Only in India

It's been a while since our last blog and we've been to many many places in India so apologies for the long blog and butt load of fotos..

After Jaipur and Pushkar we moved south to the Lake town of Udaipur where they filmed James Bond's Octopusy..I've included a couple pics below but if you really want to get a sense of what Udaipur is like rent and watch Octopusy..the town looks exactly the same!

Udaipur at sunset (City Palace on top of hill)

One night in Udaipur we were trying to sleep and kept hearing this "Beeeoorrraaahh" sound. It was loud and sounded like it was coming from right out front. We weren't terribly concerned as we were on the third floor but we kept trying to figure out what animal it was..was it a donkey? was it a monkey? a camel? an elephant? Who knows..but what is truly great about India is that it could very well have been any of these things.

Elephant ride vendor in Udaipur

After Udaipur we moved east again to a town called Bundi..a small village in the hills that despite being in the Book (i.e. Lonely Planet) is still relatively off the tourist radar. We had a great time in Bundi actually. Rudyard Kipling apparently lived here for several years while writing and it was also where we met our first Indian woman..actually we met two. It sounds funny but as of this point in India we had only interacted with men. Women were always around but were never part of the commercial or social fabric that we interacted with. So this lady that we stayed with, let's call her 'Mama' since that what she called herself, was a Brahman widow who apparently caused some waves in the conservative town of Bundi by opening up her haveli (house) as a guest house with her two daughters. It turns out the women from the Brahman class are not allowed to remarry if their husbands die. Facing a life of destitution (keep in mind that women in India aren't really allowed to work either) Mama decided to break with tradition and open her house to tourists. Her main selling point? Her food. Her food was by far the best food we have had in India. In fact she showed us some articles from the London and LA Times that featured her and her home cooking favorites. Props to her. Later we met another lady who also ran a Haveli with her brother..she was younger and less traditional. She told us that the newer generation is moving away from the restrictive traditions of their parents. She also informed us that we were among 10 tourists in town at that point...apparently all the Haveli owners talk..we became known as the American couple who wanted TV in their room..an apparently absurd request.

Lake house in Bundi (Rudyard Kipling lived here for a short time while writing)

We were rudely awaken one morning at Mama's to the sounds of crashing and banging on the roof above us. Having heard stories of the Monkey menace that plagues the town I grabbed my camera and ran up stairs to the rooftop to try to catch them. On my way up I was joined by another Indian who was staying at the Haveli..he brought a long stick. When we gt to the rf I was surprised to see about 30 monkeys on our rooftop alone..old, young, families. Mothers were hugging their young and the 'teenage' males were banging the chairs and tables around (which was the cause of all the racket). The guy who joined me started swinging the stick at the monkeys to shoo them..which I was grateful for since they didn't seem alarmed by my presence and in fact the older males seemed somewhat confrontational..while the rest of the monkeys fled across the rooftops one of the adult males actually circled behind us in an attempt to flank us or something..we spied him and shoo'd him too. Later the guy told me stories about how the monkeys will steal things from around the house and then hold them for ransom..only returning them if bribed with food. I'm a big fan of evolution and all but these monkeys it seems are getting a bit too smart.

All in all Bundi was a great town with colorful temples and streets.

We spent almost a week here exploring the Palace ruins that loomed over the town like Pankot Palace from Temple of Doom ...and with the swarms of bats that come out at night this place really was from Indiana Jones.

What is fascinating about a lot of Rajastan is that these towns still seem sort of medieval in a way. Swap out the accouterments of modern life (i.e. rickshaws, and tangles of telephone wires stretching across the street) and the scene is probably fairly close to what is was hundred of years ago with the massive city gates and street bazaars.

Bundi vegetable market

Bundi city gate

After Bundi we continued east to Ranthambore National Park to go tiger spotting. Ranthambore was tres cool..real Jungle Book type of stuff..ancient monkey infested temples, crocodiles basking on old Raj hunting bungalows. Lots of wildlife too, mostly monkeys, birds, and deer though. We toured around in an open top van for about 3 hours looking for tigers and just as the tour was ending our luck came around and spotted a mother tiger and her two cubs. They were a bit far away and it was getting dark so I couldn't get a decent picture..but still it was great to see these cats in the wild. Even from a distance you could tell how massive these things are.

Wild deer in Ranthambore National Park

After Ranthambore we said goodbye to magical Rajastan and continued on to Agra, site of the Taj Mahal. The Taj Majal is magnificent, mainly from the outside, but the 20usd ticket price to get in is a bit steep even by western standards. And apart from the Agra Fort and the Taj, Agra is a crappy town so we only stayed a couple of days..long enough for us both to catch colds.

Crossing the Yamuna River behind the Taj

Agra train station crowd

From Agra we took a train north to Delhi. Delhi is a city of about 25 million..almost the population of California. New Delhi is more modern than what we had been used to so far with wider streets and covered sewers. Having fallen ill in Agra we spent almost 4 days in Delhi doing nothing but watching TV and blowing our noses. Feeling slightly better we managed a couple of short ventures out to the bazaars and the Red Fort and even a night out for one of the Hindu holiday festivals.

Festival car..these things were loaded with a 4 man brass band and would cruise the streets blaring music collecting throngs dancing celebrators.

Street crowd dancing in street festival

From Delhi we took an overnight train to Amritsar in Punjab, home of the Sikhs and the holiest of Sikh sites, the Golden Temple.

Crowds of pilgrims stream into this place 24x7 it seems singing songs and reading passages from the Sikh holy book in an effort to pay respect to the religion and gain blessings from the Sikh priests that inhabit the temple. The Golden Temple was great and we came here several times through out the day just to crowd watch and take photos in the different light.

Sikh Guard in front of Golden Temple

The next day we took a day trip to the town of Attari/Wagah on the India-Pakistan border to watch the border closing ceremony. This is a truly bizarre affair. A massive crowd gathers on both sides. Music blares and the crowds dance in the street...

and then as the ceremony gets started.. the soldiers line up and shout some calls in Hindi which translate to something like "Hindustan is great, Hindustan is the best" and take turns marching quickly towards the border swinging their legs in these ridiculously high kicks...

then when they get to the border they face each other in groups and continue to kick the air and stomp the ground while snarling at the other side..all of this happens several times, for about 20 minutes, while the India and Pakistan flags are lowered from the poles. Then they shake hands and the border gates are closed and that's it..everyone goes home.

They'll repeat this to a similarly large crowd the next day..and the next..and the next! Only in India..