India: Pushkar,Jaipur,Delhi (reloaded) & Amritsar

Pushkar 10/03-12/03

We headed on up to the small town of Pushkar which surrounds an extremely holy lake for Hindus. It attracts huge amounts of pilgrims every year to come and pray in the holy water. However, we found it also attracted a lot of hippy style westerners searching for spirituality! We had a good time wandering around the bazaar streets and taking in all the colours and smells. Our visit was somewhat tainted though by the fact we were scammed on the second day. We went to see the holy lake and the pilgrims making a puja (prayer) by it. Immediately as we entered some men who were supposedly Brahmins shoved flowers into our hands and whisked us off to make a prayer. Before we knew it, we both had bindis on our foreheads and Puja passes (basically pieces of string) wrapped around our wrists. It all ended up with a donation being demanded in order to make sure the prayer worked and guarantee the health of our families! Nina said she’d pay 500 rupees just so we could walk away without having an argument in this holy place. It was strongly suggested that she pay for both her parents not just one so this quickly doubled to 1000! I ended up saying that I would only pay 500 as we shared the same money and to this they said that Nina’s family would be much happier and healthier than mine! Not a very holy thing to say coming from a ‘holy man’. So Nina’s family if you are reading this, be safe in the knowledge that she did you proud and you have twice as much money backing up your prayer than the one for my family! Sorry Mum and Dad. We’ve decided to try and get our money’s worth out of our Puja passes and wear them for as long as humanly possible! Our time in Pushkar was summed up by our taxi driver the next day when we were heading to the train station. He said that in India there are no rules and to show us this he took loads of paper from on top of his dashboard while driving and chucked it theatrically out the window while laughing!

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Jaipur 13/03-15/03

We reached Jaipur, our final stop in Rajasthan, the same day. Feeling like a good sleep we discovered that the bed in our hotel room was about 5ft 8in in length! Although this was fine for Nina, I ended up sleeping sideways in order to fit! Our guide book suggested a 3-4 hour walking route of the old city that weaved in and out of the shopping streets and incorporated a visit to the city palace. Each section of the old city was selling something different, from fruit and veg to textiles and kitchenware. We had lots of people approaching us to see if we wanted to buy anything from their shop although we thankfully got some respite in the paint and DIY sections . Walking along we saw a popular street vendor selling ice cream lassis! They were delicious and so far our tummies haven’t reacted. As we were standing drinking and chatting, a man approached us and asked the usual “What country?”. We replied that we were from England to which he was excited because he apparently had friends in Norwich of all places. Very quickly he said he wanted us to write his friend a letter for him and that we should come to his shop to do it. We immediately spied a scam and said no in the most polite way we could but he got really annoyed and angry at us! The problem is even if he was genuine, you just don’t know who to trust! The city palace had some really interesting exhibitions about the previous rulers of Rajasthan, one was over 7ft and weighed 35st! We then continued on the walk which took another 2 hours by which point we were getting pretty sick of saying “no thanks” to a shopkeeper or tuk-tuk/rickshaw driver every 30 seconds. We stopped for dinner at a place which specialised in southern Indian food and we ordered Dosas. We didn’t really know what to expect but they turned out to be huge (maybe 60cm long) rolled up pancakes with filling and really tasty!

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The next day we hired a tuk-tuk to take us to the Royal Cenotaphs, Amber fort and the Monkey temple. We left pretty early meaning we had the cenotaphs all to ourselves which was a really great experience. They were really beautiful and extremely peaceful. We carried on up to Amber fort, which was the former residence of the Rajput rulers before the founding of Jaipur. It was on the top of a mountain overlooking a lake and extremely striking as you drove towards it. This was our 4^th fort so far, and I think our favourite is still the Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur although this one had a beautifully colourful Ganesh gate. On the way back to the city we went to a temple famous for being the home to hundreds of monkeys. Nina daringly bought a nut selection pack from a random child at the gate, and immediately as we entered she was being stalked by numerous primates. She eventually just chucked them all on the ground for fear of being attacked!

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Delhi (take 2!) 16/03-18/03

After waking up at the horrible time of 4.45am to catch our train to Delhi, we found that the hotel hadn’t booked us a tuk-tuk meaning we had to walk to the station at 5am. Not Fun! We got on our double-decker train and it was packed with middle class Indians on their laptops and smartphones. We find the income gap quite difficult to come to terms with sometimes as when we were coming into Delhi we passed about 4 miles worth of shanty towns with people living less than a metre from the train tracks in no more than metal shacks. In order to save a bit of money, we reluctantly stayed in a hotel in the Paharganj area near New Delhi station again. Our room was fine despite the fact that the entire hotel seemed to be subsiding and had around a 5% downward slope gradient. The staff were also a little too attentive and all absolutely desperate for a tip! The first guy showed us our room, put our bags down, showed us the bathroom, showed us the menu, adjusted the TV, asked if we needed laundry, showed us the kettle, and the started adjusting the glasses next to the kettle before we realised what was going on and gave him a tip. Then 5 minutes later another guy came in and adjusted the TV again and asked if we wanted room service before waiting next to the door so we had to give him a tip too! Throughout our stay every time they saw us they’d try to do us a service before waiting for a tip. We had to just pretend that we were busy doing something and eventually they would leave.

The next day we experienced the vast difference in wealth once again when we travelled from the really poor area we were staying in central Delhi to south Delhi to see the Ghandi Memorial. It was like a different world entirely with grand wide streets lined with trees and not a piece of rubbish in sight. The Ghandi Memorial and museum were absolutely fascinating. They were in the house where he spent his last 144 days and there were also concrete footprints of the last steps he took out into the garden where he was assassinated. The exhibits were so interesting that they inspired Nina to buy a book about his life which she finished in 2 days! Just when we were about to leave, out of nowhere I was struck by a severe bout of Delhi belly! I had to rush to the toilet on the one day we had forgotten to bring toilet paper out with us. There was only a little tap on the wall. Nina understood exactly what had happened from my face when I came out to find her and knowingly handed me the anti-bac hand wash without saying a word. It made the Ghandi memorial a lot more memorable for the wrong reasons!

With both our stomachs on the tender side, we treated ourselves to a deliciously western dinner at an All American Diner. We had burgers and milkshakes followed by a sundae for dessert. It was absolutely delicious and exactly what we needed.

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Amritsar 19/03-22/03

We said a final bye bye to Rajasthan and Delhi and headed up to the province of Punjab to a city called Amritsar. As soon as we got there it was a very different feel to Rajasthan. There was a lot less hassling and it was slightly less hectic! Amritsar is a mainly Sikh area which creates a slightly different vibe. Walking along the streets you can occasionally see devoted Sikhs carrying swords and wearing huge turbans and silver bangles. Our hotel was right next to The Golden Temple which is one of the most sacred places for Sikhs and we both agreed it was the most beautiful and welcoming religious temple we have visited so far. One thing that I liked was that the Temple provides places for anyone to sleep and eat free of charge. Interestingly, I think this is linked to the fact that Sikhs reject the caste system in India so everyone is equal. When you arrive at the Temple you have to remove your shoes and wash your feet, you must also cover your head at all times. Then you walk through a large white gate and the Golden Temple is suddenly in front of you surrounded by a Holy Lake. It’s really quite breath taking when you first see it. We happily wandered around the lake enjoying the atmosphere. Everyone was very friendly and lots of people said hello to us and a few even wanted a photo, although I’m really not sure why! At one point someone asked for a picture with me holding their baby!

One afternoon we organised a taxi to the Wagah Border to see the flag ceremony between Pakistan and India. We were both really excited to see it as we’d watched quite a few you tube clips! When we reached Wagah, our taxi driver asked us whether we had brought our passports. We hadn’t as we didn’t realise we needed them! Although in the end this didn’t seem to be a problem as when we got asked for our passports and we said we didn’t have them they just let us in anyway! There were quite a lot of security checks on the way and the queues were separated into men and women which was pretty good for me as there was 1 woman to about every 5 men! Every time we went into a new queue Ed would be lost into a sea of Indian men and I’d hope I’d see him on the other side! Once we got through security we found our seats at the border in the ‘foreigner/tourist section’. The place was completely full and the crowd were being warmed up by a man in an entirely white tracksuit pumping out Punjabi tunes and encouraging the woman to stand up and dance! There was a real fun party atmosphere with children running up and down the path carrying the Indian flag. The Pakistan side didn’t look quite as fun! At 5pm the main event began! It was a great spectacle. Soldiers on both sides would call out for as long as they possibly could and then charge up to the border gates kicking and stomping as high and hard as they could! They looked like fighting cockerels! On both sides, the crowds cheered enthusiastically for their country. Eventually. both sides shook hands and took down their national flags until the following day when they would do it all again!

During our stay in Amritsar I’d wanted to get a Punjabi suit, which all the women wear. It consists of baggy trousers and a slightly tighter tunic top. I found a pretty white and green one in the market but when I got it home I found it was just the fabric and you were expected to sew it yourself! Disappointed I wasn’t sure what to do and Ed suggested that maybe we could take it to a tailor. So we took my fabric along to a man with a sewing machine and without speaking Punjabi and him English we managed to establish that I’d like the fabric to be transformed into a Punjabi suit! He was a little surprised at first but then agreed. Incredibly, he finished it in one day and charged 200 Rupees which is £2.50!!!! That must be the cheapest tailored suit I will ever own!

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