Reflections on India

Part One

I can't remember where I was up to on the blog and I can't get onto it in China to check. I think we had just left Varkala, so lets go from there.

Pondicherry is a town that used to be a French colony so it is supposed to have a different feel to the rest of India. It isn't exactly a district of Paris but the promenade is really nice along the sea front. It still has the standard Indian feel, with cows roaming the streets and that unfinished feeling to all the buildings. The town is very religious, belonging to some weird sect set up by someone called “the mother”. That kind of gave the town a weird feeling, but definitely not French.

It was Ants 25th Birthday so we bought party hats and a cake for the room. Alex, Briege, Gary went out to get the cake and in true Indian style when Ant asked the reception desk where they had gone he just replied “to buy your cake”. Good one. We had a few beers in the room then went out for a steak meal (one of the only places you can get it in India) which was amazing.

The highlight of Pondicherry was getting invited to an Indian wedding. Gary didn't like it because we got invited because we were white but the rest of us didn't mind. A french lady dressed in Indian garb (who lives in India doing the casting for The Life of Pi film) invited us, so we said yes.

The wedding was great. The sitting around was a bit boring but then we got a free meal which was awesome. The brother of the groom came over and asked if we wanted any alcohol. Because no-one else at the wedding would be drinking he sent someone out to get wine and whisky and took us all into a store room behind the kitchen to have sneaky drinks. The best bit was the dancing though. They dance like madmen. I got some great videos. No girls were dancing because they aren't allowed to dance infront of other men.

From Pondicherry we went to Hampi, probably the highlight of India. Its a fantastic place, a boulder-strewn landscape littered with temples. The temples seem so ancient, but are only 500 years old. India just don't look after things. The place is like the set of the flintstones movie, or jurassic park, or any other fantastical place. I'd recommend it.

We spent our days here wandering around the temples and relaxing. There is no alcohol or meat allowed inside of the town of Hampi, so its not exactly a happening place. One of the highlights was a walk to a waterfall. It was a bit risky in places, jumping over boulders across fast flowing rivers, but well worth it. We had got a bit lost but stumbled across a “meditation centre” full of half naked middle aged Germans. They showed us the way and a good spot to swim. That was a great day.

We got the train back up to Delhi where we got drunk with a group of guys who looked Chinese but were Indian and were absolute hero's. They made the 35 hour journey more bearable.

New Delhi was exactly that, new. They seemed to have cleared it up a bit, probably for the F1, and Diwali. It also helped the monsoon season was over so the streets were not so muddy.

We met up with Charlotte and Mcin who are in India for 2 weeks on holiday. It was great to see some familiar faces and also receive the care package they had brought from my parents (including my new camera and my kindle). We went to Connaught Place which is really nice compared to what we saw of Delhi the first time, and then the Red Fort.

The next day we went out to the Lotus Temple. Charlotte and Mcin had more bad things happen to them in 1 day than we have had in 2 months in India.

Firstly the metro was packed, and Charlotte ended up getting onto a carriage on her own, never a good move for a western girl. When she got off she was shaking after having an Indian guy rubbing his crotch up and down her leg the whole journey. Lovely. You should have stuck with us Charlotte!

At the Lotus Temple queueing to get in some guy tried to pickpocket Mcin but he caught him. He then had to sit in the Temple in silence whilst watching the man leave out of the other exit. That made him angry. To make things worse later on some guy tried the classic shit on the shoe scam. Its as simple as it sounds. A guy throws shit on your shoe without you noticing, then tries to charge you to wipe it off. Mcin had the lovely job of wiping it off himself with wet wipes.

I was a bit sad to leave Charlotte and Mcin, I got used to having them around again very quickly, but we were on our way to Beijing, so it was goodbye again.


Part 2

I'm not going to get pretentious talking about my “experience” in India and how spiritually developed I am or anything like that. But, India is a great place which everyone should visit. If you really can't handle the noise, dirt, poverty then you could go on tours to all the major tourist attractions, and still see lots of beautiful things. Seeing it all through the windows of your air conditioned bus and hotel is one way to do it. I would probably do that if I had children with me.

I don't think that the highlight of India was the Taj Mahal, or any other historic site, but the people (and the food). If they aren't trying to sell you something then they are great people. They are super inquisitive and friendly and will happily just talk to anybody. People who sit next to each other on a train chat like old friends, and everyone gets on with everybody else. It can grate on you a little bit, especially when feeling particularly reserved and British and just wanting to be left alone. However, most of the time its just really nice. In the little towns everyone knows everybody and they all muck in and help each other out with jobs. They have some great little communities. People in China won't speak English as well so I think I will miss that.

Onto Beijing next...