So our journey into India has begun! It’s been an interesting and eventful week to say the least!
We arrived in Delhi airport where our airport pick up wasn’t. We started to get a bit concerned but after about 15 minutes the guy from the hotel finally appeared and took us back to our hotel in his metal shell of a car with our bags tied to the roof. Getting there itself was an experience! The night we arrived there was a big market happening on the street that we were staying on, so our driver must have knocked down about 5 people, 2 cows and a few stalls on the way there. People flooded the streets while motorbikes, rickshaws, tuks tuks and cars like ours (if you can call it a car) tried to fit down narrow alleyways. Once we arrived we checked in and headed into the city for some dinner. We were warned by the receptionist at our hotel that many people with good English will come up and try to talk to you, then take you to places where they’ll get commission etc. We weren’t quite expecting HOW many of these people there would be! And how aggressive they were! It was quite scary really, if you ignore them or say no they get so so mad at you as if it is their God given right that you have to follow them – they are relentless and just followed us for streets and streets not leaving us alone. If you tried to exchange in a bit of conversation that only spurred them on and they became even more attached – it was a lose lose situation. Finally we ducked into a cafe and grabbed some dinner before practically running back to the hotel to not get hounded.
The next day we had planned to sort out the rest of our travel plans and see some sights of Delhi. We sat down with the tour guide at the hotel and he went through our options: trains, flights or car. It took us FOREVER to make a decision on how we would get about Rajasthan. I felt really conflicted; everyone says the trains are such an experience and you HAVE to go on them to really get the full India experience, plus they’re cheaper than all other modes of transport. But, they’re also stinky, stressful, overcrowded and you have to book each one (preferably weeks and months) in advance where as we would only have a few days/week tops. Once the ticket is booked they’re not flexible either but we didn’t want to miss the experience. Flights were way out of our budget so we were torn between hiring a driver. This was a little more expensive and the drives could be sometimes longer than the trains. Plus the driver might be dodgy or work on commission of places he takes us to. But the driver would show us about everywhere in the cities too and we could stay places longer if we wanted or cut time out of other places so it was more flexible. After tons of umming and ahhing we went for the car and I’m so glad we did, it’s worked out so well for us! Always worth checking on trip advisor first though – the reviews for the company we went with were really good. The drives let us see a lot of the countryside too, we’ve seen cows, goats, dogs, peacocks, camels – all sorts of crazy animals blocking up the traffic! Plus we will also be going to Varanasi after Rajasthan so can get our train experience then!
Before we had decided that though, we thought we’d go check the train ticket prices at New Delhi station which was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel. This was a mistake! A notoriously dangerous area (not that we knew it at the time) we were hounded and accosted the moment we got near it. Men grabbing us, telling us we couldn’t go in, that we could only buy tickets on the day, that there was a festival on tomorrow so we better buy our tickets right this second from them (basically every scam in the book). We tried to walk away and make our own way there as we knew there was a tourist office on the first floor for tickets but it was impossible. You try to walk away and they shout at you, saying they’re not taking your money, why don’t you trust them, you’re so rude bla bla bla. They’re disrespect for women (across the whole of India) is also ridiculous. No men here ever acknowledge me, only Steve! One guy hounded us for so long, I tugged Steve’s shirt and said let’s go. Then this man turned around and absolutely screamed in my face, waving his arms about and getting so angry at me. Made me cry! Was so so horrible. We eventually ran away and that pretty much made our decision for us about whether to get the trains or not. Needless to say, we didn’t make it around Delhi at all! I knew from the last time I was in India it isn’t a nice city but this was on another level.
So we met our driver Shiri to check he spoke good English and had a ride in his car to see what it was like and that the air con would work. Both were good so early the next morning he picked us up and we headed to a small village called Mandawa. The journey was long – about 8/9 hours in all because it took 2 hours just to get out of Delhi. Once we arrived, he took us round the village showing us all the different Havelis. Havelis are big houses that are very intricately designed, these ones had amazing paintings all over them and even though they were mostly crumbling to bits it was nice to be somewhere so peaceful and quiet in this rural little town. Most of the Havelis are empty, their owners abandoned them or have moved to bigger cities with more money. We went into one that was looked after by a watchman which was interesting. But I was more gaping at the watchman himself. He only had one eye, but the other one was kind of still there. It was bulging out of its socket and his flesh had completely eaten over it. It was like a big piece of round ham in his eye socket – grim. But how the hell did he get an injury like that?! What kind of pain must he have been in for the only way for it to heal is to wait until your skin grows over it?!
Anyway, we headed back to our hotel and went to the restaurant for some food. We actually felt like some curry so we ordered a veggie biryani and a bombay aloo with some naan bread and it tasted pretty good. After, they made us sit down and watch perhaps the weirdest puppet show of all time – but it was an experience! We went to bed and I started to feel a bit sick, trying to ignore it for fear of Delhi belly I went to sleep for a few hours. That didn’t work so well, I woke up and then continued to be sick the entire night. It was horrible I felt so rough. The next morning we were due to go to our next stop, Bikaner, a 4 hour drive away. After delaying it for a few hours because I felt so disgusting I decided it was probably best to get there, it was a bigger town and so would have better medical facilities if I needed them. The journey there was the worst I’ve had the whole 8 months we have been away. How I managed not to throw up all over our poor drivers car I don’t know. Sobbing my way into the hotel I took the strongest painkillers I could find and managed to fall asleep for a bit. I woke up and felt even worse, the sickness had faded a bit but my body felt like it had been run over. We decided enough was enough and went to ask for the doctor, the hospital was only round the corner so our driver and the hotel staff said he would take us there. I was expecting to get in his car (it was nighttime and the monsoon was hitting hard) but instead got an umbrella put over me (which did nothing) and had to walk there. I walked in to a whole load of stares but went straight into a room with a doctor straight away. Explaining my symptoms, the door was left open and I had an audience of about 10 Indians crowded round the doorway watching me sob and complain – white people entertainment I’m sure! After explaining all of this it turns out the guy I was talking to wasn’t a doctor, so couldn’t actually prescribe me any of the medication I needed. The doctor wouldn’t be coming in for another 2 hours. What kind of hospital doesn’t have a doctor?! Only in India! They tried to get me to wait on some stinky bed, while more and more creepy men stood inches away from me just staring but I was having none of it. So (it gets weirder) we had to go to the doctors HOUSE and he prescribed my antibiotics. Then our poor driver and Steve has to ferry me back to the hospital (each one of us drenched by this point) to pick up the medication. All of this cost a grand total of £4.10!! In Thailand it cost me £100 when I got ill! Anyway, we finally went back to the hotel where I crashed in bed and dosed up on my gazillion different painkillers and antibiotics. The next day I felt a lot better, but my body still ached and the thought of food was not nice. We were meant to leave for our next destination but I wanted to stay another night to just be able to lay in bed all day and recover. Which I did. Ste went for a bit of an explore around Bikaner, looking around the fort and the miniature paintings which they’re famous for.
The next day I felt a million times better and we woke up early to head to Khuri, a small village 50km outside of Jaisalmer. Here we would go camel riding and spend a night in the desert! It took 6 hours to get there by car and is actually the most westerly point of India that tourists are allowed to go. It is very close to the Pakistani border, only 150km away and our driver was saying that relations between India and Pakistan are not great so it’s not safe to go any closer. Anyway, we arrived and our first thoughts were “oh god”. The village was extremely rural, covered in rubbish and extremely run down. We arrived at the place which organises the trip which was slightly more aesthetic than the rest of the village. Within half an hour we got introduced to our camels and hopped on. Called Siyah and Lah, they were waaaayyy taller than I expected and very bumpy! We each had a guide to walk us up through the sand dunes and into the desert. After a while your legs get really sore so we were kind of relieved when it was time to get off. It was so quiet at the top of the dunes and very picturesque. We just sat and relaxed, it was very cloudy and a bit too early for sunset so after a while we went back to a group of camels and guides to try and find ours. Ours seemed to have disappeared, so we waited half an hour longer hoping they hadn’t deserted us and they’d come back at some point and eventually they did. Only with one camel this time though, so me and Steve had to hop on one together which was a lot harder! Our guide also liked to make this camel run, which becomes very sore on your bum! It was definitely an experience! We arrived back at the main village, and hung around for a few hours before dinner was ready. In the meantime there was some traditional Indian entertainment. Musicians arrived and started playing and singing and then a dancer came dressed in all her traditional Indian gear and performed. Of course she started to get us all involved and within 10 minutes there was a group of about 20 tourists badly attempting to do Indian dance. After the entertainment the food was ready, but the smell of curry was still almost enough to make me puke so I stuck to bread and a banana. So nutritious!
At around 10.30 it was time to venture into the desert, the temperature had dropped by now and the wind had picked up so it wasn’t going to be boiling which was good. They attached carts onto the backs of the camels and loaded them up with solid plastic bed frames and disgusting sheets and blankets that God knows when they were last clean. Thank god it was dark and I couldn’t really see them! We then had to jump on top of all of this and hold on while the camels took us back up to the sand dunes. Once we arrived, they set out the beds and we tried to get comfy. To be honest, having to pee on the desert was a hell of a lot cleaner, hygienic and bug free than the toilet provided in the village was! I was exhausted by this point, so after wrapping a scarf around my face to protect from the wind I managed to fall asleep for a few hours. Before long though the guides were shining a torch in my eyes and telling me and Steve to get up and move as the rain was coming. Not quite sure what the procedure was for rain when you’re in the middle of the desert, we got up and waited while they sorted out everybody else who was nicely tucked up in bed first. By this time it was pretty cold and they’d forced us up so I was getting a bit annoyed! We watched as their rain proof solution was to wrap massive tarpaulins over the beds and tuck it around you. Definitely wouldn’t be great if you were claustrophobic! The wind was really strong by now so we knew the rain was going to hit any minute, finally they moved our beds next to the camel cart as that was the only thing left available to wrap the tarp around. The camel cart is a hell of a lot taller than our tiny beds though so there were huge gaps either end, the tarp going mental in the wind. Steve had a big hole above his leg and literally just as they finished wrapping it around us it started lashing down. With the exception of Steve’s leg, we actually managed to stay kind of dry and though it was fairly humid under there, we slept solidly until about 6 where we had to get up and go back to the village. So getting back on about 5 hours sleep we were knackered, sandy and absolutely filthy. We ate our breakfast as quick as we could and drove to Jaisalamer, dreaming of showers and comfy beds the whole way. When we arrived, they felt as amazing as we had imagined and we relaxed in our room for a few hours.
After getting some lunch, we hired a tour guide to take us round the city which you can easily walk around. We first of all headed to the Jaisalmer Khaba Fort. Jaisalmer is known as the Golden City as all the bricks and stone structures are a yellowish colour. The guide was informative if not a bit difficult to understand with his accent. But we found out about the history of the city and the fort. 3000 local people actually still live in the fort, which itself is massive. It is also said that Jaisalmer used to be under the sea thousands of years ago and until the 1980’s it got no rain at all. So none of the buildings are made with cement or mortar because they had no water. So the whole thing is made up and built from an interlocking system which is pretty incredible. There was certainly rain there when we were there though! We were drenched within seconds. After the fort we headed down some alleyways where we saw people taking showers under gutters and playing in the rain. Our guide showed us some more Havelis like those in Mandawa but instead of painted, these were intricately carved and the amount of detail was amazing. I expected the tour to go on for about an hour, but 3 hours later we finished and it cost us a grand total of £1.50! Bargain. That evening we didn’t do a whole lot but got up early the next day for our drive to Jodphur, the blue city.
And that’s where we are now, Jodphur is also a really fascinating city but I’ll save that for the next blog instalment as once again this has got crazy long! Speak to you soon
Xx
Abby Goes Travelling! 