Start of my travels
Trip Start
Sep 11, 2007
1
5
8
Trip End
Jul 10, 2008
Delhi,
India
Sunday, April 13, 2008
I met some fellow backpackers in Kathmandu and hung out with them a lot. It took 5 days to get a new visa for India. I saw a few sights, also.
Nepal is more Buddhist than India. India is mostly Hindu with a Muslim minority. Buddhism is a tiny fraction of India despite the Buddhist history and temples in India. I saw a Buddhist temple with monkeys and prayer flags (check them out in the pictures). I stayed in Thamel, the backpacker street. It was cheap, comfortable and felt more Western than India. Every country near India seems to have a big Indian population and half-Indians. But Nepalese seem a bit different than Indians
Cool Shiva Sculpture
. They look a bit more Chinese perhaps and act slightly differently. They're maybe a bit more easy going. Nepal is much poorer than India, also. Many Nepalis go work in India because Indians and Nepalese can cross the border without a visa (possibly even without a passport given the ease I walked through the border myself). Nepalis are hard workers and are sort of like Mexicans in America - they are all over the place esp in low-paid jobs.My next stop was Delhi. I was here about 6 days. It's not bad here but it's a bit too big and I've heard there are nicer places to go. But I saw some stuff here, like the Red Fort and Qutb Minar. They were both grand palace remains and were fairly impressive. Delhi has some modern, nice infrastructure. Their Metro is quite nice, frequent trains, not too full, not that costly. Nicer than Mumbai's local trains. Their downtown has some nice parks and monuments like this big Connaught PI. It's kind of like Paris' Arc de Triumphe: a big arch with a circle road around it. It also has tons of park around it (and lots of tourists and vendors). It's nice to have open grassy park if I want to read or picnic in. The city reminds me a lot of Mumbai. There are thousands and thousands of very similar shops. Sort of like mini 7-11s or general stores, one room big. With rather high-ish prices. It is hard to figure out where to go to get low prices or specialize items.
I met some very smooth touts on the streets. Shops give kickbacks to Indian for bringing in tourists
Devilish Mask
. So a bunch of people will walk around on the streets, strike up a conversation and try to help me out. Then after getting to know me, they'll try to convince me to come to a shop. It can seem quite deceptive, sometimes. I ended up in a tea shop, a travel shop and in a painting / sculpture / textile shop. It is a bit weird because I sometimes want to chat with them anyways for a bit even when I suspect they're pulling me somewhere. It can be amusing to watch their technique and they can be quite nice apart from trying to draw me into shops. Or if I get to know them and they helped me then why not go to a fancy shop with nice art? A lot of the art is as good as the best stuff in the museums and free to see. It's like my relationship with every Indian is mixed with money. It makes me a bit paranoid and suspicious with most Indians I meet. One group of 20 year old men talked with my friend and I for an hour or so (charming, nice guys, great English, one had an IT/call-center background), seemed like friends, invited us to a waterfall, implying we wouldn't pay. Then they mentioned a huge amount of money for "gas money". Oh, actually, they're tour guides. They can sell us overpriced bus tickets too if I like. And actually there's almost no water in the waterfall right now because it's dry season. So now when I meet nice, sincere Indians that don't mention any sales line right away (as they normally do), I am suspicious. And the suspicion is usually right. You can kind of read people
Me on the moon (could this have been faked?)
. But the best ones are hard to read and have more advanced schemes. Even more honest Indians I've met have money involved. I met two Indians (one in Delhi and one in Udaipur) who were truly not asking for money, invited me to eat and stay at their house and showed me around. But even still, I am so rich compared to them and they are so broke that I normally pay for rickshaws and misc things usually. It's vaguely like the relationship between pretty girls with no money who offer attention to men who pay for drinks / rickshaw rides for them (I met two girls doing that in Goa). (not exactly the same, a of and bit unfair comparison). I gave a $7 (250rp) gift to my friend in Udaipur and he felt a bit uncomfortable because it was too expensive! It would be like bringing a $100 gift in Canada to someone who invited you for dinner.The friend I met in Delhi approached me when I was looking for a Chemist shop to get my last Hepatitis shot. He led me to the shop and we told each other about ourselves and our families. He wanted me to come to an art shop so I did. It was actually quite nice. I felt the all so common experience of walking into a fancy, air-conditioned shop almost empty of customers with 5-10 determined salesmen lounging around. I look at the beautiful art and feel that pressure that they want me to buy. They are quite determined to convince me. It is an annoying pressure. I refused to go to any other shops and was going to leave him. But we were getting along ok and he said no more shops and showed me around a little in the square
Nero Planetarium Building
. He knew exactly how to get to everything directly. He invited me to see his family in the suburbs. We went out and met his family and friends. It was truly a great experience! We had some food and drinks there, put on some music and I danced with a few of his family. There was this wild girl and this tiny, young boy who really like to dance! He lived in these ~5 story concrete government housing blocks which were nice and quite practical. Filtered water was delivered in the morning via water trucks and the rooms were maybe 4m x 7m plus a small kitchen and squat-bathroom / shower area. My friend, Raj, lived with his uncle's family while he was taking nursing classes. His Mom made art in Mumbai. He was supported by his Mom and uncle and once he could start working, he planned to turn over almost his entire wage to his Mom, indefinitely! Raj invited me to sleep in his room as it was a little late (actually only maybe 10pm) so I did. It was a bit of a mistake because he had no mosquito netting on his windows and I got bitten while I slept. I woke up and was so itchy I couldn't sleep for a while.Then next day, he introduced me to a friend who had a car. He said why pay for the bus when his friend could just drive me around? It turned out to be a mistake. His friend's job was to drive tourists around between cities. He kept on hassling me more and more about hiring him to drive to Agra and Jaipur. Only 7000 rp ($210). Not a bad idea if you're in a hurry, don't mind spending more money and would like to see the countryside
Huge hand sized Puri!
. But I am a cheap backpacker. That's the kind of travel I want. $5-$15/day. Also, I took a few hours at the monument and I felt guilty afterwards for making Raj wait. I don't like feeling hurried and guilty! Then I spent 3h going to kickback stops for them to pay for gas. I had to spend at least 5 minutes in each painting / sculpture / textile shop. I spent ~4 minutes once and they didn't get the kickback. Raj started signaling me when it was time. I had to fake interest. The last store wanted to close and I had to really push to get 5 minutes down! What a pain! Then, finally, Raj's friend tried to charge me his regular rate of 1000 rp per day for the car. Or at least a few hundred for gas. He told me about his costs to rent the car. Raj said "come, give him a little" or something. I was quite tired, irritated and disgusted. I told them that he had to set those terms at the start and that they had enough from the 3h of kickback stops! This day left a bitter taste after the great night before.Well, enough about the ubiquitous scammers, touts and tour guides.
I've learned a bit about Hindu Gods as I go to Hindu temples. As I learn more about them (millions of them in total but only a few major ones), I have noticed some interesting things. Buddhism and Hindu have angels and demons! All Hindu gods are different aspects of one single god. So in a way, it is similar to Christianity in having one God. But the Hindu gods seem more like Greek gods the way they get jealous and do silly things
Hot Fudge Brownie Ice Cream
. Shiva accidentally cut off the head of his son, Ganesh. He didn't know Ganesh was his son and it was a misunderstanding. His wife was quite anger with him so he replaced Ganesh's severed head with the first head he could find - from an elephant. He then brought Ganesh back to life! The 3 main gods of the Trimurti are Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Shiva (the destoyer). Most Hindus primarily worship Vishnu but Shiva is becoming more popular and some women prefer Devi, the female goddess of war.Next, I went to Agra, Jaipur and Pushkar. Agra has the magnificent Taj Mahal. It is huge and beautiful. I also did a day trip to Fatehpur Sikri, a well-preserved fort city. It got abandoned right after it was built because there was not enough water around to support the city. On my third day in Agra, I tried renting an Indian bike and riding around to the Agra Fort and the Baby Taj which were quite nice. Riding the bike was an experience in itself. Indian bikes are single speed and ride not so badly considering their poor condition (repaired many times, bit bent / wobbily here and there). The traffic was thankfully mostly bicycles and bicycle rickshaws which a bit of motorbikes and autorickshaws. A few Indians gave me funny looks and thought it was great I rode a bike. I doubt many tourists ride bikes! I got an action shot with my camera using the 10 second delay of my riding the bike! The Baby Taj was like a small Taj only with beautiful, detailed inlaid stone designs in the marble
Motorcycle family
. The Agra Fort was better than I expected. It has history. It was used by the reign of kings who built the Taj Mahal (approx 1500AD) and the son kept his father imprisoned there after the son took power. The son was the last of their line. He lost to some other guys who then lost to the British.Jaipur wasn't that great. It had a ton of smooth, aggressive rickshaw drivers looking to take you to kickback hotels/shops. It also had an old city palace and a nice Amber Fort. Next to the palace there was a place with tons of sundial structures. One was a sundial perhaps 5 stories tall!
Pushkar is a religious Hindu site as well as a big tourist destination. There are tons of temples around this lake. There are steps down to the lake (ghats) which are holy and Hindu people like to bathe in the polluted water. No alcohol is allowed to be sold in stores/bars and the town seems to shut down after 10pm. There are yoga and spiritual things taught here and it attracts backpackers who are into that. Or into a quite place with bang-lassis! (marijuana) They are sold openly in Northern India! They are sort of allowed due to a connection with the Hindu religion. The hotels are so cheap here and quite nice! They gear up for the fall Camel trading then are cheap during the rest of the year. I stayed in Pushkar for a week. I meant to leave after a few days soon after my two friends, Shane and Charlie left. But I wanted to take a day to learn Hindi. Then I met some more friends. It's easy to just hang out with people, eat and walk around.
I took a day and learned the Hindi letters so I can read now! It is entirely phonetic so I can sound out words even if I don't know what they mean. It is most useful for train/bus signs because I can recognize the words I read. It also helps me pronounce Hindi words better.
Also, I met a good friend, Katie, in Pushkar and traveled with her for the next week. I'll show pictures in my next entry.
I traveled to Bundi, Pushkar and Udaipur next. However, I'll leave that for my next entry.
