Jaisalmer & the Thar Desert

Days 5-8
As if to give us one last sting in the tail as we were leaving the heavens opened once more in Delhi as we made our way to Old Delhi train station. In the Delhi metro entrance we waited for the rain to subside a little before making the short dash to the station. Old Delhi train station in the monsoon is an experience and a half! Pools of water lie everywhere inside and out of the station, getting through the security is a frantic mucky mess and confirming the platform your train will be pulling into is nearly an impossibility. Our train was the overnight express to Jaisalmer, the famous fort city in the Thar desert, and of course in keeping with the station's fashion of confusion our train pulled into the opposite side of the platform. However plenty of people were on hand to let us know this but our previous days experience left us doubtful as to whether to believe them or not, but we decided that we better check the train out anyway. Sure enough our names were posted on the first carriage we checked out! A change in fortune perhaps?

We were seated in 2nd class air conditioned sleeper class, quite comfortable. In our booth we also had a young French couple sitting opposite. The train pulled out pretty much on time and we were soon clunking our way out of Delhi, this city that we at first quite liked but had quickly grown to loathe. Delhi's track side view was a hotchpotch of very poor shanty towns, people and pigs seemed to crowd this squalor. I am a huge fan of railway journeys, there is room to stretch and walk, they are relatively smooth, you can sleep and you get to see the country from a completely different perspective than from the road. This was no different for me, although the dusk quickly pulled in the darkness and there was no view to be had. But at least we had a decent night's sleep ahead of us. I slept as soundly as I have in this country to date but my wife's sleep as well as our French companions was fitful at best. We awoke, (or in my wife's case arose!) to a changed landscape outside, the country side was arid, a dry scrub land dotted with flat roofed dwellings. A step outside the train onto one of our platforms told me that it was hot.. real hot.. and it was only 9am.

We glided our way through this terrain for the next 2 hours before the fort of Jaisalmer came into view, it looked as stereotypical desert fort as you imagine, like a medieval fort of some Arabian Kingdom. After checking into our hotel we went to investigate it. The fort itself is a living fort with 100's maybe 1000's living on the inside, so life continues here in amongst the turrets and battlements as it has done for a 1000 years. The Rajputs are a collection of Rajasthani tribes and they built the fort in the 12th century from dry stone. No mortar can be seen apart from the recent additions and repairs to the fort. This method of construction along with the recently piped water into the fort causing a very Irish problem, rising damp, are causing conservationists some concern as to how the fort can be maintained in its original state. So here lies the dilemma, do you maintain this magnificent fort as a museum with very basic living conditions for much of its inhabitants inside or do you allow the inhabitants to live in the fort and continue to live there maintaining the fort as they see fit as they have done for centuries. It's a problem that India's massive population is putting on many historic sites across India. A happy medium must be there somewhere to maintain this as a living fort but in a manner that will maintain the fort in its original state.

Next up was the Havelis, which are palaces build by the traders in the 19th century. They are absolutely amazing pieces of stone masonry extremely fine detail chiseled out of the soft sandstone, how they managed it without breaking the stone or even survived the weathering is a mystery. And yes everything you see in the photos is made from stone ...except the pigeon!

Jaisalmer itself its a fairly small city and as a result is a lot more relaxed than Delhi, very few people hassling and those that do are quite mannerly. The place has considerably lowered our stress levels and we are able to amble about the city quite relaxed instead of being constantly on edge. The most stressful thing in Jaisalmer has to be the cows, which rule the roost in this town. They roam about the narrow streets yielding for neither man nor machine. Going around a corner I came face to face with a cow going the opposite direction. Now I am used to cows going around me when we cross paths, but this cow wasn't for shifting and she swung her head as if indicating that she wanted past on my inside. Aware of cultural differences and resisting my farmer's urge to wave at the animal and shout "Chay" at the beast and I begrudgingly stood aside as it walked on. In my eyes the ultimate resting place for cattle is on our plate in some shape or form, and the lack of respect that Indian cows observe for this destiny and the butting of my wife's leg by a calf has not endeared me to these skinny rumped bovines.

Cows aside Jaisalmer is definitely a very nice place to hang out, and when here an overnight camel safari is the thing to do. The first rain in 2 years to the Thar desert put us off the overnight safari and instead we decided to go for a sunset trip instead. We set off through the desert in the jeep stopping off at a few desert villages along the way before arriving at our camels for our trek to the sand dunes and the sunset. Camels definitely aren't the most comfortable thing to sit on and I was quite glad that our journey didn't extend into another day as by the time we arrived at the dunes my bum ached and still does. A Californian couple were already at the dunes and they were spending their first of 2 nights in the desert. Rather them than us as the lightning in the distance indicated that rain was on the way, that and the full moon meant that a sky full of stars would be very unlikely. The dunes were picture perfect and the the rising full moon opposite the bloody sunset was a surreal experience.
 

 

We were soon on our way back to Jaisalmer and the end to a magnificent day was crowned with a controversy over a dead sheep  and a dripping ceiling in our room. We were relocated to a hotter room and a fitful nights sleep followed. This is India after all... nothings perfect!

We also learnt that this unlikely rain in Jaisalmer translated into serious flooding elsewhere in Rajasthan, where 36 people were killed in Jaipur which we hope to visit within the next week. Tomorrow we continue on to by train to another desert fort city, Jodphur.

Delhi 2

Days 3-5
Well these have been an interesting few days around Delhi. I think its fair to say that our view of Delhi has come completely full circle, as the negative now seem to be outweighing the positives in India's capital.
But I will start where I left off from my last post and that was with Delhi's metro system. Just as we heard, it was clean, efficient and unbelievably cheap! It is a total contrast to the streets outside, and outside New Delhi metro station is interesting to say the least. It is an open latrine and the smell of urine was so fierce I could still smell it a few hours later as I was having my dinner, my poor wife almost threw up on the spot. Luckily I didn't see anyone going for the long toilet or evidence of that but I believe it happens as well. In any case, after we passed through the metal detectors the metro was a sea of calm, it was cool and no street vendors, perhaps this was the oasis that Connaught Place was supposed to be. Both of our tickets cost 32rupees for 2 (40pence) and as we entered the slick train  we found that the cabins were tall and air-conditioned, although the holding straps were a bit low for my liking. Twelve smooth stops later and we arrived at Qutub Minar, a UNESCO world heritage site and the headquarters of the Delhi Sultnate. The Sultnate was a group of sucessive rulers and dynasties of Delhi, but more significantly they were the first Muslim rulers. For some reason that I dont quite understand, history deems the Mughals a different era to the Sulnate but I guess it was their grip and consolidation of Northern India that deemed them more significant. Indeed the remnants of the Mughal era which was shorter are more impressive and influential than the Sultnate. I guess the Sultnate dynasties were too busy being overrun by each other to do make any lasting contribution to history. However with all that said they did manage to build a huge tower called the Qutub Minar, which although heavily restored is still mightily impressive. It was almost identical to my mind's depiction of the Tower of Babel in the Bible, which as all you good Bible readers will know was knocked down by God, and just like the Tower of Babel, Qutub Minar got damaged from a few rattles from lightning over the centuries meaning that the latest bout of restoring is just another repair job maintaining the tower. The rest of the site is extensive and worth a walk around but in truth there is nothing more interesting that the Qutub Minar.

Most of the tourists there were Indians and they found us very interesting, the stares you can get used to but the requests for photographs were fine at first because we could ask for one back but it starting to get annoying and during our visit to our next site, the Lotus Temple were we had to draw the line. The Lotus temple was inspired by my birth and construction began immediately the next day! It was complete in 1986 and its funcky Lotus design is not dis-similar to the other 20th century architecture designs such as as the Sydney Opera house, It reminded me of a giant plastic flower and wasn't overly fussed on it but then I found out that it is actually made from marble, not plastic. In any case it seemed like we were becoming the main attraction as the requests for photographs became too much and we had to start refusing people. I think it was bothering me more than my wife as she seemed to be the main attraction, I was actually excluded from a few photographs! I got suspicious (No! not jealous!) so we decided to limit the photographs.

The photographs were a small problem though in comparison to the touts and scammers. Every Tuktuk driver seems intent on scamming you out of your cash, as well as all the street vendors. I will go through our attempt to buy a train ticket yesterday at the train station. We decided we wanted to take the train to the desert state of Rajastan and we imagined that it was just a case of going up to the train station and buying a ticket, so naively we tried to do this. We walked up to what we though was the station entrance and a chap who appeared to be helping people put their luggage through the security scanner, stops us and asked us what we wanted, we told the helpful fellow our purpose and he starting telling us about the Government Tourist office in Connaught Place He then hailed us a tuktuk which he said was a government fare of 20rupees. Now I was a bit suspicious as I had heard about the scams offices in Connaught Place. But this guys story seemed to check out as he had a map showing the office and he seemed to be a worker there. When we thanked him he replied "No No its my duty" so he seemed a genuine enough. We arrived at Connaught Place and were welcomed in by the people that work there. This set off alarm bells in my head, why were we being welcomed into a Government office? We went up stairs and there was a rather smooth charming advisor there telling us about all the scams that people had suffered, this only confirmed my suspicions and from then on it was just a case to see if he actually could get us train tickets, which of course he could do, but it was along with a package. We told him thanks but no thanks, which he made it quite difficult to do and used our cheap ride to Connaght Place as an opportunity to get some lunch and do some clothes shopping. After doing a bit of research that afternoon about the scams we found that there is a tourist office upstairs in the train station, but the scammers and touts will do everything in their power to stop you from getting there, but it is there! So we set off again to try and find the tourist office and despite almost being deflected for a second time we found the office, bought our tickets and we finally had our way out of Delhi.
Another scam we suffered yesterday was a lump of shit suddenly appearing on my shoe just as there was a shoe cleaner around! After cleaning it off he tried to charge me 1500rupees for the pleasure. He got 30, which was still too much in hindsight. Hindsight is a great thing with these scams but the scammers are very convincing and they have backup people all around, "Yes it was one of these birds that shit" I heard from a "passer-by" but in hindsight it wasn't, it was a lump of cow dung that he must have had in his bag, nice! As a farmer's son this was an elementary error I know, but in fairness the cow dung as with almost everything else is a little different in India!
Back on the sightseeing front we went to the Presidents Palace and India gate yesterday, which I mightily impressed with. The two famous structures are build at either end of the Rajpath, which is a wide tree boulevard, with various regal looking parks government buildings on each side built on a slowing rising hill with India Gate at the bottom and the Palace at the top. Its almost identical to the Champs d'Elyesee in Paris and it surely must have been the inspiration for the English Architect Edwin Lutyen. However once again the main site was a side story to something else, as a cleanup was underway after protests regarding the "Coalgate" (yes I thought it was about toothpaste too!) scandal, which is all over the news and is threatening to bring down the Government

Today we have checked out of our hotel and we are spending the afternoon in the backerpacker's bazaar of Pharaganj market, getting getting lunch, writing blogs and waiting to take our first trip on the famous Indian Railway system, which will be a night train to Rajastan.

Delhi

Day1-2
We arrived in Delhi 2 nights ago and we have been savouring its delights and dangers along with catching up on some much needed sleep since then. Arriving at the airport I was surprised to find that the terminal was new, clean and efficient like any generic international airport. Baggage, immigration and customs were a doddle and our pick up driver was easily found. Soon off through the morning rain of South Delhi in our Tata "mini minivan". While the road behaviour was the chaotic stereotype that us westerners imagine, the cars, road conditions and surroundings were not. The cars while small were mostly new/fresh Tatas, Hyundai's and Suzuki's, and of course there was old motorbikes and autorickshaws (tuktuks) but there was also a healthy smattering of 4x4s and luxury cars. The roads were wide and well marked (not that anyone was playing a blind bit of difference to the markings) and they lay within wide tree lined boulevards. As we got to the centre of the city this started to change, we went off the main roads and onto the side roads which became narrower, the footpath started to blend into the street and we were soon making our way to our hotel in between pedestrians, bullock carts, human carts!, rickshaws and motorbikes honking the whole time to make our presence felt. We got to the hotel which is a good hotel in the backpackers ghetto, the Pahargani area. Hotel Krishna is situated on the Arakasan Road which gets flooded in ankle deep water when the heavens open but it soon drains and the relentless flow of traffic and people begins again.
 On our first night we went for a quick walk into Connaught Place which is colonial era built circle which was built to be a supposed oasis of calm in the city. We never really found that oasis though and after a dinner which we both agreed was at too expensive of a level to be continuing with, we made our way back to the hotel via a frantic tuktuk ride and a long slumber to shake off the jet leg awaited.
Our first impressions of India were positive, this was an area of much concern to me. Especially with my wife as although I had warned her how crazy it would be, there was a worry she would not like it. You hear of many people freaking out on arriving in Delhi and getting the next plane out and I had vision of my wife going "What the hell is this place? Where have you taken me? Get me outta here" . To a lesser extent I had concerns about myself doing the same thing, as I came close to it when I arrived in Kathmandu as a naive 20year old. But I was a kid on my own back then and I had no one to point out how crazy the whole thing was and I was quite happy as made our through Delhi's bustle even slightly indifferent as it was probably not as bad as expectation. My wife too was enjoying the experience and although the sight of the street children and the incessant honking were bugging her, the frantic street life in Delhi was an experience she was enjoying.

In saying that yesterday we visited Old Delhi and that seems to have curbed her enthusiasm a little. Old Delhi is the area of the city which was build up and around the Red Fort and Jamil Mashid (Mosque). Both of which were build by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (also builder of the Taj Mahal in Agra). It is a maze of side streets and bazaars, a hive of activity and is enough to test anyones patience and any claustrophobic tendencies will surely be exposed. Jamil Mashid is a beautiful imposing mosque build high up above Old Delhi. It can accommodate 10 000 of Delhi's Muslims whose numbers continue to dwindle after the horrors of Indian Partition but those that remain hold on firmly in Old Delhi which was the aristocratic stronghold prior to the Indian mutiny/rebellion in 1857. The views after a sweaty climb which my wife wisely declined to the top of the South Minaret are fantastic however clouds from the impending downpour obscured the view, but even on good day I would imagine the pollution haze would limit visibility.

After taking shelter in the mosques cloisters from the downpour which flooded and muckied everything, our next destination was the Red Fort which we entered through the imposing Lahore Gate which unfortunately along with the huge wall was part of was the highlight of the Fort. The apartments, palaces etc inside the fort are impressive however the wall and gates of the fort do suggest a much grander inside. However according to William Dalyrmple's book City of Djinns much of the buildings inside the Fort were destroyed after the mutiny/rebellion of 1857.

After a walk through the old souks, the monsoon muckied streets were starting to drag our feet and we grabbed lunch at one of Old Delhi's most famous eateries Karim's and we were off to the calm of the hotel and a good shower and nap we were as good as new ready to face Delhi's streets once more. But after Old Delhi alleyways our previously chaotic streets seemed too calm and peaceful only 2 horns sounding at once instead of 20!

So today we head south in Delhi away from the busy centre via the new metro for a few more historic site visits. I have heard many good reports about the metro clean, efficient, cheap, sounds like the tube .... no wait opposite of the tube  

A week to Monsoon Mania

A week to go.....
My darling wife and I have decided to up sticks and leave County Tyrone for the sunny shores of Southern California. And since emigrating obviously involves quitting your job, clearing out your house and all the other annoying things involved in a move like this we decided that it would be the perfect time to spend a bit of time travelling in Asia before settling down to life in SoCal. Our provisional plan is to travel to India for 2 months before making our way to South East Asia for a further 5 weeks but adaptability is essential when travelling and those plans may change.
That brings me around to this blog, why am I writing it? Considering that I failed English literature at GCSEs and most of this blog will be off the cuff I definitely don't see myself as the next Jack Kerouac or Michael Palin so you may have to forgive me for the boring writing and bad grammar!  Rather the main purpose of this blog is to simply let as many of our family and friends know about as much of our trip details as possible, as opposed to sending individual small emails. In saying that I am still making it public just in case I'm recognised by the big publishers and they will pay me to travel the world and write travel blogs! However it will be anonymous, but those of you who know us will know who we are.
At the moment I am sitting here in our house which will have a new occupant next month, and nursing a hangover from our work leaving-do last night (thanks for all the kind words and more importantly the craic last night folks!). I'm surrounded by Gumtree's latest additions, shipping boxes and a various assortment of rubbish that builds up in your house over a few years due to hoarding for various unlikely scenarios that you imagine could just be around the corner but never seem to arrive. However a few visits from gumtree bargain hunters, to the local skip, and to various charity shops have meant that we are on top of our clutter. However we still have lots to do before the take off  on Thursday and that along leaving family, friends and colleagues has been to the forefront of our minds forcing the mighty subcontinent back into the little nooks and crannies in our heads.
Your guaranteed a reaction when you tell someone that you are going to India. But my wife summed it up perfectly from another blog that she reads. That is people have one of two reactions, there is the negative and the positive. The negative of course is INDIA? Why do you want to go there? I heard you cant even drink the water there? Did you know there is dead bodies in the street and people piss on them?.... The list goes on. The positive of course is INDIA! That's fantastic! I hear its an amazing place! Oh I would love to go there! Your going to have a fantastic time... There is always a reaction, no one ever seems to say soberly, "India oh right have a nice time then".
So then, why India? After the travelling that I had done before I met my wife in various places in Asia and Africa I was always looking to make time for a extended bit of travelling in India. I always thought that I would spend about 6 months travelling around India giving me as much time as required to see the whole country. Unfortunately I never seemed to have eked out any time for extended travel anywhere in the past 10 years, this time around for various reasons we have given ourselves 3 months, which as I have said isn't what I expected but its not bad. And it should be adequate time to see and do everything that we want.
 Hopefully I get a few more spare moments during the week to go into what we want to see and do when we get there and more detailed reasons as to why we are travelling to Asia in the first place, but to do that I will have to get rid of this bric-a-brac. Anyone need a printer, rug or DVD player?