Welcome to the north...

Delhi-tuk-tuks waiting outside train station

Its been a while since i typed the last blog i know, but in India the connections are slow and the computers are often old. Power cuts are frequent, i typed up this blog already however lost it due to the last computer was to slow to save it, and now i can not access the files that were saved on my camera....blah blah blah... ive taken a lot of photos and I’ve compressed them even more this time, just because otherwise this blog would not be possible.

After recovering a nasty bout of Delhi belly. We finished the course of antibiotics whilst traveling north, arrived at a place called shimla- a quaint little mountain village type feel to it, the photos below are from a walk we did to a waterfall there. And then the next day we spent ages finding a place that served English breakfast (recommended by the lonely planet)...when we found it and sat down (wet from rain) a monkey sat right by are table and stayed there watching us eat (on the other side of the glass)


Im actually much to far behind and to catch up with a constant blog, so I have decided to change structure of it a little, and write about day to day life, or just miss out chunks.

In short we traveled from Delhi to shimla, shimla to Manali, Manali to Dharamasala, and from there back to Delhi, from Delhi to Pushkar (rajastan) , then down to Mumbai (Bombay).

The north has a far cooler climate, and alot less harasment from beggers and indians trying to relief you off your cash.

There is an idea is that every westerner is loaded, therefore a rob from the rich -give to themselves mentality applies in many of situations. Your seen much as a "walking atm" beggars will beg for food and then when you give them food, stay there and they will beg some more, or decline your fist offer in hope of getting something better (they didn’t seem to understand the phrase "sorry, but beggars cant be choosers"). People will follow you up the street trying to get you to talk a tuk-tuk, because god forbid we lazy westerners should have to walk anywhere! Things are often not as they seem- I’m not sure if i mentioned my "head and shoulders" shampoo, when I came to use it found it to be the consistency and smell of fabric conditioner (or something very similar). Tom purchased some dafec wash, that turned out to be a type of washing up liquid, I brought batteries that turned out to not work what so ever. The lock on my bag was picked on a bus from dharamasala to Delhi (thankfully nothing stolen).....but all these thing are easily justified because after all I am a rich westerner and they are poor locals who have been delt a worse hand than myself in life. “Westerner tax” goes without saying here. On the whole its true, i am a rich westerner in comparison to most people here probably, at the same time many of people fly to India on business, where as me and tom generally stay in the cheapest places, and watch our budget, so its irritating being judged solely on your skin colour.

There is also the idea that India is a country of poverty alot less civilized than the uk for example, and on the whole- very true...the driving is insane, people wipe there arse with one hand and eat curry and rice with the other hand (surely easier to just wash up a spoon!?) Your personal space is invaded on a daily basis in trains and busses and by beggars etc..... on the other hand there are those very well to do Indians, who are well educated, rich and drink at western bars, have nice clothes and a general polite manner about them, an in some ways a lot more “civilized” than a great deal of English people....

The trip is going pretty well so far, meeting some interesting people and every day is unpredictable....which is great, ill have to post a blog about the random events that have happened soon.


ill leave you with some photos from the north:





sEE them all

Shight seeing in delhi....

So after leaving agra (where i did my last blog entry) we nearly got ripped off over train tickets but the guy who was sposed to be getting us the tickets couldn't...so we ended up saving about 140 rupees.

We left the next day for india's capital city, at tyhe train station we got chatting to a couple Tom and veera, belgians who had been on the road for about 9 months, and knew the score with all things inidan...well...ish.

Tom had dreds and about 6 facial pircings...whist on the train tom got searched by a police official (tbh if i was going to search anyone for drugs it would be him)....my heart was beating for him as the police looked through his pockets and patted him down...they discovered some herbs of the (get ya 10 years in a indian prison), smoking variety; that was concealed under his belt. The police said that they would have to go to the police station, we all walked out of the train station fairly quickly whilst tom and veera thought about how much to bribe the police.

We all went for a beer after that.
Me and tom stayed in connaught place (for those who've been in delhi).....at a place called blue hotel....or hotel blue or something...any way long story short we ate there late (food made by lido dinners- avoid this place like the plauge)....
24 hours later after a morning of sickeness and the shits a trip to a dingy delhi hospital and changing to the ymca (midrange -more expensive place)....We began recovering in the comfort of air conditioning and tv...about 3 days of watery bowl movements and a good deal of puking and seeing nothing but our hotel room/bathroom. We were on the mend, on about 3 different antibiotics, and on boiled rice and plain nann.


We went to pah-harra-gange (s.p?) were the cheapest rooms are as well as all the backpackers. i spent a day sight seeing in delhi while tom slept. Delhi is a crazy place, so noisy with everyone blasting their horns shouting, bustling people. Its HOT....very, very HOT. Every 3/4 paced you walk people ask you if you want a tuk tuk, or food or postcards or any other thing they are selling....this may sound convinient (if you want any of that), but trust me the novelty wears off. Despite the somwhat pesemistic nature of this entry some places in delhi are really nice, like the lohdi gardens- full of palm trees and ferns and bohdi trees and grass, humyuns tomb- like a mini tah mahal- but less busy and som parts are crumbled and things...its all been a great experience so far.....every day is unpredictable, everyday do new things, see new sights, eat new foods, meet differnt peeople etc etc...



Its taken forever to get this blog entry done....due to power cuts, losing bits, slow slow slow computers....watch this space as in the next 3 days or so ill update you about mine and toms adventure up to the north of india....

"splattering of liquid feceas all up the wall"

i have decided to be a bit laxy in the writing of this blog, due to my travell buddy tom has already said it for me by email i thought Ctrl+p would do the job :D

email written by tom white:

So far my trip to India has been an interesting experience. From takingOur plane from Heathrow, as we were slightly late to check-in, unfortunately They had to upgrade us to business Class that was a real shame NOT. Having sat In the Sofa sized seat and with enough leg room that couldn't even reach the DVD screen in front of me from even before take-off the stewardess' kept plying Me with red wine, and me being I thought it would be rude to say no. The 7 and a half hour flight was so good I missed all of the good films on the DVD player in front of me. We landed at Muscat (Oman) in the middle of the night Yet the temperature was still 49C. We then got onto our connecting flight to Kolkata in West Bengal, unfortunately we sat o the tarmac for over an Hour and Were soon wishing we were in Business class again. We landed in Kolkata early in the morning after about 14 hours of flying and Probably more waiting in Muscat, wll it felt like it. My first impression of India is one of those memories that really sticks in your Mind. It was the Airports sewer, which they described as a "Toilet". First I had To work out how to navigate the biggest puddle of piss I have ever seen. After Realizing I had left my wading bots at home, I had to go. When I got to the Toilet I was nicely surprised to see a pile of shit the size you see on a farm. Having nearly overcoming the fumes, James and I met a Brazilian called Vanessa And a Jap called Hero. We thought to save money we would share a cab with them. Instead we got into a bumper car with a taxi sign on it. Wow, the traffic system Is crazy, the idea is might is right, thus all the buses have danger and good Luck painted on the back. After a fun but nearly fatal taxi trip we were not Surprised by the quality of the hotels. In the hall ways, there for some unknown reason have a rather good splattering of liquid feceas all up the wall and the rooms were not much better. In the end we based our reasoning on which had the lowest amount of crap piled in the corner. James, feeling inquisitive decided to Test the strength of the building by putting up a wash line with suction cups on The end in the bathroom. However we did not consider the less then 5 star nature of the hotel and subsequently pulled about 6 tiles from the wall. With me knowing alot about the law we decided to hide the evidence by breaking the tiles and gently slotting them into the cistern of the toilet. Bear in mind that it cost one pound fifty for one night so it was only a budget "hotel". Calcutta itself is really nice and dirt cheap. A drink of freshly squeezed limes cost about 10p and to think we haggled for that. we went to one of the finest restaurants in Cacutta with waterfalls and streams (not of piss; surpisingly) inside for about 6 pounds. It is bloody busy with a population of around 13 million and it is proabably half the size of london so you can imagine the conditions. After one night in gust house paradiso we thought we had better hit the road, or in India, the railway. We got on a train to Varanasi (the place where there are many steps or Ghats by the river Ganges) and have bought some cheap silk garments. We considered a dip but upon consulting our guide book it states that where everyone loves to bathe also happens to be a sewer, actually about 30 sewers. The normal fecal coliform level to bathe safely should be about 500. Here, india doing what it does best is of a level of 1.5 million colliforms, so me and james thought our life was better off then having a dip. Our plan is to get another train up to Agra where the Taj Mahal is and then north into the foot hills of the himalayas. Sorry for the speeling but i am in a rush as mr patel wants his money for the Computer.

See ya soon.
Tom

since then me and tom have travel north up 2 a place called agra- getting the train here was a bit of a nightmare as the people who sell the tickets are bureacrats- your have to collect the train number and time after consulting a man at one desk, the apply for the ticket (by filling out a form)....which wasnt sucsesful first time, the they put you in any class they want and you can go and pay for your ticket....a hot night last night....we got here though so its all good.

saw the taj mahal today (photos online).....its very very humid, and i have been sweating profuesly...i think i may have lost one tshirt -leaving me with just the two at the moment (o well)...great food and its all dirt cheap...travel is dirt cheap to which is also nice....cows are everywhere, there is a fair bit of crap everywhere and lots of people trying to relive us of our hard earned student dosh.

Of to dehli tomorrow, at 6am!!!....thats gonna be painfull....the other day we were going to see that ghats at 5am-people swiming the ganges (aka. the public sewer)...however over slept, then decided to leave.....cant wait to get up north - cooler, mountains less traffic and noise...the like :D

cya soon

click for more photos: