India
Hi all, its coming up to 6 months since we set out so it's time for an update of Indian antics. India's been a real blast but endless moving about is taking its toll with doses of flu setting in. After braving many shite computers and power cuts I've finally managed to finish this posting...........
After negotiating Delhi's airport’s baggage claim for two hours we fell into a cab at 12.30am only to fall victim to Delhi oldest scam where our drive 'most definitely could not find our guesthouse', to tired to argue we ended up at his mates hotel at twice the going rate. After braving the sensory overload and massive hecticness of Hanoi and Bangkok, Delhi revealed itself to be a calm surprise. My early morning walk the next day was shared with cows grazing on rubbish heaps, I've noticed that cows (and other animals) in most Indian cities and towns seem to exist on a diet of plastic and licking concrete! After scheming up our plan of attack for the next two months, we flew out to Kashmir. A pang of home sickness set in nearing Srinagar as the snow capped Himalaya came into view and from above the view could have been from anywhere in the southern alps. Dressed in shorts and sandals I was greeted with 1 degree C temperature on landing plus what looked to be like the entire entire Indian army - the airport doubles as an airforce base.
We arranged to stay on a house boat for a week on Dal Lake in Srinagar. Our twenty minute drive from airport to lake was a real eye-opener; we had understood that there had been 'problems' in Kashmir but didn't realise the Indian army were so oppressively occupying the place. ever intersection, every street and every big building we could see soldiers loitering, looking bored with fingers on triggers. It was nice to leave the mainland and be ferried by Sultan, the house boat owner, to our watery retreat. Sitting still for one week was a real treat after non-stop movement for the previous four months. Srinagar's life revolves around its lake; people live on it, fish from it and grow veges on floating gardens. During the 1980's Srinagar and Kashmir were booming, but after it's struggle for independence from India things haven't been the same. The majority of Kashmiris are muslim and would like their own state or become apart of muslim Pakistan. However India harshly quashed any ideas of autonomy, the effects of which are still felt; tourism is deliberately discouraged by India (Kashmirs biggest source of income) to ensure Kashmir is still heavily reliant on India for support. It's really evident people are becoming increasingly desperate to make a living, we only saw one other foreign tourist that week and were the first people in a month to say on Sultan's house boat. Apart from all their hardship the great hospitality we received was really humbling.
Sultan's house boat was straight out of the seventies; pattered wood paneling and formica - nice. With separate lounge, dining room and bedrooms this was the plushest place we'd stayed in four months and add to that TV, endless deliveries of food, Kashmiri tea, and biscuits it made it hard to even leave the house boat. On the few days we did Sultan took us on a tour of the lake with great views of the ancient Mogul fort and an afternoon wondering around the old parts of Srinagar town. The old parts date back to the 12 and 13 centuries and has a really medieval feel, lots of tightly packed 3 and 4 story houses and shops crammed along narrow cobble streets filled with grime, cows, sheep, scooters, chai vendors and great bakeries with coconut biscuits. Sultan took us many mosques - one has been a place of worship for 2000 years! The standout was Jama Masjid mosque built in 1385 with an internal space supported by 300 tree trunk pillars. The tranquil call for prayer is blasted many times a day from the hundreds of mosques in and around Srinagar making for a discordant cacophony of worship, but at full volume at 4.30am it doesn't seem too nice.
After a week of being made soft from over pampering, Sultan and family waved us goodbye and we boarded our bus for the 24 hour ride back to Delhi. I then discovered the meaning of cold spending 2 hours trying to revive feet from numbness, Kashmiris behind us took pity and lent their fire pot (ingenious Kashmiri heater of hot coals in ceramic bowel held in woven basket). The road rambled through a stark, cold landscape stunted orchards and dilapidated towns of stone clinging to the road side. A few mountain passes had a smattering of snow and again the indian army was perched everywhere; road corners, ridges and mountain passes - was nice to escape their presence. Apart from the scenery, the bus trip was memorable for the muslim priest who jumped on the bus to conduct 12.30pm prayers in the middle of no where, then disappeared back into the rocky nothingness; the regular puking of a woman across the aisle and a surreal 2am whistling contest with a waiter at a bus stop restaurant.
Arrived back in Delhi jaded and needing lots of sleep before tackling Rajasthan. Tarik, who help organise our tour, decided we needed to be introduced to the Delhi scene and took us to a friends party. Turned out to be an amazing selection of Delhi 'society', including pro-golfers, a magazine owner, opera singer, interior designers and men of leisure - all more English than the English, at a great Deco house in central Delhi owned by someone at the worldbank!
The next day we meet our daring driver Raju and climbed aboard his small Tata car, and cruised toward Rajasthan. Raju was a small and quite man who, as we were to find out, liked to express himself through his driving. Our first stop was Jhunjhunu, a dusty town well known for its beautiful Havelis (houses built around a painted central courtyard depicting everyday scenes - like a visual storyboard). Havelis were built to act as a sanctuary from harsh desert life, the paintings a welcome splash of colour in an otherwise stark landscape. Jhunjhunu gave us our first taste of being 'stared down' by hordes of onlookers, we might have been the first foreigners in town for a while!
From Jhunjhunu we headed to Bikaner and looked around the rambling fort of Junagarh, the best part being it's 'Flower Palace' hall which took 14 years to build with its intricate paintings and carving from white marble. But the highlight had to be the Karni Mata temple (rat temple) where holy rodents scamper everywhere - apparently auspicious if one jumps over your foot or you see a white one - neither happened - and we left feeling we had caught numerous foot diseases (can only go barefoot).
On the outskirts of Jaisalmer I spent an hour in a train station cue to change tickets and got the flue. Jaisalmer's old fortified town is the main attraction in an otherwise dusty town near the Pakistan boarder. Hear we tracked down a Kiwi owned guest house and were treated to a roof top diner at sunset. The old fort is an amazingly tight assemble of sandstone houses and shops packed onto a rocky outcrop and surrounded by huge walls with massive wooden entry gates, especially designed to be elephant ramming proof! Unfortunately the old fort is under threat from overcrowding and too much stormwater - parts are slumping/falling down! The highlight was our camel safari; a one day, one night splurge of opulence in the desert. A one hour drive in a ratly Mahindra jeep at 40Kph took us to our tent camp at the edge of sanddunes in the middle of nowhere. As the only tourists there we seemed to have everyone’s undivided attention; eating anything required two waiters - felt like something out of faulty towers. Camels Sachin and Michael took us for an afternoon wonder through sanddunes and desert before dropping us back to camp. The sunset was amazing even though we found two drunk Israelis throwing beer bottles in the next sanddune!
In Jodhpur we meet up with Debbie, a kiwi who runs a program for educating women from the 'untouchable' class. It was great to see someone making a difference in what would otherwise be a life of domestic slavery for these women. Through a friend of Debbie's we were invited to a royal polo match attended by the Maharaja of Jodhpur! Jodhpurs main sight of Meharangarh fort was amazing with its many courts, palaces and maze like circulation, with its huge walls and gates it remained invincible to all attacks.
From Jodhpur we drove to Udaipur, stopping at Ranakpur to check out the Jain temple of Chaumukha Manir - a marble temple with huge amounts of intense carving and sporting 144 marble pillars! Between Ranakpur and Udaipur Raju's driving reached new levels so sophistication as he tried overtaking on blind corners and raced other cars on the single laned road. Liz's screaming to slow down was ignored and he just switched the aircon on to cool us off! Reaching Udaipur nervous reeks we found a tranquil town nestled around lake Pichola with the famous Lake Palace hotel at its center. We did the usuals of taking a boat ride, visiting the palace and museum, but the highlight was Monsoon Palace - an abandoned hill top retreat built by the Maharaja of Udaipur.
Another fingernail biting ride delivered us to the holy town of Puskar where 400+ temples jostle for space around its holy lake. We visited Savitry temple situated on the highest point around Pushkar, doing battle with monkeys halfway up - the early morning views from the top were great. We tried to watch the sunset near the lake but ended up being bribed by fake holymen wanting to save our souls for a mere 100 rupees, so retreated to a roof-top restaurant. The drive to Jaipur was a non-event four-lane highway affair so Raju had no chance to entertain us with sketchy overtaking/cow dodging. The best part of Jaipur was visiting the near by Amber Fort - a great piece of Rajput architectue and the ancient capital of the Jaipur state. Another great building was the three story Hawa Mahal, from where the royal family could watch processions in the city. Otherwise Jaipur itself was a big, dirty industrial town.
On the road to Agra we stopped off at the small town of Abhaneri to check out Chand Baori, a 20m deep well of zig-zagging steps and an amazing geometric sight - just like an upside down pyramid. The mighty Taj Mahal dominates Agra and we set off at 6m to see it at sunrise. It really is a fantastic piece of architecture and a master piece in marble - it's huge - bigger than I ever thought! We spent 4 cold hours exploring and marveling at its greatness, wearing cameras out. In the afternoon we visited Itimad-Ud-Daulah (baby Taj), an earlier marble shrine with incredible inlay motifs. In the evening we attempt to catch our train to Varanasi but find out it's delayed by eight hours. Eight cold hours were spent counting rats, drinking chai, braving darkness through power cuts and shearing the waiting room with five cops with machine guns and a fugitive in chains. At 4.30am our train came. With no sleep we stumbled into Varanasi and took a taxi to guest house sitting on the bank of the Ganges.
Varanasi is a place were I would have liked to spend more time; its surreal sight of open air cremation at the waters edge and religious significance to the Hindi faith makes it a place that needs time to absorb. It was fascinating to be taken on a tour of the cremation grounds at Manikarnika Ghat and very surreal watching bodies burning in front of us and watching the associated rituals. Varanasi comes to life along the rivers edge where everyone does their washing and bathing and where pilgrims perform ceremonies for the rising and setting of the sun - there’s lots of bell ringing and throwing fire involved!
I hope everyone has had a great time over the holiday break and will update you all soon on travels in Chandigarh, Amritsar and the Himachal Pradesh. As always, lots of love to you all and take care, James.
After negotiating Delhi's airport’s baggage claim for two hours we fell into a cab at 12.30am only to fall victim to Delhi oldest scam where our drive 'most definitely could not find our guesthouse', to tired to argue we ended up at his mates hotel at twice the going rate. After braving the sensory overload and massive hecticness of Hanoi and Bangkok, Delhi revealed itself to be a calm surprise. My early morning walk the next day was shared with cows grazing on rubbish heaps, I've noticed that cows (and other animals) in most Indian cities and towns seem to exist on a diet of plastic and licking concrete! After scheming up our plan of attack for the next two months, we flew out to Kashmir. A pang of home sickness set in nearing Srinagar as the snow capped Himalaya came into view and from above the view could have been from anywhere in the southern alps. Dressed in shorts and sandals I was greeted with 1 degree C temperature on landing plus what looked to be like the entire entire Indian army - the airport doubles as an airforce base.
We arranged to stay on a house boat for a week on Dal Lake in Srinagar. Our twenty minute drive from airport to lake was a real eye-opener; we had understood that there had been 'problems' in Kashmir but didn't realise the Indian army were so oppressively occupying the place. ever intersection, every street and every big building we could see soldiers loitering, looking bored with fingers on triggers. It was nice to leave the mainland and be ferried by Sultan, the house boat owner, to our watery retreat. Sitting still for one week was a real treat after non-stop movement for the previous four months. Srinagar's life revolves around its lake; people live on it, fish from it and grow veges on floating gardens. During the 1980's Srinagar and Kashmir were booming, but after it's struggle for independence from India things haven't been the same. The majority of Kashmiris are muslim and would like their own state or become apart of muslim Pakistan. However India harshly quashed any ideas of autonomy, the effects of which are still felt; tourism is deliberately discouraged by India (Kashmirs biggest source of income) to ensure Kashmir is still heavily reliant on India for support. It's really evident people are becoming increasingly desperate to make a living, we only saw one other foreign tourist that week and were the first people in a month to say on Sultan's house boat. Apart from all their hardship the great hospitality we received was really humbling.
Sultan's house boat was straight out of the seventies; pattered wood paneling and formica - nice. With separate lounge, dining room and bedrooms this was the plushest place we'd stayed in four months and add to that TV, endless deliveries of food, Kashmiri tea, and biscuits it made it hard to even leave the house boat. On the few days we did Sultan took us on a tour of the lake with great views of the ancient Mogul fort and an afternoon wondering around the old parts of Srinagar town. The old parts date back to the 12 and 13 centuries and has a really medieval feel, lots of tightly packed 3 and 4 story houses and shops crammed along narrow cobble streets filled with grime, cows, sheep, scooters, chai vendors and great bakeries with coconut biscuits. Sultan took us many mosques - one has been a place of worship for 2000 years! The standout was Jama Masjid mosque built in 1385 with an internal space supported by 300 tree trunk pillars. The tranquil call for prayer is blasted many times a day from the hundreds of mosques in and around Srinagar making for a discordant cacophony of worship, but at full volume at 4.30am it doesn't seem too nice.
After a week of being made soft from over pampering, Sultan and family waved us goodbye and we boarded our bus for the 24 hour ride back to Delhi. I then discovered the meaning of cold spending 2 hours trying to revive feet from numbness, Kashmiris behind us took pity and lent their fire pot (ingenious Kashmiri heater of hot coals in ceramic bowel held in woven basket). The road rambled through a stark, cold landscape stunted orchards and dilapidated towns of stone clinging to the road side. A few mountain passes had a smattering of snow and again the indian army was perched everywhere; road corners, ridges and mountain passes - was nice to escape their presence. Apart from the scenery, the bus trip was memorable for the muslim priest who jumped on the bus to conduct 12.30pm prayers in the middle of no where, then disappeared back into the rocky nothingness; the regular puking of a woman across the aisle and a surreal 2am whistling contest with a waiter at a bus stop restaurant.
Arrived back in Delhi jaded and needing lots of sleep before tackling Rajasthan. Tarik, who help organise our tour, decided we needed to be introduced to the Delhi scene and took us to a friends party. Turned out to be an amazing selection of Delhi 'society', including pro-golfers, a magazine owner, opera singer, interior designers and men of leisure - all more English than the English, at a great Deco house in central Delhi owned by someone at the worldbank!
The next day we meet our daring driver Raju and climbed aboard his small Tata car, and cruised toward Rajasthan. Raju was a small and quite man who, as we were to find out, liked to express himself through his driving. Our first stop was Jhunjhunu, a dusty town well known for its beautiful Havelis (houses built around a painted central courtyard depicting everyday scenes - like a visual storyboard). Havelis were built to act as a sanctuary from harsh desert life, the paintings a welcome splash of colour in an otherwise stark landscape. Jhunjhunu gave us our first taste of being 'stared down' by hordes of onlookers, we might have been the first foreigners in town for a while!
From Jhunjhunu we headed to Bikaner and looked around the rambling fort of Junagarh, the best part being it's 'Flower Palace' hall which took 14 years to build with its intricate paintings and carving from white marble. But the highlight had to be the Karni Mata temple (rat temple) where holy rodents scamper everywhere - apparently auspicious if one jumps over your foot or you see a white one - neither happened - and we left feeling we had caught numerous foot diseases (can only go barefoot).
On the outskirts of Jaisalmer I spent an hour in a train station cue to change tickets and got the flue. Jaisalmer's old fortified town is the main attraction in an otherwise dusty town near the Pakistan boarder. Hear we tracked down a Kiwi owned guest house and were treated to a roof top diner at sunset. The old fort is an amazingly tight assemble of sandstone houses and shops packed onto a rocky outcrop and surrounded by huge walls with massive wooden entry gates, especially designed to be elephant ramming proof! Unfortunately the old fort is under threat from overcrowding and too much stormwater - parts are slumping/falling down! The highlight was our camel safari; a one day, one night splurge of opulence in the desert. A one hour drive in a ratly Mahindra jeep at 40Kph took us to our tent camp at the edge of sanddunes in the middle of nowhere. As the only tourists there we seemed to have everyone’s undivided attention; eating anything required two waiters - felt like something out of faulty towers. Camels Sachin and Michael took us for an afternoon wonder through sanddunes and desert before dropping us back to camp. The sunset was amazing even though we found two drunk Israelis throwing beer bottles in the next sanddune!
In Jodhpur we meet up with Debbie, a kiwi who runs a program for educating women from the 'untouchable' class. It was great to see someone making a difference in what would otherwise be a life of domestic slavery for these women. Through a friend of Debbie's we were invited to a royal polo match attended by the Maharaja of Jodhpur! Jodhpurs main sight of Meharangarh fort was amazing with its many courts, palaces and maze like circulation, with its huge walls and gates it remained invincible to all attacks.
From Jodhpur we drove to Udaipur, stopping at Ranakpur to check out the Jain temple of Chaumukha Manir - a marble temple with huge amounts of intense carving and sporting 144 marble pillars! Between Ranakpur and Udaipur Raju's driving reached new levels so sophistication as he tried overtaking on blind corners and raced other cars on the single laned road. Liz's screaming to slow down was ignored and he just switched the aircon on to cool us off! Reaching Udaipur nervous reeks we found a tranquil town nestled around lake Pichola with the famous Lake Palace hotel at its center. We did the usuals of taking a boat ride, visiting the palace and museum, but the highlight was Monsoon Palace - an abandoned hill top retreat built by the Maharaja of Udaipur.
Another fingernail biting ride delivered us to the holy town of Puskar where 400+ temples jostle for space around its holy lake. We visited Savitry temple situated on the highest point around Pushkar, doing battle with monkeys halfway up - the early morning views from the top were great. We tried to watch the sunset near the lake but ended up being bribed by fake holymen wanting to save our souls for a mere 100 rupees, so retreated to a roof-top restaurant. The drive to Jaipur was a non-event four-lane highway affair so Raju had no chance to entertain us with sketchy overtaking/cow dodging. The best part of Jaipur was visiting the near by Amber Fort - a great piece of Rajput architectue and the ancient capital of the Jaipur state. Another great building was the three story Hawa Mahal, from where the royal family could watch processions in the city. Otherwise Jaipur itself was a big, dirty industrial town.
On the road to Agra we stopped off at the small town of Abhaneri to check out Chand Baori, a 20m deep well of zig-zagging steps and an amazing geometric sight - just like an upside down pyramid. The mighty Taj Mahal dominates Agra and we set off at 6m to see it at sunrise. It really is a fantastic piece of architecture and a master piece in marble - it's huge - bigger than I ever thought! We spent 4 cold hours exploring and marveling at its greatness, wearing cameras out. In the afternoon we visited Itimad-Ud-Daulah (baby Taj), an earlier marble shrine with incredible inlay motifs. In the evening we attempt to catch our train to Varanasi but find out it's delayed by eight hours. Eight cold hours were spent counting rats, drinking chai, braving darkness through power cuts and shearing the waiting room with five cops with machine guns and a fugitive in chains. At 4.30am our train came. With no sleep we stumbled into Varanasi and took a taxi to guest house sitting on the bank of the Ganges.
Varanasi is a place were I would have liked to spend more time; its surreal sight of open air cremation at the waters edge and religious significance to the Hindi faith makes it a place that needs time to absorb. It was fascinating to be taken on a tour of the cremation grounds at Manikarnika Ghat and very surreal watching bodies burning in front of us and watching the associated rituals. Varanasi comes to life along the rivers edge where everyone does their washing and bathing and where pilgrims perform ceremonies for the rising and setting of the sun - there’s lots of bell ringing and throwing fire involved!
I hope everyone has had a great time over the holiday break and will update you all soon on travels in Chandigarh, Amritsar and the Himachal Pradesh. As always, lots of love to you all and take care, James.
3 Comments:
Hi James, just at Morag and bretts place and thought we would look you up. Stay well and watch out for the bad guys.
Love IAN AND JULIA
James,didn't know if this would work but now we know it does might say a few things. We have enjoyed reading your dialogue and looking at the pics.Kashmir sounds like a wonderful place, if not a bit sad and politicaly confused. As for the Indian drivers, I think a few of Raju's cousins are working in Brisbane as taxi drivers, more style than substance, or should that be more bravado than skill.
Julia was just saying that your trip of northern and central Thailand brings back memories of our trip there. Am looking forwrad to seeing the pics of India.
Love Julia, Ian Jack and Sally.
Great work.
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