Incredible India – part 1 – Delhi and Jaipur

Red Fort - Delhi

We have just returned from a trip of a lifetime to India and it stirred every emotion under the sun. At times it nearly broke me, at times I was moved to tears, at times I laughed so much it hurt, I met friends for life, saw sights that defy explanation and experienced a culture so vivid, intense and different to my own that it was life affirming and framed my thoughts in a whole new way. I never really considered that a ‘holiday’ was capable of having this level of impact on a person but I can tell you that it has on me.

I had heard tales of people that “find themselves” in India and those who return year after year or disappear into a yoga retreat for long periods so I figured it must have some kind of magical ability to impact deeply on visitors. Julia Roberts and ‘that terrible film’ have a lot to answer for in painting a narcissistic, hippyish, self-obsessed image of the stereotypical Indian experience. This is not what happened to me. I just had my eyes opened to a country that defies any kind of stereotype, it can be all things to all people, it has the power to redefine who you are but it does not need you. In film version, the (wonderful) Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a much closer portrait than the ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ depiction (in my opinion).

So, we arrived in Delhi on a very hot Sunday afternoon in late April. I was slightly wired, having spent the flight from KL in a seat with 2 CRAZY women sat behind me who shouted at each other for the whole 5 hours and got up and down around 10 times during the flight, repeatedly whacking the back of my head as they did so. They seemed to think this was acceptable behaviour. I did not. At least there was beer on the flight (though Malaysian Airlines made us share a can!).

Our transfer from the airport was with the Planeterra supported Women on Wheels project which enables women to get their driving license and become private chauffers, giving them independence and confidence and a means of support in society. Our lady driver pulled no punches on the roads of Delhi (a note about the roads of Delhi, I thought they were pretty fucking mental until I had experienced other Indian cities, in context the roads of Delhi are pretty calm and ordered) and used her horn a healthy amount (ie every 10 seconds – restrained by Indian standards). She was not frightened of tuk tuks, cows, the fact that a 3 lane road had 6 lanes of traffic or even the 10 ton lorries doing insanely high speeds and weaving in and out of all of the above.

During the trip between the airport and the hotel we saw:

·         A Suzuki swift containing 8 people get pulled over by police

·         A motorbike with 3 people and a basket of washing and a pig on it

·         A cow standing in the central reservation of the freeway

All of these would later become very normal - we were definitely not in Kansas anymore. Less amusing was the dead puppy outside our hotel; this place challenges your precious, preconceived ideas of what is acceptable so very often that you have to learn to let go of them at times.

Sunday night we met our group for the first time, there were 9 of us: 5 Aussies (including us, the pom contingent), 2 Germans, 1 American and 1 Costa Rican. This was actually the element of the trip I was most anxious about as we knew we would spend every day with these people for the next 2 weeks on a busy itinerary – if any of them were dicks it would have been rather unfortunate.

Thankfully Ganesha was clearly smiling on us when this group was put together and the stars aligned to give us a group that were, across the board, laid back, well-travelled, easy going and very, very funny. I never expected to laugh as much as we did over the course of this trip. From the initial meeting to the final dinner we shared food (we shared LOTS of food), hand wipes, medicines, water, insect repellent, fruit and just about everything we had. Oh and we also shared a heck of a lot of rum. Which was medicinal (or so we were told).

The medicinal rum did not, unfortunately, prevent any of us from getting sick. At pretty much every point during the trip, at least one person was not right. The fortunate thing was that there was a genuine feeling of team spirit and care for each other – fostered by our amazing guide Jai – which ensured that despite the fact people were feeling rough and struggling to eat or keep anything down, we managed to see everything we were meant to and looked after each other through the worst parts. Believe me, a sense of humour and a great deal of pragmatism are essential qualities on this kind of trip through India.

This is our group, our first ‘selfie’ at a hilltop temple in Jaipur as the sun set. I love the bones of these folk. We only need wifi, rum, showers and curry to be completely content. And (as Mahatma Ghandi once said) The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony, which became the soundtrack to our trip and part of a hilarious joke.

L-R - Emma, Eric, Nadine, Isaac, Jai, Stu, Me, Bina, Dean & Jade

Anyway, back to our first full day in Delhi which was a busy one as it was the only full day we had before leaving for Jaipur. We were up and out to visit another Planeterra project, the fantastic Salaam Baalak Trust which helps and supports street kids with education, clothing, food and a place to stay as well as training them to work as tour guides to support themselves in later life. We spent time on one of the tours and then time with the youngest kids currently in the trust’s care, all of them spoke alarmingly good English and they were intrigued by our cameras and phones, wanted to show us their colouring and drawing, were genuinely excited that we were visiting them. It was humbling.

After this we visited the Jama Masjid mosque which has great views over the city and is beautiful and huge. Strangely they made all the women in our group wear gowns over our clothes, though we were all completely covered in preparation, they didn’t ask us to cover our hair though. It felt a little like some kind of bonus way of extracting rupees to be honest, or at the very least, marking us out as tourists ripe for badgering to everyone else.

Next we walked through the streets of old Delhi to a Gurdwara which was beautiful, I covered my hair for this one with a funky purple headscarf and we were allowed in while they were having a ceremony. It was wonderfully peaceful and inclusive, I have a soft spot for Sikhism as I grew up with a lot of Sikh friends and of all the religions it seems to be the most completely focussed on equality throughout. In support of this notion, Gurdwara’s have a tradition of ‘Langar’ which means a common canteen where they will feed anyone, of any background, creed or religion, for free at lunch time. People volunteer to man the kitchens, serve the food etc as their personal contribution to the community and the dahl and roti is basic but tasty. For the homeless and less fortunate these places are a lifeline. They happily fed us too.

Volunteers shaping roti

Langar - roti and dahl

In the afternoon we spent the worst heat of the day in a pleasantly air conditioned mall – there was a Starbucks which seemed very exciting after a few days of only having access to weak nescafe. Once it started to cool off we headed to Haus Khaz and sat on the grass in the middle of the beautiful ruins (in what is now a trendy and affluent part of town) while Jai told us the history of the things we had seen that day. 

A feast for mozzies

A number of mosquitos feasted on me while this happened.

In the Haus Khaz district we went to a Nepalese restaurant for dinner. This was my second experience of Nepalese food and the second time I have disliked what I ordered, this must be bad luck, I should have had the momos (dumplings which were delicious) but I somehow ordered cheese soup with whole chillies in it (are you mad, Nepal? How is this a meal?). I didn't eat very much but lovely folk in my group shared theirs happily and I made a note not to order this terrible dish again.

Next day there was a "kerfuffle" over some toast in the dining room which was incredibly amusing though I am not sure it was meant to be. I felt terrible for having caused such an inconvenience but I couldn't face curry for breakfast on this particular day and there was a toaster and a loaf of bread so I assumed toast was at least a possibility. 

Unfortunately, the toaster was only there for show and on my putting bread in it both waiters looked utterly perplexed. What followed was a 30 minute wait for toast while the waiters tried to find a place to plug in the troublesome appliance. There were no spare plugs. Someone bought an extension lead, it was not quite long enough. Another extension lead was procured following extensive phone calls and shouting. It still did not reach. At this point one of the waiters walked off with the toaster and the bread and (I can only assume) plugged it in elsewhere. This is India, it is entirely plausible that my toast was cooked on the reception desk. What a complete nuisance I am. 

It was sort of like watching Fawlty Towers dubbed in Hindi, which, if nobody has yet done, should surely be created immediately?! The head waiter definitely had a touch of the Basil's about him anyway. 

After breakfast we boarded our pretty awesome bus to Jaipur. We had air con and plenty of space and it was a very comfortable journey - en route we saw:

• An elephant on the back of a flat bed truck
• A crop of marijuana growing behind some public toilets

Arriving in Jaipur, in Rajasthan, India's desert state, the heat was quite insane. We spent a few hours chilling and then headed out to the monkey temple at the top of a hill which had a great view of sunset over the city, that is where the selfie at the start of this blog is taken from.

There were cows and goats and pigs and dogs as well as monkeys at this place and all of them wanted food and petting. Well, actually the monkeys were not so keen on the petting and mainly wanted to rob you of whatever edible delights you were carrying. But the cows, goats, dogs and pigs were happy for some fuss. 

This guy feeds the monkeys every day, they love him.

Looking over the rooftops of Jaipur

That night we went to see a bollywood movie at the famous, art deco Raj Mandir Theatre. We saw "Mr X" which was like an Indian James Bond but with dancing. The samosas were amazing (seriously, all cinemas should offer samosas as snacks!) and the inside of this place was even more spectacular than the outside, truly beautiful. It was so cool to see whole families enjoying this very Indian experience. 

Inside the theatre, v cool art deco design

After the movie, Jai took us to a v nice restaurant (entirely vegetarian) where I had the best aloo gobi of my life. A tuk tuk ride through the streets of Jaipur turned into a race between the three drivers which was mildly amusing and simultaneously very scary indeed. We were still fairly new to the crazy Indian traffic at this point, give it a week and we wouldn't have even blinked...

Next day we were up fairly early and out to see the Palace of the Winds and the Amber Fort before the real heat of the day kicked in. This was where we saw heaps of elephants for the first time, though Stu and I were determined not to ride them up to the fort. Jai told us that there have been changes to the rules around the elephants for their welfare and now each elephant is only allowed to make 3 trips up and down the hill each day whereas previously the poor things had no limits at all. G Adventures does not support this use of animals, which again, for me, underlined why I think they are a fabulous company to tour with. At least now there are limits on how much they do each day and the horrible bull hooks have been replaced by wooden sticks.

Palace of the Winds

Amber Fort

After a morning of exploring we headed to a local fabric maker and bought some outfits for our approaching visit to the Taj Mahal, Bina and Jade bought beautiful Saris and Emma and I bought Indian style tunic tops. This was a really good place to go which again thanks to Jai was not a tourist trap but a seller to retail outlets. There was no hard sell which was nice and they gave us masala chai and let us shop at our own leisure. 

This was the afternoon where I unfortunately got very sick. Ahead of an evening out in Jaipur I became very ill and had to stay at the hotel while Stu headed out with the gang. I kid you not, I was in so much pain with stomach cramps that I just lay on the floor of the bathroom sobbing for a while. It was a very uncomfortable night and meant that any plans for climbing a hill at sunrise the next morning were abandoned (who am I kidding, right!?). One of our group was hardcore (lookin' at you Bina!) and attempted the hill despite being ill, this resulted in a vomit break near the summit. Isaac tricked Emma into thinking he would join her after they drank beers into the early hours. He bailed, Emma was not amused. 

We left Jaipur a few hours after the sunrise walk returned, I could not eat anything so just knocked back some Hyrdalyte (the official sponsor of our holiday) and kept sipping water. We then headed off to Tordi for a night in a local village before heading to Agra. Part two to follow soon....