Beeds and I feel like celebrities after our first full week in India. We have been ill and required anti biotics and within the space of 7 days went from wondering why we had come here to realising exactly why we had.
As I write we are on a six hour drive and half way through a tour of Rajasthan. So far we have visited two cities and one town. Writing this is a welcome distraction from my heart jumping into my mouth every time we overtake a vehicle uphill at a blind spot, or when one is coming towards us on the wrong side of the road. There is a jeep with a lot of Indian girls in front of us staring and laughing that they have spotted a white girl in the front of the car behind them. The sound of the horn and the sudden breaking when we come to unmarked speed humps doesn't allow me to escape for too long though.
After leaving Delhi we both started to experience dodgy tummys, with Beeds declaring he had the dreaded ' Dehli Belly'. We arrived in Jaipour and had been told this place was very beautiful. Quite to the contrary however, after two days we couldn't wait to leave, and to put it bluntly, we agree it is the most disgusting place we have ever been.
Our hotel was clean and the staff excellent, but 10m outside there were large piles of rubbish and open sewers. Holy cows and stray dogs continue to be everywhere we go and unfortunately they eat out these rubbish piles. It really is sad watching cows eating plastic bags. The walk from the hotel into the centre didn't get much better: a park was filled with people passed out all over it, we saw a mangy sad looking elephant been ridden down the street and the pollution was so bad you could taste it.
In Jaipour we visited the Monkey Temple where there were of course lots of monkeys! These mostly stayed at the bottom of the 1km walk up the hill were the food was, but nonetheless it was pretty amazing. At the temple it was just Beedie, myself and two others. In complete contrast to the noisy, polluted city below it was actually very peaceful. Overlooking a city of 3 million people we watched the sunset with the sound of the Muslim prayer in the distance and the laughter of children playing cricket on a nearby rooftop.
On our second day we visited a spectacular and very clean(!) palace at Amer Fort. An elephant took us up. This is something I said I wouldn't do before I left Scotland. I still have mixed feelings about it, but they were apart of an 'Elephant welfare sanctuary, India' and well looked after - apparently. It was also very difficult to explain to the very pushy employees we like walking and ten minutes up hill is not far, so on an elephant we got! It was actually quite hard work staying still with the motion of the large steps and it sneezed on us twice. Serves us right for getting on!
In the afternoon temperatures have been averaging 45 degrees and on this particular afternoon Beeds 'felt like aids', hadn't eaten and really wasn't keeping anything in his stomach. This continued for the rest of the night resulting in a visit to the doctor the next morning. The 'surgery' looked the same as any shop and consisted of one room with a curtain and a bed. The anti biotics cost 100rupee which is about £1.20 and we now understand why our travel insurance was significantly cheaper for visiting Asia compared to North America.
We left Jipour with Beeds feeling worse for ware and both a bit disolutioned with India and this went from bad to worse. Thankfully we are now laughing at this next story.
We pulled over at a petrol station to use the toilet. I was in the car whilst Beeds was in the loo and pulled out my phone, to which our driver Sandee said 'ah, Sony Erection'. I was showing him pictures of Scotland when he suddenly says 'oh no, what has happened' and jumped out of the car. I look up to see a topless Beeds looking like he was about to cry and a completely confused and bewildered toilet attendant looking at this crazy white man. I will let you draw your own conclusions, but let's just say the anti biotics didn't kick in until a few hours later.
Thankfully the following two places we stayed were lovely. Unfortunately the litter, crazy driving, cows roaming the streets and stray dogs seem to be a staple in India. But in Pushkar and Udaipur we also saw some really idyllic Indian scenes and as everywhere else, the people were lovely.
In Rajistan the British never held any power being unable to enforce their laws. As such all the major destinations we are visiting still have their own Kings and Queens and impressive palaces which have existed since the mid 15th century. These have all been made into visitor attractions now to fund their upkeep and provide jobs in the local communities. We have visited quite a few and with tour guides help have enjoyed learning about the history.
Along with this we have been learning about the Hindu religion with each of these places favouring a certain God and building ornate temples for their worship. As we are in the dessert each place has had manmade lakes which are quite depleted at the moment, but fill quickly in Monsoons. At these lakes and temples we have 'been blessed' and adorned with the Hindu spots!
On one of these occasions we were 'forced' to make donations to the local charities, with the amount determined by the number of family members. Considering they don't understand the concept of two people living together outside of marriage, I was quite certain the concept of step families has never occurred to them and I was not going to start explaining. So this saved me a lot of money!
Beeds and I have been getting a lot of attention as Indian tourists from remote villages rarely see white people. We have had countless pictures taken and on one occasion spent about ten mins getting snapped with various families. Sandee, who also lives in a remote village, told us it is common for these families to develop large prints and frame them in their living rooms! (They all seem really happy!)
To add to our celebrity status, an excited hotel employee showed us our picture in a national Indian newspaper.
On our last day in Udaipur we participated in a hot yoga session. Thankfully there was only 3 of us in the class, as I couldn't stop giggling at Beed's pained facial expressions though out. Even the very spiritual instructor, who spent all of the meditation parts with his eyes rolled back in his head, managed a smile at Beedie's efforts!
Hopefully the rest of our time in India will remain to be enjoyable and the dreaded Delhi belly will stay at ease. Beedie is particularly gutted about the risk of getting 'the shits' as so far I have out eaten him and we have steered well clear of the delicious looking street food from day one!
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