Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hey everyone, I've had over 2 weeks in India so far and I'm starting to get an idea of how India is now, it takes a while as its a bit overwhelming! I joined a new tour group in Delhi for the first 2 weeks, which was in the state of Rajasthan west of Delhi, it has all the really touristy famous places like Jaipur and Jodhpur.
The first day we had a walk round Old Delhi, it was kind of what you'd expect, hot and very busy, lots of noise and dirt and sewagey smells. We had a look at the Jama Masjid, the old mosque, and some crowded streets round the market places, none of which I liked much. But I did like the lunch we had at the Sikh temple, they have these soup kitchens which anyone can go to and the food is free, and you all have to sit in long lines of a hundred people side by side on mats on the floor, and they come round dispensing food out of buckets into a tin tray at your feet. We were the only tourists and there were lots of Sikh holy men there, I would have loved to take a picture but didn't want to be rude when it was so welcoming!
Next we visited Agra where the Taj Mahal is- I tried not to get my expectations up since its usually disappointing, but actually it was as pretty as everyone says it is, its very beautiful. But very touristy, there must've been a couple of thousand people there.
Then we had a few days in small rural places where we visited villages, and went on a safari in a tiger park (but sadly didn't see a tiger, only 800 million deer), and stayed at a campsite by a lake in the middle of nowhere. That was very nice, and I really like the places away from the cities and the tourists- in the cities you have people following you and begging at you or trying to sell you stuff constantly, plus all the noise of endless traffic horns (here the right of way is given to the person with the loudest horn), and the sewage stink, which you'd have to come here to believe. The only way to replicate it would be to crack open all the sewage pipes in a town so that it was running down the streets, then leave it for 4 days to pool in heatwave temperatures, then let a whole load of stray animals (including cows, dogs and pigs) rummage through it, then somehow find a way to set it all on fire. You're lucky not to know, if you don't.
Other places we went were Udaipur, where we visited a miniature painting studio where they do really beautiful microscopically detailed paintings using paints made from precious stones, and we had a painting lesson with brushes made of the hairs of a squirrels tail and the eyelashes of a camel. I also had a massage which was quite painful and I have bruises from- I suppose I was a bit daft to expect an Indian massage to be relaxing!
Finally we went to Pushkar, which was full of hippies and was like Camden market and was really, really annoying. Anywhere there's tourists, they just try to scam you endlessly. But we stayed in some really nice hotels so it was always good just to go back and sit in the room and have quiet time!
Then it was back to Delhi on an overnight train, and saying goodbye to our group, who were cool (Word to Virginia, Pravar, and Scott!). Now we have a smaller new group- it was supposed to be 12 of us, but 7 people cancelled after the Mumbai attacks, even though we're in the north of the country and don't go anywhere near there. Its sad how terrorism affects everyone here, its quite unfair, cos now that's 7 people's business lost to everywhere we visit, just from our group.
Yesterday was ace, we stayed in a very quiet out of the way medieval Muslim and Jain town and saw some 30m high cliff-carved Buddha statues like those ones the Taliban destroyed in Afghanistan, plus some massive fresh water crocodiles down at a river in the countryside (fortunately they ran away rather than towards us when they heard us coming), and some 25,000 year old recently discovered rock paintings (we had to crouch down under some rocks next to the crocodile bank to see- I was like, is this a good idea...?)
10 more days in India, then on to Egypt! :)
- comments