I was greatly surprised to find myself boarding a plane and leaving India. In my head I knew that leaving was inevitable (after all it is not our home country, we had chosen a date of departure and booked plane tickets), but somehow in my heart I felt that we wouldn’t be leaving. I had a strong sense of unfinished business, as though I didn’t understand India well enough yet and that by leaving I was giving up. But nevertheless, we did indeed depart for the gentle city of Sofia, Bulgaria.
It was so so lovely to be in a place where we could blend into a crowd, drink tap water, wear shorts in hot weather, reacquaint ourselves with alcohol and where I could go out in public without my trusty chaperone (as much as I love his company, it’s not always convenient to have to do everything together). But Sofia was much more than a place to resume our western lifestyles – it is a fascinating city in its own right. The architecture was intriguing and usually beautiful, spanning from Roman ruins to communist era apartment blocks. The streets were boulevards – tree lined, cobble stoned and pedestrian friendly. The coffee was strong, the war memorials were mammoth, the cheese was abundant and the churches were orthodox. But the best thing about Sofia was the joy that the locals took in their city – there were old men playing chess in the parks with a rapt audience gathered around, traditional musicians on street corners with their listeners clapping in time, people chatting merrily away while filling up water bottles at the natural mineral water springs, free walking tours of the city provided by students who clearly love what they are doing (http://www.freesofiatour.com)... every public space that we visited was filled with people of all ages talking, feasting and laughing and it was completely delightful. As a town planner and as a human being, it warmed my heart.
During our 11 hour stop-over in Kiev airport this was about as much of the Ukraine we saw... I could have actually left the airport on my American passport but decided to keep Soph company. So we lay about, stretched out across seats and on the floor until we we were finally released from our transit prison. A young lady with her faithful companion playing the violin on the main street, so quaint.
Our first day was a little grey... but made the most of it and went wandering with out new Australian buddy to see some of the town.
On day 2 we went on a free walking tour of Sofia, hosted by the lovely lady on the left. As a bonus we also witnessed our first epileptic fit - luckily the man was alright.
Chess is quite the action sport here...
Our guide dropped in a few pop quizzes along the way, Dan used his enormous brain to win me a bottle of the famous local rose oil by answering a tough question... later down the track we came across this building and he also was the first to tell which song was written up the top there... any guesses? Winner gets a present!
Just before leaving Bulgaria, we paid a little visit to the cute little town of Plovdiv. On the left is our interesting lunch called 'lamb inwards'.
Our first amphitheatre experience. It was in the process of being lovingly restored for use as a theatre again.
Wandering through the cobbled streets and checking out the local hotties... so quaint.
Pretty odd photo I know, but just love it for some reason.
Sophie getting creative on the way back to Sofia... and Sophie getting drunk back in Sofia, the Irish bar downstairs from the hostel was a fantastic place to get re-acquainted with our old friend. Oh alcohol how we missed you!
Hi everyone,
Our final destination in India was New Delhi, which I expected to be like Mumbai on speed, but instead was surprised to find a green and sprawling city that moved along at a (relatively) leisurely pace.
The most interesting thing that we did there was a walk through a poor neighbourhood with some young adults who had lived on the same streets as children before being taken in by the Salaam Baalak Trust, a charitable organisation that provides schooling and shelter to any street child who wants it. The walk was fascinating – we were carefully guided through a myriad of alleyways and parking lots where Tekken arcade games are still all the rage and pictures of gods from many different religions are painted at waist height along the walls to stop men from urinating there. It made us laugh, it made us cry (well start sniffling a little), but most of all it made us empathise with the street children who had started to become a normal part of the background for us, as shocking as that may seem. It was very humbling and really put my personal concerns in perspective.
The tour finished up at one of the Trust’s centres where we met a group of forty boys aged between 6 and 13 who had taken refuge there. We felt a bit awkward at first being confronted with a room full of silent children who spoke a different language, but the ice was quickly broken when we found out that the boys loved hand clapping games and having their picture taken. They were completely charming, gentle and full of hopes and dreams. If anybody out there is in the mood to donate to a worthy cause I would highly recommend this one!
The India gate and surrounding park, with its boat rides and candy-floss... very leisurely.
Air-conditioning in a tuk-tuk, on our way to see the Bahá'í Lotus Temple...
Pretty spectacular from the outside, but we had to be silent inside which was a shame considering the acoustic potential of the place... thankfully some small children decided to let out some shrieks which boomed around the walls, satisfying my curiosity.
Wandering through Pahar Ganj, an old part of Delhi with our new companions from the Salaam Baalak Trust.
No alleyway is too small for a scooter, or two. The religious paintings with a special purpose (as mentioned by Soph)
One they learned I had a camera, the 40 or so quiet, subdued kids turned into a rampaging torrent...
Soph's clapping hand games also went down a treat, I tried but failed miserably... and was laughed at.
And that's it for India, it's been a pretty tumultuous ride! We're going to finish with some highs and lows:
Top 5:
1. Relaxing on the beach in Goa - half Indian, half Portuguese & totally awesome.
2. The food - palak paneer, sweet su (saunf) and chai tea deserve a special mention here.
3. The forts and palaces of Rajasthan - epic
4. House-boating in Kerala - pure luxury
5. Sipping on golden tip tea while the fog rolled by in Darjeeling
Bottom 5:
1. The poverty and the wealth divide - it is just so so sad to see so many skeletal people living on the streets. And then you see a BMW M3 drive past...
2. Leering men - not all western women are easy, how many have you picked up lately?
3. Tuk-tuk drivers - no we don't want a ride unless we're waving you down, and stop trying to rip us off!
4. Piles of rubbish on the street - ever heard of a bin?
5. The heat - don't go there in summer. Just don't.
Other travellers, guide books and the internet had consistently negative reviews of Agra so we only planned 24 hours there. We found it to be a fairly average Indian city, with the exception of one largish monkey who took a shine to my ice-cream and chased me for it! While growling, huffing and puffing! Fortunately the crowd converged in such a way as to separate the two of us and I was able to remain rabies free and in possession of my ice-cream.
But I digress.
Agra’s main attraction needs no introduction:
There are other neat things in Agra too. Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal, was just one in a line of incredibly powerful Mughal emperors who controlled most of northern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan for centuries. These emperors were incredibly wealthy and enjoyed the finer things in life so there were other grand buildings, beautiful gardens and amazing craftworks to admire, the like of which we have not seen elsewhere in India. We wandered around the Agra Fort and marvelled at the decadence of their lifestyles – elephant fights, exotic animal collections and walls embedded with thousands of precious stones. We were very impressed upon learning that one of the emperors had 5000 women in his harem – if you do the math, this means that he could have slept with a different woman every night for 13.7 years...
Swingin' on ropes on the streets of Agra, awesome. Entering the fort...
This is a well with rooms built into the sides all the way down, the ladies of the harem would chill out down there on hot days | Soph audiobook-ing it through the pillared area where the the Shah could be glimpsed by the amassed public, on his glittering throne no less!
And the main attraction, just like in the postcards... except for the swarming tourists (and this is the quiet season)
Wandering through the gardens & connecting buildings
White shoe covers for everyone. It's actually quite impressive to see how hard Agra is working to preserve the Taj, they actually shut down all fuel burning industry in the city keep it clean! Now everything in Agra is done by hand, the old fashioned ways.
One fine 47 degree afternoon Dan and I committed our bravest and craziest act of the trip so far - we boarded an un-airconditioned bus for a 14 hour journey with only one scheduled bathroom break. The cherry on top was that we would arrive at our destination, Udaipur “the Venice of India” Rajasthan at 5am the following day, not the easiest time to be conscious and/or in control of your bladder.
The bus ride was everything you would expect and more (the more being bedbugs), and included some unexpected self discoveries. I never thought that I would laugh to see somebody intentionally upset a child, but there I was...it was provoked though! A child popped onto the bus to sell water and roughly shook one of the men on the bus awake, giggling hysterically. The man retaliated with a glob of monkey balm on the cheek and tears promptly ensued. (Monkey balm is the Thai version of tiger balm, only much much much stronger!).
Happily for us, Udaipur was totally worth it - it was like being in an idealised India. There were few signs of poverty, easy going touts, cool temperatures and clean streets. It was also incredibly picturesque, being surrounded by mountains and built around two lakes. The makers of James Bond thought so too and filmed Octopussy there back in 1983 – we counted 11 restaurants in walking distance of our hotel that screened Octopussy every night! We loved watching it, having just been to all of the places shown, but the novelty must be fading for the poor staff working there...
Ahh Udaidur...
Definitely the romantic city.
After many hours of waiting... and an anxious period of fluorescent yellow hair... my girl is blonde again! Quick word from Soph: Never EVER bleach your hair. I'm not sure who was the most traumatised - me because my hair felt like static-y rope for several weeks, or Dan because it was my sole topic of conversation for that same period of time.
The culture show was one of the highlights, running round in circles and balancing 10 pots on your head. Good times.
The other major highlight for me... Squirrels! I could watch them for hours. But Soph normally dragged me off kicking and screaming after about 5 minutes.
Aww, it's like Effe (a much beloved pet rat) with a racing stripe & fluffy tail. Awesome.
Cooking class with Indian Borat, we got a bonus lecture on why men are superior to women.
Some arts and crafts...
Temples...
And our favourite activity in Udaipur, chilling with chai & watching the sun set over Octopussy's lair.
Hi everyone,
Our next stop was Jaisalmer, a desert town that’s only a stones throw from Pakistan (if you can throw a stone 150km). We hooked up with Raj, Babu, Mr Lucky, Bonny and Moomal and headed into the desert to ride camels, sleep under the stars, ruin the perfectly formed sand dunes and generally discover our inner nomads.
The desert was stunning, vast, mono-chromatic, really quite alien, and so, so isolated. The beauty of the stars and sand dunes blew my mind, the camels were hilariously stubborn and vocal (“moo-OOOO-ughhhh-eeeeeeeeerrrrrr”), the mid-day heat was debilitating and the stories and songs passed on by our guides were very moving. I was fascinated by what life is like for the people living in the remote desert villages – I can definitely understand why the desert communities indulge in the mind altering evils that decent Indian folk abstain from: alcohol, marijuana and opium!
Once the novelty of being in the desert wore off we started making up desert haiku’s to pass the time - I thought that Dan's one was pretty good (and accurate!):
Butt is f***ing sore.
Bonny responds to me now -
Don’t canter Bonny!
Introducing our faithful companions Raj & Babu...
My trusty steed Bonny...
The ever vocal Moomal, and Soph's camel... Mr Lucky the obstinate.
Soph destroying dunes & setting up for first night under the stars.
Getting ready on day two - total cover essential for us whiteys
Bonny's favourite snack, dry spiky tree. Throwing stones at poisonous lizards, what else is there to do in the desert?
Well earned rest for Moomal, Bonny & Mr Lucky
The next day we visited a traditional desert town, the locals were friendly & curious. Was nice to see such a simple way of life.
After three days and two nights we returned to Jaisalmer feeling 100% sure that we were not desert dwellers in a past life (based on the extent of our muscle aches and our stomach’s objections to desert food), but also enriched for the experience and with new appreciation for the presence of other people and the conveniences of modern life (showers in particular). Recovering in Jaisalmer was a pleasure - it is a gorgeous golden town with many interesting ruins, sustainable power sources, Jain temples, an entire village that was abandoned overnight after an emperor demanded certain privileges from the womenfolk, and best of all, a living fort that looks like a giant sandcastle.
A street inside the fort, and below some old cenotaphs out of town and some spicy carvings from the Jain temple in the fort... the stone gets coloured by the oils on peoples hands, so it's not too hard to see where the main points of interest are...
The modern version of a magic carpet?
