November 2017 – Travels

Last stop, Delhi

Posted on November 11, 2017 by Steve

Date: 5th November 2017

Location: Delhi

Hotel: Godwin

One more day in Delhi before we fly home. We are in a pretty nice hotel right on the street where I originally suggested. It is 10 minutes walk to New Delhi railway station in the middle of the hotel district and not far from a big market area. The hotel we were at first night was a long way from anywhere, so this one is much better. The Godwin hotel has a cool spiral central staircase.

Hotels are not for much more than sleeping in, apart from a refreshing beer on the rooftop – even though it was a Kingfisher – watching India Vs NZ on the big screen on the roof of the sister hotel over the laneway. So we could pretend to be Kiwis and see if we could stir them up a bit, we had really wanted to find a bar full of Indians watching the cricket, but there doesn’t seem to be such a thing, no matter which city we were in. The closest we came were little knots of men standing outside hotels watching the cricket on a screen in the hotel foyer, we couldn’t manage to get a rise out of them, they seemed puzzled, maybe that anyone would publicly admit to supporting New Zealand.

Connaught Circle is supposedly the place to go in Delhi, but on a Sunday morning there isn’t a lot happening at all. For some odd reason, the only street workers were people doing shoe polishing. There were loads of them and eventually Tiff gave into the constant exhortations to have his sandals cleaned.

In the middle of it a cop wandered over and started speaking quite sternly to the boy. It seemed that he wasn’t supposed to be working the area (the boy, not the cop). We tried to explain that Tiff’s sandal had broken (it hadn’t really) and the boy was doing us a favour by fixing it. He had actually sewn up something Tiff wasn’t even aware of, so it was a half truthful defence of the kid. Someone explained that the cop was bored and throwing his weight around. Have a close look at the home-made box, it was meticulous, even the way he stored his tools of trade.

Lonely Planet recommended a government run craft emporium, described as a rabbit warren of delights. I have never been a fan of these places, but this one was different. a) it was a rabbit warren of delights and b) the staff were on a no commission salary so they didn’t hassle you to buy at all. at.all! This is unheard of and a most pleasant way to shop. The staff were bored and happy to engage. While trying to find out where we could see a Bollywood movie we ended up in the store cash office (which had an open door) chatting and laughing with staff who had piles of money on desks.

Unfortunately my small backpack was full or I would have bought a complete household ensemble that would have certainly had heads turning at our next party. As you arrive for the event you would find The Sheila and me sitting on our comfortable swing.

Inside, your eyes will immediately be drawn to the inviting lounge suite that will put you completely at ease.

Apart from Dawne and Tiff, the table looks a little bare at the moment, but as you can imagine, with the right decorations it will be transformed into a conversation piece.

This time of the year, it is so easy to over do it at a party and we like to be responsible hosts, so feel free to spend the night in the guest’s room, you may not get a lot of sleep as the bed set is sure to get your senses racing – and look at all those anchor points on the bed head.

This stuff was way over the top, but the shop was huge and actually had some interesting stuff, though it was mostly very overpriced. How about this:

a 4′ x 6′ carpet was 101,229R, a steal at a little over $AUD2,000, last year I bought 6 carpets including one 10′ x 15′ for not much more.

Then it was off for lunch at Saravana Bhavan which is quite bizarre in a good way. Imagine the McDonalds retail model applied to an Indian restaurant in India. Brightish lights, clean tables, lots of them, loads and loads of uniformed staff who take your order on a touch pad. The place is crowded and there is lots of activity. The food is mainly dhosa and was wonderful.

The triangle shape is just because mine had been folded to keep the contents encased, it was as big as Tiff’s. But the dosa pastry is itself is like a crepe and not very substantial. It is the filling and sauces that makes it. As if to prove that they are just like a western formulaic restaurant, I wanted to try to make one and it was the first kitchen to not let us come in and play.

A final meal, I really wanted it to be in a typical Indian restaurant and there it was, right opposite the hotel. The food was great and forgetting our formula of number of dishes = (number of people – 1) meant we had a bigger variety and too much of it.

There is always time for a couple more Kingfisher beers (or were they G&Ts?) in the hotel rooftop restaurant before heading to the airport. Had they been Hayward 5000 beers we might have had a more altitude adjusted outcome, but it was a nice way to end the day and our trip to India.

Thanks Godwin Hotel for letting us leave our bags for the day and then giving us a room to shower in before we went to the airport on the shiny metro for only 60R each to catch our 2200hrs flight.

There was one last delightful surprise. Airports are pretty bleak places as a rule. Yes, the architecture has improved, but they have hard seats and too much duty free stinky perfumes. We were sitting in one of the too hard seats when Dawne came quickly towards us, “You’ve got to come and see this” and took us to an upmarket shop.

Forgive that the video starts with my camera sideways, it is a bit of a weird angle that I correct. I was going to edit it to trim the sideways section, but I think it is worth keeping all the content, besides it is kind of an interesting angle.

I don’t recall the name of the instrument, it started with M, it is has 22 strings and is obviously related to the sitar. The top 4 strings are plucked, the rest vibrate as a drone. I could have sat and watched these guys for hours…but our flight called :o(

One more day left, in Kuala Lumpur…

Oh crap, I left out the movie…I knew we did something that afternoon. Will tell about that experience in the next post.

Taj Mahal, so many rights, so many wrongs

Posted on November 9, 2017 by Steve

Date: 4th November 2017

Location: Agra

Hotel: Sai Palace

The Taj Mahal is located in Agra which is mostly a bit of a shithole and if not for a couple of things, wouldn’t be worth visiting…well, that might not be entirely true, but I haven’t found anything else yet *. For that reason after planning to go to the Taj Mahal, then deciding not to go because it is a bit out of the way, then changing our minds because an alternative was even harder, we went to Agra. The idea was always to take a train from Ajmer (Pushkar) to Agra, arrive in the evening, do the Taj in the morning, head to Sheroes for a while and then leave for Delhi that day.

In fact, that is how it turned out, but as you are about to discover, there is so much fun to be had within the plan.

Once again we had booked general seating on the train. This means you have a reserved seat, but it is a step above cattle class which doesn’t have reservations. We were the only westerners in our carriage of about 100 people and apart from a Japanese guy we pointed to his carriage, might have been the only westerners on the train.

As usual, it wasn’t long before we made friends with people around us and decided they needed a taste of western music. It wasn’t the first time we had done this, so we had a bit of a routine where the bluetooth speaker was fired up, a phone connected, a song played and a sing along commenced. Generally we started with Country Road by John Denver because we all knew the words, it is middle of the road and it is John Denver.

Indians have never heard this song, or most popular western songs. The do know Justin Beiber very well and a bunch of doof doof dance music, but the classic pop songs seem to have never hit the subcontinent. They have now…

This is a bad and great photo at the same time. Everything is wrong with it, but I think it gives the feeling of everyone wanting to be in the photo and the crowded conditions and the fun being had. People crowded the carriage as we sang a bunch of songs and then had a guy hook his phone up to play some popular Indian music to see if we could get them to sing along. Another complete failure.

A few people were quietly mouthing the words but there was no rousing chorus from the punters despite us trying to make it happen. This is not at all unusual, there appears to be a cultural taboo about publicly expressing emotion whether it be fun, love, excitement or whatever. I’ve mentioned the built up energy at music concerts where everyone is sitting on their bums, dying to dance, but just can’t do it. Same sort of thing, they kind of wanted to, but just couldn’t take the leap.

We danced, I did stupid (and real) magic, we sang, they loved watching and laughing and being part of what is likely an unforgettable train journey. It was so much fun that we didn’t even think to take photos. But many, many people were videoing the whole thing so we may end up on YouTube some day.

Agra was awful. The pollution was horrific. Have a read of this article about the pollution in Delhi at the same time, in fact, Delhi didn’t seem as bad as Agra, though it may have been.

This is actually how it looked on the day as the sun rose. So much for the beautiful Taj Mahal glowing in the sunshine.

Compare it to 2015 and 2016

2015

2016

It was disappointing, but at least I had seen it previously, for Dawne and Tiff it was their first visit. But it is best we go back an hour or so.

As you can see there are big crowds at the Taj Mahal, the photo would have been taken at about 0800hrs at the latest and there were already heaps of people. We had decided, on the advice of our hotel manager, to leave at 0545hrs, we had already planned to be there for sunrise. This wasn’t a bad plan, not withstanding that we hadn’t arrived at the hotel until 2330hrs the previous night.

It was dark lining up for tickets, there was no lighting in the area despite a couple of hundred people standing in line. I tried to jump the line by getting to the front of an Indian only line and pleading ignorance, that didn’t work. Dawne was in the women’s line. Tiff was in the men’s line. I was the runner deciding which line was moving faster and it was the women by a long shot, so Dawne bought 3 tickets – Jane didn’t join us. Step one complete.

It is hard to take photos that are a bit different from the standard Taj Mahal money shot.

The next stage is to stand in line outside the gate. It is starting to get light and on the left side of the entrance there are many hundreds of people waiting. We take a guess at an hour to get in…not good enough. On the right side of the entrance is a woman sitting in a wheel chair…and no one else.

“Do we want to get in quickly?” I asked and after quick agreement developed a pretty awful limp as we made our way to the right. We are ushered to a spot with wheelchair woman and pretty quickly another wheelchair appears and I am pushed into it. What we didn’t realise at the time was that the wheelchair was privately owned by Viru, this had implications we weren’t aware of. Sitting glumly (on the outside) I would adjust my position and whince in a way that I hoped was convincing. Someone tried to get Tiff and Dawne to leave me and join the line up and of course they objected saying I obviously needed care. I had a minor panic attack telling the cop that I obviously needed care. He let my obvious carers stay.

There were others on the right hand side. The poor woman in the wheelchair was on an expensive tour and had fallen over the previous day. The tour guide had pushed her to this spot and then gone off to deal with tickets without telling her anything. She was quite stressed having been there about half an hour and had no idea what was going on. Although we were scamming, we did do some good by reassuring her that it was all OK and calming her a bit ^.

There was also a blind woman who was told that she didn’t need a ticket (that they had already bought) and they were tossing up how to go and get a refund but not succumb to the chaos that is India. Not sure how that turned out, but later we did see the blind woman taking a photo…could she have…was she really…it shall remain a mystery.

The gates open and we are in…first!

While Tiff and Dawne went to the toilet, I tried to explain to Viru that we would pay him his 500R and he could wait in this corner and have a sleep, we would be back later. My leg was much better already. He wouldn’t hear of it. This job was given to him by god and he was going to do it. So I resigned myself to a seated tour of the Taj Mahal, getting up now and then because “my leg improves as the day goes on”.

Truth be told, I got an appreciation for how shitty it is for someone in a wheelchair if the pusher is not attentive to context. I was left facing the wrong way and felt excluded many times. I missed out on quite a few things that happened behind me or that others talked about that I couldn’t see. Though an hilarious adventure, it definitely changed my attitude to how wheelchairs should be handled. Towards the end Viru insisted on a photo of Tiff and Dawne in some position that was behind me. I was left stranded. A kind German woman asked me if I would like a push and I stood up and told her the story. She laughed and wished she had thought of it.

Of course, the agreed fee wasn’t enough for Viru, he wanted a tip on top of his already expensive fee. I kind of ran away…which might have had him wondering.

Disability is put into perspective when you visit Sheroes Hangout Cafe in Agra. This is a project to create a safe space and a business for women who are the victims of acid attacks.

It is a lovely place that has expanded in Agra and also opened in Lucknow. It made an impression on me the last times I was here and I think that Jane, Dawne and Tiff had the same experience. Unfortunately they didn’t have any calendars left this year.

The artwork is quite haunting, not sure I would want one on my wall.

One more day before we fly home. Off to Delhi by bus.

* This disclaimer included to appease anyone who objected to my not be worth visiting statement.

^ You can justify anything

Moron Pushkar

Posted on November 8, 2017 by Steve

Date: 30th October – 4th November 2017

Location: Pushkar

Hotel: Paramount Palace

Picking up where I left off in the last post, I have to admit to feeling kind of cheap using a click-bait headline and then not even getting to the story – then again, that’s what happens in click-bait links. But there was just too much happening too quickly to keep up to date. So here is a bunch more on our adventures in Pushkar…you won’t believe what happened next.

The Mela Ground is the big arena where much of the entertainment happens. This is where you see the games and concerts, it is a big sandy arena where many things are happening at once including camel rides, hot air balloon rides, magicians, contortionists, tightrope walkers vendors and all manner of other spectacles. It is a constantly changing hot and dusty place where it is easy to spend a few hours.

We all showed up for the scheduled moustache competition, one of the highlights of the Pushkar Fair. Of course it started an hour late, but This Is India. I am not sure who won, but there were some incredible contenders.

Here is someone else’s video of this year’s competition, it was as chaotic and as much fun as it looks

https://youtu.be/KW6JlXq84VA

Just about every western tourist in Pushkar seemed to be there and the opportunity was taken to recruit people for the turban tying competition that was happening next. It didn’t take much encouraging for us to enter…actually it didn’t take any, we actively tried to get into the competition…and succeeded.

I hadn’t mentioned that one of the most exciting parts of the trip and planned to happen in Pushkar was for my daughter Jasmine and her partner Cameron to meet us there. In India for the wedding of a couple of fellow (Indian) doctors, this was the beginning of a month long trip that had only begun in Delhi the previous day. I caught a jam-packed local bus to Ajmer (you seriously could not have squeezed another person on board!) and in a miracle of Indian logistics and gods aligning, met their train (which was on time) which they were actually on board and then I found them as they disembarked. Having haggled a taxi fare the previous day I knew the price and was able to give them a soft landing into Pushkar.

Our Turban Tying mob now had 3 teams out of about 15, and we were ready to go.

The task is for the woman to tie the turban, and then from the tray place a tika (the red mark) on the man’s forehead, add some rice to it and tie the kalava (red thread) around his wrist. Here is what it looks like thanks to a couple of guys who happily held my camera.

In case you can’t figure out the result, Dawne & Tiff came 2nd and Jane & I came 3rd but the video guys clearly thought they were the winners. Hmmm…on reviewing the video, Jasmine and Cameron easily beat us, but never called out that they were finished, don’t tell them. I was pretty excited that we had one something receiving my certificate and plaque looking like I had been shot in the forehead.

We each received a certificate and a plaque which was good because it cleared my conscience.

Earlier there had been a cricket match, India Vs Tourists. Tiff had batted for a short while and after the match each player was awarded a certificate and a plaque. I really wanted a plaque as a souvenir and when Darren from Australia wasn’t there to accept his, I jumped up and accepted it on his behalf. Yes! I had a plaque!

After doing well in the turban tying, I now had two plaques so I gave one to Cameron who hadn’t won one and didn’t feel quite so grubby any more :o)

One of the great things to do anywhere in the world is crowd watching. It is even better in India. It is even better in Pushkar during the fair. Let’s sit for a minute and watch the crowd go by. And this is on a relatively quiet day.

Wedding season also started while we were in Pushkar

What a smooth segue into our next adventure. The following night there was to be a bride and groom competition. Jasmine and Cameron had been in a temple somewhere and had been asked if they would enter.

The competition is really between different beauty salons who dress western tourists as a bride and/or groom in an attempt to win a coveted prize and enhanced reputation. It involves quite a bit of work for everyone.

The first part was 3 hours in the afternoon following the turban tying. Both Jasmine and Cameron had liberal amounts of henna applied in intricate patterns.

A fair bit better than my hand from the train a few days earlier.

The day of the competition had them meet at 3PM to get ready for the 8:30PM presentation on the main stage at the Mela Ground. I was determined to get some good photos of this and being in the crowd was never going to be enough. So I hung out near the state entrance and when I saw a bride and groom going backstage, I tagged along. Easy Peasy.

It was a hot, crowded couple of rooms full of nervous tourist brides and and tourist grooms who looked absolutely awesome. The best way to get an idea is for me to quickly explain that the brides came out and paraded, then the grooms came out and paraded, then those who were couples showed off and some – including Jasmine and Cameron – were interviewed for fun, not as part of the competition, then they danced until it all became a bit awkward so everyone went home.

As for getting good photos, the woman organising the event was wonderful. She also organised the turban tying and recognised me, and since I was father of one of the brides, she gave me the OK to be on stage and even encouraged me to go to the front to take photos. It is worth adding that India is so chaotic that I probably would have managed this without her making it happen and no one would have noticed or cared except a couple of cops who just wouldn’t have cared.

Now check out the visuals and you will really get an idea of how it went.

They didn’t win, but who cares? It was the experience of a lifetime, in India.

I am no video editor, let me prove it to you with some video of the night.

The good news is that Jasmine and Cameron won their own plaques. I think the extra one ended up with the beautician who did all the work. Better than with someone like me who didn’t really deserve it.

There is so much more I could write about Pushkar, but just between you and me, I am already home and trying to catch up.

Published in Pushkar…you won’t believe what happens next

Posted on November 5, 2017 by Steve

Date: 30th October – 4th November 2017

Locatuon: Pushkar

Hotel: Paramount Palace

Lordy lordy, where do I start and end with Pushkar and the 2017 fair?

Getting there by train was part of the fun. We shared seats with a Sikh family on their way to a wedding in Ajmer, the jump off point for Pushkar. They have a hotel and shop and bloke didn’t mind flaunting their wealth with a Bvlgari watch that would drag you to the bottom of a stepwell. Bloke was only 22 but looked mid 30s and spoke enough English that we learned a lot about Sikhs, weddings and other things.

A walk the length of the train was an adventure within an adventure.

Most people were friendly and likely wondering why western tourists would be walking up and down the train.

This woman seemed to be the class clown. She insisted on doing some henna on my hand and could hardly see, so the result was as you might expect.

She was hamming it up in photos, that’s her on the right, I think the other women were strangers. Not sure about the placement of her right hand :o)

The arrival at Ajmer Junction was an insanely crush. People coming down the overbridge stairs and people coming up the stairs. It likely wouldn’t have been a problem but for the people sitting on the stairs. We all became quite separated. We all got off the train at the same time, yet somehow I was already at the top and could see Tiff and Dawne struggling to get started at the bottom.

Then there is a lineup of tuk tuk drivers waiting at the other end of the overbridge. We were about to settle on a 500R tuk tuk for the trip to Pushkar when Tony stepped in with 400R in a taxi, sharing with another couple. Of course this caused a bit of a Hindi shouting match, but we let the drivers all sort it out.

Ahhh…Pushkar Fair! It is a mix of gaudy lights, deeply spiritual pilgrimage, rides with really loud music, loads of temples, crazy competitions, people bathing and doing Puja in the lake, religious music and chanting through the night, hawkers and beggars…and of course, camels. Lots of camels.

There are two part to the Pushkar Fair. The first half is the livestock trading where camels, horses and water buffalo change hands. There seems to be much at stake with animals groomed and prettied up in an attempt to get a good price.

There is also a holy festival happening as part of the Hindu holy month of Kartik. Thousands and thousands of people make a pilgrimage to bathe in the lake. The crowds build then drop for a couple of days then build to a peak for the last couple of days.

While walking to the Mela field (the fair stadium) our way was blocked by a bit of a crush. Rather than fight it we went into a hotel an up to the restaurant to watch. There was already heavy traffic in both directions and a bunch of people were trying to get into a temple causing a blockage. 30 minutes of entertainment for watchers from rooftops and of discomfort for those caught in the crush.

Crowd watching is awesome. If eating or drinking we would always park ourselves with a good street view to watch the seemingly endless crowd pass. Immediately obvious to even a casual observer is the number of women in the streets, most often in groups ranging from 4 or 5 to 20+. I never managed to work out where they were coming from or going to, but the stream goes on and on.

Many people seem to be from rural India and quite poor. We westerners are a constant source of fascination for them. The reactions include delight, curiosity, fear, uncertainty and more. It is so easy to engage by smiling, waving and saying hello. Inevitably they would smile back, want to be in a selfie, want to talk…or try to.

This is a very typical scene that happens over and over throughout the day. It is so much fun.

These women came up to Jasmine and, while it is hard to know exactly what they were feeling, they seemed amazed by her. They were touching her hair and fawning over her while saying Ram Ram Sa over and over. In Rajasthan Ram Ram Sa is an alternative to Namaste to say to someone as a hello or goodbye.

A walk around the lake on the ghats is everything you come to India for. I am running out of time, here are some shots that don’t even nearly tell the story.