29/11/2014 [Delhi]
I spent most of my day chilling in my room and up on the rooftop terrace again - my experience with the tuk-tuk driver yesterday has made me a little anxious about being out on the streets alone. I met a fascinating man on the rooftop, who is a professor in architecture from Georgia in America. He approached me as I was eating my lunch on the rooftop, and asked whether I was part of his tour group. Unfortunately we weren't part of the same group, but we ended up chatting for the better part of three hours! He was a very interesting and insightful man, and we talked about everything from culture, to identity, to linguistics (including what kind of accent William Shakespeare would have had), to overcoming racism, and everything in between.
I finally met the rest of my group tonight - there are eleven of us all up, and all but one are from Australia and most of them are from Brisbane, which is awesome. Even more awesome, is the fact that two of them are actually moving to the same region as me when they get home, so I'm hoping we'll get to know each other over the next few weeks and be able to catch up regularly when we get home. Our group leader calls himself 'Mr Bollywood' and is quite a character. He went through our travel itinerary in detail, and it truly sounds amazing! I've pinched myself so many times over the past couple of days, just to make sure that this is really truly happening - my daydream is now coming to life.
We ventured out onto the streets of New Delhi for dinner at a local restaurant, where we had a delicious feast. Most of the time I have absolutely no idea what I'm ordering from the menu, so it's always a bit of a surprise when it turns up - especially tonight, when the curry that arrived was a curious shade of fluorescent green! I was a little bit hesitant about eating it at first, but it was actually so delicious - it was deep fried cottage cheese in a spinach-based sauce, which explained the green colour! It was really nice to connect with my fellow travelers over delicious food and drinks, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know them over the coming days.
30/11/2014 [New Delhi - Old Delhi]
This morning really marked the beginning of the tour for me. We set out on a walking tour of Old Delhi - we had to catch the Metro train, which was a pretty crazy experience. You use little plastic coin tokens to get on the trains, rather than the cards we use at home. There are 'women only' carriages on the trains, which generally seem less crowded and chaotic than the men's carriages. It was a little bit daunting being separated from our group leader, but he made sure that some of the local women let us know when our station was coming up so we didn't miss our stop.
Once we got to Old Delhi, we emerged from the subway out onto a street crammed with people and vehicles and buildings and activity. There's a crazy tangle of electrical wires overhead, and cars and tuk-tuks and rickshaws all jostling for space on the street - if they can't find it, they simply mount the curb. As we wandered through the streets, we saw barbers working on the footpath, people having their ears cleaned out on the side of the road, women washing clothes in the muddy puddles in the gutter and then hanging them out to dry anywhere they could find.
Our first stop was at the Jama Mosque, where we had to remove our shoes and put on robes that covered us from our neck down to our ankles. The architecture inside the mosque was absolutely beautiful - there was lots of intricate carving and towering domes. Just outside the mosque we were held up by a Hare Krishna procession, with lots of singing and clapping and colour. After the mosque, we headed down the smaller alleys and laneways of Old Delhi, and found an amazing little food stall which is famous for its parathas, which they make fresh as you order them. We also found some havelis, which were beautifully colourful houses which used to be owned by the British, and are now owned by wealthy Indians. We also visited a Sikh temple, where again we had to remove our shoes, but this time we had to wear a special head covering which made us look a bit like pirates. The Sikh temple was awesome - we were allowed to join the people inside and watched them praying and chanting, which was really special. They also let us help make chapatti breads in the huge soup kitchen attached to the temple, which serves dinner to thousands of people every day.
We are now on an overnight sleeper train for the 19 hour journey to Jaisalmer... toileting on these trains is quite a terrifying experience!
1/12/2014
It was a rather long night on the sleeper train between the very excited family group of 25 who were heading to an engagement party, and people getting on and off at various stations throughout the night. I was also a bit anxious about our luggage being stolen after hearing some horror stories prior to the trip, so I basically slept with one eye open all night - especially when two men came and sat on my legs (I was in the bottom bunk) in the middle of the night while they waited for their station. That was awkward. The chai man began his rounds at about 5.30am, with very loud cries of 'chayyee-chayyee!!!' as he carted around a massive urn. He was quickly forgiven for the early wake up though, as he had some truly delicious chai!
When we finally reached Jaisalmer, we loaded all our luggage into Jeeps, which took us through the town and up into the Jaisalmer Fort, which is where we'll be staying for the next couple of nights. Inside the fort reminds me of a scene from Aladdin, with all the golden sandstone buildings and streets lined with market stalls selling rugs, clothes, shoes, produce and food.
Earlier in the day, we had befriended the large family group on the train, who then invited us to come to the engagement ceremony that evening. So after a delicious lunch of bharvan tomato (tomato stuffed with vegetables, potato and coconut), a local woman fitted and dressed us in beautiful saris - the boys were fitted for traditional clothing too. Mine was a beautiful jewel greeen with golden embroidery, and I later found out that it was a very expensive one, which terrified me! The lovely lady also lent us some beautiful traditional-style jewellery to accessorise with, which made us feel extra special.
Once we were all dressed up, we headed up to a hill to watch the sunset over the city, which was nice - although the sun seems to disappear behind a layer of smog on the horizon before it actually sets. After the sunset, we headed to the lake, which used to provide the entire city with water. Everywhere we went, people wanted to take our photo. It was a bit overwhelming at times - everywhere you turned, there was someone else trying to take your photo. Some tried to be subtle and sneaky about their photos, others were more blatant about it, and still others wanted to actually be in the photos and pose with us.
We eventually made it to the venue where the engagement ceremony was being held - we were a little early (or VERY early, according to Indian standards!), so one of the staff members took us for a tour around the resort to fill in some time. Finally, the groom and his family emerged (over an hour late - and still no sign of the bride, which was apparently totally normal in terms of timeframes for special ceremonies), so we presented him with our traditional congratulatory gift of local sweets. We were then pulled this way and that for more photos with various family members and other guests, before making a quick exit before the actual ceremony began because it was likely to go for over three hours! Once we got back to our hotel, we spent the rest of the evening sitting around on the rooftop terrace, drinking beer and eating delicious food. Is this real life?!
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