The Mewar Express

The Mewar Express pulled out of the Udiapur City station.  Jeff and I watch the country side roll by from our barred window until the sun set and it was too dark to see anything.  I read my book and Jeff was listening to his music.  The train makes a few stops, a few people get on or off, and the train rolls along.  The chai guy and the tomato soup guy make their rounds, although we didn’t get any.  There would be plenty of time to buy tea or soup if we wanted it.  Jeff decided to move to the upper bunk so he could stretch out.  The family with the little girl with the broken leg dozes on and off until their stop comes up.

Their bags are shuffled towards the door and dad carries the little girl closer to the door. I make room for him to sit down with her on my bunk since its closest.  As the train pulls into Chittorgarh, I peer out the window and see hundreds of people rushing for the train.  The train hasn’t even begun to slow down and people are grabbing onto doorways pulling themselves on.  As the train slows, more and more people are trying to shove their way onto the train.   More and more people swarm the train, outside people are stacked twenty deep trying to push themselves forward.  People are sitting on my bunk, some are climbing up on Jeff’s bunk, and the dad with the little is trying to shove his way off.  The poor little girl was screaming from fright or pain or both.  Someone starts banging on my window, and I see one of little girl’s other family members trying to get back onto the train to help get the two off.  I open the window and see a couple of soldiers just standing by watching this chaos happen.  I start to yell at them, telling them a little girl with a broken leg is trying to get off the train but can’t because of the crowd.  Once the soldiers understood what I was saying, they took out their bamboo canes and started hitting people to get them to clear away from the door so the little girl could get off. 

Once every space on the train was full, the chaos calmed a little bit.  Six to eight people were sitting on a bunk, people were standing in the aisles and sitting on the floors.  The chai guy was stuck on seat across the aisle; his rounds were done for the night. Our peaceful passenger car had been turned into a cattle car.  I didn’t even know that many people fit in such little space. 

It was hard to understand why so many people were on the train.  Someone said it was a protest, someone else said everyone was just going home, but that just be the way this popular sleeper class is.  The train pulls away from the station and Jeff switches places with a guy who was sitting next to me.  We were so squished on in our space that I was sitting on one butt cheek and I don’t think Jeff had that much more room either.

We start to approach Bundi.  Jeff and I start to figure out how we are going to make the ten feet to the door to get off the train.  The train was due in around 22:30 and it was getting close to 23:30.  One thing we have learned that as the trains start to run later, the stop times seem to be shorter.  The people who are wanting to get off in Bundi start pushing towards the door ten to twenty minutes before the stop.  The train slows and I’m pushing forward trying to get through.  Jeff is right behind me and we make it off the train.  We drop all our bags on the platform, just relived to have made it off. 

We boarded to empty, peaceful Mewar Express and sat back...

...just relaxing and listening to music....

....watching the countryside go by....

Then they came....

...and they came...

...until every space was full on the train

Udiapur, India

We left Pushkar via bus to Amjer to catch a train south to Udaipur.  The buses left Pushkar about every thirty minutes or so.  We had just missed one bus and climb aboard the next almost empty bus.  Jeff and I take two seats and our bags take another seat.  As it gets closer to departure time, the bus begins to fill with locals on their way home from temple worship.  A group of four ladies, dressed in their colorful saris decorated with sequins, squeeze into the two seats next to Jeff and I.  Jeff, being a gentleman, gets up and stands in the aisle for our 30 minute bus ride over the hill.  As the bus travels the women begin to sing.  Their beautiful voices entertained us all the way to the train station. 

The train was once again on time and we had a pleasant journey to Udaipur.  Unfortunately, we never saw the tomato soup guy, but when the train stopped for a couple of minutes, Jeff jumped off and bought a handful of fried spicy vegetables.  They were so good in fact, he jumped off again before the train left the station to get two more helpings worth. 

We arrive into Udaipur and had the greatest tuck-tuck driver drop us off at the Panorama Guesthouse.  The driver, Bunty, was telling jokes and had us laughing the whole way.  He summed up Indian perfectly too by telling us “In India, anything this possible, but nothing is available.”  We check into our guesthouse with a perfectly clean room (no sleeping bags!!) and fall asleep. 

The next day was Jeff’s birthday, so we slept in and had breakfast on the rooftop café in the warm sun.  We then wandered around familiarizing ourselves with Udiapur.  The city is built around Lake Pichola, with a huge palace on its banks and is surrounded by the Aravilli hills.  In the center of the lake is a building called the Lake Palace that looks like it is just floating there. I found a great little bookshop with some postcards.  After I picked out my postcards, I had to go find Jeff to get some money.  I found him next door in the clothing shop, dressed in a man’s formal attire.  The shop owner completed the look by placing a turban on Jeff’s head.  Very cute!  Jeff disrobed and we go back to the book shop and spend some time chatting with owner.  He informs us where we can buy some birthday beers for Jeff.  We find the liquor store and take our cold beers back to the patio at the guesthouse to enjoy them. 

Birthday dinner was enjoyed across the lake on different rooftop restaurant.  In Udiapur, around dinner time every restaurant is playing James Bond’s Octipussy starring Roger Moore.   The film uses the floating palace in many of its scenes and has become Udiapur’s ‘claim to fame.’  In my opinion, the movie was horrible and Peirce makes a much better James Bond. 

The next morning around ten, we are driven from the hotel to the house of the owner.  His wife Kommu, was our teacher through Indian cuisine.  We learned to make potato pakora which are thinly chopped or sliced potatoes dipped in spicy batter and fried.  This is actually what Jeff was jumping on and the train for!  Kommu really helped learn what we were really eating.  We learned to make masala chai tea.  On the train, when the chai guy comes down the aisle he’s always saying, “Chai, garam chai.”  Jeff asked Kommu what the difference was between garam chai and masala chai.  Kommu chuckled and answered that ‘garam’ just means hot.  We also learned how to make dahl (lentils), potato paluo (sort of like Indian fried rice), aloo gobhi (potato and cauliflower curry), and chapattis (Indian style flatbread).  We had a lot fun that afternoon with Kommu and enjoyed a delicious meal too.  It’s the best thing we’ve done in India.

We get back to the guesthouse, just in time for Jeff’s case of Dehli belly to hit (but let me clarify that was not from Kommu's cooking, but I think the chicken he ate the night before).  It puts him out of order for the next couple of days.  I spend my time reading my books, surfacing the internet, chatting with other travelers and watching the two tortoises that lived on the patio.  Dollar was the larger one and Euro was the smaller one.  It was very entertaining to watch Dollar eat a cut up tomato. 

We had a six fifteen PM train out of Udiapur on our last day.  Jeff was finally feeling better so we crammed in all the sight-seeing highlights before we departed.  We walked up to the City Palace, but decided not to take the tour.  We did take a 30 minute boat ride around the lake and a cable car ride up one of the hills to a temple.

We head back to the guesthouse to say our goodbyes to the staff and collect our things.   Our tuck-tuck broke down on the way to the train station, but another was right there to pick us up and bring us the rest of the way.  We walk into  the station, find our train number easily on the reader board, and walk out unto the platform.  There was our train, the Mewar Express, waiting patiently for us to board.  We find our seats in sleeper class and store our bags.  There is a family sitting across from us with a little girl who had her left leg in a cast.  Another one of her family members also had a broken leg and boarded the train using crutches.  We smile politely across the aisles.  The train leaves the station just a minute late and isn’t that crowded. We settle in for a nice and peaceful four hour ride to Bundi.  Or so we thought….

Dollar the pet tortiose at the Panorama Guesthouse

Taking notes while Kummo is sharing her receipes

Jeff rolling out chapatis

Beautiful Kummo with our wonderful meal

J on the boat ride with the City Palace in the background

Me with Lake Palace in the background

Pushkar, India

We left Jaipur by train to Ajmer.  Once again to our surprise the train was on-time!  It was a short 2 hour train journey to Ajmer.  Once in Ajmer, we hired a taxi for 200 rupees that drove us the 11 km  over Snake Mountain to Pushkar.  The Hindus believe that Brahma (one of the main gods) dropped a lotus flower on the earth and Pushkar appeared.  It is another Hindu pilgrimage town, with of course no meat, no eggs, no booze, and no kissing or PDAs.  The town has one of the world’s few temples dedicated to Brahma, along with hundreds of other temples, that all surround the sacred Pushkar Lake. 

We arrive into town and find a little restaurant to get lunch at.  After eating, we leave our bags in the corner and go to scout out a room.  After looking at some questionably clean places, we found the Lake View Guesthouse right on the lake, that had clean rooms, a private bathroom,  and hot water for the bargain price of 500 rupees/night.  We lounged around the rooftop restaurant the rest of the afternoon and then we both got a 90 minute ayurvedic massage in the evening.  After feeling completely relaxed, we decided to wander the town a little bit.  

Pushkar, although a holy Hindu city, does have a more western tourist feeling then the other cities we have visited.  The main street/bazaar had a lot of clothing and souvenirs.  We got to the end of the bazaar where the Brahma temple was at and a young guy approached us inviting us in.  We decide to go in and remove our shoes.  Next thing you know, flowers are being forced into our hands so we have something to offer Brahma and the kid has now become our tour guide through the Hindu religion.  There was a ceremony going on as we entered with lots of bells and drums being clanged and banged.  The kid tells us to give half of our handful of flowers to Braham here and the other half will be placed in the lake as an offering to ensure our and our families success and happiness.  We walk around the temple, looking at the shrines, not only to Brahma, but to other gods and deities. The whole the time the kid is trying to explain a very complex religion to two Westerns who have no idea where to even start to grasp the Hindu faith.  After our temple ‘tour’ is complete, we exit the temple, place our shoes back on, wash our hands before retouching our sacred flowers, and are escorted by the kid to the Brahma ghat on the lake.  A ghat is a landing or steps that leads down to a sacred  body of water or river.  Our shoes are removed and we are given a tin plate to place our flowers on that also contains some rice, other flowers, a colorful string, and some red powder.  Jeff and I are each given our own ‘priest’ to help us pray for our and our families’ karma.  The repeating of prayers and holding of flowers is all fine and dandy until the subject how much money my karma and my family’s happiness is worth.  My ‘priest’ suggested at least 1000 rupees and I kept insisting I needed to talk to Jeff first before I agreed to give any money.  Then my ‘priest’ tells me that my karma is not connected to Jeff’s and my donation should be separate.  I told him karma doesn’t come from money.  My priest gets frustrated with me and says that my donation will be the same as my husband’s then.  So he smears the red paste on my forehead and tells me to go drop my flowers in the lake.  Jeff’s ‘priest’ in the meantime is trying to talk Jeff out of money too and answering cell phone calls in the middle of Jeff’s blessing.  He obviously didn’t know he was talking too!  Jeff haggled for everyone’s karma and agreed to pay nothing!  In the end, we ended up donating 500 rupees for us and both our families and had all the relaxation from our massages sucked right out us.  Hopefully, we are right and karma isn’t based on money!

The next day we sleep in and lounge the rest of the day in the sun, reading our books.  In the evening, we decide to climb up to the Savitri temple located on a hill a several hundred feet above the town for sunset.  It was a nice walk with amazing views.  The sunset was lovely and the full moon was beautiful.

Next is farther south to Udaipur.

Bazaar in Pushkar

Pushkar from the Savitri Temple

Day's done



Us heading down the mountain in the dark



Pushkar by the light of the moon

Jaipur, India

For being the third largest rail system in the world, behind Russia and China, I still think India could use a little instruction from the Germans! It has taken us about two weeks to figure out the trains in India.  How to book tickets, both online and at the counter, what class to ride in and how to figure out when and from what platform the train is arriving on and departing from.  We were scheduled to depart Amritsar on a 6am train south to Delhi.  Jeff had figured out how to check arrival/departure times online so we learned our train was running six hours late.  We arrived at the train station around 11 am and find out our train number has been changed as well.  We originally were scheduled to take an express train to Delhi that was supposed to take about 4-5 hours, but were rebooked on the slowest train EVER!  We boarded the train around noon, thinking we’d be into Delhi by 5 at the latest.  The hours rolled by, we bought chai and started to wonder where the tomato soup guy was.  Five o’clock came and went, then six, then seven; the tomato soup guy only made one appearance in our really empty train compartment.  We didn’t arrive into Delhi until 11pm and I got a migraine.  We found a hotel room and get a quick sleep before having to catch the 6am train south from Delhi to Jaipur.

We board the Express train to Jaipur; my headache is pretty much gone.  What a difference from the day/night before!  The train attendants hand out bottled water, then hot water and tea packets with biscuits, then a really good breakfast tray, and finally more tea.  All this and the train left on time and arrived to Jaipur on-time!

We stepped off the train and out into the chaos of the taxi stand.  A young guy named Sameer told us he would take us to the hotel we requested at a decent fare.  He drove us to the hotel and we discovered it was way out of our  price range.  So Sameer told us he’d take us to his brother’s hotel.  Jeff and I both were a little skeptical, but we were pleasantly surprised.  The hotel was very clean, had a wonderful rooftop restaurant, and was decently priced at 1100 rupees a night.  We took a little nap and then went out to explore.  We wander up to a crowded cinema and decide to catch a Bollywood flick.  There are hundreds of people hanging around outside and we can’t seem to locate the ticket window.  One guy tells us that it’s a new movie out today and tickets are sold out, but we could buy tickets for the next night.  As Jeff and I are still trying to figure out where the ticket window is, a young guy comes up to Jeff and says that he is here with a group of his friends.  Four of the friends didn’t show up so they have extra box seats.  Jeff and I follow the group into the theater and up to the balcony seats.  Seeing a movie in India, is nothing like seeing one in the States.  People cheer, clap, and whistle through the whole thing.  The show was mostly in Hindi, but we were able to follow most of the storyline and the Bollywood dance scenes were always great!

The next day we decided to do some sightseeing.  We walked out to the main street to catch an autoricksaw.   The driver who pulls over turns out to be Sameer’s older brother, Saddiq.  We hire Saddiq to drive us around for half the day.  The first stop was to Albert Hall, which turned out to be a fairly interesting museum.  Next we stop at Iswari Minar Swarga Sal (the Heaven Piercing Minaret).  We climb up to the top for some amazing views of the city.  Once we get down, we find Saddiq flying a kite.  It was the annual kite festival in Jaipur and there were hundreds of kites in the air.  Saddiq taught Jeff how to fly the kite and how to avoid getting your kite string cut by another kite.   We then visit the royal gaitor which are beautifully carved marble monuments for the Maharajas (kings) and their families.  Saddiq then takes us to a textile factory where we see a demonstration of block printing.  This factory also hand embellishes wedding costumes.  One mens' garment we saw took 6 people 6 hours a day for 10 days to finish.  The final cost for the costume was 50,000 rupees which means each worker was only getting paid about US$3 an hour for some amazing work.  In their showroom, we see all sorts of examples block print wall hangings, bedspreads and materials.  I ended purchasing a beautiful wall hanging made out of antique saris that have been embellished.  It kind looks like a crazy quilt.  We had Saddiq drop us next to this tandori place where we get some delicious grilled chicken for dinner.

Originally, we planned to sight-see with Saddiq’s brother Sameer the next day.  However, there was some negotiations about prices.  Sameer had a car and not an autoricksaw which was more money.  So a call was placed to Saddiq, and he became our tour guide once again.  We visit the Jantar Mantar. At first, this place looks like a bunch of strange sculptors, but they ‘re instruments used to track the sun and the stars across the zodiac.  The sun dial at the observatory is surprisingly accurate and our very patient guide answered all of our questions.  Next, we visited the Hawa Mahal.  This honeycombed building was built by one of the Maharajas, so his women could view main bazaar, parades, and other festivals without being seen.  Saddiq then drove us to the Monkey Temple.  This place is exactly what it sounds like.  Hundreds of monkeys line the paths and Jeff bought a bag of peanuts to feed the little monsters.  Most monkeys were pretty calm, but a few got pretty aggressive and would run up and hiss at you.  I tried to feed the monkeys, but they wouldn’t eat from my hand.  I’m secretly okay with that; I don’t need some strange monkey disease in India! 

For lunch, Saddiq took us to this wonderful family run restaurant.  Everything was bought fresh from the market everyday and it was delicious!  After being recharged with food, we continued unto the Amber Fort, about 10 km out of town.  This fort also served as a palace for the royal families hundreds of years ago.  We spent about an hour and half wandering around this huge structure before finding Saddiq.  The last place on our list to see was the Tiger Fort.  Sameer had told us in the morning that the autorickshaw wouldn’t be able to make it up the hill to the fort.  So we told him that we would walk the 2-3 km up the hill.  Well, Sameer wasn’t in the rickshaw with us and Saddiq took us up the hill for an extra 200 rupees.  We viewed the fort and then went to go find a place to watch the sunset.  We ended up talking to a group of young Indian guys.  They kept wanting us to sing an American song for them and despite warning them I had a terrible voice, they insisted.  So Jeff and I were going to “row, row, row your boat” in a round, but Jeff left me hanging and I had to do a solo performance.  It was quiet embarrassing.  We watched the sun go down and the city light up in the darkness.  Every once in a while you would see a few fireworks go off for a wedding celebration.  While driving back to the hotel, we saw a wedding parade with the groom in his elaborate wedding costume riding a decorated horse.  He was followed by a group of women carrying what looked like small electric lit crystal chandeliers. 

We say goodbye to Saddiq, order some room service for dinner, and fall asleep.  Its on to Pushkar, another Hindi holy city where there is no meat!

The 'line' outside the movie theater

Albert Hall Musuem

Jeff taking kite lessons from Saddiq

The royal gaitors

Inside the textile factory showroom

The theater we saw our Bolleywood flick at

The gaint sun dial at Jantar Matar

Backside of the Hawa Mahal

Jeff feeding the creepy monkeys on the way to the Monkey Temple

The sacred bathing pools at the Monkey Temple

Our tour guide Saddiq, with the Floating Temple in the background

Sunsetting over Jaipur

Amritsar, India: Golden Temple (Jan 11-13)

We get back from the border closing and go the hotel to take a nap and relax a bit only to be startled by loud explosions. Crap, I guess Pakistan really did not like the way the border closing went.  We go to the lobby and front door to see fireworks going off over the Golden Temple and we ask the manager what was going on.  Apparently it was the fifth guru’s birthday; one of the most celebrated days in the Sik region calendar. 

We put on our warm clothes and make our way to the temple across the street. We take off our shoes and socks at the shoe and sock stand.  Everyone must be barefoot and wash their feet in the pools of water before walking down a flight of stairs to the Parkarma, which is the freezing cold white marble walkway surrounding the a pool of water called the Amrit Sarovar,  the Pool of Nectar.  In the center of the pool, connected to the Parkarma by a walkway, sits the Golden Temple.   The temple complex was lit up for the Guru’s birthday with thousands of golden lights.  The electric lights blended with the candles burning at the holy pool’s edge and the rhythmic chanting of the holy men from the Har Mandir Sahib inside the Golden Temple were broadcasted over loudspeakers made for a surreal scene. We slowly made our way around the water’s edge soaking up the energy of the complex. We decided to call it a night when we completed a circuit and our feet had gone numb. 

                The next morning we depart to see the temple in full sunlight.  We repeat the process of taking off our shoes and socks, checking them into the counter, and washing our feet before entering the complex.   The temple looks just as it was named, golden;  the sun glistened off the golden facade of the temple.  The gold dome is said to be gilded with 750 kg of pure gold.  We walk around the Parkarma to the bridge and enter into the Har Mandir Sahib.  Its here that Sik priests keep up the continuous chant from the Sik holy book.  The chant is accompanied by drums and another instrument that looks sort of like an accordion.  The whole effect was enchanting. We walked up the stairs and sat down on the floor among the worshipers to listen for awhile.  This is Sikhism’s most holiest shrine and although such a sacred place, we never felt awkward or uncomfortable there, just welcome.   

Golden Temple during festvile night

Golden Temple during the day on the Parkarma

Sitting on the Parkarma

Inside the Golden Temple listening the chanting

Amritsar, India: The Border Closing (Jan 11th)

We grab a cab and head back to Haridwar to catch the afternoon train to Amritsar.  We are less worried about this train ride since we had discovered the website “cleartrip” which is an Indian version of expedia or Travelocity and booked AC chair class seats.  If you ever want to know how to travel by train in any country go to “the man in seat 61” website and it will guide you.  So we take our seats and are amazed at what paying an extra $5 per person will get you.  The ride is smooth and comfortable and we finally succumb to the chants of the Chai guy and order us a couple of cups of tea which turned out to be delicious, we keep him busy for the remainder of the trip. Eventually a man walks by selling tomato soup, we take the bait and are instantly hooked.  I don’t think I’ve ever had soup that tasted so good.  Teresa is in complete agreement and I spend the next  hour looking over my shoulder for the tomato soup guy to return, when he does I order 4 more soups. His eyes go wide and he replies in astonishment “4”.  Oh, yeah!  That’s what I said, now give me my soup cause we were now chasing the dragon.

                We arrive in Amritsar close to midnight and take a hotel that’s right across from the train station. We have ventured further north and it is COLD. We ask for a space heater and they supply us with the equivalent of a mini hairdryer that has zero chances to keep up with the draft that is coming from under the door and through the AC unit (yeah, that was a handy device to have).  Out come the sleeping bags again.  I normally do not have a problem with the bags if were staying is a $5 night joint, but since it was cold we upgraded to a $30 a night room and I had issues with the fact that I was still cold.  We checked out the next day and made our way into the madness of old town. Teresa posted up at a coffee shop while I wandered around town looking for some new digs. We move into our new pad that was directly across from the golden temple, had no windows (less draft), spotless clean, and had free Wi-Fi for less cash than the last place….score!  We book a car to get us to Attari which is the border with Pakistan to see the daily closing of the border. We lay down under the heavy blankets supplied and take an hour nap while we wait for our trip to the border.

                30 km later our driver drops us off at the border.  We notice that an impressively long line has formed and not knowing our place we ask the guard who instructs us to take a spot at the front of the line.  We patiently wait until 4 pm when they open the gates to allow visitors to proceed to the spectator location. We pass numerous security points and notice that people are starting to run for the border.  Not wanting to miss out on good seats we make a break for it like there was a Taco Bell at the end.  Our western passports allows us the status of MVP and we are ushered to the front seats.  As we wait for the closing both the Indian and Pakistani sides are blaring music.  The main differences we notice are that the Pakistani side is empty and the Indian side has people everywhere with some dancing  in the streets, waving Indian flags, and just hooting and hollering in general. As we wait an Indian sniper takes position next to us and I remember that these two countries have no love lost and have had numerous skirmishes in the recent past.  Suddenly the music stops and a guy in a white track suit (I kid you not) comes out and assumes the role if head cheerleader getting the crowd riled up.  If the Indian government sees this blog please consider my suggestions:

1.       Female cheerleaders with pom-poms doing acrobatics

2.       Small remote controlled blimp or alternatively a team of cheerleaders with air gun dropping/shooting Indian flags into the crowd.

3.       Beer / snack service

4.       A jumbotron showing the action and for instant replays of the more impressive moves

…Think about it India.

So to kick off the closing, guards from both side of the border have a yelling match to see who can keep yelling the longest.  Then a pair of female Indian soldier begin to high step it to the gates to secure the perimeter. Oh, It’s show time.  Then the male guards go out kicking and spinning and yelling like really loud ninjas dressed like UPS delivery drivers with funny hats.  This is mirrored on the Pakistani side, although our view is somewhat obstructed.  To be honest I felt bad for the Pakistani side since the Indian side was standing room only and their side was fairly empty.  This went on for some time, each side trying to outdo the other side with the crowd (assisted by our jogging suit clad cheerleader) cheering them on.  The procession climaxed with the lowering and securing of the flags then the gates were closed for the day thus our chances to slip away to Pakistan were gone.  Once the border was closed a stream of young Indian males rushed the field to celebrate their victory and what I assume was shout jeers and insults to their defeated rival, if there would have been a goalpost present I am confident it would have come down as well. We find our driver at the parking lot and make our way back to Amritsar reflecting on the bizarre, yet wildly entertaining  event we just witnessed.   It was like watching OSU vs. Oregon civil war with snipers, tanks, and the possible use of nuclear weapons.   

The Pakistan crowd

The Indian crowd

The head cheerleader in the white track suit, queing everyone to cheer the marching

Lowering of the flags





The two sides say goodbye for the night

High kicking the gates closed

Rishakesh, India

We had big plans to go on all sorts of adventures while in Rishakesh.  We were going to go white water rafting down the Ganges, take some yoga classes, and  go trekking through the Himalayas.  On our first evening, we familiarized ourselves with town and booked a six hour white water rafting trip for 950 rupees (about $20) leaving in the morning.   This bargain price got you a guide, a boat, a paddle, and lifejacket; there are no wet/dry suits, no mention of a throw bag with a safety line or even if this company has insurance or not.  Whatever, we’re in India either it is going to be awesome or we’re going to die. 

The hotel we are staying in had a huge room with a little kitchenette and a bathroom with a real bath tub.  What it didn’t have was plate glass windows, just shutters covering the windows.  After talking to some people, we find out it’s the coldest winter that anyone can remember.  So once again, we end up sleeping in our sleeping bags and hats. 

Well we never got a chance to see if we’d make it down the river.  I came down with another really nasty case traveler’s bug.  I’m blaming it on the mutter paneer (paneer with pea curry) I ate for dinner  and I vow never to eat the stuff again!  After spending most of the night, unzipping my sleeping bag, climbing out from under the blankets, and freezing in the bathroom while I waited for the last wave of unpleasantness to subside, there was no way I was getting into a river boat.  I spent the next day, repeating the process of unzipping the sleeping bag and scampering to bathroom.  The hotel had satellite TV though and through my misery I was able to watch the season one marathon of Dexter.  Jeff spent half of the day making sure I was okay and the other half at the internet café surfing the internet and chatting on Facebook. 

January is the coldest month in India, which means we’re in northern India at the wrong time of year to do any trekking through the Himalayas.  Rishakesh is beautiful area that appears to have some amazing hikes through it.  Jeff and I would both like to come back during trekking season and explore this area.  As our luck would have it, my high school friend Mindy will be moving to Delhi this year.  Her husband has a job in the city for three years.  So Mindy, it is in writing, we’ll be coming to visit while you’re here. 

The next day, even though I’m feeling much better, we decide not to take any yoga classes.  There are some poses I don’t think it would have been a good idea for me to get into, wind relieving pose to being one of themn.  We did take a little 3 km walk with a little climb up to a little waterfall.  Jeff got an  ayurvedic massage (traditional Indian massage) for 500 rupees ($10) for an hour and I got a mehendi henna tattoo.

Next we’re heading farther north to Amritsar.  I have little hope it is going to get warmer in our lives anytime soon!

View for the Ganges from Rishakesh

My henna tattoo

Monkeys on the bridge

The watrfall we hiked up too

A cow in front of a shrine... It doesn't get holier than that!

Haridwar

We get to the train station in Agra and stand in line to see if we can upgrade our other train tickets from sleeper class to a 3 A/C (high) class.  The guy behind the counter, told us that we weren’t able to upgrade anything.  We asked what platform our current train left from and he told us to check the reader board.  So we leave the reservation area and go to the reader board which is all written in Hindi.  We finally figure out where we’re leaving from as we briefly see our train number flash across the screen.  We get to platform two and then see that the train will be about 30 minutes late.  While sitting there waiting, I had a little mini meltdown.  In two days we are scheduled to take a sleeper class over-night train.  This does not sound like fun to me.  This sounds like the worst experience ever!  We talked about it and decided that if the hotel in Haridware wasn’t nice, we’d scratch the rest of the ‘tour’ like Chris and Amanda. 

The train arrives and we climb on.  We get to our assigned seats and a whole family is sitting there.  In theory, every passenger on the train has assigned seating, but this is clearly not what is practiced.  It’s a free-for-all seating and we got some strange looks when we insisted that these were our seats.  There is some shuffling that goes on and Jeff and I able to sit next to each other with our bags next to us.  As the train is leaving another guy squeezes in next to Jeff.  In theory, we should have four spaces all to ourselves since Amanda and Chris aren’t with us anymore.  But now crammed into that space is me, Jeff, the other guy, and a  family of four sitting across from us and everyone’s things!  But we make the most of it.  Jeff ended up playing games on the iPhone with the little girl across from us.  People are continually walking up and down the aisles selling food, gadgets, clothes, and just about anything else you could need; it’s like a bazaar on rails.  The chai guys walk up and down every 10 minutes saying “Chai, chai, chai.” 

The train stops in Delhi and most people get off the train.  The little girl that Jeff was playing with blew him a kiss from the platform as the train pulled away.  We were hungry by this point, so Jeff went to the pantry car and got two somosas (deep fried pastry triangles filled with curried potatoes & veggies).  They were really good and hot, so we decided that they were pretty safe to eat.  We ended up eating two more apiece.  We were never brave enough to try the sweets or chai or other food stuffs as they came down the aisle.

We arrived into Haridware around 2300.  We get to our hotel only to be disappointed again by our ‘tour.’  This room was an improvement from the last, but I still felt the need to sleep in my sleeping bag and no hot water.  We found this little restaurant that was still open and had a wonderful meal.  Haridware is the holiest Hindu city in the region and the sacred Ganges river emerges from the Himalayas here.  There is no meat or eggs or alcohol to be found.  So we ate a lot of paneer (soft, unfermented cheese made from milk curd that has a consistency like tofu) curries, rice, naan (tandori cooked flat bread), and dhal (lentils).  All of it was very good.  One of my favorites to now order is a thali plate which gets you  usually a small serving of dhal, paneer, veggies, rice, and naan. 

We relocated hotels to very nice hotel just around the corner the next day.  We didn’t have to sleep in our sleeping bags, had 24 hot water, and room service.  We had a flat screen TV that our laptop with all its movies connected into and we didn’t have to wear our shoes around the room.  We stayed here for three nights(we abandoned our stupid tour) and it was wonderful!  We definitely took a step up and only paid 750 rupees at night (about $16).

We wandered across the Ganges and walked down the river.  People were bathing (to wash away their sins), washing clothes, and praying along its banks.  There is so much going on its hard to capture in words or pictures, but this scene is what I imagined India to be like.  The colors of clothes and buildings, the river, the cows standing around, the people talking, the people begging, the people selling, the people eating, the people praying.  It really was extraordinary during the day, and very festive at night.   There is area along the river called the Har-Ki-Pairi Ghat, which translates into The Footstep of God.  Every evening as the sun sets, people gather, bells start to ring, torches are lit, and leaf baskets filled with flower petals and a candle on top are lit and put into the river to float downstream.  It was really beautiful to see.  

We wandered around the market area and did brave some street food.  One day we got a bag of popcorn from a guy who popping it in a wok.  The other thing we tried was the shortbread like cookies baked in a little oven on the push cart.  These were so good we had to have more.  It took us a little bit to find him the next day since his mobile but it was well worth it!

Since we stuffed our pre-purchased tour, we arranged train tickets to leave to Amritsar on day train in couple of days.  Until then we’re going about 25 km north to the yoga capital of the world Rishikesh.

The holy Ganges River

The chains are for the people to grab onto if they get caught in the current

T workin her mojo

Har-Ki-Pairi Ghat



Holy Cow!