To try and keep some sense of continuity...last time I wrote I had just arrived in Udaipur after landing and had only been in India for a few days. This time I've been here for a couple of weeks, so have a few more things to add.
The travel map so far:
Jaipur
Udaipur
Ahmedabad
Delhi
Agra
(next back to Udaipur to start a seven day horseriding trek to Pushka camel fair.)
Udaipur -
Udaipur was a relaxing start to the trip. We were nestled deep in the bosom of tourist town so it was pretty easy going. It still had elephants wandering tiny laneways, cows sleeping on the side of the road and beggars with gnarled limbs, but being on the edge of a massive lake it was a bit quieter - I think just because the presence of the lake meant less people and therefore less blaring Indian racket. Being a wealthier tourist enclave, it was also probably more attuned to the likes and dislikes of westerners. All this meant was that when we ordered a pancake, it was more likely to be a pancake than some spicy Indian pancake. In Udaipur we took painting and cooking lessons, watched traditional dancers, rode horses and of course did the obligatory monument hopping. Kath also managed to get us a spot on a horse riding trek, with horses owned by the Maharaja's brother . We take off for that in the next week or so. I fear for my rear but am very very very happy to get off the tourist trail and away from the cities (we're riding through the countryside to the Pushka camel fair).
YES SIR! YES SIR! HERE SIR! FOR YOU SIR! RICKSHAW RICKSHAW RICKSAW SIR! CHAI SIR! MAKE ME HAPPY PLEEEEASSSEEE! 1 RUPEE! 1 RUPEE!
Stop pulling at me. Stop looking at me. Stop leering at my girlfriend like your stares are hands touching her body. Fucking shut up. AHHHHHHH.
This is more a Delhi complaint than aimed at anywhere else in particular.
Ahmedabad -
Ahmedabad was ok. Nothing special. Ate at lots of mediocre restaurants and waited around for Kath to do her uni stuff at the National Institute of Design. Busy roads and as with everywhere else - developed and undeveloped side by side.
Delhi -
I'm finding Delhi boring and frustrating. Boring because it's just shops shops shops shops shops, restaurants restaurants restaurants and temple temple temple fort fort fort monument monument. And frustrating because after a whole day of the tension building from beggars moaning in exhausted drawls - pppllllleeeeeeaaasseeee ssiiiiiiiiiirrrr - and sleazy gangs of guys in very tight pants oozing filthy looks all over my lady compatriots something small can undo everything and make me like the people again. Like yesterday, we hired a car to go to Agra and along with our driver being a very happy, peppy and kind-hearted bloke, on the way home we made a pitstop in a small town and a guy started hugging me and telling me about his family. And that's the difficulty. It's just extreme. Either we're in a dark alley with someone who we think is going to do us over. Or people grin and give and give, asking for nothing in return.
Agra-
Hilarious and again, extreme. One of the most stunning sights of my life, the Taj Mahal, beside the shittiest town full of crap people. The architecture here is amazing because it's just lifetimes and lifetimes of work. Apparently 20,000 tradespeople worked on the Taj. Being there, with the thousands and thousands and thousands of other tourists, felt so strange. The thing was just monolithic. Freaken huge, divinely white and painstakingly intricate. It made me feel small. It was kind of like a mini-mecca too. The line around the building was so large that it moved in the same way that you see the pilgrims moving at Mecca.
We were very nearly ripped off by loads at the Taj also, making the total attempted rip-offs around one squillion. The line at the front was more than several hundred metres long and taking hours to move. A 'helpful' young greaseball offered for 300 rupees each (just under $10) to take us in . Worn down, tired and hot we decided that it was worth it. We walked with the guy for 5 minutes, while guys lounging on motorbikes winked at him from the side of the road, to another gate and then he demanded his money. The guards saw what was going on and shooed him away while he was yelling at us to give him his money. Not knowing how these guys work or who knew who, it meant that we had to be extra careful on our way out and tainted what should have been a fun day.
Bring on the countryside.
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