more pictures

heres some photos from our recent travels in the north

• fi and jim at sunset in pushkar
• camel shadow during 2 day safari in thar desert, rajasthan
• jim and the boys at jodphur fort
• drinks at the palace
• view of beautiful blue buildings, jodphur
• have you seen this man?
• fifi in local rickshaw
• the taj mahal

jaisalmer desert festival 2005

approaching jaisalmer by road is like viewing a huge sandcastle rise up from the desert,

entering the fort is like entering a labrynth of streets and havelis (old merchants houses), because this town is famous for its camel caravan routes to pakistan, bringing with it jain merchants and bankers of great wealth and power. the border is only 55km away, we cannot travel any farther west in india.

inside the sand-coloured fort of jaisalmer there are intricate ornamented windows and arches, the women in their coloured scarves and skirts, and men with bright turbans and slippers.

besides that there are beautiful temples in the fort and the view out towards the thar desert in unforgettable..

we were there in time for the desert festival, which proved to be a front runner for the best photograph opportunity on our trip (so far).

nuclear missiles were detonated 100km from here, the last one in 1998. didnt really please pakistan.. this is why today there is a fence cutting off each country, in india, 10,000 border security force camels patrol the fences, covering 3 huge indian states in the west of the country.

the force bought their camels to the festival you see, and the weekend was a cultural event/army tatoo.. camel polo, camel racing, camel tatoo, best dressed camel and mr desert during the day, with music and dancing in the evening. the best camel demonstration was a army man in a sari with a water pot on his head, riding a camel.. (wonder what they did out in the desert)..

i bought a beard and moustache set to compete with the men in the moustache twirling competition, making a few new friends along the way. and saw a man riding a motorbike doing a handstand and holding an umbrella across the desert.

the fireworks at the end were interesting, they started off with the huge bang, only realising the fireworks were only 20 metres away, then all of a sudden the local kids started running towards were they were being set off!!

the second night of fireworks, the fire brigade were there.


indian rule #007

tell the street vendor how much you pay, not "how much
?". nothing is ever fixed price here, food, lodgings, transport, and
drinks

indian rule #666

never eat at empty indian restaurants, especially
if offering western food

jim

Desert, camels and stars

Another Highlight of our trip so far....

Most people go to Jaisalmer to go camel trekking but when someone suggested that we went on a camel trek in Pushkar, we did!

Let me introduce you to our camels:

NAME: Krishna Charles
AGE: 3
PERSONALTY: Generally well behaved, apart from the occasional bite. A bit lazy but he is only 3!

NAME: Rama Camilia
AGE: 6
PERSONALTY: Naughty, rude, trumps alot, blows rasberries but very strong, needs a girlfriend

With our camel guides, Shiva and Bhawana we had quite a team. We left Pushkar with me sitting on the front of Krishna and Jim behind me and in front of us the boy's cart pulled by Rama.

As soon as we left Pushkar we were into the desert.

Let me give you a guided tour of Pushkar:

It is in a valley surrounded by 2 mountain ranges, to the East, Snake Mountain and to the West Carbara Mountains. Our journey took us 30km around the back of the Carbara Mountains and back into the Pushkar valley.

We rode for about 3 hours to our lunch stop, a flower farm. An oasis in the middle of the desert. Dal, rice and veg were served and made spicy to our request.

It was not long before we were back on the camels and into the desert again. Jim this time took the cart option with the boys. I think it had something to do with the whiskey!

This left me alone with Krishna it was amazing being 8 foot off the ground, the views were stunning, desert, trees, birds, villages, farms and temples - we saw them all.

Krishna had been great up till about 1km from our campsite, when he pulled a 'camel paddy' on me. The boys were about 100m in front so I was left to deal with it on my own. Krishna made lots of grumling noises, biting sounds and did try to bite my leg (its amazing how flexible a camels neck is) then he sat down with me perched on top. So with some big leg kicks and sweet talk he got up. I think it was because I told him dinner was near by!

Anyway we soon were trotting back to the boys cart. The camels guides were very impressed with my camel riding skills and so was I!

Our campsite was in an incredible setting. We were in a dried, sandy river bed surrounded by sand dunes and hills. In front of us was an 11th century fort called 'Tila'. Whilst our guides cooked us tea Jim and I went to the top of one of the dunes and watched the sunset, it was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen.

After tea, cooked on an open fire with fresh baked bread we settled down for the night on the sand next to the cart. We were all curled up under blankets and lay back to watch the stars. It was very romantic.

After a great nights sleep we woke up to the sun rising over the mountains - beautiful. Soon we were on our way again. This time Jim sat on the front of Krishna and me at the back.

We stopped after a while for chai at the side of the road before we headed over the pass back towards Pushkar.

For lunch we stopped under a sacred tree, next to a water pump. This was a real social place where goat hurders and farmers met on their return from grazing the animals. We shared fresh goats milk chai with locals - a real treat. The women took a shine to me and tried on all my jelwellery, glasses and hat. They plaited my hair and for an hour we laughed and joke - neither side being able to speak each others lanauage.

Soon it was time to return to Pushkar so through a few more villages with shouts of 'hello, Namasta and wot u name?' It was great to wave to everyone.

Just as the sun set Rama and Krishna got back to their stable area and we had to say our goodbyes. I think Krishna was sad to see me go!

It was truly an amazing adventure and a real highlight in India. We were the only people doing this trek and we saw no other groups. The memories will last for a long time...

Fi

blue desert buildings

recipe for banana lassi (north indian)

• one big banana
• natural yoghurt or milk curd
• topping - cashew nuts, dessicated coconut and chipped pistachio

sign outside barber shop

• catting (cutting) centre and saving (shaving) hair

jim to indian man on bus in middle of thar desert, rajasthan

"its very crowded in here?!", "of course, this is india!"

we arrived in jodphur slightly weary and dusty after a slow journey on a local bus from pushkar, we were ripped off with the bus ticket we purchased promises of being comfortable and smoke free.. these promises didnt mean much once we experienced the other extreme. fi and i looked at each other, smiled and said "oh, lets go back to south india!" as we heard about the challenge of travelling in north india.

jodphur itself was a bustling town, a fort town and still occupied by the current maharajah. yet these towns often expand to live outside the city walls, it was the old city we were interested in..

its famous for its blue buildings, and huge city palace high up on the fort escarpment. after a very good self guided tour round the palace with headphones we had a few surprises.. i was offered opium by a guard (popular medicinal treat for military) and a cold kingfisher beer in the palace lounge - we had drunk alcohol for 8 days before, as the town before was so holy no alcohol or even meat is allowed..

walking back down the winding lanes opf blue houses to the new town we witnessed an interesting muslim festival.. apparently to do with tests of strength.. there were men taking it turns to do all the following tasks infront of a huge colourfull chariott with their god on:

• men getting lashed and men also doing the lashing
• men fighting each other with bamboo sticks
• and other men banging very heavy drums whilst hanging from their necks

>> all this was done until they could do it no more..

we were tired again becuase i thought i was going to get lashed and fi thought she was going to get pickpocketed so we legged it past a bunch of guys having a fight then we found a most agreeable place to sit for a few minutes to catch our breaths and enjoy a chai and omlette (the man was proud to tell us he cooked 1400 eggs a day).

we then met two of fi's friend from manchester, sally and marcus in a desert bar with open fires, more beers were enjoyed!

found a lot of the street kiosks here sell apple juice (due to the perfect mountainous climate in the north) - mohuns gold coin apple juice.. bliss :)

four weddings & a funeral

a recap of adventures the last few days, just hope theres no power cut before i publish

quote from fi

"i have a affinity to give money to old people with glasses, and thats the only people i will give to"

its wedding season in pushkar, rajasthan! so far we have witnessed around 4 weddings a day. huge events that last two days and requiring courtyards that can accomodate up to 5000 people. whilst we were having a late breakfast, we heard the roar of a mobile band getting louder and louder down on the streets.. the wedding crowd then swelled in the street, the groom in a very smart white suite and red turban, sat on a white horse, then followed by all men.. there was another procession for the bride and women in another part of the town..

the band consisted of a fruit and vegetable cart with a sound system on, there was a kid pushing it, a man with a old bontempi organ and lots of vague looking indians with symbols, turmpets, tabla and whistles.. most of them not knowing where they were going, let alone what they where playing!!

in the evening, the procession went back onto the streets of pushkar (probably to walk the lunch off). the same arrangement as before, however the outside of the crowd was lit by people carrying light bulbs, powered by a noisy old generator being towed at the back..

it was soo colourfull it actually was very tiring to take it all in after a while, so fi and i bought some henna oil amidst this chaos to do some tattoos on each other..

update: no word on bollywood movie, like a job interview you dont hear from i assume i didnt get it :(

india media

heres the travel magazine we have been reading in india, great for inspiring ideas for train journeys and hotels. www.outlooktraveller.com

also for you movie fans, try tracking down these movies:
dhoom, shoobay, taal, kai ho haa ho

and any cd by ravi shankar (father of norah jones)

more funny names

train stations: manki, ginigeri, hubli

shop signs: loundry and londry service (laundry), salipar (sleeper) coach

and our animal friends: colin cobra, nandi cows, gary dogs, charles camel, barry bat, lakshmi elephant, and temple/music/bus stop/hotel dog

quote from russian guy in pushkar:

i have a big memory card for my camera, but india seems to require more!

quote from fi:

whats in a planetarium? plants!?

quote from jim:

you know there are a lot of undercover police dogs here? like that one (lying at temple gates),

and Is this a North indian Lassi? in Rajastan - North India....

indian scams on tourists

you gotta love 'em, here goes, im sure this list will grow..

• train ticket: in first class with second class train, ordered off train to pay penalty.. can haggle penalty price, we got two for price of one
• being blessed: "you make $100 donation right?", "yeah, sure!"
• food in agra: (taj mahal) and varanassi.. poisoned so when you become unconscious you get mugged
• jaipur auto rickshaws: they dont just rip you off, they ask you to conspire with them to rip yourself off!. If a policeman asks you "is this man using his meter?" you are supposed to say "yes" when he's not.
• being driven to a hotel, rickshaw driver telling you that "its full", then driving you to his
• kids riding brand new bikes and in new clothes begging for money, and endless people looking at the money in the palm of their hands and saying "just 10 rupee more"

saying that, it doesnt happen every day and its only a few people doing this.. once you are settled into a new place, once the backpacks are out of sight you have more time to spot a good scam..

into rajasthan

well, what can we say.. we are now very much in north india.. rajasthan, a land that is soo diferent to the southern states. the exotic 'land of princes', rather than temples, we are seeing forts, palaces and barren desert.

we were quite nervous (well i was anyway, as we have been so spoilt in the south) travelling to the north as it has been renowned for its scams and hard sell to the tourists.. (ie: poison food, touts, police rackets).. we have had a few, but got away very lightly, i think this deserves a blog entry of its own, eh fi?

its also the place we have been compelled to learn some hindi, once we have made the effort we soon realised the people here are the most hospitable in india. i had a crash course on the way up north onboard the jaipur express, with an indian man called 'VK' who sold hesian sacks, he made me order snacks on the train in Hindi. the actual journey itself a feast for travel fans: 1400kms, 3 states.

then he described the sleeper system in the train, (which he i think was the same as cinema seating): top bunk > balcony, middle bunk > first class, bottom bunk > second class, floor > unreserved.. even though all of our carriage was second class..

we had the chance to get the train to jaipur two days earlier, but this guard showed us to a doorway where he said we could stand! we didnt fancy this as the journey was for 18 hours! and he wanted baksheesh (money) for this too! (this worked out to be okay as i had my bollywood screentest) i met a few men on the train who were doing just this, they were on the waiting list for a bunk, rajesh was the 550th person in line for a seat, but made the standing journey by being accompanied by a bottle of gin! going to the toilet at night meant jumping and crawling over an jigsaw of bodies!

the stars i gazed at from the bunk of the train, as the 22 carriage train hurtled into rajasthan were amazing.. from desert floor to the heavens..

fi also had some fun on the train with two very confident israeli girls, i will let her fill in the blanks.
fi's comments on entering rajasthan: deserts, camels, vultures, flat arid landscapes, and pink turbans.. bloody israelis!

so after two days trying to aclimatise to northern culture and cuisine in jaipur. we saw our first snake charmer, but after visiting the animal home is goa where snakes are taken from these guys we didnt quite feel so happy about seeing this. so we had our photo taken next to a guard and mini guard at the city palace.

we are in the town of pushkar, a very holy place for hindi's.. 52 ghats and 1000 temples, the religion is brahma here > something which we dont quite understand how it works, but its certainly very colourfull, with lots of traditional (loud) music

From Bollywood to real life drama

Travelling with Jim is never a dull experience. After missing our first train ride north we had to more days to spend in Mumbai, not a bad thing as this city is really good fun. After drinking a bit too much beer the night before (well we needed a debrief after our train trauma) we thought "what shall we do today?"

Before I knew it Jim had an interview with a "Bollystar" agent for westerners, for a lead role in a film about a BBC correspondant who falls in love with a local Indian girl and then dies. We end up in the really posh end of town and meet some very nice people, Dan was also being interviewed for the part. He was a veteran, he had already been in 3 films!

After screen tests, yes, really....i am now his agent!!! I can just see me with my mobile, sipping Chardonnay with Guggie glasses on... sorry where was I?

After all this me, Dan and Jim went to get the train back to the centre of Mumbai, (by the way we hear about the results on the 15th Feb). The local trains are packed so we ran for it when the train pulled in to the station. What we didn't quite release was we were in 1st class and we only had 2nd class tickets.

Anyway a very nasty weasel of a man smuggly asked us for our tickets and then demanded us to get off at the next station. We were frogmarched to a cupboard and told we each had to pay a fine. The fine should have been 500 rupees each, but beacuse we were forgiens he would give it to us for 1000, 2 for the price of one - how kind.

Well any change of Jim ever getting an oscar were thrown out of the door by Dan and Fiona's performance. Dan played the cool, nice British guy "As we are friends visiting your country I think that the fine is a bit harsh" and Fi, well all hell broke loose. The weasel was the same height as me and I squared up to him and didn't take my eyes off his - he didn't like that.

Bascially this was no fine, it was baksheesh - going into all there pockets that was why we were soo mad. We did get it down to 300 rupees for all of us, but not with out humiltation on their part, there is nothing worse that a women scream very loudly and embrassing them with phrases like "so this money is going into your pocket then!" I thing in rectrospect we got away quite lightly.

Dan still wanted to kill the weasel when we finally got back on to the train.

It was our first encounter with the dark side of India and its a shame that this really does happen, but I felt qutie good after a shout and at least we found it funny!

our own type of laughter yoga really does help!

Fi

13/02/04: im stil waiting to hear about my screentest, a most bizzare exeprience: camcorders, photo profiles, scripts and acting in hindi! didnt expect that one!

Jim

laughter yoga

as you may have noticed by now, fi and i are pretty care free in our travels and itinerary in india

we are definately having some luck on our sides with travel connections, and the people who we meet who give us juicy tips about further travels and current info. apart from a few dodgy phone numbers for hotels in the lonely planet which i am still finding a reluctancy to use.. im using a independent authors guide to india i picked up in an oxfam shop, by frank kusy, only thing is its published in 1996 and its a bit out of date, however its reccommended some gems in mumbai which are still here..

today or tomorrow i hope to visit the gateway of india to meet the fellows of the laughter yoga society, laughter being the best medicine and all.. especially keeping a sense of humour when here.. and of course patience..

in the last two days i have been mistaken for nasser hussein and eminem. wow, im not sure how they expected me to respond to this.. ive also been asked to contact a scout about a bollywood movie, not bad money so i will have to feedback on that one too..

apart from all that, mumbai is great! a pickpockets paradise, probably due to the 10,000 new families per day that arrive here and end up living on the streets.. even so, thats what we expected, out on some of the most amazing street life in the world

jim

mumbay, bombmi, ohhhh muddly

Jim and I came to Mumbai with very mixed views, we had heard that it was a very messy Indian city to be avoided.

We arrived on the night train from Hampi - taking 24 hours (phew!). As the sunrose we arrived at the suburds of Mumbai, I could smell the suburbs them before I saw them! There were lines and rows of shanty housing but more offesive was the mountain of rubbish on the side of the tracks. The morning was greeting with the slum dwellers having their morning pee on the tracks (and no. 2's) bottoms ahoy! The slums went on for a long time! 60% of Mumbai's population is living on the streets and 10'000 people a day arrive in the search of fortune.

Eventually we arrived into the city and headed for Gateway of India and the Taj Mahai hotel, well thats where the taxi driver thought we were staying, if only.... alas our budget is only for the Salvation Army resisdency along the street from the mighty Taj. And I have to say the south of Mumbai is a great place. The buildings are amazing, very gothic and you could even pass for being in a European capital, even the rickshaws are banned in the city, thankfully I don' miss being followed on the pavement anymore..

Even though both Jim and I were tried from our journey it didn't stop us from seeing as much as we could. We did the normal - fi/Jim tour (jumping on the nearest bus and seeing where we end up) and a great day we had. the aquarium, jain temple, "fashion st" and various bookstalls

As Mumbai will be our last port of call in April so we are scouting the area of goodies to buy and we will definately need to buy a few more bags.

We are here for 2 more days then its 'up north' to Rajastan and beyond..

Fi

happy in hampi

we heard about hampi from another traveller who described it as a cross between a star wars set, indiana jones on acid. hundreds of semi ruined temples amongst a amazing space landscape, with boulders strewn everywhere, even the houses are built between and over them.

we got across the river using old coracle boats, i wanted to show the man how to paddle, but he did a good enough job considering we had 20 people in one boat, others had motorbikes in.

we cycled around the town and surrounding villages by bikes,

fi fed the temple elephant (no she really did!), lakshmi the elephants name was, pretty quickly a banana went up lakshmi's trunk, and then her trunk went in fi's bag for a nose around for afters.

meanwhile, i observed a new truck being blessed outside the temple by a guru - the truck was painted and splashed and all hell broke loose when the sound system came on. people chasing monkeys who stole the offerings to the gods.. learning from the monkeyrats obviously..

we had a bit of a fruit frenzy ourselves on the roof top of our homestay, watermelon, papaya and bananas.. its great being able to eat whole tropical fruit everyday

we found a great bar with hammocks and cold beer in, played the sasha cd we love and everything was right again in the world.. ahh

good and bad menus

typos of food items seen at various restaurants, fi and i have a competition to find the best dish name, then it takes us another 30 mins to order!

cheese butter nun, scrumbled eggs, breaded beans on toast, mashroom, mixed veg. tribal rice, green piece (peas) curry, hars (hash) brown patato, veg. nudles (noodles), chucken shaag walla (? didnt ask about this one just incase),

and my favourite: cabination of cattage chese in exotick indian grevy (well, they got the indian bit correct)

any tried 'maxicon' food and 'chainese' food?

other names that make you wonder what the hell you are ordering:

rava idli, dhahi wada, ghee dosai, sweet lassi, girmit, panjabi thali and sabji..

bon apetity

goa, going going gone!

highlights of the smallest state in india, and most visited by westerners

• walking the dogs at the animal rescue home
  
• mopeds - racing around the state (no repeat of fi's last escapade in brighton, heather!)
• cliff sunsets at vagator
  
• anjuna temple rave and nine bar dancing - techno music all night long
• markets and beach bars in the sunshine (toasted to all the office workers in UK)
• and leaving goa by train for magical hampi
  

everything was very nice, but after a week it felt like we were on a package tour not travelling. also we felt a bit like we were being ripped off with the prices

question to fi from jim:

"am i grubby?"

question to jim from fi:

"why dont we get a rickshaw to the bus station?" jim: "ok then fi, oh what about this bus (right next to us in the middle of a goan high street)?", "sure why not!"

mangled in mangalore

we stopped at a town called mangalore, on the way to goa. we had a connection to make, but one of the highlights has to be:

• fi and i getting blessed by a cashier clerk in the supermarket

fi: you dont get that in sainsbury's!

• jimbo getting haircut in ganesh saloon, micheal jackson on stereo, am asked to do a little dance.. ok then :)
• fi walks out of hindi movie after becoming restless and picking her feet

jim