28 August 2007
We have now been in India for 15 days and I feel the only way to sum up what life here is really like is, not by telling you what I’ve been up to, but by writing my own cultural guide to India!
Transport
This comes first because a) there’s so much to say about it; b) I’ve spent so much on it and in it and c) it’s bloody frightening!
Trains:
Make sure you sit in the seat allotted to you by name. If someone else has booked the seat for you, it may not be in your name, so you simply have to pretend to be someone else of approximately the same age and sex. If someone else has booked the seat for you, you also risk having to change seats halfway through the journey as the ticket inspector may have someone of a different name sitting in your seat at a different time!
Driving:
Drive as fast as you can for as long as you can. Get up as close as you can to the person in front of you then slam on your brakes. Use your hornas much as you possibly can! Beep at the person walking at the sid eof the road; beep at the two cows wandering onto the road; beep at the motorbike carrying 4 people, the tuk-tuk carrying 9 people, the jeep carrying 15, the truck carrying 27 and the bus carrying 99. Beep as you approach cars, beep as you want to overtake cars. Just beep beep beep! If whatever it is that you are approaching chooses not to move when you beep then continue to drive at it and swerve to miss it at the last second!
The Indians, like the British, drive on the left. Apparently! In reality, the Indians take up whichever part of the road will get them there the quickest; every corner is taken on the racing line - including those 500 metres up on top of a cliff edge!
The golden rules are:
1 - fit as many people as possible into/onto the vehicle - I have spent a number of journeys sat on the dashboard of the bus with my back against the windscreen - and it seems perfectly normal!
2 - Do not fit safety belts or wear crash helmets
3 - Drive as fast as you can to your destination and beep at anything that gets in your way.
4 - Sit back and enjoy the ride!
Communications
As you can probably tell by the fac tthat this is only my second entry to the website, communications here are not great! I believe I mentioned there were 2 internet cafes in this town - I went to one of them today and it has closed down! So here I am, writing from the only internet cafe in the town! This is not the only problem with ther internet here!
The connection speed is simply slow - nothing else to it - to open my hotmail account on the computer at the camp, takes in excess of 5 minutes - you can imagine how long it would take to upload a blog entry!
Power cuts are frequent so you can spend ages writing an email or document to simply lose it all as you are plunged into darkness! “Save it as you go along” I hear you say! Well, that, again, takes significantly longer than it would elsewhere - my lack of knowledge of computers leaves me baffled as to why this is the case, but it is!
The Post Office:
It’s open from 9-4.30, excpet on Sundays. Quite reasonable, you may think! Well, packages have to be sent by 2pm, and in order for you to fully understand why this can be difficult, I need to explain the process for sending a package: The package must be in a box - boxes are not available from the post office, nor do any of the shops seem to have any - on average you need to ask at least 10 people before you can aqcuire a box. Next, you need to buy white fabric andc wrap the box in it. This mues then be taken to the tailor who will sew the fabric to fit the box and seal the parcel with wax. Then you take the parcel to the post office where you have to write your name and sender’s address and the recipient’s name and address. This then needs to be stamped and sent. Total time taken last week for Ktherina and I to prepare and send her sister’s birthday present to Denmark: One and a half hours!
If you want to send a letter you must get in one queue to get an envelope, take it outside, write the recipient’s address on it, get in another queue, get a stamp, take the stamp outside to use the glue to stick it to the envelope, get in another queue, and send! (This I observed while waiting for the parcel to be sent!)
Animals
There are plenty of them: Everywhere! The streets are over-run with dogs, monkeys and cows. Cows here are sacred so people tend to take particular care not to hurt them - they just wander the streets, wander into people’s gardens etc., as do the dogs. There are a few dogs living in our neighbourhood who wag their tails when we arrive home at night. As soon as we turn the lights out to go to sleep, the dog choir very kindly sing us a lullaby, barking and howling into the early hours, then starting again a few hours later in case we’ve forgotten they’re there!
The monkeys mostly keep themselves to themselves, though they have been known to steal some washing from the line belonging to the girls staying in the apartment downstairs.
Spiritualism
There are temples everywhere. Hinduism is a religion tolerant of all other religions, believing there is one god that goes by many names. Equally, Sikhism, the second biggest religion in India, is tolerant and the Sikhs can pray anywhere, therefore, the temples are well used by all and religion here is fairly harmonious. Some of us were invited into a Hindu Temple last week (some of the girls could not go in as they did not have anything with them to cover their heads with) and were given the Tikaa (the red dot between the eyes), holy water to drink and holy rice to eat. It was a real honour, even if I am not religious.
Spiritualism is at the epicentre of life for all here; regardless of their religious beliefs, everyone will celebrate the festivals (today is Raaki - the festival of brothers and sisters).
Yoga:
In India, yoga is treated as a science; a way of life. It does not necessarily partenr with religion, though it is part of some religions. The yogic belief is that the self is what is important and that we are all human and all part of the human and natural world. We need to be happy and at one with our self in order to achieve enlightenment - I’ve been practising yoga in England for a while now and have found it relaxing, stretching and strengthening, but rearely enlightening, however, here, the whole approach to it is different and most of us have rarely known relaxation like that which we felt after last night’s yoga workshop - I think I need a new yoga class at home!
Massage:
It’s good and it’s cheap - what more can I say?! These guys know their stuff - I had a massage from an Ayurvedic Therapist in Manali at the weekend; it included a full body massage and reflexology for an hour at the grand price of just 300 rupees (that’s less than 4 pounds). He suggested I have reflexology everyday for week or two at home as I would benefit from it - and he couldn’t understand why I was laughing - the cost would be astronomical! Massage really is a science here, working to increase the body’s healing powers. It felt great!
Unfortunately, time, once again, has got the better of me - I need to get back to camp for the next yoga workshop which, as you’ve probably gathered, I thoroughly enjoyed and don’t want to miss to sit in front of a computer stooping my neck! So, I’ll just leave you with the reassurance, in case I’ve caused any doubt, that I am absolutely loving India - in spite of, and because of, all its eccentricities and crazy baffling ways, all of which we just put down to being “part of the cultural experience.” xxx
Namaste everyone, today is the Hindi Festival of Rahki so we have the day off. Its a brother sister festival and is all about protection of your family. You get given wrist ribons, the red tikka on your forehead and sweets. Spent the time after lunch playing cricket ith the camp staff and now wandered into town to update the blog, also uploading a sample of photos so check out the link on the bottom right of the page.
The past weekend has been spent in Manali. Its 180 km from Palumpur and is the main tourist destination of Himichal Pradesh. It takes six very long hours in a jeep to get there. Never complain about english roads because trust me, we dont have to put up with kamakazie bus drivers, mud slides and cows with a death wish. On the way back we saw the sad site of someone who tried to take on a corner and lost. A drop of 300ft with a trailer behind him, he was not walking away.
Anyway more cheerfully we arived in Manali and it was a really nice place. Very picture postcard with and old and a new town surrounded by forests and mountains.
Checking into the hotel I glanced up and noticed that the second floor had yet to be built but you get used to thigs like that!
First night we walked up to the Hanaman temple which was nset in a woodland glade. Would have been quite peacefull and spiritual in 1600 but now there are snake charmers and women with huge rabbits!
After a good look round we headed to Johnsons bar which im ashamed to admit does western food. After two weeks of curry i was craving chicken and bacon and pasta, and that is exactly what I had!! After lunch many people retired to their room but four of us (Selina, Karlijn and Mel and myself) fancied another beer. We wandered and found a place that was still open, inside we found a kicking club which shocked us as it as silent outside. Two hours later i rolled home (was not in Lins good books!)
Next morning Lins and Katrina had massages booked. Kasper, Ida and myself decided to walk round the Tibetten area. the Dahli Larma lives aout 30km from where we are in exile so there is a big tibetten influence in the area. The buddist temple we looked in was amazing with a Two storey statue of buddha and other gods. Thousands of bright colours and prayer flags were scatterd around the area. After the temple we wandered the streets and were invited into a Buddist school by a trainee monk. Here we learnt about the brutal occupation of Tibet by China and also got into an impromtue game of cricket with the child trainee monks. it ended when another serious looking monk stuck his head out the window and shouted!!
Old Manali is up a steep hill so after the Tibbeten area we made our way up the hill (note to self, do more exercise!) and waited for the others in a cafe. After and amazing tibetten lunch with tonnes of food for less than a pound each we split up again. The girls wanted to take advantage of the famous Manali shopping and kasper and myself were keen to explore. Heading off into the nature reserve we slipped through a fence and spent the next 2hrs wandering, scrambling over rocks nd exploring. Discoveries included a massive tree with no branches, an egg shaped rock (kasper wanted to take this home and had the idea of putting it into Idas backpack! but it was too heavy) and also the point where two rivers merged. One river was brown and the other a dark icey blue and the power and the colours where they came together were amazing
After two hours we exited the park and walked to Veshist up in the hills outside Manali. When you see a sign saying 2km it does not seem much, when the 2km are at 45 degrees its a killer.
On the way we wander up some intresting looking steps and found a small temple surrounded by Marajuna bushes but unfortunatly with a guard dog. Now you would think with the surroundings this dog would be chilled out but it was far from it. Que hasty retreat (Kasper - what do we do - Richard -Get a *&^&^^ move on!)
Once we finally reached Veshist it was a fantastic little village and gave us great dusk views across the Kulu valley. By this time the walking had beat us so we jumped in a tuk tuk. Imagine the worlds longest roller coaster with no seat belt and you have an idea.
Well thats enough for now, the torrential rain has stopped so im off to have a suit made for when i get back. Long time off i know but a score for a taylor made suit, you can not go wrong! Saying that I did have a pair of trousers made which have now been christened by everyone “Richs gay trousers”
Aacha Ji for now!
23 August 2007
Managed to find a faster internet connection in town so onwards with the journey so far.
After a good nights sleep in Dehli we had aour first introduction into what is known as “indian time”. After being told the night before that we would depart at nine we finally started the trip to Jaipur at 12.30. During the wait we got to meet all the other volenteers. Everyone is realy nice and we all get along really well. There are alot of people from Germany and Austria, a few from Denmark and the rest from the UK.
We arrived in Jaipur after five and were taken for a quick introduction at the projects main office and then we were sent to stay with our host familys to experience Indian life and culture and how they live. We stayed with the Yadhav family who were a teacher and a police inspector. He was in charge of the security for the cricket world cup when it was in India. The family were really friendly but compared with the rest of Jaipur, very well off. Its quite a contrast to see one moment, slums and the next be in a lavish house.
Lins and I were ushered to our room and asked if we were married. Being nine oclock by this time and to late to go elsewhere we had to lie and say yes. This lead to some quite akward moments over the next couple of days but we got through it ok. They are coming to London as some point and we said they could stay with us. How we are going to explain the lack of wedding photos I do not know but we will cross that bridge when we come to it!
Over the next few days the father quizzed us on the western life and how it compared with India and the wife fed us fantastic food! They were really nice people and dressed lins and two other girls up in saris and did henna tatoos. I talked cricket and philosophy (well he did, i just nodded and pretended i understood!)
During our time in Jaipur we visited the Amber fort. An amazing castle type structure overlooking jaipur. As we aproached the fort we stopped by the road to take photos. There were sellers waiting for usfor us and also a snake charmer. Not what you want at eight thirty in the morning, a slightly mad looking indian guy proding a black cobra with flute by your ankles!
The fort itself was home to the maharaja of jaipur who had twelve wives and lots of concubines (mistresses lee in case you were wondering!). Thats alot of sex, suprised he had time for anything else like ruling the provence.
India also celebrated independence day while we were there as well. The crowds in Jaipur were amazing and many were not used to tourists. With my milky white skin stood out alot and we all got loads of stares. Indian citys are very very intense and hard work but such colourful and fascinating places makes it all worth while.
As well as touring we had a number of lectures and lessons ranging from Hindi to the place of women in Indian society. Think india is very much a young nation and is following the west but probably 80 years behind. Poverty is a real problem as well as tradition such as the caste system and dowries but think it is taking positive steps and has good things ahead.
On friday we toook the long journey to Palampur. This consisted of a 14 hr train journey. Indian trains are really nice but packed to the rafters and due to a mixd up in booking tickets Lins name was Amanda Perry for the journey. We have only been here 9 days an already she has been both Lindsey Pratt and Amanda Perry. She will struggle to remember her real name at this rate by the time a year is up!
After a four hour jeep drive to travel 120km (when they say the roads are bad, they mean missing or fallen off the cliff face) we arrived at the voulenter camp. Palampur is surrounded in mist covered mountains and rocky rivers. In the space of a day we had gone from the hottest state to the wettest. It couldnt be more diffrent from the dusts of Jaipur, green and lush with rain every day, it lacks the frantic crowds and is a more peaceful and traditional way of life. You are treated more as one of the communtiy rather than an outsider. Kids are desperate to speak to you and people are really friendly. If you try and use hindi and take an instrest in the culture and religion you can really feel at home.
Yesterday we visted a temple to the godess Durka and spoke with the presit. We recived holy water and rice and a bindi (red head spot) as well as a blessing and he was happy that we had made the effort to attend. It was intresting to see how spiritual these places feel. May have something to do with the ginat marajuarna bush growning right outside
Over the past couple of days i have also started the volounter work. In the mornings I help teach a computer class and in the afternoon i teach english. The girls are all great and range from 17 to 24. So far its really enjoyable.
This weekend we head to Manhali with other people from the camp. Our plan is to hire mountain bikes and guides and do a bit of touring around. Also rumours of a Italian restaraunt with real pamersan cheese. God send after 11 days of eatting vegtable curry. Really craving meat, keep seeing cows on the street and they slowly turn to juicy steaks before my eyes. The diet out here is 95% vegtable based so if you see in the news, man arrested for bitting cow in India you will know I have snapped.
Hope everyone is good back home, v photos look cool but wet!. Hope your all enjoying work!!. Going to try to upload some photos next week as only writen words get a bit tedious.
One final thing, saw the mother of all spiders last night running up the wall outside. There massive and freaky looking, not good!!
19 August 2007
Hi all! Sorry it’s taken so long to write the first entry - internet access is not easily accessible here, though we are now in Palampur in the region of Himachal Pradesh, where we will be statying for the next 3 weeks and there are two internet cafes in the town, so from now on, the updates will be a little more regular!
So, what have I been up to? Well, after a short sleep to catch up on sleep, we ventured out into the Delhi streets and were quickly accosted by a local tuk-tuk driver who was trying to tell us where to go and how he would take us there. We tried to decline, but our attempts were simply met with a constant barrage of ‘You’re confused by what I’m saying. You must not be confused.’ We weren’t bu the clearly was, so we just accpeted in the end. Our sight-seeing largely involved moving from one of his friend’s shops to the next, but for 40 rupees (about 50p) we had a chauffeur for 2 hours! And I did succumb to a top and a bangle!
We got up early the next morning to head for Jaipur, however, we were still waiting for some of the volunteers to arrive so we sat in the hotel lobby for 3 hours and finally left at midday for the 7 hour hourney (which was only 280 km). Rich managaed to sleep for most of it, in spite of the fact that the terrible roads here meant that my chest was bouncing all the way here (note to self: wear sports bra for future bus trips)!
We stayed with our host family in Jaipur: the sheet of paper we received when we got to the project office said our host was a policeman, but it quickly became apparent that that job title understates his role! He is an Inspector who has also acted as a consultant to the U.N. He was clearly a very intelligent man (with 7 post-graduate qualifications to prove it!) and his wife, who has 3 post-grad qualifications of her own, is a teacher who, somehow, also manages to run the family home and cook incredible food. Rich and I and two other girls were staying at the house and the wife obviously enjoyed having girls around as she spent 2 hours on the first night tatooing our hands with hennaand the last night we dressed up in saris for photos with the family.
Our Jaipur stint also included a trip to the incredible Amber Fort, built in 1590 and developed over the next 100 years, the technology was amazing - they had their own early versions of air-conditioning, central heating, disco mirror-balls and loudspeakers!
We also had lessons in Hindi (mine now runs to about 50 words I think; not bad for a few days of learning a new language, though I do say so myself), learnt aboutWomen’s positions in India (not good - thousands of women each year are killed as they do not bring to their husband’s family a sufficiently large dowry, and many are left to die or are killed after birth as they will cost money to support, just to be given to another family when they become ‘useful’) and Hinduism and the caste system (which apparently doen’t exist anymore; there is just a ‘casteist feeling’ that means that the classes are still living separate lives, but from the number of people we’ve seen living at the side of the road, I beg to differ).
Finally then, we took the 14 hour-long train journey to Himachal Pradesh and the 4 hour bus ride (120km) to arrive where we are now. As I have to back at the camp in 10 minutes for lunch, I’ll have to leave it here for today, so I’ll tell you about this place in the next entry. For now, I’ll just say that, for the next three weeks, I’ll wake up in the morning surrounded my mountains and monkeys playing in the trees!
Phir Milenge (see you) xx
Been in India a week today and this is the first time I have managed to get to the internet. Very few places have it so updating this blog will be slow for the first month and probably wont be able to save photos. Will write a quick message now and try and get some more time in the week. In general were both really enjoying it and I havent been ill yet (bets still on Lee). The food is amazing and nothing like the stodgy curries we get back home. The cost of living is so cheap and i keep finding myself converting to pounds and weing shocked by how little everything is. Think Paul the engineer from site would still think its a rip off!
India, how can you describe it. Probably the best word is intense.
Really is very few tourists here and you get stared at alot. Also get viewed as a rich westerner so there is alot of harrasment from small children for money and people to buy things but with that said I love the place. People are really friendly and keen to find out about you, England and western life. The whole atomsphere is buzzing. Everywhere is busy and colourful and you often find yourself stopping and double checking what you have just seen!
Arrived in Dehli what seems an age ago. Instantly greeted buy the chaos that is india. After getting out of the airport we met the guys who would take us to the hotel where we stayed for one night. What instantly strikes you is how poor the country is. Even in the airport car park people are living in shelters and slums are prolific all through the centre of Dehli.
The traffic is truely shocking, words can not describe the vast amount of cars, bikes, tuk tuks, cows, horses and people on the road. Signs, signals and lanes mean nothing and the basis of indian driving is the horn. Beep as often as you can and you invincible (lot like being in the car with Russ, you never feel safe!) .
Hotel was really nice but not anything like western hotels. After a few hours sleep and watching the cricket for a bit we ventured out into Dehli and were instantly harrassed by Tuk Tuk drivers and beggers. After five minutes of bargining we went on a tour of nearby conaught place for 40rp (50p!).
On the way their saw a huge temple in the shape of Hannam (the monkey god), he is known as the god of luck so we bowed our heads to him to help our survival after about five near misses in the tuk tuk. Our drive had the habit of turning around all the time whilst driving!
Conaught place was a bit of a tourist trap but nice and after a few hours looking at shops returned to the hotel and passed out.
Off back to camp now for some lunch, will try and write a few updates about the last week on Wednesday. Come on the Sky Blues!
11 August 2007
Well the wait is nearly over. This time tomorrow ill be on my way to the airport ready to fly out to Delhi to start the adventure. I cannot wait! #
Packing is all but done, having a nice bland English dinner tonight before the next couple of months of eating Dahl and spicy vegetable dishes. Busy saying goodbye to people and doing last minute chores.
Typically the Sky Blues got off to an absolute blinding start to the season and hopefully will continue (probably has something to do with me not being here to jinx them)
Nerves are gone now and just really excited! Sleep will be difficult tonight I think!
8 August 2007
Its really weird to be saying ” see you in a year” to family and friends. At the moment a year seems like an eternity but as you plan how long your staying in each place soon realise its not really that long at all.
Four days to go now before the big off and its a mixture of feelings. Im sad to leave friends and family. Sure there will be times when its hard when im away and will miss them. Was really good that Russes stag do fell when it did becasue i got to see everyone together and thats getting increasing rare these days due to the busy lives we all lead.
One the other hand im really excited, the more i sort out and the more i research about places the more i can not wait to go. Find myself bouncing around the house and imagining what places are going to be like. Think fear of the unknow is a good thing and you have to challenge yourself.
Keep ticking off “last times” for a year. Last night was final Tae Kwon Do lesson for 12 months and today is last time i see people from work.
Will really sink in tonight when i pack my backpack. All i can say is happy days and bring it on!
