Jahan paon main payal(Anklets on my ankles)
Hath main kangan
(Bangles on my wrists)
Ho, mathe pe bindia
(Bindi on my forehead)
It happens only in India…
The hit sound track from the Bollywood movie Chura Ke Dil Mera couldn’t be more true. After 3 1⁄2 weeks traveling around India I truly believe that many things do really happen only in India!
Namaste! It’s been a while since my last update. To tell you the truth, during my travels in India I decided to stay away from computers and everything modern as it seemed like such a waste of time when there was SO much to see and do! I’ve also wanted some time to reflect on my trip a little before writing about it. And, after one month back in “civilization” I’m STILL not sure how I feel about India! One thing is for sure – India is different!My adventures began when my plane landed (late) at 1:30 am in Delhi on September 1st. The airport was hot, humid and packed with people. Airport staff was sitting around (on suitcases and carts), watching the passengers struggle with their luggage. The baggage claim area was chaotic. Nothing seemed organized and no one offered help without wanting something ($$$) in exchange. Welcome to India!
Now, I’ve traveled to many places in many countries, but in my opinion Delhi (at least the areas I visited) is the dirtiest, poorest place I've ever explored. I found the heat (40+ degrees), the smells, the begging, and the filth completely overwhelming and for the first time on any trip I had ever taken I had my doubts about coming to India for almost a month!
Luckily, that all changed very quickly. I met up with a great group of people, a.k.a. the “Barbie Army” (as named by a young Hindi boy when he saw the dozen beautiful young women with backpacks on walk by… “wow, a Barbie army”!), with whom I traveled around Rajasthan. We happily left chaos of Delhi after visiting the chowks (markets), the immense (and surprisingly tranquil) Red Fort, admiring Jama Masjid (Great Mosque), exploring the history of the Sikh religion at the Gurdwara SisGanj and mowing down on amazing curries, fresh naan, veggie samosas and sweet laasis.
An incredibly picturesque 21-hour train ride west took us past tiny villages and open land as far as the eye could see into the Thar Desert. We disembarked 20 km short of the Pakistan border at the Golden City of Jaisalmer, strategically positioned along a traditional trade route traversed by the camel caravans of Indian and Asian merchants. Built of sandstone, the city shines like gold when the sun shines. We stayed in the centre of the old city, a massive fort containing the palace, several ornate Jain temples and intricate hawelis that kept us busy exploring for days. Our hotel was actually the residence of the Maharaja (king) that has parts open to visitors.No trip to the desert would be complete without a camel safari, so off we went, 2 people per camel, into the sunset, just like Lawrence of Arabia. I had never realized how big camels are until I got on one. You actually sit much, much higher than on a horse, and the ride is surprisingly comfortable. As we trekked out in the desert the thing that amused me the most was the dung beetles in the sand below; funny black bugs that look like they have a suit of armor on that swarm to camel dung (the fresher, the better) and fight over it. The victor has the privilege of rolling it away, just like a big snowball for a snowman (but brown – I’m sure you just had a great visual!)
Once the sun had set in the desert, we trekked out towards our tents. I was taken aback when I saw the beautiful tents, complete with private bathrooms, set up for our group. We had beds, tables, lamps and even running water. I felt like an Arabian princess… until I looked up and saw a massive spider on the wall above my bed. Suddenly sleeping outside under the stars seemed much more appealing. Unfortunately, the desert wind was strong and by 3am I was forced to head back into the tent, where luckily the spider and the yellow scorpion, that Johanna my tent mate (from Denmark) had almost stepped on and bravely removed, were no longer a menace.A 7-hour bumpy overloaded bus ride a few days later took us to Jodhpur, the blue city, where many of the houses are painted blue. The buses drive fast, honk their horns loud and often blare the latest Bollywood tunes! Just outside of the centre of Jodhpur we stayed in small but absolutely beautiful hotel and somehow my partner Johanna and I got the honeymoon suite - best hotel room I've EVER stayed in! From Jodhpur we visited Bishnoi tribal villages to experience village life firsthand, and even got to observe a traditional opium ceremony. The smiles of the Bishnoi tribesmen were priceless by the time the ceremony ended!
We departed the oa
sis of hotel and another bumpy bus ride brought us to Udaipur, known for it's gorgeous palaces and lakes. The sunset over the Pichola Lake palaces was phenomenal. I really enjoyed this city. I found the people friendly and welcoming. Haley and I joined a group of dancing women in Jagdish Temple, one of the main temples, and spent an hour talking and dancing with the old and young ladies, playing the bongos and dancing to the beats. I also enjoyed a couple of hours drinking tea and chatting in a silver shop with a young Hindi man. He entertained Sami, Claire and I… and we all ended up walking out with toe rings on (not to mention the anklets, the earrings and necklaces we also ended up picking out! You can hear me jingle a mile away!).After the random bus strike ended (of course it started when we were already sitting in the bus, thus stranding us for hours in a hot immobile vehicle), we went to Pushkar (aka "Tirth Raj," the Raj (king) of pilgrim centres). No pilgrimage of Hindu places is considered complete until the pilgrim bathes in sacred waters of Pushkar Lake; the city is so sacred that no meat, alcohol or eggs are allowed within the city.
I was blessed by a 'holy man' who proceeded to demand $300 after 'blessing' me. But I laughed (softly, didn’t want to offend of course) and walked away saying that my karma was all I needed and that he should consider his karma. His friends also blessed Lizzie and Lisa! I walked around for half the day with the large red dot and rice on my forehead (one for each family member that he blessed) until it got to itchy and I had to wash it off (bad karma?).Next on
the agenda was Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, aka the Pink City. The entire city was painted pink almost 300 years ago to welcome the royal family - and pink it has remained. Jaipur is one of the most important heritage cities in India, and home to India’s second most visited site, the Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Winds. Unfortunately, the Hawa Mahal was completely under construction and covered up – go figure! I found this city extremely busy and unbelievably dirty! With poverty comparable to Delhi I some things that we saw were difficult to swallow (which I prefer not to elaborate on any more). However, one brilliant morning we took a tuk tuk to the Amber Fort and spent the day wandering through the 3 forts on top of the mountain. It was so peaceful and green away from the incredible noise of constant honking in the cities!That evening we
headed to Raj Mandir, a famous cinema built in 1904 where we saw 'Chakde India', one of the latest Bollywood movies with Shahruhk Khan (the number one movie star in India). It was so funny to be there because the audience really got into the movie and cheered on the hero and heroines. People cheered as though we were at a live sport event - too funny!A 5am we headed out to the train station for the next leg of the trip to Agra. I couldn't believe the amount of people sleeping outside the train station. We literally had to step over rows of sleeping people on the dirty street to get to the entrance of the station.
Agra,
home to the infamous Taj Mahal, was astonishingly interesting. Constructed between 1631 and 1654 by a workforce of 22 000, the Taj Mahal was built by the Muslim Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his favourite wife, Arjumand Bano Begum, who had already borne the emperor fourteen children when she died in childbirth. Actually an integrated complex of many structures, the Taj Mahal is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, itself a combination of Islamic, Hindu, Persian and Turkish elements. It truly is AMAZING!On the banks of the river behind the Taj, while speaking with 3 girls from Hyogo (a prefecture in Japan) I met the cutest little Hindi boy who spoke English, French, Spanish and Japanese! We spoke for quite a while and had a good laugh. He promised to take some nice pictures of me, so I trusted him and gave him my camera – and I’m glad I did.
We continued west to Mirzapur, where once again we had large tents, though not as glamorous, waiting for us beside the infamous Ganga (Ganges River). “Ganga is the Life Line of Indian Culture” and people use its murky brown sewage water for swimming, bathing, washing clothes, cooling and bathing their animals, brushing their teeth, drinking water, transport… and disposing of dead bodies. It is one of the most holy, most celebrated, yet most polluted rivers in the world.
The next day we took a 4-hour boat ride up the Ganga to Varanasi, the quintessential Indian holy city where millions of Hindu travel to for pilgrimage, to worship, to mourn or to die. It is the oldest continually inhabited city in the world, dating back thousands of years. The culture of Varanasi is deeply associated with the Ganga and its religious importance; the city has been a cultural and religious centre in northern India for thousands of years, and thus a great place to end my tour of India.Throughout my trip I met some wonderful people and some pretty nasty ones too. But, like my tuk tuk driver said:
“How many fingers you have?”
“Five”
“All five from same hand, but all are different” - then with a large grin on his face he tried to overcharge me for ride... huh... only in India!
India is definitely a place everyone should visit. It’s not a holiday, it’s an adventure, and it’ll truly help you realize how lucky you are to live where you do, have access to clean food, water, medicine, and determine your own future.
Namaste! xx
