Frustrations in India Part 1 (8th November - 17th November)

Well, after more than ten years of wanting to come to India I've made it!! And in short it's one of my biggest dissapointments. My main reason for coming was always the people. I'd expected it to be a big culture shock and a lot of hard work but underneath it all the people would be friendly and over all it would be a rewarding experience. But over the last month the people have been the biggest let down. The whole time that we were there people were constantly trying to get money from us. Without knowing the full statistics, I'm sure that I've visited poorer countries than India, but none of them have treated tourists the way that they've treated us here. I think about everything that the Cambodians have had to go through and yet they've managed to come out of it smiling and they seem pleased to share their country with you, while here all they are interested in is your wallet and they aren't afraid to let you know it. I will caveat this though by saying that in the month we were here we only travelled in three states, taking in some of the most visited cities so I'm sure that we may have had a different opinion if we'd travelled more extensively and especially to some of the quieter areas, in fact when we moved away from the main tourist stops of Delhi, Varanassi and Agra we did start to meet the occasional friendly person.


At the same time as all of the bad stuff we did see some amazing buildings and eat some of the best food that I've ever tasted. So as not to make this all sound like a massive whinge I'll get as many of the negative aspects out of the way first of all:

1. Beggars - I'd heard stories about children being sold into begging and being mutilated so that they could collect more money so was expecting to see a never ending line of dirty children that would break your heart not to help. But I think that any cash that you give is a short term help and ultimately just makes the problem worse because people realise that thay can make money from selling their children. So before we even got here we'd decided that a decent sized donation to a charity when we left would be a much bigger help than an equal amount in the form of small handouts on the street. In fact we saw very few people begging that looked like they needed help. Instead we had lots of children dressed smartly in their school uniforms coming up to us and just asking for money or pens. These were children who´s parents could afford to send them to school, but thought that it was ok to ask for things from tourists because so many people had come through before handing out pens and money that they now think that it's ok for them to beg. Worst of all was a boy of about 19 who sat down next to Kamay while we were waiting for a train. He was dressed smartly and looked like he was on his way to the office. He'd been sat there for a couple of minutes, then said hello, asked where Kamay was from and then asked for a dollar as if it was a tip for being friendly or just a thing that tourists do - hand out money to anyone that asks for it. We'd been up since 5am for a train that at that eventually was 4 hours late so Kamay lost it a bit and ended up phsically pushing him off of the bench.




2. Photo's - Everyone always says that if you are going to take photos of people you should always ask them first, which is fair enough. And I guess that this sometimes also means that you should give them some money for it, or at least buy something from their stall. But there were loads of people coming up to us asking us to take their photo, which they would then charge us for. Fine if you're a crazy looking holy man or an interesting looking old lady with no teeth, but why the hell would I want to pay for a picture of a 12 year old boy out with his friends!! When we were at Fatehpur Sikri just outside of Agra a young boy asked us for a photo, we said no, but then he was there with what we thought was his family and we assumed that they were there on a sightseeing trip and they just wanted to see a picture of themselves. This was the first nice group of people that we'd met so planned to really go out of our way and took down their address so that we could send them a copy of the picture. We got a bit suspicious though when the boy had to ask the father for the address. Then when the family were out of earshot the boy asked for money, or our watch, or sunglasses. Cheeky monkey wasn't related to the family at all - he just dragged them in to increase his chances of getting some money.



3. Constant hunt for backsheesh/tips - I've got no problem rewarding for good service and I know that different countries tip for different things, but it's crazy here. On the overnight train from Delhi to Varanassi one of the train stewards made up our beds for us, which is his job, but we gave him some extra money for it, and then in the morning we folded the sheets for him and stacked them up but he blocked our way from the cabin because he wanted some backskeesh. We'd done his job for him!!! And we´d already tipped him for the previous night. Then in some of the tourist sights there are members of staff offering "helpful information" like "look at the ceiling, isn't it nice..... $1". When we were in Jaipur at the City Palace it was crazy. All of the staff were dressed in traditional outfits and kept asking people if they wanted photo's or everyone wanted to read out the signs next to the exhibits for us - there were even signs there telling you not to tip the staff, but still they asked. At the Jain temples in Jaisalmer the holy people would tell you which way to go (which was fairly obvious anyway) and then ask for money. Even though there are large signs saying don't give money to the holy men. We took a boat trip along the Ganges in Varanassi, we'd agreed an hourly rate with the boat man, but actually only needed him for an hour and a half, but he was good, he didn't try to get us to visit a shop where he'd get commission or anythig like that, so we paid him for two hours and then rounded up to the nearest 50, so all in he had about a 50% tip - and he complained that it wasn't enough!! And this was just a few of the examples.



4. Confidence tricksters - these are some of the worst ones. The shop keepers and taxi drivers that stand around asking you to come into their shops or asking you where you are going are annoying, but I can put up with them, all they are doing I suppose is a form of marketing. But the ones that approach you in the street and try to start a conversation but don't appear to have anything to sell, you spend the whole time wondering why they are talking to you. Yes, they may just be friendly, but it's unlikely. You may get talking to the person next to you on the bus, but not the person walking in the opposite direction from you, which is what these guys do. In Delhi there was lots of "hello, remember me from yesterday". There are so many people that come up to you in the streets you can't remember who has and hasn´t spoken to you, so you end up feeling bad that you don't recognise them and that's exactly what they want. In Varanasi a man wanted to shake my hand and when I did he started to try to give me a hand massage and wouldn't let go. In Pushkar a lady tried to shake Kamay's hand and then quick as a flash started to put henna on her hand. If you want to sell massage's or henna decoration get a sign and if I want it I'll come and visit you - don't try and trick us into it.
   


5. Tour guides by stealth - How this works is that you are walking around a palace, museum or temple and somebody starts walking with you and just starts telling you about the place - some of it may be true, some of it is made up and a lot of it is either on the plaques on the wall or in the guide book. And then at the end of your time at the palace he asks you for some money - again for a service that you didn't want. Whenever we've been followed they have never added anything to the experience all they have done is provide a constant noise while you're trying to enjoy a bit of quiet time to take it all in. So by about day 2 we were just up front about it as soon as anyone started telling us when buildings had been built, who used to live there - "Whatever happens we will never under any circumstances give you any money, make a donation to your "charity" go to your shop, your brothers shop, your fathers shop, in fact any shop with you ever!" The tour tended to stop pretty soon after that.
   


6. Misinformation - People stand around outside of train stations or attractions telling you that it's closed for the day, or that the ticket counter has moved to his friends shop or that you have to pay them extra money to take your camera with you.



7. Staring - We look different so we expected to be stared at, but normally you get stared at, make eye contact, exchange awkard smiles or maybe a laugh and it's fine. Here people just keep staring - they don't mind that you've caught them staring. Worst of all though are the boys who stare at the girls like some kind of wild animal on heat. It's horrible. Again, tourists don't always help themselves, it's a very conservative country so if you're wearing tight tops and little skirts you are going to get a lot of attention. But Kamay was dressing respectfully, she isn't blond and still they stared, even with me right next her. The day that we visited Ajmer Palace Fort was the worst one. The building is a real maze of corridors and we ended up getting a little bit lost and three boys were following us - they were just dead creepy and that was with the two of us.

We've seen most of these things at least once in other countries, but I've never seen all of it in one place every day. And that's what I found most disheartening.

Then there are the other things that make it hard to enjoy India. The place is very dirty, the rubbish all ends up on the street so everywhere you look there are plastic bags and rotting food. Cows are a sacred animal here and get to roam the streets, which does make it interestning, we saw loads of them just stood around the streets in the middle of rush hour traffic, but it does mean that there is poo everywhere. Most of this is cow poo, some is dogs and some is human. We saw quite a few people (and not just children) squatting by the side of the street. Not that there aren't toilets. We saw loads of public toilets (only for men though) but we saw most men deciding to go against the wall 10 metres away from the toilet instead. This all of course leads to some quite amazing smells. This was the stuff that I was expecting from India and if this was all we had to contend with I think that we would have had a great time.



Good to get that off of my chest. Enough complaining, I'll try to keep the rest of this a bit more positive.



Arrived in Delhi in the ridiculously early hours of Wednesday morning. Luckily the plane was almost empty so we both had 3 seats to stretch out on and get some sleep. Still wan't great getting to the airport though at 3am to find out that the car you'd booked with the hotel wasn't there. So after waiting 45 minutes we had to take a cab. They have this great thing here at the airports and around the major train stations where the police have set up an official pre-paid taxi and auto rickshaw booth, so it's a fixed price and nobody is going to try to screw you. So we were expecting an easy drive into the city. But the roads were rammed with trucks and cars, it was 3am but it looked like rush hour out by the airport. Got to the hotel, checked in and had an argument about us paying for the car that didn't turn up. Turns out that he was at the airport, but he'd only just got there (over an hour late) - not a great start. The room was nasty but we just wanted to sleep for a few hours, so it would do until the morning.


We were staying in an area called Pahaganj which is where most of the cheap accommodation is, so after a few hours sleep we set off to find something better. All of the hotels are around the main bazaar, a narrow little road lined with shops and with way too much traffic for the size of the road, so you are constantly looking over your shoulder for the bikes and cabs and dodging cow poo on the floor. Everything that we looked at was equally as bad as our place or only slightly better for lots more money, so reluctantly we stayed where we were. First on our sightseeing list was the Red Fort, an impressive fort built in 1648 by Shah Jahan. Then lunch time - our first real Indian meal and it was good. Given the reputation for the cleanliness of some of the eating establishments we'd vowed to try to stick to the restaurants that had been recommended - yeah, I know it’s not the best way to experience the city but, better this than a week being ill. Opposite the fort is a large mosque called Jama Masjid, and this was where we spent the next hour or so wandering through the courtyard, past the minarets and through the surrounding market while digesting our food. We were allowed to climb one of the four towers and were rewarded with a great view of the spralling city. From here we walked to Delhi Gate and then onto Raj Ghat which is where Mahatma Ghandi was cremated. It's been turned into a beautiful garden, a great break from the hussle of the city streets. Over the road from here was a museum to the man himself, where we got to learn lots about him – got to admit I was pretty ignorant of a lot of things that he did, so it was great to read about it. Dinner was around the hotel area and over the next day or so we realised that the food in Pahaganj isn't that great - a mixture of Indian and Western dishes, none of it done very well.

The next morning we were up late and took an autorickshaw to Qutb Minar area. But by now it was lunch time so after just one day of Indian food we went for pasta and pizza. Not that we were particularly craving it, it's just that one of the best restaurants in town, Olive Bar And Kitchen, was right around the corner. It’s a great setting, kind of like the grounds of a Mediterranean villa. We were sat outside in the courtyard overlooked by banyan trees and next to a group of 12 or so women all dressed up in expensive looking saris or western clothes all with big trendy sunglasses. One of the snippets of conversation that I caught was "Oh that's terrible, I do hope that it didn't get into the papers". So I guess this was where a lot of the important peoples wives eat. It was such a great setting we ended up taking our time over lunch and ended up spending most of the afternoon in the restaurant and it was a real shame to drag ourselves to Qutb Minar, but it was well worth it. The Qutb Minar complex dates from 1193 and according to the guide book the buildings are a fine example of early Afghan architecture. The Qutb Minar itself is a tower of victory that was started after the defeat of the last Hindu kingdom in Delhi. Amongst the other buildings is the first mosque ever built in India, the Might of Islam Mosque. From here we took an autorickshaw back into town to Humayun’s Tomb a great resting place for the second wife of the Mughal emperor Humayaun. The domes on the main structure here were actually used as a warm up to the domes on the Taj Mahal. We’d enjoyed ourselves so much here that we thought we’d stick around in the area and see Nizam-ud-din’s shrine. We were expecting to be the same sort of place but by the time that we got there it was getting dark and the narrow streets on the way to the shrine were really crowded and neither of us felt comfortable being there. Especially when we were told that we'd have to take our shoes off to go in. We would then be charged a huge amount for someone to "look after them" and even then we'd be lucky if they were still there when we got back. So we decided that we were never really big fans of Nizam-ud-din anyway so he’d understand if we didn’t see his shrine, so we just headed back to The Red Fort for a Sound and Light Display that would tell the story of the fort by lighting up various buildings while the story was boomed out over the PA. It was interesting but dragged on a bit and we were sat outside and by this time of year Delhi is getting pretty cold, so we were glad when the show finished.

Friday was our last day in Delhi, so we checked out of the hotel and tried to find things to do until we left on the 6pm train to Varanasi. The first stop was the National Museum, which was really interesting (well for the first hour or so, then we both developed information overload). Then onto Conaught Place for lunch and a bit of window shopping. This area is supposed to be the fancy area with all of the new designer shops. It was definitely cleaner than a lot of Delhi, but still nothing great, although they did have some nice restaurants and names that we recognised, KFC, Burger King etc.

The train station in Delhi was crazy, people sat or lying all over the floor outside the station, inside the station on the platforms and just constant noise and movement from everywhere. We managed to find our carriage easily enough though. We were lucky on this train because we’d been able to get a First Class 4 person cabin so we got a lockable room to ourselves and bunk beds with proper bedding and best of all was that the other two beds remained vacant for the whole of the journey. Ah luxury…


We arrived at Varanassi early on the 11th and organized a car to take us to the hotel Haifa. It was a really nice clean hotel (since Delhi we’d decided to go for slightly nicer accommodation for the rest of our stay in India, so we were out of the “Budget” section in the Lonely Planet and into the “Mid-range”, which meant that we’d be paying about $4 more – so it was worth it), served great food and was within a minute’s walk of Assi Ghat on the Ganges river. Varanasi is one of the holiest cities in India sitting right on top of the Ganges. So Hindu pilgrims come here to wash away their sins in the Ganges. They get to the river by sets of steps, these are called ghats and there are about 80 of them bordering the river in Varanasi. Most of these are used just for bathing, but some are burning ghats. Yep, that’s right they cremate bodies here. You see Varanasi is seen as an auspicious place to die because dying here offers moksha (liberation from the cycle of birth and death). The city is seen as the beating heart of the Hindu universe and the Ganges is the river of salvation so hundreds of people make a pilgrimage to this holy city to die. So you get to see loads of super religious people bathing in the river, walking around and being cremated!!! It’s pretty weird, but also amazing to think that you can take a walk down by the riverside and see what ordinarily would be a very private family occasion taking place right on the river in the view of hundreds of strangers. From what we were told by one of our “guides” while walking around was that when people die they get wrapped in traditional robes and then washed in the river before being cremated on what looks like a regular bonfire and then the ashes get scattered in the river. This, along with the 60,000 people and cattle bathing in the river every day (yep, 60,000 a day!!!) has meant that the Ganges is probably one of the most polluted rivers in the world. In fact the water is officially septic, which means that no oxygen exists in it!! Samples of the water have shown that 1.5 million faecal bacteria exists in each 100ml of water, that’s one hell of a lot of poo – to be safe for bathing it should be about 500!!

But anyway, despite the various hygiene issues it was a mind blowing place to visit – I’m sure that there is nowhere else like it in the world. So many amazing colours and people – definitely a highlight, although with all of the smells, sights, constant hassles from vendors and con artists and dodging of animal and human excrement on the streets a very draining highlight. We spent most of our time in the city just walking up and down the river being amazed at everything that was going on. Every evening at sunset there is a ceremony that takes place at Assi Ghat so on the first night we took a look at this – no idea what was going on, but a great opportunity to people watch. Then on the next morning we took a sunrise boat ride up the ganges. This was probably the best bit of our time in the city. Most people are out in the morning so the ghats are really busy with everyone washing themselves, their sins, their clothing and even their cattle. Other than this there was another afternoon boat ride, more walking along the river and to the University, a fair bit of relaxation and a lot of eating. On our last lunch we returned to a great restaurant called New Keshari Ruchikar Byanjan for what was one of the best meals of my life. I’d ordered one of the thalis, which is a kind of sampler meal for one, so I had paneer curry, chana masala, vegetable curry, fried dal, butter naan, tandoori roti, curd, papad, salad and jeera rice. Kamay had dal masala and a butter nan – she could still walk when we left the restaurant, I couldn’t. This was the best meal in Varansi but the others were really good as well, just some of the food we had included vegetable pakora’s, dal makhani, alloo dum, navratam korma, aloo dum, malai kofta, stuffed paratha’s, palak paneer, paneer tikka – oh it was so good.

In the end we had 4 days in Varanasi – it was a couple too many, there are some great sights there but unless you are particularly “spiritual” (read – crusty tye dyed freak) you can see the sights in a couple of days. Our next stop was Agra – the home of the great Taj Mahal. We had a night train from Varanasi that got in early on Wednesday morning. It was 4 hours late but we still had time to get to Agra Fort before heading to our hotel (the fort is right next to the station so it made more sense to go here first). The fort is from about 1565 and was a nice warm up to the Taj. Before we toured the Taj we went for lunch at a roof top restaurant that gave us a beautiful view of the building, it really was as amazing as everyone says it is. Getting in was a bit of an ordeal with bag searches, pat downs and the confiscation of various contraband items like tripods, but it was all worth it when we were inside. We took our time going around and spent a few hours in there with a lot of it just sat watching. Just in case you didn’t know, some info from the Lonely Panet – built by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his second wife Mumtaz Mahal after she died in 1631, but was not completed until 1653. There were 20,000 people working on it and specialists were even brought in from Europe to help with the construction. In total it cost about 3m rupees (US$70m in todays money).

To finish off our day of Indian culture we went to Pizza Hut and ate Indian pizza!! Better than the paneer pizza and massala lemonade though were the pizza hut dance troupe!! In the middle of dinner a bell sounded, Indian bangra music started and 4 of our waiters started to dance like some kind of Indian boy band – it was hilarious!!

Day 2 in Agra was spent out at Fatephur Sikri which is a fortified ghost city about 40km’s from Agra. Back in 1571 it was the capital of the Mughal empire, but suffered badly from being built in an area with no water so when the emperor died everyone left. They did leave behind some great looking palace buildings and a beautiful mosque though. To get there we had to suffer our first real car journey on India’s main roads. It was bad in Delhi, but you felt oddly safe in lanes of slow moving traffic, now we just had one lane which meant that overtaking was a viable option and our driver liked to overtake, especially when busses were coming in the opposite direction!! The city was good though with some nice buildings. Always in the back of our minds though was the fact that we’d have to get back in that death trap and drive back to Agra!

Friday 17th was an early start with a planned 6.15am train but we had to allow at least 30 minutes to get to the station, so we were up at 5am. When we got there though we were told that the train was going to be an hour late!! In the end it was 4 hours late so we weren’t in a good mood, but were entertained by the monkeys that were overrunning parts of the station. Well, until the packs of dogs chased them off, or until they were chased off by other monkeys. Kamay spent some of this 4 hours drawing a nearby mosque while I read and people watched. Highlight was when one of the trains pulled in for a stop. The trains seem to stop at stations for anything up to an hour while they off load bags, put new bags on and people eat and drink from all of the station vendors. But on this one train a young boy must have had problems in the toilet and got “himself” stuck inhis zip. This is obviously very embarrassing, but in India you’re lucky that the boys that sell shoe shines also sell and fix zips so there is someone there to help you. What you’re not so lucky about though is that people in India like to stare. So this boy had gotten off of the train and his dad had arranged for a shoe shine/zip fixer boy to help but about 20 people crowded around him to see what is going on. Oh the embarrassment!!

Eventually the train that was going to take us to Jaipur arrived and we found our carriage in the 3rd class sleeper section. This was the same sort of set up as the train from Varanasi, except this time we were traveling during the day. The carriage was made up of 3 tier bunk beds in the main part with six people facing in on each other and then along the side of the train was a double bunk. During the day the middle bunk is folded back so that people can sit rather than lie. It worked quite well on the previous train because when we got on it was already late so everyone just chained their bags to their bunks and went to sleep (porters provide bed sheets etc). It’s all a bit strange during the day though because sometimes people want to sleep so they do this creeping stretch out on the bunk/seat until you find yourself either squeezed up against the wall or hanging one buttock off of the seat at the far end. This train ride wasn’t the bag of laughs that I’d been expecting or had experienced on similar trains in other countries.

So that takes us up to our arrival in the state of Rajasthan. This has been a fairly long entry, so I think that I’ll call it a day now, and apologies again for all of that complaining. I promise that the next entry will look at only the positive sides of the trip (well maybe there will be a couple of negative bits)