Delhi/Chandigarh 19 Dec 2012

Had the hottest (bucket) shower last night back at Hotel Ajanta in Delhi, even had to add cold.  It was glorious after the past two weeks of many lukewarm showers.

Deepak got the roof rack fitted last night when we arrived back in Delhi without any problems.  This morning securing the ski bag into the roof rack was more eventful.  After a time all ended okay and off we went.  Thanks to Kenny Koala for those pineapple knots.

It was a six hour drive today from Delhi to Chandigarh.  The scenery was flat fields of sugar cane, oranges and gum trees lining the highway.  

Sadly, didn’t get any photos of the orange displays on the side of the roads.  Each stall owner trying to outdo the other with their artistic displays.

We stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch.  The place had a carnival feel about it, there was a playground, different food stalls and a truck on the roof like the Ettamogah Pub.  We had yummy Masala dosa for lunch, one of my favourite Indian dishes.  They are a southern Indian speciality.  It is like a large pancake with a filling of potatoes and onions served with a variety of chutneys.  The pancake batter is made of rice and dahl.  Jim finished it off with a honeycrunch ice cream from Baskin n Robins.  

Amazing, here in the Punjab we drove past McDonalds advertising vegetable and paneer burgers and KFC.  Deepak asked if we wanted to go there for lunch.  We declined.

Jim and Deepak are similar, both are not keen to walk too far and both like gadgets.  Driving along they entertain each other with talking cars and sharing music from Jim’s ipod and Deepak’s collection on his usb.  Today Jim was entering phrases into his Hindu translator app and quizzing Deepak to guess what it was. 

Driving into Chandigarh Deepak asks Jim to check Google maps on his iphone for directions.  He was not totally sure of where our hotel was.  He showed Jim how to have voice directions as well. 

I find it entertaining, sitting in the back like all good girls in India do.

Internet slow and too tired 19 Dec 2012

We arrived in Chandigarh this afternoon about 3.30 pm.
It is just after 9 pm now and I should be asleep.  Jim appears to be asleep lying beside me.
We have to get up at 3 am tomorrow morning to catch the 5 am toy train from Kolka to Shimla.  It may take us an hour to get to Kolka from here.  The train trip is five hours.
Deepak will meet us in Shimla.  He says it should take him 3 hours so he can have a little sleep before he heads off.

I will write a blog tomorrow about our road trip from Delhi to Chandigarh as the internet is extremely slow here and I am tired.  Talk later.

Heading to Delhi, then making our way north

Tomorrow, Tuesday 18 December we have a big day on the road making our way from Pushkar to Delhi.  It will take 7-8 hours depending on the traffic.  It is mostly highway driving.

Deepak will have a roof rack fitted on the Tata when we return to Delhi, this is for our ski bag, it has been in storage back at Hotel Ajanta.
For the past week he seems a little apprehensive to be driving north where it is getting colder and snowy.  I don't blame him the Tata is not a four wheel drive.  We asked him this evening if he was okay about driving us.  He said he was as far as Jammu maybe even to Srinagar depending on the road conditions.
The highway from Jammu to Srinagar has been operating with one lane due to the snow over the past week but it should be cleared by the time we reach it in ten days time.  Shimla has also had snow but not enough on the road to make it unsafe.

Rajasthan has been spectacular but we came to India for the snow so now it is time to get there.
We will take nine days and the road trip will be scenic with lots of mountains which we are looking forward to.

Tonight we went out for pizza.  There was a wood fired pizza place down the road.  It was good to have something not so spicy.  Jim had beer in disguise again, this time as a large silver soda, wink wink!

Notice the large silver soda served in the Mickey mouse mug - no one will ever know.

Pushkar & beer in a teapot 16 &17 Dec 2012

We arrived in Pushkar yesterday afternoon.  The road trip was a mixed affair, starting with highway driving, then bumpy village roads.  The poor little Tata, Deepak's car, we call it the 4 wheel drive tata or tata camel whatever terrain we are on.  Tata is an affordable Indian make of car.  In between driving Deepak spends his time cleaning the dust off and out of it.  He says he owns 30% of tata, bank owns 70%.  I told him that sounds normal the world over.

We had read in the bible (Lonely Planet) that Pushkar is a Hindu pilgrimage town.  We both missed the part about no eggs, no beer and strictly vegetarian.  How is Jim coping many of you are thinking! Not bad actually because quite a few hotels/restaurants we have stayed at have been vego.  He has been ordering vegetable pilau and lots of pappadums but there has always been beer.  Beer in Pushkar is another story.

Pushkar is a strange mix of pilgrims, hippies and tourists.
The main street is a full on shopping bazaar, nothing like anything else we have seen.  We went for a walk yesterday afternoon but became overwhelmed so didn't stay long.  It was more and more of the same hippie pants, tops, hangings, cushion covers etc.  Normally we would be interested to buy gifts or furnishings but we have such a long way to go so we are not looking at the moment and once you stop to have a look it is very difficult to leave without buying.

Getting back to the beer situation.  Jim said let's have a drink at that roof top restaurant which I had pointed out earlier.  Jim asked for beer and yes "no problem" the waiter whispers but it will come in teapot and he places his finger up to his lips and says shh!  So the day ended well.

The hotel has a swimming pool within a relaxing courtyard.  The water is too cold for swimming but nice to sit around, have lunch and read.  The vegetable burgers we had for lunch yesterday and today are really good.  It is a quiet sanctuary to get away from the hippie/tout scene going on down the road at the bazaar and at the temple.

This morning we visited the holy Brahman Temple.  It was spoilt by a tout desperately trying to persuade us to place our flowers (which we were given prior to going into the temple) in the lake.  Lucky Deepak was close by and told us to keep walking with him back to the car.  He said this is a trick to take you to the lake and then they demand 2500 rps ($50).  I had read it in the bible as well but wasn't quick enough to realise what was happening.
We decided to take our flowers to the ghats this afternoon to place in the water and pray for our loved ones, that's the ritual.  Anyway, I was directed by a priest to the waters edge and carried out the ritual with him.  Poor Jim was harassed by a tout to part with money in respect of his priest who was dressed in jeans and shirt looking nothing like a priest.  The touts do spoil the experience, something which could be special.

Our accommodation,  Master Paradise Hotel

Ayurvedic practitioner - picking up something to prevent stomach upsets

Horse riding lessons anyone? They're free.

Ghats of Pushkar

Bundi 15 Dec 2012

We arrived in Bundi about lunch time.  Our accommodation is called Bundi Haveli Hotel.  The interior is beautifully decorated and the room is large, light and airy and has excellent hot water.  What more could you want.

Courtyard restaurant

Beautiful decor throughout 

Enjoyed our lunch of vegetable pakora for Jim and soup and Indian bread for me.  We seemed to have settled for this as our norm for lunch.  It is light but enough to keep you going till dinner.























After lunch we headed out to look at the sights.  Oh no! you say not another fort and temple.  Yes and no.  We decided on the palace only as the fort was up a very steep hill above the palace.  You can imagine Jim's reaction and mine when they were hiring out sticks to intimidate the monkeys on the climb up.
The palace is 17th century circa.  It was mostly in ruin but parts were open to wander around.  We followed two Indian families around, we were the only ones in there and they seemed to have taken us under their wing, making sure we were following them and going the right way.  It was very caring of them.  We chatted about wives and children as best we could.

Looking up at palace

Inside palace

View from palace

Bassi to Bundi 15 Dec 2012

This was also a short drive today, only two hours.
The first part was highway then we turned off and once again the road was not so good with lots of pot holes and single lane in some parts.  The area is renown for stone quarries.  It went for many kms.

Stone quarries

Deepak wanted to show us a waterfall as he had never seen it.  It was just off the road to Bundi past the quarries.  Close to the waterfall the road had dropped away so we parked the car.  There were many cows walking past us.
Jim said follow the cows they might be headed our way.  It must have looked funny the three of us walking amongst a dozen or more cows, all going through the gates over the railway line.
They weren't headed for the waterfall, they veered left we needed to go straight ahead.  There was a deserted village at the waterfall, seems a shame it looked like a nice place to live as far as small Indian villages go, once it even had a school.

Notice the rubbish in the fore ground - it is everywhere

Great view point

Back out on the road to Bundi we went from barren rocky landscape to lush fields of mustard.  It is mustard season. We have seen this lining the highway the whole trip. 

Sunset & observations

Sunset at Bassi Fort Palace

Watching the sun go down with our beer, fresh lime soda and chips the monkeys started to converge onto the property, thankfully they were only passing through to the hills behind the hotel.  There we were enjoying the quiet then three little silhouettes were standing at the gate.  Turns out they were waiting for the hotel staff to be bring out the rubbish which they throw out over the road.  The kids then go through it to collect plastic bottles and anything else they find of value.  The staff also gave them bread which the kids ate straight away.



If you are an empath, India is not for you.  It can be a struggle to be a part of the constant "those that have and those that have not".  I am finding it more difficult this time round to deal with it.
It is hard not to question why, but why is anything the way it is in this life.  Everyone has their own path to lead no matter how hard it is.  I have to keep telling myself that.  We were born lucky so our path is relatively easy, we create our own problems along the way.  That was heavy wasn't it!  India will do that to you.

 The ladies at Bassi, collecting the milk at sunset

 I have enjoyed being at Bassi Fort by ourselves.  Jim says he found it a bit creepy like a scary movie.  Deepak is also looking forward to moving on, he didn't like it at all and I don't blame him.  The owner was rude to him because he is ONLY the driver, bloody snob.