Delhi headache!

I still hate Delhi. There's no two ways around it. this place is a big, noisy, angry mess.

i walked today to see Mahatma Ghandi's memorial but it happened to be the anniversary of when his wife was shot (or someone famous) and so it was closed. that in itself isn't bad. but the walk there was awful because it is sooo noisy and polluted. it's not that bad badness wise but i don't like it at all. there's also no street signs and a lot of people are after your money etc. but i managed to find a few nice ones and made it ok and in the end i visited a photo gallery of him which was amazing and really informative. i realise now that i knew nothing about him really at all except that he was into peace for a lifestyle. so much to him i found out.

i then visited the mahatma ghandi museum but found i was a bit ghandi'd out and so started to read ome books about healthy eating. after maybe 5 pages i suddenly dropped the book, waking myself up. so i decided to have a sleep on the lawn outside but just when i'd nodded off the security came and kicked me off. ah well. tonight then.

trains to nepal don't leave till midday tomorrow so i have organised to meet Jo at the station at 9:30pm (i didn't know then when they left and had hoped we'd shoot off that night) and then we'll stay here tonight and leave tomorrow asap.

i also joined in a demonstration about what i have no idea. they were waving red flags though and just happened to be heading my way so i joined in.

i also walked into a soccer match at a stadium without a ticket and got surrounded by army personnal - i was just curious what was behind the big wall and they were all laughing by the time i left.

i had breakfast at a restaurant and so am hoping Delhi belly won't hit again (it's already been more than the usual 7 hr safety zone).

mmm, Delhi is not for me. I look forward to Nepal.

Return ticket to hell...

I hated Delhi when i first arrived and did not really plan on returning until my flight to leave the country. but i had to meet Jo and i also had Josephine's free train ticket to try and use...

so I caught the free shuttle from the temple to the station and went to find my train to hell in a sea of swarming indians. i showed 'my' ticket to heaps of different people and then decided (after getting no where really) to jump aboard the train ( i had found out which it was at least) and wait till it moved to sort it as then i was at least on my way and they'd hardly throw me off right?

i was sitting waiting for a conductor to come when i was approached by an indian/canadian guy who asked if i could do him a favour. his ticket was waiting list only and he was number 115 and so probably wouldn't get a seat. he was wondering if i could put his gear with mine over night for safety reasons.

hahahahha, hahaha, ooooohh, amamamaahahahaha bahahah!

i explained that mine was a waiting ticket too, that is said i was a 24 year old female and that i was number 135 or something. this at least put him in a better mood when he found out i was in a much worse situation and so we spent the remainder of the trip together using his hindi and my white skin to get us through. we found us some floor space to sleep on (after being kicked out of 3 other seats) and so we settled in for a 7hr trip for me and a 30 hr for him!

wasn't too bad a sleep really considering. was in a coridoor between carriages on the floor by a toilet. we put my scarf down and his sleeping bag and huddled up for maybe 5 or 6 hours of sleep so it was fine. and for me it was a free train ride so what did i care how it went?

so on the 26th i caught a FREE taxi to the temple. then i booked in to my FREE room to stay for three FREE nights. I had FREE breakfast, FREE lunch, FREE dinner each day and visited the numerous FREE sights. i got a FREE ticket to delhi, a FREE tea on the train and i don't know, probably some other FREE stuff too along the way. all in all i have spent the last month in India spending aorund 10 000 rupees ($350) of my planned 15 000 Rupees ($500). considering that more than half of that was for the meditation course, not too shabby i think.

Team chipatti!

Day three (29th):

So this is my third day at the Golden temple and though I still think you could do it in one, it has been worth it to stay the extra two. I thought today i would have little to do but i have had a full day so far with more still to come.

this morning we went to wash some dishes again and ended up making chipattis!

seems guys can do this too. i was rolling them, frying them, sorting them (we moved around a lot for fun). the Sikhs love us for helping too. i got a 5 minute back rub from one guy just for offering to help!

we made 'team chipatti' (me, dutch couple, and a brazillian guy - aussie girl kept washing dishes) and could whip out maybe a couple of hundred an hour. there is also a machine that makes them at around 10 000 an hour but you really can taste the difference and it is much nicer when you get served the hand-made ones.

they also gave us extra tea, took us up on the roofs, back stage and all these other special treats. they are really friendly here and all want to talk with us.

and the rest of the day has been spent talking with people (foreigners). there's a brazillian here who is biking the world for 3 yrs and a lovely dutch couple (yes, i will go stay with them) and heaps of Israelis, an irish guy, the german left yesterday and the aussie and american girls left today, but more keep coming.

- i ended up spending the afternoon into the evening chucking peas (is that what it's called when you remove them from the pods?) and handing out dishes for dinner. two more jobs i had yet to try. i then took an indian guy for a tour of the temple after he asked me for some help and then had dinner, some chai, packed my bags and headed for the train.

but now it is time for some lunch i think. then tonight i go by train to Delhi, on to Agra to see the Taj thingy for a day and then back to Delhi and on to Nepal.

an american girl i met gave me the train tickets she bought to Delhi that she is no longer using and though they say they are for a female i will give it a go. worst comes to worse, i spend a day at the station.

Offering to do dishes? unheard of...

Day two (28th):

so after going to bed at around 1am we awoke at 5am to see the sunrise. which didn't happen till around 7:30am. and wasn't even that great. but we had chai and breakfast to look forward to so all good.

the day was spent washing dishes after breakfast with around a hundred other indian volunteers. fun when there are that many of you.

ok, so the kitchen is open 24 hours every day of the year. it serves free food throughout as well as chai. it is all run by volunteers who make, cook and serve the food (and clean up too). it is open to everyone. all races, all religions, all everyone. it is an amzing idea. no beggars around as they can just move in (though there were suprisingly few. maybe because food is free they can save more money?). the kitchen is a big 2 story building (one floor is serving while the other is cleaned every 15 minutes) with washing and food preparation going on around it.

after washing dishes for a couple of hours we wandered the temple again and then had lunch. somehow filled the day? probably did something i can't remember. it'll come (o: me and the aussie girl did go for a wander through the streets and to visit a park. that took us a bit.

i visited the babel temple and some other sights at some stage but i can't remember when (o:

Then at night I helped serve food in the kitchen. Very fun times. me and a dutch lady i had met offered but as a woman she was not allowed to serve to the Sikh men and so she went and made chapattis instead.

I was handing out the chipattis and half the indians i was serving too were so surprised to see a westerner serving them that they forgot to even say they wanted one (o: But it was a lot of fun. i had to move up and down the aisles, saying "Pra sha da" (means food for god) and when someone wanted one they had to put their hands together (both hands) and i would drop one or two in. i knew how it went as i had of course eaten there myself. but that doesn't stop half the community trying to help you and that is where it got a little stressful towards the end. i was getting conlicting orders from all these different sikhs and so in the end i followed a boy who must have been about 9yrs around calling him 'sir' and saying he was my boss. this went down well with everyone and of course he loved it.

it was also fun to say random english phrases and see them smile and take it anyway. i was also very strict (whilst smiling) as they had been to me (without smiling) and would wait until both hands were offered before anyone got a chipatti.

then afterwards when i sat to have dinner myself (with my 'boss'), they of course all came to offer me everything under the sun and would rummage through to find me the best of each.

all in all it was again really worth it.

The bad side of fame

So for some reason we are like movie stars or something to the sikh people in this temple. every time i sit down, stand up, cough, sneeze, pee, breathe, smile, scowl, blink, whatever! i am accossted by like a dozen locals wanting to talk with us or take "one snap please?" (a photo) of us. don't know why. i was even meditating and they still come up to you.

there seems to be a system to it too. they usually stand back a bit for around 5 minutes maybe working up some courage to say hello (and this is old men, young kids, teenagers, ladies everyone). the courage building either ends with one person coming to say hi, asking for a pic or sometimes their courage isn't enough and they run off again (sometimes they try again in a bit). or sometimes one guy will get pushed the whole way up to or into us, say a quick sorry and then run off.

mmm. but we couldn't sit without a crowd forming around us. hence the foreign only room was a blessing at times. otherwise we didn't mind spending some time talking with them (sometimes for over an hour) and if it was a son or daughter with a mum or dad, i'd be sure to throw in some loud "your english is really good!" which always got a big grin from the parent, being so proud.

Borderline party

You can visit the pakistan-india border where each night they have a celebration of sorts. it is a demonstration of border bravado really and it like a show. it happens around when they take down the flags each night and is quite an event.

they all march around yelling and high step marching (i swear the almost kick their own heads) in fancy uniforms with fans on their heads (or what looked like one). they're all huge too. they must grab you from the indian army if you're like 6 and a half feet tall and put you in it (and with a billion people they'd have a few choices).

you get popcorn to eat and sit in a grandstand to watch; quite weird. we sat (me and the german guy) on the road side though as it seemed a better view and when it all started they began with dancing. i was sitting nect to an idian girl who had been beofe and she said they never dance usually so there must have been something on. there were tv cameras and so on too. so all these indians get selected to come dance on the street with the camera on them and then one of the girls comes and grabs me to make me join in. i jump up (pulling germany with me) and dance around for all of 5 seconds before feeling like a prat and jumping down again. germany follows me 2 seconds later.

only regret in india so far. should have just gone for it (o: would have been on tv! but i felt like i was blushing worse than a tomato in a red light district (and probably was) as every person was staring at the white guy (who stood out just a bit) trying to dance to crazy indian music! mmm. next time, haha.

on the way back from the border we also stopped in at a Hindi temple. Now this was tops. You enter and are immediately surrounded by wire fencing so it is like you are in a cage. you walk around this path and then hit a cave you have to crawl through to go on. you enter an area with bells you bang and clash as loud as possible (to let god know you exist) and then you head further up, through another cave, past some crazy statues that look like drunken kindergarten students made them (but i am assured they're the official images of these gods), wade through a man made river (yes, this is a temple remember)through a room of mirrors (this whole place was like a fun park and had us searching for the house of horrors through out) and you reach a holy man who draws an orange dot on your forehead and gives you some candy coated popcorn to eat.

then you get to head down again (it's all a one way path) and do a tour of the more conservative temple area. here you get more orange on your head if you smile nicely, some food from another guy if u ask a question and then if u talk to another holy guy for 5 minutes, smiling throughout, repeating what he says but not really understanding a word of it, you get rewarded with a big lump of yellow sticky dessert stuff (i should really stop asking questions!).

top place really.

then after a quick chai (made specially, and only for us and it does get annoying being treated special when we are the ones who need it least! our chai was also accompanied by biscuits which i never otherwise saw) we headed to bed at around 1am.

Now if you're wondering why so late...

Golden days

Day one (27th): anyways, so when we woke up the next day i went with the english guy and french girl again to look around. we first had breakfast (chipatti and dal) and then headed to the temple to look inside.

we bought some sacramental food to feed the gods of the temple (about 20c) and then joined the que to get in. about 10 000 people enter the compex every hour but the line moved remarkably quickly in spite of this. 20mins to get in maybe?

at the entrance you hand over your food and they take half and give you half back. you carry this round with you and then when u leave the temple they give u a top uo so it is full again and then u get to eat it. weird huh? it was a sort of brown pudding. kind of like rice pudding but made with couscous (texture / size wise). it was sweet and nice and came wrapped in leaves.

inside the temple is an amazing work of art too design wise but sadly i don't think i truly appreciate this as it doesn't really do it for me (architecture). the roof is also made with 750kgs of pure gold! and inside there are also four holy men reading constantly from their holy scriptures to whom everyone donates money (for the temple - except me).

i just wandered around bowing to all sorts of gods, not having a clue who anyone was but figuring it's the act (not thought) that counts in this case. they have 10 guru gods i think and one main guy above the rest. after the temple we visited the museum which told of the sikh history - bloody, bloody and more bloody - before heading for lunch (chipatti, brown dal, yellow dal, some bitter pickled fruit thing and you also get water and chai if you want with meals).

not sure what else we did. the days just kind of passed us by. a lot of them was spent relaxing and talking i guess. we also visited the nearby temple and pool that night and, ah of course, we went to the border (a german guy Tim, israeli lady Segull, aussie chick Aya and myself).

Gold rush

First night (26th-27th):

When we got to Armristar we caught a rickshaw together to the Sikh's Golden temple (free trip for me) and then we went to find the accomodation.

this was a dorm room with a row of rooms coming off it. i opted for the dorm (all free but i don't need fancy) and the beds were all the same anyway (they all resembled giant slices of stale toast after two weeks of hardening in the sun with a white sheet over it). the room also had a 'shower' (two taps and a bucket) and some lovely communal toilets outside. the actual room we stayed in is for foreginers only (maybe for cultural and safety reasons) and it can provide a nice safe plce at times. after we locked our gear in the lockers provided in the rooms we went to explore a bit before bed.

i had also met an indian / english guy and a french girl who offered to show me the kitchen and so the first thing we did was eat. it was a good dinner of green dal (tasted like mince), rice, chipatti, and a fruit dessert. we also did a quick tour around the temple complex and a bit of outside around the complex but otherwise i was pretty tired and headed to bed soon after.

the temple itself is located in the middle of a man-made lake maybe 100m by 100m in area. the temple is maybe 40x40 i think. i'm not too good with judging distances. It is a real work of art on the outside with more fancy trimmings than the queens birthday cake and at night four bright golden lights are diirected at it and make it resemble a mini sun. it is shaped like the taj (i think) with the roof being an uposide down lotus flower.

The actual complex surrounding the temple is a lot bigger and has the rooms, museum, towers, religious areas etc inside of its walls. It is made of marble or some other white stone and looks amazing.

the whole place is well designed and has a relaxing atmosphere or almost. you'll see what i mean soon...

Bus to Mcleod

I travelled down to Armristar by bus from Mcleod to see the golden temple because i was curious what the Sikh religion was like and, lets be honest here, it offerd free food, accomodation and sights for the few days until i had to see Jo.

the bus ride was interesting but nothing too special. sometimes the bus couldn't even turn the corners and it would take a number of '3' point turns to get around. that was about the most interesting thing to happen. when we reached the temple i also thought i'd be ok without a shower for a bit but when i wiped my face on my sleeve it came off black so it must have been a ver dusty ride. and i think that is sugar coating it too because everywhere down here in India it looks like a car just back fired in your face! it is much more likely to be pollution changing your apparent race than dust sadly.

anyways, i met an Israeli lady and a guy from me meditation course at the station in Mcleod who also happened to be heading to Armristar. so i had people to travel with (as usual). And then on the bus down we met some french guys and another israei lady. so there were quite a number of us and it was a good trip.

we arrived safe and with no hassles.

BLANK