India: Delhi, Rishikesh, Amritsar, Agra

For us, India started in Delhi, where I was unprepared for the scene that greeted us upon our arrival at the airport there. What I mean is that there were no crowds, no noise and no chaos. It was all calm and orderly. Not at all what we expected, but we managed to sort ourselves out despite being immediately disoriented.

Delhi is a big city with a few famous things to do and see, but only a few days worth, so that's how long we spent there. Among its sights is the Red Fort – so named for the red colored sandstone that so much of it is made from.

Not unique to Delhi (indeed not unique to India) are the ubiquitous auto-riskshaws. This, or the smaller bicycle version are our main mode of transport inside the cities...

In addition to the sights, a big attraction for us to India was the food. Here's a guy in a small shop with a big kitchen - or at least a big pot. I think he could have boiled us both in it...

One of our favorite foods are the sweets called "jalibees". Dough fried and smothered in a delicious syrupy honey. Mmmmm.

As with many poorer countries, the electrical service here is not 100% reliable. I'm not sure if I know why that is, exactly, but maybe there's an electrician reading this blog who can make an educated guess...

And that's not even a bad example of the wiring - just the one I happened to photograph. We've seen about ten times worse.

While in Delhi, we made a visit to India's national museum. I think the most curious thing I saw there was this sign imploring us visitors to kindly NOT give any donations.

I definitely obeyed this sign. Maybe it was intended as reverse psychology?

On a more serious note, we learned a bit about India's famous pacifist leader, Mahatma Ghandi. We visited the residence where he stayed as a guest before being assassinated. It was a very moving exhibit highlighting the life and philosophy of the indefatigable leader. The exhibit culminates with a guided walk along the exact same path Ghandi took while en route to his daily prayers – and there half way to the prayer room is the martyr's pillar - the exact spot where he was murdered. You can see clearly the raised footsteps along the path representing his last few steps.

Personally, I found it a very moving experience.

Next we received an education in the meaning of “luxury coach”. Apparently it means a 1970's era bus that takes half an hour to get started, is over crowded, falling apart, unsafe, has broken seats, and is slow. We paid double price, thanks to the kind people at the travel center, to take this "luxury coach" to Rishikesh. Well, that's where we thought we were going. Even though we (and a few others on the bus) paid to go that far, the driver stopped at Hardiwar (an hour short of Rishikesh) and refused to continue as this is where most passengers alighted. The driver announced he was done for the night. So we shared a rickshaw with some others heading to Rishikesh, and thus completed our 12 hours of luxury travel. Anyway, as I was saying, Rishikesh was our next stop. Known as the yoga capital of the world, it also abounds with related services such as massages, homeopathic therapies, meditation, etc. A very spiritual place – possibly the center of the universe.

The Ganges river flows through the town, and the two sides are joined by two narrow suspension bridges.

We checked ourselves into an ashram and began taking twice daily yoga classes (at least I did – Amanda was under the weather and spent much of her time recuperating instead).

Just to be sure I didn't fall prey to any sort of illness I also subjected myself to some massages. Including this one I'd never heard of before, where they put hot oil into a container and let it pour slowly onto your forehead. The guy constantly refills the container and occasionally give it a push on it's suspension chain to let the drip move side to side. And it worked – I didn't get sick.

Rishikesh is a very laid back town, and true to its Hindu roots the entire place is vegetarian. You can't get meat of any sort. It's no surprise, then, that cows freely roam the streets. And beaches...

... and the pedestrian bridge...

And bovines weren't the only animals making use of this bridge – a family of monkeys called it home as well. Here's a little video showing these high octane guys having some fun playing around...

Like so many aspects of India, Rishikesh also has its paradoxes. So in addition to being a mecca for yoga, meditation, massage and healing, it is also an adrenaline capital with all sorts of rafting and hiking trips. In fact, there are over 100 rafting companies operating in the small town. At the peak of the afternoon we counted a raft passing by our riverside cafe about once every five minutes. They just pack them in. I was interested in getting wet in the famous Ganges river, so when I learned that one of these companies also offered kayaking trips I jumped at the opportunity.

I used to do a little paddling in a previous life, so I thought what the heck – why not try it again. This stretch of the Ganges river was mostly class 2+ water with a little bit of 3 thrown in for good measure. I remembered how to do my Eskimo roll, but that wasn't enough for the difficult part, so I got my wish and went for a little swim. Fortunately the water was much warmer than how I remembered it in Canada. In fact, the swim was sort of nice.

Believe it or not, the weather during the day was a perfect temperature, which meant that at night things were slightly cool. I had to sleep with a blanket for the first time in months. As I spread the blanket out at night I couldn't help but notice its interesting label...

Just outside of town was a nice nature walk among the steep hills which has a stream that flowed through it, and included many small waterfalls.



I even went for a dip in one of it's many natural pools. Very refreshing in a hot afternoon.

What Rishikesh is perhaps most famous for is that it was here that the Beatles came in 1968 to live for a few months when they studied yoga and meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at his ashram. It is said that while here, the Beatles received the inspiration for many of the song featured on their White Album. Anyway, Yogi subsequently went to Japan to learn all about feng shuei, and in doing so learned that his ashram was inauspiciously located and on the wrong side of the river so he abandoned the premises, and handed it over to the forestry service. Now dilapidated and unused, the ashram is officially closed and off limits, but if you show up at the locked gate and wait a few minutes, a guard will arrive to tell you it's closed, but he'll gladly accept a few rupees (or a hundred of them) and let you in for a self guided tour. Here's a few pics of the cool two storey huts in the ashram compound.

It was really cool to be there – totally alone – in the place where influential music from the peak of the hippie days was written. All you need is love ......

After Rishikesh we took a train further north (we had learned our lesson about luxury coaches) and journeyed to the city of Amritsar. One really fun thing to do there is to attend the daily border closing ceremony with Pakistan. At the designated hour the gates to the two countries are closed with much fanfare: the guards from each side march menacingly towards each other in a show of mock-intimidation, but in the end they shake hands just before the flags are lowered (at exactly the same time and same speed) and then the gates slam shut. During all this the observers from each side (and there were thousands of us) are shouting "India" or "Pakistan" at the top of our lungs. Meanwhile the national anthems of each nation are loudly played simultaneously, in an effort to out do the other. Every possible aspect of the ceremony is performed by each country in an attempt to improve upon their rival. The guards were exceptionally tall; many of them were over 2 meters! But in a country of one billion people, I guess it's not too difficult to find a few super tall young men to be border guards. Anyway, it was all a lot of fun - and to think this event is repeated daily.

As good as that was, Amritsar is most famous for the Sikh religion's most holy site – the golden temple. Aptly named as its exterior is guilt with no less than 750 kg of solid gold. Wow! Sitting in a pool and accessible only through a walkway, the small temple is beautiful by day or night.

Not in the temple itself, but still inside the walled compound was a free kitchen. Open 24 hours a day, any person from any religion can come here for a free meal. It's very simple - no table or chairs - you sit on the floor beside your neighbor, and the food is scooped out of buckets for free. And it's not just a small token serving of rice - it's a full plate of at least three different items, plus bread and drink. And if you're still hungry just remain seated and when the food buckets come by, you can take as much as you'd like. For free.

An army of volunteers prepare the food, cook it, hand out dishes, collect dishes, wash up, etc. After enjoying a free meal (which tasted fantastic, by the way) Amanda and I went to the washing up pits and did our share of dishes. To get a feel for the magnitude of this operation take a look at this short video. It shows just one of the many stations involved in this effort. This is where used plates are emptied of any remaining food before being washed...

Agra was our next stop - home to the world famous Taj Mahal. Built around 1650 by Shah Jahan, it is a monument of his love for his dearly departed wife. His son, Aurangzeb, was a little less loving, and overthrew his father and locked him up in a prison in Agra fort. When his father said that his only joy in life now was being able to see his Taj Mahal from across the river, his son had him moved to a different room where he could no longer see it.

Consistent with the many paradoxes of India - this beautiful monument exists in one of its ugliest cities.

This accounts for about two of our six weeks in the country. Stay tuned for more as we continue through India...