Week 7 Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Incredible !ndia

This week we broke out of slow pace beach live in Goa in to the sightseeing frenzy! In one week we went to world heritage sights: Red Fort, Humayun’s Tomb, Qutub Minar in Delhi, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri around Agra and observatory Jantar Mantar in Jaipur and of course to one of the world 7 wonders: Taj Mahal. We have seen other incredible architecture of mosques and palaces. Just look at our photos It is incredible!! But what is even more incredible is how difficult it is for an independent traveller to negotiate your way to all these beautiful sights! So this blog is (unfortunately) mostly about my experiences and observations that made India for me even more incredible than its splendid monuments.

I cried twice in Delhi!

Following the basic role of travel to always know your way out of the place, on our first morning in Delhi we went to the train station to buy tickets for our onward journey. Like in Mumbai, Delhi station has a separate booking office for foreign travellers on the 1^st floor of the main station building. From Lonely Planet we already knew about the touts and scam at the station that would do anything not to let you get to this booking office and instead divert you to their illegitimate travel agency that could (maybe?) arrange for the tickets for exorbitant commission and sell you some other expensive service that you really do not need. Yet, for some reason we fell for it! Maybe we were too relaxed after Goa? Or maybe it was just impossible not fall for the sneaky and well trained scammer? Basically a guy with an authoritative voice and fake government ID managed to redirect us to his scam travel agency that surprise, surprise was located on the 1^st floor and had exactly the same name as the official railway booking office ‘International Tourist Bureau’. It would be too long to describe all the lies that came out of this guy’s mouth but he officialise himself by pointing to the ‘Incredible !ndia’ poster on his wall… The biggest lie however was that there well no seats available for any train from Delhi to our next stop Agra and that he instead would offer us a ‘official government’ railway minibus service for 11,000 Rs while the first class train ticket costs 700 rs. We infuriated him but get out of his agency and after a coffee and in the Indian Starbucks equivalent ‘Café Coffee Day’ we attempted again to get through to the real Tourist Bureau… and failed again. This time on the friendly information from a Sikh guy that even used our lonely planet map to direct us to the government information centre ‘Incredible !ndia’ so that his mate could catch us on the way and on the pretence of helping us to find our way drag us to another liar’s cave! According to his lies ‘Incredible !ndia’ information centre was the only place that was booking advance train tickets while the International Tourist Bureau was only booking same day tickets. Then his friendly mate in meticulously tied turban met us on the pedestrian crossing and casually chatted to us while dragging us away from our destination that apparently has moved due to the metro construction. Yet again we persevered the scam and got to the ‘Incredible !ndia’ information office (meeting other scammers on the way) just to find out that they do not book any train tickets at all and we had to go back to the train station. By then it was about 3 hours after our initial attempt to enter the International Tourist Bureau in the railway station… and I cried to the pour lady there! Because I could not believe how much time we wasted on the hot day but more so how easy it was for these guys to lie and how easy it was to fall for the lies and also because this was the end of the travel as I know it! From that day a friendly hello that I would normally reciprocate is just a warning sign of somebody trying to take advantage of you! Unfortunately this experience sort of defined my attitude for the rest of the week... Other than in the hideouts of the magnificent sights, I was tense fearing another liar’s encounter and did not want to talk to anybody. This is an incredibly wrong way to travel…

From this point we had no choice but to persevere the scam and after another attempt (this time through an entrance from the metro station) we managed to get to the official booking office and of course got our tickets after only about 30 minutes wait! Hurrah!

The next day in Delhi we went to Ghandi Memorial (Ghandi Smriti) where he was shot dead in 1948. It displays his room where he spent last 144 days of his life and his small worldly possessions including the famous glasses. It also has an interesting multimedia exhibition about his life and most importantly his philosophy. I never really fully appreciated the depth and wisdom of his preaching but here I learned that the cornerstone of his philosophy is the Truth! How incredible… It was very indeed a very emotional place that made shed a few tears!

It is incredible that a nation that calls Ghandi their father (but a bit ironically puts his face on all its banknotes) could also produce such a scam and liars that we met on the train station! Or maybe it is just a sheer numbers’ game?

‘Do you want to use my helicopter?’

Taxi and autorickshaws is a story on its own. The moment you step out on the street there is at least one or a few of them offering their service. The funny catch line often used is ‘Do you want to use my helicopter?’ That’s fine, they are just trying to get your business… What is incredible is how hard it is to convince them that you do NOT need it for the moment. In the country where English is one of the official languages simple NO seems to be the hardest word to understand. And again the amount of lies on offer is incredible… They have all these stories on how far, or how dangerous it is to walk, almost like nobody in India is walking at all. But what is even worse is that once you agree to use ‘the helicopter’ you still have to negotiate to be driven just from point A to B. They want to take you places; anywhere but where you want to go: to shops, directly to the hotel instead to the metro or bus stop or to the different shop or sight that is definitely 100 times better or cheaper than the one you want to go! Not sure what it is… is it trying to take advantage of the tourist or they really think that the tourists are stupid and have no idea on what they are doing but definitely it makes it incredibly exhausting for the independent traveller. Slowly however I am getting used to it. Maybe back home I will be surprised that the taxi drivers have nothing to offer, just the driving…

Rudeness or simply a cultural difference

I remember the first time I heard ‘I am sorry’. We were walking in Delhi’s crowded Main Bazar and a lady passing by touched my arm and said 'I am sorry'. Also one time in one of Jaipur’s bazars somebody said ‘Excuse me’ to pass… Incredible, but it only happened handful of times in the whole week. Normally people just push you or stumble at you, jump ahead of you in the queue, whether to buy a ticket or to a good photo spot. And it is everybody, elderly and kids... They get into the train, bus or metro before they let people out, completely no problem in obstructing your way out. Incredible, but in Delhi on major metro stations they have an official at literally every door directing human traffic just to enable people to get off the train! Incredible... Maybe it is simply the way to do things in such a populated country? 

Sometimes people are very friendly and polite but this is mostly when they want to buy something like in our hotel in Delhi where we were getting smiles until we refused to purchase the 10 days private tour of Rajastan… As with a couple of 'i am sorry' or excuse me' there are some exceptions. You just have to cherish those moment of the genuine politeness.

I have more ‘incredible’ observations from India but I will finish what seems to be like ‘ranting’ for now… before I discourage anybody from ever coming to India cause I am very happy to have seen and impressed with the incredible monuments but I would think twice before coming here as independent traveller. It might be much easier to see Incredible!ndia in the packaged tour and simply be taken in the comfortable bus and focus on the beauty of the architecture?

Week 5 and 6 Mumbai and Goa

I broke the discipline of my blog right after arriving in India… It is hard to get away from doing nothing on the beach and use the computer or even think of anything else but the sun, water and sand; believe meJ But I am back with a few reflections from these past two weeks taking a midday break from sunbathing on Mandrem beach in Goa.

Sitting here under Goa palm trees and drinking coconut water, makes our three crazy days in Mumbai seem unreal and like we were in the completely different country than in Mandrem… the only common thing between Goa and Mumbai seem to be the beautiful saris worn by the women. So here are a couple of my first impressions from India…

Trains and buses and personal space

The most surreal thing and the strongest memory from Mumbai was taking the local commuter train. Completely unaware of how much of the life threatening adventure it would be we booked a hotel located in what was described as posh and up and coming suburbs of Mumbai and had to take the train every day to get to the historical (and junk shopping) centre of the city. The first ride was all right. We decided that I would not need to use the ladies only carriage in front of the train so I boarded the first class carriage with Gavin to find out that I was the only woman there…. We stood next to two nice guys, chatted a bit and were slightly protected from the crowd coming in and out on every stop. We could not however stop wondering why on earth the locals all crowd at the door (or lack of the door as the trains do not have any form of closing door) regardless of how much free space there is inside the train. Part of it is being close to the air I guess. The other part we found out on our way back the same afternoon. Not really thinking it through we took the fast train back that stops at fewer stations at about 6pm, in the midst of the rush hour. We got in and the guys at “the lack of door” asked us where we were going and immediately pointed out that we should stand at the opposite “lack of door”… which obviously did not seem to safe to us, western people used to the trains with closing doors. And then it started…on every station there were more and more people getting in. I should have said more and more men... cause this time again I was the only woman in the carriage. Miraculously two guys managed to keep the ever incoming crowd away from me giving me some half a meter radius of free space. This was the biggest personal space I experience in India’s public transport! They also gave us the following advice before we approached our station: “You have start pushing forward before the train stops because the incoming crowd will just push you back in…” I got scared but followed the instructions and somehow I found myself on the platform probably hitting some of the people trying to get in. Few moments later I managed to find Gavin some 10 meters away. Basically the train does not stop. People are getting out and in when the train is in slow motion…. That’s why lack of door comes quite handy and you have to fight your way out and in. From that day I always took ladies only carriage and was worrying if Gavin is going to survive…. For the trip to the train station to catch the train to Goa we took the cab.

The Mumbai commuter train was a good lesson for the bus journeys we had to make to get to the beaches in Goa. They also continue to fill up when you think there is absolutely no way anybody can get in. The lesson was to grab a seat so that you cannot disturb the local commuter efficiency. Even if you feel very polite and would like to offer as sit to elderly or kids, do not! Believe, you would just not have the ability to fit in such a crowd and move seamlessly to let more people in or out. Alternative is to pay a bit more and use the shuttle bus that goes from one stop to another and does not collect more people on the way, if available of course…

Animals

Everybody knows that cows wonder on the streets in India. I did as well… Yet, when we stepped out of our hotel in Mumbai for the first time, I could not believe the cows were there, right there not more than few steps away from the hotel’s door. Anyway, by know I sort of got used to it but for the first few days it seemed surreal….

And yet when we arrived at our first Goa beach stop Palolem the cows greeted us again quietly enjoying the sun between fishermens’ boats and absolutely do not disturbing human sunbathers! You just have to be careful not step in or put your towel on the cows manureJ. But there is more… there are also dogs, some stray some just the local village dogs. Even I got used to their constant presence…. And goats! Not so much in Goa but in Mumbai goats seem to be the most popular children’s pet, not the dogs; strange… I also have to mention the pigs that were running between the beach hats in Palolem.

Two very different beaches

We first went to the ‘acclaimed’ Palolem beach in southern Goa. Exhausted after very crowded bus ride we took the first accommodation offered. It was just one of many beach huts built all along the beach. Literally, the whole coast line of that beach is lined with the hut and restaurant establishments. No free space at all… Luckily they did not cut all palm trees so some exotic charm remained. The village was lined with the shops and it was hard to navigate without being asked to step in for a ‘good price’ of something you did not need… But still after the hassles of Mumbai it seemed like a paradise.

We moved to the northern Goa to Mandrem… Such a difference!!! Very big beach with very few resorts, all tucked away in the palm trees and invisible from the beach. Every evening we watched fisherman coming back with the daily catch. It was so tranquil it seduced me to taking morning yoga classes and an ayuverdic massage and generally doing nothing. We ju\st sat on the beach for 4 lovely days. Somehow every day we ended up picking the free sits next to a French actress who has been coming to Mandrem for past 20 years and still is enjoying it as the last resort of former Goan tranquillity. She has travelled a lot in India and convinced us that we were in the best place… For me it did not take too much to be convinced. I love Mandrem!             

Two very different sights

Between the transport hassles and doing nothing on the beach we did some sightseeing. We saw the colonial architecture of Mumbai of course and went to the Hindu temple on Elephanta Island. The temple in the cave is very impressive and the more that its elaborate sculptures originate from V-VII centuries. However, I think (and please do not think I am some closed-minded person) it is somewhat harder to relate to all these different gods and goddesses and the legends and fully appreciate its meanings.

It was very different when we went to Old Goa, the former capital of the Portuguese colony with its splendour and magnificent churches…Or maybe I just have to get a little bit more familiar with Indian religions, traditions and history…

I guess I will have more opportunities to do so over the next two weeks when we travel through royal Rajasthan!

Week 4 Macedonia continued, Sofia and Istanbul (and lots of travel in-between)

This week has been packed with 3 countries and a lot of travels between them so it is hard to decide on one theme for the whole week but looking back I think that the theme should be ‘Getting Bigger’…

Very Small Republika Vevčanska

We finished our tour of Macedonia in Lake Ohrid and based ourselves in Ohrid the historic town apparently from where the Slavic alphabet and education in general originated. It is a charming town and the lake itself is very pretty. Needless to say though it probably is prettier when you come when it is still sunny and warm, like in the summerJ and not in the last week of October… While we enjoyed Ohrid (and the best value meal with the wine on the son of the restaurant owner) we were already slightly tired of being cold and a bit overdosed with sightseeing.

For our second day there we had a choice of going to Svety Naum monastery or to the nearby village of Vevčany that is famous for declaring its independent republic (I guess from Macedonia) with its own flag and apparently own money. While this claim seems to be slightly overstated as we did not see any signs of such independence it was a very nice day trip from Ohrid, starting with a travel on the mini-bus with the locals where seats did not seem to be fully attached and with the wife of the bus driver tring to converse with me in Macedonian, probably to distract my attention from the broken seats. She certainly got the message through that they owned 2 houses in Vevcany! Good on her, being the proud owner of this prime real estate! Vevčany itself turned out to be just a really small village with a big bus stop under a beautiful hill with mountain springs that we wondered around with maybe two or three other tourists. We finished the day in the family run restaurant with very local fare where we were at first the only guests... Whether or not the independent the tiny Republika Vevčanska was worth the trip on the broken seat in mini-bus…  and as you’ll see later our last secluded tourist-free oasis.

Big Sofia

We used Sofia as a transit stop on the way from Macedonia to Istanbul; we could have travelled through Greece but you never know who and when is going on strike there so we decided to avoid any unexpected extended stay in Thessaloniki. We arrived on Wednesday evening after 9 hours in the bus and left on Thursday with the evening train to Istanbul. This left us with one full day in the capital of Bulgaria… Immediately after arrival, it seemed like we were in the bigger city compared to any of the Western Balkans towns and not only because we were scammed by the taxi driver from the bus station but the general feel or a bigger urban space.

We spent the day on the free walking tour of the city centre organised by the volunteers that turned out to be really good. I never knew much about Bulgaria and Sofia and our tour guide made me a bit more aware in about 2.5 hours walking through the historical and contemporary sites of Sofia. The day started really cold so we thought we would be the only people on the tour, instead some 25 people from all over the word turned up and some of them stayed for lunch in the really good local eatery suggested by the guide. So we had lunch with a few fellow tourists including the solo traveller from Australia born in 1993; 20 years youngerJ

We all know that the train stations in the big cities are not necessarily the most pleasant venues and believe me Sofia’s main train station is not different, another sign of being in the big city! At first we did not really mind it until some helpful guy demanded money for showing us the way to WC and until we had to find our way to platform or track 6 to get the train to Istanbul. The people who designed the Sofia train station had an idea of marking a few platforms and tracks with 6 or VI. On each of the tracks you needed to know which end (really far end) you had to be to get the right train. Somehow we managed to find our train, probably because with some 90 minutes delay we had enough time and by annoying the lady in the information centre who maybe did not realise that her job was to provide information until she met me…

Grand Istanbul

The night train to Istanbul was quite all right but surely it was not an orient express. To my great disappointment it had only 2 carriages that look trains in Poland in the deep eighties and there was not even a man with trolley selling water or nibbles, not to mention the dining car. However the company of an American professor from the American University in Bulgaria, and the young Slovenian traveller commencing his overland journey through Asia, in our couchette compartment made it a really a really good journey. It would be even better if we arrived on time… Instead we arrived some 2 hours later of which 1 hour was just cruising through the suburbs of Istanbul before we got to the central station! That’s how big it is.

I have been to Istanbul for a few days for New Years in 2009 and I am glad this was my already second visit. Unlike back than in deep winter, this time every sight we went to was packed with tourists. Almost one hour wait to get any of the great sights! The main shopping street in the modern part of town was difficult to navigate through the masses of local crowd shopping and dining and of course the fellow tourist! So my memories from this visit to Istanbul would all be through the crowds of people. Though, Hagia Sofia itself would always remain one my favourite historic sites in the world, even when it is very crowded. This time I also managed to leave Istanbul, the world capital of shopping, without any piece of trinket purchased; good for budget and the weight of the backpack but a bit disappointing. The reason was that the Grand Bazaar was closed for the public holiday weekend! What a shame… Even Gavin, who hates any form of tat, regrets not being able to see it.

All in all, save the crowds, the public holiday and the mediocre but not cheap accommodation, three days of in this big and bustling city were good fun and probably a very good preparation for our next stop… Mumbai with its some 16 million people!