Ok i have not done a blog for a while I know and since my last blog I have been to Nepal, back to India, over to New Zealand and then back to India and finally I am doing this. Actually its 49 degrees C outside so I cant stand it any more!
Hyderabad was a big noisy city with not a lot in it except for the mandatory 'fort' area and a huge Buddha statue in the lake which myself and Greg (an Auzzie guy I met on the bus) went out to with a bunch of male school kids who we met and were on their way to the statue as well. They were obviously of a high caste as their English was exemplary and they were so polite.
They asked a lot of questions (other than the usual questions EVERYONE asks ) and were a lot of fun.
We met them again at the fort the following day and by the end of that day I was exhausted. I actually found myself saying to Greg 'I'm not doing any more photographs today' – and any of you who have been to India will know what I mean!
Just an aside, most people who you stop and talk to i.e when you buy water or ask directions they will say 'which country?' or 'coming from?' and then when you tell them they say 'ah yes Scotland, beautiful country' and then they ask 'First time in India?', 'You like India', 'You are married?' (my response to this was always yes) 'So where he is your husband?' 'You have children?' 'You are getting old madam better to have children soon' and this was the extent of every conversation. Occasionally you would meet someone with excellent english but most of the time it was 'coming from?' and then nothing else.
After Hyderabad I went to the train station and spent some time in the woman's waiting room - good place to go if you need to overnight in an Indian train station minus the hassles.
I then bumped into a mad Spaniard who it happened was getting the same train as me to Varanasi and also was in the bed above me! The train ride was amazing (as I have mentioned train rides before), by the end of it I knew everyone in the carriage – carriages in Indian train could almost be separated into classes – was quite odd. Mind you I think wherever you go in the world there are different classes of people take different forms of transport and this is certainly true in India. We were in second class this time as there was no sleeper class available. In sleeper class there is 6 beds (i.e metal beds wall hung with mattresses in a carriage 3 facing 3). In second class it is the same but there are no beggars allowed and you are given blankets, a sheet, a washcloth and a pillow – all clean (western standard clean) and all presented to you in a brown paper bag. We spent a very comfortable 2 nights and 3 days on the train. The train is pretty slow and the landscape is amazing so it passed very quickly. Walking into third class was a sea of humanity all around, in particular I remember a family (of about 10 people) beckoning me over to eat with them om the floor with newspapers spread out to eat on piled high with rice and dal. The sea of humanity in that train is very hard to describe. I remember in particular a boy of about 4 years old with a drum around his neck and he beat on either end of the drum with sticks and sang while his much younger sister collected money. One huge thing I noticed about people in India is although a lot of people have nothing and are prepared to share their only meal with you on a long journey when there is barely enough for themselves, most of them are far happier, warmer and kinder than people in developed countries in the western world who have everything. All we seem to do is complain about the everything that we have. We see India as "3rd world" or 'developing' when in fact that is putting our western ideas on a society that is not western and has no desire to be so.
Varanasi was a place that although I have been away from it for more than 2 months now I
still don't know how I feel about it. It was the busiest, dirtiest, noisiest city that I have ever been to and there was no escape from it except at the hostel where I met a lot of fantastic people. I will mention a bit about them here.
Firstly there was Debbie and we spent a couple of days together before I left. I met her again in Delhi a month and a half later and it was great to see her again and share our adventures (and a few cocktails!) I also met an Irish couple called Jean and Ronan whom I went to Nepal with.
Varanasi is known as one of the holiest cities in India and it is a great honor to be burnt there. Cremation is common in India but is usually done in private whereas in Varanasi it was public. If you are cremated here it means that you go straight to nirvana and are not re-incarnated at all as they believe that normally in India you are re-incarnated several times, always to a higher caste, becoming lighter skinned and then eventually getting to nirvana.
Although in India death as just another stage of life, when I went to see the burning Ghats at sunrise I felt uncomfortable. Not only because I knew that there was a body burning on the pile of wood (see photos of Varanasi in photos) but because the people standing round were the males of the family (obviously no women allowed) and they were standing there like they were at a bonfire. It was is as if 'burning the relative' was just another thing on the 'to do list' that day. The ashes are then scattered on a huge pile - also in the photos if you look closely, and eventually they fall into the Ganges. Its a weird place and although I have no desire to return I am glad that I went as no-where else in India can you truly understand how very different their worship is compared with ours. They have statues everywhere they worship to, they pilgrimage for many miles just to bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges, it is an amazing place and although i didn't like it very much, it has to be said this was due to the crowds of people there (Holi festival was taking place when we were there). Varanasi is a definite 'must see' of India and most people I spoke to loved it.
One thing that i did like about Varanasi is that the trees grew out of the buildings - i think i have already uploaded pictures of this. Also I loved the hostel I stayed in and the atmosphere and the people gave real sanctity from the madness outside. One night there was awful screams and terrible noises coming from outside - I found out later that sometimes the dogs and the monkeys fight and not surprisingly the monkeys come off best.
After leaving Varanasi I got a 7pm bus that left at 9.30pm Standard India Time and we headed for the Nepal border. Unfortunately the sweets I ate that afternoon did not agree with me and I had my head out the bus window for most of it being sick - meanwhile Jean watched for oncoming traffic to save my head if needed!!
I travelled with Jean and Ronan for a month and with all honesty I can say that they were a great couple to travel with. They were good fun and managed to put up with me for a whole month so that proves how patient and understanding they were!!
I will finish here and do a separate blog for Nepal.
Hyderabad was a big noisy city with not a lot in it except for the mandatory 'fort' area and a huge Buddha statue in the lake which myself and Greg (an Auzzie guy I met on the bus) went out to with a bunch of male school kids who we met and were on their way to the statue as well. They were obviously of a high caste as their English was exemplary and they were so polite.
They asked a lot of questions (other than the usual questions EVERYONE asks ) and were a lot of fun.
We met them again at the fort the following day and by the end of that day I was exhausted. I actually found myself saying to Greg 'I'm not doing any more photographs today' – and any of you who have been to India will know what I mean!
Just an aside, most people who you stop and talk to i.e when you buy water or ask directions they will say 'which country?' or 'coming from?' and then when you tell them they say 'ah yes Scotland, beautiful country' and then they ask 'First time in India?', 'You like India', 'You are married?' (my response to this was always yes) 'So where he is your husband?' 'You have children?' 'You are getting old madam better to have children soon' and this was the extent of every conversation. Occasionally you would meet someone with excellent english but most of the time it was 'coming from?' and then nothing else.
After Hyderabad I went to the train station and spent some time in the woman's waiting room - good place to go if you need to overnight in an Indian train station minus the hassles.
I then bumped into a mad Spaniard who it happened was getting the same train as me to Varanasi and also was in the bed above me! The train ride was amazing (as I have mentioned train rides before), by the end of it I knew everyone in the carriage – carriages in Indian train could almost be separated into classes – was quite odd. Mind you I think wherever you go in the world there are different classes of people take different forms of transport and this is certainly true in India. We were in second class this time as there was no sleeper class available. In sleeper class there is 6 beds (i.e metal beds wall hung with mattresses in a carriage 3 facing 3). In second class it is the same but there are no beggars allowed and you are given blankets, a sheet, a washcloth and a pillow – all clean (western standard clean) and all presented to you in a brown paper bag. We spent a very comfortable 2 nights and 3 days on the train. The train is pretty slow and the landscape is amazing so it passed very quickly. Walking into third class was a sea of humanity all around, in particular I remember a family (of about 10 people) beckoning me over to eat with them om the floor with newspapers spread out to eat on piled high with rice and dal. The sea of humanity in that train is very hard to describe. I remember in particular a boy of about 4 years old with a drum around his neck and he beat on either end of the drum with sticks and sang while his much younger sister collected money. One huge thing I noticed about people in India is although a lot of people have nothing and are prepared to share their only meal with you on a long journey when there is barely enough for themselves, most of them are far happier, warmer and kinder than people in developed countries in the western world who have everything. All we seem to do is complain about the everything that we have. We see India as "3rd world" or 'developing' when in fact that is putting our western ideas on a society that is not western and has no desire to be so.
Varanasi was a place that although I have been away from it for more than 2 months now I
still don't know how I feel about it. It was the busiest, dirtiest, noisiest city that I have ever been to and there was no escape from it except at the hostel where I met a lot of fantastic people. I will mention a bit about them here.
Firstly there was Debbie and we spent a couple of days together before I left. I met her again in Delhi a month and a half later and it was great to see her again and share our adventures (and a few cocktails!) I also met an Irish couple called Jean and Ronan whom I went to Nepal with.
Varanasi is known as one of the holiest cities in India and it is a great honor to be burnt there. Cremation is common in India but is usually done in private whereas in Varanasi it was public. If you are cremated here it means that you go straight to nirvana and are not re-incarnated at all as they believe that normally in India you are re-incarnated several times, always to a higher caste, becoming lighter skinned and then eventually getting to nirvana.
Although in India death as just another stage of life, when I went to see the burning Ghats at sunrise I felt uncomfortable. Not only because I knew that there was a body burning on the pile of wood (see photos of Varanasi in photos) but because the people standing round were the males of the family (obviously no women allowed) and they were standing there like they were at a bonfire. It was is as if 'burning the relative' was just another thing on the 'to do list' that day. The ashes are then scattered on a huge pile - also in the photos if you look closely, and eventually they fall into the Ganges. Its a weird place and although I have no desire to return I am glad that I went as no-where else in India can you truly understand how very different their worship is compared with ours. They have statues everywhere they worship to, they pilgrimage for many miles just to bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges, it is an amazing place and although i didn't like it very much, it has to be said this was due to the crowds of people there (Holi festival was taking place when we were there). Varanasi is a definite 'must see' of India and most people I spoke to loved it.
One thing that i did like about Varanasi is that the trees grew out of the buildings - i think i have already uploaded pictures of this. Also I loved the hostel I stayed in and the atmosphere and the people gave real sanctity from the madness outside. One night there was awful screams and terrible noises coming from outside - I found out later that sometimes the dogs and the monkeys fight and not surprisingly the monkeys come off best.
After leaving Varanasi I got a 7pm bus that left at 9.30pm Standard India Time and we headed for the Nepal border. Unfortunately the sweets I ate that afternoon did not agree with me and I had my head out the bus window for most of it being sick - meanwhile Jean watched for oncoming traffic to save my head if needed!!
I travelled with Jean and Ronan for a month and with all honesty I can say that they were a great couple to travel with. They were good fun and managed to put up with me for a whole month so that proves how patient and understanding they were!!
I will finish here and do a separate blog for Nepal.
posted by Amy | 1:05 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home