The Indian border was quite as easy crossing compared to what we went through in Iran and Pakistan. We had to get off the truck, fill out a form, get our picture taken and then it was just a case of getting back on the truck! Last year was a different story for the truck as customs went through the whole truck and all the bags...so we were once again expecting the worst. But luckily for us they didn’t want to check anything. We were at the border for a couple of hours waiting for a document or something to be signed....but I don’t know exactly what happened as I had a little snooze on a plastic chair!! It did all get sorted in the end and was still a hell of a lot quicker than we all expected. So then it was time to drive into India...and oh my god the difference between Pakistan and India was noticeable straight away. For one thing the explosion of colours just outside the gate of the border was amazing. The saris are all so vibrant and the sequence glittering in the sun was amazing. Everyone was waving and there was music playing from all the little restaurants. My first duty in India was to FINALLY get out of the conservative clothes!! I got everyone to look forward, popped down the back of the truck and within seconds I was in a vest top and shorts...I even had to apply sun cream to more than just my face!! Of course this joyous occasion was slightly marred by the fact my bruise was already coming up and I had an unsightly red lump on my leg from my stupidity!!
We had a really quick drive from the border to our hotel/campsite, only about 25km. When we arrived Rach jumped off the truck to get them to open the back gate for the truck and as we were sitting looking out the window I suddenly saw someone else appear outta the gate...and realised that it was Dee!! Dee had been one of the “abandoners” for Pakistan and we hadn’t expected to see them until a couple of days later but as it turned out they arrived in Mrs. Bhandari’s about 10 minutes before we did. It was quite amusing as they had just endured an 18 hour bus journey to get to Amritsar and were all tired, sick and filthy...us Pakistani die-hards though, despite the fact we were the ones supposed to be in that state after a week of straight bush camping, were all showered and rested...even if some of us were slightly sick! There was hugs all round and then a dash either to the shower or the fridge for a beer! We sat around chatting and regaling stories to each other, then took full advantage of the pool as we all jumped in and properly cooled down. Then it was time to cook the first truck dinner in a couple of weeks! I was on cook group and it was roasting both preparing and cleaning up after dinner afterwards!! It was a nice simple dinner or tuna pasta...and it went down a treat!! After a couple of weeks of rice and sometimes struggling to figure out what to eat, suddenly we had this yummy dinner in front of us and everyone (who was well enough!!) tucked in!! Then it was bed time and some of us decided to be good to ourselves and upgraded to rooms for a couple nights rather than pitching tents...and it was totally worth it. Showers, bed and most importantly air-conditioning!!! Don’t think I would have slept very much that night if I hadn’t of had that!!
Next day most of us had an EXTREMELY lazy day! After a week of travelling through Pakistan, or for others lots of public transport travelling, most of us took it easy and lazed about in the pool or lay out on the grass reading or napping, soaking up the sun and enjoying just being there! There was a truck dinner again that night...which again was greatly appreciated by everyone I think! The following day we all seemed to have a bit more energy (or perhaps we all felt a bit guilty after being lazy lie-by-th- pool tourists, rather than true overlanders!!!) so some of us hopped in a tuk tuk outside the hotel and headed in to check out the Golden Temple. The Golden Temple is pretty much the only thing to see in Amritsar. Those of us who went in that morning didn’t actually go inside to look at it properly we walked around the perimeter of the little compound it is in and looked at what there was to see...and everyone else looked at us!!! Again there was picture request and sometimes no requests, just the camera-shoved-in-the-face move! At one stage we were standing having a cold drink when we noticed a group of about 6 or 7 lads all with their cameras out. We were kinda cornered and had nowhere to go so after awhile started turning our backs to the direction of the camera...but they would just circle around and come at us from the other side. Me and Rosie tried hiding behind the lads...but they just came closer and put the camera up between the lads heads to get us standing behind them!! This is all very funny now as I remember it but at the time it wasn’t so much fun! I really don’t mind if they ask to take a picture...or even them just taking a picture but when they start CIRCLING, like some kind of weird animal pack it starts to get what I’d call a tad bit creepy!!! Anyway once we lost the pack we walked on and at that stage the heat was starting to get to me. So I headed back to Bhandari’s...to resume my position at the poolside!! That night a group of us were going to the border to watch the flag lowering ceremony. This is basically the other main attraction of Amritsar. As it is so close to the border it doesn’t take long to get there and each evening both the Pakistani and Indian sides of the border to put on a bit of a show for when the border closes for the night. The whole thing was an experience! For one thing on the way there I was in the back of a jeep that was filled with 8 people...not fun in the heat...very little air gets circulated to the back of a jeep through 8 people’s heads let me tell ya! When we did get to the border it was what you might call slight chaos! We all started walking up together only to be told there was a queue for men and one for women...cue the confusion as to which side of the border we were actually on!! But our white skin came in handy as the border guards allowed us all to walk up past the queues and then once we flashed our passports we all got into the VIP section to a designated area for foreigners, rather than having to sit in the packed stands. Once we did get seated though it was amazing. Once again the first thing that hit me was the colours, and there was again loud music playing. Just as we sat down the song Jai Ho (from Slumdog Millionaire) came on....and the whole crowd jumped up and started dancing. Some people went down onto the road and they all started doing the dance to the song. It was so cool to watch and just felt totally Indian! Then some guy came out and started getting the crowd fired up, he had a mic and whatever he was saying the crowd loved. They started chanting whatever he told them and cheering on cue! Then we noticed a few guards appearing and the show began. I’m not quite sure how to describe it really! It was all a bit surreal and comical. The guards at the start were lined up and then the next thing they first two too off at a fierce pace down the road towards the gate. The only way I can describe it is to say that you know when you’re a kid and you’re trying to get somewhere fast but you don’t want to or aren’t allowed to run, so you end up doing this ridiculous fast paced walk at risk the whole time of tripping over your own feet and your arms are swinging wildly to try help keep your balance? Well that is EXACTLY what this looked like!! Then, once they reached the gate they would stop, lift their knees up pretty much to their chins and stamp their foot down really hard...as in we could hear the clack of their shoes on the ground all the way up in the stands! Then once they had stomped their feet a couple times one leg would get kicked ridiculously high into the air....foot over the head business!! The first time it happened, none of us quite believed our eyes but then the next few guards in the line followed and repeated the exact same routine!! All these shenanigans went on for about half an hour with other weird moments thrown in...such as when they literally swung the gates back like they were about to go into battle, a guard from each side marched towards each other like they were gonna try stab each other....and shook hands in a very determined way!!! Then the gates were slammed back closed again...more foot stomping a leg kicking and chanting would go on...and finally after a lot of rope throwing and swinging they started to lower the 2 flags! We were all fairly glad of this as it was sweltering hot and even just sitting there we were all pumping sweat (attractive I know!!). When the show was over and the flags were safely back wherever they had to go for the night we stood around for awhile to let the crowd move off a little before we tried to battle our way back to our cars....so guess who became the tourist attraction then!! The usual happened...some asking, some just taking but the weirdest and funniest thing was that people literally just plonked their kids in front of some of us and took a picture with the poor kid standing there wondering what on earth was going on!! We did start making a move for the cars though and then it was just a case of battling ourselves out of the car park. We had all decided to go for dinner that night then and went to a place called Crystals. Before I continue let me remind you that we are overlanders so our wardrobe consists of shorts and vest tops with flip flops at the moment. I’ll also just repeat we had spent the last 2 hours sitting in the baking heat sweating while doing absolutely NOTHING but sitting...now I will tell you that this place had white table cloths and the waiters were all in white shirts, waist coats and dickie bows! But in we all marched anyway...giving the nicely dressed Indian families a bit of a shock and sat down and ordered food. It was really nice but the best part was dessert...a SIZZLING chocolate brownie!! This thing was unreal....think Joels or Captain Americas chocolate brownie with a big dollop of ice cream on top...served on one of those sizzling trays that you usually get your stir fry or fajitas served on!! They put it down in front me and appeared with a jug of hot fudge sauce, poured it over it and the whole plate just sizzled up...and smelt AMAZING!!! Once we hate ate our fill of chocolate brownies we all piled back in the cars and it was home time.
The next day again was a relatively relaxed affair. Some of the girls had gone to a salon the day before to get their hair trimmed and had ended up being truly pampered with manicures and facials and massages all for the equivalent of a few euro! So the following day myself, Rosie and ANDREW went to the salon for a pedicure! Everyone knows what I am like with feet...I hate them and tend to kick anyone who tries to touch my feet in the face! But after a few weeks of living in flip flops my little tootsies were in need of some TLC!! It was really nice but by far the best part of the days was watching Andy get his pedicure done! Having never had one before he had no idea what happened and looked slightly scared every time the girl picked up another tool...his best reaction being that she was “attacking him with a rock” when she picked up the pumice stone!! Once we were all finished there we headed back and got ready for another lovely truck dinner and then it was time for me to head back to my tent. Holy crap it was sweltering! I attempted to go to bed at about half ten....gave up after tossing for an hour and got out of the tent again, chatted for awhile and then gave it another try. It was slightly cooler but it was still about 1 by the time I drifted off...and then I was waking up every half hour so in a very unattractive state of “glowing” (to use Gran’s term!!). Some of us had decided to get up the next morning for sunrise at the Golden Temple...so when 4am came I jumped outta my tent and legged it to the shower and was just so pleased to not be in the tent anymore!! (I didn’t even have the fly sheet on the tent for the night and it was still roasting!!).
Going to the temple for sunrise was brilliant though. I was surprised as to how many people were there at that hour of the morning...and it looked like a lot of people had slept there...and then there were all the people who were getting into the pool the surrounds the temple having an early morning swim. The Temple is of great importance to the Sikh people...that one temple alone is the equivalent of doing 68 pilgrimages in a person’s lifetime. We wandered around the pool area and waited for the sun to come up. It was kinda frustrating as for the first day in days it was a bit cloudy and hazy! We were worried we weren’t going to get a proper sunrise but when it did happen it was amazing. We stood at the side of the pool where the temple was in front of the sunrise. It was so beautiful and the reflection from the temple and the sun made the pool glow gold. I was transfixed with it and stood there for ages watching it and seeing how it changed as the sun got higher. When the sun was up and it was starting to get warmer we headed back to Bhandari’s for an early morning truck clean. We had decided to do it at half 7 in the morning as it was cool enough at that stage to tackle it. As ut was we were still boiling hot once we got started but everything got pulled out of the truck, washed down...and the outside even got a good scrub so we had a nice, shiny new truck! Myself and Rosie then headed off on a tuk tuk tour of the city! Peter and Little Kev had done it the day before and had recommended it cause it let us see parts of the city we wouldn’t have and also made it easier to be doing something in the day as we didn’t have to walk around. The first place he brought us to confused us slightly at first. We had told him we had already seen the Golden Temple so didn’t need to go there...but when we walked into the first temple he stopped at the 2 of us looked at each other with a slight bit of confusion! The temple was the 16th century Sri Durgiana Temple which is the Hindu version of the Sikhs’ Golden Temple. It was really pretty and is known as the Silver Temple because of its ornately carved silver doors. Once we were finished having a look around here we moved onto the next temple which was a rather crazy experience!! It was called the Mata Temple and celebrates a saint from the 20th century, Lal Devi, which was kinda cool as most of the temples were in honour of saints and the like from much earlier times! It was the oddest temple I’ve ever been in and the only way that I can give you an idea of its oddity is to remind you of the last scene in the movie Grease where they are singing “You’re the One That I Want”. Sandy and Danny are bopping around the place and then pop onto the fun bus thing that has all the different levels on it, the floor moves up and down and there is steps and all kinda weird things along the way. Well this temple was like that!! As we walked up each level it got weirder and weirder and it was even open out to the side with shiny steels bars across it so we didn’t fall out onto the street. The floor was uneven (unfortunately the floor didn’t actually move!!), there was mini stedps up and down, we had to get down on our hands and knees and crawl through a tunnel at one stage, then climb through a hole and walk through a little stream in a cave on the other side of it!! There was colourful deities all over the place, the walls were covered in mirrored mosaics, once again giving a fun fair, Hall of Mirrors feel to it! When we made it through the labyrinth we were in the main chamber of the temple and it too had colours everywhere; both in the decorations that adorned the hall and also due to the clothes that the women who were worshiping there were wearing. When we were done at the temple out guide then brought us to...well a waste of space to be totally honest!! We drove into a little park called the Ram Bagh which looked really nice, but he drove us through it and parked up outside the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Museum. It was supposed to be a “must-see”...and to be honest I reckon it’s a must see if you have literally seen EVERYTHING else in India...which will never happen to anyone!! It wasn’t so much a museum as a....well I don’t really know how to describe it!! It had little miniature scenes set up, basically depicting different scenes from the Maharaja’s rein. When we finished walking around through this room we thought it was over and went to make a break for the door...when a dude told us we still had to go upstairs. So up we went to the “panorama” view. This was another rather odd display with pictures of paintings, which were then blown up onto a wall and then “came alive” as such. So at the back wall was a picture and then closer to where we stood they had larger than life figurines from the picture. I’m not sure I’m describing this very well...and I’m not really sure wht I am bothering my arse to even try do it cause the moral of the story is if you are ever in Amritsar....dont bother your arse going to this museum!! Following that he then brought us to a surprise stop that we did not know about, which was Khalsa University. When we were on our way back from the border a couple of nights previous we had passed a beautifully lit up building and all wondered what it was...and we found out! It was an amazing building...very Harry Potteresqe in my mind! We walked around the grounds for a bit and then it was time to head back to Bhandari’s for some rest! The tour took us about 3 hours but when it was over myself and Rosie knew that we had seen pretty much everything that Amritsar had to offer so we didn’t feel guilty about once again setting ourselves up at the pool and chilling out for the rest of the day!!
Before I move on to the next leg of our journey I’ll just tell you a little about Mrs. Bhandari’s. The place was really nice and very tranquil. It was out of the hustle and bustle of the city and really quite peaceful. It had an amazing big garden that was beautifully maintained (Gran you would have loved it!!). It was surrounded by big mature trees and had lovely flower beds and wall roses all over the place. The house itself was lovely, and the family still live there while running the guesthouse. A little walk around the garden and in between all the guesthouses and out buildings and I discovered a small paddock with water buffalo..including a little calf! Mrs. Bhandari herself sounds like a fascinating woman. She was of the Parsi peoplw which in India’s caste system meant she would have come from a rather well off family. She was one of the first women in Inida to own and drive her own car and to go to college (she had a Masters in English). She also worked a huge amount with refugees as they arrived from Pakistan after Partition and was well known for the work that she did. When her husband died she had to figure out how to provide for her children and so she decided to open her home to guests. The guest house is quite well known and Charlton Heston even stayed there when he was there as UN Ambassador. Mrs. Bhandari died in 2007, 13 days after celebrating her 101st birthday by having a party for friends and locals. Rachel and Greg said when they used to come to the guest house when she was alive she would sit out with the guest chatting with them and telling them stories about her life and giving them information about India and Amritsar. She sounds like a fascinating woman and her family have done a great job with the guest house. We all loved staying there and were kind of sad to leave the comfort of it!
Next morning though we were all up and back on the truck, and for those of us who had stayed with the truck through Pakistan it was weird to have the others back on it, but it was great to have (almost) everyone back together! We were heading that day for Dharamsala, where we were parking the truck for a couple days as our next stop was McLeod Ganj, the headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile and also where the Dalai Lami has lived since fleeing Tibet. The drive that day was amazing!! For most of it I sat up front out on our little balcony....I was filthy with dust by the time we arrived but it was totally worth it!! I popped in my Ipod and got a pretty cool soundtrack as we climbed the mountains. The few that stick in my mind were the Rodrigo Y Gabrilla songs that played, pure music but lovely to listen to and to take in the scenery. And then there was U2 “Where the Streets Have No Name”, which played as we were going through a little Indian village in the middle of nowhere. It just seemed very fitting to be watching the world go by in this little village, not actually having a clue where I was! As we climbed higher those of us sitting out front could actually feel the temperature start to change. Not that it got cold or anything but it definitely began to get cooler....as in the heat was bearable!! The most exciting thing that happened on the drive was probably seeing monkeys!! We were driving along minding our own business when Greg beeped and pointed to the side of the road, and there was a monkey just sitting there...and then it was joined by a whole load of monkeys. And loads of them had proper baby monkeys! I got so excited as it was the first time I had ever seen monkeys in the wild and the fact there was baby ones too made it really cool!!as we got closer to Dharamsala we started to notice the difference in peoples’ faces...which sounds like an odd statement but what I mean is that the people we were seeing were becoming more Tibetan and less Indian. When we got to Dharamsala we parked the truck and then got in taxis to do the last four kilometres to McLeod Ganj...and straight away it became apparent why we couldn’t get the truck to bring us all the way. We have been on plenty of small windy roads...but these roads just took the biscuit!! They had hairpin turns like I’ve never seenc before...and I found it quite amusing that when there was a sign for a turn there was another one underneath it telling us what type of turn it was, such as “left-hand hair-pin turn”!! when we got to McLeod Ganj the hunt was on to find accommodation. Rachel had given us all an accommodation allowance and we had to sort our own accommodation out for the couple of days. It was funny, for the first time since the trip started we actually had to do something for ourselves!! After trying a couple of places we found one that had a few rooms free so some of us moved in for the 3 nights. The hostel was pretty basic, my room was reminscint of a prison cell, patchy concret floors and steel frames beds!! But it had hot water in the shower and the bed was actually comfy enough. Plus we had a little balcony that looked out over the valley and town and allowed us to eagel watch in the evenings and mornings! The day we arrived we pretty much just chilled out and then met up for dinner. We found a lovely place that served all kinda of foods so some of us were sitting there eating pizza, others chowmein and then a few brave souls tried out some Tibetan food! Best of all though...the place served wine!! So I had my first drink in 4 weeks! It wasn’t the best bottle of wine that I have ever had but it wasn’t the worst either and it was very welcome after 4 weeks of not drinking. I understand that that makes me sound like a small bit of an alcoholic but well I don’t really care to be honest!! J
Next morning we all met at a rather late 10am for breakfast and then headed down to Tsuglagkhang Complex where most of the sites to see are situated. Tibet was a free country until 1949. In may of that year the Chinese Army marched on Lhasa to “liberate” the Tibetan people of their land and culture. Since 1949 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed and 90% of their culture has been destroyed. 250,000 refugees decided to flee Tibet over the Himalayas led by the Dalai Lami in 1959. The complex in McLeod Ganj now holds the photang, the official residence of the Dalai Lami, as well as the Kalachakra Temple and the Namgyal Gompa, where the monks debate. We wanted to go to see one of these debates as apparently they are quite lively with the monks stamping their feet and clapping their hands while heatedly debating issues about Buddism. Unfortunately the monks weren’t debating while we were there so we didn’t get a chance to see this. However when we did arrive at the temple it was 11.30, which is the time when the monks get their meal of day. We walked into the temple turned around and there was hundreds of monks spilling down the steps! It was amazing to see! We walked wround a little bit...and found the monks little kitchen. And we were greatly amused to see they had a similar dish washing system to us overlanders....but were slightly disappointed to see that they didn’t flap their dishes dry!! When we were in the Kalachakra Temple we were greatly amused to see offerings of Oreo COkkies and hob Nobs to the statues. This was particularly amusing to our little group as Joe has been craving chocolate Hob Nobs for weeks. When we walked into the temple and saw the biscuits we half expected him to smash through the glass and rip the packet open...but as they weren’t the chocolate ones we didn’t have any problems in the end! Once we had explored we then headed out to the Tibet Museum. The museum was quite a small one (which we all appreciated!!) but was brilliant. It tells the story of the Chinese invasion and of what the Tibetan people and country have suffered during the 60 years of occupation. The sotyr is told through photographs, videos and interview exerpts. Some of the photographs were very hard to look at and the video we saw was harrowing to watch. One story that touched all of us was of one of the refugees who walked across the Himalayas. In a storm himself and his 3 companions lost their blankets and most of their food but continued on regardless. They all began to suffer from frostbite but eventually made it across the Indian border. When they arrived they were taken in and given treatment. This guy lost both his legs and some of his fingers to frostbite, one of his companions also suffered from severe frostbite. After the 4 travellers were treated their condition was assessed and 2 were granted exile in dharamsala, but the other 2 were sent back to Tibet. The guy who lost his legs is now one of the curators of the museum. It was a harrowing story and paited a picture of what Tibetans will go through to escape the Chinese regime. When we were finished there we realised that while we had gone to see the temple we had actually forgotten to look for the Dalai Lama’s residence. So we went back in and realised that we had seen it first time, we just hadn’t realised we had as there was absolutely no fuss about it! The gate was right in the courtyard of the temple and we had overlooked it because, unlike what we thought it would be like, perhaps surrounded by guards, it was just there with no fuss about it. We took a few pictures of the gate and the house and felt satisfied then that we had indeed been to the Dalai Lama’s house! He was in Melbourne, Australia when we were there...and unluckily we had missed him by only 5 days on McLeod Ganj. We then left the temple again and headed to go get some lunch...which consisted of sandwiches followed by cake!! McLeod Ganj is mad about its cake...and we tested many different kinds...our communal favourite being the hostels apple pie served with custard (not as good as Gran’s apple tart or my custard naturally but it was a fairly good substitute!!!). then it was time for me and the girls to go shopping!! Myself and Rosie ahd tried and failed miserably in Amritsar to find a couple of skirts but we knew as soon as we arrived in McLeod Gange we were no longer going to have a problem! McLeod Ganj is pure hippy land and there was shops everywhere seeling hippy trousers (MC Hammer style) and skirts of every shape and description! So off we went....and we walked the WHOLE of McLeod Ganj, which isn’t particularly big but you would be surprised at the amount of shps that can actually fit into such a tiny little place!! Dee was the first of us to be successful and got herself a dress and some jewellery. Once she was sorted she went back to the hostel which left me and Rosie (and Greg who had come along for moral support!!) to trudge on!! We went in and out of shop after shop with no luck. My problem was the skirts were all too long, so what was a long skirt on someone, was about a foot too much of material for me! Now I don’t mind my jeans dragging on the ground and letting them naturally come to the right length...but a pretty skirt is a different story. Towards the end of our epic quest Rosie managed to find 2 gorgeous skirts. But by this stage we had pretty much been in every shop on offer and I had given up, so I headed back to the hostel and had a little rest after walking around for about 4 hours!! Later that evening though I got a new lease of life and went off looking again and did in fact manage to find a skirt...and best of all it was to the knees so no skirt dragging issues to deal with AND it was a “Sunday-Monday” skirt meaning it was double sided! So when we went out for dinner that night me and the girls all broke out the new clothes and had a good night in our new prettiful clothes!!
Next day was another lateish start (appreciated by all!!). after breakfast everyone went in opposite directions for an hour or two and then I went to meet Rhona and Rachel who were ready for a bit of shopping, and as me and the girls had done a bit of recon the day before I tagged along to give them an idea of which shops were worth rooting in. And would you believe that I found 3 skirts in a shop I had spent about half an hour in the day before! I had fallen in love with a dress and was comtemplating buying it when I noticed a rip in it, so I left slightly heart broken (perhaps the event that broke my shopping spirit that day!!). but next day I went back in with the girls...saw purple winking off the shalf at me (purple is to me what a shiny thing is to a magpie!!) and I pulled it off the shelf, which was followed in quick succession by 2 others! So I became a very happy camper and treated myself to all 3 skirts! I was then truly all shopped out and went back to the hostel to chill out. I was sitting out on the balcony catching up on my journal when I copped a monkey walking across the roof of the next building, I dived into the room to grab my camera....and when I came back out the monkey was walking along the barrier of the balcony! I flicked on the camera and took a picture of him right in front of me...and then the funniest thing happened. I had had a bag of crisps on the chair beside me and the cheeky little monkey (now I know where the phrase comes from!!) grabbed the bag and ran off to the next balcony with it. He then sat in the corner eating the crisps....and even ripped the bag open and liked the inside of it to get the flavour off it!! Just as he finished the crisps he was joined by another monkey who got all curious and walked up to us on the balcony again....gave us a little snarl to which i yelped at (I don’t want to get bitten by am onkey...a fear I have since the TMB doctor told me to get a rabies shot in case it happens!!). then the ran off in the other direction....probably to rob someone else!! It was an amazing experience and I was completely buzzing after it with a ridiculous big smile on my face!! We then headed off for dinner in a Tibetan restaurant. Only 7 of us headed to the same restaurant that night compared to the 14 or 15 that had been out on the first coupl of nights, which was probably just as well as the amunt of dishes that were brought out to our table was crazy! But the food was gorgeous and we all ate rings around ourselves, not wanting to leave any of the tasty food behind!! We then all headed back to the hostel and even though it was only 9 we all headed to bed for fear our stomachs were about to burst!!
Next morning we were up early to get taxi’s back down to the truck for a 7.30 departure. We were heading to Delhi but it was a bushcamp on the way. We had two options; the scenic route which would be a longer drive or to duble back a bit and take a mian road. None of us knew which way we went but we figured it out fairly soon when we had to turn around after going through a little village called Palampur (someone has to let me know if this place is actually in an atlas somewhere!!). we turned around, cause a slight traffic jam and somehow ended up going through it a third time after turning around again but coming at it from a different angle! Eventually we managed to get out of the Palampur vortex and we seemed to be on the right road. We travelled on...and then got stuck in another village, this one called Baijnath (atlas again please!!). this time we were in serious traffic jam. I should say at this point that we are travelling on roads that barely allow two cars to drive by each other. And then we rock up and drive through the villages and towns and give the villagers something to look at. But in this case thanks to us, a few buses and a convoy of army trucks we managed to bring the town to a standstill!! We didn’t move for about half an hour or so I’d say but eventually the army convoy managed to squeeze by us and the bus in front of us and the town was free once again! So we puched on up the windy hill roads...and got about 5 minutes from the village, when there was a big clanking sound and Greg came to a fairly swift stop! We had a serious problem as the steering shaft (or something along those lines!!) had broken on the left side front wheel! So the overalls and tool boxes came out and the front wheel was off. After about an hour we realised we weren’t going anywhere fast so a few of us decided to walk back down to the village to get some cold drinks and some sort of food for everyone. When we got back up to the truck the problem still wasn’t fixed but we had a couple of local mechanic helpers who went off and made a couple of parts that we needed to fix the proble,. 3 hours and 15 minutes after we clunked we hit the road again! We were majorly behind in schedule at this stage so we had a lot of ground to catch up....which isn’t easy when the roads are as narrow as they are and one side is a sheer drop (the side I happened to be sitting on that day!!). All this wasn’t helped by the incessant beeping we endured. In Pakistan I became aware of the way people beep as they are driving by, not to be rude but just to say I’m here pulling past you. Its basically a safety thing as the roads are quite narrow. Well in India they do the same thing....but so much worse!! When a car gets stuck behind us on one of these roads they literally sit on the horn until they get by us! It is the most annoying thing in the world. At first we kinda just deal with it but after driving for a day it gets fairly freakin annoying. We had one guy on the drive that day, behind us for about 20 minutes and I swear, he did not take his hand off the horn. Myself and Rosie were ready to throw a banana skin out the window at the dude!! And when I thought about it I couldn’t figure out how the people who were actually IN the car would allow that driver to do that, if I was in that car I would have clunked the guy over the head and taken over the driving myself!!! I’ve decided that Greg has the patience of a saint not to lose his rag and slam on the breaks and give the gobshite who is driving up the arse of the truck a shock!! We drove on trying our best to block out the ridiculous honking and started to look out for a bush campsite. Because of the breakdown we were never going to make it to the scheduled bushcamp so it was time to improvise! We found a lovely little spot right beside a river just down a bit from the road...the only problem being it was already occupied by a crowd of gypsies....and that is not a figure of speech...I literally mean a crowd of gypsies. We had barely stopped the truck and the kids were up around it with their hands out...followed shortly by the men of the camp who were very interested in the truck and our wheels!! So after a quick rethink we decided to drive on. A few more km up the road and we found another suitable enough site. I was on cook group that night so couldn’t decide whether to sleep on the truck or in the tent. In the end I went with sleeping in the tent...which turned out to be a bad idea. Once we had dinner and clean up over and odne with everyone went to bed fairly sharpish after the long day. I had the flaps of my tent open to let some air in, as even though we were in the mountains it was still fairly humid. And in the middle of the night there was a slightly mad dash to get the flaps down as the heavens opened!! I hadn’t noticed the lightening starting as ever time a truck went by the road it lit the tent up anyway, but then I started hearing the thunder...and then the rain came. Again my little tent held up to the storm even with a wild wind whipping it about. Once the rain started it never let up....so when we got up at 6 the next morning to start preparing breakfast a very quick and undisputed decision was made to just pack up camp and get on the road ASAP and stop somewhere a little later for breakfast. We did stop a couple hours later in the courtyard of a petrol garage. We opened up the truck and got the gas stove out and all the utensils and breakfast stuff. We drew a crowd, as we tend to most of the time, and ended up staring in a film! I was really surprised to see that a few groups of lads seemed to walk around with their camcorders on them! I understand people having camera phones with them and being able to take pictures of us but having a full blown camcorder just seemed a bit bizarre to me! We got breakfast over as quickly as possible and headed off again.
That day I decided to sit up front for the day on the balcony to try lose some of my glaring whiteness!! Well I succeeded...but not quite in the way that I had planned! Everyone has a perception of India being a dirty place and it is in terms of rubbish on the streets and that kinda thing...but everywhere in the world had dirt in the air...so sitting out in the open for 8 hours driving on roads that go through towns and villages and roadworks at 80kmph you can imagine that you might end up a bit dusty. Add to that that the temperature is about 40 degrees and you can imagine that you’d end up in a sweaty, dirty mess...well YOU might not...but I most definitely did (and I have the pictures to prove it too!!). When it came time to get off the truck in Delhi a couple of the others commented that I had got a great colour after spending the day outside....I simply smiled and dragged my finger down my arm...leaving a nice clean streak and showing them that the colour I had was most definitely going to wash off once I got in the shower, a la sun shimmer style!! My clothes also suffered a bit that day. Luckily I was wearing my black shorts...but the nice WHITE and blue top I wore took a bit of a beating (and even after being washed a couple times since is still not so much white and blue as yellowy and blue!!). Nothing too exciting happened that drive day, especially compared to the day before. There are two things I will tell you about though. Firstly we were driving along at a nice clip on a nice newly built road...and then we hit a traffic jam. The road wasn’t finished yet so we had to go through a tiny little village and contend with the roadworks too. But there seemed to be something else going on as for about half an hour we moved nowhere and the traffic was piling up behind us. Greg asked for a couple of volunteers to go investigate and as me and Joe were out on the balcony we hopped over the side and walked up through the traffic...getting a few odd looks along the way! But we found the source of the delay; in this tiny village there was a railway line going right through the main road theough the viallge...and the barriers had been down the whole time we were sitting in the traffic! It was a single line railway and one train had gone one way just as we pulled, hence the reason for the traffic when we arrived. And then there was a train the other way, but instead of opening the line again and letting some of the traffic through while waiting for the train to arrive they just kept the gate shut for well over half an hour!! As we were walking back to the truck the second train did arrive so we reported back to Greg and not long after that the gates lifted and we made it through the town. We had some fun while waiting though as there was a tractor with a trailer just in front of us and the trailer was jam packed with people. The were just as amused at us as we were at them! A rough count of the people...which was hard as they kept movjng around to get a better look at us...was about 45-50 people...mental!! the second noteable thing that happened that day was something that made all 21 of us on the truck some very happy campers!! we were driving along around abouts lunch time and the truck slowed down very quickly and indicated to turn, we all peered to the right to see why we were turning...and there it was. A shining beacon of good food and guaranteed to be clean toilets....yes indeed it was that worldwide symbol of happiness....the golden arches of MCDONALDS!!!! I have never seen us move so quickly off the truck as we did that day! I decided to babywipe the dirt off my face before heading into civilisation, and when I got into McDonalds some of the guys were already sitting down with their food! It was the quickest McDOnalds I have ever been in...and greatly appreciated by usI was so looking forward to it! And as they cant serve beef in India the menu was chicken or veggie...but the chicken is REAL chicken!! No chicken nugget crap like in Ireland, and really tasty chicken burgers and sandwiches too!! It was quite funny us all sitting down at one long table, as Greg commented it was like bringing the kids out for a treat on a family Sunday outing! Once we were all (very happily) fed we got back on the truck and bid farewell to McDonalds and once again hit the road for Delhi. Driving into Delhi sitting up the front was quite an experience. Looking at the “what the f***” looks on peoples faces was hilarious. I’ve come to realise that people don’t actually say anything to the people they are with when they see the truck. They seem to lack the words to describe what the are seeing so they do one of two things; 1) hold their arm up in the air, mouth open and just star. People seem to cop on fairly quick to look in the general direction the person is looking at and to see whatever it is for themselves...at which point they too just star open mouthed and their head just follows the truck as it moves!! The second thing is along the same lines except they manage to fir in slightly more movement as they start tugging on the sleeve of someone standing cloe to them with one hand and start waving wildly in our direction...probebly in fear that no one else will see the big orange truck and being as hard to describe as we are not be able to tell people exactly what they just saw fly past!! It was no different in Delhi, and with 4 of us sitting up at the front of the truck we added to the confusion further as we were a big orange truck, full of white people, with some of us sitting on top of the cab!! We did get a slight bit lost driving into Delhi, but it meant we got to see a bit of it...and I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Its a pretty big city firstly with hundreds of people milling around the place and mental tuk tuk drivers all over the place! When we did find the street for the hotel we had to park up and haul off all our bags before a few minute walk to the hotel. And it took only amatter of seconds before we had a massive crowd around us, some just staring, some trying to offer us cheap tuk tuks, some selling stuff, and some just begginf. It took me only a few minutes to decide that I wasn’t sure I was going to like Delhi very much!! We got ourselves sorted as quickly as possible and marched en mass up the centre of the Main Bazaar!! Once we got rooms sorted I hopped straight into the shower to wash away the grim from the day...and I laughed out loud when I saw the amount of dirt that came off me!! Again just wait for the pictures and you’ll understand!!
Next morning (after sleeping it our slightly!!) a few of us headed for breakfast and decided to head to the zoo for the afternoon!! When we got there we gave the locals something other than animals to look at as we were the only white people there! Once we got into the zoo we were slightly worried at first, all the places where there were signs up for different animals were completely overgrown and we did not spot one animal that we were supposed to see...we kept on goping though and found some animals. At first it was just a million different types of deer in a load of different enclosures but then we found rhinos, hippos, elephants, A lion and A bear, giraffes and 2 white tigers. I felt uncomfortable at the bear enclosure as the poor thing had obviously gone a bit crazy. It was just walking around and around a bit boulder, so we didn’t stay there for very long. I quite enjoyed going to the zoo and doing something “normal” for a few hours! Everywhere we have been so far we have been trying to fit in all the sites and rushing around the place so it was nice to just stop for a few hours and to do something that I would do on occasion at home! However our trip to the zoo was slightly marred by one very odd occurrence! When we were queueing to get in a dude in a BRIGHT orange t-shirt started talking to me. So I engaged in a bit og conversation and agreed with him that, Yes it weas very hot and no I wasn’t used to it (as if my pasty white skin and sweaty brow couldn’t have told him that without him actually having to ask me for confirmation of the fact). Anyway i thought that was the end of it and in we went to see what Delhi Zoo had to offer...and the first thing I copped was the orange shirt (well actually the first thing we all copped was the rather amusing rubbish bins which were animals hugging the bin, to in our eyes it looked more like the rabbit was humping the bin!!). Anyway after that giggle THEN I noticed the orange shirted dude...and figured he was just waiting for his friends to come through the gate (and he did have friends cause they were all behind us in the queue for the tickets!!). so we walked...and he walked...we stopped....and he stopped. And so this continued for TWO AND A HALF HOURS!!!! The WHOLE time we were in the zoo, this dude was about 5 feet from us. At first we were really freaked out by it...I mean who goes to the Zoo and follows four people around...in an orange shirt...hardly a suitable colour to stalk people in!! We tried once or twice to lose him, stopping at a drinks stand, waiting for him to order and then us tottering off at a quick pace, but he abandoned his drink and came after us. On another occasion he stopped at a water fountain so we let him take his drink, and then walked off around some trees in the opposite direction...but he literally RAN after us!! At this stage we kinda clicked that we were not going to get rid of this dude....so it became more a case of seeing him as a little puppy that wouldn’t stop following us. He did get a bit of conversation out of us once we gave up trying to lose him, and all he kept saying was how happy and glad he was to meet us and that it was such a priveledge. And once we talked to him he then said was it ok for him to stay with us and did we mind...perfect opportunity to say well actually dude....but we didn’t and though we didn’t exactly encourage him we gave him a reluctant nod, and so he went back to following us a few steps behind! When we were leaving he asked to shake all our hands, thanked us again and said again how pleased he was to meet us...and off he toddled on his merry little way leaving us all slightly gobsmacked!! I realise that this story may make us sound slightly rude, but let me remind you from the moment we got into the zoo until the moment we left this dude was just there!! Every now and then I would look to the left or right to see if he got bored and wasn’t able to see him and I’d think “Oh, hes gone” and I’d turn around and he would be standing right behind me!!! As I said it was slightly creepy and a very weird experience!
Once we were finished in the Zoo we then headed to Humayun’s Tomb. This tomb was in a lovely park and was actually quite impressive. It was built in the 16th century and is in perfect condition. The only thing that was slightly irksome was the mark up for foreigners. In India most places have an entrance price for Indians and one for Foreigners. In this case the Indian price was 10 Rupees and the foreigner proce was 250 Rupees. Now I understand in the grand scheme of things this is only about €3 but then the Indians pay about 15cent in comparison!! The whole situation just makes me wonder how people would react if we started craic like that back home. Can you imagine having an Irish price and a foreigner price for different things back home! There would be bloody uproar!! Anyway while we were at the tomb a really nice thing happened. A few people asked to take pictures of us and me and Joe even ended up in a picture with a family of 6 or 7...the Dad even asked if we would take a family picture with them!! But as we were walking around the gardens a little boy came up to me with his 2 brothers and mum and handed me a flower he had picked. It was so nice and I was totally taken aback! It was the first time I was approached by and Indian and they didn’t want a picture or for me to buy something, he just handed it to me smiled and walked away with his family with the biggest smile on his face...and leaving me with the biggest smile on mine! Our little group then headed off to see the Bahai House of Worship, therwise known as the Lotus Temple, and it is the perfect nickname for it, as it looks just like a flowering lotus flower (just like the paper lotus’s we made in Korea family!!). it was completed in 1986 and is in the middle of a big perfectly manicured garden. Even thought the Temple is of the Bahai philosophy, people of all faiths are welcome to come and pray and meditet as the BAhai philosophy teaches universal peace and elimination of prejudice. The Tmeple was closed the day we went but we were happy to just go and take a picture of it as it was truly impressive...and also brought back some memories of Korea for me.
Next day it was up to do the tourist thing and head to the Red Fort. The Fort itself is massive and is still in fairly good nick. Building on the Fort began in 1638 and it was completed 10 years later. It is built from red sandstone and the Fort walls are 2kms long in total with the wall reaching 33m high on the city side. There is also a 10m deep moat surrounding the Fort but it has been dry since 1857. Walking through the gate the first thing you get to is the Chatta Chowk, or covered Bazaar. It was here that people came to sell their wares to the royalty of the city. Items such as silk, jewels and gold were available....today though it is full of little knickknack shops selling souvenirs from mirrored elephant keyrings to saris, jewellery and bags. The fort, like all the rest of them, has a Hall of Public Audience, a Hall of Private Audience, Royal Baths and a Mosque. At this stage it was about 1o’clock in the afternoon and after drinking whatever water we had all brought us we discovered that there was nowhere within the Fort to buy a drink. There was water from taps available but we have all heard the stories about the water so we steer clear of anything that doesn’t come out of a sealed bottle!! As time ticked by we all began to lose interest and decided to speed up (as much as we could considering we were all hot and thirsty at this stage) and get ourselves out of there. When we got outside the gates we saw a guy selling cold drinks and pounced on him! We had planned to go to the Jama Masjid after the Fort which is the main Mosque in Delhi, and the largest in India, however we had all pretty much lost the will to sight see at this stage and all we wanted to do was get out of the heat....so we hopped in tuk tuks and arranged to meet in a bar called Picadelhi for some food and drinks. Unfortunately the bar was closed down and our group got slightly broken up as we had all gotten dropped to different places, so we all just went to the nearest bar to each of us and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for a night out! We headed to a bar called Blues after getting some food and ordered cocktails, my choice being a Hoochie Coochie Man!! As we were all sitting there chatting away an Indian guy came up to Dee and asked if she would dance with him as his friends had dared him to ask her and if she said no he would have to buy them all a drink! So up she hopped and he spun her around the dance floor! It was great craic for us to watch and the rest of the bar got a bit of amusement out of it too!! Some of the guys decided to head home then as they had been on a bit of a pub crawl earlier in the day. So when me, Rosie, Greg and Joe went outside to head to the next bar (Q Bar!!) we got quite a shock when we walked out and it was spilling down rain with a whole lot of thunder and lightning going on!! We half contemplated just going back into Blues but decided to go to Q Bar anyway...so off we all dashed in the rain to find a bar that we only had a rough idea of where it was!! My god was it hilarious!! We were in Connaught Place which is circle in the centre of Delhi with 7 streets coming off it, split into blocks. It’s slightly confusing to navigate but it is covered in parts so for some of our adventure we were out of the worst of the rain. The only problem was that the wind was blowing the rain water in under the covered parts sp the ground was soaking wet...and being built of marble was slightly slippy. However Greg had a ridiculous amount of trouble trying to negotiate it!! His flip flops had absolutely no grip whatsoever so it was like a comical cartoon of someone of an ice rink for the first time where their legs just keep going from under them!! Rosie tried to help him a couple times but after nearly getting pulled down with him she left him to his own devices!! When it got to the point that we had to cross a road we had to leave the shelter of the covers...and ended up pegging it through puddles up to our ankles....and a reminder that I am in India so puddles of water are not necessarily just puddles or rain water!! All I can say is it was a good thing we had a couple drinks on us at that stage cause we just found everything hilarious rather than disgusting!! We eventually arrived at Q Bar...only to find that it was a rather sophisticated venue...and in walked 4 beraggled, rain drenched people! Nevertheless we sat down and had a rather nice cocktail before deciding at that stage we had all had enough!! When we went back outside thankfully the rain had stopped and there was tuk tuks outside so it was a quick trip home to bed!!
Next day we all took it very easy again...and once again abandoned the touristy things and did something normal...went to the cinema!! We went to see the Hangover 2 and X-Men. I have to say out of the 2 I preferred X-Men! The Hangover was good but was never going to live up to the first one!! So that pretty much sums up our last day in Delhi!! As you can probably tell from what I did...or rather didn’t do in Delhi, I wasn’t particularly taken with the city. It was exactly as imagined it was going to be; big, dusty, dirty and loud! With all the hustle and bustle and the constant nagging from tuk tuk drivers and kids begging it was impossible to get a moments peace. We would be walking up the Main Bazaar to the hotel and have a rickshaw or tuk tuk following us saying they would bring us wherever we wanted for a particular price, and no matter how many times we said we were going to our hotel which was just up the road they would pretty much follow us the whole way until we did actually turn into our hotel!! Don’t get me wrong, we did get a couple of really nice drivers who were great to talk to and that but for the most part they were just a nuisance!! Then there is the little kids who beg and just walk along beside us forever saying “money, money, money” and pointing to our bags and pockets!! And then of course there is the people trying to get you into their shops or the occasional drug pusher who would come up and offer every drug under the sun...though they only seemed to approach the guys thankfully! I was quite glad to see the back of Delhi if I am totally honest...will I go back? I had initially said no but I think that maybe at some stage I would give it a second go, purely because I didn’t do much of the touristy stuff and I think the ridiculous heat and humidity had a lot to do with how I reacted to the city! But that is Delhi summed up in a nutshell!!
So that’s my India adventure so far....still a week and a half to come sometime soon J
