Pushkar

The sight of a large group of camels being herded along the side of the road, along with a developing sparseness and dryness in the landscape hearalded our approach to Pushkar. I don't know what it is, but camels are kinda cute. They smell rank, can be bad tempered, spit, piss and shit without concern for where it lands, yet they're still lovable. I guess it must be akin to the attraction of the Aussie male.

Pushkar is held to be a holy place by Hindu's. It was disapointing though that the idea of spirituality is often hijacked at these kind of spots by opportunists. At the lake in Pushkar, a local man became irate (as the guide book said they would) when we wouldn't give him money for him to bless us, saying that we obviousley didn't care about the welfare of our families and friends. It put a dampener on the lake viewing, our tour guide was busy being a chocolate teapot. However that "spiritual bully" has to live with the negativity of his actions.

Although I've had cold showers for 10 out of the last 12 days (I'm fatalistic about the possibility of number 11 tomorrow) and have experienced some rank toilets, I have also been spoilt at times. This is the view from the hotel pool on our first night in Pushkar.










Night two in Pushkar and our "night in the desert", was a little bit less than we expected. Think of a sleep over in a sandpit and you'll be on the money. It was good fun though.










Slightly different to expectations as well was our camel "safari" which lasted for all of about 90 minutes, judging by the stretched hammies and groins around the place it's probably a good thing we weren't on camel back for two days. The decidely uncomfortable pilot of "Jungle Johnny" sitting in front of me is Maureen, forever known by her offical Indian title of "Mama Chapati".










Later, some of the camels wanted to make a statement about the hefty blokes they'd been forced to carry...










Others were content to just sit and look pretty for their glamour shots...














That night after a candlelit dinner we had a music and dance performance by a group of Indian gypsies.










Unlike the puppet show crowd, these guys went made an effort to really put on an entertaining performance and also looked to be enjoying themselves. The dancers, costumes and music were all good, capped off with a fire-breathing finale.










It wasn't until you got up close that you realised how absolutely petite both the gypsy men and women were, it was like a happy-go lucky Hobbit party.











Cheers!

Kuchaman Fort

No visit to India would be complete without mention of the ever present emporiums, also known as "emboriums". Essentially the emporiums function as a show room for the local crafts, such as rugs, jewellery, marble work and often a selection of other work from all corners of India. At the upper end of the price range the quality of the work was absoloutely stunning. Usually the good stuff was handmade, individual pieces such as rugs or wall hangings may have taken months to complete. On the tour we visited many, many of these; so much so that some nights I still wake up screaming having heard the sound of yet another bloody Kashmiri rug being loudly rolled out for inspection in my nightmares. It would have been less fatiguing had the sales people not been all over you should have so much at blinked at an object in the shop.














We stayed in a variety of types of accomodation, from hotels to tents, forts and sleeper trains. I think for me it started to feel like something special when we jumped in some jeeps and rode up to the hilltop fort where would be staying for the night. I'm a little bit hazy around place names (last night I found a restruant with 650ml beers for 70R, which is about $2...) but I'm pretty sure the first fort we stayed in was Kuchaman Fort which overlooked the town below.


















Having a few beers in the evening after a swim in the underground pool, whilst watching the sunset over the town, was very memorable. The chappies in the pic are Sandy, Woody (a.k.a my name is NOT Branton, and sure as shit not Braaaaaahnton) and Mohamouad (yes, his real name). Later on a man-boob competition broke out, poor Mohamouad didn't stand a chance. In the interests of taste that particular photo won't be published.














The interior work in Kuchaman Fort as well as in many of the palaces and temples was often very ornate, detailed, beautiful.














Ganesh is the popular Hindu god of new beginnings, travellers and overcomer of obstacles. Hindu tradition involves an offering to the deity, such as Ganesh, in return for safe travel etc. Incense or food is the norm. Here however Woody had just finished offering a Dunhill Gold in preparation for our departure from Kuchaman.

Fatehpur Sigri, Jaipur and a Lame Ass Puppet Show

After Agra, we quickly hit Fatepur Sigri, but I hasten to add, not as quickly as we did 2nd time 'round in week four. I forget the details and I don't have my guide book handy to provide any sort of interesting insight. I think it was one of many royal residences establish and then abandoned in about the 16th century, this may, then again may not have been, due to the inability to get a consistent water supply.














It was however an example of the types of beautiful archetecture and construction that are scattered all throughout India. In some of these places, every single surface, every post, every window frame, every tower and every walk way was decorated with a pattern, picture or some sort of deeper meaning providing a depth not seen in a purely 'flat surface'.














And here's a shot of a monkey on a bike, as I've fallen behind my quota.














Next up was the Amber Fort, so called, as in comparison to the Red Fort the stone used here parted a dusky yellow or light orange/amber shade. The golden age of construction in India, there's a more classical name for this period which I forget, ran from the 13th-16th century when many key sites and monuments were built. This also coincided with a very bloody period in history as the Moghul's invaded from the north, with masscres being common.

India was a collection of distinct and independent states, hundreds of local dialects still exist, so some stood, some formed alliances and many fell. The number and the location of these massive, almost impenetrable, forts found in most states is driven by this bloody history.














The local taxi service to the Amber fort wasn't known for it's timeliness.
Pizza delivery isn't even worth discussing.














Based on my camera chronology which I'm using in an attempt to reconstruct events, we also saw a token puppet show in Jaipur. I say this because I'm sure there is a proper, living and quality tradition of story telling through puppets out there. However the perfomance was saw in the hotel garden reeked, with all the benefit of hindsight( and an absence of Kingfishers), of a shallow drive for tourist dollars.

So yeah, it sucked. If however you are running any type of cultural event in Oz and would like to book a lame-ass "traditional" puppet show 'straight outta Rajasthan' then this guy is waiting for your call. Be sure to give him some money so he can buy a beer or twelve to drink with his 'wife'...

Agra

The next stop on the itenary was Agra, our first real trip on the bus. Somewhere along the line someone had taken a full size bus, washed it, and then put it in the dryer. The result was a bus that was as tall and as wide as a 40 seater coach, but somewhat stumpy in length, having about 16 seats in total, as if it were a gecko that dropped it's tail.

The trip to Stumpy was deceptively comfortable, the roads were quite smooth in comparison to what was to come with suicidal overtaking manoevures kept to the minimum required by Indian law. I probably would have felt more comfortable had the bus driver and his accompanying human indicator (namaste Vikram) not been decked out in flying goggles and a Japanese scarve. Jokes aside Munshi the driver did an exceptional job in conjunction with Vikram through the first two weeks in avoiding the worst of the potholes (craters?) and not stopping our collective hearts too often.

In Agra there's a massive red fort, similar but importantly not identical, to the one in Delhi. I'd love to post photo's however I did say it was massive, so I wasn't able to fit any worthwhile shots onto my camera.

The Taj on the otherhand is a well versed photo-pig and takes a great piccy. The Taj knows it's both beautiful and photogenic from any angle. We were fortunate to be a little ahead of the peak tourist season, dawn arrival meaning there were just about as many monkey's as people on site.

It is a stunning piece of work beyond any doubt. The two identical red mosques on either side (one of them is a fake, purely for aesthetic balance - the Muslims are bonkers about symetry) provide contrast to the shining marble and prevent you from visually overloading on white. Even the fake mosque is worth viewing in it's own right, this is a view of the inside of one...which one I can't remember but they are after all, identical down to the last detail.














On entry one of our group had her calculator confiscated by security, apparently too much algebra over the years has affected the foundations of Taj, consequently neither calculators nor slide rules are allowed in any more.

On first sight, most of the group agreed the Taj felt somewhat surreal possibly because it's one of those images you've seen so many times in books, magazines and on TV. Looking back at the photo's I can now really appreciate the true beauty of it.














Because we were traveling during the tourist pre-season, the local mobile salesmen used us as a practice match. Kinda like Geelong in 06, I think they may have gone too hard too early, as on our return to Agra three and a bit weeks later, they were noticeably flatter and struggled to keep up with the bus. Here's a photo of one of the tour group, Pauline, explaining politely to a salesman trying to run himself into from, that no she doesn't want a pearl necklace. Meanwhile his companion tries to sell her what appears to be a stale piece of toast from the local hotel boofay.














Traffic in India is absolutely mental. If you take all the worst pieces of driving you've seen in your entire life - suicidal overtaking, unroadworthy vehicles, red-light running, tailgating, driving on the wrong side of the road, speeding, motorbikes driving on the footpath, homicidal buses...that's pretty much what you'll see in 5 hours anywhere near a road in India.

That said, Kolkata where I am at the moment is not too bad for traffic, chaotic Howrah bridge (even at 0430) aside where my cab had a minor bingle with another cab. It has numerous one way streets which make crossing easier, and plenty of policed pedestrian crossings on the east side of the city. It's been quite pleasant to walk around as well, as there are quite a few street signs and there are lots of trees along the side of the road. As in all parts of India of visited so far, poverty and wealth exist side by side.

Sunday's is a much quieter day, many shops are closed. To pass the time when the cricket isn't on, the locals line up on either side of a boomgate to play a game known as "Murgh"...which loosely translates in English as "chicken".

Dodgy's Farewell Party Sept 06

Hey guys, a bit late but anyways...

Here are a selection of pics from my farewell party from Oz and the mighty Bundlohn Beer Garden. I have to say it was one of the best days, night and day (it kinda just keep rolling!) of my life...you can tell when I still had the world's biggest shit-eating grin on my face come Sunday arvo.









Luckily all the nighbours at the Bundalohn Beer Garden don't mind the odd party or 20 and are usually up for a good time...














It was fantastic to see my friends (...pissed hehe) happy, laughing and chatting in the one place. You are an awesome bunch, and I feel privelleged to have such good friends














I really appreciate the help of Anouck, DC, Fallout Boy, Big John Stud, Trace and Rich with setting up and the less glamouress task of pulling the Taj down again.














We never did work out who spike the punch.















Hope you had a blast as well!

Cheers and best wishes,

Dodgy

Delhi

Hey guys, hopefully this works. Please give me feedback on ways to make it better, anything that doesn't work and for the guys I travelled with, any errors I've made around place names and dates.

Delhi was the first stop, I was there for approximately 5 days or so, and this is where I met up with the tour group. As a city it has some fantastic monuments and good shopping but having seen them and done that, it doesn't really grab me.

This is a picture of the main entrance from inside the Jama Masjid (Friday Mosque) in Delhi, the largest mosque in India. You can climb one of the minarets (see far left) and get great views of Delhi. The court yard you can see in the foreground is large enough to hold 24,000 Muslims. Later that day a 10,000 a side soccer game broke out. The scorers were Mohaommud 6, Mohaommud 6, Mohaommud 4 and singles each to Mohaommud, Mohaommud and Mohoammud.


India has many religious monuments and more forts then you can point a cannon at. The catch cry of the tour group was YAFF (yet another forting fort). While accomodation can be somewhat lacking at times, to say the least, for the living. The dead can have some pretty flash digs. This is the Moghul Emperor Humayun's (he masscred the Hindu's...I masscred his name) tomb. The Muslims bury their dead in tombs like this while the Hindu's cremate theirs, either throwing the ashes into the holy Ganges or burying the ashes in Cenotaphs .














I was disturbed to hear recently that the Sydney Opera house had been reporting missing. The article said it had last been seen drinking with the Statue of Liberty in a pub in North Sydney, the two being seperated with the Opera House left to hook-up with the Eiffel Tower. Well I'm happy to report that the Opera House has turned up safe and sound in Delhi and is currently enjoying the sights, sounds and foods of India.

In reality this is called the Lotus Temple, the resemblance with the flower is clear, and is a non-denominatial temple where you can go to make a prayer. The inside is as spectacular as you would expect from the roof (and completely silent) and the outside has some nice water pools surrounding it.

Cheers and best wishes,

Dodgy