Peaceful times in Pushkar

After spending some relaxing days by the lake in Udaipur we moved on to the hippie hotspot of Pushkar. It is considered a very holy city for Hindu’s given its location around a holy lake. The lake is where they scattered Ghandi’s ashes, the town is even dry (although they still sneak beer to foreigners) and they don’t even serve eggs anywhere….. I am not sure why this is holy but I will try and find out.

Beyond just seeing the 52 Ghats that surround the holy lake, we were really excited to visit Pushkar because it supposed to have a very relaxed, chill atmosphere and in that way in definitely did not disappoint.

Once we arrived we started to stroll down the main street of the town, which is essentially one giant, never-ending street bazaar supplemented with cafes and temples. Soooo many temples. The city really has a vibe all its own, really tough to describe but high on my recommendation list of places to see in India.

Camel parking lot in front of our hotel

Amazing colours in the market

Strolling through the market

Fresh juice man, which we still have not tried

Unfortunately it is also where we experienced our only truly off-putting experience so far in India. The city is a pilgrimage for most Hindus so as foreigners we try and be extremely respectful of how to act and behave especially around the Ghats on the lake but of course the scum that exist in every city around the world have found a way to make a scam preying on this very thing. And even though we knew about the scam and saw it coming a mile away, Jonny and I still got sucked in.

Essentially the way it works is as you are walking down the main street someone will shove fresh flowers into your hand, even when you refuse. He tells you not to pay, but just to go put it in the lake as a sign of respect. So you carry it around for a while, not really sure what to do and then someone approaches you near the ghat and tells you it’s disrespectful to carry the flower through the market and leads you down to the lake, all the while telling you they are a holy man and then they break into this routine around doing a holy ritual with you – separate you of course – and then start the ritual which ends with the fact that everyone has to donate after the ritual. Rather than put your money in the actual donation box at the top of the temple…… you must put in on this plate in front of them to finish the ritual. And to top it off they tell you it is more respectful to donate in your own currency of dollars. Needless to say I was not pleased at the way that they prey on people’s attempt to learn and be respectful of the religion to make a buck for themselves and they take donations away from the actual place that needs it. So we basically gave them nothing so they would go away and I told them they have no soul. Even with this experience, it did not dampen our time in Pushkar. We strolled a little further around the lake and found a quiet, more authentic holy spot to sit down and do some of our own reflection.

A more relaxing section of the Ghats

Jonny doing some reflection

52 Ghats surround this lake

After some quiet reflection on the lake we grabbed dinner at a place called Little Italy…our first non-Indian meal in two weeks. The place was great, and even grows all their own produce and basil right there on the backyard of the restaurant. It was so good in fact we went back the next night again.

The next morning we did a little more personal reflection only this time in was in the form of an early morning yoga session with a well-known local instructor who owns some fairly secluded farmland for his studio just minutes outside the city.  I actually can’t believe that it was almost two weeks before we got into any yoga in India, but it was worth the wait, because it was a great 1.5 hour class that we repeated again the next day. Afterwards we headed back into the town to stroll, we grabbed some real coffee, exchanged our books, chatted with some other travels and had a fantastic lunch at this hidden gem called Sixth Sense – the roof top restaurant on top of a small guesthouse called Seventh dream. This place had so much charm we choose to hang out there for a few hours reading. Bonus – they even wash their veggies in mineral water so we were able to have a salad for once!! A real treat!  After our afternoon relaxing on the rooftop we headed back to our hotel for a little siesta to get ready for a sunset climb we had planned.

Jonny relaxing at sixth sense

Amazing entrance way at sixth sens

To catch the sunset, and some unreal views of the city we hiked the 1100 steps up a mountain side to the Saraswaki temple, fighting our way through some less than friendly monkey’s along the way. It was totally worth the climb. We spent about an hour at the top taking in the views, chatting with other travellers and locals alike. When there was just enough light to get us to the bottom, we made the trek down and called it a night to rest up for our second round of yoga!

The not so happy monkey on the trail

Curious baby monkey

They all turned to stare at us as we walked away

Taking in the sunset

looking down on Pushkar

Jonny gazing down on the city

Namaste

OOO_Talia

Udaipur....licious!

After our magical night under the stars in the desert, we were back in the car again with our new buddy and driver Raj. We had a one night stopover in Jodpur on our way to Udaipur. After spending about 7 hours in the car, and coming from such solitude in Jaisalmer, I wasn't really ready for the loud, hot, polluted and crowded streets of Jodpur. So like bad travelers we pretty much spend the rest of the day chilling out our hotel, which was actually quite luxurious and had the added benefit of a pool (much needed in this heat). We haven’t really planned to go to Jodpur any, opting to spend a few more nights in Udaipur and Pushkar, so I didn’t feel too bad about the whole thing.

We did venture out of our hotel room to go find the Samosa House, a little street stand that every local we had met in Rajasthan so far claimed the best samosas in the entire WORLD. And if the locals are saying it then it must be true – they did not disappoint! This little street side stand pumps out 80,000 a samosas a DAY. We even hit it up again the next morning on the way outta town.

In front of our lap of luxury in Jodpur

A few more hours in the car and we reached Udaipur, a pretty town by Indian standards, that wraps around the banks of Lake Pichola. We dropped out bags in our lake view room (our man Shafi at Destination India Travel really hooked us up),  and looked out of our bay window loaded with ornate Indian pillows onto the lake …… ahhhhhh Tranquility. 

Inside our suite

Looking down the canal near our hotel

After getting cleaned up we headed out to explore the narrow streets winding around the lake and just let ourselves get lost in the maze. We watched the kids and families bathing in the Ghats (def.; series of steps leading down to a water body, usually a holy river) and then took in a night of cultural Rajasthani dancing.

Wandering the colourful, narrow streets

Entertainment at the Ghats 

Cow staking claim to the stairs at the Ghats

Beautiful dancers

Group dance

We had arranged a cooking class for ourselves the next day with a wonderful man that runs classes out of his home. First on the agenda was teaching us how to make Chai tea. Once that was done we sat us down to enjoy our chai while he headed out to the market to grab what we needed to cook with for the day – nothing but fresh food when you are cooking with Giteen (no idea of that’s how you spell his name). About 30mins later he came back and we spent the next 3 hours preparing our feast for the day;

•         Vegetable and chilli pakodas
•          Channa Masala
•          Aloo Ghobi
•          Veggie Rice
•          Chapatti

After preparing the feast…….we ate the feast (obvi) and it was delicious!! Who is going to be brave enough to come to my Indian themed dinner party when we return….. I dare you!

prepping the pakodas

Final Channa Masala

Jonny learning to roll chapati 

After lunch we look a little late afternoon fiesta…..the 40 degree heat warrants that, and then we headed out to the City palace to explore the grounds. The palace in Udaipur is by far one of the most well maintained that we have come across and the fact that it is perched onto of a hill overlooking the lake just adds to its beauty. After exploring the grounds for a while we took a sunset boat cruise through the lake. We got to take in yet another beautiful Indian sunset – amazing.

After our boat cruise we wandered through the streets a while longer and stumbled upon the Lotus café. We had read good things about it in the lonely planet so we decided to grab a small dinner there. This place had a great vibe, little tables, low lighting and zero 7 

playing over the speakers……and too top it off they had vintage connect 4! So we spent our last night in Udaipur chilling in the lotus café, playing connect 4 with some Kingfishers….for those wondering I beat Jonny 5 games to 1.

Visiting one of the islands as part of the sunset boat ride 

looking back at the palace

Amazing sunset over the island hotel

Sunset from the boat

The look of defeat at the Lotus Cafe

Udaipur was a wonderful spot and really opened our eyes to the kind of natural beauty that does exist in India which is not often attributed to India.

Our next stop is the hippy, holy town of Pushkar for some reflection over the holy Ghats.

Namaste

OOO_Talia 

Search for Solitude in India

Who would have thought one needs to travel 18hrs on a train, only to drive another 3hrs into the desert, just 90KMs from the Pakistan border, in order to seek out some solitude in India.

Two days in Delhi was enough. We were determined to experience the real India, and this elusive town of Jaisalmer was going to be a way to find it.

Before and during our trip, our friends Heidi and Rochy who travelled India extensively a few years ago, hooked us up with some amazing India travel advice. Tip number one - to go on a desert safari in Jaisalmer. We had some expectations about what this place would look and feel like… expectations that that were blown away.

If you can imagine for a moment, LA, NYC and Toronto street traffic combined, with triple the amount of people (not sure it actually is triple.. It could be more), odours like you have never smelled before (some amazing and some awful) with some of the best or worst cases of broken English (depends on how you look at it) and an entire population that stares at you (or takes pictures of you) as you pass by. Now, Imagine coming from that to… say…. Dundas (represent). Only this time, Dundas is a small town/gateway to the Thar Dessert.

Jaisalmer (or Dundas) was an amazing place to end up after an 18hr ride from Delhi.

·     Some noise and odour pollution (it wouldn’t be India without it) but not nearly as intense as Delhi

·     HOT HOT HEAT (not the band… but temperatures in the 40s)

·     But nowhere near the street pollution

Now, after getting off the train to the above, a short drive to Jaisalmer Fort and there was even less… except for the smell, that is always around and the heat (especially this time of year).

View of the town from the top of the fort

Ahh…… finally a little bit of silence.

We toured the fort (as you do in every town)and the local sights, took in some local cuisine and cruised around the narrow streets inside the fort that people have now made their homes. By cruise around, I mean get totally lost in these streets. This Fort was pretty sweet, It’s been around since the 11^th Century. You can feel the history in that place, but there is also this weird sense of newness to it.  Modern people, trying to live modern lives (as their means and society will allow), living amongst the ancient landscape. It’s really something and because this has already happened, I can say, this is a feeling and trend we have seen all over Rajasthan (and I would assume many parts of India…. We will let you know as we keep going).

While touring the man made lake, another one of the town's sights, we had another paparazzi moment, only this time the crowd blew up to about 30 people trying to take pics of Tal. One man even shoved his baby into her arms for a pic....... really what do they do with the pics!

Entering the alley way into the fort

people making their home in on of the side streets

Looking up at the fort from the streets below

Tals holding random put in her arms

People setting up shop in the fort streets

Beautiful detail in one of the havelis

After a day of touring the town, we took off the next day deep into to the Thar Dessert to a little spot called Khurti. We thought we had hit the solitude jackpot…… then we got to the Camel Safari compound.  A gated-in compound of 10 or so mud huts surrounding a clay courtyard. Ahhh... Even more solitude.

Side Note: its off season for tourism in India.

It was an eerie feeling approaching the Thar and seeing NOBODY… No tourists, no tour companies… just a whole lot of empty space and small families in tiny huts. That is the Thar Dessert for yah.

That eerie feeling stayed when we arrived at the compound waited about 30 minutes for the owner to come open up for us, It continued to stick around as a few hours ticked by and no other tourists showed up. That was it… Me, Tals and the owner’s brother, our driver and a few little kids running around with no pants on.

Then the eerie feeling past - We had finally stumbled upon true solitude and silence. After a private camel safari through a few villages, we ended up on the sand dunes for sunset, an amazing view and even better when we received our personal dessert songs. We even got to know our camels on very personal levels. I already miss the loud camel farts Bubbaloo and Lassoo would let go, almost in unison. I flat our respected their talents. Let’s change the subject before I get too emotional.

Our home for the evening 

One of owner's cute nephews....he hates pants

amazing walk though the desert dunes

the wind makes amazing designs in the sand

Our desert welcome song

Sunset over the dunes

Finishing our came trip

I was a bit put off when a Dessert dude cruised up with a bag of cold beers for sale. I wasn’t at the Jays game, I was in the middle of the dessert.. But good on him.

Cut back to the mud hut compound and our night continued with a private home cooked, AMAZING, indian feast made by the owner and some great conversation. Once we thought the evening couldn’t get any better we were getting ready to head to our room (aka mud hut) when the owner tells us to have the true desert experience we need to actually sleep under the stars so he set up a mattress on the roof for us. We slept on the roof of the compound under a dessert filled sky of stars. I thought cottage country boasted great skies.. this... was something else.

Waking up in the morning we were refreshed – physically, spiritually and emotionally…. Smashed some chai and toast and hit the road to Jodphur – just a quick PM stopover on our way to Udaipur.

In our search of solitude we finally found it amidst our bigger goal, of getting a real, true India experience. Next stop Udaipur….For some lance romancing and cooking classes by the lake

Namiste,

OOO_Jonny

Taj Mahal....It's really big

So last blog we mentioned that our Taj Mahal trip was booked.  So………… we saw the Taj.

I’m not sure if any of you know the story, why would you if haven’t been here before or have ever planned to come??

It’s actually a pretty romantic story. A King built the entire complex as a monument/resting place for his wife who passed away giving birth to their 14^th child. The complex is impressive as it is and then you cruise up to this breathtaking marble mausoleum. Pictures really don’t do it any justice. You just stroll around to the various vantage points (which are all epic) and then find a cozy spot to chill out on and just take in the tranquil vibe. It really a peaceful time, that is until you start your drive back our of Agra weaving in and out of traffic for 6hrs.

Anyway, back to my point about it being romantic. I thought all our friends getting engaged was enough pressure. Thanks a lot Shah Jahan.

The monument of loveeeeee

Posing out front

Some of the detail on the side

Tourist pose

The first glimpse through the gate

catching the sunset at the Taj

Before hitting the Taj we also made a put stop at the Agra fort. One of the biggest forts in India…. And a big fort it was. We cruised around there for a while checking out all the views and having our pics taken with a few more Indian people.

Entering the fort

Photo request #1

Photo request #2

Like every day in India, you get a taste of something. On this particular day, we got a thali (word usually used to describe a plate or meal of everything… think sampler plate) of the  various forms pollution in India. Most prominent was noise and street pollution. Agra is about 120KMs from Delhi. In normal traffic back home you’re looking at about a 1hr+ drive.  Here - MUCH different. It was a grueling 5hr commute back to Delhi in just about the craziest “highway” ever and honking like I have ever seen or heard.

 But it’s all part of the India experience….. All in all, it was a great 2^nd day in India.

Now that we have gotten one of the heaviest tourist attractions out of the way, we are headed to the real India… Rajasthan.

An 8 day tour through this amazing state will include:

Jaisalmer x 2 days │ For some Fort touring and camel safaris through the sand dunes in the middle of the desert, just 90KMs from Pakistan (don’t worry parents… its completely safe and Im writing this after the fact so all is good).

Jodphur x 1 day │ Really just to break up the ride to Udaipur  but also to see “The Blue City” and home of the most famous Indian spices

Udaipur x 2 days │ Coined, the most romantic city in India, we will take some nice boat rides on the lake, explore a few ancient forts, and take an Indian cooking class

Pushkar x 2 days │ For some hippie city chilling and some yoga

Jaipur x 1 day │ To break up our ride back to Delhi (which is just a same-day stopover to Varanasi – one of the world’s most holy (for Hindis) and oldest, continually inhabited cities).

This is gonna be a TIME! Jai Ho!

OOO_Jonny

Sights and Sounds of India

After a longer than scheduled flight via China that included our plane being struck by lighting and 4 hours of sitting on the tarmac in Shanghai, we finally arrived in Delhi around 8:30am. We had already reunited with Kait and J.J back in Sydney and the 4 of us were booked in the same hotel, the Ivory Palace, here in Delhi so after making it through customs and immigration without incident we met our pre-arranged hotel driver in front of the terminal and headed off for our first experience on the streets of Delhi. In one word the streets of Delhi are CHAOTIC . I know people had warned us that drivers in India are crazy and that there are really no rules on the road but I can now say with full certainty that it is absolutely true. Lanes pretty much mean nothing and neither does the direction of the road.  People really just drive wherever they want. Plus any who wants to use the road just does, car, trucks, auto rickshaws, bike rickshaws, motorcycles, cows, pedestrians …… you name it they are on the road.

After about 40mins we finally reached our hotel and it was pretty much as I expected – decent room with AC and wifi and a bathroom that looks like it has pretty much never been cleaned but overall liveable enough for a few nights. Once we were settled in to our room, we reunited with Kait’s sister and her friend who had already been in India for a few weeks. Determined not to go to sleep and give in to jet-lag we all decided to take some showers and then hit the streets of Delhi to explore and get ourselves set up for a day trip to Agra the following day. We had our hotel owner call us a cab to take us to the city centre to the government run travel centre located at 99 Janpath rd. – highly recommended by all guide books to be the first stop since they can recommend legit travel agencies in a city that is fill with many unscrupulous ones.

Our cab arrived and we jammed all six of us in (safety standards are much lower here in India) and gave our driver Lahl directions on where to take us. Little did we know that when we hopped in that cab, after a mere 3 hours in Delhi, we would already encounter our first scam. The ride started off nice, Lahl was a quite friendly dude with decent enough English and was chatting us up the entire ride. When the cab finally stopped we were not at 99 Janpath rd, not at the agency we directed to him too….”oh no, this is my office” he said, and what a coincidence his office also happened to be a travel agency. We had been warned that this stuff often happens with cab drivers, you ask them to take you somewhere and they either tell you it’s closed, it burnt down, or they just take you somewhere else because they are getting a commission.  We gave him the benefit of the doubt that maybe it was a mis-understanding and hopped back in the cab with him when we said he could take us there. This time we also told him we were meeting people there so that he wouldn’t try and convince us to go elsewhere. About 10 more mins of driving and we pull up to another travel agency….. still not Janpath rd, stilllllll not the government agency. At this point he started pulling all the tricks out; it was really like he was reading from a script out of the lonely planet’s warning on this scam. First he starts by telling us that this is the gov’t agency and that it just moved, we resist, then we tells us that actually it’s just another branch of the same agency, we continue to resist, then the gov’t agency is closed down and this place is better. By this point we are all starting to get frustrated and continue to tell him where to take us and that we are meeting people there. After about 10mins of sitting in front this place arguing and him getting on the phone to someone he finally starts to drive again and this time takes us to the right place, but not before yelling out “stupid Americans” and driving off in a huff without taking any money. We didn’t correct him.

After all this we finally found any amazing agency to work with (Jonny already mentioned this place in his previous blog) and we got sorted for our trip to Agra the following day and we even had our first chai!

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the area of Connaught place, checking out the markets, strolling through the park, enjoying our first India meal, checking out India Gate, and getting ogled at by many India men and women alike. Many even asked to take our picture…… I really don’t know what they do with all these photos of westerners that they collect, but we happily obliged a few.

After heading back to Karol Bagh to our hotel, we headed out to grab some dinner at Spicy Bar, a local restaurant. India meal number 2 was also fantastic. Once we settled up we headed back to our hotel’s “roof top patio bar”, I use that term loosely because it is really just a rundown rooftop with one patio table on it and some chairs. None the less they served beer, so we all cheers’d to day one in India and then hit the sack.

Looking out on the city from our rooftop

I really can’t believe the number of times I have said “wow” to myself already since we have been in India, both good and bad. For the most part it’s always at something good, but already it’s pretty hard to see the amount of poverty that is just in your face. It is heartbreaking to see a women walking around begging for money or food carrying a filthy baby without even a diaper on.  But overall it’s been a wild and amazing time so far and I can’t wait for more!!

Here is just a sample of the first crazy sights I have ALREADY seen since being in India

•          Cows, cows and more cows just roaming around the main streets
•          An elephant walking down the highway pulling cargo
•          A monkey on a leash doing back flips
•          A monkey wearing a dress and makeup
•          A trolley stacked as high as a transport truck being pulled by a cow….down the main road of course
•          Entire families riding on 1 motorcycle, Dad, mom, son and daughter…. No helmets

In terms of sounds, there is really just one distinct one…… HONKING

OOO_Talia

Welcome to Delhi

India… we have been waiting for this… South America was a good taste of real travelling (Rio was an exception although it was still pretty culturally epic). After a month of recharging the batteries in Australia, 30 hours of flying time and we have arrived in Delhi.

Everyone we spoke with for advice said get out there quickly so we arranged the Delhi basics and our escape to real India. After just one day, you can feel the history of this place…  In fact, we got our first piece of Indian history on day 1. India can be a tough place to plan on your own so we found a credible travel agent and it made out lives pretty easy. Destination India. If you’re going to India anytime soon, go there and ask for Shafi..a real legend this guy. Such a legend, in fact, he had the century old testimonials to prove it. Shafi comes from a long line of travel and hospitality professionals.. This agency has been in his family reaching back to the late 1800s. Check out a few of these bad boys…

You could literally feel the paper crumbling in your hands..letters from rich Americans and Europeans, people from the army, the list goes on. Letters written in the most classically cursive style..it really blew our minds.. we read testimonial letters from 1896, 1902, 1904 and letters from the world wars… Really amazing..

Amazing hundred year old testimonials

Some of these dated back to 1896

Anyways… modern hospitality taken online hasn't changed Destination India’s formal and professional ways. They set us up in a car service for 6 (Kait, JJ, Kait’s sister and travel partner Pablo Pete) headed to Agra to check out the Taj for the day. After a successful planning day and celebratory Chai, Shafi directed us to a hole in the wall for some solid lunch. This place literally was a hole in the wall, but the food was EPIC. Spicy as hell, but in a you’ll wish you didn't eat that later, kind of way (BUT IN A GOOD WAY).

Heading into the hole in the wall for our first India meal

Ever felt like a celebrity? No? Just go to India if you are white… At India Gate (a famous Delhi monument), we got our first taste of Indian paparazzi. I felt good..NO..it felt great. I wanted to pull a Russell Brand to see how the media would take it but my better judgement took over… After countless Indian head-nod thank you’s for some epic photos, we had seen enough of India Gate and India Gate had seen enough of us.

Side note and a question for some of our Indian friends… What will these people say or caption when showing others the photo? Will they post to facebook, do they have “pictures with white people” albums? Please advise..it will make our actions in future pictures even better.

Posing by the India gate...right before a nice India kid jumped in the photo

The India Gate

To cap it all off, after some wondering around, we figured why not take an auto-rickshaw home…  These things are beauties.. Some are shit.. MOST are shit..and some are just PIMPED.

Just getting started on our first of many wild rides

Pulling up next to our friends rickshaw... literally RIGHT beside 

The stories are true about India’s street congestion, crazy drivers, no rules, etc…. This ride REDEFINED the phrase “I almost got in an accident”. For any of you that skid out on some ice… think again… You weren't even close. That said I do believe there is some unwritten rule and code of conduct that the drivers have..maybe by the time we leave I will have it figured out… For now, I think it has something to do with the frequency and consistency of the drivers honks.

Day 1 had us stoked for the first leg of the trip….. Can’t wait to make it happen