Some thoughts from Martyn ( finally)

We've been in India for nearly 3 months now. It sometimes feels like no time at all, and other days (when we are tired, or have been on the road for a while) like we have been here forever.

A quick recap of the trip so far: we spent 9 weeks in Dharamsala, in Himachal Pradesh volunteering with an organisation called CCS. Since finishing there in July, we have been doing a bit of a tourist thing, visiting Delhi, Agra and Jaipur ("The Golden Triangle", that an awful lot of tourists visit), and then onto Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. We're currently sat in a homestay in a very nice part of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.

What I want to blog about is the things I've learnt  or noticed since we began travelling in May; which wasn't that long ago. I think the learning curve has been pretty steep!

Anyway I need to blog more often, and so here are some things that came out when I started writing...

1. I can be pretty confident with strangers when I need to be. Back home I would rarely ask a stranger for directions, or talk to someone in a shop in passing, or even ask someone to take my picture at a tourist site. The fact that we are in a different country, just the two of us and we're travelling so much means that not a day goes by when we have to ask for directions in Hindi, or bargain for a tuk-tuk ride, or try to order train tickets at a busy station (again, mostly in broken Hindi). This has meant that we have to be confident and have to talk to new people. This has been one of the best bits about our trip in India. This way we have met some great people.

2. India has taught me to be more patient. Jess has probably already blogged about the concept of "India Time". Some things happen very slowly here. Some things don't work, and some just aren't happening today, for some reason. What these things are changes all the time, but we have learned to greet these occasions with "well, this is India". I think that we could all do with a little more patience. I think we shouldnt think "well, this is India", we should think " ok, well, what's the rush?"

3. India has changed the dynamic between Jess and I when we are out in public. Jess has already blogged about her experiences as a western woman in India, but I can see that the arguably male dominated culture has changed the way we work together. Because I'm a man, men in authority such as police officers, ticket inspectors etc only talk to me. Men in shops hand me change, not Jess. People touting for business, be it outside restaurants or at taxi ranks only talk to me , and ignore Jess, to the extent that she can walk 3 paces behind me and get no bother from touts/taxi drivers at all.

The effect of this means that although the two of us are a single unit, working together and sharing our views, coming to decisions together - Jess rarely has to represent us.

I feel like I end up doing more, taking the lead for the two of us, without Jess getting a look in. I don't really know how to fix this, considering it is these men who have the problem, not us. Perhaps the two of us can work better together and I will correct these men if they talk to me and overlook Jess.

I would be interested to hear if anyone can identify with any of these experiences, or has any thoughts about my thoughts...

Udaipur

We were in Udaipur 2 weeks ago so sorry for the delay!

We arrived in Udaipur at 530 in the morning not quite sure what to do. So we hopped in a rickshaw and got dropped at our hotel. We didn't figure it would be open but that we could go for a walk nearby. The rickshaw driver had other ideas. He got the light from his phone and shone it in the face of the poor boy who was sleeping behind the desk (common practice). He mumbled lots and told us to go away until 10. Fair enough! Apparently satisfied that we wouldn't get into our hotel the rickshaw driver then tried to offer us hotels all over Udaipur! This is pretty common, everyone is trying to get commission from somewhere so we replied with our stock phrase 'no, no we've already paid! (we hadnt)' and he eventually let us be.

Udaipur is surrounding a very big lake so we went and sat on the shore for an hour or so just enjoying watching a town wake up.

Udaipur is the home of the Bond film, Octopussy. We didn't know this until we got to the town and it was EVERYWHERE! There's graffiti and signs and offers of film viewings whereever you go. (yes that is a photo of a man weeing up an octopus. Men in India wee where ever they like)

We were finally let into our hotel and chilled on the rooftop terrace overlooking the lake for the whole day. In the evening we thought we'd take up the offer of a free viewing of a bond film. We ate a pretty cheap crappy dinner of Iceland standard pizza (the shop, not the country) and were moved into a small room with a big tv and a German family and sat and watched Octopussy.

At the time we thought we'd seen the film, turns out we hadn't. A film made by a British company set in India made in the 1970s turns out to be a recipe for disaster! There were so many cringe worthy rascisty moments! All in all not the best bond, although Roger Moore dressed as a clown isn't something I'll forget in a hurry.

For the first time since leaving volunteering Martyn and I had a seperate morning. He went off walking and I had a course in miniature paintings. These are famous in Rajasthan and have a very set style. I enjoyed it so much I did 2! The first is a peacock, the national bird of India and the second is Lord Ganesh, the Hindu God.

(mine are the bottom 2)

The rest of Udaipur is a wash of relaxing on a terrace and getting boat rides. A beautiful little town that we didn't want to leave....

Makes you think...

I rode a camel today.

That in itself was so much fun and so different to anything I've done before. We rode across deserted sand dunes, towards the sunset, wearing a 'laurence of Arabia' turban (dupattas really can be turned into anything!) with our guide and camel wrangler David (not entirely sure if that's his real name).

David lives in the desert. He doesn't own any camels himself as they are very expensive (25,000 rupees) but he is employed by 'the boss'. The boss has 50 camels and several camel wranglers and when hotels say they need camels he gives them to people like David who then takes out tourists.

Because David has a boss he also has a monthly salary. Before I continue, yes I know where this is going and yes he probably sold us a sob story, but I still think this is worth telling.

David's salary is 4000 rupees a month. A paltry amount at around £40-45 depending on the rate.

We tipped him 200 rupees for an enjoyable and exciting new experience. This is his daily pay. We increased his salary that day by 100%. I can't imagine anyone at home tipping any professional their daily wages, yet that's exactly what we did. And all it cost us was equivalent to 1 coffee.

I don't have any startling opinions or witty remarks just... It makes you think.

Jaisalmer

Well I can't say my time in jaisalmer was very productive. I spent 3 days in the hotel room and didn't do very much apart from take walks from the bed to the toilet and back again. Woo!

However our 3rd night was lovely. It was the first time I'd actually been out in jaisalmer and we went to a lovely restaurant. Martyn had been out by himself that day and met up with some people we'd previously met on the train. So after our meal we went to their hotel and had a few drinks and a lot of chat.

Meghna, Prashant and Jasem (everybody say hi) are architects from Bombay (NOT Mumbai) who decided to holiday round Rajasthan for a couple of weeks. They're not that keen on Slumdog Millionaire and like a good beer and chin wag. We chatted well into the night and met up again for lunch the next day.

After lunch we went on a camel safari, we were driven by jeep out of Jaisalmer to cenotaphs, which were beautiful and commemorated the many wives of maharajas who on his death, would jump into a fire to die with him. This last happened in India in 1843, far too recent for my taste.

We were took on to a deserted village, that the guide introduced to us as the vegetarian village. I was mildly confused as most places have vegetarians and there are many vegetarian villages too!

Turned out the evil Salim Singh was head of the State and the people didn't like his he was running the show so one night 84 villages across the state emptied at once! Hopefully that got the message across! 

No-one lives there now as at night you can allegedly hear the villagers wailing and crying as they left their beloved home.

Then we met our camel man, David, and hopped somewhat ungracefully onto a camel each. I remembered Meghna saying that the best bit of a camel ride is them standing up and sitting down. I think I respectfully disagree! The standing up was ok, camels are pretty leggy! They stand with their front legs then their back so that you almost see-saw backwards then forwards. But after a short time of David leading thr camels on foot he then needed to get on mine with me so it had to sit down again! This is a bit daunting as you feel that youre just going to topple off the front!

The walk across the desert was beautiful, and nothing like anything I've done before. Once you get used to the camels' gait it was ok, if a bit wibbly.

After 2 hours or so trekking we stopped at the end of the dunes and had a delicious dinner of curried potatoes and cabbage with rice and chappati, under the moonlight. What an experience!

The golden triangle

We leave Jaipur tonight to head onwards into Rajasthan to udaipur, and I can't lie; I can't wait. It's not that the golden triangle (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur) haven't been fun. It has! We've seen and done so much is these beautiful and bustling cities. But it takes its toll. Hurtling from one destination to another to see the next sight is tiring.

This culminated in this morning not knowing what to do, we wanted to see sights, experience new things, eat and drink to our hearts content but bed was just so comfy... I did what any person of my generation would do, I googled it.

Turns out not only are we not alone on these thoughts, it's also pretty common especially in long trips. There are 2 solutions to the 'backpacker blues' as I like to call it.

1. Mope. Mope till you can mope no more. Wallow to your heart's content, and then move on tomorrow.

As this wasn't an option to us, we had to be out the hotel by 12 we plumbed for:

2. Get off your arse, suck it up and fake it till you make it!

Turns out this works pretty well. There's a small walking tour of Jaipur in the guide book we had so with no better options we did it. And it was great. It takes you through all the main bazaars, sights, smells (oh god the smells!), sounds were overwhelming but as welcoming as going home. We window shopped till we dropped.

Crossing a particularly busy road I had a bit of an argument with a motorbike. As I got to the other side a young guy came over to me and started explaining the etiquette of crossing the road. He then asked us the now infamous line "why don't foreigners talk to the locals? You want to learn our culture but not from us" Well... We tend to like our money in our own pocket until we give it to someone rather than them take it, that's why!

He wasn't connected to a shop and he didn't have any produce he just wanted to chat over chai. We figured why not? And it was just as lovely as we'd hoped. We had chai, we chatted and we parted ways pleasantly with no spending at all :)

2 minutes down the road another guy stopped us with exactly the same line. Ah shit. There's a scam somewhere but even now we can't see where it was! Funnily enough we didn't have chai with him and carried on!

We took an auto rickshaw to a fort high in the mountains that gave spectacular views, even if the ride up and down was a bit bone shaker-esque. My poor girls didn't know what hit them! 

Now to the bus station to overnight to udaipur. Who knows what we'll find...?
(written 8/8/13)

Only in India

It's hard to explain everything, as there are some things we see/experience that would at home be strange or offputting but here we just shrug and say 'only in India' and it is instantly forgotten as anything strange. I'll try and remember as many as I can.

Only in India can you:

See a man squatting doing his business in the street, having a conversation with his friends.

Find the hotel staff sleeping on a mattress behind reception.

Share the street with cows, I have a bruise down my thigh from a cow headbutting me when I tried to shoo it out of our Dharamsala garden...

Have the smell of urinals and food stalls mingle in the air.

Get stuck behind a broken rail crossing barrier, but instead of waiting for officials to sort it just get your tool kit out, 6 able men and take it off the road.

Use your horn to: alert other drivers you are there, you are over taking, you're going round a corner, you're going straight, you're changing lane, staying in lane, have a cough, generally that you own a vehicle, warn a pedestrian you'll run them over, you just think the road is too quiet.

On the metro, women have their own carriages. If men try to ride in that carriage there is a fine. I think this should be brought to the uk!

Small trucks that are designated as 'goods vehicles' tend to carry people. Lots of people. They hang off the back and sit on top of each other.

Large trucks have musical horns.

Extra large trucks carry hay in giant sacks that overhang the sides and back of the lorry bed. 

Seat belts are not mandatory. Most cars don't have them in the back.

Tuk tuks (autorickshaws) are the most convenient way to travel around cities. They are basically motor trikes with a cover on them that can hold 3 people if you don't mind getting cosy (If you're Indian there is no limit to how many people fit). They fit through gaps you didn't think could exist and you take your life in your hands when you get it. The only way to travel! 

There is no limit to how many people you can get on motorbike.

Have the Taj mahal, THE Taj mahal behind you and yet you want to take a photo of 2 sweaty white people.

On the road again...

After an interesting 5 days in Delhi with Karen and Melanie (everyone say hi! We also met volunteering. Melanie finished her program a week after us so we met up a couple of times in Delhi before she left. Melanie is a student in Virginia, studying foreign affairs) we're back on a train, this time to Agra where the famous Taj Mahal is... Oooh!!!

Delhi was great fun, and we managed to tick off a lot of the touristy sights. We now feel like we have a better understanding of Delhi and would now recommend people to visit :)

..........

We are officially tourists as we went to see the Taj Mahal. It is as amazing as you think it is from the photos. And oh so big!