Delhi, Agra and Rajasthan - Delhi, India
Delhi, India
Delhi/Agra/Rajasthan
India. Is. Intense. It is incredible, with amazing culture, food, colours, religions, people, landmarks and landscapes etc etc. But it is also, filthy, smelly, stinking hot, extremely (and heartbreaklingly) poor in parts, and (as a result of the poverty and the tourist trade) full of hustlers and scammers.
After the relatively laid back South India, the North has been a bit of a shock to the system and we've had a few moments of wanting to 'get the hell out of this filthy place’. But, luckily, each time we’ve felt like this something comes along to change our minds.
As we’ve been to a few places in our whistle stop tour of the last two weeks, we thought it best to list them under headings.
Delhi
Delhi was hustle bustle and more hustle. We were taken for a ride by our ‘friend’ who was in cahoots with the non-legit tourist agency. We were prevented from reaching the International Tourist Bureau three times: twice by more ‘friends’; and once by Richard who thought that if two people were saying the same thing then perhaps we should listen to them.
Having finally located the Bureau, we then proceeded to spend almost two days, both there and our laptops battling to find trains to suit our timetable. Turns out the Indians love their train travel and most searches resulted in wait lists hundreds of people long. So, at odds with our, ‘play it by ear’ mentality we booked almost all legs of our India tour.
Agra
Our first train ride from Delhi to Agra was short and sweet: making friends, playing cards and having good chats with our new crew of two 21 year old engineering students on their way home from a field trip and sightseeing tour, and a *****ian ‘businessman’.
On arriving in Agra we were pleased to discover the Taj lived up to its hype. It really is an amazing building and we wandered round for a few hours in awe. Post Taj admiring we had quite a ‘Monument-al’ (bad pun intended) time in Agra on a tuk tuk boosting round Agra’s other key sites and were impressed by the ‘Mini Taj’ and ‘Agra Fort’.
The locals, it appeared, were more impressed by us than the monuments: we lost count of the amount of photos we were asked to appear in and the number of photos taken of us non-consensually, both surreptitiously and otherwise.
Jaipur
From Agra to Jaipur we trained in (Indian) luxury in chair class which, it turns out, is nicer than flying – for afternoon tea we were provided with water, tea (from pots) samosas, sandwiches, biscuits, and sweets.
On arrival in Jaipur we realised we’d, mixed up train times and only had a morning there so we were up at sparrows for another whistle stop tour. We took in the Pink City, a lake palace, Jaipurs most famous Lassi shop (made traditionally in terracotta mugs, usually sold out by midday - luckily we were there at 7am - which were d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.) and a textiles shop, "just for a look" where we came away with two pillow cases to put on the couch in the house we are not likely to live in for a few years …
Pushkar
From Jaipur it was onto Pushkar by train. This time sleeper class so no silver service but we were lucky to have cabin to ourselves with the exception of the multitude of sellers of chai, coffee, locks and chains, ‘blessings’, and deep fried treats – and of course, the ever present beggars.
Puskar was a treat to arrive in after the business of Delhi and Jaipur. Pushkar is a relaxed hippy/holy town full of space cadets/old hippies and devout Hindus. It centers round a small lake with 52 working ‘Ghats’, in one of which Ghandi’s ashes are scattered. By pure coincidence, we were there on the great man’s birthday, which he happened to share with Emily.
We spent Emily and Ghandi’s birthday catching the sunrise from hilltop temple, and strolling around Lake Pushkar (where we were accosted a Pushkar Preist, bargained with for blessings, splashed with radioactive green water, and given the obligatory pink smudge between the eyes and cotton bracelet – the Pushakr Passport to ward off future hassles). We ended the day by catching the sunset from another hilltop temple (So holy) and, unfortunately, a speedy return from the hilltop to the safety of bed and close proximity to bathroom facilities as Emily was struck with Delhi Belly.
Udaipur
After Pushkar we caught a train to Udaipur where they filmed the James Bond movie Octoapussy in one of the stunning lake palaces.
Like Pushkar, Udaipur is centered round a lake. The Lake in Udaipur however, is much bigger, cleaner and the surroundings are much greener; making it an incredibly beautiful city with significantly less hustle than our other stops so far. We had arrived at the start of a 9-day festival, which meant singing and fireworks most nights and we found an amazing room/apartment with a lake view (and free fireworks display) for only $6 a night. As we had both brought along a case of Delhi Belly, Udaipur was great place to chill out and do a lot of not much.
During our three days we managed to fit ‘ticking off the tourist list’ into our busy schedule of lounging, book reading and going out for (plain – for our precious tummies) meals. We ticked off a lake cruise and city and lake palace tours. From the lake cruise we spied a gondola to a hilltop lookout. On closer inspection we realised there was no support pole in the middle just a long sagging cable being weighed down by carts. After a quick safety assessment we decided it was good enough for us and enjoyed the incredible view over the lakes and the city.
We were also lucky enough to get out into the green surroundings by way of a 2-hour horse trek, which meandered (and at some stages trotted and cantered) through beautiful scenery and villages celebrating the festival with music and dancing.
Jodhpur
As there were no trains available to get to Jodhpur we settled on an overnight sleeper bus. In the booking office we booked a double sleeper bed which looked very clean and cosy in the picture.
The trip didn’t begin well. Emily thought it wise to use the bathroom before hopping on a 7-hour bus without one. Unfortunately, the only ‘bathroom’ in the area was a tiny room with a slightly sloping floor and the worst smell Emily had ever encountered. Unlike most local loos around here, this one was missing the standard hole in the ground. In place of the hole were a number of dark coloured ‘mounds’. Emily had never been to the toilet so quickly.
Unfortunately, the trip didn’t improve much from there. Once the 3 sweaty men had vacated our compartment on the bus we reluctantly climbed in and instantly had sand, bugs and other peoples sweat all over us. As we figured we had no option we quickly got into our silk liners to settle in for the night of rolling into the sides of the bus.
We were very nearly asleep when the bus driver decided to crash the bus, and lucky for us it was right on the corner we were sleeping, this lead to a broken window below us, crying babies and a very frightened Emily.
Luckily we arrived in Jodhpur at 5am and after a quick look around, taking in the (in hindsight quite impressive looking) Fort from the outside, decided we were over forts and Jodhpur wasn’t worth our time (probably an unfair assessment but we blamed Jodhpur for our lack of sleep). We promptly booked a day bus to Jaisalmer, not in the best of moods and wondering whether we would last another 3 weeks in India.
Jaisalmer
Arriving in Jaisalmer India gave us a timely reminder of why people come here and renewed our enthusiasm for our trip.
It’s a small town in the middle of the desert by the border with Pakistan, seriously hot with incredible scenery.
We were picked up by the owner of our guesthouse the most genuinely lovely Indian in the tourist trade we have met so far. Our room is a 1000 years’ old and nestled in the wall of the Jaisalmer Fort (we love Forts again) overlooking the “new city” and the desert. Our bed is made of dried cow dung clay – designed so it is cool in summer and retains its heat in the winter (however its so hot here most of the time the bed feels like someone has left the electric blanket on).
We spent our first morning watching the sunrise over the desert, lounging in our ‘Ali Baba’ balcony, eating some of the best food we have had on the trip, and waiting for the temp to hit 40 degrees. In the afternoon we jumped onto camels and rode into the desert to catch the sunset on the dunes and have dinner under the stars.