The sites of Rajasthan and on to Goa...

Last night was a typically random night on my round the world trip. I was back in Palolem here after a day trip to Old Goa and Panjim, the old capital of this former Portuguese colony where I got to see some huge cathedrals (supposedly bigger than any cathedral in Portugal) and taste some amazing chouriço sausage, a fusion of Indian spices and traditional Portuguese cooking. Very tasty. Anyway, I sat down in this beach front restaurant and started talking to the Israeli guy next to me. He had originally planned a trip to India straight after he finished university, but a few days before departure he had been called up by the Israeli army to serve in Lebanon. It was incredible to hear his stories of house by house night raids trying to find terrorists, with airplanes and helicopters roaring above and missiles crashing down nearby. The international debate about Lebanon goes on, but to hear a personal account of someone who had been involved there was really quite something.

Below are a variety of photos from Shimla which I had not posted before when I talked about the place in my last post...

Dussehra festival procession

Speech by Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh state

Burning Narkasur head

The 3 Indian teachers from Kolkata who invited me to lunch and dinner

A typically British building in Shimla...

Monkey legging it with a banana!

The town hall in Shimla... Not half British looking...

The warning sign for the hotel!

Train carriage in sleeper class

Humayun's tomb in Delhi

Delhi gate

The week before getting here I was roaming around Rajasthan which is the most touristic zone in India. Most tourists will just arrive in Delhi and spend a week or two exploring this area. The historic sites, the colour everywhere, the desert landscape, blue towns, pink towns.

Jodhpur was my first stop and I loved it. It was a smallish town, with a fantastic old city which was really alive. One thing about India is that your senses really are stimulated to the max, the colours, the noises, the smells, trying to navigate the streets between the bikes and the rickshaws, deal with all the people trying to talk to you. It really is mad. What is great is getting on to the rooftops, and there you can chill out and take it all in, often accompanied in the evening by the prayers on loudspeaker echoing across the city from the different mosques.

The blue town in Jodhpur

Ladies gathering to enter Jodhpur fort

Some kids dancing while their father plays music

The overwhelming Jodhpur fort

Could this be the Maharaja's car?

The Camel Border troops in Jodhpur

I managed to get involved in some wierd festival in Jodhpur, which involved a tug of war between Indians and foreignors (yes, the foreignors won in true neo-colonial fashion...) and this impressive regiment of camels which paraded around for a while.

The Palace of Winds in Jaipur

My next stop was Jaipur, part of the Golden Triangle which includes Delhi and Agra (for the Taj Mahal). This is extremely touristy. There were some nice sites here, with the most intriguing being the bizarre 18th century observatory with its huge sun dial and other bizarre contraptions for analysing the stars and doing astrological analysis. Overall though, its a really very busy city full of shops which rickshaw drivers love taking you to so that they can get a commission. I think I left a lot of them disappointed as I am not doing any shopping whatsoever... Just being in this more touristy zone meant prices were 2-3 times higher than elsewhere in India, stretching by budget a bit.

The massive sundial

Woman sleeping in Amber Palace

This is one of the typically bizarre things you come across here. The monuments are often being restored, and you tend to have absolutely anyone and everyone spending time in them. Can you imagine some women sleeping on a corner of the floor in the Chateau de Versailles or Windsor Castle as you walk around on a visit... The impressive thing is the colour of the saris, so bright and varied.

A room with stunning mirrored ceilings in Amber palace

An elephant in Jaipur

The Water Palace in Jaipur... Built to keep its inhabitants cool, but long live the mosquitoes there!

My next stop was Agra, which has to be the ugliest city I have seen so far on my travels. Not only is it ugly but the people are really trying their hardest to get cash off you, sometimes dishonestly. I had one rickshaw driver who seemed to give me a good offer to take me close to where I was going, but tried to drop me off halfaway. Luckily I figured it out, but many more people must get scammed. As you walk along the street, literally everyone asks you to look at their shop, to buy some water... It has to be the worst place in India for touts. The amazing thing about Agra is the Taj Mahal. People talk about monuments, and sometimes when you get to see one you can be disappointed but not so with the Taj Mahal. It really does touch you when you first see it. It is definitely the most beautiful building I have ever seen, and it is impossible to understand how anyone could possibly have conceived anything like it. There are lots of people there, but its still incredible.

Me and the Taj Mahal...

A school group who started talking to me

India is full of contradictions... The haves and the have nots, the stunning palaces and the appaling slums, the good people and the bad people. Just when you start to to get tired of the touts, a school group comes up to you for a conversation and you get to meet some extremely friendly people who are fasinated by where you are from, what you are doing in India...

From Agra it was back to Delhi to get my flight to Goa. I was shattered after roughly 4 towns and 3 night trains in a week, but I was glad to have seen some of the major sites . Although Delhi is a mad place I definitely do not dislike it. As you wander around the streets, there is always something crazy going on from the woman slapping away at some guy who supposedly insulted who to the latest begging stint which involves a contortionist stratting his stuff. I just chilled out and sorted out plane tickets, sent parcels home... No parcels here are sent in boxes which is really strange. You have to get it sowed up in cloth and then they send it. There are a bunch of people by the post office door who will be sowing parcels up all day long.

Guys sowing away

Weighing the cloth parcels...

My final stop in Delhi was Jama Masjid mosque. I have to say that the architecture from the Moghul empire (Taj Mahal, Lahore mosque....) really is amazing. Jama Masjid mosque was too. You can walk up the minarets and get a birds eye view of Delhi which is well worth it. The sheer size of the place, and the concentration of people lining the streets really hits you.

Typical crowded Delhi street

Jama Masjid mosque

The courtyard of the mosque

It seems as if families just come here to spend time together. Among the colour of all the womens' saris you get children running around playing, people sitting having picnics and tea. You can see all the individual spots for prayer mats. Apparently old Delhi was really the product of rich muslim families. Now it is really in a decrepit state, with stunning houses practically in ruins. When the sub continent was partitioned into India and Pakistan, all the rich Muslim families left which led to the decline of what was once a beautiful place.

The butchers... Spot the flies!

Where I'm staying...

Palolem beach

Goa is great. Its a pleasant change to go from the city with the world's most polluted air to a chilled out beach resort. It is very touristy here but its not surprising as the beaches really are great. I don't think they are a match for places in the Caribean, notably Cuba, but its cool to be able to read books and relax from the touts and sample some tasy seafood. The slightly wierd thing arriving here is that the place looked like a tsunami had just hit it! The buildings everywhere had been knocked down a few weeks ago so there is rubble everywhere. Apparently there was a dispute with the local government because to preserve the coast line all buildings had to be seasonal, and dismounted after the tourist season to allow vegetation to grow. When no one dismounted their huts the bulldozers did it for them...

Garlic naan...

Demolished buildings...

Link to the previous post:

The Planet of Delhi