Confronting the real India
Trip Start
Dec 05, 2004
1
5
25
Trip End
Jan 17, 2005
Bikaner,
India
Friday, December 10, 2004
After leaving the small town of Mandawa, we took an early morning bus to Bikaner, a crowded town of around 580,000. The bus ride was not nearly as bad as we had expected and just involved some weaving around cows in the road, overtaking camels and overladen lorries. Rajasthan is a desert effectively, so it's sand all the way. Our hotel, Harasar Haveli was a little bit out of the centre and passable but very cold (we spent a few hours killing mosquitoes that night!). Dale took us down to the Junargagh Fort, which involved us walking past a putrid plastic filled stinky lake - we soon learned to hold our breath after this first experience going into town. The fort was built in 1588 by Raj Singh, a general in the army of Emperor Akbar. It houses ornate palaces, temples and courtyards still owned today by the Maharaja (all maharajas are from the 2nd caste Chatriah - warrior - after the Brahamin - holiest caste).
Then venturing into the Old City by ourselves, Michelle and I had what can only be described as a severe case of the wobblies - it was terrifying!! Here was a big town with not another tourist around - a real Indian experience. Within 5 minutes, I was coughing up phlegm, it was so much more polluted than Delhi. It was disorienting with people, rickshaws, camels, donkeys, goats, bicycles, and of course my favourite cows (especially the ones with the massive horns) coming at us from every direction. Going through the veg market, all the guys starting chanting and jeering at us. We clung onto each other and navigated our way around the muck and moving objects until we reached the other end. Even in the back streets, we were sidestepping some living creature or 10, including the children all running around playing cricket or coming back from school in their cute uniforms. The children in India are adorable, they have the most beautiful smiles and always giggle when we say Namaste or Ram Ram (a bit like - God be with you!). If you look past their dirty bodies and clothes and their barefeet, you see a lot of joy and laughter. They are so curious about us and are learning quick to use the well-versed dialogue (for those that speak a little English). It goes something like this: "Where are you from?" England. "Capital city London, Prime Minister Tony Blair, formerly John Major. You have coin from your country, I make collection" or "One coin" or "Hello pen?"
