first week in India

Notes:
You must be wondering if we were ever going to get to India . We did !
A quick note on currency. It is 85rs/ (rupees) to £1
And if you want to see pictures big and read the captions, click on them.

After the Four Seasons you would have thought that nothing India could offer could stand up to its quality, but mum wasn’t holding back on the cash flow (well, almost). We went on a flight where two of us got to go on business class (mum, because she was sick the night before, and me and Bruno swapped halfway through because we had to do homework with papa). After the flight we were whisked off in a car to our hotel which (as I had learnt in the plane a couple hours before) was FIVE STAR (again). Its name was the Imperial. We did however share a room (mum insisted I put that in). but I managed to see the Arsenal V West Ham on telly so that was something. Once we had arrived and we had checked in we went to the Sikh temple where we had to cover our hair with orange fabric. We learnt about the 10 prophets and that the tenth said “I am meant to chose the next prophet, so I chose the book” he’s talking about (which Judgeman will probably tell 6G) the book which all the prophets wrote in. We went to a lake which water had been blessead and Bruno put his feet in.

After the temple we went to this kebab place were we had OK kebabs but they could have been better. We battled our way to the Muslim Mosque (honestly you would think all 1.2 billion Indians were in that street) where we encountered this really unpleasant person and mum couldn’t go up the tower unless accompanied by a man (which was very unfortunate because we had a bag which we couldn’t leave behind and Ate was carrying it) but a German man helped us out. We then went to the Red Fort which was very disappointing (even though it was red). It had almost been completely looted (almost because there was one bit where there was still some silver on the ceiling) and very dusty. We then had a quiet walk, we wished. We have learnt that the people in Delhi don’t know the word no (and not because of language difficulties either) one guy followed us until we finally got in his rickshaw .

That night, we went to the house of a Maharaja in law or something, someone my father knew through his work – at 9.30 pm and had dinner at 11 if that . The guy was very rich it seems and as far as we could tell hardly worked. We were very lucky to go to his house and see how “the other half” live.

Next morning we set off in a car to Jaipur (after losing mum then pup then mum again) . This was the beginning of our tour of Rajasthan, a state in India which is very colourful and full of Maharajas and palaces and forts. The people we met the previous night were connected to some of them. We looked at 2 hotels and decided to stay in a haveli (which is a courtyard house) which was being done up as a hotel but they hadn’t finished it yet. We had 2 huge rooms and we were the only people there for at least 2 of the nights. In Jaipur we met Vikram, our driver for the next 9 days and went to his house which was one room and a kitchen and met his wife (who he only met on his wedding day – as far as he is concerned love marriages don’t work) and his 2 small sons. He wears an earring in each ear and like most Rajasthani men a moustache. He is a Hindu – a total vegetarian and he also doesn’t drink alcohol – and is of the Rajput caste. That is the warrior caste which most of the Maharajas also come from but there are many grades within each caste.

Just outside Jaipur (which is called the pink city even though its more light brown) we saw the Amber fort (even though it should have been the Amber palace) which was the Maharaja’s palace before Jai Singh founded Jaipur in the 18th century. We went on an elephant up to the fort /palace which was full of wonderful rooms and courtyards, before we went to another palace, the Samode Palace , which is now a fancy hotel. We were invited there by another guy we met in Delhi whose sister is married to the Maharaja of that area. He was very kind to us and showed us the palace and their other hotel which has tents – Bruno and I wanted to stay there (in the tents, it had a ping pong table, a pool table and a swimming pool).

We saw Jai Singh’s palace too which is called the City Palace. In there we saw some traditional gards, a giness world record vase (it was made out of the same pice of silver) and doorways of the four different seasons. He also built 5 observatories, the biggest of which is called the Jantar mantar and is in Jaipur. It is full of huge marble and stone astronomical instruments. We also by coincidence stayed next door to another he built in his palace on the Ganges at Varanasi. Jaipur is the centre for gem cutting in India and so of course we had to look at jewellery. Mum bought some at a shop Vikram took us to – we found out later he got a commission but he said it was only small, and I got a garnet necklace (for free because we bought so much other stuff) which sadly I broke in about 24 hours but I still have the stones to rethread.

I had loads of chicken kebabs and I ate my first boiled egg.

After 3 days we went on to Pushkar which is a holy Hindu city where no non-veg (including eggs) alcohol leather etc are allowed near the centre – and it is full of sacred cows(in fact the only place which is not full of sacred cows was Delhi). It is a city built around a lake and there are steps (ghats) down to the lakes(I played cricket for a bit with the locals near one of the ghats). They are really dirty – covered in cow poo and rubbish but you have to take your shoes off if you walk near to the lake for religious reasons. It is full of temples, the most famous of which is probably the Brahma temple. There are only a couple of temples to Brahma in the whole of India. Lots of boys wanted to give us blessings if we gave them a donation – which they said was for charity but we think was for themselves. Ate got really annoyed by this guy who gave us a tour of the temple (which had a box saying donation for cows) and wanted to give us a blessing at the lake and when we said we didn’t want him he came back anyway so Ate said don’t come back, don’t come back in a really irritated kind of way. Anyway near Pushkar on the road we saw a man that was rolling along the road, covered in kind of padding. Vikram said he was a sadhu (Hindu holy man) who was probably going from Pushkar on a pilgrimage to Rishikesh (600 kms away) and he was going to roll all the way. We only stayed in Pushkar one night but we had dinner at a great veg. restaurant called Seventh Heaven. I had pizza! And really fresh apple juice and it was excellent(even though half was froth). Unfortunately the hotel we stayed in was awful and had yellow dragonfly/wasp things. Next morning we had breakfast, got in the car, and skedaddled.

On to Jodphur (which is called the blue city and it is) where we stayed in this brilliant haveli /hotel with a view of the lake in our room. Mum and pup got a view of the fort to which we went later that day. If you ever go to Jodphur and go to the fort take the audio guide because it is great as it explained loads of things not only about the fort but also about history and the caste system and other interesting things. The fort also had a place were the wives and concubines left there handprints on the wall and then bunt alive on the maharaja funaral pire. This is called sati. Just before that is a door that had spikes on it so elaphants couldn’t get through. On the barraks you got a great veiw and there were loads of cannons. The hotel was next to the market so we went and it was crowded. We passed loads of spice stalls and then went into one, where we bought “brain” spices among other things(there were cows there two). After dinner (potato dosa for me, which is like an Indian pancake, and dinner cost us about 200rs/ for the 4 of us) we went across the street to this place called softy n’ softy. We liked the name because Bruno has a bear called softy and mum calls Bruno softy so that was funny. We had a softy ice cream which cost only 15rs/. Bruno feed half of his to a cow because he couldn’t eat it all (though I did) and the cow ate it in one bit.

Next Jaisalmer which is called the Golden City because it is built out of sandstone and is in the middle of the Thar desert only about 100kms from the border with Pakistan. It is about 280 kms from Jodhpur and we really didn’t want to drive on to the sand dunes which disappointed Vikram. We saw lots of camels on the way many of them wild but lots of working camels which are used instead of horses to pull carts and carry things and people. We also saw a lot of army trucks on the way. We stayed in another haveli where we had a room right next to the restaurant (it was more like 3 rooms) and people thought it was the toilet. We walked around in the streets of the old town and the fort after lunch (Bolognese pasta, they have a lot of Italian food there) and looked at various havelies one of which had an elephant that was made out of about 30 women (it was a sculpture made out of one elephant knee bone) it was for sale but we didn’t buy it (though I wish we had) we then went to the fort town where we walked on the ramparts (they were also covered in cow poo and rubbish) we watched the sun set while having a drink. That night I had pizza at the hotel(as it turned out we had all our meals in Jaisalmer in the hotel and I didn’t eat any Indian food there at all although Mum does at every meal).

This was the end of our first week in India. We’d driven about 900kms and seen so many things and we were now about as west as you can be in India.