The Pink City

Jaipur. The corner of the Golden Triangle and our single view of Rajasthan. We’ve decided to skip the Taj Mahal. From all the stories from tourists and locals about the aggressive touts and hassle, costs and the fact that Agra is known as one of the worst places to stay in India, we have crossed it off the list.

Things here are more what I expected Delhi to be like. A mix of malls, A/C shops, footpaths, and lanes on the road. Tour buses cruising the streets, and many nice hotels. The touts haven’t been as bad as we expected but will keep up our guard. We have 2 days here and today was just a general wander as it was 33 degrees and the hottest we have had so far. Remember that this is still the end of winter. Summer must be complete madness.

For a break from the spicy food, we actually went to Pizza Hut for dinner. All the same setup you would expect but most of the menu is veggie pizza’s, like Spicy Paneer (cheese cubes), Exotic (with baby corn), Veggie Delight etc and a small selection of Chicken ones. Not the usual meat with meat and BBQ sauce. Even with the bad reputation among teenagers of these places in the West, we can actually see the advantage of working at such a place here. Nice conditions, pay is probably ok, and you can move up into a manager quite quickly. There really are many worse jobs you could start on here.

Off to buy my 6th litre of water for the day…

Basra Mansions, Patalia

Our next stop was the city of Patalia in the middle of the Punjab region, where we met up with Neetu who worked with Amber back in her uni days and was actually home for a visit. Her grandparents were in Canada so we got to stay in their house for the next 6 days. Luxury.

Each morning Mrs Basra would cook us fresh Roti or Parantha (stuffed bread) with different fillings each day, served with a basic potato and cauliflower curry. Delicious, although you had to know when to stop so you didn’t explode. Then we would tour round some local sites, visit peoples houses and partake in the social life of the family.

One highlight was the chance to go to a Punjab wedding. They normally last for 3 days and this was the reception where basically anyone can attend. They are huge, with about 1000-2000 people attending, music playing, waiters everywhere with whiskey soda, and a massive buffet hall inside with about 10-15 different food options, plus all the snack stalls outside and every a fresh juice hut. All the men and women separate to separate areas. The men get drunk and dance, and the women sit and chat. It various from party to party on whether woman will dance or not. A few photographers were wandering around and always seemed to target me for a quick snap. One guy was firing a gun into the air which isn’t cool and has caused serious accidents in the past.

Time flew while staying in Patalia, and it was hard to leave the hospitality of Neetu’s family, but yesterday we got on the 7:40am train to Delhi, got a rickshaw and arguing with them as they took us to a tourist office instead of our bus station (to be rescued by a friendly rickshaw guy) and got a pleasantly boring bus ride to Jaipur to hunt for a hotel in the dark. Hotel Visjay Niwas was the winner on the night…

Rickshaw Touring

After the terrifying bus journey, we went by train to Amritsar, home of the Sikh Golden Temple. We arrived at night, pushed through the barrage of rickshaw drivers with one seemingly friendly one responding, “Just let me know where you are staying.” We checked into the hotel and crashed out for the night.

The next morning our new friend was waiting outside, making the sales pitch of “You remember me from last night?” We decided to go with him to the Golden Temple as the price matched that of what the hotel staff said it should be. However, it was a cycle rickshaw and he was about 60 or so. We went halfway across town but had to walk up the hills/motorway. Once at the temple we got offered a rickshaw tour of the city to see all the sights (3 of them) and be back for our 3pm train. A fair price was settled and we entered the temple.

This is a massive complex appearing in my “things to see” travel calendar at work last year. It is a temple surrounding a large pool which rose when Lotus petals were dropped on that spot hundreds of years ago, the land was bought from the farmers and a temple was built. There was a big line leading along the “wharf” to the temple in the middle of the pool and upon entering you are surrounded by prayer readings, music, gold leaf, carpets, decorated walls etc. Wandering around I had no idea what was really happening and with the music and chanting it creates a surreal atmosphere.

The rest of the “tour” we saw some other temples and memorial places, and while entering one of them someone points to my arm, mainly my freckles asking “What is this?”. We were in shock for a moment, then our guide whisked us on and Amber burst into a laughing fit. Next time we are going to say its the new Henna pattern for men.

Our guide took us all the way to the train station, pointed us towards the train, took the money we gave him without counting it and left. This stunned us, as most people you encounter here are usually aggressive touts. This guy was just nice. There is a lot of cool stuff in India but so many people and sales calls in every direction that in most cities there is no rest from it all.

Another thing that keeps happening (in temples) is people (mainly children) coming up to us to say hello, and a quick chat or daring each other to shake our hand. While Amber was on the phone I had a circle of people waiting to greet me. I feel like a Bollywood star

White Knuckle Ride

Forget all the promotions around the world for extreme sports, adventure capitals, etc – we found the best right here in India. It’s the local bus from Dharamsala to Pathankot. At only 75 rupees per person, you get a white knuckle ride lasting a good 3 hours, with a chai tea intermission, with as many twists and turns as you want. We only found this out after our journey.

We had already traveled the road once to get to Dharamsala, and wasn’t that bad. On the bus, the first hour was fine until our driver was eager to overtake a slower bus, and then never slowed down. The mountain roads and nice and winding with perilous drops down into gorges way below. For a series of corners he was taking them way way too fast, with most of the passengers holding on for life, one guy getting thrown from his seat across the bus and a woman behind us saying “tisk, tisk” the whole time. It was close a few of the times, i’m sure it was going to topple over. Every corner I was hoping for another car, cow, road works, or anything to slow him down.

When we arrived, I climbed onto the roof to get our packs which were tied down and the bus started driving off with me on top. Luckily he was just pulling to a better spot a little down the road, but I didn’t actually know that at the time. Amber says the look on my face was priceless.

Few More Photos..

I’ve added a few more photos into the album, take a look. Just tracking down some accomodation for tommorrown night as we head to Amritsar, home of the Golden Temple and apparaently not much else. Spending the rest of today checking out the shops and heading to my final English Conversation Class.

Tommorrow morning we try the public bus transport to Pathankot. Will be a bumpy ride.

English Conversation Class

Within Dharamsala there are different types of classes to join everywhere and many many volunteer positions you can sign up for if you want to donate your time. Within a local publication we saw there was an English Conversation Class requiring only 1 hour a day, so we signed up for the 3 remaining days that we are here. Filled out the form at 2pm, and were in class by 4pm.

Without knowing what to expect we removed our shoes and entered the class room to sit in small circles with any students who have turned up. There is no real introduction, just a jump into the deep end with introductions to my group then questions from me and them about New Zealand, my travels, religions, sports, food, education, weather, and whatever else came up.

Yesterday it was quite tricky as the 3 people I was talking to were of different levels so I had to think of questions to include them all, such as “What is your favourite food?”. The monks I was speaking with are very well educated in general, one with near perfect English and another just learning. It was cool to interact with people here to find out about their lives, something you cannot do interacting with shopkeepers and waiters all day long.

Today was much harder as there were so many teachers, it became a one to one session. Better for the student to practice but hard for us both to think of questions for an hour. Can appreciate how much harder it would be for them to want to ask questions but not have the words for it. Will come with practice though.

So, one more class tomorrow and that’s my bout of volunteering for the moment. We leave here Friday morning on a local bus, then train over to Amritsar to stay for a night and peek at the golden temple. Then onwards to a “small” town a few hours by train to stay with a friend of Amber’s for an insight into local life. Shall be interesting.

Escaping from Tibet

Last night our cooking instructor was telling us about here escape from Tibet to Dharamsala. It was seven years ago, and she is from a nomad village where there are no schools, etc, so she couldn’t get a job in any of the cities. She knew of a “guide” in her village who sneaks people across to Nepal, where they meet withthe Tibetean government, to be resettled in India.

She was only 18 at the time, paid the equivilent of 50 quid and came by herself in a group of 8, plus 2 guides. They walked for 27 days to Nepal, mostly at night to avoid being seen, and they ran out of food for the last 3 days. “It wasn’t so hard” she says. A lot of parents also send their children along in hope for a better life, so there are schools here for them, where their parents are still to come if they can.

Such a interesting and amazing story, and a bit of realisation of how hard it is for a lot of people here, and the ones that aren’t.

Dharamsala Delights

Since our late night arrival on mountainous roads by private taxi, and sleeping on a bed which resembled a slab of cold concrete than a bed, we have settled into life here with the monks. We switched rooms the next day, with balcony views of the mountains, heating and 24 hours hot water, and rooftop restaurant all for a reasonable 7 quid a night.

The town itself is quite tiny, not more than a dozen streets, with a temple in town and the monastery down the hill lined with every kind on tourist necklace, bag, carpet, etc you could want. We have been here about 5 days already and really don’t want to leave. The thing that makes it is the sense of proper community here with all the Tibetans – courses for mediation, yoga, Hindi, Tibetan, massage, hiking, and cooking classes. We signed up to a Tibetan one, starting with Momo’s last night – little steamed dumplings filled with a combination of vegetables, spinach/cheese, spinach/tofu and some delicious sesame crumble filled ones. Bit of honey on top and it’s bliss. Tonight, we are making 5 kinds of Tibetan bread which we have already become hooked on.

It’s quite cool being around all the monks all the time, doing their own thing, on cellphones, wearing gloves and beanies (hats) that match their robes, in the restaurants with us, and playing board games on the streets. There is a big convention/teachings on at the moment so other monks have come over to visit, and at the temple complex there were literally a few thousand monks chanting, with the tourists wandering through, and a few secret smiles from the monks as I think they like having a few travelers here.

No real plans to leave at the moment, but we want to meet up with an old friend of Amber’s who is on a visit over this way. Hopefully a chance to see the local side of life which I always love doing.

Get in Touch

Since we are in India for a while yet, i’ve decided to get a sim card to keep in touch. If you wanna drop me a text, the number is +91 989 954 8057. Chat soon.

Just uploading some pics from Kashmir, so should have something for you all shortly (if it all works properly). Will have a proper report from Dharamsala for you sometime tommorrow. Currently the Dalai Lama is only giving lectures so no, I won’t be able to meet him…

Life in Kashmir

Sorry for the late post but i’ve been away from the real world for a while. Last saturday we flew up to Kashmir, successfully making our second attempt. Airport security here is a bizarre mix of formal bureaucracy for security and confusion all round. The process is something like :-

Get to airport; put check-in bag on x-ray belt (one for each airline); collect bag with security tie and sticker; proceed to desk and check in receiving a cabin baggage tag and boarding pass; get pass checked and stand in security line; put cabin bag on x-ray belt and pass metal detector and hand search; get stamp for search on boarding pass and cabin tag; get stamp checked and signed; point to checked-in bag to be loaded onto plane; start boarding plane getting stamped; get stamp checked; fly; check boarding pass leaving plane.

After all this, we were in a military/civilian air force base with passenger flights, met our pick-up and were off to stay on a houseboat in the middle of lake Dal for 5 nights. We get in a little boat and are ferried out to the houseboat decorated in carved woodwork and furnished with rugs and chandaliers. All this in a valley of snowy mountains reflecting in a lake of water taxi’s paddling people where they wanted to go.

We took a few tours around the place to see the hard life in the valley – saffron and rice fields, remote mountain villages, old Moghul forts, gardens and bazaar’s of the old town, which were such a change from Delhi as these shopkeepers simply say hello and smile, not demanding a constant “You buy it!”, and children saying hello without their hand out for money. As for the tours, many of the places were coated in snow so a bit of imagination was needed, with comments of “You should see this in summer!”

We actually got trapped towards the end as the only 300km road out was barely opened after a recent snowfall, and as we got up early to leave via a shared jeep (4×4), snow and rock slides closed the road for another 4 days. Next I was taken to a dodgy backoffice travel agent to pay in $US for a plane ticket out of there, before risking waiting for the road to open and hoping a new snowfall doesn’t close it again. Kashmir is a beautiful region, with a hard mountain life in the Himalaya’s for some people but enough of a view for me to glimpse a whole new culture without travelling for days on end to the next town.

The day ended befriending some Irish travellers (Anita and Andy) and heading by train then taxi to Dharamsala last night, where I currently am – a small, chilled out place bustling with old hippies, trekkers, and the Tibetian culture all around.  It will be a good few days here.

The journey here was our first train ride, with four of us sitting together and other travellers staring at us and some taking pictures on their phones. A group of 3 workers sat with us talking to me and Andy (as Amber and Anita were basically invisible) with so many inquisitive questions like:

“Hello, what is your good name”

“What is your profession?”

“What religion are you?”

“What degree do you have?”

“Who cooks in your house?”

“What degree does madam (Amber) have?”

“How much do you earn in a day in Rupees?”

“What is your fathers profession?”

And so on… it ended with a handshake, then a question to me whether madam (Amber) would like to shake his hand as well. A good way to kill a train journey but one longer than 2 hours may be a little exhausting…