India: The Highs and Lows....

We have spent a bit of time in a place called Hampi, where on the other side of the river everything is as relaxed as can be. The landscape is one of scattered boulders, river, intense green coloured paddy fields and temple ruins dotted about the place; tom commented that it seems more like a theme park or something due to it being a surreal landscape. Having looked forward to this for a while due to the climbing I was glad to be able to rent bouldering mats and a pair of shoes for tom (I think he did about one climb for 2 days rent but never mind). A few days climbing and one day driving round and getting somewhat lost on mopeds this has been one of my favorite places in India if not my favorite.

Tom and Wahed left a day earlier what with being not overly enthused with bouldering I guess there wasn’t a whole lot for them to do. Wahed is a guy from Bangladesh that tom knows from uni- he came and joined us for a portion of our trip starting off in goa.

The atmosphere on the other side of the river in hampi is what the Indians call “shanti” – meaning calmly and quietly- or something very similar. I tested out my new hammock at a place we were staying and we hung out with some German guys we met and I went of climbing with them several times- much fun. The restaurant (what with being off season) took about an hour and a half on adverage to serve up food, -perhaps the slowest we have come across in India, however the food was good, and it’s a very relaxed atmosphere any way so just put it down to "island life".

Unfortunately I had to leave Hampi to meet the others and continue the journey south to Bangalore. I set of a little late due to a mornings climbing flowed by a relaxed lunch etc… I got a bus to hospet (about 11km away) for 7 rupees- that’s about 8 or 9 pence in real money. I took a auto rickshaw (tuk-tuk) to the train station and the sorted out ticket and things about ½ hour before the train departed…after talking to one random Indian bloke for a while about why he couldn’t get a work permit for England, and that 5 years ago they let anybody (meaning anybody Indian) get one, and what a hard life he had led, etc etc….the guy was interesting enough to talk to, but I didn’t really want to liusten to his whole life story. I was in a friendly mood (a lot of people who talk to you are after money so this can get wearing sometimes). The typical conversation will start of something like:

“What’s your name, were are you from, how old are you, are you married, what do you do for a living, how long are you in India”

This was how it went later on when I was sitting on the train, and another question of “what you dislike about India?” arose…

I stopped to think for a second, before blurting out a stream of problems and botherations from one tangent to the other all about that which is rubbish about their home country: the harassment- beggars, touts, drivers, the filth- people pissing in the street and the sickly strong smells, the littering in beautiful places , bad service and nothing getting done unless you make it, being treated based on skin colour- and paying in some cases 700 time the Indian priced as a fixed rate, poor hygiene in cooking, how its manically busy in the cities, and excessivley noisy and having to watch your stuff with such a close eye.

I think i must have rambled on with a passion for about 5 miniuts, by which time about 5 indian passengers were all ears to what i had to say...

The guy who was next to me (who it turned out had been to london, and spoke good english, and probably quite well off what with being in 3ac sleeper class) commented that "problems are plenty, yet people still want to come here, and even travel here and come back again and again". i assured him that there are many very good points about india and i was travelling here because of the difference in culture, meeting random people on trains etc, that things are cheaper travelling on the pound, and perhaps above all the unexpected events that occur on a daily bacis that seem to be lacking slightly in everyday english life....although i spose its what you are use to!

I am currently in munar after taking a bus last night with tom and wahed, this is a place full of tea plantations, rolling hills, trekking and elephants...although a great deal of rain so far also.

!!as always check here for more pics!!!

Trains.

I have since the last blog I have traveled down to goa, and still rather behind with the updated have chosen to write about the transport and traveling in India.

Traveling with help of the guide book its easy enough (well sort of) to travel through India, although sometimes the most interesting part. On the ride down from dharamashala we left just as it started to rain, but being monsoon and the north when it rains it pours. Soaking wet within seconds of being out side (after arriving back in McLeod ganj from our 2 day trek and checking out) Tom and I rushed as fast as we could to the bus we had booked, however I had decided on flip flops as oppose to my walking boots, stepping in all sorts of watery muck as I rushed to catch the bus we were late for. We had paid for a sleeper bus (it has beds in case you were wondering) so soaking wet loaded are bags into the back and boarded. In the words of tom
“When making the beds they used the dimensions of an anorexic Pigmy to decide how
big to make the them”

Needless to say this was an uncomfortable ride, wet and with very little room we went from dharamashala down to Delhi, arrived there early in the morning where we began to bater for cab/tuk-tuk rides. We stored our bags as there were no trains leaving Delhi straight away, and hung out until the evening, again in james and tom style we left it till about 50 mins before to catch our night train to pushkar and had to barter for a tuk tuk to drive us the 45 min (roughly) across Delhi to the old station another night and we arrived in pushkar feeling somewhat weary. This is pretty much a typical journey for us, we stayed in puskar about 3 days doing camel trekking and chilling out around town. The local busses are interesting in pushkar- imagine a bus in its simplest form (not quite mad max style, but not far off), small and with a fair few indian locals, you can get a ride for about 5-10 pence for a short way- a bit better than 1.50 pounds back home!

Travelling from pushkar included going to ajmer to get a train to mumbai- however the “tourist quota” fills up so no more westerners can get on- it supposed to be for our benefit I’m told….any way….we wern’t about to catch a 3rd class train all the way to mumbai and this is a bit longer than an overnight slog….and they wernt accepting bribes or actually being help full in any way at all…also with shouting tuk tuks outrside who follow you, this was definatley a test of my patience…im polite with them to a point…I ran down to the nearest travel agency and booked up a sleeper bus to Ahemabad and told we could sort our selfs out a bus from there. So ran back to the station met tom and of we were on a rickshaw across town to catch the bus.

Busses seem less difficult to book than trains as the whole illogical and bureaucratic application process is omitted… also it seems easier to know which bus you are on instead of rushing to every different plat form at the station complete with heavy back pack and sweating profusely and asking a host of people who haven’t a clue which train it is.

Rubbing our eyes and yawning the next day in Ahemebad we continued to rush around like looneys, dense with sweat trying to work out which people were touts, which were miss-infomed about trains etc, which were correct and which were just out and out lying to us. A seven hour long ride in 3rd class packed with Indians with either armpit in your face or sitting down their groin in you shoulder etc…it did remind me a little or what rush hour on the tube back in London is like: rubbish (for those of you fortunate enough to have not experience it)…this was most definatley the most uncomfortable and hot ride yet, with vendors walking up and down shouting “CHAI, CHAI , CHAI, CHAI” or “BOLA BOLA BOLA”. People sitting around watch you with a similar fascination to that of a performer…they see enough westerners, yet still stare for minutes at a time. The final part of that jorney was on a much larger train with less people, which was much fun as you can hang out the doors and watch the sunset etc… This was about 27 hours or more of travel…exhausting, yet after arriving in Mumbai a couple of beers in the bar went down well.