Eid in India's capital

After 2 months of travelling we found ourselves headed for the capital of India, Delhi. From prior experience of the big Indian cities we were not overly excited about another one, but we soon had a change of heart. We arrived at New Delhi train station pretty late, so our first objective was to find a hotel. As we knew we would be staying here for at least 4 nights, we had to make sure it was a decent one. We walked down the main tourist area known as Paharjanj. Full to the brim on both sides of a small street with your everyday Indian shops. Grocery store, bag store, carpet store, chemist, grocery store, bag store, carpet store, chemist, grocery store, etc. We found a great hotel called Sweet Dreams hotel (Rs. 325) in one of the back alleys, surrounded by the usual back alley buisness', travel agency, internet cafe, outdoor food stall, hotel, travel agency, internet cafe, outdoor food stall, outdoor urinal..... Thats correct, right next to the outdoor food stall, What was it Krishna said about health and safety all those weeks ago???

We asked the manager of the hotel where we could find a mosque for Majid to complete his Eid prayer and he was totally unaware of what we were talking about. He seemed a right miserable git at first. Anyway, as Maj went on a solo mission to find a mosque, the manager asks me 'what is this mosk?' So I translate, 'You know.....masjid' (Indian word for mosque). Well, from there on he was a completly different person. 'Ahh, masjid, why didnt you say so!'

The next day (at 6.30am may I add) we made our way to the Idgar, (a kind of huge outdoor mosque, suitable for prayer) it was an experience both new to me and Majid. There must have been around 15,000 - 20,000 Muslims involved in the prayer. The walk there felt like walking to football match with all the crowds. It was a great way to spend Eid though. We decided that we would treat ourselves to watch a movie at the cinema in the evening. The cinema was located in Connaught Place. It was such a westernised area, with loads of high street shops. It is basically a large roundabout road, surrounded by shops, with another road beyond that, with more shops beyond that and so on. We took it upon ourselves to locate a Subway sandwich shop. We passed a Maccy D's, KFC, Pizza hut, the lot! But no Subway. After at least 2 or 3 hours of searching we finally tracked the badboy down, and the tuna/cheese melt sub with all the veggies and southwest sauce was heaven. Things soon turned our mood upside down, when we were rejected from the cinema, because we had a bag with us. We postponed till the next day.

With the movie to look forward to in the evening (and subway sandwich round 2) we spent the day relaxing, and washing our skanky clothes. We went to see 2012, which Im sure most of you back home saw time ago, but its a great movie, right up my street.

We had a very busy schedule for Monday, as we needed to hand in our passports at the Nepal embassy, go to the Chinese embassy to gather information on how we could get our Chinese visa's while we were in Kathmandu, Nepal (I know, confusing right?) Go to the train station to book our train tickets for the next (and final) two weeks in India, go to the bus station to get tickets for the travels unable to be completed by train (as north India is crap for rail because of the mountain ranges) then head back to the Nepal embassy and collect our passports with our brand new Nepal visa's! With what we thought was quite an unsuccessful day in all, we did manage to get the visa's, which were of most importance, so we were happy. One great moment of the day, was watching a rather large, ok, fat, Indian woman trying to go up an escalator that was going down. She just couldn't comprehend the fact that it wasn't going to go up. And that she would have to take..........THE STAIRS, DUN DUN DUHHHH!

Tuesday also ended up being very busy. We were up at the crack of dawn again to visit the Red Fort, Delhi's own. Then to the Jamu Masjid, the biggest Mosque in all of India. Then we had to head all the way to the south area of Delhi to visit the Qutb Minar. This place was awesome. It had loads of sacred ruins surrounding a huge stone pillar, known here as a Minar, and it was decorated with carved stone Arabic writing. From here we had an unusual occasion ahead of us, my Uncle Daz has always wanted to visit Rishikesh because of its relevance with the Beatles (some music group from Liverpool or something, you might of heard of them), so he decided to meet us in Delhi and travel with us for the next 10 days. It was great seeing someone from home, especially how pale he was in comparison. What made things even better were the reactions of noobie in India. Me and Maj have definately grown used to things around here, so watching my Uncle's reactions to the norm, was funny. I thought he was going to wet himself in the taxi ride, haha. He was always right next to me or Maj on the streets too, I think he would have felt more comfortable if we held his hand when passing the street cows though.

The capital was great. The metro system in Delhi is really clean and efficient. Just dont try to hustle it. Lesson learnt.

Delhi Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2016843011/a=2264773011_2264773011/

Agra and The Taj Mahal

We were looking forward to arriving in Agra because this is where the notorious Taj Mahal is. After a 12 hour journey from Jodhpur, we arrived in Agra late evening and stayed at Hotel Host (600 rupees - 2 nights). There was just enough time to eat, so we visited 'Johnny's Place', which is in the book, and we were glad we had. There are books that people have commented in and he's confident enough to say "if you don't like the food-you don't pay". The Malai Kofta, banana milkshake and the cheese tomato toasties are what he boasts about and he is definately right. Little did we know that we ate every meal in Agra at this place.

Next morning was the big one, to visit the Taj Mahal. an ever bigger mission for me as this was the day I try to get in for local price (20 rupees) instead of the foreign price (750 rupees). I got to the gates feeling the pressure with my local ticket in my hand but the guard caught me out. I was claiming that i was Indian from Ahmedhabad but then he asked for I.D and that is where i stumbled and was sent for the foreign ticket. I felt offended, I don't know why, maybe i was starting to feel like a local because i've been treated like one in the tourist places but this bastard weren't having none of it. Anyway after feeling a little upset about this, I had the view of Taj Mahal to cheer me up. Me and Danny walked through the main gate, along with about a 1000 of other tourists and there it hit us, The Taj Mahal. We were like giddy tourists for a while because this was one of our achievements to visit the Taj Mahal and we were right in front of it. The Palace is huge and a lot bigger then we expected. We walked around taking the necessary photos, sometimes shifting the odd indian out of the way so we can get a pic but we took our time walking around. It's unbelievable the amount of people that come here on a daily basis, they must make a killing with the foreign prices. See how i'm mentioning it more in this blog, it has cut me deep!! Inside are the tombs of Shah Jahan and his wife who he built the Taj Mahal for. Nothing really to boast about and I don't think many people come to visit their tombs. The whole design of the palace is symetrical with a mosque on one side and another building on the other, the same design as the mosque but not a mosque. You can tell a lot of money had been spent on this place with how well it is designed and how clean and perfect it looks.

The next day we spent visiting the Agra Fort, which holds a few palaces and mosques within the walls, with a huge moat (dry now) outside the walls. I got in for the local price so I felt Indian again. We walked around the fort, which was in good condition, probably because the Indian Army looking after it, with about 75% of the fort closed off for them. This took the edge away from it a little because a lot of areas were prohibited and even getting to the second floor was not allowed. After the fort, we visited 'Baby Taj', which was built before the Taj Mahal and is said that this is where Shah Jahan got his inspiration from and you could tell why. This Palace was on a smaller scale but was symetrical like the Taj Mahal. The baby Taj holds the tombs of the grandparents of the woman who is buried at the Taj-must be a rich family!! We walked around, which didn't take long, saw a couple of monkeys getting it on and then chilled on the grass for a bit before we headed back. We're off to Delhi tonight and I'm getting hungry and I dont know where to eat......................................................erm....................maybe Johnny's Place.

Agra Photo link:
http://www3.snapfish.co.uk/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1964979011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfishuk/

Jodhpur - The Blue City

So Jaipur was known as the pink city, but lets call it red for arguments sake, plus it was full of pigs. Now Jodhpur on the otherhand, was coated with a much more attractive sky blue, much more welcoming for us Sheff Wednesday fans. We only had one day here and didnt even bother to rush around, we woke up around 1pm (a well needed lie-in was definately a good thing though) then we had a walk through the market place and bazaars to find somewhere to eat. Nearly every restaurant in this area is veg only, and me and master Maj are definately more on carnivore side of the obnivore scale. After eating some good chick-chick curry we made our way to yet another fort!

Meherangarh Fort is the biggest one we've seen yet. And on a plus side, we managed to get in for free, as it was coming to the end of the day, the guards were not on point with the ticket checking. The top of the fort wall was complete with plenty of cannons, ready for oncoming fiends from the desert. The view is pretty spectacular, with many of the buildings painted in a sky blue, it gives the impression of the fort being surrounded by water, pretty artistic. We suspected the buildings were painted through no choice of the owners, its just known as the cities "thing", the blue city.

We took some photographs with some children who actually lived within the fort (quite the hike back from school) and we showed them how to rock their caps so looked like a bunch of G's, they weren't impressed. Pussies. There was also a great palace built on top of some rocks which we sneaked into. There wasn't much in there that we haven't seen before. The usual intricately decorated rooms, filled with every colour imaginable. Some of the corridors led out to a high balcony which gave us some great views of the city. Maj was practising his camera skills here, he did pretty well too. Got a long way to go till he's a photo pro like me though. We got a great picture with one of the fort guards as we were leaving, and this dude had an amazingly garnished mustache. Just before the pic was taken he had to straighten it out (the mustache that is) to make sure he was looking fly. Me and Maj were very envious.

The city is quite similar to that of Udaipur with many alleyways leading in every direction, filled with cows, pigeons, dogs and local Indians, and also cow pat, pigeon droppings, dog poo and local indian shit. Such a romantic place.

Jodhpur Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1936016011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

Jaisalmer- "Aram Bambari, Camel Safari"

The night train to Jaisalmer was pretty straight forward as I slept through most of it, but we both woke with sand all over the seats and our bags-this was the unofficial welcome to the desert. We left the station and were greeted/hassled by 30-40 guys holding banners for their hotels, but we already arranged with Manu, the guy who owns Pol Haveli who we met on our boat trip In Udaipur. We nearly sold him out as we were approached by another guy offering us cheaper on the train but we decided to keep to our word. The hotel was really nice, probably the best one we've been to for our budget. After a welcome chai, he showed us the rooms including the honeymoon suite, which has a bath and a king size bed but me end Danny are not at that level yet-lol (We got the room for 700 rupees for 2 nights). We visitied the notorious Jaisalmer fort, which is on top of this huge rock overseeing the town but the fort itself was not that great. The markets, hotels, restaurants etc inside took the edge away but the fort from the outside looked amazing.

We got up early the next morning, had breakfast and headed out for our 2 day camel safari (1050 rupees each per day). We were in the jeep for 30 minutes, which took us deep into the desert to meet our camels, Lulu, Takabar and Kirachi and our guides, Hukum and Latib. Kirachi was Danny's camel and Takabar was mine but getting on them was a struggle for me with limited flexibility in my hips. I eventually got on with a big swing of the leg before Danny got the camera out and we were on our way. We rode for about 2 hours before we stopped off for lunch. I was walking around like a penguin for 15 minutes because i was in that much pain with my legs being forcefully stretched. Lunch was very basic, chapati, rice and mix vegetables made by the guides while we rested. We ate and rested a little bit longer before we carried on for another hour to a small desert village, where the camels supped on some water and we walked around getting hassled by kids. Danny offered them to listen to his ipod, which was a bad idea because they were all snatching and hogging the ear phones but the music made them bust a groove. We even had a 6 year old girl offering us to take a pic for 40 rupees, might as well start them young ey!! On the camels we went for another 45 minutes to the Sand Dunes, our final destination and our camping spot for the night. You would imagine the desert would be full of sand Dunes but the desert was sandy, dry and full of shrubs and the only bit of Sand Dunes was only a small stretch. While Hukum and Latib cooked our dinner, we were posing for our photos with Kirachi the camel waiting for the sunset. Again, dinner was very basic, as we sat around the camp fire singing our camp songs. Danny trading his best one for one of theirs, it was a gruelling encounter but our favourite was "Aram Bambari, Camel-a Safari." He also told us some of Jaislamer favourite lyrics that rhymed but didn't make sense:

1) No hurry, No worry, No Chicken, No Curry"

2) No Chapati, No Chai, No Woman, No Cry"

Sleeping under the moon and stars in the desert was our once in a lifetime opportunity and we took it well. We were well wrapped up and I slept pretty well, except the time when Danny poked me right in the ear hole to show me the desert fox sitting right near us, eyes brightly watching us through the reflection of the torch. Once he moved, we carried on sleeping and woke up around 8.30 am with our breakfast ready and the camels ready to go. We jumped on to our camels and started trekking back. Hookum asked if we wanted them to run and without any hesitation we said YES! They ran for abour 30 minutes in total and we were both in so much pain. After about an hour, I had to get off with cramp, walking around like Pingu and felt like I've just given birth (I'm presuming this is how it would feel) so i walked for about 20 minutes for the camels to rehydrate themselves. I didn't feel too well after that and Danny had an upset stomach, so lunch was a brief encounter. We felt pretty bad because they cooked for us but we hardly touched their food. Our last stretch was about 30 minutes up a dried up river where we met our jeep driver who took us back. We tipped them both 100 rupees and they were delighted, I mean they only get a 1000 rupees a month (approx 12-13 pound) and they looked after us so it was the right thing to do.

Getting back to the hotel was a relief, as we could rest, grab a shower etc. but the camel safari was definately worth the experience although we are both aching in weird areas. Our last evening was spent on the rooftop restaurant, which has a really chilled out vibe. We bought some indian sweets, which Manu, who has a real sweet tooth, smelt from a mile off and asked "What is this Majid?". We met a couple who were really nice and helped us plan our next destination, which has got us both excited. They had a Nepal trekking book and kindly borrowed it us for the night, which helped us a great deal. For the rest of the evening we played cards with Manu and his associates, the funniest of moments both coming from Manu, who repeated one of the Jaisalmer phrases mentioned earlier, only Manu has a stutter, so it came it out like this 'No hurry, no worry, no chicken, no c.c.c.c.c.c.c.c.c..ccurry', we were trying so hard not to laugh, but it was hysterical. The second moment was when he randomly asked everyone on the rooftop ' I think we should dance now actually!' To which no-one replied. What a great last night to end our stay at Jaisalmer!

Jaisalmer Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1909365011/a=2264773011_2264773011/

Jaipur - The Pink City

After yet another sleepless night on the overnight train (this time kept awake by Muslim pilgrims heading for the Hajj) we arrived in Jaipur, the pink city. We usually get off the trains in a bad mood in the early morning and refuse a rickshaw ride to our hotel just to spite the drivers, who thrive on backpackers coming through their city station doors. 'You wan autorickshaw sir? Only 50 Ruppees, O.K 40 ruppees, 1-5 each, 30 ruppees, where you wan go? O.k 20 ruppees, its fast like helicopter....... Fuck Off!

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We decided to catch up on our sleep again before exploring the city, which ended up being a very bad idea, as we forgot to set an alarm and ended up sleeping til abouts 4pm! Which made getting an early nights kip impossible. We went for some food (a pasta and pizza each, cuz were fatties) and took a little wander around the backstreets. The local street rat kids here were little shits, they kept jabbering a load of Hindi we couldnt understand (I could nearly translate, Maj din't have a clue) then they'd try booting you in the back of the leg and would run off! I think its time the bamboo cane came out for these little wiseguys!

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We visited the main area of the city which is surrounded by a pink palace wall. Inside there were temples and museums for tourists to get hustled by. After a brisk walk around the area we made our way up to the Tiger Fort (Forts in India are always pretty cool). On our way we passed a small village and it was swarming with pigs and pigletts. We were real shocked at first, but then Maj pointed out a Sheffield United flag flying from a window, and it all started to make sense, I've put the cities biggest supporter at the bottom of this post.

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As expected, the fort was worth the trek, with incredible views of the pig city (sorry pink). We took a rest at the top, doing a lil' reading and boogying to the i-pod to kill some time. After we headed McDonalds back in the city. It was a disturbing meal, as we had little beggar kids peering through the windows, miming that they wanted some food to eat, not the best thing to witness when your stuffing your face with a McChicken sandwich.

United! United! United!

Jaipur Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1921228011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

Udaipur - The Fairytale City

We arrived in Udaipur early morning, where a rickshaw driver called Bilau took us to the Lake view Guest House (300 rps-1 night). He showed us a book of all his achievements of taking tourists around Udaipur where they have left comments in his books. He's got several and it was his pride and joy. Udaipur is labelled as the fairytale city becasue it is surrounded by mountains, with several fairytale palaces towering the city. Some of these palaces have been converted into hotels (5-7 star) The famous attraction of the city is the two palaces in the middle of Lake Pichola. Lake Palace is used as a hotel and the other palace on the other Island is used for weddings, which was built by Shah Jahan, the same guy who built Taj Mahal. Octopussy, one of the James Bond movies was filmed in Udaipur, where they used Lake palace and the monsoon palace in the movie.

On the first day we visited the City Palace, where the current Maharaja of Udaipur lives in a certain section of the palce and the rest is a hotel and a museum. We walked around the museum, which showed what the Maharaja of old did and used. there was a good collection of guns and knives and the rest of it was art (pretty boring for us). We were also advised to go and see the fountains, which was near the other lake (about half hour walk) so when we got there in the evening, it was quite busy with families but it was just a huge garden with some fountains as the centerpiece. Eating at a restaurant in the evening was always on the cards but each restaurant was on the rooftop (4-5 floors) and offered us to watch Octopussy, which they never shut up raving about. We sold our hotel out and went to the one next door because apparantly it had a bigger screen but it never did, it was about the same. Anyway it was weird watching the movie becasue we saw the palaces in the movie but then the actual palace was just behind the TV.

Next morning, we hired a couple of bicycles to cycle to the Monsoon Palace, which is on top of this mountain and about 10 km away from the Lake. This was used in the monsoon season, hence the name, by the Maharajas back in the day. Apparently this palace was successfully taken over once by 3 armies joining forces but only for 2 days and we knew why. The cycle to the bottom of the mountain was pretty straight forward but then a 3km incline to the top in the heat was very hard work. We had to push our one-geared bikes up all the way with me probably losing half of my body weight in sweat but it was worth it for the ride down-good job the breaks worked. There was nothing to see at the palace but the views from the top was what made it worthwile. Danny managed to jam his chain on the way back going too fast over a bump so there were a cluster of locals of trying to help us out but we managed to sort it.

In the evening, we went on a boat ride (1hr-200 rps each) around Lake Pichola seeing all the palaces up close. There were a few tourists on there and a local Indian, who Danny labelled Kanye East with his huge glasses and his very tight jeans. He was trying so hard to woo the ladies, all who seemed quite old so whatever floats your boat ah kid!! We were offered Chai (tea) with these guys after where they told us their secrets on how to pull girls, like we needed any, but Kanye East was so full of himself, he just cracked us up and we needed to kill some time for our next train journey.

Udaipur Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1869090011/a=2264773011_2264773011/

Ahmadabadman

We arrived in Ahmadabad whilst still in recovery mode, but it didn't matter, there wasn't that much to see here :(

We took a long walk around the city checking out the mosques and the lakes. We also walked through an open air museum (fancy term for outside) which had a display of the kind of villages that you find within India, such as a desert village (Jasailmer, were headed there soon) and a fisherman village (Like say Kochi, which we've already seen). It was nothing too spectacular though.

During our long walk we passed a police station. There seemed to be some activity going on outside because a crowd had formed (Nosey Indians = Entertainment) We went for a closer look and witnessed a young lad of about 16 getting the rawest beating of a lifetime. A bystander told us he had been caught cheating (stealing, to you and me) so he was due his punishment. This involved being held over a railing by his hair by one man (not the police either, they just watched like us) and being caned on the booty with a rather mean looking piece of bamboo by another man. It was harsh, double handed swings. He will not be sitting down for a very long time I suspect. Lesson learnt - Dont cheat!

We visited the market place to buy some head scarves (not for us) and we took absolutely ages. We both hate shopping, so shopping for Indian womens clothes was quite an enduring task.

After shopping we just decided to relax at the hotel and watch television. On India VH1 they had a hiphop programme on, and after a song during the break they had 'how to speak street', which taught you some street slang. We were crackin up at this show, some of my favourite lessons were:
Crunk - To have a good time.
Booyah - After a victory.

And my personal fave;
Fo' shizzle ma nizzle - For sure my friend

Remember this street slang and you'l get far in da hood.

The Ajanta Caves

We arrived at Jalgaon (the transit point for Ajanta Caves-60km away) in the afternoon and it was raining big time. Danny caught the last bit of the monsoon but i didn't so this was the first time it rained in India for me. We stayed at Hotel Plaza (700 rupees for 2 nights), which was highly recommended in the Lonely Planet Book where it boasts about the ever helpful hotel owner and boy he didn't let us down. We never got to know his name but his English was the most fluent we've met for an Indian. When we got there, there was no electricity so no TV and we couldn't go anywhere because it was raining so Danny slept and I became a new man for a few hours, reading a book, a newspaper and completing sudoku puzzles. It was very different but i felt very knowledgeable after that brief period in my life. Later in the evening, the hotel owner came telling us to keep the volume 'slow' (down) and to keep our doors locked and kept checking to see if we have done. He also told us the travel details to get to Ajanta Caves.

Next morning at 7.30 am, we were up and ready to go to Ajanta Caves. He kept us inside and called an autorickshaw driver, so they didn't give us the tourist rate and got us to the bus station for 12 rupees, it would have probably cost us 30. The bus journey took us about an hour (50 rupees), where we had to get another bus from the junction to the caves (another 4 km). I got in for the local rate (10 rupees) where Danny had to pay for being a white boy (250 rupees). How the times have changed when we get to India, the brown boy gets the priviliges!!! The Ajanta caves consist of 30 buddhist caves, which date back to 1-2 AD and are situated between the mountains and around a river. We looked in each cave, some were incomplete but they all looked very similar with a Buddha statue as the main fetaure with old paintings on the surrounding walls. This is a world heritage site so there were scientists preserving the monuments within the caves, so we can see the detail clearly. The Ajants caves were well hidden and the area was so peaceful, something not normal in India. We crossed the river to see the viewpoint for a 20m waterfall and to the top viewpoint to see the whole of Ajanta caves.

In the evening we went for something to eat at a restaurant the manager recommened but I had a burning question to ask him. On the Indian trains, you are alawyas approached by sellers, beggers but also transvestites who demand money. If you refuse to give them money, which we always do, they start clapping there hands loudly and i didn't now why so this was my question. Why do these men who dress up as women (didn't think he knew what a transvestite was) demand money and clap there hands? His reply was perfect-These are not man, not woman, they are gay (like gay people are not women). Me and Danny pissed ourselves where he realised he said the wrong thing and that transvestites was the right word. The reason why they did this was to embarass people by touching them, so people would give them money to go away and they made quite a bit doing this. But me and Danny are strong and these sorts of things dont embarass us but we have a plan. On one of our train journeys, we're gonna switch on them and embarass them. They have been marked!!

Link to the photos (there same as the last blog):

http://www3.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1839188011/a=2264773011_2264773011/

Jhansi Fort and The Hidden City of Orcha

Jhansi was one of those little towns in the middle of nowhere, so there was no doubt that I got a helluvalot of stares at this place. It is quite a good feeling when people are walking, cycling or driving by and they shout or say hello and wave to you. It makes you feel like a celebrity. Maj was teaching me a bit of Hindi here and I was in charge of getting directions to the Fort and asking for a bottle of cold water. I did him proud. The fort was enormous. It had once been run by the Moghuls then Muslims then the British. We spent a good few hours here exploring all the chasms, stairwells, and secret passageways it had to offer. We were tailed by some local kids for a while, who were very intrigued by us (like most young locals). They asked to see a dollar note thinking we were American, and low and behold I use a dollar as my bookmark, so they took it turns to hold and look at the note (Maj was prepared for any looting) and were really glad for it. It took a while, but we managed to lose them (well at least I did) Maj was shouting at them saying 'Look! Now you've lost the white boy!' We stayed at the Fort til sunset then made our way back to the hotel to replenish HP.

We went to Orcha the following day to see the 'hidden city' as it was once known (It aint bloody hidden anymore, it was ram-packed). Its basically a small town hidden deep in the jungle, thriving with lots of temples and huge palaces, which you are free to explore (for small ruppee fee). After visiting each one of the palace's we decided to stray from the tourist worn track and go find the nearby River Betwa. We passed over some farm land and a few hedges and finally over a perimetre wall to discover the River and it was quality! It had countles numbers of granite rocks pretruding from the surface which we messed around on for sometime, taking daft pictures and trying to figure a way across to the otherside (ugh huh - failed). We took a Tempu (shared rickshaw) (and yeah, were like locals) back to Jhansi for only 10 ruppees each, we've cracked the bargains of India now. It was damn uncomfortbale, but.... I guess you get what you pay for?!?

We took the train the day after that to Bhopal to have a good 2 days of rest (and also to do our laundry bucket style). It was here where the strength of my stomach finally gave into the forces of Delhi Belly, it was a long battle which 'run' for days, the battleground became dark, wet and extremely smelly. But with the help of my comrade who had to withstand the agony, we were victorious, and so I treat myself to spicy chicken tikka masala! Bring on round 2, I dare ya!


Jhansi, Orcha and Bhopal Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1839188011/a=2264773011_2264773011/

Sunrise at River Ganges

We arrived at Varanassi late evening and finding a place to stay was a real mission. It seemed the town had one main road running through the town with small alley networks joining elsewhere. We stayed at Eastern view guesthouse for one night (200 rupees) behind Hanuman (monkey god) ghat. We arranged a boat ride in the morning for sunrise (5.30 am= Stupid time!!) for 160 rupees for both of us for an hour.

The River Ganges runs through Varanassi and this is the holy pilgramage for each Hindu, where they pray at the temples on the riverside and then bathe themselves in the river. There are loads of stations (ghats) where each major city or god has there own, so whichever applies to you is the one you attend. There are also two ghats where they burn the bodies (cremation). We had knowledge that the River Ganges was very polluted, especially with sewage water and with us being British, we weren't going to jump in there any time soon. The boat ride in the morning was really good although we couldn't function properly with it being so early in the morning, but seeing the sunrise was worth it. A lot of the hindu pilgrims bathe in the morning when it is cool but it was suprisingly busy. Some even swam across the river and back, either they were very dirty and needed more time to wash or were just showing off to the tourists or probably just doing it for fitness. Our boat ride was from the Hanuman Ghat to Dasawamedh ghat (main ghat) and back. We saw the main prayer, where an Indian Rastafarian look a like, covered in white chalk or cream was swinging this Candle holder (prob about 30 candles) in big circles whilst chanting and everyone else dunking to the chant. After all that activity in the morning, we slept for a few hours to catch up on our much needed sleep.

In the afternoon, we had something to eat and walked past all the Ghats, but whilst we were walking, a few local Indians were offering us drugs constantly. We sat on the steps of one ghat, where a couple of guys started talking to us. One of the guys mounted one leg on the step, lunged into a revealing position and vigorously strummed his genitals like he was strumming a guitar. He was talking to us at the same time and i had to say something. He said he had a problem and i told him you either need to see a doctor or get yourself a girl. From there for some reason, he started calling his manhood 'Banana' and asking us if we wanted some sweet Banana? We obviously started ripping him, as they were trying to look up Danny's shorts. We started calling them Gandus (gay boys) and they were suprised that we knew the word. After a couple of minutes of him saying that he had a 'big banana', both of them retreated very quickly holding hands with us shouting Gandus, which fit so perfectly. In India, men openly hold hands as there is no problem with it but it is strange to us because we never see that in England.

We finally walked past the ghat where they burn the bodies. We went for a closer look where an Indian local explained to us the procedure of when one dies. We were quite close up and saw the remains of a woman that hadn't burnt yet-her feet and the top bit of her face. It was horrible but weird at the same time because it seemed the families took death pretty well, as they weren't many people mourning around the respective bodies. After all that, the man requested some money, he said it were for the charity but we didn't belive him. It's so sad to see people making monmey out of the dead, thats how money oriented these people are and love trying to rinse the tourists. Our way back to train station was a different one. We got onto a cycle a rickshaw where an old man cycled our big arses with our heavy bags about 4km. We had lots of respect for this guy at the end, he wasn't even tired to take a pic. What a soldier!!

Varanassi photo link:

http://www3.snapfish.co.uk/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1779000011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfishuk/

Bhodgaya and Buddhism

We caught a shared rickshaw (30 Rs.) from Gaya (The train station we arrived at) to some road about 3km from Bodhgaya (The town we were aiming for). From here we jumped on a horse and cart and entered the historical Buddhist town the old fashioned way. Buddhist pilgrims from around the world visit Bodhgaya to pay their respects to the Mahabodhi Temple. It was here where Prince Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment and became the Buddha (after this he must have put his feet up, because he used to be quite a thin looking guy, I’ve always depicted the Buddha as that fat, cheerful, cross legged garden ornament). There were many Buddhists praying at the temple whilst we were there. I pointed out to Maj that they all had pretty decent builds on them, not a second later did we witness their praying style…..If you know what a burpese is (workout movement) then its not far from that. We found out from a Cambodian Buddhist later, that some people do this movement up to 2000 times, in one prayer session! (This particular guy was stuffing his face with chocolate ice cream so I don’t reckon he did that many). What also makes this town so special is that Buddhist communities from around the world construct their own countries style of temple or monastery in the surrounding area. Our favorite was probably the Thai monastery (we took pictures of a few so you can judge for yourself). Another great structure in Bodhgaya is the 25m tall statue of Buddha and his disciples. Supposedly, part of it is hollow, and contains up to 20,000 small statues and figurines of the Buddha. We asked one young gentleman to take a photo of both of us stood in front of the statue, at first he seemed shy, but after asking again he took stance, crossed his arms and put on a huge cheesy smile. He seemed disappointed when Maj explained, a photo of us, not you gandu. On our walk towards the statue we bullied some local kids into letting us play with their badminton equipment. Majid’s first serve and the end of the racket flew off! A great Majid moment. (The kids weren’t too pleased though).

The day after we managed to hire some bicycles and made our way towards the Dungeshwari cave temples, which are 10-12km away from Bodhgaya. The journey there proved far more difficult than we first expected. Not only did we have to push the bikes across a baron wasteland where a river had dried up, but we had to push them through part of the river aswell! After this obstacle we had to cycle around 3km through lots of small villages, it was a beautiful surrounding and gave us a good insight on the lives of people who live in rural India. The caves themselves turned out to be a dissapointment, but it was worth the journey in my opinion (I think Maj felt otherwise). On our return journey a young kid wanted me to give him a lift on the back of the bike to his village (only about 1km away) when I dropped him off I pretended to demand 10 Rupees from him, his expression was priceless.

Before leaving Bodhgaya, we were lucky enough to see a local sports day in progress. The girls 200m we think? All dressed in their sari's still, and running bare foot (Usain Bolt eat your heart out).



Bodhgaya Photo Link:
http://www3.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1779078011/a=2264773011_2264773011/

The Kolkota Hikers

Kolkata was the city where the south ends and the north starts, so it was a big landmark in India for us. We arrived early morning about 5 am and because the guest houses won't be open at this time, Danny forced me to walk to the guest house, which took us a good 2 hours with our big bags on our back. We stayed at Biman's hotel and soon as we got in, we slept for a few hours. Our afternoon was spent mostly trying to book our next ticket to Gaya but the people behind the desks were so unhelpful that they kept on sending us to the wrong people, which saw Danny's patience being tested. We finally got told, after about 2 hours getting sent around the building that we are better off booking our tickets at the foreign tourist bureu on the other side of the river. Because it was Sunday, that meant that we had to go the next day and it cost us approx 35 pound for both of us, which included 6 tickets going across India= CHEAP!! Due to the stress, we had no option but to go to KFC and force some chicken down our throats to reduce our stress levels (lol). In the evening we were planning to go to the sound and light show at Victoria Memorial, which is a huge monument in her name, but we ended up watching the fountain sound and light show because boys being boys-we like bright lights. It was really good, the fountains did there best to keep up with the bollywood music.

Azzy and Shanny, both close friends of mine but more importantly they are my bengali friends, were excited us visiting Kolkota because it was run by bengali's so we thought it would be right eating some bengali dishes, Bhetki Pathuri (a mustard fish wrapped in a banana leaf) and a Chingri Malai Curry (prawn dish) was what we had. If you didn't know, Bengali's eat a lot of fish and therefore they stink but we ate them dishes in their honour.

We spent the next couple of days exploring Kolkota, by walking for hours in the heat. The city itself is influenced by the British with there being loads of British monuments and huge British styled buildings. Suprisingly there are not many Auto rickshaws but lots of Yellow cabs. The roads are huge, very busy and very noisy but that's what you can expect in a big city. One thing we noticed is that there are loads of young and old couples openly holding hands, which is a big thing in India but around Victoria memorial, they were just stood hugging and rubbing each other. They have no style!! On one of our walks, we saw a few peeping toms hiding behind bushes keeping their eyes on couples whilst eating nuts. I don't know why the nuts were essential but they're very sad desperate people. Obviously we swore at them but with them not knowing English, they probably thought we were supporting them.

Overall Me and Danny both agreed that Kolkota was the best major city that we have been to. Probably because we spent a long time walking around and exploring the city or maybe it was the British monuments but i can honestly say for both of us that we're knackered. I'm writing this after walking around in Kolkota for 6 hours non stop in the heat. This is the dedication I am showing to keep you all updated on our trip.

Kolkota Link:

http://www3.snapfish.co.uk/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1746003011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfishuk/