Another amazing Indian adventure

 Incredible India - you have yet again been a great host. A huge thank you to all the people who helped us, fed us on trains, gave us directions when needed, welcomed us into their temples, their homes and showed us great hospitality. 

For all the challenges and chaos that India presents the rewards are so great. The richness of tradition, hospitality, spirituality, incredible colours and wonderful food and chai. I will always plan to return for all these reasons, but this time has been harder than most times as I have struggled with stomach problems throughout - let’s hope I’m not becoming allergic to this wonderful country!

This is an old house

 The last leg of the Rajasthan trip was by taxi from Samdari to Jodhpur via the little village of Luni, where I stayed thirteen years ago with Emma when we met in India and I then travelled on to Nepal and Tibet. We spent a week at Luni fort, an incredible heritage hotel, and Madonna has stayed there twice. We had a looked round, stewarded by one of the staff, who knew Kamlesh’s father. He was a great host in the fort, but followed us into the village pointing out new and old houses. We swiftly lost him as I found a temple to look at but karma repaid me then by us being greeted by some barking dogs!

The village had become jaded by the foreign tourists, with all the school children asking for pens and money. And the price of the hotel is now £700 per night. No wonder they raised an eyebrow when I said I had stayed there a week. 

Tandoori chicken

 In a moment of forgetfulness I declared to a room full of students, who asked what my favourite Indian food was, that firstly it was pani pouri, a fab street food fav and second was tandoori chicken. There was a gasp and the bravest girl scolded me “maam you must not eat chicken” and the class laughed. India is mostly vegetarian and non drinking and I fail on both! 

18 minutes to spare !!!

 Most time on holiday just ticks away as you amble around sightseeing and choosing where you are going to have your next thali. 

Our trains have all been late, as they battle against the winter fog. Our train into Agra was 6 hours late, robbing us of a whole day sighting.  So as we got our timings for my 4th overnight train this trip we were not surprised to see that there was a 4 hour delay since it left Kolkata. We headed to the Taj Majal in the morning, enjoying its breathtaking beauty and then off to the ancient palaces of Fatipur Sikri in the afternoon. We left at 6pm and checked again on the delay of the train, which alarmingly had sped up to such a rate that it was only 30 mins late - leaving us so short of time to return to Agra, pick up our luggage and head back to the station. 

We hurried the taxi driver as much as we could, then when the cars are prohibited on the perimeter we got into an electric autorickshaw who ambled along with us shouting “faster faster” then we ran to the hotel and two guys helped us back with our bags, we ditched the dithery old driver and get into another electric auto shouting “get us to Agra Fort station now!” We speed off and along the way are stopped by the police for going so fast. They soon let us continue when they saw our panicked faces saying we needed to get to the station.  

We arrive and the clock says 7.42pm and the train arrival board says it’s expected at 7.45pm so we get the porters to carry our bags over to platform 2 and there’s no sign of the train. Every second counted and we got here with 18 minutes to spare. If we’d of missed it it would have been so difficult to untangle as the trains are so full. But we made it - just! 

Do you have a view of the Taj?

 The dusty side streets around the Taj are full of restaurants with rooftops all with glimpses it, but you want a great view, not a partial view and they were honest enough to say the best views were in a nearby restaurant. So we climbed the rickety stairs and your first view of the Taj takes your breath away. It was so huge even from this distance and so beautiful. This mausoleum is for the third wife of Emperor Shah Jahan who died in childbirth of their fourteenth child in 1631. 

Where is the chai man?

 When you’re snoozing on the train you are constantly disturbed  by the sound of the chai, paanee (water) and food sellers. Our journey from Varanasi should have taken 13hours. I set my alarm for 6.30am to have enough time for a loo visit and get the luggage out for the quick 5 minute train stop at Agra Fort station. However no one was stirring in the carriage and the Where is my train app showed a delay of 4 hours. Eventually we go in at 1.20pm - and before that had a very long wait for the chai man. Eventually when he arrived we order two each and the very generous army guy sat near us paid for them. The kindness of strangers. 

Modern India

 There’s a huge university in Varanasi, so we are often greeted by students wanting to chat. Whilst dodging the rain at the most southern ghat, Assi ghat and watching the arti ceremony a young woman was chatting about her course and asking where we had traveled. She then told us how hard it had been for her to convince her parents that she was not going to compromise and she wanted a love marriage with her childhood sweetheart and wanted to work and live independently from their parents. This is modern India where women are now deciding their fate and taking charge.