Wednesday, December 15, 2004
jingle bells
india... yes indeed, everything they say about the smell, the poverty, the lepers, the over-crowding etc, is true. I won't bore you too much with stories about that (we are gradually getting used to it anyway; and maybe the photos capture some of it). Suffice to say that it is filthy, chaotic, charming and incredibly cheap.
we arrived over the border on foot from Nepal 4 days ago - missing passport control on our first saunter through (no desks, no signs, nothing!), until an indian man in backpack spotting mode caught us and sent us back in. The lack of staff and facilities at the border set the tone for everywhere else...
Like the border, at the train station there was one man in attendance for about 2,000 people buying tickets, waiting, sleeping and living on the platform. True to form we were almost run down by 2 cows on the platform (cows, another recurring theme in this country...), followed by dogs, rats and monkeys. One little rat was so balsy as to come and sit centimetres from my shoe - while 7 rickshaw drivers stood around and wondered why pete was making such a fuss.
After many hours sampling almost all the public transport offered by india we made it to Varanasi (hinduism most holy city). Not even a big dot on the map - but an awe inspiring 13 million people.
The tourist focus in Varanasi, apart from cultivating our indo/european hippie look (dreadlocks, natural fibers, beads, headscarves and red dots on forehead), is to sail past the ghats. There are more than 30 of the things along the shore of the river where people go to bathe, do laundry, get massaged (including pete!), and be cremated. while walking past we gritted our teeth and looked directly into the cremation fires (and were treated to a 'cremation is education' talk by one of the staff) - but happily saw nothing too disturbing.
we were approached one evening by a boatman and promised to go out with him for our de rigeur sail-past the next morning. I think he expected never to see us again - but waited dutifully at 6am anyway. He was thrilled when we waved to him from our hotel verandah. seeing his glee at being hired may have been the best 90 pence we have spent so far.
after the ghats the other premier tourist destinations are an insanely rundown fort and the tree where buddha preached his first sermon. Both arguably the cheapest tourist sites ever (at 15 pence and 4 pence admission respectively). we have seen both... now we can get back to shopping for tie dyed trousers, working on our dreads and burning incense in our hotel room.
we arrived over the border on foot from Nepal 4 days ago - missing passport control on our first saunter through (no desks, no signs, nothing!), until an indian man in backpack spotting mode caught us and sent us back in. The lack of staff and facilities at the border set the tone for everywhere else...
Like the border, at the train station there was one man in attendance for about 2,000 people buying tickets, waiting, sleeping and living on the platform. True to form we were almost run down by 2 cows on the platform (cows, another recurring theme in this country...), followed by dogs, rats and monkeys. One little rat was so balsy as to come and sit centimetres from my shoe - while 7 rickshaw drivers stood around and wondered why pete was making such a fuss.
After many hours sampling almost all the public transport offered by india we made it to Varanasi (hinduism most holy city). Not even a big dot on the map - but an awe inspiring 13 million people.
The tourist focus in Varanasi, apart from cultivating our indo/european hippie look (dreadlocks, natural fibers, beads, headscarves and red dots on forehead), is to sail past the ghats. There are more than 30 of the things along the shore of the river where people go to bathe, do laundry, get massaged (including pete!), and be cremated. while walking past we gritted our teeth and looked directly into the cremation fires (and were treated to a 'cremation is education' talk by one of the staff) - but happily saw nothing too disturbing.
we were approached one evening by a boatman and promised to go out with him for our de rigeur sail-past the next morning. I think he expected never to see us again - but waited dutifully at 6am anyway. He was thrilled when we waved to him from our hotel verandah. seeing his glee at being hired may have been the best 90 pence we have spent so far.
after the ghats the other premier tourist destinations are an insanely rundown fort and the tree where buddha preached his first sermon. Both arguably the cheapest tourist sites ever (at 15 pence and 4 pence admission respectively). we have seen both... now we can get back to shopping for tie dyed trousers, working on our dreads and burning incense in our hotel room.
Monday, December 13, 2004
if i was a trader
well, it was 20 years ago that sergeant pepper taught the band to play, and 10 years ago that i started work. email, internet and mobile phones weren't even thought of but arthur andersen still was. on that first morning the big boss came out to tell us that was it, we'd now have to shave for everyday till retirement. how wrong he was... in true backpacker style i've managed it only once in the last 2 weeks.
anyhow, back to matters foreign. ending the annapurna trek we were in need of a few days rest and recuperation and pokhara proved the perfect place. 4 days spent doing almost nothing. we only strayed further that the street outside our hotel once. checking into one of the best hotels, we simply spent the whole week watching star sports while they endlessly replayed the weekend's premiership matches. even i was getting bored when blackburn v spurs came round a 4th time.
moving on from pokhara, the royal chitwan safari park in the south of nepal was the chosen destination. the royal apparently because edward VIII liked to go shooting tigers there. which meant that for future generations - ie us - there are hardly any tigers left to spot. nevertheless we spent a couple of days trying.
despite my protestations that i'd done elephant rides before and they were uncomfortable, we still found ourselves up at 6am and sat on top of an elephant. the first 30 minutes did nothing to confound my expectations, until suddenly the handler spotted 2 rhinoceros and launched us, and elephant, into the undergrowth after them. most of the ensuing next 10 minutes was spent trying to dodge huge branches swinging into our paths as the elephant tore up centuries old rain forests to allow us to photograph the rhinos. 2 more rhinos, a deer and a monkey were also spied.
the afternoon was less successful. 4 hours of driving around the park in the back of probably the same jeep that edward VIII used to use - and a grand total of almost nil wildlife. by the end of the trip the guide was getting so desparate that we had to stop and photograph a lizard. there were some crocodiles but they were behind bars in a sanctuary. more entertaining were 3 spanish tree enthusiasts on the trip with us who insisted on stopping the jeep to take photos of trees the whole time.
anyway, from there it was a hop, skip and a jump into india. if only. 24 hours of solid travel including 8 hours on a bus (with 1 blown tyre for good measure), 2 in a jeep and finally 6 on a train. which brings us to varansi. oh, and finally we spotted a tiger as it run in front of our bus and nearly killed us and the 30 other nepalis.
and india - rather suprisingly it doesn't appear to be full of high streets packed solid with english style curry houses. when i told the waiter at lunch that we'd like 8 poppadums, all the works and 16 pints of carlsberg, he just looked at me dumbfounded and instead served us some sort of cottage cheese curry. full story to follow once we've got up the courage to venture beyond the relative safety of our hotel room...
anyhow, back to matters foreign. ending the annapurna trek we were in need of a few days rest and recuperation and pokhara proved the perfect place. 4 days spent doing almost nothing. we only strayed further that the street outside our hotel once. checking into one of the best hotels, we simply spent the whole week watching star sports while they endlessly replayed the weekend's premiership matches. even i was getting bored when blackburn v spurs came round a 4th time.
moving on from pokhara, the royal chitwan safari park in the south of nepal was the chosen destination. the royal apparently because edward VIII liked to go shooting tigers there. which meant that for future generations - ie us - there are hardly any tigers left to spot. nevertheless we spent a couple of days trying.
despite my protestations that i'd done elephant rides before and they were uncomfortable, we still found ourselves up at 6am and sat on top of an elephant. the first 30 minutes did nothing to confound my expectations, until suddenly the handler spotted 2 rhinoceros and launched us, and elephant, into the undergrowth after them. most of the ensuing next 10 minutes was spent trying to dodge huge branches swinging into our paths as the elephant tore up centuries old rain forests to allow us to photograph the rhinos. 2 more rhinos, a deer and a monkey were also spied.
the afternoon was less successful. 4 hours of driving around the park in the back of probably the same jeep that edward VIII used to use - and a grand total of almost nil wildlife. by the end of the trip the guide was getting so desparate that we had to stop and photograph a lizard. there were some crocodiles but they were behind bars in a sanctuary. more entertaining were 3 spanish tree enthusiasts on the trip with us who insisted on stopping the jeep to take photos of trees the whole time.
anyway, from there it was a hop, skip and a jump into india. if only. 24 hours of solid travel including 8 hours on a bus (with 1 blown tyre for good measure), 2 in a jeep and finally 6 on a train. which brings us to varansi. oh, and finally we spotted a tiger as it run in front of our bus and nearly killed us and the 30 other nepalis.
and india - rather suprisingly it doesn't appear to be full of high streets packed solid with english style curry houses. when i told the waiter at lunch that we'd like 8 poppadums, all the works and 16 pints of carlsberg, he just looked at me dumbfounded and instead served us some sort of cottage cheese curry. full story to follow once we've got up the courage to venture beyond the relative safety of our hotel room...
ya wanna buy a newspaper, ya wanna buy some peanuts 
