Travelling through middle India. Or being ill through middle India.

After a very brief stop off in Bangalore, we headed to Hyderabad to see Bharavi and Sugathi!  We were supposed to arrive before 6 in the morning but of course the train was late so we got there closer to 7.  Bharavi had told us that we just had to get a local train to Secunderabad and then he would give us directions to his house.  So, we bought ourselves a ticket and got on a train.  Which we had been told was heading where we wanted it to.  However, something didn’t feel right and I’ve now properly learnt to go with your instinct.  Because we started to head further and further out of the city.  Until we were on a stretch of track where all we could see were a lot a fields and a factory.  So, Sarah went and asked and was given a very shocked no in reply.  So we quickly got off at the next stop and got ourselves on the next train to Secunderabad.  Later than we would have hoped, we were finally in a rickshaw heading to Bharavi’s!  It was so nice to finally be back there.  Because Sarah and I got to stay there on Orientation, it was strange to be back right where we had started.  And this time we knew exactly how to work the shower.  And we were properly fed by Sugathi.  So much food. It was so good.  It was strange to be back to eating three full meals a day though because we’d just gotten used to eating when we were hungry.  I don’t even know how I managed to eat as much as I did.  We met up with Anna and Jo to see some of Hyderabad and go for dinner.  It’s always so nice to see the other volunteers.  They could show us everything they had seen in Hyderabad.  So many bangle shops.  And all the owners calling to us like we were cats or something.  The next day we just hung around the house with Bharavi and Sugathi, partly because, for the first time since being in India, the rain had stopped our plans.  The rain was so heavy with some amazing thunder and lightning as well.  It was nice to just sit around the house though and eat as a family, which I think is a thing we’ve both been missing.  It was nice to feel at home again. 

Unfortunately though, we had to leave.  We had to get ourselves to the airport so we could finally head north!  We got a very late flight to Calcutta and we were finally in the North.  Which was rather exciting actually because we’ve become proper southerners now, so we were finally out of our comfort zone.  We decided just to stay the night in the airport because it was so late but I can guarantee I will never be doing that again.  We hardly got any sleep, it was really cold and quite uncomfortable. Not really what you want.  I did however manage to get some of my TEFL course done, in between the multiple cups of coffee.  When we both got up in the morning we both felt pretty ill.  Not much food and no sleep isn’t really good for you.  It was a good thing our taxi dropped us straight to our hotel and we could get in right away to sleep.  We stayed at Hotel Galaxy and if anyone’s in Calcutta I would recommend staying there because it was in a really good place, pretty cheap, clean and the people there were really friendly. 

We actually discovered that Calcutta’s actually a pretty friendly city.  We’ve gotten used to just ignoring people when they say hello to us or something because they usually want us to buy something, but I think these people were honestly just being nice.  We just wandered around the first day we were there.  It was pretty cool.  We decided that Calcutta is what you stereotypically think of when you think of India.  It was busy, there were guys carrying massive loads on their heads, there were flower markets (which I hated because it was really claustrophobic), there were the old colonial buildings and there were so many street markets.  However we were both still pretty tired so we headed back to the hotel pretty quickly.  The next day we headed out to the Victoria Memorial, which was this amazing building which looked a wee bit like the White House.  It was full of old paintings and exhibitions from the British Era.  I absolutely loved that, but History Geek so… That night we just chilled in our hotel after dinner and watched Tangled and American Pie.  We really experienced the Indian culture.  However, there was no door on the bathroom, just a curtain which did mean conversation was still pretty easy.  The next day we wandered around Calcutta, tried to get to the Mother Theresa house but it was shut so we went to get some traditional Calcutta food, Kati Rolls.  This turned out to be a big mistake although I didn’t know that until later.  The roll was delicious though, it was a kind of thick chapatti rolled in egg, fried and then with a filling of veg and paneer.  Wonderful.

 The very claustrophobic flower market

Miriam and Izzy arrived that evening so we went to meet them at the train station.  It was a good thing we got to the station so early because it turned out our train had been cancelled.  But, Sarah and I are so proud of ourselves.  We didn’t panic.  We knew there would another train, and even if we had to go unreserved (which we really didn’t want to, it looks pretty horrendous) we would get there.  After some helpful staff and some unhelpful staff and a look of double and triple checking, we finally got ourselves onto another train only an hour later.  And we still had beds!

We arrived in Gaya very early and were immediately surrounded by rickshaw drivers.  It was one of the worst times we’ve had it.  As Izzy described it, it was like we were a piece of meat.  And they refused to take no for an answer.  It wasn’t fun at all.  However, we finally got to our hotel in Bodhgaya, it was such a nice wee guesthouse with a really good restaurant.  Gupta Guest House.  It was really good, lovely and clean with some really helpful owners.  We just slept that morning.  And then the Kati Rolls hit me.  I ended up being sick a few times, and had proper Delhi Belly.  It was not fun at all.  I just felt rubbish.  The next day I thought I was feeling slightly better so I headed out with the others to the Buddhist monastery.  Bodhgaya is the centre of Buddhism.  It has the tree under which Buddha gained enlightenment and lots of other Buddhist monasteries.  People were meditating under the tree and the whole place was so peaceful.  It was lovely.  We met this lovely monk who just wanted to tell us all about Buddha and he was so happy and just got really excited about some parts of his story.  It was really cute.  His smile was one of the nicest things I’ve seen in a while.  He unfortunately had to go to do some chanting I think.  It was lovely.  That night was not fun because I was up to the bathroom almost every hour.  So the next day I just stayed in the hotel all day.  Somehow, everybody who worked in the hotel knew I wasn’t well and were giving the other girls advice on what I should do for it.  It was really quite odd. 

After another early start we were off the Varanasi!  From the centre of Buddhism to the most holy place for Hindus.  Varanasi is right on the Ganges with Ghats running all the way along the river.  And I’ve only very recently learned that Ghats are not holy water where they bathe but actually just the steps going down to the river.  And I’ve lived in India for almost 8 months now.  Because I wasn’t really well I didn’t really get a good feel for Varanasi.  We got a boat at sunrise which was amazing and then again at night to see some kinda of ceremony which happened just after sunset.  That one was a bit strange.  I wasn’t really a big fan, it was probably too cultured for me though.  We found an amazing café and shop there though, called Aum Café.  It was really lovely, with, if I was eating and not scared to for the after effects, some really good food.  And the woman who owned it was one of the nicest people we’ve met.  She was American but she’d moved to India and now has her own shop and café.  One of things I really didn’t like about Varanasi were the burning Ghats which are apparently a really big attraction.  Basically, people are cremated on the banks of the Ganges and then their ashes are thrown into the river.  They burn them right on pyres where you can see them.  And the amount of people who are cremated there every day must be astonishing.  Apparently some people even come to Varanasi to die so they can be cremated there.  I really didn’t enjoy that and when the others were watching one cremation, I just had to walk off a bit.  It felt like I was doing something I shoudn’t or that I was being disrespectful.  I also felt that I couldn’t watch it because I had missed my Gran and my Grandad’s funerals, it didn’t feel right to watch a strangers. 

Sunrise in Varanasi

 Early Morning baths

 Please excuse my face, it was about 6 in the morning

We left Varanasi on the evening of the 20^th and headed to Khajuraho.  Now, if you google Khajuraho you are going to get some really odd photos.  That is correct.  The temples at Khajuraho are the Kama Sutra temples.  So they have some questionable carvings.  But there weren’t that many I have to say.  All of the carvings were just pretty amazing.  They were so intricate and it’s crazy to think that some of them were so old yet they were still so well persevered.  It was pretty hot though so we basically ran from temple to temple to cool down. Eventually we had to head back and cool down in a café.  Because we were only there for a day, we didn’t have a hotel to chill in so we just had to lounge in a café, which was nice but with loads of flies!  After some Kama Sutra merchandise was purchased, we headed back to the hotel to wait for a while for our train.  Somehow getting really lucky, Miriam and Izzy got upgraded on the train so they were off to the posh class, Sarah and I were left to sweat.

Don't look too closely

The next day was one of the most stressful days we’ve ever had.  And unfortunately it was Izzy’s birthday.  We were supposed to arrive in Varanasi at half 11, plenty time to get ourselves to the airport for our flight to Jaipur at 3.  Well, the Indian transport system is very, very, very unreliable.  We ended up being stuck in a place called Allahabad I think.  At half 11.  Which is actually 4 hours from Varanasi.  And we had no idea when the train would actually leave again.  So in a panic we got off the train and headed to get a taxi. We knew that a taxi might just make it and we were willing to take that risk.  However, it seems that everybody in India thinks we’re idiots and they can rip us off.  So a rickshaw driver took us to where we could get a taxi.  After a lot of arguing, we were finally on our way.  But the taxi driver ended up not being wonderful either and we managed to just make our flight.  Thankfully because it ended up being delayed by 40 minutes.  After being reassured by everyone at the airport that we would actually make our plane we finally relaxed at the airport and we could enjoy the luxury of planes.  Where we actually got some dinner!  And then straight onto another train to Udaipur!  We were finally heading to the desert!  

Holidays- Tamil Nadu - You can take the girls out of Scotland...

Right now, Sarah and I are just chilling in the AC waiting room of Madurai train station.  We have exactly 5 hours to wait right now.  It’s so much fun. 

We started our holiday on the 3^rd of April.  We started out from Bangalore at about half 6, the most reasonable time of train we’ve ever got from Bangalore.  We had a 15 hour train to look forward to though.  But I have to say that it wasn’t bad at all!  A nice long sleep, even with more kids on the train than adults and the family next to us getting up and loudly mucking about to get off at their stop at half 5 in the morning.  We finally arrived in Kanyakumari and found our hotel after a long trek in the heat.   Kanyakumari is right at the very tip of India.  All the way down at the very bottom.  It was pretty crazy to be there.  For a start it meant that we had properly started our Grand Tour (as my Dad’s taken to calling it).  But there was no further south we could go.  That was it.  We headed out to the temple at the tip (as Sarah said “of course there’s a temple there”) to see where the three seas meet.  I was a wee bit disappointed because I had it in my mind you could see the three seas meeting and be able to differentiate between them all.  But they all looked like the sea to be honest.  There really wasn’t a lot to do there, it could honestly be done in a day, but it really did feel like an achievement to get there.  We headed back to our hotel in the middle of the day because it was just way too hot for the two Scottish girls.  So we watched Chennai Express!  Especially for a song called the Lungi Dance, which wasn’t even in the film, it was at the end credits.  Furious.  We headed out to see the sunset but unfortunately it was too cloudy.  However, back to the hotel!  It’s a really good thing my neighbor and Morna gave me loads of films before I left, we’re getting through them.. The next day we just wandered around and waited for the queue for the boats to go down.  There are two wee islands off the bottom of the tip, hardly 400m, but they’ve got a couple of monuments on them so we put on our life jackets on, which I’m pretty sure would have hindered me swimming away if the boat did sink.  We discovered that for the first monument you had to pay to get up so we didn’t bother, but on the second island there was a massive statue dedicated to a famous Tamil poet.  Which we could go part of the way up and look out across the sea.  However, you did have to take your shoes off and the floor was really hot.  Blisters on the soles of your feet are not comfortable at all.  We had to head off to the train station to wait for a beautiful two hours until our train arrived.  Then away again.  Kanyakumari was okay, it was very Indian touristy, which really isn’t my cup of tea.  It just feels really tacky and far too busy.  And I don’t like having my photo taken without asking.  Ask Sarah, I shout about it all the time.  But I have to say that actually being at the tip was pretty amazing.

Touristy India at it's best (worst..)

Our next stop was Kodaikanal.  I did not expect to love this place as much as I did.  I didn’t like leaving it this morning.  We got a bus from surprisingly hot Madurai in the morning and arrived up in the beautiful cool air of Kodai at about midday.  It was about the same temperature as a really nice summer day back in Scotland.  But I was freezing!  I was actually so cold.  But it was amazing.  Being cold is a beautiful feeling that I’ve missed.  Sarah and I just kept commenting on it.  And our hotel didn’t even have a fan!  It was crazy to walk into a room and not feel the sudden urge to hit the fan on to try and move the air.  We wandered around the town for a wee bit, commenting on how like Scotland it was.  There were so many mountains and forests and it was cold, it felt so normal.  We found this wee patch of forest with a bit of a grass in the middle where we just sat in the quiet.  It was so quiet and clean, it was amazing.  We rather quickly decided to stay an extra night.  We just enjoyed walking around and wandering while we weren’t pouring with sweat.  It’s not nice when you try to wipe your forehead and your hand comes away dripping.  So being able to wander at a normal temperature was lovely.  We even found a place that did pancakes and waffles!  Thank you Lonely Planet…  The next day was Sarah’s birthday! Which started off with her being woken up by some awful Indian music being piped through some rubbish speakers just outside the hotel.  Oh and a grasshopper.  So we hired some bikes and rode around the lake a few times.  It was so pretty.  The lake is gorgeous.  The whole place felt very alpine/highland-y, no wonder I felt so at home.  We also hired a pedalo and went about on the lake for a bit, though we didn’t get very far because we’re sure our boat was broken… For Sarah’s birthday lunch we got ourselves a wee picnic and went to sit in the wee forest we found the day before.  Where we ended up getting burnt.  Because it wasn’t so hot, we forgot that it was still sunny and because we were so high up, we would still burn.  So arms are a wee bitty stinging today.  We headed back to the hotel after that and just stayed there for the rest of the evening.  Yesterday was a lot cooler because the clouds were down so we were literally in the clouds.  Which was pretty amazing but really cold!  We went on a walk down the hill, where the Lonely Planet said I would see giant squirrels, I did not and was very disappointed.  But it was so cold we only stayed for the one hot chocolate before heading back again.  On the way back we actually bumped into our friend Zoe who was there with her parents because they’re visiting her.  It’s amazing because India’s such a massive place but we still manage to bump into people we know.  It was lovely to see her though!  If really weird! So we arranged to meet for dinner that night.  Sarah and I just did a bit more walking before heading back to the hotel.  Then we headed out the fancy hotel, the Carlton, for a belated birthday drink for Sarah.  A couple of rather expensive cocktails later, we went out for dinner.  We went to a lovely restaurant, which Sarah and I were gutted not to have found before, called Cloud Street with some proper fires!  It was amazing.  I’ve missed a fire.  It was lovely speaking to Zoe and her parents for bit, it made the night really lovely!  But because they were leaving at midnight and we were having to get up 6 we had to head back to our hotels.  For one last night of proper sleep!  Kodai was amazing.  It was such a nice place to spend some time and I have to say that I would have loved to have stayed longer.  It wasn’t like the rest of India at all, and if you could ignore the taxi wallahs and the honking of the horns, then you could have been in another country. 

 Sunrise from the train

 I couldn't see the sun and I got really excited...

 The wee forest we found

Looking down the valley in Kodai

This morning we got up pretty early and left the hills.  We came down to Madurai, which is essentially a temple town.  But we were told we could do it in a day so we thought we’d be a wee bit pushed for time but still manage it.  Nope.  We could have done it all in less than two hours.  We went to the Palace first.  It was really pretty, with these arches and decorations that I can now identify as Indo-Islamic architecture.   We were even adopted by a lovely family for some lunch.  But the palace wasn’t that big, so we were finished it pretty quickly, ran past the people outside trying to sell us more pretty bags, and headed to the temple.  It was a beautiful multi coloured temple, which I always think are quite fun.  But unfortunately we were allowed into the actual temple because that was only for Hindus, which meant the temple tour was over pretty quickly!  However we did get some Laddu and ate it by the ghats.  Then as slowly as we could, we wandered back to the train station, to a restaurant, ordered and ate dinner (which maybe took 10 minutes) and came back to the station where we are now sitting, counting down the hours until our very late train. 

 Indo-Islamic architecture 

Love a wee bit of temple laddu

I’ve really enjoyed the first part of our holiday and I’m excited for/dreading the next bit.  Although we are meeting up with more volunteers!  So more people to complain about the heat with!

Lament to the IPod Classic

Growing up in the UK with all the new advancements in technology and everything that’s available all the time, you forget that sometimes it can actually be quite hard when you’re away from home and normality for long time.  Not that India is behind in technology, not at all.  Everyone has really good phones, tablets and there are computer shops everywhere. However one thing they don’t do well is wifi, it’s a task to find some wifi.  It’s just that you forget technology can die and let you down when you really need it and being away from home can make it harder.  As much as I could say that I could do without this and that, when you don’t have it, you realise that you actually really liked having it.   And I’ve realised how spoiled we all are in Britain.  Well, how people are in most countries where they can just get new things or things fixed really quick.  This also includes India.  This year has already shown me how amazing technology can be in so many ways but there are still some things that aren’t perfect.

Good internet.  That’s something that back home everybody takes for granted.  I know I did before I came here.  But now I really appreciate a fast decent internet connection that doesn’t take half an hour to load a 2 minute sari tying tutorial.  Trying to skype with our dongal is really hard.  The connection is really bad so everybody’s usually really pixilated and there is a delay so you have to wait a while until it gets to you. 

A laptop.  I brought my laptop out with my so I could watch movies, have books, write blogs and go on the internet.  A great thing.  Everyone likes having a laptop.  But not when it stops working.  Just after Christmas, I went to turn my laptop on and it wouldn’t.  Well, it turns on but then there’s just a black screen and I can’t do anything.  So I was stuck without a laptop.  And with me in the middle of doing a TEFL course, I really needed my laptop.  I had no real way of connecting to the internet and it was just annoying when I had brought it out with me to do things and now I didn’t have it.  Thankfully, Amazon is a beautiful thing.  My dad ordered me a cheap laptop off Amazon that’s going to be the family laptop when I get back.  Or my actual laptop if I can’t get the other one fixed.  However, the laptop came without an operating system.  Which I didn’t think was a thing!  So, a trip to the computer shop up the road a few times and I got Windows 8 installed.  For 650 rupees.  So I can definitely say that it’s a slightly dodgy copy of Windows but it does the trick and I now have a working laptop so I can watch Frozen repeatedly again.

A smart phone.  I feel like such a spoiled white girl sometimes because of how much I miss my iphone.  But it’s just so handy and perfect.  I miss being able to be in contact with people all the time.   After everything that happened in the first few months here, I wanted to be able to get in touch with my family at home easily.  There were times when I’d missed calls and emails and it wasn’t nice when I all wanted to do was speak to someone back home.  So I had to get myself a decent phone.  So now I have a great nokia.  It’s really good and I can do everything I need to again.  And emergency google sari tying tutorials and what the difference is between a lizard and a gecko (all geckos are lizards but not all lizards are geckos)

  

Just before Christmas, the worst thing happened.  My ipod stopped working.  For absolutely no reason, I turned it on and it said that all the music was gone.  All 12,000 songs.  And there was nothing I could do.  It was a heartbreaking day.  I even think I cried.  I have no idea what I’d do without an ipod.  I live with it in my bag, in my pocket, in my hand. And then I just couldn’t… It was gone. I may have cried down the phone to my dad that evening.  I tried everything I could think of, but nothing.  That was it.  One of the few things I’ve ever loved almost more than my parents and it had died.  After many discussions about options, my mum and dad sent out my old Ipod.  A wee nano I’ve had for years before my music library got too big to fit on an 8GB Ipod.  So at least I have something to listen to to stop me from honestly going mad.   But I don’t have my massive Ipod classic with loads of songs and a big wheel instead of a touch screen.  It was a perfect size.  Nice and comforting.  Loads of playlists and hundreds of albums.  It’s not that I don’t have all the music anymore, it’s still all safely stored at home, I hope, it’s that I no longer have the Ipod.  And, to make it worse.  Apple have stopped making Ipod Classics.  So I can no longer buy a replacement when I get home.  I understand that everybody seems to want the touch screen and something that can connect to the internet, but sometimes all you want is something good and reliable that only plays music.  I want an Ipod Classic.  I thought it was amazing.  I had mine for about 4  years and I listened to it almost constantly.  I wore it to death.  But I still want it back.  The wee baby.  So it’s not just a tragedy that my Ipod stopped working, it’s a catastrophe.  If anyone has links to Apple, please let them know that there still is a market for Ipod classics.. Even if it’s just a desperate Scottish girl crying over a broken one in India…