18 November 2018 2 of 4
India is keeping me entertained. Phrases like “the dry wrinkled hills” to describe the landscape and “purity of mind follows purity of diet” on a box of sweets make me chuckle. Delays at train stations, which are constant, are announced with a “sincerely regret the inconvenience caused” which doesn’t sound very sincere to me. While in Delhi for a total of 3 hours, we had an hour in a taxi traveling 10kms between train stations, and 2 hours navigating within the train stations. And to add to the mess, the taxi driver had trouble with his google maps between stations so we stopped mid-roundabout, with traffic moving all around us, while he reset the map! Anything goes in India.
We started the week in Ahmedabad, then traveled to Jaipur, Pushkar, Ajmer and Agra. Jaipur is known as The Pink City, painted so for a visit of the British monarch a long time ago but now with world heritage status and lots of amazing history and photo opportunities.
Pushkar is a lovely small town that is an important holy destination for Hindus and hosts a gazillion backpackers on their path to self discovery – they always say, like, such, like, interesting things, like… Pushkar is also home to an annual Camel Fair which was quite a sight – thousands of camels: some painted, some dressed up, some cranky and some dopey – all ready for a week long event of trading, performing, racing and socialising. The smell wasn’t as bad as I’d expected!
I’ve had a few train experiences this week, and to go with it, train station experiences. We’ve been traveling with reserved seating, so haven’t had to jostle with the crowds in trying to get a place on the train. However I watched a few trains come into stations and was blown away with the pushing and shoving involved in trying to get on to the train. It was really every man, woman, grandma, child, porter and guard for themselves. And at the end of it all, there were always forlorn and frustrated people left at the station that couldn’t squeeze themselves on the train no matter how hard they pushed.
The Taj Mahal was high on the list of To Do’s while in India, and it didn’t disappoint. It really is a wonder – majestic, serene, smooth and intricate. It receives over 30,000 people a day, and on weekends you can add an extra 10,000 per day. Phenomenal. That many people to visit a mausoleum.
We arrived today in Rishikesh which is in the north, in the mountains by the Ganges River. We’re staying on a “farm stay” which means a whole lot of relaxing and a bit of serenity. There is a national park across the river where elephants and tigers live – our hosts told us to expect to hear some sing-songing from the elephants tonight. A different sort of lullaby.
