Goodbye India

Après 2 semaines nous quittons l'Inde pour Singapour, cela a été une expérience intéressante et dépaysante. Il y a un énorme potentiel pour le tourisme avec des lieux magnifiques (haaa le golden temple...) mais malheureusement gâché par les infrastructures.

La nourriture a été un vrai problème à cause de mes intolérances (pourquoi ils mettent des produits laitiers et de l'ail de partout??) mais j'ai pu expérimenter le fait d'être végétarien pendant 2 semaines... et j'espère ne pas recommencer de si tôt :p

En tout cas nous ne regrettons pas d'y être allé, ça valait le coup!

After two weeks, we left India for Singapore. It was an interesting and completely foreign experience. There's so much potential for tourism with magnificent sites (Golden Temple, Taj Mahal, Agra Fort...) but it's not an easy country to visit.

Food was a real problem for Guillaume (butter, milk and cream feature highly) and was a bit tricky for me as garlic is also a favourite, but Guillaume had a break from meat for two weeks which probably did him some good - and it is Lent after all.

Definitely worth visiting! 

Voici notre trajet / Our journey

Pensée du jour: Quand es ce que les Indiens apprendrons à faire la queue?

Thought of the day: when are Indians going to learn how to queue? (Coming from a Frenchman, that shows just how bad it is... I thought the French didn't understand what a queue was.)

Golden Temple

Amritsar, ville sacrée des Sikhs. Grâce à un ami de la Bnp (que je remercie vivement), nous pouvions rester dans un hôtel créé par un groupe de Sikhs de Birmingham pour les membres de ce clan lorsqu'ils viennent en pèlerinage à Amritsar. L’hôtel était propre et confortable, très bien situé et avec un bon Wifi! Parfait :)
Une fois les bagages déposés nous nous rendons au temple, les rues autours sont chaotiques et nous devons quitter les chaussures et se couvrir la tête pour y entrer.
Une fois à l'intérieur c'est vraiment calme, autour du temple il y a une grande "piscine" où les Sikhs prennent un "bain saint", nous passons presque 4 heures marchant autour et prenant plein de photos. Le fan club de Helen était venu en force, beaucoup de gens la regardent et, pour les plus braves, demandent de la (nous) prendre en photo ou lui serrent la main.
Nous allons manger a la cantine du temple, ils servent gratuitement près de 60000 repas par jour! C'est très efficace, ils laissent rentrer les gens dans un grande salle puis chaque volontaire distribue un plat (lentilles, riz au lait, pain, eau), une fois fini il faut rapporter son plateau et quitter la salle pour laisser place à un autre groupe de personnes.
Une fois de retour à l’hôtel nous partageons le repas avec les autres personnes qui sont très accueillantes  (lentilles, riz au lait, pain, eau et c'était la même chose pour le petit déjeune).
Bref c'était un très bon séjour à Amritsar et nous sommes bien content d'avoir fini par ça.

Amritsar, the holy city of the Sikhs. Thanks to one of Guillaume's colleagues, we were able to stay at a hotel created by one of the Sikh 'clans' for members of the clan on pilgrimage to Amritsar. The hotel was clean and comfortable with good wifi. Heaven! 
As soon as we arrived, another guest from Glasgow came over and helped to get us checked in as the staff don't speak English very well.
For the day we were in Amritsar, the helpfulness and friendliness of all the Sikhs we met was remarkable. Even though we were just tourists, basically crashing in their hotel and gawping at their temple, we felt really welcome.

Once we'd dropped our bags at the hotel we headed to the Golden Temple, which explains itself really. The Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book, is kept there and recited throughout the day. Around the Golden Temple is a large pool where Sikhs take holy dips.
We spent about four hours in the complex, walking round the edge of the pool and taking photos of the magnificent temple.
My fan club were out in force - I must have had at least 20 photos taken of me and people were asking me to shake their hands, touch their children (seriously) and even hold their babies (which the babies were less keen on, see photo). Those who were less forthcoming contended themselves with just swivelling their heads to stare at me as they went past. A little unnerving, but that's the price for being ginger I suppose...
After doing one tour of the pool a Sikh man took us to the langar (communal dining room) to eat with the pilgrims. It is an amazing logistical feat. 
Thousands of people must go through every day, and they all get a hot meal on clean plates. Firstly, we queued for our plates (like school dinner trays with different compartments), then another man put a bowl on it, while another added a spoon. Next we went upstairs to the dining room and sat down in rows on the floor. Then the food arrived, dal and rice pudding served in the trays, water in the bowls, chappati in the hands held out palms upstretched. Very efficient, and tasty.

At the hotel we had an evening meal with the other guests, who all talked to us and made us feel very welcome - just like they did at breakfast the following morning. We may have eaten dal and chappati for three meals straight, but it was tasty and we were made to feel like part of the community more than anywhere else we've been in India.  

Mumbai

L'hotel est à coté de la station Grant Road, au centre nord de Mumbai. Le gérant nous conseille de marcher jusqu'à la plage qui serait à 5mn à pied, finalement c'était plus 15mn avec traversé d'une route 6 voies... Un peu stressant mais les enfants qui font caca dans la rue et sur la plage
nous distraient un peu. Puis nous nous promenons sur Marine Drive à la recherche d'un resto.

Le lendemain nous visitons le centre de Mumbai, avec la gare CST (Victoria Terminus) construite par les anglais au 19ème siècle avec une très belle architecture. Ensuite visite du musé du Prince du pays de Galles avec des manuscrits indiens, des statues des dieux hindous,  des peintures européennes, des tissus indiens et les animaux que l'on peut trouver en Inde.
Nous finissons la journée à la porte de l'Inde qui a été construite pour accueillir le roi Georges V et sa femme.
Helen a toujours autant de succès et elle continue à poser pour les touristes indiens (sans avoir le choix). Nous trouvons un restaurant pan-asiatique où nous voyons 2 femmes lutins mais après avoir demandé c'était des habits traditionnels Parsi (même religion que Freddy Mercury) j'aurais bien voulu les prendre en photo...

Samedi nous prenons le bateau pour aller à Elephante Island qui devrait être renommé Monkey Island car il n'y a pas d’éléphants mais plein de singes qui essayent de voler les touristes.
L'île contient des temples sculptés au 7ème siècle dans des caves. Il fait très chaud et humide et la montée est pénible.
Mais l'effort en valait la peine, les sculptures sont magnifiques et on peut imaginer la quantité de travail pour achever le site.
Nous nous arrêtons au Pain Quotidien pour notre quatre heures, la temptation de pain/confiture était trop forte après un repas de midi raté (encore un) = un cassoulet indien :/

Our hotel is next to Grant Road station, in the centre of Mumbai. The manager suggests that we walk to the beach, which he assures us is just a 5 min walk away. 
It turned out to be more than 15 minutes and involve crossing 6 lanes of traffic... A bit stressful but the children pooing in the road and on the beach are something of a distraction. Then we walked along Marine Drive looking for a restaurant (which was expensive for India and not that great...).

The next day we visited the centre of Mumbai, with the impressive CST (Victoria Terminus) built by (or at least designed by, I imagine most of the labour was Indian) the British in the 19th century alongst lots of other colonial-era architecture. Afterwards we visited the Prince of Wales museum which has lots of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain statues, European paintings collected by the Tata family and Indian textiles. And, my personal favourite (Guillaume was very patient while I studied every exhibit in detail), Indian manuscripts - going from the early books written on palm leaves to the beautifully illuminated Mughal manuscripts of the 16th and 17th centuries. 
We finished the day at the Gateway of India, built to celebrate the visit of George V and Queen Mary in 1911 - the first reigning British monarch (and Indian Emperor) to visit India. Once again, I attract groups of Indians wanting photos with me. Afterwards we went to eat at a pan-Asian restaurant - Guillaume had food at last! - which is where Guillaume first noticed the distinctive costume of the local Parsi women. He had a look of pure shock on his face as two women in bright green dresses complete with hoods walked in - the bright green bit isn't part of the traditional dress, but it certainly added to the impression. 

On Saturday we went to Elephanta Island, which doesn't have any elephants (it used to have a stone one but that's been taken away) but does have a lot of monkeys and some temple caves with magnificent carvings of Shiva in various poses. The detail of the carvings is incredible and shows just how much work went into them.

Marine Drive

Indian Gate

Elephanta Island

Pensée du jour: Je comprend pourquoi l'offshore ne marche pas...

Old Goa

La veille ville de Goa est à 20 min en bus de Panjim. Le ticket de bus coûte 10cts et c'est aussi rapide que le taxi. Il y a énormément d'églises dont la plus grande d'Asie (ainsi que la cloche), il y a de plus les reliques de Saint François-Xavier qui était un missionnaire jésuite parcourant l'inde et le japon.
Malheureusement il n'y a pas de restaurant à touriste donc nous devons nous contenter d'un coca et de chips.
Il fait vraiment chaud et humide et nous allons nous ressourcer dans un café de retour à Panjim.

Pensée du jour: Quand es ce qu'on mange purée saucisse?

reliques de St François-Xavier

The town of Old Goa is 20 minutes from Panjim on the bus. The tickets cost 10 rupees (about 10p) each one way and it's just as quick as taking a taxi. Bargain. There are loads of churches and convents, including the Sé Cathedral, which is the biggest in Asia and has the biggest bell in Asia too. There are also the relics of St Francis-Xavier, a Jesuit missionary who went from India to Japan converting the local people. Unfortunately, there's not much else - not even a restaurant - so it's a packet of crisps and a can of coke for us at lunch.

It's so hot and humid that when we get back to Panjim we head straight for a café with fans to cool down and rehydrate. Fresh lime soda is fast becoming one of my favourite drinks. We also manage to find (literally - apparently someone left them at the café) and write some post cards after having failed to find any to buy any up until now. Now we just need stamps...

Thought of the day: when can we have sausage and mash?

Retour à la civilisation

Dimanche nous partons pour Goa en avion (tellement plus facile) avec un arrêt sur Mumbai. Une fois arrivés au B&B nous partons explorer Panjim, le centre de Goa ancienne colonie portugaise avec de jolies églises et des maisons coloniales. Nous sommes agréablement surpris que nous poussions nous promener calmement dans les rues (propres) sans avoir peur de se faire écraser. L’Europe est bien quand même.

Lundi nous embarquons sur un tour organisé par une auberge de jeunesse pour visiter les plantations d'épices ainsi qu'une cascade, la 2ème plus grande en Inde (mais ils n'avaient pas précisé qu'elle était jolie). La plantation est très intéressante mais un peu courte, nous avons droit à toutes les explications sur la canelle, le piri-piri (Renaud tu aurais pu gouter ça), le poivre et l'alcool de noix de cajous ainsi qu'une démonstration de comment récolter les beetel (j'ai aussi essayé)
Après un repas frugal, direction la cascade où la route cahoteuse en bus puis en 4x4 ne nous permet pas de digérer. Mais nous pouvons nous baigner en bas de la cascade ce qui fait vraiment du bien avec cette chaleur. Nous sommes entourés de singes car certaines personnes stupides les nourrissent. Sur le retour nous voyons une mangouste attaquer un tapir, le résultat n'était pas très jolie à voir surtout que le tapir était toujours vivant...

trial of Panning!

J'ai fait la meme chose

cet effet cascade...

On Sunday we took the plane to Goa - so simple! - with a very brief stop in Mumbai. Once we arrived at the B&B in Panjim, Guillaume had a nap and I read my book and then we set out to explore the old town. Panjim is the capital of Goa but has still kept its pretty churches and colonial buildings from the time of Portuguese rule. It's just like walking through a southern European town, but with more palm trees and banana trees. We were so surprised to be able to walk through clean streets without fearing being run over, choking on dust, etc... it's like being in a different country. Europe is lovely, really.

On Monday we went on a tour organized by a local youth hostel to a spice plantation and a waterfall (the second highest, but not necessarily the prettiest, in India). The spice plantation was interesting if the tour was a little on the short side. We learnt how red, green and black pepper are made, why beetel nuts are so popular among the teetotal Muslim population (chewing on one is the equivalent of about 5 whiskies) and that eating a piri-piri chilli straight from the tree is really not a good idea, even if you're trying to show off to a German girl... At the end of the tour, a man demonstrated how to harvest beetel nuts (see photo above) and Guillaume had a go too.

In the afternoon, going swimming in the basin at the foot of the waterfall was just what we needed to escape the heat, even if we had to go on a very bumpy ride to get there. I had a headache by the time we got to the falls from having banged my head so much, but that may just have been me. Despite signs saying not to feed the monkeys, someone again felt the need to impress the German girl and started throwing our packed snack at the monkeys, which attracted them all... I hope he managed to get the girl at the end after all his efforts.

We saw two sad things on our trip to the waterfalls: 
1) a monkey recovered her baby's body from the pool and then just stood on the edge holding its limp form, seemingly at a loss of what to do next
2) a mongoose was attacking a baby tapir in the road as we drove up, which frightened it away to the verge where it stood staring at us with its mouth open showing nasty pointy teeth. The driver got out and saw that the tapir was still alive - but the mongoose had attacked its head around its eyes, leaving it bleeding and probably blind. The driver just put it on the wayside out of the road, there wasn't really anything else he could do.    

Horrible Journey to Jaipur

Nous nous levons à 5h45 (oui c'est trop tôt) pour prendre le train vers Jaipur, nous arrivons à la gare 30 min avant le départ (:o)  où nous apprenons qu'il a 30 min de retard :( Malheureusement ce retard grandit de minutes en minutes pour au final finir avec 3h30 de retard... 4h d'attente sur le quai pour 5h de voyage. Mais cela nous permet de rencontrer quelques français et partager nos expériences.
Nous dormons dans un sympathique B&B avec une dame très gentille, après une expédition à travers la ville pour retirer de l'argent nous allons manger notre premier repas de la journée (j'ai dis "pas épicé"!) et allons dormir après cette journée épuisante.

Le lendemain après un petit dej à base de riz, d'omelette et de de sorte de crêpes, nous allons à Amber Fort et nous passons l'après midi dans le centre historique survolant les bazars et visitant les palais. Jaipur est surnommé la ville rose grâce au couleur des bâtiments de la vielle ville, beaucoup de couples indiens viennent passer leur voyage de noce ici.

Agra Fort

Jal Mahal

Les singes ça mangent des bananes

City Palace

Hawa Mahal

Pensée du jour: la prochaine fois on prend l'avion

We got up at 5:45 (yes, far too early) to go to the rail station for our train to Jaipur. We arrived half an hour before our train was due to leave (possibly the first time since I've known Guillaume that we've not had to sprint through the station/airport/city to get the train/plane) only to find that the train was in fact delayed by 1 1/4 hours... So we settled down to wait on the grim, smelly, noisy platform. The delay kept getting longer and longer; when the train eventually arrived it was over 3 1/2 hours late. But at least the train arrived, and only five hours until Jaipur! :'(

When we finally arrived in Jaipur (thanks Ofgem for the money to spend on Kindle books and Buchi for the travel pillows...) we went to a lovely B&B run by a very educated and well travelled lady (she loves the south of France but doesn't really like Paris). After dumping our bags we trekked across town to get to an ATM and then back to find somewhere to eat. The noise of the roads and the fear that at any moment someone might just run us over was exhausting and it was a blessed relief when we finally arrived at the restaurant. Unfortunately the food (our first meal of the day, unless you count a cereal bar for breakfast and a bag of crisps for lunch. I don't.) was incredibly spicy (even I found it a bit much and Guillaume couldn't manage to eat his 'mild' food). We were definitely ready for bed after such an exhausting day. 

The following day we went to the Amber Fort on the hills outside Jaipur (our driver was a bit put out that we hadn't hired him for the whole day and so berated us for a good few minutes on how we weren't in Jaipur to scrimp and save...). Although maybe less impressive than the Agra Fort, it was still pretty spectacular. And we got to see elephants. The mirror room in one of the many palaces inside the fort was incredible - thousands of tiny mirrors set into the walls to reflect the light, along with inlaid jewels and stained glass. The women's quarters were also pretty ingenious - they had a small channel running through the floor to carry cold water, refreshing the room as it went as well as aromatic grass screens moistened with water that released perfume and cool air as the wind blew through them. Nifty. The decorated main gateway was pretty impressive too, and there were interesting friezes of elephants and birds (and naked couples having a lovely time) above the windows. 

In the afternoon we wandered through the bazaars of the historic old town and visited the City Palace (where the Maharajah and family still live) and the Hawa Mahal, where we saw a group of men throwing bananas from the markets at some very eager monkeys. Although less hectic than Agra, Jaipur is still busy, noisy and dirty, with the palaces oases of calm. Old Jaipur is known as the Pink City because of the colour of the buildings and lots of Indian couples come here for their honeymoon. 

Thoughts for the day: next time, let's take the plane; Guillaume really needs to find some food soon.

Fatehpur Sikri

Nous prenons un taxi pour aller à Fatehpur Sikri, un fort tout en grès rouge créé par l'empereur Akbar, le grand-père de Shah Jahan.
C'est très calme a l'intérieur avec de jolies jardins et on nous demande encore de nous prendre en photo... et de les prendre en photo en échange, sur notre appareil...
Nous essayons d'aller voir la mosquée à coté mais nous nous faisons harceler par des enfants et des vendeurs (lieu saint qu'ils disent...), donc après 10 min nous décidons de rentrer.
Nous finissons la journée dans le fort d'Agra qui nous permet d'avoir une belle vue sur le Taj Mahal et nous promener tranquillement dans ce lieu immense.

We take a taxi to go to Fatehpur Sikri, a fort made of red sandstone created by Akbar, the grand father of Shah Jahan. The carving in the sandstone is intricate and still so defined after such a long time! Either sandstone isn't quite the same in India as in the UK or the elements are kinder to it. There's practically no erosion.
It's very quiet inside with beautiful gardens and some women dressed in saris ask to take a photo of us again... and then tell us to take a photo of them in exchange, on our camera, naturally...
Afterwards we try to see the mosque nearby but children and sellers harass us so we decide to go back to Agra. One little boy starts off talking to us in English, when he hears that we're speaking French (and ignoring him) he switches immediately into French. I wonder how many languages he's picked up and think it's quite sad that his intelligence isn't being put to better use.
We finish the day at the Agra Fort, which is magnificent. Started by emperor Akbar in amazingly carved red sandstone and added to by Shah Jahan in intricately patterned white marble, it's a real mix of the styles of Fatehpur Sikri and the Taj Mahal. There is a beautiful view over the river to the Taj Mahal and we can walk peacefully in the huge grounds. There are swallows swooping down to eat flies in the gardens, there are green birds (parakeets?) in the trees surrounding the fort looking beautiful but making an awful screeching noise, and there are monkeys. We spend a good few minutes before we get kicked out at closing time watching a family of monkeys playing in the gardens - the babies scamper up walls and fall off them, while the parents just stroll around.

Fatehpur Sikri

Tu me prends en photo, je te prend/ You take a photo of us, we'll take one of you

Agra Fort