Indians have got it going on fasionwise.
I'm not impartial to a good western suit but some of the stuff they get married in just blows anything we wear out of the water in terms of colourfulness and sparklyness.
Friday 29 May 2009
Rishikesh the second time
We had to go back down the hill because of expensive on-season hotels in Ninetails, so we decided to surprise the girls who were in Rishikesh. Rishikesh was one of the first places I ever went travelling.
India is the only place you would spend eight hours on a bus to surprise someone.
We arrived, and evaded the girls using cleverly cut newspapers. We got caught soon.
Rishikesh, despite cockroach problems is the perfect place to relax in an ashram or a cafe with an Isreli or two.
We went white water rafting this time. At one point the man stood up, swore, and began to panic, before guiding us onto a wave the size of a room. The squealing Albanian lass didn't help the matter. But the Ganga river was lovely and cool. Mmmm.
On the way out of Rishikesh, on the "deluxe" bus that I had paid Rs. 200 for, the conductor made all the foreigners wait a few metres away while he got all the Indian locals and their bags safely on the bus, then charged all the foreigners Rs. 20 "baggage charge" which he pocketed. He proceeded to cram 6 people onto the back seat designed for 5.
Saying goodbye to Rishikesh, with my bag and things, I was watching the shadow of a tree waving oabout on the water, and I suddenly became quite nervous about going home.
Troubling.
India is the only place you would spend eight hours on a bus to surprise someone.
We arrived, and evaded the girls using cleverly cut newspapers. We got caught soon.
Rishikesh, despite cockroach problems is the perfect place to relax in an ashram or a cafe with an Isreli or two.
We went white water rafting this time. At one point the man stood up, swore, and began to panic, before guiding us onto a wave the size of a room. The squealing Albanian lass didn't help the matter. But the Ganga river was lovely and cool. Mmmm.
On the way out of Rishikesh, on the "deluxe" bus that I had paid Rs. 200 for, the conductor made all the foreigners wait a few metres away while he got all the Indian locals and their bags safely on the bus, then charged all the foreigners Rs. 20 "baggage charge" which he pocketed. He proceeded to cram 6 people onto the back seat designed for 5.
Saying goodbye to Rishikesh, with my bag and things, I was watching the shadow of a tree waving oabout on the water, and I suddenly became quite nervous about going home.
Troubling.
Ninetails (Nainital)
We decided to escape to the hills, and in a way that is what we have done, in that we are in the hills and it is lovely and cool, but in a way we haven't really escaped because half of India seems to have "escaped" here too.
It's not such a problem really, because the place is still really beautiful. It surrounds a lake right up in the hills. I had another early morning run up a hill; a big one this time, and it in fact left me feeling quite dizzy and sick due to altitude and lack of breakfast. But the lake was really stunning from above with no boats on it. You could see the patches where the gas springs bubbled up from the bottom.
Just like we in the UK enjoy going to hot places for holidays, Indian tourists enjoy going to the hills for holidays, so places like Ninetails, Mussoorie and Shimla are always all done up with fairground rides and amusements. Me and Felix have been putting them to good use, frequenting the games arcade and visiting the coolest pool hall in the world.
I also found the most classic public library and I don't know why they don't make them like that anymore.
Unfortunately Megan and Felix were robbed of the chance to go really high up, but we decided to go exploring in search of a nice looking building we saw on the hillside. We found one of them, which we found out was the court house, and was an amazing colonial British stone and wood building. I love exploring. It's better than doing other things.
It's not such a problem really, because the place is still really beautiful. It surrounds a lake right up in the hills. I had another early morning run up a hill; a big one this time, and it in fact left me feeling quite dizzy and sick due to altitude and lack of breakfast. But the lake was really stunning from above with no boats on it. You could see the patches where the gas springs bubbled up from the bottom.
Just like we in the UK enjoy going to hot places for holidays, Indian tourists enjoy going to the hills for holidays, so places like Ninetails, Mussoorie and Shimla are always all done up with fairground rides and amusements. Me and Felix have been putting them to good use, frequenting the games arcade and visiting the coolest pool hall in the world.
I also found the most classic public library and I don't know why they don't make them like that anymore.
Unfortunately Megan and Felix were robbed of the chance to go really high up, but we decided to go exploring in search of a nice looking building we saw on the hillside. We found one of them, which we found out was the court house, and was an amazing colonial British stone and wood building. I love exploring. It's better than doing other things.
The Deccan Chargers won the IPL
I have always found cricket engulfingly boring, but I actually got quite into the IPL.
As you may know, it was held in South Africa this year to avoid clashes with the elections.
The IPL (Indian Premier League) is like cricket that has been pumped with stimulants. 8 teams (I think) represent the major Indian cities. The best players from around the world are auctioned for by super rich owners, a lot of whom are Bollywood stars. The man of the match wins a motorbike. The advertising companies go nuts.
Instead of saying "six" when the ball crosses the boundary, the comentators have to say "AFL maximum," after an Indian insurance company. So replays of all the sixes sound like:
"And it's gone out for another AFL maximum"
"And that is a classic AFL maximum"
"And that is the 37th AFL maximum of the tournament."
It's quite funny listening to the commentators trying harder and harder to find new ways of using AFL maximum in a sentence as the match goes on.
It is twenty-twenty cricket so there are loads of boundaries and loads of wickets, which is why I can watch it.
Cricket purists do not approve of the IPL, but cricket purists can stuff themselves because India LOVES cricket and India, especially the kids, love the big names; and the IPL, for the few weeks it is on, is brilliant.
Playing with the kids
Most of the problems in India are invisible to the traveller, so the lives of the beggars and the kids who sell things on the street are a mystery, but one of the most heartening things I have done here was to play with the kids selling postcards in Varanasi.
Friday 22 May 2009
Varanasi
Varanasi is probably the most spiritual place in India as far as the Hindu religion goes.
I'm in a guest house in the thick of it, but step out the door and you find yourself in a maze. The alleys are about 2 metres wide and you can't get more than about 15 yards without having to press yourself against the wall to pass a motorbike, a ginormous cow or a funeral procession.
The funeral processions can be heard coming, which gives you time to jump to the side instead of getting run over. The body is wrapped up and run through the maze to a chorus of "Rama Rama!" or other such chants.
They all end up at what is called the burning Ghat, which among the huge piles of wood holds several smoky funeral pyres at any time.
We took a boat down the river at 5am the other day to watch the people do their daily washing. Washing in this river is said to cleanse the soul of sin, so you can imagine its a pretty popular Hindu swimming spot.
In such a holy river, there were an awful lot of everyday things going on down on the Ghats in the morning, like a line of children in swimming lessons, a group of washing men flogging out the clothes on their stones, and loads of swimmers.
If we went swimming, we would almost definately die. The safe limit of faecal colliform bacteria for swimming is 500 per 100ml. The river contains 1.5 million per 100m, but the Indian locals who swim here every day clearly have much more powerful immune systems than us, since they all looked perfectly unharmed.
The other day we watched the nightly puja ritual while being sold post cards. The post card seller was a 6 year old called Haresh. He was a perfect salesman, knew all the necessary English and all the tricks. The little kids doing selling the face paints were all under 13 and were working to pay for school every day. We moved out onto a boat, and watched the ceremony from they water. All I can really say is it was quite stunning to watch and more than a little bit mystifying.
Sadhus are everywhere in their orange clothing. Some of them paint their entire bodies white which looks fun. You can't really sleep every long because a Sadhu with bells likes to sing really loud in the morning.
Anyway I must go because I have a Sitar lesson to attend.
I'm in a guest house in the thick of it, but step out the door and you find yourself in a maze. The alleys are about 2 metres wide and you can't get more than about 15 yards without having to press yourself against the wall to pass a motorbike, a ginormous cow or a funeral procession.
The funeral processions can be heard coming, which gives you time to jump to the side instead of getting run over. The body is wrapped up and run through the maze to a chorus of "Rama Rama!" or other such chants.
They all end up at what is called the burning Ghat, which among the huge piles of wood holds several smoky funeral pyres at any time.
We took a boat down the river at 5am the other day to watch the people do their daily washing. Washing in this river is said to cleanse the soul of sin, so you can imagine its a pretty popular Hindu swimming spot.
In such a holy river, there were an awful lot of everyday things going on down on the Ghats in the morning, like a line of children in swimming lessons, a group of washing men flogging out the clothes on their stones, and loads of swimmers.
If we went swimming, we would almost definately die. The safe limit of faecal colliform bacteria for swimming is 500 per 100ml. The river contains 1.5 million per 100m, but the Indian locals who swim here every day clearly have much more powerful immune systems than us, since they all looked perfectly unharmed.
The other day we watched the nightly puja ritual while being sold post cards. The post card seller was a 6 year old called Haresh. He was a perfect salesman, knew all the necessary English and all the tricks. The little kids doing selling the face paints were all under 13 and were working to pay for school every day. We moved out onto a boat, and watched the ceremony from they water. All I can really say is it was quite stunning to watch and more than a little bit mystifying.
Sadhus are everywhere in their orange clothing. Some of them paint their entire bodies white which looks fun. You can't really sleep every long because a Sadhu with bells likes to sing really loud in the morning.
Anyway I must go because I have a Sitar lesson to attend.
Sunday 17 May 2009
Indian Railways Sleeper Class
This time I was with other people, which was less lonely, but funnily enough made it seem longer, and also highlighted some of the damaging psychological effects of prolonged public transport experiences.
But really, where else can you fall into a curry while playing hide and seek on a train?
Kerala
In Goa I actually got a semi permanent tatoo of a crocodile on my elbow so when I extend it the crocodile breaths fire.
However, we left Goa after a 3 hour night, spent most of the train journey knocked out and arrived in:
Thinuvananthapuram.
This is in Kerala, the monsoon debut state, right at the bottom tip of India. It's a communist state and has 100% literacy rate. Our first stop was Allepey and our day on the house boat. The town of Allepey had a long green canal running through it, and you could watch more and more house boats appearing as you drove closer to the famous backwaters.
The Kerala backwaters are quite an amazing part of the world and also quite hard to make sense of. Its a bit like an Indian venice, but even still very different. Not quite canals, a sea or farmland, it was a bit of all three. Rice fields and large areas of water were separated by long walls that made a sort of water roadway. We mowed along past all the women doing their washing on the steps down to the river. The house boats look a bit like dinosaurs and have thatched roofs; Ours was like a floating hotel, and I have stayed in hotels which were more expensive and far less luxurious. At one point when we were just having a little break, a small man in a paddle boat drifted up next to us, popped his head over the side and offered us to buy some freshly caught prawns. Yes please. We ate them for dinner, having had them cooked by the staff.
Legends spread all over India, and back in BRCM the boys did something called the "Kerala boat race" where they all had to make a conga line and do a sort of squat hop to the finish. Half a month after I left the place and I saw one of the boats they were imitating all those hundreds and hundreds of miles up north. A Snake Boat. Big long thin vessel, which on the boat race festival holds 120 crew all rowing at the same time.
We had barely stepped onto dry land when we had to go to Cochin. This involved getting hour-and-a-half long rickshaws and encouraging them to race so that we would get there faster. A crash and a wheelie later we arrived at the small old European style town with wooden buildings. The three things I wanted to do in Kerala were: houseboat, fishing net, Kathakali dancers.
Pretty much the first thing we did in Cochin was not just see these gigantic fishing net contraptions but actually operate one. The line of huge spider-like wooden framesgoes down the beach and every five minutes or so the fishermen get up from their perches and pull the giant net into the air. While we were there it only returned one fish. It seemed rather an effort to go through for one fish.
"Jew Street" was not especially Jewish, and the synagogue was closed, so that was a shame, but we were wondering when the Jews came over here. They must have come over with the Dutch or French. There are quite a few more Synagogues in the south than there are in the north, where the Jewish community is practically non-existant, except in Pushkar where one is needed to convert back all the Isrelis who go and convert to Hindu. I was once actually confused by an Orthodox Jew as being one, (probably due to curly hair) so I thought I'd fit right in. However as I said it wasn't particularly Jewish. It was a bunch of gift shops.
In the evening we saw the Kathakalis, which was yet another incredible dance experience. We watched them putting their make up on for an hour before the programme started. Keralan dancing is all about the facial expression, so it takes the form of quite a flirty, animated dance. Their eyebrows are exaggerated with the face paints. The programme showed all the lesser dances before the real Kathakalis came on, and when they did... the SIZE of them. They are dressed in the most ridiculously big costumes so that they could barely fit on the stage. Kathakalis represent different emotions with facial gestures, so a man sat on a stool and did a dance of about 12 different emotions using only his face, without moving his body.
So it was a bit of a crash through the palm tree state, but I saw everything I wanted to see. Life is much more relaxed down south. More coconts, less camels, much more humidity and roughly equivalent amounts of elephants.
Monday 11 May 2009
Goa again
em...yup...
we are a little bit stuck in Goa. Only a little bit though. Can't quite get a train to go the right direction.
we are a little bit stuck in Goa. Only a little bit though. Can't quite get a train to go the right direction.
Monday 4 May 2009
Hampi!
Had a few problems with the buses. Really surprising, I know.
I spent half the journey pulling my hair out with grief while the bus was stopped for no tangible reason and my friends had knocked themselves out with sleeping pills.
But we arrived and it led, as all buses do, to yet another incredible place. Hampi is a good few hectares of ancient Hindu ruins which were once home to a whole civilisation. There are temples, ancient markets, all sorts. 50p hired us a bike for the day and we cycled around the sites in the searing heat. At one point a gardner decided to make an extra Rs 10 by dropping his hose and giving us a guided tour of an underground passageway.
It's full of banana trees, temples, oddly balanced rocks and laziness.
Today we got a guy to give us a lift up the stream on his Moses style reid basket boat. There are loads of temples and meditation building ruins at the side of the river. If you were big on meditation, they would probably be the best places to do it in the world. We also saw the place Hanuman was born. Hanuman is a big deal. There are 36,000,000 Gods and Hanuman is in the top 5 most popular. His face is still in one of the rock formations.
It's been a good little excursion away from Goa. We're back there tomorow. Back to the beaches.
I spent half the journey pulling my hair out with grief while the bus was stopped for no tangible reason and my friends had knocked themselves out with sleeping pills.
But we arrived and it led, as all buses do, to yet another incredible place. Hampi is a good few hectares of ancient Hindu ruins which were once home to a whole civilisation. There are temples, ancient markets, all sorts. 50p hired us a bike for the day and we cycled around the sites in the searing heat. At one point a gardner decided to make an extra Rs 10 by dropping his hose and giving us a guided tour of an underground passageway.
It's full of banana trees, temples, oddly balanced rocks and laziness.
Today we got a guy to give us a lift up the stream on his Moses style reid basket boat. There are loads of temples and meditation building ruins at the side of the river. If you were big on meditation, they would probably be the best places to do it in the world. We also saw the place Hanuman was born. Hanuman is a big deal. There are 36,000,000 Gods and Hanuman is in the top 5 most popular. His face is still in one of the rock formations.
It's been a good little excursion away from Goa. We're back there tomorow. Back to the beaches.
Saturday 2 May 2009
G-G-G-Goa
I'm back in the state of sand and it's gone with an absolute bang this time. I couldn't feel more like I was in Goa.
Last night, for instance, we were sitting round a fire, on a beach, all seven of us, plus a bunch of other people who we met in our beach tree huts, and three aged hippies, one of whom was one of the most fantastic guitarists I've ever seen, drinking beers, chatting and "jamming" with the aged hippies. How is that for Goan.
We did the famous Anjuna flea market on Wednesday, where they sold all sorts of stuff. A guy even managed to paint, "Archdeaconfauntleroy" on a grain of rice for me. We went and sat in a beach restaurant and watched a live band with sitars and such like before going out to some insane trance party in a club in the middle of NOWHERE.
There are loads of little shaks with cats to stroke and sitting of the beach with a guitar the dogs come to listen too and keep you company.
Last night, for instance, we were sitting round a fire, on a beach, all seven of us, plus a bunch of other people who we met in our beach tree huts, and three aged hippies, one of whom was one of the most fantastic guitarists I've ever seen, drinking beers, chatting and "jamming" with the aged hippies. How is that for Goan.
We did the famous Anjuna flea market on Wednesday, where they sold all sorts of stuff. A guy even managed to paint, "Archdeaconfauntleroy" on a grain of rice for me. We went and sat in a beach restaurant and watched a live band with sitars and such like before going out to some insane trance party in a club in the middle of NOWHERE.
There are loads of little shaks with cats to stroke and sitting of the beach with a guitar the dogs come to listen too and keep you company.
Commonwealth Games
They are doing a lot for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. They are building a huge Metro system, which is actually quite a lot better than the one in London, but I was wondering what they are going to do about some of the stuff.
The Indian attitude as far as I've seen is to pretend the scruffier aspects of India don't exist. When the BRCM boys saw a picture of some poor people on my camera they told me off and said "you shouldn't be taking pictures of poor India." (I should be taking pictures of the Taj Mahal and India Gate). They also liked to shout "slumdog" at beggars and turn around thinking I'll be impressed.
But when you walk down Chandni Chowk at night, stepping round rats on the pavement and see a line of beggars stretch right down the side settling down for the night, lots of them families sharing a rug, how do you ignore that? It's unignorable.
That made me wonder what they will do with the beggars for the commonwealth games.
When I came into Delhi I had two choices for sleeping. One is Paharganj. Some people seem to love it, but I think it's everthing that is wrong with Indian tourism. It's got neon signs, money changers, and it's right next to the Red Light District. I've never payed a decent price for a hotel there and they haven't been all that special. A previous gaper got her room broken into by the hotel staff.
Or
I could stay in Manju ka Tila, the Tibetan colony. It's a lovely little maze of alleys and eveyone is happy there. BUT they were planning to destroy it. Completely to the ground. That's the problem with illegally raised buildings. The government were going to rehouse the residents but it just seemed such a shame to destroy one the only places where people are looking after each other and not trying to part you with as much cash as possible.
I don't know if they are still doing this. I asked a monk who I was sitting next to at breakfast and he seemed not to know too much about it but thought the situation was better.
The reason they were doing it was because the settlement got in the way of their highway expansion and their beautification of the Yamuna River (good luck with that one.)
All for the Commonwealth Games. It's a big thing when the rest of the world is coming to visit a fast developing country. All you can hope is that it all pays off.
The Indian attitude as far as I've seen is to pretend the scruffier aspects of India don't exist. When the BRCM boys saw a picture of some poor people on my camera they told me off and said "you shouldn't be taking pictures of poor India." (I should be taking pictures of the Taj Mahal and India Gate). They also liked to shout "slumdog" at beggars and turn around thinking I'll be impressed.
But when you walk down Chandni Chowk at night, stepping round rats on the pavement and see a line of beggars stretch right down the side settling down for the night, lots of them families sharing a rug, how do you ignore that? It's unignorable.
That made me wonder what they will do with the beggars for the commonwealth games.
When I came into Delhi I had two choices for sleeping. One is Paharganj. Some people seem to love it, but I think it's everthing that is wrong with Indian tourism. It's got neon signs, money changers, and it's right next to the Red Light District. I've never payed a decent price for a hotel there and they haven't been all that special. A previous gaper got her room broken into by the hotel staff.
Or
I could stay in Manju ka Tila, the Tibetan colony. It's a lovely little maze of alleys and eveyone is happy there. BUT they were planning to destroy it. Completely to the ground. That's the problem with illegally raised buildings. The government were going to rehouse the residents but it just seemed such a shame to destroy one the only places where people are looking after each other and not trying to part you with as much cash as possible.
I don't know if they are still doing this. I asked a monk who I was sitting next to at breakfast and he seemed not to know too much about it but thought the situation was better.
The reason they were doing it was because the settlement got in the way of their highway expansion and their beautification of the Yamuna River (good luck with that one.)
All for the Commonwealth Games. It's a big thing when the rest of the world is coming to visit a fast developing country. All you can hope is that it all pays off.
A Weekend in Delhi
As soon as I got on the bus and started rolling away from BRCM it was like a weight that I didn't even know was there had been lifted off my shoulders.
I should stick up for BRCM a little bit though, I made it sound really bad, but it wasn't bad, it was actually full of very well wishing people and I do hope they all do well.
I was sitting in a dirty back room of a shopping market waiting for the security guard to tell me when the bus got there, and I was thinking, this is probably the last time I'll be in one of these obscure little places without knowing what is going on.
The atmosphere on the bus was brilliant and I had a Hindi conversation with the toothy bus conductor.
I love getting to know places better, and I was rushing all over Delhi so I began to piece together where everything was. I went to see a light show at Red Fort which was quite funny, but I got eaten alive by midges. Shaaman Khan, the disembodied, self confessed "cataloguer of the ages" guided us through the history of Delhi, which was nice of him.
I saw Qutub Minar the next day, which is basically a glorified version of the stack in Dundee. It was quite pretty though.
I should stick up for BRCM a little bit though, I made it sound really bad, but it wasn't bad, it was actually full of very well wishing people and I do hope they all do well.
I was sitting in a dirty back room of a shopping market waiting for the security guard to tell me when the bus got there, and I was thinking, this is probably the last time I'll be in one of these obscure little places without knowing what is going on.
The atmosphere on the bus was brilliant and I had a Hindi conversation with the toothy bus conductor.
I love getting to know places better, and I was rushing all over Delhi so I began to piece together where everything was. I went to see a light show at Red Fort which was quite funny, but I got eaten alive by midges. Shaaman Khan, the disembodied, self confessed "cataloguer of the ages" guided us through the history of Delhi, which was nice of him.
I saw Qutub Minar the next day, which is basically a glorified version of the stack in Dundee. It was quite pretty though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)