India. 10 days after arriving I'm still taken aback by all the sounds, smells and sheer amount of people. The endless traffic, paired with the blaring of all the horns and people pushing their way through and trying not to get mauled.The smell of chai, pan masala, rubbish and urine. The sheer level of poverty on the streets. It's overwhelming to all of the senses.
I began my Indian adventure in Varanasi, one of the holiest Hindu city. And it was miserable. It's a very dirty city (I've heard an Indian call it dirty!), and it rained the entire time I was there. I spent two days walking around the narrow streets that were covered in a layerof mud and poo, avoiding people selling me there junk, trying not to get in the way of an ox or a cow or it's shit. The ghats of Varanasi were brilliant though; I spent 90 minutes at the burning ghat watching people bring the bodies to the river and then burning them. And the Blue Lassi Shop and the banana and chocolate lassi *u*
After Varanasi I hopped on my first Indian train to Agra. An overnight train in a sleeper carriage (top bunk is a must!) for a 12 hour journey that cost less than 4€. Once I got to Agra and my guesthouse, rushed to the Taj Mahal in order to make it to the gates before 8.15am to get in for free and save 750 rupees. And I made it! Massive savings were made. The Taj Mahal was amazing. Big, bold, with nothing but the sky in the backround kind of takes your breath away.
From Agra I headed to Jaipur in a second class carriage at 5am. And boy that carriage gets full! 4½ hourslater I arrived in the Pink City, with a numb bottom from the train journey. In Jaipur I stayed in two different guesthouse due to one being full for one night, and it was a cheaper option two stay at one for 3 nights and 1 at the other. I arrived at my first guesthouse, and met my dorm mates: Kiran from Malaysia and Andreia from Portugal. In the afternoon, together we got a tuk-tuk and went to Monkey Temple for sunset views of the city, and so any monkeys it was insane. Met quitea few monkey mummies who were extremely protective of their young ones. Tried to avoid them and their rabies.
The next day I changed guesthouses and spent the better part of the day walking around the Pink City, taking in its sights and sounds. 6 hours later I returned to the hotel, starving and dirty. A rest and a walk later I collapsed in the hotel thinking I'd pass out and that my dormmate would turn up to one dead to the world Stella. Instead I was still awake when Evan from Minnesota turned up, and he'd met Sam from Texas and a couple of rickshaw drivers, Ajeet and Raj, and they were going for beers and invited me along. So off I went to the rooftops of the New India Guesthouse with the guys and had beer. The ride back to the hotel was rather surreal, Evan and I were in Ajeet's super pimped up tuk-tuk (he has installed a massive subwoofer in the back of it) listening to country music with his tuk-tuk's disco lights on. Trippy.
Evan and I got Ajeet to be our driver for the next day, and in the morning we set off in his pimped out tuk-tuk with tunes baring from behind us towards Amber Fort, a huge palace like fort 11km from Jaipur. It was pretty impressive, and it was astounding how big it really was. FromAmber Fort we stopped for lunch at a small local restaurant, with a huge tandoori oven by the street where they made the chapati and naans. It was pretty cool to see the guys work around it; and one of the guys was sporting a pretty impressive moustache.
The afternoon was spent seeing the sights in the city centre, and then nap time, before setting of the Nagargarh Fort for the sunset. After a lengthy ride, we made it in time for sunset and gorgeous views of the entire city. After a Pepsi and a smoke later we made the descent down to Jaipur down this extremely windy road down the hill, with Britney Spears blaring from the speakers and the disco lights on in full force. That was an amaingly surreal moment.
Ajeet took us for the best dinner of the trip so far. We went to a local favourite, Thali House, which serves all you can eat thalis for amazinglygood value. For 105 rupees (1,3€) you got a sweet lassi and a thali consisting of dhal, veg, some warm youghurt sauce, pickels, chapati and rice and these doughballs. And it all kept on coming. The food was delicious, and I lost count of how many chapatis I ate. After a few rooftop beers with Evan I slept very well that night.
The next day was spent mostly browsing the shops and returning for lunch at the same place as the day before with the tandoori oven. For the evening Ajeet managed to get us all tickets to go and see A.R. Rahman in concert. He is huge superstar in India, and thanks to Slumdog Millionaire, is known in worldwide for the song Jai Ho (The good version doesn't have Nicole Sherzinger in it). So after some gin and whisky at the New India Guesthouse, Evan, Ajeet and Ajeet's brother, Ranjit and I set off to the concert. And it was amazing! The lights and the music and the whole show of it was brilliant and vibrant. It didn't even matter that I didn't understand Hindi. And then Jai Ho came at the end, and a firewors galore erupted from the stage and everyone was dancing and singing along... In the end we were all standing on our chairs.
The next mornign I sadly had to take a train to Delhi and bid Jaipur goodbye. But I'll be returning once I come back to Rajasthan because I promised Ajeet. So it's all good. And tomorrow I'll be bidding Delhi goodbye (thank god) and making my way up to Manali on a bus. Only a mere 16 hour ride.
I've made up a game to play with all the people who ask me where I'm from and what my name is. I make up random countries and then give them a very Finnish name that confuses the living daylights out of them. And I still eat curry every day.
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