It seems ridiculous to claim "lack of time" as an excuse for not exploring somewhere thoroughly enough when you're travelling for a year, but that is in fact the situation Jen and I have found ourselves in with India. India was never the priority of this part of the trip (South-East Asia was always the goal of this first leg, and we haven't even gotten there yet!) and we didn't want to do it half-arsed. But at the same time we were in this part of the world so thought it would be crazy not to at least stick our head in the door, as it were. So we did.
The border crossing was an adventure in itself, and quite a highlight in its own way. Coming out of Bardia we walked on foot across the Nepal/India border at Mahendrenagar (Nepal side)/Banbasa (India side). Don't worry if you've never heard of it - no one else has either, so remote and relatively unvisited is it. I'm pretty sure Jen and I were the only foreigners to pass through that part of the world for months, and when we showed up in Banbasa looking for an ATM to acquire Indian Rupees we found it to be that rarest of beasts - a border town without electronic cash. This would be all well and good if not for the fact that the banks had closed early that day (I'm still sketchy on the details of that one) leaving us stranded and Rupee-less. Thankfully, help was at hand in the form of off-duty bank staff, who went above and beyond by finding a random guy in one of the nearby markets who could change enough of our Nepali Rupees into Indian ones to enable us to book a seat on one of the local buses to the next town, which was blessed with the ATMs that enabled our onward passage to Delhi. Below you'll see a very sweaty and heavily encumbered me, several of the bank staff who helped us out, while on the right (and looking hella impressed to be there) is the legend who changed our money.
Abigail Hole, in the most recent edition of Lonely Planet's India, likens Delhi to "a sub-continental Rome." Personally, I liken Delhi to "a very large outdoor toilet" - this divergence of opinion is probably just one of a plethora of reasons as to why Abigail writes for Lonely Planet and I write for this blog. But I stand by my point of view, and what's more will forward on Ms Hole's words to the mayor of Rome, who I am hoping will pursue most justified legal action.
Delhi is unpleasant. I know it's all a game of opinions, and this is just mine (Jen's too, to be fair), but I didn't find it an enjoyable place to be. It's not simply that the city is very much developing-world or is hard work (though of course that rarely helps matters), because I've been to plenty of cities that weren't "easy." And many of these developing-world cities have exuded an exotic cultural appeal mixed with a pulsating energy and topped it off with friendly and welcoming people. Delhi just isn't one of them. It's not exotic, it's filthy - I honestly wasn't kidding with the open-air toilet remark, the energy is bustling but unexciting and the cultural and other attractions, while having some merit, aren't a patch on what you can see elsewhere without having to wade through human excrement to find it. As for the people, well I don't want to be tarring undeserving people with a negative brush, so I'll just say that far, far too many people - particularly in the service industry, but also just on the streets - are nothing more than very bad and painfully obvious scam artists. It is shortly to host the Commonwealth Games and it will be interesting to see how that goes, as much of the centre of the city still seems pitifully unequipped for a large influx of tourists. And the (otherwise excellent) subway won't be ready to open its line from the airport to the city until after the Games start.
The food's good, though. And as I said, some of the sites - such as the Red Fort and Humayun's Tomb (a forerunner to the Taj Mahal) are very nice.
Lest it seem I have nothing good to say about our very short time in India, our two journeys outside the capital were both marvellous. First up was Agra, which is of course home to a large, pretty white marble building that most people are familiar with.
The Taj Mahal has been described as the world's most beautiful building, and with considerable justification. It's a gorgeous monument - beautifully designed, built and positioned, and has been restored thoroughly as well so that the ravages of the modern world around it haven't taken their toll as might be expected. That being said, it's one of the most photographed and recognized buildings on Earth too which, in a strange way, counts against it slightly because the building and the views are so familiar from pictures/books/movies etc that somehow you feel like you've been there before. Don't get me wrong, the Taj Mahal not the least bit disappointing (how could it be when it looks like that?), but we found we didn't quite get the same sense of wonder we've had at places which were a delightful and unexpected surprise.
A delightful and unexpected surprise is exactly what awaited us at Agra Fort. Because it's located in the same city as the Taj Mahal it is therefore, rather inevitably, completely overshadowed. But it's a superb site in its own right, and by all accounts one of the finest Mughal forts in all of India. I can believe that, as Jen and I enjoyed a fantastic afternoon exploring the old palaces, mosques and residences within its walls.
As an historical aside, the fort also acted as the prison for the final years of his life of the man who built the Taj Mahal...after his son overthrew him and sent him there. So this was his only view of it for the final years of his life. Though he didn't have five other people to share it with.
From Agra we travelled west to Fatehpur Sikri, a magnificent 500 year old fortified city that, while now uninhabited, is still very well preserved. The ancient citadel sits atop a ridge overlooking a village and was another spectacular site.
After Fatehpur Sikri, we went back to Delhi to fly out to Bangkok and that was that - the end of our barely-a-week in India. It's not nearly enough time to get a good look at or to assess a country as vast and as varied as India is, though even in such a brief period we saw that the country had plenty to love and just as much to loathe - which is consistent with what I'd heard and read about it previously anyway. So I guess the only thing for it is to come back. One day.
Probably not to Delhi though.
Things Jen will remember about India:
- Sean and I are apparently celebrities here. Everyone (and I mean everyone) wanted to take our photograph. I normally take more photos than I need to, but I swear we're in more Indian photo albums than I took photos of India. We were not quite sure why exactly this was, maybe because we're white, tall, beautiful? We also seemed to be the only foreigners subjected to this craze - so we're going with tall or beautiful...
- The scam artists who try to send you in completely the wrong direction when we couldn't really see what they would get out of doing so.
- The bus from Banbasa - this was the bumpiest bus ride we've ever done. I think we lost vertebrae.
- I can't believe Delhi is hosting the Commonwealth Games in just over 2 weeks - it's a good job that India doesn't have H&S laws to worry about otherwise all those builders, painters, labourers wouldn't be able to work 24 hours a day whilst the world carries on literally right next to them.
- That Delhi airport is the only one (the ONLY one) that requires proof of ticket purchase before it will allow you entrance into the check-in area - not a great requirement of people travelling without regular printer access - we spent 40 minutes outside waiting for someone to prove we had a reservation and were allowed to go in.
- That not everyone in India is out to scam you - the lovely Auto driver from the metro to the airport whose every word (including his 'the map has changed' statement which is written in guidebooks as THE scam of the century) was true and just (the map had changed due to the Commonwealth Games and a particular direct road route was indeed closed).
- Seeing more than my fair share of Indian men's bottoms as they went for their morning 'relief' alongside the railway tracks as we travelled to Agra, or just generally on the street.
- Our arrival into Delhi bus station and viewing hundreds of people sleeping literally anywhere at all (we arrived at 4am). We are truly lucky to live where we do.
- Thali - I will so miss this wonderful rice, lentil curry, veg curry, yoghurt, salad, naan 'set' dish. It's costs pence and is so very very tasty (the equivalent of the 'Dal Bhaat' in Nepal).
- That not even customs officers at Delhi airport know where Banbasa is - our man seemed pretty sure that we'd invented a fictional border crossing. We eventually had to show him on a map.
So finally South-East Asia, the main objective of this first leg of our trip, is upon us. I can't wait to both explore the region and also to slow down our travels a little - in our first nine weeks of travel we've covered eight countries. We'll now spend three months covering the next five.
No comments:
Post a Comment