Indioven

As mentioned in our last post, most of India just happens to be going through a heatwave currently (temperatures of over 45 degrees for an extended period apparently). As a result we spent most of the last week up in the Himalayan foothills in Himachal Pradesh, north of New Delhi. The only problem was that most Indians seemed to have the same idea..

Our first taste of India was at the international airport, where we were met by the expected heat, but not by the crowds of people that we'd assumed would be present. That changed quickly enough on the drive to our lodging, where our taxi driver managed to hit 3 cars in 90 minutes. We managed to go a full 10km's in that time, only to be told on arrival that we'd made really good time.

It was lucky that we did, as it gave me time to set up the playoff final on a tv and lock myself in a room while Bec did the more socially acceptable thing and actually spoke to our hosts. Obviously it was worth it. Also look how much more fun I had than the suckers who went to the game:

Me not looking like a sad homesick fan

Idiots pretending to have fun

This early sign of fantastic hospitality became a theme over the first week, leading to us overeating every day while simultaneously failing to pay for pretty much anything (including two nights at a Holiday Inn in Amritsar which also provided us with a courtesy car to reach various attractions). It was almost a relief when I finally got to actually pay for something once we reached Manali. Well I say almost...

First though was two days in Delhi, which mostly served as an experiment in how long Bec and I could survive doing touristy stuff in 45 degree heat without melting and or having a total breakdown. A quick experiment showed that Bec's time decreased proportionally to the amount of people looking at her, or if she had to get into a tuktuk.

Despite that we did manage to visit Qutab Minar, a stunning 73m, 800 year old tower just south of central Delhi. Most of the locals seemed to find Bec's v-neck t-shirt of much greater interest, which is weird as it's a lot less historically significant. We also visited two newer temples close to where we stayed, although these were markedly less impressive (with the exception of the fantastic statues shown below). After that we spent the afternoon being overfed while wondering if it would be rude to go and camp in the fridge.

Still don't know how there was any green left

Some of the intricate carvings in the stonework

Qutab Minar itself

And an attempt at an artistic photo of it

Some statues in one of the newer temples

And a close up in case you didn't see the faces clearly in the first one...

The next day we plodded round the Red Fort while taking a surprising amount of interest in anything which provided a shadow. We followed that up with a fairly brief tour on cycle-rickshaw of Chandni Chowk, a collection of numerous tight streets which form a large and overcrowded bazaar, the feel of which is exactly what I think most people would envisage of when they think of Delhi, or the northern line in rush hour. In summer. When you're already running late.

One of the buildings inside the Red Fort. Mostly I was still impressed by there being any green. The waterway is pretty empty though...

The red outside of the fort which gives the Red Fort its name of Red Fort. Because it's red. And a fort.

Pretty sure they didn't just nick that from HMV

Being chauffered around Chandni Chowk with standard view of imminent crash

Having successfully cooked ourselves we tried to find lunch, but this took an inordinately long time thanks to bec deciding she would only eat at the recommended restaurant as "otherwise we'll just get sick". It was at that point I started to think that this might become a very long month...(Chandni Chowk had already provided the first near breakdown of this leg, and she has since refused to ever return).

From Delhi we took the train (air conditioned - we're not complete cretins) to Amritsar, where one of our hosts had a friend running the Holiday Inn, leading to the free room and use of a car and driver. After staying a £10/night places in the Philippines it felt like luxury itself..

The main reason for going to Amritsar is to go to the Golden Temple, the holiest place of worship for Sikhs, of which many hundreds were queuing up despite the insane heat. However, the Wagah border ceremony was by far and away the star of the show, with pomp and ceremony kicked up more than the odd notch. Think changing of the guards mixed with the ministry of silly walks:

Despite taking over an hour to get through security, there were still so many Indian spectators that they needed a big screen outside so that they could all watch. Meanwhile tourists get to watch from a prime spot next to the VIP area. I get the feeling we'd be livid if it was that way round at home...

Love the juxtaposition of Ghandi being sandwiched between snipers..

Bec with new boyfriend

He was still taller goddamit. Think that hat is cheating though.

A view over the border into Pakistan. Note the pretty empty stands

And now the Indian side...

A proper face-off

Sniper selfie

The Golden Temple with aforementioned queue

One of the four entrances to the complex

You must cover your head while visiting, hence why it looks like a tramp has taken his grandmother to the temple

Seemingly covering things in precious metal is a very popular activity, as proved by our rather ostentatious pudding

Having decided that 45 degree weather was probably hotter than necessary, we took up an offer to stay at a house overlooking Shimla, an old colonial hill town 2200m up in the Himalayan foothills. This decision had seemingly simultaneously been reached by most of India's 1.2bn people, leading to a strong feeling of overcrowding and having seen better days. The key attractions are the old colonial buildings, most notably the Viceroy's residence which still looks great from the outside, but basically resembles a house after the bailiffs have come on the inside. As a result of a combination of both that and the rain, we ended up spending most of the day in an old army club getting fed and drunk. So actually we got a pretty good colonial experience after all.

Looking towards Shimla from the house

And a view of the house itself

The viceroy's old house. No photos were allowed inside, probably because it looks crap

Bec having an amazing time in the rain with the brother of our host. No drink was involved in the making of this photo

We had higher hopes for Manali, which is a small town located deeper into the foothills and which is surrounded by a few 6km+ peaks. The only problem is that to get there from Shimla you have to take part in an 8 hour re-enaction of the bus scene from the Italian Job. After 2 hours Bec decided that drugging herself was preferable to sinking her nails further into my leg, leading to me babysitting a pocket-sized bag of meat for the next 12 hours.

Manali is blessed with the four h's; hiking, hills, hippies and hashish. We were really there for the first two, but it was surprisingly hard to avoid either of the second, as marijuana plants seemed to just grow freely throughout the land surrounding the town. Apropos of nothing we spent most of our first day hanging out in a trekking shop for 4 hours. God knows why.

The next day, feeling absolutely fine with zero ill effects from any narcotics, we went for an 8 hour trek up to 4200m. I spent most of the time forlornly looking up the hill to see Bec disappearing off over the horizon with the guide (not like that I don't think, although they would've had the time while waiting).

The view from the town with the mountain we trekked up

Bec wandering over a very sound looking bridge, watched on by one of the two dogs that followed us for three hours (which Bec decided to name Gruffalo)

Token arty shot

Amazing hairstyle on display...and something else

This is as close as I got all day basically

This was Bec's view most of the time

Nearing the summit

Ten minutes later so was I...

A tiny panarama from the top

Just to prove I did make it. Bec's completed jumbo wordsearch book lies just out of shot

From Manali to our current destination Jaisalmer, all we had to do was take a 16 hour overnight bus to Delhi, followed by an 18 hour overnight train. In principle this was going to be simple (drug bec, watch films on laptop then deal with massive sleep deprivation later), but I hadn't counted on the first hour of the bus journey involving us remaining parked in the bus station while a gang of men tried to board the bus, only to be repelled by belt wielding people inside. This did wonders for Bec's calm demanour, which cracked so badly all the kings men were left clueless. Sadly I wasn't wearing a belt so felt a bit left out.

Anyway, bus fights aside we've made it to Jaisalmer safely and have yet to order the "special" lassi or "special" cookies which are sold here. I think I might buy some cookies for the train to Jodphur to hand around just to test their strength first. Expect a report to follow in the next week or so...

As ever,
Rob&Bec

ps: The favourite greeting here appears to be "how long?" which is incredibly personal. Still, most seem to guess 7ft so I'm doing something right.