Elephants and the Golden Temple

After Shimla, we headed to Amritsar, home of the Golden Temple. We stopped off on the way in Chandigarh, which is the capital of two states – Punjab and Haryana.

Chandigarh has the highest income per capita in India, and it kind of shows. The streets are clean and there isn’t a beggar in sight. The city was designed by a French architect who split the area into sectors, and ensured that there is a certain amount of grass, houses, schools, hospitals and places of worship etc. within each sector – very organised, particularly by Indian standards!

I didn’t find it a particularly appealing city – it seemed to lack any character for me, and didn’t inspire me to take many pictures.

We took a boat ride on the lake there.

There are places to visit here such as the Rock Garden, which contains things made out of rock.. I didn’t really see what was interesting about it!

Early the next morning we hit the road to Amritsar. I’ve never seen fog this bad before.

Note – autofocus is useless in fog.

Amritsar is home predominantly to Sikhs, which is why you’ll notice most of the men wearing turbans.

The Golden Temple (literally a temple made of gold) is considered the most important shrine in Sikhism, and I expected it to be packed with foreign tourists, which wasn’t the case at all.

Heads have to be covered for both men and women, and shoes can’t be worn in the temple or surrounding areas, so were left here.

The temple itself is surrounded by water, which people can bathe in, although the areas to do so are separate for men and women.

The temple was originally built in the 16th century but was attacked by Afghans in the mid 1700s, so was substantially rebuilt in the 1760s. For some reason the temple looks a lot more modern and newer than it really is.

Anyone who visits the temple is welcome to eat there, any time of the day or night. The food is donated by people, and made and served by volunteers.

This is a kind of daal – it was quite delicious!

You can see here just how many people are involved at one time in the preparation of meals.

Traditional steel plates are handed out to people

Volunteers walk up and down the rows of seated people, serving food – and you can literally eat as much as you want. I think it’s astonishing that this happens 24/7, especially with the amount of people that visit the temple.

Washing up – again by volunteers

We returned again at night

It was beautiful and very serene

We went inside the actual temple, where religious men were chanting. I was told by a man at the entrance that I couldn’t take any pictures inside, so I didn’t attempt to.

At around 10pm a ceremony was performed (which apparently happens at the same time daily) where the holy Sikh book is carried out of the temple on a carriage.

While it is inside the temple on display, pilgrims pray in front of it, while musicians play nearby. I hovered around watching the whole thing – it was very peaceful and there was a great atmosphere.

Accommodation is available within the grounds of the temple (for a small sum of money), but there’s also place for people to spend the night indoors for free.

Close to Amritsar is the Wagah Border, which is the only road border crossing between Pakistan and India. They have a ceremony here every day where soldiers from both Pakistan and India perform some kind of eccentric display to commemorate the independence of both countries. This is free and open to the public.

As you can see, a disorderly ‘queue’ formed outside. There is no concept of a queue in India – people just charge to the front, pushing others out of the way!

As soon as the gates opened, people literally started running ahead to get the best seats to view the ceremony – and there were thousands of people who packed into the area.

While people were getting seated, Indian Independence songs were played, while people danced.

(Google Video is being temperamental so the following clips might not work!)

Those from Pakistan sat on the other side of the gate and the two sides were completely separated for the whole ceremony. It was interesting that there was no dancing or much music on the Pakistan side – it seemed much quieter and sombre.The ceremony then began with the Indian soldiers marching towards the India-Pakistan gate.

At the gate they lowered flags and stomped in a rather bizarre way. Unfortunately the view wasn’t great so we couldn’t really see what was going on over there!

‘Vande mataram’ means ‘Hail to the motherland’. We were told to respect the Pakistan side when it was their turn to chant.

You can just about make out the Pakistani people in the distance.

After Wagah, we went back down to Delhi which was around a 7 hour drive. When we got to the hotel I noticed a little puppy limping around outside. It was such a tiny helpless thing, and someone noticed me trying to take a picture of it, and he lifted it up to move it away from the front of the hotel

This is something you would never see in a Western country.. but here dogs are seen as pests and feeding them is not really encouraged. However, I really couldn’t just see this dog in this state, so I went in search of some food I could give it.

The only thing I could find that it would be able to eat was some soft bread with butter.

People around me were staring, wondering what I was doing feeding a stray dog. A man even kicked it when it started to drink from a puddle near him..

The dog was so cute and it literally gobbled up all the bread. This old man was watching nearby from a richshaw, and he thanked me for being so kind. He started talking to me, and said he’d never seen anyone make so much of an effort to feed a dog, which was kind of sad really.. to think that people could treat a little dog with disregard.

Anyway, we headed south the next day to Jaipur, known as the Pink City, which is in the state of Rajasthan. I had one objective here – to sit on an elephant

I always assumed elephants would be a common sight in India, but there only a few places in the country where you can really see them (and ride them), and Jaipur is one of them.

We turned up at Amber Fort at 8am and still had to queue for around 45 minutes to sit on an elephant. Out of all the places I’ve visited in India, this had the most foreign tourists.

This was my elephant, called Champa!

They all marched up the winding, cobbled streets of the fort.

(By the way, below is my 10,000th picture made with my 350D! An elephant’s butt..great, eh!)

Yay!

Champa could take money in her trunk and lift it to her master – impressive.

Every state in India has unique characteristics. Below are typical Rajasthani women, whose saris are always vibrant, and worn around the head in this way.

Below is Jal Mahal, a deserted palace in the middle of a lake, which is now also filled with water.

We went to City Palace, which is the main palace in Jaipur, home to the current Maharajah of Jaipur, and where previous kings of Jaipur resided.

Buying a ticket was a confusing affair, with no orderly queue – I’d come to expect this by now in India!

Walking around the palace..

There were also art galleries where photographs weren’t permitted, but I took one of a couple of the artists there. These guys are twins and both are deaf and dumb – when I tried to talk to them, one of them wrote ‘deaf’ on a piece of paper.

Rajasthani puppets are a common sight in Jaipur.

Walking around, two girls saw my camera and asked me to take a picture of them. As I went to take it, a woman behind me started shouting at them telling them that they should only let me take their picture if I pay them.

One of the girls was scared off and she starts moving away, pulling her friend with her, as you can see.

Kinda funny, since they asked me for a picture. I noticed many women in this area had the ‘pay me or don’t take my picture’ attitude.

Jaipur was great. I was happy enough to be able to see elephants – very exciting

And.. that’s it from India!

It was a great trip, and I hope to travel down south later on in the year.. but first I’m going to Uganda next month. Now that will be a very new experience.

Wow, long blog! Thanks for reading/looking/skimming

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• Mumbai Revisited
  
• The Gateway to God
• Monkeys of Shimla

Monkeys of Shimla

Shimla is located in the north-west of India in the foothills of the Himalayas, and in the state of Himachal Pradesh. It was discovered by the British in 1819 and soon became the summer capital of the British Raj, and a major base for them.

Getting up here by road is crazy. There are vertical drops by the roadside and no barriers at all. The roads wind up the mountains and are often occupied by large trucks – so imagine going around a corner, and in the opposite direction a truck is speeding right towards you.. it was honestly like being on a roller-coaster. I was on the edge of my seat for most of the journey.

Finally we made it to Shimla – but even then the roads are so narrow that we got stuck several times with other vehicles. I’d have no patience if I lived in a place like this – it was so frustrating!

View from the hotel

We went to Kufri which is located 19kms from the centre of Shimla. It was once part of the kingdom of Nepal before the British “found” it in 1819 – until then it remained mostly undiscovered.

Kufri is one of the highest points in the surrounding areas of Shimla, at a height of almost 9,000ft, and the only way to get there is by foot or on horseback.

We had a young boy accompany us on the way up – in fact, most of the workers here seemed to be young. He said he’d been doing this for 2 years.

It was quite an unsteady ride up. The horses would walk really close to the edge of the path and as I’ve never ridden a horse before, it was quite a first experience! Often horses would randomly be running down from the opposite direction making it all the more scary.

At the top

I sat on a yak! (Yes, I’m not sure what’s with the pose either)

There was the opportunity to dress in traditional gear and take photos, so we thought why not!

It wasn’t the most flattering of outfits – it made me look pregnant for starters.

The photographer suggested I pose with the yak. Hmm..!

The poses were ridiculously tacky, as you can see, and they got worse – somehow I think I’ll omit the rest.

There was a temple nearby. You can’t see it very clearly but if you full-view the shot, the photograph in the bottom right shows how the temple looks in January – basically covered in snow.

It’s a good job we visited Shimla in November. The climate is quite diverse due to the high altitude, and by December the entire area is covered with snow and many places are inaccessible. It was around 17C during the day in November when we were there, and at night it dipped to around 7C, so nothing too extreme.

The man in the temple handed us scarves to tie outside.

This woman was really friendly – and she made the best tea and tiki (a kind of fried, flat potato snack with herbs and spices).

You can see that she’s Nepalese, and there were many of them around due to the close proximity with Nepal, and the fact that Kufri itself was once a part of Nepal.

There was a telescope station with telescope operators who pointed out various landmarks as well as the snow-covered Himalayas.

I can’t remember what the locations were, but for 25 rupees (30p) the operator offered to take pictures of them using my little compact digital, pointed through the telescope.

As you can see, the quality isn’t so great!

On the way back down we had this friendly horseman

After Kufri we went to Jakhu Temple, which is dedicated to the Hindu monkey god, Hanuman. I didn’t think there would be so many monkeys there

I fed them

They were so cute

A donkey came out of nowhere (literally), confusing both me and the monkeys

This sign was there for a reason..

Earlier, a woman had left the temple telling us to be careful of our belongings because a monkey had snatched her glasses. Oh dear..

I was all too wary myself – after getting out of the car, before I’d even spotted any monkeys, one of them suddenly came up behind me and grabbed my bag. I literally had to fight with it to make it let go! That’s right – I fought a monkey and WON. Go me.

Important advice if you ever happen to come across monkeys – keep your belongings strapped onto you as they will grab anything!

Inside the temple, a man was reading out someone’s horoscope.

He asked me if I wanted mine done – all he needed was the place and date of my birth. I refused; I don’t really believe in that kind of stuff, and in any case, I didn’t really fancy hearing him tell me something negative!

Awwww

More monkey feeding

In the evening we went to Shimla’s one and only shopping mall. To get there, you can either walk (think steep, uneven steps), or take 2 lifts for 5 rupees. The lazy Westerner in me thinks the latter is the better option!

Even getting around the mall itself was a mission

The streets were narrow and really steep, and nothing was on one, flat level. I felt dizzy walking around! It made me wonder why this city was developed and built up to begin with. Surely it’s too much effort to build houses and shops here? I saw old people trying to walk around – one woman grabbed onto me as I was walking down the stairs. She was clearly struggling. This really isn’t an ideal city for the elderly! Even medical centres were in awkward alleys.

This stall owner had a novel way of keeping his glasses on

Shimla is not only different to the other places I’ve visited in India in terms of its climate, land and architecture, but also its people and culture. Locals elsewhere seem more talkative and social, whereas here local people mostly kept to themselves and were far more conservative.

For example, in Mumbai, as soon as you walk into a shop people come to your assistance right away, and their enthusiasm and eagerness is almost overbearing. However, here in Shimla, that doesn’t really happen. People aren’t as keen to help or provide information if needed.

These people were extremely helpful, though.

By far, the nicest people we met in Shimla. They owned a tailoring shop, and were very hospitable and sweet.

The hotel we stayed at was pretty much run by one guy. It was rather ridiculous – the same guy was at reception, answered room service calls, and was also the cook (an excellent one at that I have to point out). So he basically slept when he could but was on call 24/7! He was quite dopey but that’s not really surprising considering he probably gets little rest..

Anyway, this is him.

‘Hotel Grace’ is a rather ironic name really! Still, this guy is a legend!

Shimla is known for its narrow gauge railway which features in the Guinness Book of World Records for offering the steepest rise in altitude in the space of 96 kms.

The trains here are known as toy trains.

I wonder who erected this sign, and I also wonder how many people agree with it. I know I do.

There was some kind of rally going on at the station to do with the upcoming elections

The toilet in the train was one of these

I didn’t use it

The toy train was definitely worth travelling on. We headed out of Shimla on it, and then hit the road again.

In India there are always temples and places of religious significance on roadsides. This man spends his time at a segregated temple an hour or so away from Shimla.

The one thing I couldn’t get used to in India are the toilets. You have to carry toilet paper around with you – I still don’t know how a bucket and water is going to do any good – what do you dry yourself with?! When I went to wash my hands in one toilet I was impressed at it having a soap dispenser. It turns out the dispenser was full of urine, not soap! I know that’s meant to have anti-bacterial properties, but really now..

Anyway, I took this shot of a grubby mirror in the toilets of a roadside restaurant. Yes, the toilet was outside.

We were still at a high altitude at this point as you can see. I enjoyed Shimla very much – it has a distinct character which is removed from the other places in India that I’ve visited. It’s far cleaner and I didn’t see a single beggar. Prices are more expensive and the influence of the British in this area is apparent. Shopkeepers also speak very good English and they seem fairly well-to-do.

However, I couldn’t wait to get back to flat land!

Next stop – Chandigarh, then Amritsar.

Hope you all had a good Christmas