First week in Nepal

Already we've found life in Nepal to be very different yet reassuringly similar to India. Granted we are in a very touristy area, which will influence the local culture and feel but still things are different.

There is much less traffic, we can cross the road by looking both ways and then walking, without worrying a scooter will appear out of nowhere and mow us down.

There is a lot less staring and much more smiling.

It is not customary to say thank you here. This is a little odd to us, yet in India it is not normal to say please so if our manners are off when we get home, please forgive us. Thank you!

The women wear typically Indian dress, Salwar Kameez and saris.

Early to bed, early to rise. Sunrise is at 530am and sunset is 630 pm.

In our first week we've gently settled in to life here. 

Our first day here we had a mega lie in. It felt like jet lag from all the travelling we'd done! Then sauntered round the shops, popping in a few trekking and kayaking places for prices and had Chinese for lunch followed in the evening by the most delicious Japanese food we've ever had! The flavours were delicate and the presentation was spectacular. No photos I'm afraid though, we ate it too quickly!

The next day we spent a whole day on a row boat on the lake (Phewa Tal). Its not huge but there are enough pockets and bays to make it an interesting day. There's an island temple to Lord Shiva, as many Nepali people are Hindu, and a few cafes along the further shoreline.

That evening we had Korean food with names like Bibimbob and Yem bob. Tasty and amusing.

We've visited the international mountain museum, which showcased the different cultures of Nepal including languages, religion and local dress. Obviously there was a huge section on mountains. Did you know... Nepal has 10 out of the 14 highest mountains in the world? 

It was very interesting, if a little repetitive. There were quotes from famous mountaineers on their opinions on getting to the top of these great peaks. Surprisigly their views on mountaineering are very similar to mine, "Thank God it's the top, we can go back now!"

I breifly lost Martyn in the knot section, we were glared at by a yeti and there was an exhibit on the amount of rubbish brought back from Everest in one year alone.

I've also now tried my hand at kayaking, we rented them for a few hours on my favourite place, the lake. After about half an hour of paddling in circles I managed to cross to a bay on the other side in a roundabout way. I rewarded myself with a swim. It was brilliant! The water was cool but not cold, and although it was a little green it's still a clean lake. Laying on your back with blue skies above and mountains all around was just breathtaking.

We enjoyed kayaking so much that tomorrow we're doing a 'kayak clinc' to learn effective techniques and how to Eskimo roll, so that the day after we can go on a river and play in rapids! Woo!

On the road Mk2

We've just arrived in Varanasi after a 4 hour train journey from Allahbad. It was a different type of journey to what we've experienced before so I thought you should know.

We travelled by train (for a recap on classes see my post on Delhi) in sleeper class which we hadn't done before. It's basically the same as 3AC but without the AC. Surprisingly comfortable, as we left early before the heat.

The thing about sleeper class is that tourists don't tend to use it as they can afford 3AC very easily, and for long journeys especially it's nice to be cool. By the time we'd booked our tickets 3AC had soldout, so sleeper it was!

We found our bunks ok and sat down with a group of locals who were all very friendly and wanted to chat. For the first half an hour this was ok, by the 2nd hour I was a bit fed up. We were definitely a novelty, they wanted to know all about us (which is nice) there were smiles when we said we were married, cries of confusion when we said we didn't have children and frowns when we told them that men and women drink together.


Through their pigeon English and our attrocious Hindi we had a lovely conversation, but by this point the rest of the carriage had been listening and we turn round to find 10 or more people standing round us wanting photos, it was like being a celebrity!

When the chattiest man started reading Martyn's palm, it all got a bit much for me and I had a fit of the giggles. I didn't know what to do for the best! Apparently the verdict from both our palms is that we are both clever but Martyn is more so (well he is a man), we are both rich but I am more so, so I have to give money to Martyn (we'll see about that) and that we'll both have 2 children, initally there was some concern as I was going to have 1 and Martyn 2, but luckily for us the man found another line on my hand. Phew!

Oh I forgot the food! There are wallahs (Boys selling stuff) every where. They walk up and down the aisle shouting about what we can buy.

If we'd have wanted to we could have had:

Chai, peas, chickpeas, newspapers (in English or Hindi), samosas, icecream, whole cucumbers, carrots, bottles of water, silk scarves and socks!

Plus the bonus flute playing and singing...

All in all sleeper was fine, and we would travel on it again, but more than any other carriage we've been on there has been more chatting, awkward questions, no personal space and generally the feeling that you are "up for grabs" (hopefully not literally).

Lucknow and Allahbad

I've grouped these two together as that's the order we visited them! We only spent a couple of days in each so theres not enough info for 2 posts...

Lucknow
On arriving in Lucknow, we noticed how different it was. We were in a new state (Uttar Pradesh) and everything was green, unlike the desert state of Rajasthan. We grabbed a Rickshaw to our home stay (like a BnB) and settled in. 

The homestay was in a very rich area with not many tourists around, well actually no tourists at all. We found this an odd place to have a place for tourists to stay but never mind, although when we went out later that day to go and explore it was virtually impossible to find  rickshaw to take us!

Lucknow itself is a very Muslim city and this was reflected in the archetechture and food. There were delicious meat kebabs on offer, althugh when we actually had them instead of being minced meat it was ground to a paste, like eating fried pate. Not altogether bad, but a bit odd.

We visited the tourist hotspots, a few mosques dotted around, a couple of tombs and a labyrinth. They were very interesting and were different to the Mughal art that we'd already seen. We don't tend to have guides as they can charge a lot and they set the pace of a visit which we don't like. However this doesn't seem to stop guards and random old men following us around and telling us the history of a place and then expecting payment, even when we say we don't want a guide. A particularly over zealous man followed us around a tomb telling us the info, I however walked off as I wasn't that interested and definitely didn't want to pay him. he had other ideas, shouting "Madam, will you please listen" across the very echoey hall! I slouched over like a teenager and glared at him the whole time. Needless to say we didn't pay him...

At the homestay we met a few lovely people from America (everybody say hi!), Aaron, Melinda, Josephine, Chelsea, Anastacia and Schuyler. They're students that have been given an opportunity to study in India as a partnership program with their college. So we all went out together the next day into the markets to see what we could find.

Allahbad
On arriving in Allahbad we were virtualy ambushed by all of the different rickshaw drivers wanting to take us to our destination. Even though we could walk to the hotel! We were followed by one particularly persistant cycle rickshaw driver the whole length of the road and up to the hotel car park!

After we settled in and sorted ourselves out we went for a walk to go and explore only to find out that a lot of places are closed on a Sunday. D'oh! We found the Indian Coffee House ( a co-op business that has branches all over India) so at least we knew what we were getting.

After a tasty coffee and an icecream we hopped in another rickshaw with a guy that looks like the Indian Robin Williams! We went to the Nehru's house, who are the first family of Indian politics. They have produced 3 Prime ministers including the infamous Indira Gandhi, only the 2nd female leader of a country after Maggie Thatcher.

It was interesting as the house has been kept as it was when it was used as a political base ad so all the meeting rooms and bedrooms have been kept in their respective times. There's even a small plaque showing where Mahatma Gandhi used to meditate on the balcony.

Strangely there is also a planetarium on site, which we went to. It was mainly in Hindi but it was quite therapeutic to sit under a dome and look at the stars above us. There was a 20 minute section on alien life, which we think may have been speculating on what aliens look like... A little odd but nevermind.

Low and behold when we walked out, our friend Robin Williams was waiting to take us home!

(No photos I'm afraid as this PC won't let my phone hook up)

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!

Ladies night

As a cultural learning experience (read girls getting giddy) we were able to wear saris (or is it sarees?) for an hour or so. It took about that long to get ready!

The female staff, Anju, Monica and Neha, brought their own beautiful saris with them to the home base and dressed us up, including Indian style make up and jewellery.

I was lucky enough to be dressed as a bride, wearing Neha's actual wedding sari! Red is the traditional colour for Indian brides, as white is the colour for funerals.

My didi (term of endearment - older sister), Anju, did all my make up and hair. It is a lot more full on compared to my normal style! Red/pink eyeshadow, liquid and pencil eyeliner, mascara, eyebrow pencil, lip liner and dark red lipstick! Plus an elaborate bindi pattern starting in between my eyebrows and curling around both my eyes.

Then the jewellery!! All gold:
Pendant in my hair parting onto my forehead.
Nose ring that was SCREWED into place (that brought tears to my eyes! "you're supposed to cry, its your wedding!"), that had a chain attached to my hair.
Earrings with droplets over the back of the ears.
A large choker
A large necklace under the choker
A belt with bells
2 anklets
2 toe rings
Bracelets with intricately jewelled chains attached to rings.
Glass bangles.

Phew! It was heavy.

I asked how long the bride had to wear everything, "just for the wedding, not the party/reception" how long would that be? "oh probably 8 hours!" Eek!

When all the girls came out to proudly display our new look the boys were in shock! Martyn as then given a very red tube with a lip gloss style applicator and he had to draw a small line from the centre of my forehead up to my hairline. "Now you are married!!!" :-D

There are many ways to spot a married woman, not a ring on her finger...

A large bindi
Red bangles
Toe rings
The red line in her hairline - this signifies the woman's wish for her husband to have a long life

The sari itself was very comfortable and I would love to have opportunity to wear another one, but maybe without all the jewellery!

A woman's touch

Returned back to Dharamsala today from Amritsar, Martyn has filled you in on the details of splendour and history. I however can tell you about my personal experiences of a busy Indian city from the point of view of a white woman.

I've read in many guidebooks and novels about the treatment of women in Indian culture; we went to a lecture from a leading feminist last week who also spoke at length on the topic. India is once again the country of opposites, as with anywhere there is domestic abuse, yet brides are revered as some of the most beautiful and important women. Women in rural areas generally don't work they look after the children and household, yet a strong female prime minister has been elected. Tourists are welcomed as an excellent source of income, yet when white women visit they are treated as eye candy, a piece of meat, or worse.

Walking through the bustling streets of Amritsar under the shadow of the Golden Temple, the holiest place on the planet for Sikhs, men openly stare as a procession of white (predominantly female) tourists walk by trying to jostle their way through the crowd to the next destination.

The staring is a shock, even after all my reading, I expected some staring as I am different but the intensity and frequency were more than I could ever imagine. At home to stare at anybody is rude, yet if you challenge these men by staring back they don't avert their eyes or seem apologetic, they smile. White women are still a novelty and the locals love it.

We visited the memorial gardens of the site where over 1000 men, women and children were slaughtered by the British. A sobering visit to say the least, yet instead of locals taking in their history they came to me. At first it was a couple of people who wanted me to hug their mum, but eventually it was essentially a queue. Young boys took photos on their smart phones, women came and shook my hand. One woman even thrust a screaming infant into my arms for a photo! It was overwhelming, even when people weren't coming up to me everyone was staring and whispering. Privacy and personal space had gone out the window.

I never felt completely comfortable in this holy city. It was packed. Thousands of people pound the streets every day and it seemed that most of those thousands also wanted to see me, touch me, have a photo, hear me say hello for the hundredth time or just wave. It was draining, emotionally and physically. It became easier to cover my head with my dupatta (headscarf, remember?) and walk. This wasn't the best solution, I feel I've missed a fair few sights this way and from the welcome I received I won't be going back to find what I've missed.

Returning to Dharamsala felt like home. The locals talk to me and smile, not because they want to lech but because they are interested. The feeling could not be further from Amritsar, yet it's only 150km away.

We take for granted the rights women have at home. I don't think I will anymore...