We are in Udaipur now. It is a little more relaxed and a little cleaner than what we’ve seen so far.
Nevertheless I got the runs again yesterday. 3rd time – and counting… Maybe I shouldn’t eat anything at all here.
My cold/flu is pretty persistent. But with the degree of pollution an average indian city is blessed with, that is no surprise.
Basically we are hanging out here in Udaipur. We plan to visit the city palace and watch traditional dancing in a haveli. But that’s it. In some days we will hop on the train to Mumbai, kill some hours there and hop on the next train to Goa. Hopefully without any illnesses.
Our train to Agra was the worst train ride I had in my life. So far – no idea what is still to come…
We were on the waiting list for 2AC from Varanasi to Agra. 2AC means that there are 2 lower and two upper berths in each compartment on one side of the train. On the other side there are only one upper and one lower berth which are in direction of the train (side berths). The compartments are not divided by doors but by curtains. To get a better impression, take a look here. We were on the waiting list and had the big luck to be the last ones getting a place on the train due to cancellations. But we did not get 2 berths. Nope. Tom was on a shared berth with another person (said to be entering the train in Lucknow – that’s 5 hours after Varanasi), which means he would have had to share the berth in day-time mode (two seats) wich a stranger. I myself was still waitlisted. But as we were booked on one ticket I was allowed to enter the train.If all passengers would have been there, I would have had to wait outside (next to the toilets). So, we spent the first 6 hours sharing the two seats that Tom should share wich the stranger from Lucknow on. Sleeping? Not really. After everybody boarded the train in Lucknow opening curtains, switching on lights, getting stuff carried into the train by porters or family members and having a big and loud good bye, the train attendent moved us to a compartment where we got one upper and one lower berth. 4 hours to go to Agra. That might have been a bit of sleep. If there wouldn’t have been a middle class Indian that balanced his prosperity belly onto the upper berth. Half an hour later he was in deepest dreams of cutting wood – people that snore should not be permitted on night trains. We tried to drown the noise with the fan. I got around 2 hours of sleep, the rest of the time we talked. When Mr.Belly left the compartment for a pee, his mobile rang. He came back, got into the lower berth and started to snore again. I switched on the fan again. Immediatly he woke up, switched off the fan. Just a split second later I switched on both light and fan, looked him into his face, switched off the light again and lay down. He did not touch the switch again. Half an hour later he left the train and will be baffled for some days, I think.
After arriving in Agra 1 1/2 hours late, we walked to our hotel, had breakfast on the roof top terrace and then entered our room. The next day we got up early to queue at the Taj Mahal. We queued around 45 min for the tickets and then again queued 45 min to get through security. Men and women have seperate queues there, so that we could not even talk. It’s unbelievable how inefficient people can be. I had to open my camera bag, get the camera out of it (nothing else fits in there), was asked not to use my pocket knife inside (“No Ma’am, I won’t.”) and was also asked if I had an iPod in my bag. No, they will not take over the world.
The Taj Mahal itself is stunning. Only if there were less people. I hate people. Well, if they come in quantities more than 20 or so. It’s reallt hard to get good pictures there as there are hundreds of people all over the place. I tried my best and will upload some pics later
After a nap and a movie (never expect to see a ful movie even on indian HBO – there will be a power cut, the central receiver will fail, HBO magically disappears for another channel) we visited the
Agra Fort. The fort is big and plump, as a fort should be I suppose. It’s nice to have it seen, but having seen the Taj Mahal before the fort was a bit disappointing. Then we had dinner. This dinner was disastrous. It was yummie (we both had the same Thali), but something must have been wrong with it. During the night Tom was plagued by the runs and vomiting. Great. I rebooked our train tickets to go a day later. I was not feeling too well either, but could go outside to get water and coke. In the evening when Tom got better little by little, it was my turn then. Thank God we had an attached bath.
Today Tom is quite fit again – I’m still not too well, but am happy that it got better during the night.
We try to pass the time until our train departs blogging and having tea and will be happy when we arrive in Jaipur this night. And this time we will have ear plugs handy. It’s only 4 hours, but you never know…
Von den Wartelistenplaetzen 4 und 5 wurde zwei Stunden vor Abfahrt einer bestaetigt (Tom) und einer in Warteliste 1 (Ju) umgewandelt. Das bedeutet, das wir als “Gruppe” grundsaetzlich den Zug entern durften. So weit, so gut. Leider hatten wir zu zweit nur einen Sitzplatz, obwohl wir “Sleeper” (Schlafwagen zweiter Klasse, inklusive Klimaanlage) gebucht hatten. Das Layout des Schlafwagenabteils sieht zwei offene Abteile vor, mit vier Plaetzen links vom Gang und rechts derer zwei. Da Ueberbuchung (d.h. Mehrfachbelegung) gaengige Praxis ist und “der Mittelklasseinder” genug Kohle hat, seine nicht angetretene Fahrt nicht zu stornieren, hat uns ein lustiger Algorithmus einem Sitzplatz rechts vom Gang zugeordnet. Einem, wie gesagt. Doch, Glueck im Unglueck, der andere Sitzplatz sollte erst nach fuenf Stunden belegt werden, bis dahin sollte sich eine Loesung finden. Und tatsaechlich, obwohl das gesamte Abteil schon tief und fest hinter den Vorhaengen schlief, wurden uns beim Stop in Lucknow zwei Schlafplaetze zugewiesen (und der Rest des Abteils geweckt, haehaeh). Oder, besser ausgedrueckt, Liegeplaetze. Denn unser einheimischer Mitfahrer schnarchte derart beherzt, das mit Schlaf weitgehend Essig war. Vom Regen in die Traufe also.
Sorry, but this post won’t be available in English, unless we get very bored
After a 7h bus ride from Pokhara to the Nepali-Indian border and
another 2:30h bus ride to the awful city of Gorakhpur where we stayed
one night in a hotel that could have easily been a set for the movie
“Trainspotting” (we slept in our clothes…) we boarded the train to Varanasi yesterday a 6:30am.
After a nice but slow train ride we arrived in Varanasi in the early
afternoon. We got a quite expensive room, which overlooked the Ganges. It was in a small tower of an old palace house, but even if renovated was already aged.
Today we changed the hotel as we wanted to save some money. Instead of walking along the ghats with our luggage we got a boat for 150rupees
(around 2,20 EUR) and could watch the scenery from the water that we
experienced from the land the day before. Here you are swarmed with
touts, rickshaw drivers, boat drivers, sellers of everything, begging
kids, post card selling kids and men that try to point out things to
you in exchange for some rupees. In a country such as this with 38% of
people living in slums in Varanasi (in Mumbai it’s 56%), in their
position we would most probably do the same. But as a tourist you are
simply pretty annoyed. On top of this you always have to look down to
your feet as you need to watch out for cow shit, rubbish, ominous
liquids (that could be everything from just water coming off a freshly
bathed man, leavings of clothes washing, to human or cow pee) or
sleeping dogs.
Most of what you see are things that you await, but would never see in
a western city of the same size. People bathing and brushing teeth in
the Ganges, washing their clothes on the steps of the ghats, mud and
rubbish everywhere, cows, goats and water buffaloes trying to feed on
this rubbish. You see people peeing in the galis (very narrow alleys),
dying cows covered with flies, drying clothes on stairways, people
hanging around at the ghats, sadhus walking around in their orange clothes awaiting alms, bodies being burned before their ashes will be thrown into the river. In the ghat next to the old burning ghat people are actually catching fish, which you would never expect to even live there. The river itself looks very muddy with flowers and plastic stuff floating in it, but smells surprisingly normal while floating on it in a boat.
Yesterday was Diwali, which is the
biggest festival in India and at the same time brings the new year.
Yes, somehow we always have the phenomenal skill of being in a country
during events like that. There were less lightings at the houses as I
had expected. But still there where candles, oil lamps, chains of
lights and fire crackers and fireworks everywhere. The fireworks and
crackers are not as much as in an average German city at new years
eve, but the crackers blast your ears. I insinuate that here are more
accidents related to fireworks than in western countries…
Yesterday we had nice Indian food in a nice restaurant more or less
overlooking the Ganges. Today we will have middle eastern food (oh my
God, there will be hummous!) in the hotel we stay in. Tomorrow we will
hopefully have self-catered dinner on the train to Agra. At the moment
we are on the waiting list for a sleeper seat on the night train to
Agra. Our waiting list numbers are quite low, so the chances aren’t
too bad to get seats confirmed, but any fingers crossed are
appreciated.