So, they say that you either hate India or love India. That statement really does qualify and right now, I am falling into the category of really really hating this place and counting the moments until I can escape to Nepal. I can out of a couple of frustrating days, followed by a 12+ hour car ride only to be dumped on a hard platform bed with about ½ inch thick mattress on the front porch of a temple as my bed for the night. The hostel informed me they had plenty of room and when I arrive at around midnight, they showed me the most expensive room. Out of principal and the fact that I had just paid 600 rupees to get to Varanasi I declined and took the temple porch bed. It seems at this point that I am counting pennies but alas, 600 rupees (about $15) can pay for my accommodation for three to four nights so having just blown it on transportation, I was in no mood to pay 300 for a mediocre room.
Maybe I ought to back up a bit and get back to where I left off. Spent a couple of days in Jaipur, which was an OK city and had some decent sights then took another hell bus ride – trains are so much better than buses here! – to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Despite all the people’s negative comments about Agra, Paul and I managed to have quite a good time there and both really enjoyed it.
The first night was spent attending a local festival/fair, similar to our state fair. We were the only foreigners there and had a great time walking around looking at things, eating cotton candy and NOT getting bugged by anyone as they were all there to enjoy themselves as well. We capped the night off watching the fashion show they had for the evening. It was amazing – some of the sarees they brought out and also some of the Indian style clothes with a western bent were so beautiful and colorful. I think we spent over an hour there. My favorite bit was that the show was brought to us by a sewing machine company and they had three machines proudly displayed on the side of the stage. I just can’t imagine Singer or Bernina sponsoring a fashion show in the US but hey, maybe I am running in the wrong circles.
Over the course of the next two days, we saw the Agra Fort (most of which is closed off), a dead/abandoned city called Fatehpur Sikri (absolutely amazing) and the Taj. The Taj really is as beautiful as you expect it to be.
So, this is also where my frustration with India really begins – Fatehpur Sikri. This amazing place and you can barely moved without a kid asking for money or a ‘student’ wanting to practice his English and then sell you something or guide you around the place. This is where I became the archaeologist…I was so fed up that I very sternly told the man, after he informed me that I would not understand anything without a guide that I was an archaeologist and that I had been studying Indian history all my life and I knew EXACTLY what I was looking at. It did shut him up and get him to go away but I still had to fend off begging children and trinket salesmen. Funny thing is, little is known about Fatehpur Sikri so the guides appeared to be imparting really useful knowledge such as, this shelf/ledge was build for the Sultan to sleep on as he did not like scorpions. Hmmmm, little fishy to me!
After three days in Agra, oh and the best mixed fruit lassi ever – like a desert with a sweet yogurt and layers of fruit topped with a sprinking of coconut, cashews and chocolate powder – Paul headed back to the US and I headed on to Khajuraho.
Again, another hell bus ride to get there. I tell you, again, take the train when you can. Arrived around 9:30pm to several hotel men trying to pull me into a million pieces and bring me to their hotel. I did get dragged one direction but after, went to check out my first choice place and made a move. It was very pleasant and I had my own room with my own bathroom and I felt like a queen. Well, not quite like a queen but a step up from always sharing and walking down the hall. The reason for Khajuraho is the Khama Sutra temples.
I woke up the first morning, and absolutely loved India as I wandered around on my rented bike (30 rupees for the day) to get to some of the temples further out. By the time the day was ending, I absolutely hated India. I couldn’t look at a single temple in silence as there was always a guy trying to guide me or a child grabbing and poking at me trying to get a rupee or two. Despite my several pleads to just leave me alone, that I wanted to look at it in silence and that I did not need a guide, nor have an rupees to give, they just would not go away. Hence, I decided to create multiple personas and see what they would do with that. Basically it just confused them and not much more. They still didn’t go away.
In any case, the temples are lovely and highly recommended but getting a train ticket out before you arrive is also recommended. I had the slight problem of all the trains being booked. Finally I was able to wait list for one but at an upgraded status, which meant paying 3x the price I would pay if I went general class. Of course, the minute I book the ticket, a man in a shop, who for once, I think was really out to help me and not rip me off, found a driver and a car to take me to Varanasi for 150 rupees more. While this is quite a bit and I really did not want to upgrade, my body was telling me that it was just about on the verge of getting sick (my stomach hadn’t been too good that morning). Given that, I opted out of the overnight train ride with a 4:30am arrival and took the car. Looking back, I am not sure if that was really a better plan as I arrived at around 11:30 after over 12 hours in a car with horrible Indian music blasted in my ear. I believe, that unless it is rap, all Indian music is based on the same two guys – one playing a tambourine type thing and the other playing some instrument that sounds like a drop of water would sound in a base tone like a bwlooop. It has a special beat that does the bwloop, bum, bum, bwlooop, bum, bum and meanwhile the tambourine goes ch, cha, cha, ch behind and the women and mean moan above it all.
When I finally did reach the hostel, as I mentioned above, I got a hard bed on the porch steps of their temple and the manager asking me why I arrived so late. Well, if I had a choice, I would not have arrived so late you dult! Unlike many others, I am not finding the charm and grace in Varanasi and think I will look into booking a train to Nepal for tomorrow night. It does have a lovely setting along the Ganges River, which is so polluted it contains 1.5 million faecal coliform bacteria per 100ml of water while safe bathing water contains less than 500. People are actually bathing in the stuff…something I will NOT be doing.
So, having bitched away for a bit, I am going to head out and face the world and see how many more beggars I can swat away.
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