Finishing out India: Race through the north/northeast

My first stop after New Delhi was Nainital, a place recommended to me by a friend of Caroline’s.  Nainital is a small hill station situated around a volcanic lake at about 2500m up in the Himalayan foot hills.  It was truly a remarkable experience for two reasons.  First off, it was the first time I had felt cold since coming to India three months prior, so cold that I went out and bought a wool sweater immediately.  Second, there was a tout on the street and he actually passed over me in favor of the Indian family behind me, that’s when I realized I had only been bothered by hawkers a few times since I arrived.  One the wonders of traveling to places that is just for foreign tourists.  Nainital was nice place to rest up for a few days and get out of the heat, literally and figuratively. 

Two buses, a train and 24 hours later… Hello Hepatitis B!  Oh wait, I mean, hello Varanasi!  Oppressively hot and laden with animal feces to an extent which I had never witnessed before in a place where human beings chose to live, I didn’t stay long.  The section of the city bordering the Ganges River is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and it has streets so narrow that on my way to the train station a single file line of buffalo blocked the way entirely.  Varanasi was also home to some of the worst & most prevalent scams including several at the Burning Ghat where the Hindu funeral rituals take place.  The river is also a focal point of social gathering and family fun and the locals see no reason not to stay up stream of where the ashes of dozens of people and whole, loosely bound bodies (not needing the ritual purification of fire) are shoveled into the river (hence the Hep B reference).  The only redeeming factors to that experience were going to a Bollywood movie with an Italian named Franchesco and a Korean named Ann and The Blue Lassie Shop. 

After a train, a bus, jeep and another 24 hour travel day; back up to the mountains for some fresh air and fantastic tea, off to Darjeeling I go.  My first full day in Darjeeling was my 21^st birthday.  I knew pretty much no one and I started the day visiting monasteries with a French woman named Sanne (I know, “French woman” is a great way to start a birthday story, it’s too bad she had to go to Kolkata early in the day).  I picked up a bottle of Indian wine noting the sign proclaiming that in the state of West Bengal no alcohol is to be sold to anyone under the age of 21.  They didn’t even ask for my ID, but I tried to show it to them anyways, they laughed at me.  After a short respite and lunch I went out again, alone, to wander through Darjeeling.  About 20 minutes into the wandering I stumbled upon a wedding and was promptly invited in.  I spent the next three hours discussing the differences between the Sikkimese and Indian versions of the same brandy and eating with a group of men who consistently failed to acknowledge when they refilled my glass that my full glass was 100% brandy, while they water theirs down to about 20%.  That started at 3pm and needless to say, I didn’t make it to that bottle of wine.  That night I met a group that was heading to Sikkim for a short trek the following day. 

Sikkim is the tiny little state nestled between Bhutan, China, Nepal and Indian state of West Bengal and is possibly the most truly peaceful places I’ve ever been.  Each day Mike the 47 year old Jew from Wisconsin, Eliza the 27 year old hippie from France, Manu the 21 year old student of life from Germany and I would walk about a vertical kilometer down to the river and then back up to a similar altitude we started at to the next town.  Walking distance was about three kilometers down and 10 back up with an hour long hang out at the river.  We would start just after sunrise and arrive at our destination in the early afternoon.  In our second town, Kechuperi, we stayed in a small guesthouse on top of a nearby hill.  When we arrived and answered in the affirmative that we were hungry, they told us it would be a little while because they had to go pick the food.  They also had fresh Tongba (millet beer) and the cutest 2 month old cat ever.  I think I’ve established what my self-cleansing routine is. 

After Sikkim, I had a few days before my flight to Kathmandu and I wanted to put off going to Kolkata as long as possible, so I went to the Macabarie Tea Estate where I learned more about tea than I ever thought there was to know.  After all that I didn’t end up buying any because after drinking some of what may be the most expensive tea in the world, I realized that I just can’t tell a difference. 

Kolkata was my last stop in India and while it has come a long way from the black hole that it used to be, it still is a strong reminder about how far India still needs to come. 

Next stop, “I think I’m goin’ to Kathmandu!”

Caroline: The most exhausted I’ve ever been after being with a woman

Caroline and I spent 11 days together, traveling over 1550 miles on 6 train rides seeing Mumbai, Aurangabad (Ellora Caves), Jaipur, Ranthambore National Park, Agra and New Delhi. What a great way to re-get-to-know an old friend from preschool!

As I mentioned in my last post about Mumbai, Caroline arrived on Monday, April 9th early in the morning. We had two quick days in Mumbai and then we were off to Aurangabad to see the Ellora Caves. The Ellora Caves are a collection of monolithic rock hewn temples carved straight out of the hillside over a 500 year period from 500-1000 AD. The three major religions of India at the time are represented in their own distinct styles, Hindu, Jain and Buddhist. Starting early in the day with my trusty adventure hat, we managed to visit all 34 caves before dinner. Caroline and I had a fun day climbing around the ruins, imitating statues and marveling at grandeur of these manmade temples.

          

After a 9 hour train ride back to Mumbai and a 22 hour train ride from Mumbai to Jaipur, we realized we had gone all that way just to be swamped by hawkers and touts, the true tourist experience. While not home to the Taj Mahal, Jaipur is easily the second largest tourist destination in the region. With tons to see and do, it kept us busy for the three days we were there. On the first day on our walk into the middle of the old city we were bombarded with dozens of people hawking every good and touting every service imaginable. When we were almost to our destination we stopped when a man who we had blown off asked us why we were so rude. We turned around somewhat dismayed at the comment and after asking for clarification we explained to him that if, in fact, he wasn’t trying to get our money as well, he would be the first who wasn’t. We ended up getting tea with him and talking for over an hour. He was a really nice guy and possibly the only one we met in the whole city.

Our next stop was Ranthambore National Park and Tiger Reserve! Too bad it isn’t home to very many tigers anymore due to poaching and I don’t think anyone but the guides and touts have seen a tiger there in several years… With that said it was a fun safari experience. It was great fun telling the driver to “head them off at the pass,” in reference to another jeep that had cut in front us. We saw over a dozen exotic bird species and a few other species special to that area. We hung out in the afternoon till it was time to head to our train Agra. We were a little nervous about getting on the train since our tickets were Sleeper Waiting class and we were in the hundreds. That meant we could still get on the train, but that we wouldn’t have a seat and that over a hundred other people were doing the same thing. When the train arrived we started at the end of the sleeper cars and walked all the way down the train to the A/C cars and we couldn’t even set foot on the train it was so packed. As the train was rolling away we pulled our way onto the train and got pushed in to the antry car. We stood in the broiling pantry car for a few minutes then headed to the A/C cars where we paid an arm and a leg just to have the right to be in the car, not even for a seat. After walked up and down all four A/C cars until two Buddhist monks offered to share their seats with us. One of them gave us a book with some stories about Devachandra, which as it turns out, was written by the other one who is actually the leader of the monastery they were heading back too. It was probably the nicest way anyone has ever tried to convert me to their religion.

                         

Occasionally, a tourist attraction is all it’s cracked up to be and extremely rarely is it even more than that. The Taj Mahal fit into the latter category. Caroline and I started walking there just after sunrise and on the way a shopkeeper told us that it was free today. We walked away laughing assuming that he was just running one more of a vast number of scams that dupe tourists every day, but when we arrived and saw the signs for World Heritage Day we knew he wasn’t kidding. We got in for free and spent a few hours checking the place out. Later that morning we went to the Agra Fort, for free, and were summarily unimpressed (don’t blame us, we just came from the Taj). That night we went back to the Taj for sunset. As we were meandering around enjoying the evening light, we stumbled upon a few monkeys. After her run in with a few feisty monkeys in Jaipur, Caroline would have nothing to do with them and when one started to follow her she threw something down to distract the monkey. It just so happened that she threw her shoes down and the monkey took the bait alright, ran away with it too. After trying to get her shoe back for a minute or so it was clear that the monkey was intent on dropping it down to the dried up river bed below, it did. Caroline had to get a security officer to go down and throw her shoe back up to her. With Caroline happily reunited with her shoe we headed back to our hotel for the night.

                         
               

                                

               

                         

Our last stop together was New Delhi. The capital represents some of the irony that is the Indian democracy, as the largest democracy in the world seems to be as open to the public as the largest communist dictatorship in the world. The most exciting things about the sweltering city are that it’s home to the B’haia Lotus Temple and a new, Japanese built metro system. I couldn’t stand the heat, so I got out of the oven pretty quickly.