pig tales

Sailing down the ganges

jirrupin — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 20:00:00 GMT

5am wake up call on the train, slept soundly - some friends not so well, from the station we have the luxury of a private bus to take us to the river...

sailing boats, hmmm, well they have a sail I guess - but there's no wind anyway so its a moot point. All aboard three or four to a boat, I share with Kasia and Junior and get comfy whilst two scrawny local lads prepare to row us down the ganges..

a bit of sleep, a bit of connect four, a bit of usic, as we take in the sights of the river bank - kids swimming with buffalo, or running along the ridge waving frantically at us. A few steps, one cremation, a dog about 20m from shore tearing into some kind of carcass, baitfish skipping across the surface, tiny frogs sitting on every patch of froth.

Little sis wants a turn at the oars, one of the lads readily gives up his seat! Then Junior gets in on the action - but gives up pretty quick, letting me take his place, the boatmen are pretty happy now with Kasia and I at the oars, Kasia packs it in after a while but I stick at it for a good while longer enjoying the extra sweat - when I do want to turn it in the other oarman trys earnestly to convince Kasia or Junior to get back in, to no avail!

Kasia is less than impressed when a request for a toilet stop is met by pulling up to a barren, flat sandbar in the middle of the river rather than either shore where bushes, rocks, and walls abound!

Sunset is amazing! Eventually we set ashore onto a large sandbar to set up camp for the night.

(my stomache is somewhat distuurbed, under contol but no appetite)

Orchha

jirrupin — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:15:00 GMT

another day of contrasts

train ride out of agra, hot and crowded, (the toilets voted worst ever by our group which includes some very seasoned travels with much of 3rd world asia and south america under their belt) chai vendor proves very creative with his pricing, anywhere between 2 and 10 rupee per cup! samosas are good and somehwhat addictive.

countryside is spectacular in its ruggedness,for a while there are broken lands as far as the eye can see, barely a square metre of flat earth, just a continuation of what appeared to be deeply etched eroded troughs carving up the countryside... are these monsoon floodplains? or anciant 'scablands' as found in dakota...?

from the station at the other end we have a one hour auto-rickshaw ride into Orchha, 40 degree heat, dust and grit abound, the hot exhast gasses from the trucks regularly turn up the heat yet another notch.

Finally we reach our accomodations, WOW! luxury! A/C! huge rooms, decent looking bathroom - and two nights! yay!

there's a party going on in town, week long festival of Ram, tinsel everywhere - looks like christmas. Dinner at a restuarnt owned by a friend of Bea, observe some of the local festivities and rituals which include an installment of a week long play 'ramanana'? tellng the story of Ram and the Monkey King recaliming Ram's wife from a ten headed demon in Sri Lanka, chatting with local kids seems to prove that there is too much western influence even here!

Next day, failry relaxed, tour the temple -more indian guys pressing for pics with the girls, take a little too much liberty with one - I run interference and save Kasia from the experience (what are big brothers for), out to a paper making plant - govt initative providing work for local women making paper from recycled cotton. A village tour by a local and visit to a couple of schools provide some insights into local lifestyles

Kasia is not well, in fact my poor little sister is in a very bad state! Spends the afternoon in the room, unable to keep anything down or in. Fortunately we have comfortable accomadations and a free afternoon anyway,( I spend it burning some cds and playing criket with the locals) but I really feel for her, when I get back to the room she is an absolute wreck and there's little I can do for her.

Reluctantly I leave her again to have dinner on the rooftop at the hotel within the temple complex - an amazing atmosphere!

return to find kasia looking a little more rested, but quite restless, accompany her for a moonlit walk amongst the gardens up to an odd ampitheatre for some fresh air.

the next morning I head up the road into town for a greasy local breakfast, the others fail to materialise, eventually kasia makes it in and sitts down, ordering some dry white toast, the toast that came was to greasy for her delicate condition (she thought it was buttered but I suspect it was just a little oil from the hotplate) and she manages to have it taken away and replaced with a drier version!

another long auto-rickshaw ride back to the train station for an overnight train trip, a change of platform and then when the train pulls in the carriage is at the opposite end of the platform than indicated, shoulder the packs and run to the opposite end and crowd aboard to find our berths.

no seperate rooms onboard, cariages are a series of 6 berth alcoves (3 berth high) with another two berths on the outer side of the walkway, I scramble to a top berth and settle in for a good nights sleep...

India - Agra

jirrupin — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:30:00 GMT

Yay the Taj! it did not dissapoint, what an amazing accomplishment! and there were plans for a matching palace in Black! Can you imagine...

Great photos, amazing, inspiring - and next morning was rowed along the river at sunrise to see it all again from a new perspective, with brilliant reflection shimmering on the waters surface!! Wow!

Red fort also today, amazing stories of how sophisticated the design and luxuries it boasted in its day and still a sight to behold,

Accomodation was next door to the leperocy institute which was kinda interesting...

India Old Delhi

jirrupin — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:19:00 GMT

'assault on the senses' really sums it up well, the sights, the sounds, the smells, the bumps as the rickshaw rider detours through every single pothole on the road, and not least of all the tastes! All five senses are being stimulated in new and .. interesting .. ways every minute of the day. beautiful temples, and in the evening old delhi, tiny alleyways sporting amazing diversity of wares and characters.. the spice markets - wow! oppressive smells as we approached the chilli vendors, was doing ok untill eaning back on stacked sacks of dried chillies as a new sack was slammed onto the pile, dousing me in a fine spray of chilli dust!!

can't get enough of the rickshaw rides, be it auto or cycle I just love weaving though the manic traffic, and the entertainment it provides... women nursing babies as they balance precariously on the back of motor cycles, men riding high on a stack of crates picking their way into the cargo as they go...

India! - Delhi

jirrupin — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 21:57:00 GMT

wow! Intrepid India, yeah yeah, its a group tour - but small group, and a little more real - public transport and modest accomodations. Anyways - always thought tours are a good means to ease into a new area, and this has been like a galaxy far far away fro anything i've done before!

Had grand plans for Mongolia this year, but too much procrasitination and an email from an old friend saw me touching down in Delhi at 2:30am, two Fridays ago to start burning off all my leave entitlements with Intrepids 15 day Delhi to Kathmandu itinerary.

Getting out of the airport proved simple, as did getting ripped off by the pre-paid taxi stand...Unfortunately the hotel address Intrepid provided wasn't sufficient for my cab driver.. and the hotel phone numbers out of date, so spent about two hours driving around some very sketchy streets, with my driver waking up friends to ask for help before we finally honed in on our destination.. Hotel Good Times!

With Kasia not due in from Miami till 11pm that night I had some time to kill, so duely fell prey to a very enthusiastic auto rickshaw driver outside the hotel... the ride was fun sure enough, managed to put an end to his penchant for visiting all the wonderful private 'shoppin emporiums' in delhi fairly quickly and actually saw some cool local sights but probably paid him a months wage for the privilige...

Delhi traffic - LOVE it - free for all, without the road rage. Having lived in the US for so long I can't imagine how american drivers could get their head around the whole traffic concept here, but I'd love to hit the streets with Kato!

11pm, hit the airport with my very friendly hotel driver to meet Kasia, look at the boards to see a 2 hour delay on her flight, no problem driver cheerfully runs off to grab some food and sleep in the van while I sit down and start chatting to a german guy waiting out a three hour delay on his fathers flight.

Kasia lands in due course, looking fabulous despite an insane routing of over 30 hours! Our sleepy drivers runs over the kurb coming out propelling us into the vans roof just to make sure we don't dose off and miss the excitment of weaving through the constant stream of trucks that roam the roads at night.

Hitting hotel good times about 3am we try to get some shut eye , the group meet is in nine hours and then the real fun will begin...

Gallery: Delhi

jirrupin — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:41:00 GMT

Delhi