Vrindavan, Agra (Taj Mahal) and Khajuraho

Vrindavan
My journey to Vrindavan was a little different than i expected it to be.  Firstly the busride from Ajmer just outside of Pushkar was yet another cheap crappy seated government deal which saves you money but really really bites in the way of comfort.  My ass went so numb it seemed to go beyond numbness into a dull ache that could only be relieved by walking around, which happened twice for 15 minutes over 9 hours.  

Close to Delhi and Agra, the birthplace of Krsna turned out to be quite an austere place to visit.. Chaitanya in Mayapur is krsna's merciful incarnation and allows everyone to enjoy his association, regardless of how loosely you may follow.  Krsna however demands a little more strictness from his devotees,  so the ride to Vrindavan wasnt as comfortable for me..  shrouded in fog for most of the time i was there making the place incredibly cold and damp and muddy, it was hard for Vrindavan to give me a similar spiritual lift.  Also being restricted by time, I had decided simply to stop in for 2 days. Pay my obesences to the holiest place on the planet and continue on. The ISKCON temple there was quite amazing, not as big as Mayapur but incredibly beautiful.  Especially the huge white marble samadhi (mausoleum) dedicated to A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. I attended some classes, ate delicious food, lots of meditation and singing and packed up ready to move on. 

A jeep trip 5 km East took me to the Delhi/Agra highway, where after some difficulty and consequently help from an old Indian man who from what i gather hated most things about India. I hailed down a Delhi-Agra bus and luckily snagged the last available seat aboard the local goverment bus.  Fortunately it was only a 1.5 hour journey and relatively painless, apart from the filthy man next to me who was sucking and chewing on this tobacco product that i estimate 3/4 of indian men seem to chew, and despite multiple attempts to convince him otherwise insisted on his right to spit the moise chewed up waste matter all over the floor and occasionally my feet and sandals in front of us.  After ignoring this to the best of my ability for the journey, i arrived in Agra, somewhere.

Unfortunately, I somehow lost the few photos I took in Vrindavan.. :(

Agra
After a long rickshaw ride and selecting a hotel in close proximity to the Taj - seemingly the only thing worth being in Agra for. I got in touch with Fanny and met up with her and the tour group she'd decided to part ways with.  We'd already booked train tickets to get us to Khajuraho leaving on the 25th so had a couple of days to kill.  There really isnt much to say about Agra.  The touts/rickshaw drivers etc are all extra annoying, the Taj itself costs 750rp, an extraordinary amount of money, and the place is just loud and dirty like many other Indian cities. That aside, you have to do it.  The Taj Mahal is one touristy thing in India that just cannot be missed.  Described as "a teardrop on the cheek of eternity" the huge white marble mausoleum built by a grief stricken emperor in memory of his deceased 3rd wife.  It took 16 years to build, and is of incredible detail.  With inlayed marble and intricate carvings to be seen everywhere.  No picture i've seen even remotely captures it's essence (that didnt stop me from taking around 2 gig of photos over two seperate visits). A sight to behold.

After killing time dining in many rooftop restaurants, all with views of the Taj, we headed to the station where our train to Satna was departing, turned out there was actually a direct train to Khajuraho that the friendly travel agent i visited wasnt aware of that departed the night before our train.. very unfortunate as it ended up being quite a mission getting there.. Our train went to satna, which is 4 hours in a bus away from our destination, however i discovered we went through another station, Mahoba which is only an hour train from Khajuraho, so we decided to jump off the train there.. Unfortunately trains dont tell you where you are ever, so it was a long night of interrupted sleep on the cold sleeper class cabin with freezing air blowing in the windows.. probably the most uncomfortable journey to date.  The train was 6 hours late, and then the connecting one was also 6 hours late.. so in total it took almost 24 hours to get to the place..

Side-on view.. you've seen a million views over the lawn..

Closeup of the incredible detail inside.  Carved white marble.  The colour up the top is inlayed marble.

Khajuraho
A unique place on the map in India, Khajuraho's main attraction is the many temples it has surrounding it with thousands of intricately carved figures adorning the exterior that depict various scenes from the kama sutra and other sexually orientated poses.  For a culture that is so conservative, this era of worship does present quite a curious contrast to the norm.  Some of the carvings are beautiful and tasteful, while others are utterly perverse as you can see in the photos below.  There was not a lot more to do in this town, but the place had a great vibe to it and was a wonderful relaxing intermission after Agra.  We stayed in a hotel outside of town that was surrounded with mango trees and beautiful gardens, and apart from the ridiculously bad cooking that the two bumbling owners churned out, was basically perfect.

each of the carvings are over a foot tall


lucky these guys invented yoga


pretty much all the temples in Khajuraho had the same basic design, but with LOTS of subtle differences


yeah.. there are no words..

Funny memory from Khajuraho
Fanny and I had stepped into an internet cafe to quickly check up on emails/facebook etc.  On entry I had asked the owner how much per hour and he told us it was 30rp - standard.  After 10 minutes or so, some Korean girls walked in the door and asked the same question "how much per hour" to which our friendly host replied "40rp" the girls refused and walked out.  My ears pricked as i was certain he'd told us 30 and I wanted to clarify. But he ensured us it was 30rp for us, because "Korean people always download too much."
"What?" I replied.
"..and steal, they all steal my things. and burn dvds.  One time i had a book of kama sutra on the desk(popular in the town) and when i went out the back, when I returned the Korean guy was gone and so was the book!"
"One time eh?" I confirmed.
"all the time" he corrected himself.
"Well rickshaw drivers try to cheat me all the time, and they're all Indian, so all indians are cheaters? are you cheating me?"
"....." he thought about this very hard, and with a look of surprise responded. "...no."
"you just lost the business of 3 people because they might download more than the usual customers but you really have no idea if they will or not. perhaps a better idea would be to put a sign up that says 'web browsing 30rp, downloading 40rp' and keep an eye on what people are doing rather than assume how a certain race will behave." i suggested
He thought about this for a while, and when we got up to leave, thanked us for the suggestions and told us that "I will accept everybody from now on."

The End

A couple of days in the peaceful town we boarded the 4hr bus heading to Satna where a connecting overnight train would take us on to Varanasi.

Udaipur & Pushkar

Udaipur

Someone told me Udaipur is known as the Venice of India.. I was also told it is India's Most Romantic City.  I'm not sure about the Venice reference but it's easy to see why the latter title has been given.  Situated on two sides of a lake with cascading hotels and haveli's rising up steep hills that provide a canvas to shine a golden glowing sunset that is too perfectly reflected by the lake, the competition for the highest rooftop restaurant is fierce and I lost count of the number I could see.

I arrived at my all too common early morning time - 4am, extremely tired after yet another bumpy crappy bus ride from my connecting train in Amhedebad.  The eyes of the auto-rickshaw driver lit up like christmas lights at the sight of me through the bus window and i swear he jumped up and down, either for joy or my attention.  In my groggy state (i'd taken some anti-nausea pills to knock me out on the bumpy bus), i was a little slower than usual but eventually cottoned on to the predictable cheating.  This was a new one, after i told him where i wanted to stay the driver took me to the pre-paid stand (designed to avoid tourists being cheated) and proceeded to talk to the guy in Hindi who wrote up an 80rp ticket, but i noticed it had a different place written on it. so an argument later i had a new ticket for 50rp written up and my money back.  It's funny, a while back I would have written him off as a cheat and not given him another chance. But I've learnt drivers will pretty much 100% try to cheat you to some level, but it's not relentless and there is a limit, it's more a test of how aware you are of the situation.. if you're ignorant and willing to pay more than most people, why wouldnt they try to get it out of you?  After I'd chastised him for half the ride for lying to me, he was sufficiently remorseful.  He could've just dropped me in the general area i asked for and left me, but instead the conversation became friendly and he was now completely determined to find me a good hotel that had the reception open. ..to which I owe him great thanks.  He found a place (that involved yelling out the front until the owners woke up) which had 300rp room, a bright sunny rooftop restaurant, great views and free wifi. Score! I thanked him and gave a little tip that got him closer to the price he tried to cheat me out of anyway.

Udaipur was brilliant. The girls arrived a day later and we switched to a bigger room to share that was cheaper.  They were all a little sick the first few days. I had met an Israeli father and son duo Matan and Benjamin who invited me to come with them in a hired taxi to visit Kanaghar Fort and a Temple that was about 6hrs round trip - and paid for pretty much everything. So nice. The fort is the 2nd longest wall on the planet to the Great Wall of China. Not a very close 2nd tho.. Back in Udaipur there was a grand palace to see, a lot of relaxing and enjoying the peaceful city's rooftops and winding streets, visiting markets and minature art stores.  We also joined an evening yoga class on a rooftop over looking the sun setting over the lake.  Fanny's tour dropped into town one night and we got the chance to say hello again, we also agreed to meet again in Agra a bit over a week later and continue travelling together to Varanasi and beyond.

All up 6 relaxing days in Udaipur, a place I'd highly recommend to anyone going through ??Rajasthan??. The girls wanted to stay a day or two more and then travel West to Mt Abu (which they ended up skipping) and onto Jaisalmer for at least 3-4days to plan and complete a camel trek. All things I would have simply loved to do, but given my time frame, I decided to head East towards Agra, booking an overnight bus to Pushkar for the following evening.

Khanaghar Fort


Women Selling Vegetables at the Market

Pushkar

Pushkar seemed even more relaxed than Udaipur. It reminded me of Hampi a little in terms of the feel of the place, but not so much of the brilliant terrain.  I arrived early morning again and after negotiating a ride with a guy delivering newspapers  (with slight detours along the way..) discovered a nice hotel VERY cheap at 150rp for a good room with a hot shower and a rooftop hotel.  The operators were very obliging but i began to get frustrated with the strange concept of 'Indian Time' i've noticed during my trip.  In this hotel it was especially pronounced.  On the morning I was leaving I had a number of things to do, one was return the motorbike I'd hired before the taxi to take me to the station arrived.  But i had about 40 minutes before i needed to do that, so I order a bowl of muesli for breakfast and ask how long it would take. "about 5 - 10 minutes" excelent!  Then i notice a motorbike starting and the guy taking off down the street. 10 minutes later I ask the other attendant where he's gone and how long until he gets back - "to get yoghurt, back in about 5 - 10 minutes" ok..  another 10 minutes pass, so i ask the attendant i'm going to return the bike, and to ensure the muesli is ready by the time i get back, get on my motorbike, return it and walk the 15 minutes back to the hotel. There I find no muesli ready with the guy standing there seemingly annoyed, I ask if the muesli is ready "where did you go? ok i'll make  it, ready in 5 minutes"

In Pushkar I really just relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere. Read my book and took a few trips around on the motorbike.  I traveled about 10km out of town where a group of Shiva temples were said to be.  This ended up being a particularly special occassion where I spent the afternoon talking and drinking chai and smoking with an old Shiva Baba.  This guy was classic!  A lot of the children in the area seemed to be dropped off there for him to look after and he really did have the firm but fair grandfather attitude about him.  He was also raising a small monkey which was very entertaining to play with.  It was pretty special.. Seriously, look at the guy:

Shiva Baba

On the first evening I hiked 30 mins up a small hill at one end of town to watch the sunset, which was fantastic, then the next morning I got up before dawn and rode my bike to the much larger mountain at the other end of town and hiked an hour up to catch the sun rising over the surrounding mountains. Brilliant. And after 2 relaxing days I took the taxi to nearby Ajmer where my connecting bus to Vrindavan, Krishna's Birthplace, was departing.

More Pushkar Photos

Sunset from the Small Hill


Sunrise over the hils from the top of the Bigger Hill (Savitri temple)

and the same view a few minutes later...

Mumbai

The only real reason I initially had for heading to Mumbai/Bombay was to meet up with my friend Lilith and her friends Laurel and Elise so we could travel Rajhisthan together.   After having my credit card details stolen in an internet cafe back in Guwahati, I'd cancelled my card and arranged to have it sent to the hotel where the girls had booked in Mumbai.  In theory it would all work perfectly and I'd waste no time, but it's India and of course - nothing goes to plan...I arrived at 5.30am at the station with what felt like the beginnings of another stomach issue and realised I hadn't actually informed Lilith that's when i was arriving.  With no better alternative coming to mind, I took a cab to the hotel they were staying at, discovered which room they were in (which was disturbingly easy) and knocked on the door,  waking all three girls at 6am.  A shower and short nap later the girls informed me of a hostel that had cheap beds so we treked over and I booked in. 

The girls had booked a train to Jaipur - the pink city, departing on Saturday afternoon. It was Friday, my card was supposed to arrive Saturday, so i couldn't book that train just incase it didnt arrive on time. It didnt. No mail is delivered on Sundays either so it wasnt until Monday afternoon that I got news of it's arrival.

I didnt have much interest in Mumbai and being a little under the weather didnt have too much trouble spending my time at the hostel playing guitar and relaxing.  I checked out the Colaba area and visited the famous Leopolds Cafe from Shantaram (well from the outside.. ridiculously expensive), but late Sunday afternoon I decided to head to Chowpatty Beach and visit the ISKCON hare krsna temple there for a Sunday Feast (regular occurance worldwide). Unfortunately in India the Sunday feast is in the afternoon not in the evening so i missed it.. however they had an attached restaurant which i heartily dined at. meeting a devotee Deepak while eating.  Shortly after, I was extremely surprised to bump into Karuna Das.  A devotee I'd met one time in Vancouver! Neither of us had any idea the other was there so it was quite a shock.  Not ignoring the significance of sucn an event, I arranged to meet him the following (Mon) morning and spend the day together.  With Deepak's ceaseless assistance a car was arranged for a trip out to some ancient rock caves dating Before Christ, quite incredible.  Later in the day after I found out about the credit card, and speaking to the girls, I decided to skip Jaipur (i'd heard it was just another big city anyway) and get myself to the quieter Udaipur where Lilith et al were planning on heading in a couple of days.  Visiting the other RadhaKrsna temple in Mumbai in the evening with Karuna and Deepak, there was a travel agent there and after some stress arranged a Train/Bus combination to depart the following day.

In the end I grew to like Mumbai, but it was really just a city.  A very different feel to other big cities i've visited, Mumbai seemed a lot more organised and in control, but the warm weather and bayside scenery give it a very unique feel.

Ultimate Chilled Beach Paradise - Gokarna

After an austere, long, bumpy bus ride from Hampi to Gokarna, eased by the addition of dozey anti-nausea pills and a couple of relaxing um 'chat' sessions with fellow travellers, Fanny and I arrived in Gokarna. Saving viewing the actual town for another day, we jumped in an auto-rickshaw and headed for the famed Om Beach, a bay that's actually shaped like the 3 looking symbol that makes part of the sanskrit 'Om'. And along with the adjacent Kudle and Paradise beaches, are the main attraction to travelers looking for the shanti lifestyle, wanting to give up time for a while and completely relax.  Walking along the beach with all our gear, we'd been given a tip that you need not look for hotels or resorts, just to ask at any cafes as most places have at least a few rooms.  So the first cafe we came across 'Dolphin Bay Cafe', consisting of bambo and palm leaf huts with sand floors which became home for the next 5 nights @ 150rp ($4)

150rp Beach Huts

There isn't a whole lot Indian about Gokarna, well not the India you tend to go to India for anyway.. Besides the delicious cheap cusine on offer and the cows wandering the beaches, you could basically be on any cheap beach hangout. That said, it was paradise and yet another highlight of my trip.  Beers, smoke, beach, sand, warm waters, more beaches, repeat.  That's basically it.  Staying at the cafe was great, they ran a tab and cooked delicious foods all day. A favorite being the Fruit Parotha (like a calzone) with nutella and coconut.  We had met a Swedish couple, Tobies and Susanna, on the bus ride over from Hampi and got along quite well, arriving and leaving virtually the same timeframe we hung out quite a bit, exploring the other beaches and joining them for dinner, drinks, and the odd game of beach volleyball.

Cows like to hang outside our cafe

Lots and lots of guitar playing and singing, lots of lazy dinners and lunches and breakfasts, some walks to different beaches and into the town of Gokarna saw the days fly by.  I would definitely like to head back and do a month in Gokarna..  Absolute paradise at rock bottom prices..Before we knew it it was time to pack up, shake out a riduclous amount of sand and  take the passenger train to Margao in Goa, where I had a train heading to Mumbai, and Fanny had her 40hr epic ride to Delhi.  It was sad parting ways, but such is the transient nature of traveling.  There was always the chance of meeting again.

More Pics

Sunset from Kudle Beach

Relaxing into South India - Hampi

27-28th Dec
The bus left Mysore at 8pm.  It was 9 hours of the most horribly solid bus seat i'd sat on in a while.  Luckily i had a seat at the front which allowed me to stretch my legs out. There were too many people on the bus and people standing for a lot of the way too. Two other western travelers a couple from London were on board also, we shared eachothers pain.  On arrival in Hospet (the neighboring train station) we talked a bit waiting for the first bus at 6.30am and ended up finding accomodation together, discovering a very quaint small 3 room homestay in the heart of Hampi bazaar.  The rate @ 500rp was steep for the place, but it felt right and i was very tired so i accepted. The owners ended up being a beautiful family and I would definitely stay there again given the chance.

Walking out into the small town to look around, I immediately bumped into my two German and Austrian friends from Mysore - Marco and Manuel.  Asked them if they wanted to share the room and my costs instantly went down to 200rp.

Laura, the guys and myself decided to get some breakfast and check out some of the town with a slow amble towards the Lonely Planet acclaimed Mango Tree Restaurant, perched on the side of the river dividing Hampi and provided exceptional views of the surrounding landscape.  Hampi is really one of a kind.  A surreal rocky terrain that extends as far as the eye can see, with giant boulders precariously balanced about the place looking like someone has been throwing them around.  Scattered throughout this landscape are a multitude of ancient temple ruins to explore all within relatively short distances from the central Hampi Bazzar where we were staying.

On the walk out to Mango Tree I met Fanny, a girl from Sweden who had also just arrived in Hampi solo.  She had already eaten but we made intentions to meet again.   Mango Tree was fantastic with top notch views of the river and surrounds. Ending up being one of those great places you just go back to way too often, so much that you miss out trying many new things but still have no regrets.  Lunch at Mango Tree later that day, Fanny and I decided to tour the town on hired bicycles the following day.

29th Dec
For 30rp we hired a couple of bikes and started off for some temples.  Originally we were going to join a bike tour that started at 3pm but decided to go it alone. Probably should've started earlier as we didnt get to visit too many that afternoon but it didnt matter.  I'd resolved to chill out in Hampi until after the new year so there was no hurry for anything.  The temples were all dedicated to God's various forms and were really impressive, i've never seen such ancient creations and the detail that went into their design and the effort that must've been involved in carving such intricate work into stone was really mind blowing.

I had a train ticket to Goa leaving on the 2nd, but I didnt want to go to Goa.. I wanted to go to the more relaxed Gokarna, which i intended to take a bus or train down from Margao.  Talking to the helpful travel agent at the internet cafe, I decided to book a ticket on a sleeper bus directly to Gokarna leaving on the 1st, and cancel my ticket to Margao(Goa). saving a day and not having to uselessly detour via Goa.

30th Dec
Hampi has a town elephant - Laksmi, who gets bathed at 7.30am each morning down at the river ghats.  Fanny joined me and headed down there where a small crowd gathered in anticipation.  It really was a beautiful scene, the waddling elephant slowly made her way down and crashed on her side in a gloriously slow dramatic fashion into the river.  People joined in taking turns in the 90 minute massage/bathing session, while Laksmi laid back and enjoyed the attention.  We joined in the scrubbing. Elephant skin is cool.

Fanny had a paid tour starting in Delhi on the 11th Jan, and was meant to commence a hectic itinerary on the 30th to get there stopping in a bunch of places on the way, including Goa for new years. Upon hearing my plan to chill in a hut on a beach for a week in Gokarna, she had a change of heart and rearranged plans to stay in Hampi until the 1st and come with me to paradise, booking the train from Goa straight to Delhi on the 8th (the only catch being that 40hr direct train!), Conveniently, the bus I was taking to Gokarna still had spots.

31st Dec - New Years Eve
Hired a scooter with Fanny for the day to continue exploring Hampi's ruins. The bicycles previously hired were nice but this was way more fun, and less labour intensive.  So we cruised around and visited a whole lot more of the ruins including some of the more famous Vitali temple etc, then crossed over the river.  This was a real experience. the 'boat' to cross the river consisted of a big handwoven basket with tar smeared on the bottom.  Gently loading this basket with 2 motorbikes and about 7 people, it was slowly paddled to the other side.  Hampi Bazzar is a religious centre, as such there is no alcohol allowed.  This other side of the river is a bit more relaxed and on the occasion of new years eve it seemed appropriate to find somewhere to stay on this side for the night.  New years eve this year was a very subdued affair compared to normal, but thoroughly enjoyed.  Dinner at a chilled out cafe with a few beers, the meal took about 2 hours to serve, as the local police had decided to dine there and insisted on instant and full services or they'd shut the restaurant down for no reason.. So the entire staff dedicated themselves to the police while drinking and chatting with the people around us. After dinner, we followed our ears to a drum circle bonfire, and joined in the festivities, playing guitar and djembe's for a few hours in the light of the perfectly full (blue) moon and clear night.

Hampi is one of the most comfortable, slow, relaxing places i've ever visited.  You couldnt rush if you tried, something about the town, the scenery and the people combined give a vibe that is unbeleivably addictive and easy to fall in resonance with.  After one hour i found myself moving at a pace far slower than normal, and all anxiety (especially from the 9hr bus ride there) melting away.  You could easily watch days turn into weeks in such a place but alas the schedule calls and  moving on simply must happen.  Luckily the next destination Gokarna is so chilled out it makes Hampi look like a vibrant hive of activity.

On the 1st at 5pm, Fanny and I boarded the "Delux AC Sleeper Bus with Air Suspension so you feel no bumps" bound 9 hours to Gokarna which resulted in 14 hours on the road, an overturned truck spilling it's load of giant steel columns blocking the road and multiple slammings of my head against the roof as we bounced around the back of the bus like pingpong balls driving along the potholed pathetic excuse for roads they have throughout Karnataka.  

Mysore

Currently listening to: Blockhead - Music by Cavelight

A Merry Mysore
A big oversight in my planning involved travelling to one of the most popular christmas destinations in the south of India - on christmas day, without booking ahead.  Thankfully fate was guiding me and everything fell into place. On arrival at the station i chatted to a couple of boys one German - Marco, and one Austrian - Manuel, who had also just arrived with no booking.  I informed them of the grave situation and we agreed to attmept to search and find something together. After getting a few taxi drivers to fight for our business, we obtained a cheap ride into town.  The driver happy to help (presumably for some basheesh provided by the hotel increasing the rate) stopping off at a couple of hotels on the way in and very luckily landing a 3 bed room with no real trouble at all.  After settling in i decided to search for a single room to book for the following day as the other boys were only staying one night but i was there for 3. I gave up after about 3 hours, resolving to the fact that i'd be paying over 1000 rupees for a 3 bed room on my own..

Mysore was a refeshing change, out of the bigger city of Bangalore where i was too sick to really enjoy anyway, Mysore gave  a glimpse of what the South offered in comparison to the north.  The pace was slower, people still wanted your business but not in the same determined manner that tires you out.  

The main attraction to Mysore is the Royal Palace.  A giant complex in the centre of town, built all in stone and cast iron (they were determined not to let it succumb to the fate of the last wooden palace that burnt down), the architecture is a somewhat of a mix of indian, persian and british, making it extremely unique.  There was no photography allowed inside the palace, but from the outside it was still impressive. Moreso on Christmas day and every Sunday where they illumate the 50,000 or so lightbulbs attached to it creating a glowing palace shaped effulgence.  The crowds were insane. and the queues even more so.. so i decided to experiment with some of the benefits i'd noticed us foriegners seem to get away with.  Instead of lining up in the 150meter queue to buy tickets i simply walked to the gate and when the guy asked me where my ticket was i simply asked 'oh. um. how much?' in a suggestive manner. he added 50rp to the price and in about 30 seconds i had a ticket in my hand and was through the gate. Then there were queues to have baggage checked before entering the temple and queues to cloak your camera and shoes (mandatory) i killed two birds with one stone here by simply walking around the baggage check and leaving my shoes and camera in my backpack. i think i saved about 3 hours with those slick manouvers.  grabbing an audio guide (free for foreigners) i slowly ambled around the palace absorbing it all and listening to the informative narrator while hordes and hordes of indians fought and pushed past each other.. I could not understand it but everyone seemed so intent on getting past the person in front of them i dont see how they could posibly be appreciating what they were there for... in each room i just ducked off to the side and let people file past until i was ready to move on.  Overall a really cool experience learning about the Indian Royals and their sweet pad.

The 2nd day after saying goodbye to the Germaustrian boys and agreeing to possibly meet in Hampi, i walked around for a short period and found a couple of French guys - Mattieu and Phillipe, with backpacks on and distressed looks on their faces.  Recognising their need for accomodation I let them know of the two beds i had spare and wanted to sublet and they swiftly agreed.  Problem solved for at least one more night!

Other things i visited in Mysore included the extremely vibrant and colourful market where i watched incense being freshly made and rows of colourful flower garlands, vivid powder dyes, and rich smelling oils and purfumes that Mysore is very famous for. With the Mattieu and Phillipe I visited Chamundi Hill, and its Chamundeswari Temple overlooking the town (although very hazy), we also took another bus out to Brindavan Gardens which has apprantly been the backdrop for many Bollywood scenes, however it appeared that film time was the only time they were maintained.. quite a pathetic display really.

Done
Overall Mysore was a brilliant introduction to the South of India.  I was supposed to stay 3 nights and train back to Bangalore for another night there and then a train to Hampi. But i felt done after 2 nights and booked a bus direct from Mysore to Hampi, saving myself 2 nights and a wasted day back in Bangalore, I cancelled my other tickets for a not quite full refund. Turns out buses are a lot easier to get on than trains.

Photos

The Palace lit up with thousands of lightbulbs



Incense being hand rolled.  I bought some, they burn for like an hour

Colouful dyes at the market

Hello Bangalore (well the inside of the hotel..)

25th Dec
Currently Listening to: Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night

Arrived at Bangalore Airport at 7pm, on my way through the baggage collection I noticed a slogan on the wall that stated 'Bangalore Airport, from plane to taxi in 5 minutes'.  They weren't kidding. It would easily have to be the most efficient alighting of a plane i've ever had. Walking away with my luggage towards the taxi rank not looking forward to the 700rp fare to drive the 44km to my hotel, a young indian guy sidled up to me and asked about my guitar, 30 seconds later we had established my hotel was on the way to his destination and sharing made sense. He lives in mumbai and is a freelance singer, we exhanged details and hope to meet up in Mumbai. 

As it's the busy season and i was arriving after dark, i had booked a room at Ajantha Hotel on Mahatmha Ghandi (MG) Road (the central tourist/shopping/restaurant district) which cost a lot more than i'd like to pay being a double and the only room remaining. But on arrival i was told a single had had opened up and it was only going to be 480 a night. sweet. Everything felt like it was going along swimmingly with me saving money everywhere, i wandered down to grab a bite to eat at a local chilled out eatery (mmmm south indian food) and on the way back my giant smile over 5 minutes faded to a concerned frown as i feel a churning in my guts that i instinctively knew could mean few things.. most of them bad.  Within an hour i had fever come on, two hours and multiple trips to the (thankfully western style) toilet all hope had disapeared so I commenced one of the two courses of antibiotics I'd brought with me to combat such violent bacterial infections..  It was a long night but by the next evening I was feeling much much better. Very effective fastworking medication!

(Partially) Out of Ignorance and into Action
India is a place to consistantly expect the unexpected.  I knew this before coming and hence planned nothing but a rough itinerary, that being to start in the northeast, head south then back up to northwest to meet Lilith, a friend from Vancouver.  Other than this i expected to just go with the flow, meet people here and there, get ideas along the way, join other parties, etc.. To some extent this has happened. But unfortunately the train system in India, although one of the most expansive networks on the planet with a brilliant booking system, is also incredibly popular and mostly booked out weeks in advance. This obviously goes contrary to doing things on a whim..

There is a few saving grace options. One is the tatkal system. This is where a few seats are reserved for each class in each train that may only be booked 2 days in advance, with a premium on top. But unless you're on the internet ready to book at 8am precisely 2 days before your train, and be really quick, these seem to often be booked out very quickly also.  At least for the routes i've been looking at, at this time of year. (It IS absolute peak season). Another option is Foriegner Ticketing this is another system that reserves a few seats per class per train for Foriegners that must be booked at train reservation counters where you show your passport and visa.  I only discovered that these exist very recently... damn ignorance!

See up til yesterday, I'd been spending countless hours (and rupees) in net cafes searching for trains and trying to book my immediate upcoming trip last minute. Stressing myself out and wasting days away.  I was fed up with this and just wanted to plot out a path through to Mumbai, forgoing the freedom of randomness in favor of stress free travelling through a few choice destinations, buying tickets for all of them.  As fate would have it, two conversations that morning, one with a melbourne girl staying at my hotel, who informed me that you can cancel tickets and get all but 100rp back (about AU$2.50). So if randomness happens, I can try for tatkal tickets last minute and there are still options. Also an Indian couple from america I met in a teahouse struck up a conversation and I was expressing my issues and they told me to go to this Train Resevation Counter in some generic building on the 8th floor that just happened to be right by my hotel.

So!  I now have a return trip to Mysore (which I'm now travelling to) for 3 days, then an overnight to Hampi (really looking forward to that) over new years, then continuing onto Goa, from which i plan to head down to Gokarna for a few days. Then back to Goa ready for an other overnight, reaching Mumbai on the 8th of Jan!

An Unexpected Detour - Assam

I arrived at Guwahati airport and after some time and confusion (neither of my simcards worked in Assam) I met up with Pundarikacksha and we walked the painful 1.5kilometers with all my gear to the ISKCON temple where i was to stay. 

Staying at the temple and hanging out with Pundarikaksha was great. I saw a few sights around the town including a temple on a small island which was quite nice, but to be honest Guwahati didnt have a lot to offer me.  I was in Assam to see village life and some of rural areas of Assam but ended up being in the city longer than i wanted, mostly because of waiting for my flight out.

Pundarikaksha's Family Village
Two nights after i arrived we took the early train to the village. An hour passenger train (40rp!) west we arrived in Nelbahi, about 5 kilometers from the small traditional village that my friend Pundarikaksha's family lived.  This was a really special occasion for me.  Bordering on complete self sufficiency, Village had maybe around 13 familys.  Some people owned acreage, others lived and worked on that acreage with them earning and being housed and fed.  All grew rice, and I happened to be there at the end of the harvest, an important time of year where the most work is being done.  See there is an annual cycle of growing the grain, so all the hard work is done at one time of year and the rest is pretty much just chilling and consuming all the grain in the stores, and tending to some vegetables and the milking cows.

It was very interesting to see some of the stages of the harvest.  Here is my (most definitely incomplete) idea of what happens in harvest. All done traditionally, the workers were in the field with machette's hacking the grain into bunches which are then collected and taken to a holding area. 

An amount of the grain still attached to the hay is spread out on the ground, four bulls are tied close together and led around and around in circles walking over the spread out grain. I'm not sure how long, but the idea is that all the grains separate from the hay and fall to the ground underneath.

After this has happened the separated grain is all piled up and then cleaned, this is done by humans walking around and visciously fanning the grain while it is slowly piled in a heap. I missed the part where the rice is separated from their covering.. but i'm sure it's equally ingenious and simple.

In the morning we were treated to hot cows milk fresh from the cow, and yoghurt fresh from yesterdays milk. (simply left in a bottle unrefridgerated overnight apparently. bam - yoghurt) I've never had milk so thick and satisfying.

A note on milk - i had stopped drinking milk for the past 2 years, mainly because i seemed to continually get bloated by it.  There have been a lot of studies that state that humans arent capable of digesting cows milk.  I found this to not make sense to me, as a firm believer that humans should be vegetarian I accept that cows milk is the civil way for us to obtain the nutrients only available in animal fats. I continued to consume dairy but just not drink milk and i was fine.  A conversation with one devotee informed me that in the Vedic scriptures it actually states milk should be chewed.  This sounds strange as it is a liquid but basically the principal is that in order for it to be digested correctly it should be mixed with saliva which happens naturally when you /eat/ dairy but not when you drink it. So i've been trying and haven't had any issues since.. Conclusive? Of course not. But i'm satisfied, and also now more nourished! :)

Bodoland and the NGO
That day we went and caught a few buses north to Bodoland, a tribal area of Assam that has a separate dialect and from what i gather wants to be a separate state.  A friend of Pundarikaksha's is funding and running an NGO operation up on the border of Bhutan that is involved in protecting the environment, stopping poachers providing volunteer opportunities, and hoping to turn it into an eco-tourism site.  Understandably he was excited that a foreigner would be visiting.  I underestimated just how excited.  Many people were present and I was ceremoniously gifted with silks on two occasions and treated in manner far greater than I felt I deserved including a few photos with large numbers of people. It was slightly uncomfortable really, but I understood the significance to them. It just seems strange that some random westerner could have importance regardless of who they were or what their attitude was, it was simply the colour of my skin.  More of that 'friendly racism' that's hard to get away from but tiring over time.

We actually crossed the border into Bhutan at one point which was a slight concern as i didnt have my passport and was unaware if there would be any form of security anywhere, but all was fine. we didnt see a single soul.  After the tour of the beautiful area that was close to untouched, I was asked for my opinions and suggestions for the project.  My only contribution was that they immediately institute a no plastic zone, put bins around and attempt to educate the volunteers and visitors on the site that littering would destroy the place very quickly.. I say 'close to untouched because' Indians in general have an extremely poor attitude towards rubbish. Everywhere I've I see people simply discarding whatever is in their hands on the ground when they have finished with it. plastic or not. In some areas in some cities this is fine as people clean it and sort it etc, but the attitude is ingrained and even in this fresh land, there were little plastic wrappers, bottles and other rubbish just strewn around, it was easy to see it becoming a horrible wasteland quickly.  I have no idea if the message was effective but i hope so.

That night we stayed at the NGO offices and got up early to head back to Guwahati as i felt the need to plan my departure from the state and move on.

Back To Guwahati
On the way back from Bodoland we had to catch a few buses and jeeps to make our way to Guwahati, these shared jeeps are quite popular and a great way to get around, far cheaper than taxis, and though not as cheap as buses, far more convenient and usually more comfortable. There is usually a wallah (salesman) as well as the driver and if possible they fill his seat too, so in the 10km drive we took in transit to another bus, our wallah hung onto the back of the car with the back door slightly adjar so he could hold on during the 100kph+ trip.  During the drive he tapped me on the shoulder and indicated I should pay him 20rupees for the ride. I showed him I only had a 100rp note, so he let go of his hold and while it seemed he was gripping the roof with his chin attempted to fish out my change from his pocket.  I immediately asked my friend who spoke assamese to tell him to hold on, that he had to get my bags from the roof when we stopped anyway so rather than risk life for whatever time he felt he would save, to just please for the love of god hold on.  No one else seemed concerned.

Back in Guwahati at the ISKCON asram, I organised a flight from Guwahati to Bangalore to commence my travels down south, unfortuntely i had to wait 3 days or the price would be astronomical, it was annoying to lose the time but at least the accomodation and food was free, and I had more association with the devotees. I spent lots of time reading spiritual literature, meditating, seeing the deities, singing and chanting with the devotees and living asram style life, apart from my one afternoon off where i went to go see Avatar (awesomely cheezy but good eye candy) then on Tues 22nd Dec I flew to Bangalore.

Sidenote:  Dont buy cheap rubber thongs from bangkok.. I dont know what it was but my feet had a serious reaction to them.

The Failed Journey to Darjeeling and The Story of Mr. Helpful

After taking a rickshaw back to the Ghat and boat over the Ganges to Nabadwip Dham to board a 8:40 train to New Jalpiguri (NJP) train was pretty uncomfortable as i had to sleep with the guitar and my small bag. not too bad, managed to get quite a few hours sleep. trains are easy to sleep on.

Darjeeling Fail
Arrived NJP at 7am on Sunday the 13th Dec, changed platforms to wait for the narrow gague 'Toy Train' that goes to Darjeeling.  Met a couple from London Marie and Russel.  Marie was an ex-pat Aussie.  The train arrived, a tiny three carraige train that did literally look like a toy.  One man approached us and told us that Darjeeling was going to have a strike.  My gut feeling was bad, but everyone jumped on and i figured, hey if we're all in it together then it's not a problem!  The train travels VERY slow and snakes its way up the mountain travelling 88km in 7.5 hours with multiple switchbacks. The views were pretty incredible, however what i imagine to be the greatest views at the top just prior to reaching darjeeling were obscured by darkness and most of the journey was limited to (relatively) short distances by a light haze. I imagine the views in the middle of summer to be much much better.  Our carraige was mostly travellers two other couples and after some time we all ended up talking, myself getting along particularly well with a German couple Marie2 and David.  While we were optimistic about the strike not affecting things, upon arriving in Darjeeling we spoke to a few hotel operators who gave a pretty dire scenario... stating we would have to get food that night (it was already after dark) enough to last 5 days and that all the transport around and out of town would shut down and operators from out of town would charge exorberant prices (like 5000rps/AU$125) just to get down.  Our group was split, people who had time to kill and didnt mind waiting it out, and people who were on a slightly tighter schedule and didnt feel like wasting 5 days doing nothing, regardless of the scenery.  Myself, David and Marie being in the latter group flagged down a ricketty looking jeep and after organising 200rp/$5 fare for the 3hr ride down to Siliguri (adjoining to NJP) jumped in the back and bumped up and down while our driver rushed us down overtaking whenever possible for pretty much all of the way other than the 40 or so minutes we were stationary due to traffic jam on the practically single lane cliffside road. 

Exhausted and sore the three of us searched for some hotel rooms but as the Darjeeling exodus had beat us down it was near impossible to find something cheap and decent. so for 1000rp/$25 we split a really nice room with a HOT WATER SHOWER!! Keeping in mind that other than the few hours sleep in my clothes on the train i'd been up since sat morning at 3.30am and it was sunday evening at 10.30pm I was pretty keen... It was the first dose of hot water and the first shower I'd had since arriving in India (cold bucket baths til then.. and mostly since) my God I enjoyed it.  A quick meal ordered to our room from the handy attatched restaurant and I was out like a light.

Mr Helpful
Punarikaksha, a devotee I'd met who shared a room with Adam at the Bramhachari in Mayapur was returning to visit his home, a small traditional village about 100km outside of Guwahati, the capitol of Assam, one of the North Eastern States. He had mentioned this to me and told me I'd be welcome to come and check it out with him so i called and he said it was fine.  Down to the nearest Internet cafe, I searched and booked a train the following day at 0840 to Guwahati the following day.  returning to the nice hotel to moved next door to two separate rooms in the scummy hotel.  David had spoken to the owner about organising some train tickets but when we went past the office a different Indian man was sitting on a chair out the front. We asked for the manager but he said the guy was not around but that he was able to help us in every way, he also added that the manager would take our rupees but that he 'loved foriegners' so he wouldnt...

David and Marie needed to send a package and buy train tickets which he promised he could help with. My susdar was going haywire but David was more patient and let him lead the way, my Lonley Planet guide said the Post Office was due South about 2kms. We headed North.  Assuring us he knew what he was doing, we stopped several times for him to speak to differnt people who pointed us along, I was convinced we were heading to a friend of his who owned a courier company or something he could get commision from but to his credit we did end up at some form of Post Office. Unfortunately they couldnt send the parcel David wanted to send and after 20 minutes we were directed to the Head Office (due South).  I wasnt being over critical of this guy, but my intuition detected a stink of desperation in his need to help/please us, I immediately knew there had to be some motive.   Deciding I really didnt have the tollerance for the helpful fellow, nor for the Indian Postal System, I stopped the Autorickshaw and jumped out halfway promising to meet up with them later.  I'd noticed a number of music shops earlier I wanted to check out and I kinda wanted to just enjoy the freedom of just cruising a city on my own, it really was the first time alone in a place since leaving liam's good company. So i bought some Pan*, looked at some instruments, nearly bought a new guitar cover, browsed some clothing stores, etc.

When I felt hunger come on it had been a long time since leaving the others so i contacted them and we met up, they'd just left the post office... Mr Helpful was still in tow.  I'd noticed a cheap nice looking veg joint but when we told Helpful we wanted to eat he insisted on some place he knew which just happened to be the establishment directly in front of his eyes. *sigh* so we go in, I say 'we want to see the price list first', he gets us a table, we insist the prices are too high and leave, it almost seemed like he was bitter about it. The other place was great, pure veg and cheap :)

Later on he takes David to look for tickets while Marie and I go back to the rooms, they'd stopped in at a bottle shop on the way back and got some beers and some 'wine' that david had asked for. turns out Helpful's idea of wine was cheap whiskey which he drank faster than anyone i've seen drink whiskey, alongside the beer.  After a short while, the motive i knew was lurking spilt out, he wanted a visa for either Germany or Australia. *sigh* I'm not sure where he had the idea that befriending someone from a country would assist with immigration.

The manager of the hotel had spotted my guitar and asked us to join them for a jam (which was great!) but Helpful was dead against the idea.  It was so easy to see through him at this point, he didnt want any attention taken away from him.. we jammed away playing beatles numbers and a few others while throwing back a few quiet brews while helpful sulked in the corner downing 'wine'.

Hunger struck again and we decided to move on and get something to eat.  Helpful in the lead we wandered off towards some restaurant he'd decided was best for us.  here's where things started to go really down hill.  Turns out he'd been drinking quite heavily during the music session and was getting pretty hammered. Like a teenager at formal dance he pulls out his hipflask from somewhere in his crotch region and pours it into a half filled glass of water at the table of our unlicensed restaurant, then chugs it so feverishly it really really was quite disturbing. This happened 3-4 more times during the course of the meal. Also when his food was delivered he tried to give it to us.  The service mood in india is strong, but in my experience most of it come from the heart, this came from somewhere else completely and instead of appreciating it in any sense it was the biggest turn off, the guy was seriously desperate and we all had so much pity for it. 

Able to detect that he'd freaked us out there were a number of times on the way home that he drunkenly burst into tears, Marie commenting at one point "You're a grown man, stop crying".  A sad case all round.  The three of us had planned to retire to our room for some post dinner chilling out, but knew it would be a struggle to lose Helpful. and it was.  but after a few hugs, some more tears, we lied and told him we were tired and crashing out. i'm think he spied on us after that but cant be sure.. I was relieved, as i had my ticket out the next morning well before he would wake from his drunken coma but dread to think what the other two had to put up with for the next three days *shudders*

I feel sorry for the guy, truly I do, but this sort of personality just sucks energy and time from you which i just cant spare.  Next time my intuition flares up with someone like it did in the first few seconds of meeting Helpful I'll be insisting rather than suggesting we part ways.

Thus ends the story of the failed Darjeeling expedition and Mr Helpful.

Photos

See, it really is like a Toy Train...

Mr. Helpful

Mayapur and Nabadwip Dham

I spent a week in Mayapur.  The international headquarters for the Internation Society for Krsna Consciousness (ISKCON - the group of people commonly known as the hare krsna's).  This was quite an amazing experince in many ways. I was given a bike to ride for the time there and was free to do as i please in the small town which is vitually a single road.

Hospitality
Liam has visited Mayapur many times and is quite close to a couple of families who lives there. They are currently building a new temple and guesthouse for travelling pilgrims and he had organised for us to stay there.  Never in my life have i experienced such a fantastic level of heartwarming hospitality.  The family are strict vaishnavas (krsna devotees) who live simple lives that are rich with spirituality and love.  The two families would both invite us for dinner and we'd inevitably have to either let one down or double up on meals.  The latter proving almost impossible.  The service mood that they express is so strong that when you are eating food the matajis (women) serving you will continually offer more, acceptance bringing giant smiles of hapiness to their faces until you feel the absolute need to stop eating before it becomes painful, even then there is a shadow of dissapointment in their expression, like somehow they've let you down.. if the food was just that little bit tastier then you would most certainly eat it forever.  This is no polite token gesture or attempt to follow social custom. The mood of serving and genuinely wanting to please is a sincere emotion coming directly from the heart, a rare and extremely warming experience.

Two of the younger boys in the family who also shared this serving mood played the role of our servants for the time there. No matter how much I insisted they didnt need to, they catered for our every need, most of the time before we requested anything.  For example the pedal on my bike broke and in 10 minutes it had gone to a repair guy and come back like new. 

Most evenings concluded at around 9pm when Liam and I were invited to Mitali's family home (one of the girls closest to our age) where we enjoyed a glass of hot milk before bed. Getting up at before 4am makes going to bed at 9 very very enjoyable :)

The half built place we stayed in

ISKCON and Devotee Association
On the 2nd day I rode down to ISKCON to visit the temple there.  It is an extremely big comlex.  Full of western devotees there are school programs and many familys who live in the area send their children there.  A giant bramachari asram full of learning bhakta's.  As i was parking my bike in the rack, a devotee i recognised happened to be walking past. Adam, i'd met a few times at crossways and the temple in melbourne.  Not ignoring the synchronicity of the event I ran up to say hello and spent the afternoon talking about the philosophy.  Over the next week I ended up spending quite some time with Adam, attending his morning and evening classes at the gurukul, as well as joining him and the other devotees for mangalarti (4.30am morning worship of the deities) and chanting meditation sessions.  The week was truly inspiring on a spiritual level.

Though I'm somewhat private about it, I've been reading the philosophy for many many years, and to an extent my faith in Krsna Consciousness has simply increased steadily throughout that time.  But the week I spent in Mayapur took it up a few steps.  Mayapur is special to devotees because Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, an incarnation of the Lord in the mood of a devotee of the Lord, was born there only 500 years ago.  It is said that Chaitanya is the most merciful of all, and accepts even the most fallen souls.  The advancement in realisation and the spiritual connection I felt in that place for the week I was there demonstrated that mercy to me. It is obviously not something I can explain particularly well so I'll just leave it at that. It was a magical time and I hope I never forget it.

During my time associating with the devotees there, I met one guy called Pundarikasha - A very enthusiastic soul. He was insitent on me experiencing the REAL india which he stated meant rural villages and traditional agriculture, etc.  I definitely wanted to but it seemed impractical without someone to take you as in such areas no one speaks english.  He mentioned he was heading home to his family village near Guwahati in Assam in a few days time but not for long and I had already planned and bought tickets to Darjeeling. Nonetheless I got his details.

Adam

Moving On
Liam and I explored the Dham on our bikes. Visiting a number of temples and a few small villages.  One temple was under a giant Banyan tree and everywhere we went had a great vibe to it.  Sat 12th I left Mayapur, it didnt feel great leaving but i was looking forward to Darjeeling and a chance at viewing the Himalayas.