Bollywood, Festivals & His Holiness



 After some relaxation, lots of eating and resting we headed out to explore Jaisalmer fort.   From the outside it looks like a giant sandcastle; inside it is a maze of alleyways and streets, people still living inside the houses within the fort walls.  Imagine our surprise whilst exploring when we came across the filming of a Bollywood movie called Freedom.  We were hidden in one of the shops as they didn’t want us white folk in the shot, but we watched the short chase / stunt sequence being filmed.  Not sure how they get anything done as nothing is sealed off, lines of tourists waltz through the set unaware of what they’re interrupting, locals ignore the goings on, insisting on parking their scooters where they always go (even if this messes up the shot) cows wander through regularly – its just chaotic!  No smoke machines, just men with hot coals that run around the set to create the smog!  We saw the stars of the movie too, wearing questionable jumpers and leather jackets!  Where else, other than India could you stumble into a film set?!

Floating Flower Boats

After this memorable last day in Rajasthan we took a train back to Delhi, for a brief overnight stop before heading north to Haridwar, one of India’s holiest cities.  Haridwar is what we imagined India to be; set on the Ganges, a busy town, lots of begging, lots of asking for donations, lots of fake Holy Men to avoid...but scams aside, the river location makes for interesting viewing.  The main attraction of Haridwar is the evening ceremony.  Hindus come to the river to light a flower boat which they cast off down the river; offerings to the goddess Ganga.  It is lovely to see the tea lights floating along and on the river banks priests perform elaborate fire ceremonies.

Our next stop was a short journey north to Rishikesh.  This odd river town was made famous when the Beatles stayed at an Ashram here in the 60s; Ringo stating it was “just like Butlins”.  Now a mecca of yoga, ashrams and hippies, I would personally think it too busy to find your inner-peace!  Oddly, although set on the banks of the River Ganges it was surprisingly difficult to find a room with a view – we did find one, but at a price – it was opposite a temple which did a ridiculous bell and drum ceremony at 5am each day!  Our view came in handy though as we just happen to be here for Dewali (Like Hindu Christmas, a festival of lights) so that meant we could admire all the fairy lights and fireworks over the river, it smelt just like bonfire night and looked like Christmas with all the fairy lights!  The firecrackers (just bangs no light) went on till 2am which was less enjoyable!  We had a great day white water rafting in the clean holy waters north of Rishikesh.  We had a cold Holy dip in one of the small rapids and Chris entered the waters another 2 times, not quite on purpose!  I was tucked further back on the raft so avoided falling in, although it was touch and go as our raft almost flipped on one of the Grade 3+ rapids!  It was a great trip and lovely to see India’s natural beauty away from the busy cities.

Chris Trapped by a Cow in our Guesthouse
- Rishikesh

We have been in McLeod Ganj for almost a week now.  Up here amongst the mountains we don’t feel like we’re in India at all.  Here is home to the Dalai Lama, most of the population is Tibetan therefore food, handicrafts and culture is mostly Tibetan.  We have a stunning view from our balcony of the Dhauladhar Range, the beginning of the Himalayas.  It is peaceful and relaxed and we’ve enjoyed the change of pace; we’ve even been to the cinema to watch Skyfall – well, not quite a cinema, a basement with office chairs lined up and a big overhead projector!   

Whilst we’ve been here the Dalai Lama just happened to be doing a public teaching at the temple opposite his residence here, we got our passes, bought an FM radio for the translation of his teachings, took a cushion to sit on and joined the masses (his website estimates 4,000 people were there) waiting for His Holiness to arrive.  We are able to watch him walk up to the temple from his home, there is something very charismatic about the Dalai Lama, he is instantly loveable as he smiles and offers a cheeky wave to his adoring crowd.  The initial part of his teaching spoke of the importance of love for each other then he went into the understanding of actions, consequence and karma, the latter segment was discussing a sacred parchment, sadly this bit was a little lost on us!  It was a great experience though, interesting to watch the rest of his audience, lovely to see him give the teaching and to watch the monks organising the blessed tea, Tibetan bread, rice & curry for everyone attending the teaching.

 

Yesterday we decided to hike up to Triund for a closer look at the Dhauladhar Mountains.  This was a harder walk than we expected – an 18km round trip, with the trip up being continually uphill to reach an elevation of 2875ms (1100ms higher than we started!) it was hard!  But we are sure it was worth it!  The view was beautiful and the Chai at the top helped replenish our energy.  Being here has reminded us so much of Nepal, prayer flags in the trees, donkeys trekking down the paths, tea shops nestled in the hill side – it feels like our trip has done a full circle!

Only 2 weeks to go until home!

Lots of love & be seeing you soon,

Kat & Chris xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Triund View

3 Smelly Camels, 2 ‘Blue Cities’ and 1 Roger Moore

In Bundi (an excellent recommendation from Greg & Jade!) we stayed in the royal Palace’s former Elephant Stables. It was a quiet and tranquil setting right next to the palace walls, with squirrels and monkeys, naughty dogs that would sneak in and eat the families Hindu offerings, chapatti chasing cows (because you can’t use a stick on a cow to scare it away, that’s not very Hindu!) and bats flying out of the palace walls at dusk providing plenty of entertainment. We also had the best Thali of all of India so far, with unlimited refills.

Bundi is a small town in comparison to the other cities we’ve visited in India, meaning traffic’s not as bad and there’s an easy going feel to the place as well as a pretty blue hue to a lot of the buildings to appreciate. Perched up on a hill behind the town is the palace with some fantastic architecture and colourful murals. Even higher up is the impressive fort overgrown with jungle vegetation adding further to its charm. We rambled through the fort, all the while making sure we didn’t get too close to the monkeys that call it home and enjoyed some breathtaking views of ‘blue’ Bundi.

Moving on from Bundi with a ridiculous 2am train to Udaipur we arrived to one of India’s most romantic cities because of its lakeside setting and floating palace. Unfortunately the smog never really lifted whilst we were there so the views around the lake were never stunning, but if you squinted that helped! Udaipur has a busy tourist strip near the palace where the streets are clogged with wonderfully colourful Indian tat; and cows, 4x4’s and rickshaws try there damndest on the narrow roads to try and get you knocked into the stream of waste that runs parallel to them.

We took a relaxed approach to Udaipur and had a really good time there. On the first night we enjoyed watching the terribly hammy James Bond movie Octopussy which was famously shot in Udaipur over a pot of tea filled with beer – a delightful way for the restaurant to get around not having an alcohol license! The best bits were the rickshaw chases and any of the sections where you could look from the rooftop cafe and spot where it was filmed. The second night we took in an Indian dance and culture show which was fantastic, the highlight being a traditional Jaisalmer desert dance where a lady balances 10 pots on her head and dances! The third night we did a cooking school with Shashi, a lovely Indian woman who had a fantastic story of overcoming all odds to start her cooking school, making chapatti’s was my highlight (although both Kat and I kept getting told off for not rolling them correctly!). On our fourth and final full day we rode Indian Marwari horses (who have wonderfully distinctive bendy ears) through the countryside a few kilometres outside of busy Udaipur.

A long bumpy bus ride the next day took us to Jodhpur renowned for its amazing hilltop Meherangarh Fort and being called the blue city as most of the buildings are painted blue, originally denoting a higher caste (class) of people and also supposed to keep insects away. The Meherangarh Fort looked suitably imposing from the outside but inside it was fantastic as well as it had been decorated for Naomi Campbell’s boyfriend’s birthday party in colourful traditional Rajasthani lamps and sashes. We thought it was originally going to be for Dewali (the Hindu festival of light) happening in a week but were told it would never look that nice if it were left up to the Indians.

Jodhpur is also one of the four locations in India to feature the ‘Flying Fox’ a combination of zip lines that in Jodhpur’s case criss-cross the Fort’s walls. We did a sunset trip and the views were amazing of the ‘blue city’ and the Fort as we hurtled past. Also interesting to note is that the Wes Anderson movie The Darjeeling Limited was mostly shot in and around the blue buildings of Jodhpur, Bruce Wayne emerged from the well prison in The Dark Night Rises to a backdrop of the Fort and Keira Knightly made a movie called The Fall there (it was a commercial flop).



We’re now in Jaisalmer and have just returned from a gruelling 7 hours total camel ride. It sounds romantic riding a camel through the desert but in reality the camels fart a lot, instantly dispelling that notion! Also we’re now suffering very sore thigh muscles and I have a very badly chaffed ass! The camels are all real characters though. The best bit, and the romantic notions are still very much in place for this, was watching the sunset over the sand dunes and sleeping under the stars with just a duvet and pillow. The stars were amazing, only free camping in the middle of nowhere in Australia has come close. We saw well over 15 shooting stars, and the moon when it did come out was so, so bright! Sunrise was equally lovely as we were the only people around to enjoy it. All in all a good experience, if painful (we did have to come back half a day early we were so sore!).

We’ve now got two more days in Jaisalmer then we’ll be saying goodbye to Rajasthan and heading up north to Rishikesh for a change of scenery and pace.

Love Chris & Kat xxx