Update from Pushkar

Pushkar was great, but it started to get insanely crowded on Sunday, so Im happy I left then. I can imagine that it normally would be a very relaxing and laid back place.. The lake in town, surrounded by all the Ghats was really special. I might go back here later to experience the peacefulness of the place, however I say that I want to go back to a lot of places, so I will just have too see what happens. I also ran into Eric, the Canadian I met in Rishikesh. According to him a lot of the people we met in Rishkesh where also here, although I didn't see anyone else.

Pushkar Lake

I took about 8 rolls of film in Pushkar. I must have a hundred pics of camels. They are being developed now... so Im very excited to see how they will turn out! On Sunday morning me and some Swedes I met (Olav, Maria and Caroline) got up at 6 am !!!! and went into the camel area to see the sunrise. It was beautiful, but its a lot easier to see sunsets (hehe)... so I think I will mostly stick to them in the future...

There is an excellent place to see the sunset in town by the lake...and believe it or not there is a cafe called "Sunset Cafe" just there...how shocking....hehe....Everywhere where there are backpackers/travellers/tourists, they call the cafes and restaurants stuff like Sunset Cafe/Sun & Moon Guesthouse/ and you also have a lot of God names, like Shiva Cafe, Laxmi Restaurant etc...and every single place claims to have the best food in town/the best view/best accommodation etc...and lets not forget the German Bakery, a must in any tourist/travellers place. Sorry, I don't mean to sound cynical here, I just find it all really funny;)

A lot of the places are really nice though and if you want to meet other travellers, its great to know where to go. However I don't feel like just going to such places. It will be interesting to go and see Dharamshala in the off-season, even though it will be pretty cold and deserted, people might be more genuine (I hope). Im heading up there tomorrow night by the way.

This week there is a Swedish Film festival, so Sonal and I are going to see at least one of them. Funny going all the way to India to watch Swedish films....:)

Camel Galore!

Anyone need a camel ? Let me know ;) I just got here a few hours ago, great atmosphere! That's all I can say so far. There is also a lot of sand, dust and camels of course...

Still in Delhi

Yes, believe it or not, but im still here. The city is growing on me and since I also have made a few friends here I think it's a good place to hang about for a few days every now and then - its kind of a basecamp.

Some of the people I stayed with. Nishant, Nikki, Jessie & Abishek

I was supposed to head up to Shimla and then Dharamshala about now, but then Sonal, the girl I'm staying with finally convinced me to come along to Pushkar (for the Camelfair) this weekend. A lot of her colleagues are coming too, so it sounds like it will be fun.

The last few days in Delhi I've spendt just roaming around in a few markets and bookshops. I also got myself a new Sigma zoom (27 - 200 mm) for my SLR, so Im very excited about Pushkar. Should be an amazing place to to take photographs!

Last night Sonal had invited a few friends over, so we had some tasty Indian food and I learned how to make baby naan bread ;)

Back in Delhi again

I got back from Rishikesh last evening after spending 7 hours in a very confined space on a local bus. Although it wasn't too bad since I also had a travel companion for a change, Eric a Canadian guy, really nice and funny, was also heading to Delhi, so we arranged to go together. We passed most of the time listening to music. We also made a futile attempt to play Abalone, but after one bump in the road, all the balls got all jumbled up, so we dropped that idea :)

We got into Delhi about 6 pm I think. We then spend some minutes inhaling exhaust from the hundreds of buses passing by us while we tried to find a rickshaw that didn't try to rip us off.

In the end I think we just took one that kind of ripped us off anyway, but really when you look at it its not that much money after all. Eric was going to Pahar Ganj, so I shared the rickshaw with him till there. From there I walked up to Connought Place where I found another rickshaw who actually knew where South Extension, the place I live in at the moment, was. It is pretty far from the centre, so not everyone knows where it is. I have realized, even if they say they do they don't. I have had quite a few trips where we have spendt 20 minutes going in circles with the driver asking about 31 different people where south Extention is.

Well, Rishikesh was a really great place, although FULL of Israelis (if I hadn't known better I could just as well have been in Israel. So the first night (ah...I just got some birthday cake...mmmm..Im in Sonal's office and one of the women here has her birthday today and they made a surprise party - nice :)

ok..so about the Israelis. The first night in Rishikesh I think i ended up in the Jewish Quarter or something, everyone was speaking Hebrew around me. So the next morning I moved hotel and although there were still a lot of Israelis I could hear other tongues (not that I have anything against them, but they are usually in big groups and it can make you feel a little excluded if you are not extremely outgoing...as me:) I did talk to a few really nice Israelis though, its just a bit easier to approach people when they are alone or in smaller groups.

I also met Eric, from Canada and Kaz from New Zealand. One day we went for a hike up through a valley, following a stream. It was really beautiful and peaceful, but the hike was pretty steep and it was very hot, so after a couple of hours I was completely knackered. So we basically just sat down in the middle of this steep path. I was just totally empty of energy and about to overheat. So Eric ran (!?) (yes, that did make me feel very out of shape!!) further up the path to see if there was anywhere where the hill might flatten into a valley, but that didn't happen, instead the path just suddenly stopped. So since we appeared to be a bit off track we sat down had som water and nuts before we headed back down again.

It was a very good hike and it was great to see more than just the centre of Laxman Jhoola.
I also strolled up along the Ganges a few times, there are some nice sandy beaches along there.]]I didn't take a dip though, damn, I regret not doing that!! hm...well at least I got a good reason now to go back there sometime later ;)

Trainjourney from hell

I arrived here yesterday. On the way here I had an unforgettable train journey from Agra to Tundla (a town 26km from Agra where I had to change train to Haridwar). From Agra to Tundla it is supposed to take about 30 min. It took 4 hours! The train moved for about 5 minutes each time, then had 20-30 minutes stops and no one seemed to know why?)

I didn't have a reserved seat, so I was squeezed among 20 staring men next to the latrine! It stank. There was also 3 military guys with a prisoner on a leach and some heavy guns. 1 meter from me. Luckily there was a nice man from Lucknow, a professor in Persian languages in fact (not that it matters). He was a bit concerned for me and wondered why I was stuck were I was. He kept my spirits up tho' and he was nice to talk to.



In Tundla I had to wait a few hours for the connection train. Since this was late at night I was happy to see that there was a ladies waiting room. So I seeked refuge there. When time came to look for my train I first managed to step onto a wrong train and it was a shocking experience. It was so full of people and many of them seemed very sick and poor. Luckily I found someone to ask if I was on the right train. I found out just in time that I was not. I was on the one going to Varanasi. No wonder there were a lot of pilgrims, Holy men and so on there. I managed to get off just before it left the station.

In the end I found the right train. I had reserved a place in the second class sleeper, which was totally ok. I didn't sleep much though. First time ever alone in a train like that could make anyone a little nervous:) It was about 9 hours to Haridwar. From there another hour on a bus to Rishikesh.


Laxman Juhla Bridge

Rishikesh is much more laid back than Agra and the nature and scenery is great. It is set in a valley and the holy river Ganges is running through here. I think actually this is more or less where it begins. I even dipped my feet in it today:)


The Ganga

Today is Diwali. A big Hindu festival, similar to christmas. Everywhere they have decorated with lights in all kind of colours and they send up fireworks and firecrackers all the time!

Stuck in Agra

Im still in Agra, unfortunately. I was supposed to meet a friend yesterday, but suddenly he couldn't come due to some college things. Anyway, nevermind about that, I'm off to Rishikesh tomorrow, planning to spend Diwali there. It is supposed to be a chilled out place, something I really need after about a week in Agra!!!! I should infact get a diploma for surviving so many days there...hehe.

This morning I went and saw the Taj Mahal properly. It is absolutely stunning, unbelievable beautiful. A friend told me to go see it, even if I had seen a million pictures and postcards of it and that was so true. No photo can convey the beauty!



Not much else is happening apart from the normal everyday hassle from the rickshaw drivers and their more or less standardized questions that are beginning to drive me slightly mad:

Where you from?
What's your name?
How long here?
Which hotel you stay?
How long India?
When come?
How like India?
I have a cousin in Norway!
Want to see shop?

etc..etc....then multiply these questions by about 2000 and you get the average times you will hear this during one day. No wonder a lot of travellers/tourists end up sounding a bit rude in the end!?

Anyway, on Friday I went to Fathepur Sikri. It was supposed to be a day trip, but since the place was so relaxing, I met some nice people, watched the sunset, had some chai (a lot in fact), played backgammon etc...in the end I didn't catch the last bus back to Agra and had to stay overnight in a hotel there!(If I hadn't been expecting this friend to come to Agra on Saturday I would probably have stayed on longer...well maybe I'll go back there sometime later.
It is definitely worth a visit if you are in Agra!

Taj in sunset and bed bugs feeding frenzy

I saw the Taj in sunset last night, really amazing, if it hadn't been for all those damn mosquitos I could have watched it for hours. I still haven't been inside though. I will save it till Abishek comes, its too expensive to enter twice. After my Taj viewing I just went back to the hotel, but I realized that I had ended up in an extremely shitty place. I still don't understand why on earth I said I'd stay there. It was a really cramped, dark room, no fan, no real possibility to stick up mosquito net, disgusting bathroom (it was a 1 sq. meter with dirty, molded walls and hole in the ground) and the bed was full of BEDBUGS (well, that I discovered this morning when I woke up, realizing I had been the victim of a massive feeding frenzy). One arm is completely covered with small red spots and so is my face. I look like a freak! Argh...it itches too!! So I have just been to a pharmacy and equipped myself with all kinds of remedies for both bedbugs and mosquitoes.



(Don't stay at Hotel Akbar Inn) I have also moved to another guesthouse which is soooooooooo much nicer. I rather pay a little more for a better place, than getting eaten up by miscellaneous insects:)

Agra is also the most frenetic place, if you ever thought you felt hassled by people in Delhi, then try Agra and Delhi will seem like a walk in the park. I though maybe my freak look would keep them at a distance from me, but to no avail :( Even complete ignorance does not work here, nor does scraming your head off telling them to "fuck off"...actually I didn't really do the last thing, although I was very tempted. One thing that did work on occasion was "Jao!" which mens "Go away!" in Hindi.

Kafka nightmare - refunding ticket in Agra

I just arrived a few hours back, I'm still a bit perplexed by all the hassle so I escaped into this Internet place for some peace and quiet! Had a painful experience with Indian red tape at the train station earlier when I wanted to cancel my ticket to Jaipur. What a process....Kafka style!!
Instead of Jaipur I'm going to meet up with Abishek (one of the guys I lived with in Delhi) on Saturday and we will do a little round trip to Gwalior, some other place I don't remember the name of and hopefully be in Varanasi for Diwali. Should be fun:)

Warning!
Don't bother trying to refund your tickets unless you are Buddha - you will need oceans of patience. Well at least according to my experience. I foolishly thought it would be done in a couple of minutes to get my money back. But nooo way. After standing in the wrong lines for a while I finally got to the right window only to find out that I had to talk to another man, I don't know what he was, but I had to follow him to another office. There I got a form (2 pages A4) to fill out. When finished he tells me that they will send this to a special office and i needed to put down an adress in India and then they would send my money there (the process would take 3 months he also informed me!). Haha..if I knew about this complicated process before I would never had started it, but once caught up with it I followed it through. However I never saw these money ever again! It was not a lot of cash, so I dont mind, but it was funny how extremely complicated they made it just for a few hundred rupees.

Mad traffic

I am so glad I decided to stay on in Delhi for a while, it has been really interesting. The last week I have been staying with Nishant (another friend here) and 2 of his flatmates (Jessie & Abhishek) in their flat. They are great people by the way:)

Actually every person I have met so far have just been so helpful and hospitable, I hope I can return the favour later in life to either them or others. Unfortunately I haven't really got time to write about all the funny/weird things that is part of life as a foreigner, but I am getting used to the chaotic traffic and I am amazed by how well it work in spite of how unorganized it looks.

The first time I took a rickshaw I thought I wa going to get die about 3 times during a span of 20 minutes, but somehow they have become experts at avoiding hitting each other so now I am pretty relaxed about it.

However one evening I was going to the cafe with Nishant and all he had was an Enfield. It was terrifying sitting on the back of this bike through the madness that is called traffic here. However even that I am getting more used to now (as long as he drives very sloooowly :)




Me pretending to ride the bike

Anyway, I haven't really done much more sightseeing here since I get a bit annoyed with everyone hassling me as a tourist, so I have spent most time helping Sonal with some design stuff or just hanging around with the few friends I have made here. I have also tried to figure out if the embassy have got my things, but making a phone call from a lot of these STD booths is such a pain and when I finally get through they are always in a meeting?!
And there is always at least one guy on the phone next to me shouting in Hindi to the person at the other end, in addition there is the usual hustle and bustle of traffic and people chatting in general. Its almost impossible to hear if you get through to wherever you are calling.

Anyway, I am a bit sick of calling the embassy all the time, so now I'm just going to go away for a few weeks (Agra tomorrow morning) and hopefully my things have arrived when I'll get back (unless the courier company is planning on bringing it from Norway by foot that is :)

Art & craft roundtrip of Delhi

I called the Norwegian embassy today and it seems like my cards will come on Tuesday, so I have booked tickets for Agra and Jaipur - leaving Wednesday morning:)

Yesterday was a really good day by the way. I went to the office and did some work there until about noon, then I went with Sonal to visit their graphic designer. I might actually go and work at her studio on Monday and Tuesday. After this we visited lots of galleries and arts & crafts centres. Very interesting!