Me Me

Saturday 29 November 2014

India: Rishikesh

Getting to Rishikesh was a bit of a mission. We had to get a taxi from Pushkar to Ajmer to get a train to Haridwar and then get a bus to Rishikesh bus station before getting a rickshaw to the old town where we were staying. However, after all of that, we were told that the old town doesn't allow any motor vehicles in it so no rickshaws or taxis could take us directly to our hostel. We were dropped off at a bridge which crosses the Ganges river which would take us to where we needed to be. We were instantly taunted by a group of monkeys - and not the traditional, cute, relaxed type that you see at the zoo but rather a clan of rhesus macaque monkeys (check them out) who began hissing at us and eyeing up Sarah's crisps which she hurriedly hid in her bag in fear of being attacked. A few locals managed to scare them off by throwing stones in their direction and we quickly shuffled across the bridge and safely made it to the other side. Phew!



Upon arrival at our hotel, Hotel Green View, we were welcomed by the manager who informed us that we had free room service included in the cost of our room which we immediately pounced on and ordered some beans on toast, chips, and spaghetti bolognaise - so Indian! We were so exhausted from all of the travelling the day before, overnight, and for some of the morning that we decided to take a 'quick nap' and woke up about 5 hours later, meaning most of the day had gone by. We really needed the sleep catchup though so weren't too disappointed. In the evening we decided to just go out for dinner and have a chilled night and managed to find a reaaaaaally cheap restaurant which served the most delicious Indian food and, as you've probably come to realise by now, we love food and we love a bargain so we were pretty satisfied by this!

The next day, we headed out into Rishikesh to explore the shops and the Tera Manzil temple. The temple is a famous tourist spot and holy multi-story temple located on the river banks of the Ganges. The holy shrine has 13 storeys and each storey has several idols of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. On the way back from the temple, we explored some of the small stalls and shops which lined the streets of Rishikesh. We found the items they were selling to be quite unique and different than others we'd previously seen so need less to say, we spent quite a few hours weaving in and out of them. Along the way we were subjected to yet another monkey attack. We hadn't quite learned our lesson from the initial taunting and were walking along casually minding our business and snacking on some crisps when the monkeys appeared and spotted them straight away. Sarah decided to surrender her crisps to the enemy in order to save herself (of course we're not being dramatic...) while Sam, as usual, was completely oblivious and subsequently became the prey of the largest monkey ever. He ran at her and jumped up onto her to steal the crisps and actually managed to graze her skin with its sharp claws in the process. However, the cutest old man came to her rescue with a large stick and managed to shoo the monkey away before warning Sam that she must keep everything hidden in her bag to avoid becoming a target again. He then gave her his stick to protect us just in case we came across any more monkeys along the way. After finding some bargains in the shops and stalls, we decided to have a pit-stop in Cafe Coffee Day for an iced latte and lemon iced tea which we would highly suggest trying if you're ever in India, sooo tasty!

The highlight of our time in Rishikesh is most definitely doing river rafting along the Ganges. It cost around 400 rupees which is about £4 for about 4 hours - another total bargain. We got picked up quite early in the morning in a jeep and off-roaded north for a while until we reached the point where we would get onto the river. We got suited up in our sexy life jackets and helmets and got given some oars and we were good to go! Unfortunately we didn't take a camera because we were worried it would get damaged if it got wet but when we got there the rafting guys pulled out a dry bag that we could have used to keep the camera dry. Mega fail by us. We got told that there were 9 rapids along the route we were going to take and that each would be a different level of difficulty - between 1-3. We started off nice and easy and came to a level 1 rapid first - it was so much fun rocking over the rough water, most of which splashed up into the raft completely soaking us and we can't even begin to explain how cold the water was! We carried on along the river and met some of the stronger rapids which were so rough we thought we were going to fall out - apparently this is a regular occurrence so a real possibility. The water was splashing everywhere around us coming right up and over our heads - there was not a dry part of us left but it was soooo much fun. After a while, the guy controlling the raft told us to get up and jump in which we were very reluctant to do (for about 30 seconds) after getting to know the water's temperature but we decided to man up and take the leap and ohhhh myyyyy god it was FREEZING! Our life jackets were up to our necks and our helmets were basically hanging off; we looked so attractive! After about 10 minutes of floating in the water which our bodies just could not adjust to, we decided we were too cold and asked how we got out. We were then gripped by the top of our life jackets and literally heaved out of the water like sardines; as we were getting lifted out our heads were shrinking inside our jackets - the crab look? We also got to jump back out of the raft whilst we were going through a rapid which was so much fun because the water was so rough and just dragging us along. It was really surprising how quickly you float along the river with the current. The views along the way were pretty spectacular too; its impossible to explain just how much fun we had. We wanted to do it all over again as soon as we reached the end. :(

Just before leaving, Bethan and Sam decided a massage was necessary. For the last few weeks we've been lugging around our ridiculously heavy rucksacks, sleeping on trains, sharing beds, getting pushed about amongst the busy streets, and just getting generally worn out. We booked for an ayurvedic massage - a bargain at just 800 rupees (£8) for an hour's full body massage. We were covered in a variety of oils and then massaged from head to toe - a perfect way to relax. We were very surprised afterwards to find that all of our chronic aches (knee and back pain) were much more soothed. Sam has been suffering with a bad back for the majority of our time away and hasn't really had any trouble with it since! We followed up our massage with lunch in a cute rooftop restaurant which overlooked the river - very peaceful and very tasty!

Rishikesh has definitely been one of our favourite places to visit so far - the atmosphere is just completely different to anywhere we've been before and is definitely much more relaxed. We think that having no traffic constantly beeping and no rickshaw drivers hassling you makes the world of difference and really allows you to appreciate your surroundings at a leisurely pace without having to rush through to avoid such hassle. In our opinion, its a definite must see in India!














Happy Wanderers

India: Amritsar

We were back in the comfort of sleeper class for our journey to Amritsar. We were very amused to realise how much lower our standards are getting, the longer we spend in India. Before arriving in India, we were pretty concerned about sleeper class - now we welcome it with open arms after the 'jungle car' experience!


Amritsar had long been on our list of must see places in India - we were very excited about visiting the Golden Temple after sooooo many amazing reviews and tips from fellow travellers along the way. We were approached upon leaving the station, as per, by a really nice man who offered to take us to our hostel for 60 rupees (around 60p). Despite his best efforts to get us to stay in a hotel he knew (which he tried to sell to us by saying it had running water - clearly not a standard inclusion in Indian hotels) we got to our hostel at a pretty decent time of day and were welcomed with lots of chai and a really welcoming atmosphere. We instantly knew we were going to love staying there. The hostel was called Jugaadus Eco Hostel and is pretty much, as far as we could find, the only hostel in Amritsar but that did not impact on the quality of it. The beds were amazing and definitely the comfiest we had slept in during our entire time in both China and India and there was hot water!!! To the average person this doesn't seem like much of a big deal but in India, hot water is very very rare and is appreciated more than you can imagine. After a long train journey, a hot shower was the most perfect thing. We were told straight away that we could use any food in the hostel and the washing machine for just a small donation to the hostel. The money is then used to buy more food and washing products etc. which we thought was a really good idea as it encouraged us to stay in the hostel and eat which enabled us to socialise more. Chai was basically on tap which was amazing for us as we've become pretty hooked on it over the last few weeks and have learnt to never turn down a cup! We also learned that the hostel run tours everyday - a market tour, a food tour, a visit to the Wagah border, and many more, which were run by the owner of the hostel, Sanjay - one of the nicest, craziest, and entrepreneurial people we've ever met. We can't sing his praises enough and our stay in Amritsar would not have been the same without him. He could not do enough for us, he answered every question we had with as much knowledge and information he could, he told us the most random of facts, and he also shared his experiences and life journey with us so by the time we left we felt like we'd known him for much longer than the four days we'd been in Amritsar.

The next day we decided to visit the Wagah border ceremony. This is a daily military practice that the forces of both India and Pakistan observe closing the border between the two countries. Every day at sunset there is a lowering of the flags at Wagah which has traditionally been the only road link between the two countries. We were so excited to see this so made sure it was the first thing on our list of things to do. The crowds are absolutely insane though. We were told beforehand that as non-Indian visitors we would have to sit in a foreigner section when we got inside, making us feel like VIPs. However, in the time between when we arrived by rickshaw and actually getting to our seats we felt like sardines in a tin being squashed between hundreds and hundreds of Indian people all in a hurry to get in first so pushing forward as hard as possible, elbows flying everywhere; it was so uncomfortable. There were separate queues for men and women and we were told that a mixed queue would never ever happen - another reminder to us of the inequality of women in India yet again. The locals didn't understand that we were trying to push through to get to the Foreign queue and made a point of pushing us and digging their elbows into us so hard whilst cursing us and holding hands to form a barrage so we couldn't get through. It was ridiculous. We were so smug when 5 minutes later, the guards called us right past them and around 100 other women to the front of the queue where we trying to get in the first place as the women watched on irately. Upon arrival, we found that the foreign seats were actually the best ones in the entire area which suited us perfectly. The only spoiler for us was, unsurprisingly, a group of Chinese tourists with cameras who could not understand that they had to sit down because they were blocking everyone else's view and kept trying to move outside of the permitted areas. They were also wearing ridiculously large hats which blocked out view even further. #chinanostalgia. The ceremony starts with a parade by the soldiers from both the sides, and is followed by numerous visitors getting the opportunity to take part in the ceremony by taking a flag of the country on which side they are located and running towards the gate and back. Sam and Bethan got picked out by one of the soldiers to take part. Although reluctant at first, they both had the best time running along with the flags - it was so much fun. After that there is a further parade by the soldiers of both sides and then the ceremony ends with a simultaneous lowering of both flags as the sun sets. Once the gates are closed, the ceremony ends with a retreat that involves a brusque handshake between soldiers from either side. It really is the most fascinating thing to watch, the soldiers are so flexible, one solider was raising his straight leg right up to his face! 

On the way back to the city we visited the craziest Hindu temple EVER. It was just ridiculously wacky and went on forever. It was basically like a mad house that you find at a funfair and really reminded us of the one that they visit at the end of the movie Grease during the final few scenes at the fair. Every few steps took you into a different type of corridor filled with pictures and statues of numerous religious figures and was filled with reflective wall tiles and lights etc. You left by walking through some watery corridor which lead to the main worship area. Outside the temple there were many children getting their head shaved completely bald. One lady was kind enough to explain the concept of this for us. Within the Hindu religion it is tradition to shave the first growth of hair to signify freedom from any past life. It was very interesting to see this, the poor babies were not happy about it at all! So sorry to say that we didn't catch the name of this temple so it may be a little hard to find for yourselves if you were wanting to visit. 

The next day we were chatting to some of the other backpackers at the hostel who recommended we went on the food tour, run by Sanjay himself. Sanjay then explained to us that for 100 rupees he would take us on a walking tour around the local village where we could sample all of the local delicacies whilst also taking in the sights of the local markets and neighbourhoods. As major foodies this was the perfect invitation and we needed no further persuasion. We genuinely enjoyed the whole day and felt like we learnt a lot about the local food, how it was made, and the history behind the food traditions. Again, Sanjay made the tour by imparting all of his knowledge as a local - he took us to places where we never would have visited ourself because of our lack of knowledge of the local language and also because they are not necessarily tourist spots which was definitely a good thing because the food was soooo good and the prices were set at what locals would pay. We especially liked that the owners of the places we visited are recognised as some of the best at what they make and could charge so much more money when selling but choose not to because they are happy with what they have. It makes you really appreciate what you have and what you take for granted. We tried so many different foods, many of which we hadn't heard of before, and can't remember the names of but there was one very strange dish which consisted of glass noodles and ice cream - yummm! Aside from that, we ate pretty much everything we were given very very quickly - a good sign of good food! Along the way we were talking to Sanjay about himself and he told us that he had spent his life working in bars and running bar crawls around Europe so had gained knowledge of what different people want and look for in different places which helped him get an understanding of the type of guests he would have at his hostel and it has definitely worked in his favour. His understanding (and contribution to) British humour was spot on! He had also worked at numerous hostels which again you can see in the functioning of Jugaadus - it works perfectly and was the most welcoming and atmospheric hostel we had stayed in so far. When he told us he had only opened the hostel 4 months ago we refused to believe it. It felt like it had been there for years and years which we wasted no time in telling Sanjay. The tour ended with a glass of chai - we told you it becomes a habit in India! 

On our final day, we visited the famous Golden Temple, (formally known as the Harmandir Sahib which translates as Temple of God) the central religious place of the Sikh religion. It is famous for welcoming everyone regardless of race, class, or religion and is viewed as a symbol of human brotherhood and equality. This alone was enough to make us appreciate the effect the Temple has on everyone that visits it but upon actually entering the grounds you can actually feel the atmosphere change - despite being incredibly busy because yet again we managed to visit during a festival (typical us) - a certain degree of calm falls over you straight away. It really is an incredible Temple; the gold of the exterior is so bright and glows so much in contrast to the white buildings that surround it. Whilst we did not go inside the temple itself because the queues were so large and we had limited time because we had to leave later that day, we have heard that it really is a magnificent spectacle. Another amazing thing that happens is that every single day at the temple, 10,000 people are fed by Sikh volunteers, and anyone who visits the temple is welcomed into the kitchens to help prepare food for everyone, and to clean up afterwards. Any person of any religion is welcomed to eat at the temple, reinforcing the importance of equality within the Sikh religion. Apparently the pots used to cook the food could fit around 10 people inside - hard to imagine its scale really! We were so interested to learn more about this religion as the majority of our time in India so far has been in Rajhastan which is predominantly Hindu. There is a moat that surrounds the temple which people bathe in to wash away their sins and it was so peaceful to watch as people sat and prayed along the water's edge. We really loved this place, and as far as temples go, this has definitely been the best one we've seen so far!

Our time in Amritsar was short but most definitely one of the most interesting and educational of our time in India, made even more special by staying at the Jugaadus Eco Hostel, with Sanjay as host. We can't recommend it enough!

Wagah Boarder
The Gate Separating India and Pakistan 
Before the ceremony they played music for the ladies to dance
Sam brought to the front of the queue to run with the Indian flag
Bethan getting involved in the action
Check out those hats!
Sunset and the ceremony can begin

That's got to hurt!
Little girl getting her head shaved at the temple
Crazy mirrors inside the temple
Golden Temple







Food tour time!
Random stop for some ear cleaning 
Lassi shop
Water Balls - make a hole in the ball then dunk it in the horrible green water
Ice cream and noodles, hmm. 
Last stop - chai :) 
You've been great Amritsar
Happy Wanderers

Thursday 27 November 2014

India: Pushkar

For our journey to Pushkar we bravely purchased train tickets for Second Class Sitting - little did we know that this was also known as 'Jungle Car!' Every inch of the carriage was jam packed full of people and their luggage; there were even men lying in the luggage racks above our heads and about 10 people in the seats we had reserved. We struggled our way over to them and showed our tickets and kindly asked them to leave our seats - as you can imagine they were not best pleased that they were being asked to move and one man got a little irate. This actually worked in our favour as it attracted that attention of the others on the train and a few people came over to see what all the fuss is about. After much deliberation they moved out of the seats and stood nearby giving us evils! We're still yet to work out exactly how the Indian train system works, we think people can buy tickets but with no seat; therefore they try and steal ours. 

Pushkar is one of the five pilgrimage sites for Hindus as it is believed that the God of Creation (Lord Brahma) dropped the petals of a lotus flower here and in doing so a lake formed. Now Hindus from all over the world come here to bathe in the ghats dotted around the lake in an attempt to wash away their sins and redeem their lives. The atmosphere around the lake is amazing, we loved sitting along the waters edge watching people take part in this holy act. Unfortunately there are many priests who work to perform blessings for money for both individuals and their families. This meant that we got hassled a few times to take part in this also; although after politely refusing numerous times they got the idea and left us alone. The ghats along the lake had a strict no photograph rule, which we respected for the first couple of days. However after sitting at the lake and watching Indian after Indian photographing everything in sight and laughing and joking, not showing any kind of respect whatsoever we decided a few sneaky pictures would go unnoticed. This is not something we have done anywhere else as we are always careful to show the utmost respect at all times, we just grew tired of feeling like we were showing more respect than others. We also discovered that snakes are apparently holy in Hinduism too - one man spotted a snake and suddenly everyone in the vicinity started running over to see it like it was a celebrity. We had no idea what was going on - had we seen the snake that close we probably would have been running pretty far in the other direction!

The shops surrounding the lake itself were pretty cool and very different to anything else we had experienced so far in India. They stocked loads of really cool, original trinkets, clothes, and souvenirs, and we managed to walk around pretty hassle free, aside from the noise which was deafening. Rickshaws, motorbikes and bicycles completely filled the really narrow alleys where there was no pavements so people are forced to walk amongst the craziness - its definitely not easy to navigate. We welcomed a small respite away from it all in the form of a lovely rooftop restaurant called Baba, just above Sadar Bazaar - one of the busiest streets in the town where we ate roast potatoes adorned with spinach and rosemary on the recommendation of an Australian lady and her husband who had apparently eaten the same meal four days running because it was so good, and it did not disappoint. We were completely stuffed for 100 rupees (approx £1) - total bargain! We also visited a cafe called the Laughing Buddha which was right near the lake and felt very hippy and chilled. It's the tiniest cafe ever with about 6 seats on a small terrace and a small cushioned area inside. Incense was burning and music pumping and the drinks came in clay cups which we thought was quite cute. It was really cheap which made us VERY happy and was owned by a really cute family. We'd definitely recommend visiting!

The main reason we were excited about visiting Pushkar was for the Camel Fair which ran from 31st October to 6th November this year. Our biggest dilemma was whether to visit during the festival to experience what we were told by many Indian people 'one of the best festivals in India' or whether to visit at a different time where we could experience the 'real' Pushkar - an idyllic, holy, calm place. We decided to opt for the festival just because we were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time and felt we shouldn't really throw the opportunity away. During the Camel Fair, people from all across the world visit Pushkar to trade/invest in camels and horses. Unfortunately that's as exciting as it gets - there are many events going on throughout the day in the main stadium alongside all of the trading that goes on but we don't really feel that they were anything worth writing about. We spent most of our time being harassed by Indian people who were visiting Pushkar (tourists from more rural parts of India who don't really see white people very often and are therefore mesmerised by us). This really affected our enjoyment of the festival because we felt we couldn't explore freely or stay in one place to watch something without being hassled for photos. For example, Sam was approached by a young Indian girl whilst we were watching the hot air balloons take off. She was convinced that Sam was Perrie Edwards from Little Mix and refused to believe her when she told her that she actually wasn't. The girl kept complimenting Sam on her 'boyfriend' Zayn (One Direction) and telling her how jealous she was of their relationship - a proper fan girl situation which was hilarious.

We also visited the Savitri Temple. The story behind the significance of this temple is that when Brahma was to perform a worship ritual at Pushkar, his wife Savitri could not reach the ritual in time. As a result, Brahma performed the pooja (a religious ritual performed by Hindus as an offering to various deities) with the help of another woman, Gayatri, who later became his second wife. This enraged Savitri and she sulked off to the hilltop. The views from the temple itself are really good - you can see for miles. It was especially pretty because there were lots of hot air balloons floating about as part of the Camel Festival so was definitely worth the tricky climb up the steep hill in the heat.

The only downside to our experience in Pushkar was our hotel - Hotel Poonam which was unfortunately way below average. We booked using ClearTrip for all three of us to stay in one room to find that we all had to share one double bed. The mattress on the bed might as well not have been there at all as it felt like you were sleeping on the bare metal frame. The staff shout non-stop up the stairs at one another - starting at 6am and continuing until around 11pm, so we struggled to get any proper sleep during our stay - they seem to have no respect for guests whatsoever! We almost got kicked out of the hotel halfway through our stay because apparently they were overbooked and somebody else needed the room. However ,we argued to stay so they kicked out an American couple instead - horrendous! The only good thing at Poonam was Mikey who is in charge of the kitchen - he always remembered our order and always made an effort to make us feel welcome. HOWEVER, when it came to leaving we had a bill charging us for our stay which we obviously didn't question as we knew we hadn't paid anything yet. It was around 4000 rupees (approx £40) which is quite expensive in comparison to what we had been paying elsewhere but it did include all food we had eaten during our stay so we gave Mikey this amount plus whatever our food bill costs which was quickly handed over to one of the other guys. Later, after checking Bethan's credit card bill, we realised that we had already paid for the hotel in full when we booked using ClearTrip! We are all disgusted that the staff did not question why we were handing over such a lot of money when they were aware that we had already paid online. It was our mistake for paying twice but we at least expected the staff to question why we were handing over this money again. We were not very happy wanderers at this stage, especially because we'd paid double for not one single nights sleep! Rant over on the hotel front.

All in all, to sum up our experience of Pushkar, we have very mixed feelings. We are glad we visited during the festival, because we know we would have regretted it had we not, but we don't really feel it is a festival that has much appeal to Western tourists who have no real knowledge or appreciation of the trade industry in relation to livestock.

Welcome to Pushkar Camel Festival

Hot Air Balloon Rides 
Cute Gypsy Kids
Savitri Temple
Swastika - representing the four directions of the world 

Chill time at the Laughing Buddha Cafe
Pushkar Lake





Happy Wanderers