India Weeks 1 and 2

that's right - we've got 3 hours until we have to get the train to Varanasi, so we're sitting in an Internet cafe with nothing to do other than tell you lot exactly how great India is (or maybe isn't).
As to why we've chosen an Internet cafe, rather than sampling the delights of Agra town: a) there's no air conditioning outside and it's frikin hot. b) no-one in here is trying to sell us shaky snow globes of the taj mahal (true!), or marble jewelry boxes, or other pointless tat.
So to begin:
Delhi is extremely manic and rather filthy. There are rats, cows and dogs everywhere and also the odd monkey, goat, chicken, and pig. That's about it really. We did a few tourist things such as sleep in the most minimalist room I've ever seen, eat copious curry, take copious photos and get conned by the local tour operator - all in a days work.
Next we went to Jaipur. Jaipur is extremely manic and rather filthy. There are rats, cows and dogs everywhere and also the odd monkey, goat, chicken, and pig.
This time however we went on a few visits to the local palaces, monuments and forts - as you can probably tell from our huge collection of photos. To be fair they're all pretty interesting, although most are struggling to remain upright in places. They all tell of a rather wonderful and lost history of past India. Particularly good I thought was the astronomy (called Juntar Muntar - which translates as hocus pocus) which is a collection of huge instruments built in the 16th c. to measure all the celestial bodies. I was also the star (get it?) attraction as a troop of school kids took it in turns to be photod with the white guy.
We managed to catch a festival street parade (although the taxi driver joked that with three major, and countless minor, religions there are 300 official festivals in the year) and saw some elephants, armoured camels and men with silly hats playing even sillier susaphones.
In the evening we went to the most beautiful cinema in the world to watch some hard core bollywood. Singing and dancing all the way through, and a good bit of head wobbling too. Top stuff.
Next up was Udiapur. Udiapur does have cows and dogs but otherwise was the first place we'd come to that wasn't an outright cesspit; it's really amazing how some Indian cities manage social self respect, while others just don't seem to care.
We we're put up in a rather sumptuous hotel - which was fortunate as this it where my squits really kicked in. They'd been rumbling along in the background for a few days already, but now I'd pretty much turned myself inside out and was confined to bed for a couple of days. Ritz, bless her, took the role of Florence Nightingale - well Florence on a sight seeing tour of India - and buggered of to look at the palace. Ritz says it was beautiful and not to be missed.
At Udiapur we also found out that the the next destination on our itinerary was rather different to the one on our drivers - but following a bit of verbal wrangling we won the day and set off on a 12 hour drive (no wonder he didn't fancy it) to Jaiselmer.
Jaiselmer is not quite as manic as the previous cities - mostly cos it's in the desert and just too hot to manic around, but it is reassuringly filthy (and smelly). and there are the obligatory rats, cows and dogs everywhere and also the odd monkey, goat, chicken, and pig. And I saw a cat but it was dead.
It's quite impressive cos everyone lives inside the fort still - concentrating the stench - but very pretty none the less. Our driver also got his revenge by booking us into a room with no a/c so we left in the morning and just lay in the shade and drunk Pepsi.
We left the next day for a small desert village famous in the guide books for its camel trekking. We set off in the early evening atop our new dromedary and headed out for the dunes. Camels are cool. Mine farted at Ritz. hee hee.
We spent the night round a fire with three young Med students who happened to be on the dune next to us (busy place the desert), eating curry, drinking a beer and listening to some of the strangest 'traditional' singing i've encountered. And my dad's a folky. Then we had one of the best night sleeps yet under the stars. Ahh......
Next day off we went for home of the stupid horse riding pants; Jodhpur. Jodhpur is extremely manic and rather filthy . There are rats, cows and dogs everywhere and also the odd monkey, goat, chicken, pig and I think I saw an alive cat. (getting the picture yet...?). It also faces a rather hefty air pollution problem due to the tall narrow streets and an apparent lack of any tuktuk maintenance facilities.
The fort however was our favorite so far - even boasting one of those electronic audio guides to hang round your neck so you know what each crumbling brick actually signifies. It's also got quite a nice market around an old and distinguished clock tower decorated (controversially perhaps) with flashing rope lights.
Just a quick stopover really cos the next day we headed for Pushkar - Hippy Central! It's hard to know whether this is a good or a bad thing. We loved it. It's clean (tuktuks and cars are banned from the centre), well mannered and quite fun - and the aging goras leading their alternative lifestyles I think adds quite a charm, if not a little people watching (pointing and sniggering mostly) entertainment potential - even if it's not really India proper. We also had our first hotel with pool. Yippie!.
Yesterday saw us on the road again towards Agra and the Taj Mahal, via Fattypus Seik (as I call it - or Fatepur Sikri as Ritz and the guide book insist on calling it after ganging up on me) a deserted and ruined capital. Weirdly having just gone round Agra fort, second only to the Taj as a tourist destination, it's quite a trick to see the line in India between ruined and restored.
More photos of all these places now on the net in the usual place http://fuzzweed.googlepages.com/mylifeinpictures.
Tonight we get on the sleeper train to Varanasi - where I finally have to make up my mind whether being dunked in a huge sewer (the Ganges) is worth the blessing potential. I may ask for immortality, both as a suitable reward for my pilgrimage and also as I'll most likely need it if I'm to see following day....

India - Weeks 1 and 2

that's right - we've got 3 hours until we have to get the train to varanasi, so we're sitting in an internet cafe with nothing to do other than tell you lot exactly how great india is (or maybe isn't).
As to why we've chosen an internet cafe, rather than sampling the delights of Agra town: a) there's no airconditioning outside and it's frikin hot. b) no-one in here is trying to sell us shaky snow globes of the taj mahal (true!), or marble jewelry boxes, or other pointless tat.
So to begin:
Delhi is extremely manic and rather filthy. There are rats, cows and dogs everywhere and also the odd monkey, goat, chicken, and pig. That's about it really. We did a few tourist things such as sleep in the most minimalist room I've ever seen, eat copious curry, take copious photos and get conned by the local tour operator - all in a days work.
Next we went to Jaipur. Jaipur is extremely manic and rather filthy. There are rats, cows and dogs everywhere and also the odd monkey, goat, chicken, and pig.
This time however we went on a few visits to the local palaces, monuments and forts - as you can probably tell from our huge collection of photos. To be fair they're all pretty interesting, although most are struggling to remain upright in places. They all tell of a rather wonderful and lost history of past India. Particullarly good I thought was the astronomy (called Juntar Muntar - which translates as hocus pocus) which is a collection of huge instruments built in the 16th c. to measure all the celestial bodies. I was also the star (get it?) attraction as a troup of school kids took it in turns to be photod with the white guy.
We managed to catch a festival street parade (although the taxi driver joked that with three major, and countless minor, religions there are 300 official festivals in the year) and saw some elephants, armoured camels and men with silly hats playing even sillier susaphones.
In the evening we went to the most beautiful cinema in the world to watch some hard core bollywood. Singing and dancing all the way through, and a good bit of head wobbling too. Top stuff.
Next up was Udiapur. Udiapur does have cows and dogs but otherwise was the first place we'd come to that wasn't an outright cesspit; it's really amazing how some Indian cities manage social self respect, while others just don't seem to care.
We we're put up in a rather sumptuous hotel - which was fortunate as this it where my squits really kicked in. They'd been rumbling along in the background for a few days already, but now I'd pretty much turned myself inside out and was confined to bed for a couple of days. Ritz, bless her, took the role of Florence Nightingale - well Florence on a sight seeing tour of India - and buggered of to look at the palace. Ritz says it was beautiful and not to be missed.
At Udiapur we also found out that the the next destination on our itinary was rather different to the one on our drivers - but following a bit of verbal wrangling we won the day and set off on a 12 hour drive (no wonder he didn't fancy it) to Jaiselmer.
Jaiselmer is not quite as manic as the previous cities - mostly cos it's in the deserst and just too hot to manic around, but it is reasuringly filthy (and smelly). and there are the obligatary rats, cows and dogs everywhere and also the odd monkey, goat, chicken, and pig. And I saw a cat but it was dead.
It's quite impressive cos everyone lives inside the fort still - concentrating the stench - but very pretty none the less. Our driver also got his revenge by booking us into a room with no a/c so we left in the morning and just lay in the shade and drunk Pepsi.
We left the next day for a small desert village famous in the guide books for its camel treking. We set off in the early evening atop our new dromedary and headed out for the dunes. Camels are cool. Mine farted at Ritz. hee hee.
We spent the night round a fire with three young Med students who happened to be on the dune next to us (busy place the desert), eating curry, drinking a beer and listening to some of the strangest 'traditional' singing i've encountered. And my dad's a folky. Then we had one of the best night sleeps yet under the stars. Ahh......
Next day off we went for home of the stupid horse riding pants; Jodhpur. Jodhpur is extremely manic and rather filthy . There are rats, cows and dogs everywhere and also the odd monkey, goat, chicken, pig and I think I saw an alive cat. (getting the picture yet...?). It also faces a rather hefty air polution problem due to the tall narrow streets and an apparent lack of any tuktuk maintainance facilities.
The fort however was our favorite so far - even boasting one of those electronic audio guides to hang round your neck so you know what each crumbling brick actually signifies. It's also got quite a nice market around an old and distinguished clock tower decorated (contraversially perhaps) with flashing rope lights.
Just a quick stopover really cos the next day we headed for Pushkar - Hippy Central! It's hard to know whether this is a good or a bad thing. We loved it. It's clean (tuktuks and cars are banned from the centre), well mannered and quite fun - and the aging goras leading their alternative lifestyles I think adds quite a charm, if not a little people watching (pointing and sniggering mostly) entertainment potential - even if it's not really India proper. We also had our first hotel with pool. Yippie!.
Yesterday saw us on the road again towards Agra and the Taj Mahal, via Fattypus Seik (as I call it - or Fatepur Sikri as Ritz and the guide book insist on calling it after ganging up on me) a deserted and ruined capital. Weirdly having just gone round Agra fort, second only to the Taj as a tourist destination, it's quite a trick to see the line in India between ruined and restored.
More photos of all these places now on the net in the usual place http://fuzzweed.googlepages.com/mylifeinpictures.
Tonight we get on the sleeper train to Varanasi - where I finally have to make up my mind whether being dunked in a huge sewer (the Ganges) is worth the blessing potential. I may ask for imortality, both as a suitable reward for my pilgrimage and also as I'll most likely need it if I'm to see following day....