Baltis and bad bellies!

Varanasi
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Well, as most of you know we are home safe and sound now after an amazing 11 months. We are settling back into life in the UK and are stuck into the fun task of job hunting, Andy and I are living at our respective parents until we find work and are able to afford to rent somewhere in Hastings. Hastings is the area of choice as its affordable (compared with Brighton), has a bit of a Brighton feel to it and is close to family - something which we have decided is important for us after being away for so long... Anyway, back in October we were still seeking adventures and we happened to find ourselves in India. Wow, what a crazy place!! It was a total culture shock, even after travelling (much of which has been in the developing world) for so long. We had pre-booked a pickup from Delhi airport which we did to help us feel safe and reassured in this new country but instead was a wacky race in a beaten up Daihatsu van! I think of all the places in the world we have visited on this trip, India wins the award for bad driving (or is it actually good?! never saw a crash, just feels like you are about to die!!:)) Anyway, we checked into a dirty hostel, with a dead fly problem (cheap) in the backpacker area and the next day set about seeing some of the capital. We had some breakfast, a thali plate (lots of little dishes of various veggie curry) in Connaught place, the British built centre of the new city, once probably impressive, now pretty crumbly. We than set about getting an auto rickshaw (tuk tuk) to see some of the sights in Old Delhi, the red fort, the national mosque, Gandhi's memorial, the bazaars. Old Delhi is mayhem, rickshaws people, carts, animals everywhere! The most interesting place we found was the spice market, piles of wholesale dried spices and fruit. Shocking though was watching skinny men dressed in loin cloths having to carry huge sacks of the stuff on their heads or backs to move them around/deliver them, whilst fatter men in more clothes barked orders at them. This was our first experience of India's caste system... From Delhi we took an overnight train to Varanasi - India's Hindu pilgrimmage town famous for the mighty Ganges river.  Our hotel had beautiful views over the river which was a scene of constant activity, people having a wash, doing their washing up/washing their clothes, performing sacred rituals, waiting to die (people travel from all over India to die in the Ganges). Varanasi has a web of narrow alleyways crowded with shops, devout Hindus, and cows and it was fascinating just wandering around taking in all the colours, sights and smells. The alleyways lead down to the water’s edge and these 'ghats' are the main focus of the devotees. We took an early morning boat trip to see the celebrations which begin before dawn and visited the burning ghat where dead bodies are burnt on funeral pyres and floated down stream (we saw one bobbing by the side of a moored boat). After Varanasi we took another train to Agra, the home of the most famous Indian Icon – the Taj Mahal! It was beautiful, it lived up to expectations. Sadly though we didn’t spend long there as by then Delhi Belly had set in and it was a mistake to spend too long away from the hotel room!

Taj Mahal
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The rest of our trip we spent in Rajasthan, seeing the various coloured cities, Jaipur – pink, Jodhpur - blue, Udaipur – white, so called because of the painted buildings. We didn’t have long in Jaipur or Jodhpur, but had a good wander around the bazaars and sights including visiting the impressive Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur which is set high on a hill top overlooking the blue buildings below. There, we stayed in a lovely old Haveli, an old converted merchant’s house with Hindu wall paintings, which had a really chilled out feel and we met lots of nice people. Udaipur was very pretty set on a lake, and we’d given ourselves a good few days there to relax at the end of our hols.  Again the bad bellies hit though, so couldn’t venture far but thankfully had booked into a ‘splurge’ hotel room which we definitely made use of. There was a festival going on whilst we were there so we enjoyed one evening of dancing and celebrations with the locals. But overall I’d say we found Udaipur a bit touristy.

Andy cooking chappatis!
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Our last stop was a less visited destination in Rajasthan -  Nawalgarh, where we stayed on a lovely eco-farm and spent time with the family that ran it, learning to cook Indian food, visiting the local painted Haveli’s and chatting about Indian culture. It was an interesting end to our trip and great to get off the beaten track, although it was an effort to get there, buses and trains a plenty!

Our last day in Delhi was a mad dash about trying to buy souvenirs!! We finished the day and the end of our years travels by going to see a Bollywood film. It was fun! A terribly cheesy movie! I think I was the only woman in the audience (we’d gone to quite a late showing) and the male audience whooped and cheered, cackled and clapped at the merest hint of romance or the start of a song!

We left Delhi at the crack of dawn the next day to fly back to old Blighty. I must say we were ready to come home. India was exhausting and bad for our health! We returned home shadows of our former selves J (I weighed the same as I had when I was 16!!). It was an interesting and challenging last place to visit and one that if I was to return to I’d want to spend a lot longer to try and make more sense of it. There are so many contradictions it was impossible to try and understand the culture in such a short time. But it’s left us with memories that will last a lifetime.

Well, guys, that’s the last blog…sorry it’s taken a while. If we haven’t managed to see you yet, hopefully we’ll catch up soon.

Best wishes

Char and Andy x