Close encounter(s) with cobra(s)

After breakfast our driver from yesterday, Kelash, picked us up outside the hotel to take us to todays trip: Galta. But before Galta we went by the cinema, Raj Mandir, one more time to try and pick up tickets for the 3 pm show. However, even though the advance ticket buying line only had been open for 5 minutes, it was already filled with people, so we quickly gave up on that idea. The movie showing, 3 idiots, is apparently a new movie, and also a very popular one. So, no movie :( Not that we would have understood anything anyway, but it would have been fun nonetheless.


Galta is a holy temple, the monkey temple, situated in a secluded valley east of the city. Galta being a monkey temple was of course filled with monkeys everywhere, and of course the usual assortment of other animals, including cobras. One which managed to scare Sophie half to death when leaving.


In Galta we were led into a small shrine and were given some sort of wristband, a mark on the forehead, some "perfume" put on our hands, and flowers to wear around our neck. Also, we got some sort of wave with a feathery thingy over our heads, for good luck they said, and a "non-volountary volountary contribution". As for the fate of the flowers, in a moment of thinking about something completely else than looking after the flowers, they were immediately stolen and devoured by a monkey. So much for good luck.


After Galta we were dropped off at the City Palace Museum where we strolled around for a couple of hours. After that Sophie did some shopping, and managed to do quite a bit of hard bargaining. Joakim sat quietely onlooking. Left with a green bag and a "real pashmina" scarf.


Kelash told us, when driving through the muslim area inside the old city, told us that this place was a very dangerous place for him sometimes. If he, being Hindu, were to have an accident in this part of town he would probably be severely beaten, and there probably would not be that much left of his car. So we told him about the experience from the muslim procession last day, and he nodded his head and said something to the effect of it not being very nice.

Tomorrow at 5 pm we head for Ranthambore, where we celebrate new years eve. Train ride is only 2 hours this time. Yay!

Jaipur and surroundings

Arrived in Jaipur early yesterday morning after spending the night on the train from Jaisalmer, sharing "compartment" with a mother/daughter from New Zealand (Rose and Susie, we think). So thanks to that we managed to chat away the night, and get some, if very little, sleep.

The Hotel we are staying at could not check us in at first since we arrived 5 in the morning, so we spent some time sleeping in the lobby before we could check in. The Hotel, Umaid Mahal, in itself is a very nice place (like a palace really), and looks completely out of touch with the rest of Jaipur, which is a dirty, loud, crowdy and intense place.

On the streets there are all different types moving things like,

• Trucks
• Overcrowded buses
• Cars
• Rickshaws
• Bicycle taxis
• Bicycles
• Pigs (and oh so many of them, we think they are the local "garbage collectors")
• Cows
• Horses
• Donkeys
• Camels
• Elephants
• Dogs
• Cobras
• and we havent even mentioned how many people there are.

In short, Jaipur is the sort of place that a real estate broker would define as "lively", "something for the crafty", "up and coming" and so on.

However, some things are really nice to look at and it gets you away from the terror of the main streets. For instance we checked out the Jantar Mantar, which is an astronimical observatory with huge stone instruments that measure the position and angles of the heavenly bodies. Hawa Mahal, which is nice on the outside, but apparently nothing inside.

Outside of the city is the Amber Fort, which we visited today, and which offered great views of the surroundnings, which included a gigantic wall which resembled the great wall of China. We rented a driver that took us there, and who also took us to see Jal Mahal, which is like a palace on the water. He also took us to see a cemetary where the rulers got cremated and buried.

The evening today was meant to be spent watching a Bollywood movie at Raj Mandir, apparently Indias largest and most famoust cinema (1000+ people can fit in there), but it was sold out. Instead we made our way into the old city to watch the Muslim procession in the city... it was some sort of festival, which mostly seemed to consist of young men hammering away on drums, carrying homemade "temples", and grabbing womens asses. After being grabbed five times, and being surrounded by "happy" (drunk) men, Sophie got tired of it and tried to knock down the last unlucky grabber with a head kick. She missed though, but I think they got the message as they moved away. After that, we decided that perhaps it was a little bit too intense, and decided to head back instead.

Tomorrow we plan to see some other outer sites, and also to buy tickets for the cinema later that evening. Hopefully this time it wont be full.

17 hours on a train

... and all I got was this lousy T-shirt? Actually, it wasnt a T-shirt (it was a scarf), and it wasnt lousy. It was a christmas present from our gracious hosts here in Jaisalmer.

Leaving Delhi on the day before Christmas sure felt nice. Delhi is hard to explain, except that it is not really a good place if you want a vacation. But, if you want a heart attack from stress and lungs filled with exhaust fumes, then it is definitely the place to go!

Managed to squeeze ourselves onto a completely packed train (completely packed in Stockholm is spacious compared to completely packed in India) the Karol Bagh station (where we were staying in Delhi), with all our backpacks and all, and go all the way to Chandhi Chowk (Old Delhi Train Station), only to be greeted by an even worse chaotic mess. Walking from the subway station to the Old Delhi Train Station was psychic terror to a high degree, with cars, rikshaws, bicycles, cows, beggars, whatever running around every where, topped off by a vicious smell of human and animal excrement.

However, we reached the station, which also was in a chaotic mess, but thanks to a very helpful indian guy we managed to find our names on a list that showed what coach and what seat numbers we had for the Delhi-Jaisalmer express train. The train was 17 hours long, from 5 pm to 11 am the next day, and we got "beds" to try and sleep on (didnt really work out that well). Food contained of biscuits and snickers bars, with some water. Sophie woke up in the middle of the night only to be greeted by 3 indian children staring in awe at her. Not so strange perhaps since she looked competely insane in her "night mask".

Arrived on time, got out at the station, and lo and behold!, we could actually breathe here! Jaisalmer is a small place, only about 60 000 people, and it is nowhere near as insane as Delhi. First impression was very good. The hotel has a nice rooftop restaurant/terrace with views of the fort that is the center of the city, and it is all in all a very clean and well run place. The hotel, Shahi Palce, while not really a palace it is definitely recommended.


Jaisalmer is basically a fort, that is the centre of the city and located on a hill, and we spent a couple of hours sightseeing there, and visited a museum. It had some nice architecture, havelis, and was a nice place to walk around in.



Left early on the morning of Christmas eve on a camel safari into the deserte, just like the three wise men. We didnt find Jesus, but thats ok since none of us brought incense, gold or myrrh (whatever the hell myrrh is). What we did manage to find was a great safari trip with burping and farting camels, a Chrismtas eve party, fireworks, cold beer!, entertainment, a christmas present (the scarf), and a night slept outside under the stars (amazing experience).



On our camel ride we stopped at some temples, some dried up lakes, and a small village of about 5 families. We also realized that Indian Chai is really, really good :)



On our way back from the desert in a jeep, the guide insisted that two of us sat at the roof of the jeep (since we were too many to fit), which two people volounteered to do. And on the way back we also saw our very first bus with people sitting on the roof and hanging on for their lives on the back of the bus. The "genuine indian experience" doesnt get more genuine than that :)

None of us are sick, yet. Seems like a lot of people only talk about how sick they have been, and they almost try to top eachothers stories.

Tomorrow we take the night train to Jaipur where we will spend a couple of days, before heading on. The trip to Jaipur is only 12 hours long. Yay!

PS: We actually tried to write this earlier, but Jaisalmer suffered a black out, so it all got erased. Also, by the way, one thing to check off the "genuine indian experience" - list ;)

PPS: For the people complaining about lack of updates to this site, well... if you dont stop it, the Gagel-monster will eat you! In fact he invented cannibalism, so watch out.

Delhi

Ok, first day in Delhi done, right now on the second day, and already it is time to leave. The night train for Jaisalmer (17 hours worth of train ride!), leaves at 5.40 in the afternoon and arrives at 10 in the morning.

The initial reaction to arriving in Delhi was a complete shock actually. When we landed we did not really know we had landed because it was so "foggy" outside. Getting off the plane, immediately you felt the smell of something burning, and in fact the entire inside of the airport seemed to be covered in a, albeit light, fog.

Arrived at our destination in Karol Bagh, a very nice hotel, with super friendly staff (although we did not really want to drink the offered apple juice...), and started exploring the surroundings. It is indeed very chaotic, so much traffic, so many people. It seems that the most important feature of an Indian vehicle is that it has a loud, well functioning, horn. If you think Bangkok is extremely chaotic, well... Delhi is worse :)


Once the intitial shock had settled, we actually managed to see other things than cars trying to run you over (actually the traffic here actually "works" in some weird way, although there does not seem to be many, if any, traffic laws). So, already we've seen a cow, a holy man, and a leper. Conditions are actually quite awful and deplorable in places.

Today we've squeezed ourselves into an overpacked subway heading for the city centre, where we saw the National Museum (very interesting), and the India Gate (not that much to see).


None of us are sick, yet. We've shopped food for the train ride, and are getting ready to head back to the hotel to get the packs and go to the train station.


Perhaps in Jaisalmer there will be photos. We are not entirely sure yet. Either way, right now there are not that many photos to show anyway.

God jul to everyone!