Rishikesh-->Delhi

Again, 5 months late, but better late then never!


I left off in Rishikesh after I went on my little Hyena hunt in the Himalayan jungle (I just like the way that sounds).  Came back hot, sweaty, covered in mud and tired but so worth it!  Chilled out for a while, and then me and Julia walked down to the little patio area I hung out in last night to see if anyone was there and Yuki (Kuwaiti born, half Japanese, raised in Holland) and Oded (Israeli) from last night were hanging out with the German girls and they had beer....well actually the Nepali guys working at our hotel went out of town (alcohol is illegal in Rishikesh because it's holy) and brought us back a case of beer!  Soon some more Israeli's and an English guy named Chris (all of them who had been riding motorcycles across India together) showed up and then it was a party, where Julia led us all in Yoga at 1am.  Some of my favorite parts of traveling are the people you meet along the way and this was a good group. 

The next morning while having coffee, Yuki told me the Israeli's had all left and it was just him and Chris and they were going to walk to a waterfall you could swim in and would Julia and I like to come? Hell yeah!  So the four of us set off, walking up the side of a mountain road, until we got to stairs that literally came out of the side of the mountain.  We started climbing.  It was HOT and a long walk, I imagine the great wall of China to be this way.  At one point the stairs crumbled to nothing, my flip flops fell off, and if Yuki and Chris hadn't been there most likely I would have fallen and broken a leg.  Just when it got to the point where I thought I might pass out from heat and over exurting my body, the stairs ended and I was faced with a giant waterfall off the side of the himalayan mountains running into a pool below.  I turned around and saw gorgeous mountain views with tropical vegetation and couldn't believe where I was.  There was no one there so I felt completely comfortable stripping to my bikini and jumping in the pool.  We swam around for hours, smoked a little......courtesy of Yuki and had the most magical time. 

Time to climb down the stairs!! It wasn't so bad on the way down, but of course once we got to the road, in true Indian fashion, a bulldozer decided to come and break apart the whole road completely blocking us from getting back to our town.  So we waited for him to throw some boulders around for about half an hour till they made a "path" for us....I almost broke down into panic mode.  Our "path" was a gravely stretch literally on the side of the cliff.  One slip, or one part of road giving way, and we were done for.  Clearly however, we made it!  Back to town, and then chill night on the roof next to what they called mine and Jules's "penthouse" because we were on the roof of the hotel, and there was a roof chillout lounge with a swing and chairs and stuff. 

The next day (our last day) it was my inner music geek taking over, and Julia, the German girls and I went off to find the Maharishi Yogi's closed down ashram where the Beatles stayed in the 60's and wrote most of the White Album.  We walked for hours trying to find this place, but it was a beautiful walk, and when we finally did it was worth it.  It was set back in the jungle and even though it was closed and run down it was just breathtakingly beautiful and I can see how they got so much inspiration from this place.  Eventually made it back to the hotel, where the rest of the motorcycle crew had showed up from being run down somewhere in Kashmir for days.  There were two Australian's (Tom and Rob) and....a Cuban (Alberto) ! I never met a Cuban traveler before and neither did he (although I'm not actually from there, obviously only my mother is) so we became instant friends.  We became even more friends when him and Tom rode their motorcycles out of town and came back with two bottles of vodka, whiskey, rum, wine and a case of beer.  Yes, that was a crazy night.  Even the hindu's and Nepali's running our guesthouse who aren't supposed to drink joined our party on the roof, and as me and Julia were leaving at 430am to catch a train in the morning it was our sendoff party as we all became pretty tight in that short period of time. 

430 am.  I don't think anyone slept where they were supposed to, people on the roof, people in empty guestrooms, and I barely made it up to find Julia, but we had a 9 hour train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and then a 2 hour train to Delhi where we would catch a 730am flight the next morning to Muscat, Oman.  I definitely came on vacation to have fun, but this was almost too much for me.  I was beyond hungover and the train was hellish.  Two guys in our train compartment, loud and fussy as hell, no sleep, hot, dirty, yuck. 

Made it to Agra.  I have to thank the Commonwealth games for shutting the roads down that day so me and Julia were forced to take a bicycle rickshaw from some poor guy for 10km to get to the taj.  I felt like the scum of humanity having this guy drive us.  He was clearly exhausted because the ride was too long for him and as much poverty as you see in India, even though you get desensitized to some, at least for me, some things just haunt me and this was one of them.  Well....as out train was two hours late, and it took this guy an hour to drive us, we got to the taj too late and it was closed.  We both cried.  We laughed about how ridiculous it was, how everyone back in Rishikesh-which we were really depressed to leave-told us to stay and we said we couldn't, and we just traveled in hell to see something that we now couldn't see.  That is India for you!  We made the best of it and went to a rooftop restaurant and had dinner overlooking the Taj so we DID get to see it, just not how we wanted to. 

Waiting in Agra train station for two hours for our train....made us miss Rishikesh more.  Child beggars kill me, child beggars with missing limbs kill me more, and when they pull on my arms and legs for hours, relentlessly and I keep saying no because it's what you are told to do, it makes me wonder what kind of a person I am that I can't give these kids something.  So, I caved and I went to go buy them food, and suddenly there were like 20 more and they all started fighting so I spent every last penny I had on me on food for them, not thinking I would need that when I got to Delhi for a cab to our hotel.  Julia luckily had 370 ruppees on her so we were able after MUCH negotiating to find a cab who would drive us to our hotel for that.  Delhi train station is HELL especially if you are white and ESPECIALLY if you are a woman.  Everyone grabs you, shouts at you, pushes other people out of the way to try and get you to go with them, grabs your bags, your purse, it's scary at first, but this time we were hot, tired, pissed off and just yelled at everyone who tried to bother us and actually worked out in our favor, they started backing off and we found a good driver. 

Jodhpur-->Jaisalmer-->Delhi-->Rishikesh

Well I'm about 5 months late posting this but better late then never right??

So we got to Jodhpur in the province of Rajasthan which was a beautiful little city, everything is painted blue, and there is a giant fort carved out of the mountainside.  Our guesthouse was 5 stories of beautifully decorated traditional Indian art, with a gorgeous rooftop restaurant.  We woke up in the morning and went to the fort which was fantastic and then back to our hotel feeling really worn out from the sun, jetlag and traveling.  We had (VERY) quickly discovered that Indian's don't drink....so there are no bars.  At all.  Our hotel had beer so we sat down for some food (still havent seen any other westeners at this point) and beer, and after two beers we were both so exhausted and drunk off of our long journey that we passed out at 730pm.  We both woke up at 5am when we realized that not getting the AC option in our room because we didn't want to spend another 2$ was STUPID!! So, Julia being a Yoga teacher we decided to go to the roof of our hotel and do some yoga and watch the most BEAUTIFUL sunrise I've ever seen, while listening to the Muslim call to prayer.  Surreal.  Then, we checked out and got our driver for our 5 hour drive to Jaisalmer a city in the Thar desert 40km from the Pakistan border. 

 

We loved the hotel we just stayed at so when they recommended we stay at their friends place in Jaisalmer with a pool we were very happy to oblige.  Once we arrived, we discovered, more men just milling about the hotel, and staring and there was NO CHANCE IN HELL of me getting in a bathing suit!  We didn't think we could take another night of just sitting about, so we decided to spend the night in the desert on a camel safari.  We rode our camels with a guide out to the sand dunes to watch the sunset, once again beautiful, still the only westeners this time surrounded by Indian tourists escaping the craze of Delhi due to the commonwealth games.  EVERYONE wanted to take their picture with us.  It got pretty frustrating at one point because gypseys were coming up to us trying to force their sodas and crap on us and demanding money from us telling us "we know you have it, give us 100 rupees" and it just gets intimidating and annoying.  I know I'm rich compared to them, but I can't give everyone in India my money!  So we go back to our camp where we had a choice of sleeping in a hut or a tent.  We look at the hunt, seems alright, even has a bathroom, we look at the tent and seriously a spider the size of my f'n head was crawling down the wall by the door.  I can handle most situations but spiders are my girly weakness and I froze while everyone started laughing at me and Julia was yelling at me to come outside of the tent but I was paralyzed with fear that that thing would drop on my head.   Whatever, I made it through, we had dinner with the Indians in the desert and a 19 year old girl from Delhi wanted to practice her english with us so she asked us a million questions.  "What you think is better, love marriage or arrange marriage?", "What you think is better, Indian culture or American culture?", "What are you thinking of drinking beer, is it everyday?" then she tells us about arranged marriages "I think my parents know what is best for me, they know more than I do, so whoever they choose is good, I must please my parents they know me more than I do".  WOW.  Different world, different world.  We retired to our hut, which had become overrun with locusts and beetles so we did what any normal westener would do:  we took my bug spray and sprayed the perimiter of the room, stuffed our blanket under the door, and took a valium to calm our nerves and passed out.

 

Next morning, camel ride to watch the sunrise, just me and Julia and our guide, beautiful, other worldly, and took turns running down the dunes like children.  So much fun!!

 

Later in the afternoon we had a 430pm train to catch to Delhi which would arrive at 11am the next day, where we had a 4 hour layover and then we'd catch a 4 hour train to Rishikesh which is at the base of the Himalayas and supposed to be the spiritual and yoga/meditation capital of the world.  The ashram the Beatles studied in and wrote most of the White album in (which the song sexy sadie was written about) was in Rishikesh (and yes, the music nerd in me will be going there!!).  We had first class seats this time, and we were very lucky: the only other person in our 4 bed room (with a locking door! no more men trying to grope us in our sleep!) was a Chinese girl who spoke perfect english and was cool as hell.  Oh, and a mouse, which we made valiant efforts to try and get out of our room, including proping the door open with a suitcase and me, being the only person not scared of it, taking a plastic bottle and banging it all over the room climbing on the beds trying to chase it out while the girls ran screaming behind me.  I'm sure it would have been quite entertaining on video.  One of the highlights of the trip was a family we met in the desert with their two children a boy and a girl, aged 12 and 9 found us on the train, the kids were SO EXCITED, they invited us to their house in Delhi (which we are going to try and make work), their mother gave us her and her husbands cell phone numbers in case we have any problems in Delhi, just genuine GOOD people.  I also had a silly band Caroline put on me in a stupid, drunken, deep conversation, so I gave it to the kids and they loved it so much I got their address to send them more.  Guess the silly band has been introduced to India.

 

Delhi.  All we had heard was how careful to be, how dangerous it is for women, etc.  So after Mumbai, yes we were scared.  We bought traditional Indian clothing to wear because a professor I admire (thank Jeannie!) told me it would help with the stares, and she was right! Delhi was chaotic, gross, etc. but not once did I ever feel in danger.  I'm sure being the middle of the day with all the commonwealth games going on helped.  We boarded our last train to get to Rishikesh and after 4 hours were FINALLY in a place where we could relax for the next 5 days!  Unfortunately at the train station was an image I will never get out of my head.  There was a little boy, he could not have been more than 5, naked, covered in FILTH, whos legs clearly didn't work and he was crawling on the ground, pulling himself by his arms grabbing on to people trying to get money.  No one paid any attention.  I still get choked up when I think about it, I don't think I will ever have skin thick enough to handle seeing something like that.  We arrived late, it was 930pm (as there is no nightlife, that is late in India) we found a guesthouse and passed out.  We woke up the next morning to one of the most magical and beautiful places I could have ever imagined!  The ganges river runs through town, it has two swinging bridges across it which get a lot of cows crossing, mokeys galore (including one who keeps fucking with me and trying to get into my room, and after my Thailand experience, those of you who know, I do not have a good history with monkeys!), ashrams, yogis, etc.  It's very calm, tranquil, peaceful, our hotel has a balcony off our room that overlooks the whole town....I just can't begin to describe the beauty!!  So day one (yesterday) we shopped our little butts off, and took a Yoga class in the evening.  Wow.  I can't describe it so I won't even try.  Then we had heard about a place 11km out of town that served alcohol so we jumped at the chance to go, and lucky for us, two guys working at our hotel were going there to have dinner so they gave us a ride.  The men here are nothing like in the city, I haven't felt uncomfortable once.  We ended up sitting and eating with them and as usual they want to practice their English so they ask a million questions which is fine since i'm usually the one doing all the asking!  I was full and finished with my dinner so i started to pile up my plates and the one guy got really upset and told me he used to be very poor and that I should never waste food.  It was seriously two bites but I felt so guilty, and it really made me think about how much I waste all the time and it's just sickening.  Lessons learned!! So after a couple drinks we got a ride back with them, the power in the hotel was out and Julia went to the room and passed out, but I saw two girls and two guys sitting near our room around a little table hanging out and I was feeling social as always so I approached them and they invited me to hang out.  Two German girls, and Israeli guy and a Dutch guy who was half Kuwaiti half Japanese.  They had vodka and whiskey so we drank for a few hours, and the girls invited me on their jungle safari the next morning (today).  So off we went at 630 this morning!  We went to Rajaji national park which was actually closed for the season but our two guides live there in a small town called Cheela and they took us to see their pet Elephants, and then on a walk through the jungle.  They were very cool, knowledgeable guides, and asked if we wanted to go look for Hyenas.  We said sure!  Next thing I know I'm walking through thick vegetation, not on any path at all, and we end up at a den and the guy goes "ok here are the babies" the girls and I go "babies? aren't we supposed to stay away from them??" he says "no worries, mother wont be back for at least two minutes" we said Hell no!! I look over and one guy has a huge stick, the other a big rock in his hand, they tell us for protection.  We say we want to go back to the path so they take us, also explaining to us that if we get bit by a cobra, no worries, they will take a knife and cut the poison out.  Awesome!  We see some Hyenas far away, not too close for comfort, and then we stumble on an Elephant.  Silly Western girls we are we approach it and the guides with looks of fear on their faces yell at us to walk away very slowly.  Crap....so we do and we were fine.  Apparantly Elephants kill 50 people a year.  Good to know.  We then walked upon the holy Ganges river and sat with our feet in it while the men tried to tell us it was all in our minds that we can't bathe in and drink the water, no worries we wont get sick....well I wasn't taking that chance!  It was very relaxing though, and the Indian boys made a map of the world in the sand, and asked us to map where we live, where weve been and then they shouted out cities and we had to put them on the map.  It was a very good day!  Miss you all, and will write more soon!!