The Real India Part 2: What Are You Lookin' At?

I can understand that the white man is somewhat of a novelty in certain parts of rural India and the occasional look of surprise is to be expected, but the Inidan people just love to stare. More so in the North than the South you will quite often get groups of (usually male) people coming right up just to stand and stare unblinking at you. In a normal situation it's not to bad as you can usually make a quick getaway, but when you are sitting at a bus or train station semi-circled by a group of people no more than 4 feet away staring open mouthed at you, it can be a little discomforting. Even more amusing is when a person on a bus sitting in front of you turns around to stare and won't look away.

I think that the whole of India has never been taught that it's rude to stare and in fairness they only do it out of curiosity and not malice. Usually you can get away with saying 'Hi!' and waving at them (especially when it's just one person) and they will look away, sometimes with big groups they just wave back and keep staring. The words 'monkey in a zoo' come to mind.

Backwaters To The Beach

Crusing down the backwaters of Kerala in the far South of India while the sun sets and lazy fishing boats cruise past while locals wash their clothes and bathe in the shallows is pretty magical.

Unable to afford the beautiful houseboats that can be rented for the night (complete with cook and boatman) we took a (far cheaper) public ferry down the main river channels to the sleepy town of Kollam where we rented a narrow punting boat (complete with boatman) and cruised down the narrow canals into small Keralan villages to observe their way of life.

Our final stop in south India just had to be another idillic beach near the town of Varkala nesteled at the foot of a red sandstone cliff lined with fantastic restaurants with their daily catch on display. There's just about enough time here to recover before the mammouth train journey (around 60 hours in total) up through Muumbai to Varanasi.

The Real Inida Pt. 1 - The Indian Head Wobble

After being emmersed in the Inidan culture for 2 and a half months now it's about time I shared a few insights into the way a way of life that could only be Indian.

The 'Indian head wobble' is a classic example. Instead of nodding for 'yes' or shaking the head side to side for 'no' the Inidan people have a universal body language sign that involves them relaxing the neck muscles and wobbling their heads in a random manner. The confusing part is that this gesture can mean 'yes', 'no', 'maybe'.... or even 'I don't really care'.

As far as I can work out, the Indian head wobble can also be used to show someone that you mean no harm on a first meeting. For example, if you're forcing your way onto a crowed bus with backpack banging into everyone, a simple smile and head wobble can go a long way. The trouble is that it's near impossible to get right (unless you are Indian of course), and more often than not you might end up looking like a forigner with neck problems.

Out Of The Frying Pan

As the temperature starts to rise above 30C, so we rise up to the relative coolness of another colonial hill station known for it's tea plantations and tranquil setting (making it another Indian holiday hotspot). The bizarre mix of British style architecture and general Indian sprawl of 'concrete box architecture' makes Ooty township somewhat of an oddity. The surrounding countryside is covered with tea plantations, dotted with colourful sari's disappearing and re-appearing as tea leaves are collected and cared for all before a backdrop of gentle mist hanging on the horizon. An organised trek took us through small villages (some with huge satelite dishes.... for the cricket maybe?) and up to several vantage points overlooking the magical landscape.

After a hellish bus ride back down the mountain with it's 30 or so hairpin bends, we've arrived in fort cochin on the Keralan coast. It's another tourist mecca here, with nothing much to do but wander round the uncrowded streets and indulge in the fantastic restaruants that line the alleyways. The temperature difference between here and Ooty is phenominal, it's 35C here during the day and about 28C at night (bring on the air-con!) compared to 24C and a lovely 5C at night in Ooty.... phew! Photo below shows the Chinese fishing nets used to catch our supper, they are lowered into the water by 4 men at a time.... haven't seen them catch anything yet though!

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of... Nothing!

In order to ease our re-integration back into everyday Indian city life we dragged ourselves away from the beach into the beautiful scenery of the Coorg region of South India. Staying in the middle of the forest at a homestay with a Canadian homestay was more like being in Canada (or New Zealand) than anywhere in Inida.

With a couple of nights just spent camping out in a two man tent under the stars and full moon, the peace and quiet was a welcome relief after the constant noise and pollution that hovers around most of India. The hiking was made easy as our base in the forest was central to most of the popular hikes in the area. I think it's got to be one of the only places in Inida where you can go off for a day without seeing another person..... sheer bliss!

The Beach Files

The beach is such a great healer, I can't belive we've been doing nearly nothing except lapping up the sun, playing in the surf and stuffing our faces with all sorts of westernised food (including curries of course!).

Accommodation is pretty basic, namely bamboo huts with dried palm tree leaves for walls and roof..... perfect for those balmy nights if you can avoid the mosquitoes! Eating on the beach at night with seas of blinking lights left and right makes a lovely change from some of the grubby places we've dined in before.

A version of 'easy rider' starring Mark and Inger on a 50cc scooter was shot on the shores of Goa (don't tell mum!). It's by far the best way to get around the tiny state as the roads are pretty quiet.

Gokarna has been heavenly as we haven't moved in a whole week except to walk the 50 steps to the beach and restaruants. It's very relaxed here and people seem to stay months rather than days or weeks. It's back on the road tomorrow though with a mix of excitement for more and sadness to be drawn away from the general lazyness of beach life.

Backpacker Central

After a few long, hot, dusty, packed bus rides we rattled into the backpacker mecca of Badami. The main draw to the area is the ancient 16th century city that was once one of the largest Hindu empires in the country. Many of the remains of temples, palaces and bazaars still remain and are being restored (though i'm not sure how sympathetically). Despite the wealth of history that surrounds the area, it's amazing easy just to sit around in cafes and watch the river slowly glide by.

The town centre has been built up from nothing and now has around 50 guest houses in a tiny area, giving it a real chilled out feel that makes a brilliant respite from the normal hustle and bustle of Indian city life.

After nearly 2 months of non-stop travel we are getting a bit tired of being constantly on the move and have seen so many temples, forts and ruins that they have begun to lose their appeal. It's definitely time to head for Goa's beach packed coast for a bit holiday from travelling, ah..... it's a hard life eh?

The Ancient Caves Of India

It seems like it's been a while since I posted up a new update, so this will have to cover a few different places in one.

Dragging ourselves away from the idillic countryside scenery of Mandu we headed off to the ancient buddhist caves of Ajanta and Ellora. These are truely one of the great wonders of India, and indeed the world. Around 30 caves have been carved out of sheer rock faces on both sites, which date from 200 BC to around 1400 AD. The sheer feat of removing that amount of granite (some of the caves are more than 30 x 30m in size) is phenominal, when you add the intricacy of the carving and the tools available at the time the caves are definitely a wonder of the world.

Moving on down through the middle of the country at a rapid place with a quick stopover in Badami to see yet more cave architecture, not to mention the thousands of indian tourists that seem to get everywhere on a Sunday. We literally couldent wait to get out of the place becuase of constant hassle of Indians wanting to take our photo and get our complete family history. Lesson learned..... don't go to any touristy places on Sundays.

The 10,000 Steps

With christmas safely behind us and a brand new year ahead of us we're feeling optimistic about the year ahead and are definitely aclimatised to India and its bizarre ways, such as the Indian head wobble, the constant staring and the mental driving (more on this to come).

Heading north to another pilgramage site on top of yet another mountain (I guess it's closer to God), we undertook the mammouth task of plodding up 10,000 steps along with thousands of other pilgrims. The walk up at dawn was definitely awe inspiring and the views were out of this world, but you don't realise how unfit you are until you are collapsing with heat exhaustion every 10 minutes. I can still feel my muscles burning and i'm writing this about a week later.

A two day bus journey then took us to the idillic countryside village of Mandu. With it's ancient temples, forts and palaces, mixed together with tiny rural villages it made the perfect place to potter around for a few days. Like most of the rural areas we could have lingered at least a week, but India's just too big.

Beachside New Year

Alas, we've finally made it to the beach! Never has there been a more welcome sight than a long strip of sand and ocean where we can rest and swim away the grime and dirt accumulated from the general Indian atmosphere.

The Indian people also celebrate new year (though they call it something different) and the small island of Diu has been totally packed out with Indian tourists, mainly due to the ready availability and cheapness of the beer and other alcohol. Every bar and hotel have been full and the Indians know how to drink, chasing most beers with half pint glasses of dodgy rum or whiskey.

New year was a total blast and we are sufficiently rested to continue on down the coast.

Christmas In The Hills

Trying to seek out a bit of the cooler weather we associate with being at home for christmas, we headed off to Mt. Abu, a tiny hillstation on the border between Rajasthan and Gujarat. It definitely had that holiday feeling albeit not a very festive one. It's the winter holiday for all of the Indian people too and loads head to Mt. Abu for the cheap and readily available alcohol and beatuiful scenerly.

I'm not really sure you could really class it as christmas as the Hindu's don't really have any concept of the christian calandar, but we managed to sneek in a christmas curry with six other europeans pining away for a proper christmas dinner.

After a quick stopover in Amdavad (our first stop in Gujarat) we headed down to small pilgramige town of Palitana, probably the most important holy site for the Jain religion in the world. The climb up 3700 steps rewarded us with over 700 intricately carved temples probably containing tens of thousands of buddha effigies.

With new years looming we are plannig to head down to the ex-portuguese island of Diu in the far south of the state to catch up on a bit of beach-time.

City of Romance

After a couple of days hectic travelling on the ram packed buses we've arrived in the romantic city of Udaipur. It's set into a beautiful valley with mist covered hills and two huge lakes which are totally surrounded by rooftop restaruants with stunning views. Part of the james bond movie 'Octopussy' was filmed here at the lake palace!

It's been great to chill out here and take some time for a bit of sunbathing and reading. It's a bit of a social faux pas to take off your shirt or even wear shorts here, so the tanlines will be pretty horrific on our return!

It's pretty touristy here given the sublime setting making it impossible to walk down the street without being hassled constantly by people wanting to sell you stuff. It'll be nice to head down to Gujarat where it's a bit less touristy.

This Desert Life

After a flying visit through Jodhpur (and yes it is named after those silly riding trousers) with yet another fantastical hilltop fort (see photo on right), blue houses and colourful saris we headed to the desert city of Jaisalmer.

With the promise of beautiful sunsets, peace and quiet (a rare commodity in India) and a zillion stars we headed off into the Great Thar Desert on a 3 day camel safari close to the Pakistani border.

Except for a small bout of 'desert belly' (similar to 'delhi belly'), it was a truely wonderful experience, trotting through the vast open spaces with the sound of our 10 year old guide singing desert songs all day and night. Desert village life is a stark contrast to everyday Indian city life with most of the people living off the land in huts made of cow dung. With the evenings spent around a warm fire in the soft dunes, it was pretty heavenly.

Backpacker Haven

Pushkar is a small town that surrounds a lake in a large valley. It's very beautiful here and as a result it's a total backpacker haven. There are almost as many western faces as there are Indian and the narrow streets are jam packed with bizarres selling all the typical indo-

western 'hippie' type clothing.... and yes I even found myself buying a pair of (semi) hippie trousers (photos pending).

It's been refreshing not being stared at or hassled as much as in other parts of India but we move on through Jodhpur tomorrow, ending up in the desert oasis of Jaisalmer.

Pushkar Bound

We've managed to tear ourselves away from Bundi and are now in the busy, dusty and dirty capital of Rajasthan Jaipur. It's quite western here (for Indian standards anyway), but the palaces and ancient forts are pretty awesome.

Tomorrow we head on to Pushkar, famous apparently for it's camels (and yearly camel fair). It's supposed to be a bit of a backpacker and hippie hangout, we'll see.....

The Taj to Bundi

After leaving the tourist mecca of agra and the Taj Mahal, we have taken the bus to Bharatpur and a nearby national park for a bit of Indian bird spotting (ahem). The journey was only an hour, but we were packed into the front of the bus with everyone staring and grinning at us while in turn we gritted our teeth while the bus driver careered up the road overtaking without a care for oncoming traffic. Unfortnately, due to a particularly bad monsoon, hardly any birds were at the national park this year so we made a swift exit.

Taking the train down to Sawai Madhopur in the hope to see tigers at Ranthambore national park was a bit of an adventure in dodging the ticket inspectors as we attempted to stow away (without much success) in the air-conditioned sleeper compartment. Ranthamore is quite touristy (for Indian standards) but well worth it. The safari was awesome and we were lucky enough to see 2 tigers (for about 2 seconds), which we were told was pretty good.

We arrived in Bundi after a teeth rattling bus journey and totally love it here. There is a 16th century fort that looms over the small blue city. You can literlly get lost in the winding passageways and staircases of the gigantic structure. Bundi is definitely a step out of the chaos that is general India, people seem more friendly and hassle you far less for your rupees. I think we might stay a while.....

The Taj

After 2 crazy days in Delhi, we've left the capital on a first class train packed with fat westerners (I think all the Indians were crammed in the back carrage somewhere). Passing the slums on the outskirts of Delhi was like looking through a window to another time and place. Families of 5 or more are packed into stacked concrete structures no bigger than my bedroom at home, the only toilet facilities seeming to be the railside (not a nice sight whilst eating a lovely western breakfast!).

We arrived in Agra yesterday afternoon, with only the one sight to see.... the Taj Mahal of course. The pictures just don't do it justice, it's truely an amazing feat of workmanship and architecture. The whole structure is raised off the ground on a huge marble platform, allowing the backdrop to be pure blue sky that transends shades throughout the day.

Delhi Mayhem

Well, we've arrived in Delhi and it's every bit and definitely a little bit more crazy than anticipated. It does'nt really matter how much you read or prepare for arriving in India, the place will still completely shock and surprise.

We're staying in the backpackers area (Paharaganj) which is basically a narrow alley packed full with rickshaws, cows and one armed beggars and touts ready to pounce on the unknowing tourist. I might as be carring a huge neon sign which reads 'tourist' around with me, it really is that obvious.

On the upside though, once the initial culture shock has worn off I think India will be totally amazing, can't wait to see what the next 5 months will bring!

The Tickets Purchased

They say that the hardest part of travelling is booking the ticket. Once it's payed for, there is no turning back, especially when the ticket is non-refundable! After six months of working hard in Brighton, hopefully there will be enough money in the pot to cover at least four months in India and one month in Nepal.

With the departure date set for 30th November 2006, it's a mere two and a bit months to go until we pack up our jobs and revert to the sense of freedom that living out of a backpack gives. We have no set schedule or plan in mind, except that we will be landing and returning from Delhi.

All there is to do for now is .....................wait.