Having made it to Jaisalmer, the next challenge was to refrain from spontaneously self-combusting anytime we left the hotel, as temperatures were regularly over 45c. Obviously the fact I'm writing this is a slight spoiler that I at least survived. Sorry to ruin that for you. Stay tuned to see if Bec made it though...
Jaisalmer is a small frontier town based around a hilltop fort situated in the middle of nowhere. Many tourists come for the camel trekking in the nearby desert, but for some reason riding a camel in extreme heat never really appealed. Actually nothing really appealed in the heat other than air conditioning and cold drinks, but we thought we should probably go and see a couple of things:
The view from the hotel
Above the entrance to the fort
Inside the fort - 3,000 people live within the walls
One of the 7 Jain temples within the fort
Token arty shot
Bec pointing at the wrong place on a map
The view from a nearby Haveli (old merchant's house) roof top
And the inside of the haveli...
And again (I think Bec has some ideas for her own dressing room now...)
I've rarely been so angry posing for a photo. There was no breeze and my skeleton was sweating
Apart from the trips to the fort and haveli, we spent most of our time moving from air-conditioning unit to air-conditioning unit. If you need any advice on any number of a/c brands I'm your man, having spent most of my time having staring contests with them. We also visited a special lassie shop, and currently have some delicious looking cookies with us which were strangely expensive for ordinary looking biscuits...
Meanwhile Bec continued to develop her affection for Indian red wines, primarily due to the absence of any acceptable cocktail bars. Having read that she was more likely to find one in Jodhpur, we hopped on the train and made our way there:
Mehrangarh fort (taken from a roof-top wine bar...)
The view out from the fort over the "blue city" #1
#2
#3
Inside the fort
Bec copying the standard pose adopted by seemingly all Indian tourists while visiting museums
A typically understated room
I assume this is the disco hall or something
I got bored of fort photos so have a pic of this guy
You could argue this mausoleum is a touch ott
I feel sorry for Bec's instagram followers as I often found her taking photos in front of any doors she came across. Strange girl.
Some temple in a park. We didn't stay long as Bec kept on getting harangued by small children and looked like she was having too much fun
The massive palace outside the city where the royal family still live (in 1/3, with 1/3 being a museum and the rest being a ridiculous looking hotel)
Somehow Bec also engineered a visit to a textile manufacturer on the outskirts of the city who apparently supplies Hermes, Liberty and some other people I'm sure Bec was impressed with but which I seem to have forgotten. Anyway, long story short the owner has probably retired and bought one of everything he can get his hands on. Still, Bec doesn't seem to be suffering from buyers remorse yet. Interesting revelation, she has no idea about haggling. It's taken repeated promptings for her to actually start offering a lower price. I'm thinking we should have done some trial runs before the real thing...
From Jodhpour we got a taxi to Udaipur which should have taken 4 hours
or so. Despite saying we were in a hurry we stopped 6 times for either
tea, some snack, or this sugar cane juice. Naturally being british I
accepted everything I was offered. Even more naturally I made sure I had
some immodium for pudding.
Mmm, hygenic
We took the time to visit a temple based around the deified motorbike you can see below (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_Banna). Almost everyone passing seemed to stop here so our taxi driver obviously thought he should do the same. Suddenly makes my worship of Wes Hoolahan look pretty normal.
This is not Wes Hoolahan
Bec posing for the umpteenth time with some Indian women who seem to love her. I think it's because she's the same size...
We also stopped at Ranakpur, a stunning Jain temple where the moment you walk in the head of the temple offers you a minute long prayer before handing out a begging bowl (donation bowl?). Bec and I had to go in 1 by 1 so after exiting the temple I warned her about her impending prayer. Cue her running into the temple and fast-walking around so the man couldn't catch up with her without running. Unfortunately there's only one exit, so despite her ingenious Benny Hill escape, she couldn't escape her destiny...
Yay, more temples
Isn't it lovely
Highly intricate carving. Very bad photo.
Arty
Having reached Udaipur we boarded a Willy Wonka boat to head to the Lake Palace hotel (which you might have seen in the James Bond film Octopussy) for a slightly un-backpackery nights accommodation. Notice please that isn't the plural of night, as I very much was only paying for just one of the expensive so and so's. The next two nights were spent in a lovely and much much cheaper place:
Pretty sure a beret wasn't in the actual uniform
The Lake Palace from the shore
Bec enjoy the understated welcome
The hotel astrologer
Another view of the palace
The Monsoon Palace (which got its name thanks to the Bond film)
Our private dining spot at the palace (disclaimer, there's no way I was paying for this and I might be lying)
The Palace garden
Textbook posing
Traditional Rajasthani dancing
I think the tambourine player had a sudden moment of questioning his life choices during the show
This bottle of wine had far too many numbers next to it
Because you always need fruit bats
The next day we went to the city museum, the star of which was this horse disguised as an elephant. Apparently the mask fooled elephants in battle so they wouldn't attack. Genius if ridiculous. I would have loved to see how much crap the first guy who tried it got before other people saw it working. (Well the actual star was a room full of crystal furniture but photos weren't allowed for some reason).
Inside the palace
I assume whoever made this was executed
A typically understated bedroom
And doorway...
Finally we ended our fantastic three days in Udaipur with a 4 hour cooking class, spent in the company of a woman who basically invites you into her house and orders you to do things while the rest of the family mills about and takes photos with you. Needless to say I was much better, and there's no proof of that statement being anything other than true as far as your concerned...
It was a strange night
We have since moved on to Ranthambore (the Tiger Park), via Jaipur, but that will all follow in the next update as I think the former will have an offensive amount of photos, along with our visit to the Taj Mahal which is scheduled for tomorrow.
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.
