveler again waiting to take the same flight as us. He was frustrated as the flight was already delayed by 1hour and he had a connection to make in Delhi. He told us how he had three attempts on him to steal his things. Once he was joined on a bench by men who sat on both sides of him pining him to his
seat as someone else tried to get to his pockets and bag. He looked broken with tears in his eyes. He was a well travelled man and knew his stuff. This however is no match for India and he was pretty keen to scrap the rest of his trip and head home. He was badly shaken and we knew exactly how he felt when we arrived in Delhi. Thankfully our trip was almost over but his had just begun.
We eventually arrived at Bangkok airport, we had a celebration drink at Delhi airport which was a bit premature as we still had a connecting flight at Chennai in south India. At that airport we thought our bags had been lost as the airline states it never connects baggage between flights. This must be the only flight it does. Which was very nerve racking until we were reunited with our bags in Bangkok.
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Jayne
non-member comment
India Part 3
Once again I have enjoyed reading a very interesting and informed account of your experience in India. After speaking with you both I know India was a challenge at times!! Rob you did well, not one swear word?loving the pics. You have seen some beautiful places and had some unforgettable experiences. Love the monkey story I would have paid to see that? Keep safe love and miss you both X X X