Wednesday 11th February 2015
This morning Marks neck wasn’t much better so we decided to
stick around I woke up in a foul mood and tried to sleep it off some more but
that didn’t help. It was a super slow morning and I’d read a third of a book
before we even got ourselves moving for breakfast (well Mark was pretty on it
despite his bung neck he still managed to get laundry done)
By the time we got into town it was pretty much lunch time
anyway so we had falafel wraps and then walked back I was still being moody and
so just sat in the sunshine reading.
Eventually I pulled myself together enough to take a little
walk into town I ended up buying a lapis lazuli pendant and a bunch of samosas
and cookies and we had a picnic on our porch.
We whiled away the afternoon reading and watching the ants
that are all over our deck.
About 7pm we decided food was in order and so wondered into
town for a 50 rupee thali after which I wanted a pancake as we were walking
along to find one we bumped into friends who were going for dinner and joined
them.
After eating we headed to their guesthouse and stayed up
chatting about this and that before walking home to bed
Thursday 12th February 2015
Another day in Pushkar. Marks neck still wasn’t better so we
stuck around it was a rather late start to the day by the time we got to
breakfast which was actually lunch.
Mark got another massage and I got a juice the dude at the
juice shop reckons he remembers me from the last time I was in Pushkar in 2012
(but I bet he says that to all the ladies)
Predictably our day was spent not really doing anything
other than reading and chilling in the sunshine and feeding cookies to a stray
dog who was wandering about.
When we got hungry again we went into town and got some
falafel wraps followed by a bhang lassi for Mark and a special chocolate ball
for me (read hash chocolate ball) we sat chatting to friends for a while then
went back to our tent to enjoy our high. I was far less stoned than the lassi
made me but felt a strong inability to move much and fell asleep pretty early.
Friday 13th February 2015
It was clear we were still not in a position to move on this
morning (maybe a good thing who wants to drive 300km on Friday 13th! creepy!) and so we chilled the morning away and then went and had a thali for
lunch. The internet at the guesthouse wasn’t playing ball so I used that as an
excuse to get a pancake and use the free Wi-Fi down the road.
We spent most of the day camped out on the lawn and I
finished yet another book and several packs of cookies.
Later on we went and got a cheap as chips thali and stopped
off on the way home for a pancake and a bhang lassi chatted to some friends
then went back and fell asleep
Saturday 14th February 2015
Today we finally managed to leave Pushkar after ten glorious
days of sunshine and chilling we got up and packed and by the time we left we
were about 90mins behind schedule.
The drive was pretty straightforward with lots of highways
we had to double back on ourselves and go through Jaipur where we stopped for
lunch, by the time we got there my arse was completely dead and I pretty much
fell off the bike I didn’t think I was hungry but when the food came I
demolished it and was pretty sad when we had to get going again.
The drive was pretty smooth apart from the general arsehole-ness
of the average Indian road user and one stretch down a bumpy as fuck road where
at one point we hit a huge dip and my arse fell off the back of the bike
(luckily I didn’t join it) but the last 30km or so seemed like it was never
going to end (mostly because my arse was dead)
We pulled into Agra about 7pm in the dark covered in dust
and pretty tired and found a guesthouse pretty quickly we parked up dropped our
bags off and headed out to find food we sat on a rooftop restaurant where we
could see the silhouette of the Taj Mahal against the skyline.
Back at the guesthouse I had my first hot shower since way
back before Vipassana which was amazing the only downfall of the guesthouse was
that I got annihilated by insects during the night and so didn’t really sleep
at all and woke up covered in bites.
Sunday 15th February 2015
This morning we left Agra to push on for Lucknow
unfortunately the universes was clearly a bit unhappy with us and the day was a
bit hellish google maps told us it was closer than it was then sent us down the
most horrific road and the traffic was a nightmare.
It all started off so well with a smooth highway but once we
turned the road turned to shit and was just a mess of potholes, enormous bumps
and at one point a huge traffic jam caused by a tree that had been cut down to
fall right across the road.
Drivers today seemed to be a special kind of dickhead and I
lost count of the times a car would rush towards us while overtaking something
on their side of the road but pretty much run us off the road in the process,
and as they were doing it flash their lights as a warning for us to move…off
our side of the road.
The drive should have taken us six hours but it was about
nine by the time we got there (not helped by the fact we took a wrong turn somewhere and drove for ages in the wrong direction and had to double back on ourselves!) dusty and exhausted and I was feeling pretty
hangry since we hadn’t even stopped for lunch just breaks every few hours to
stretch our legs.
We got into town and google maps sent us down a road that
hadn’t actually been built yet so was just an overpass ramp that lead to
nowhere with no obvious way around eventually some guy pointed us down a dirt
track that would have been hard to navigate in the light let alone the dark we
struggled on trying to find a way back to the main road down this maze of back
streets.
We came up a dirt hill and were next to the railway lines
there was no way we could drive across but there was a little track going
underneath that seemed to be pretty well used so we gave that a go it was all
fine until we had to go back up the other side which was a super steep little
hill and the bike just couldn’t make as we were so back heavy and we rolled
back.
Luckily we didn’t go far before we tipped and I half jumped
half fell off causing a slight traffic
jam before Mark managed to right the bike and get started and gun it up the
hill while I walked. Luckily for us as soon as we were up the hill we were back
on a normal road and stopped at the first dharba we found to have some food.
No one in the restaurant spoke any English and there was no
menu so after establishing that it was a veg place we ordered two thali which
happened to be some of the best food I have had in India to date and it was
only 50 rupees so was a winner all around.
While we ate we had a looksee at the lonely planet and found
a guesthouse to try out. It took some time to find as its down a maze of back
streets and when we got there it was full and we got attacked by an over
friendly jumping nipping dog (don’t worry she was vaccinated…as if that makes
me feel better about being bitten???) the owner suggested we try somewhere by
the railway station and told us she would have a room available from 6am.
We jumped back on the bike and drove about a bit first
checking out another area the lonely planet suggested but we decided it was a
bit flash for us and opted to head to the station. The first place we tried was
full and a man came running at us saying he knew a place, the place he knew was
a right rip off but we found somewhere just around the corner.
Despite being a bit dingy it had hot water, cable TV and was
cheap as anything and it was by this stage almost 9pm so we went for it staying
up half the night watching crappy TV.
Breakfast view of the Taj Mahal
Monday 16th February 2015
After staying up late last night we slept all morning which
was easy to do since the guesthouse doesn’t have any windows. Once we had
sorted ourselves out we walked down the road to find some food it was lunchtime
so we had a massive thali and then headed back to the hotel to grab what we
needed for a day in the park.
Lucknow is supposedly known for its food and its parks so
far the food has been a winner but after three attempts to find a park we gave
up. the first was the botanical gardens (which are closed except for authorised
personal only…what are they growing there???) the second was some huge park
(still under construction) and the third we didn’t actually manage to find as
google maps sent us down some tiny street that came to a dead end that was most
certainly not a park
We gave up and headed back to the guesthouse to look at the
guide book and see what it had to say about the matter only when we arrived
Mark fell asleep and I just read my book instead.
Two hours later we were ready to move again but the day was
gone. We trooped off down the road and got a cheap thali for dinner and then
hit up the local cinema.
We went to see a Bollywood film called ‘I’ if you only ever
watch one Hindi film make it this one as it’s got all you need, murder,
romance, comedy, monsters, singing, dancing and most importantly it has the
most ridiculous storyline ever. The basic plotline is a deformed hunchback (who
was formally a body builder and model) sets out to seek revenge on those who
ruined his life (by turning him into a deformed hunchback) its great and I give
it an A++. I struggle to name my favourite part since there were so many but a
good scene was at the Mr Tamil Nadu body building championship and all the
oiled up body builders in tiny pants had a full on fight in the gym that would
have left most people dead but they all walked out without a scratch.
We sat up in the balcony which are the expensive seats (at
less than $2NZD it was a freaking bargain) the best thing about Indian cinema
is that the crowd gets involved and all yells along and cheers with the film it’s
great, oh and that at intermission the candy bar brings snacks that’s also a
feature we should bring back and just having intermission that shits great.
After the movie ended at 10pm after starting at 6.30pm we
were ready to head home to bed.
Tuesday 17th February 2015
This morning we managed to not sleep away the day and got up
at a reasonable hour. We headed round the corner for some breakfast at a dingy
little local place no one spoke English and our order got a bit muddled up but
we ended up with good food and it was cheap as anything costing about 50c NZD.
On the way back to the guesthouse we bumped into a couple on
a bike they had no luggage rack and explained they were travelling across India
with one bag strapped behind and one in front it seemed a logistical nightmare never
mind about uncomfortable and dangerous!
Back at the hotel we got our stuff together and went sightseeing.
Unfortunately for us we got swindled out of a cheap ticket as we didn’t realise
there was a combo ticket to a few different historical sites and so paid for
one that we could have got free on another ticket.
The first place we visited was Chota Imambara which is a
tomb for Mohammad Ali Shah also buried here is his mother and there is also a
mosque and a traditional hammam. Across the road from here is a clock tower
which we wanted to walk to but the parking man wasn’t having a bar of it and
wouldn’t let us leave without the bike so we drove and when we got there we
couldn’t get in anyway as they were doing some sort of construction.
Chota Imambara
The Mosque at Chota Imambara
The Front of Bara Imambara
From the Roof of the labyrinth
From the Roof of the labyrinth
Such a great sign!
The complex also has a mosque, another tomb that you can walk around and a beautiful courtyard and gardens.
By the time we had finished walking around there we were
knackered (it seems the less you do the less energy you have…) so we drove to
get some lunch. We went to this dive looking place on the main road that was
complete with a stereotypical comedy mouse hole in the wall. The food was
actually pretty amazing though and massive portions which always makes me
happy. I even had an ice cream afterwards.
Feeling fuelled we drove to The Residency which is a bunch
of sprawling gardens and ruins that was built in 1800 and was home to the
Britishers (great word used everywhere in India!) in the time of the Raj and was
where the first war of independence started in 1857 with the siege of Lucknow
which lasted 147 days and claimed thousands of lives.
We parked up and walked through looking at the ruined
buildings which are pock-marked with cannonball and bullet holes from the
fighting. There is a museum which was pretty interesting and even had a great
portrait of an Indian dude in full regalia but with his nipple out (if someone
can explain why I’d love to know!)
By the time we finished in the museum we were well worn out
and so parked ourselves on the grass and chilled out in the sunshine for a
while.
On the drive back to our accommodation we took a wrong turn
and ended up in a bustling market street we were crawling along in the heaving
traffic when we got stuck in a massive traffic jam caused by a car in the
middle of the road I have no idea where he was going or coming from or how he
got where he was but it was holding up traffic in both directions. Most people
were laughing about it I was in hysterics which the locals seemed to love and
they kept shouting “welcome to India”, “this is India” or “only in India” which
just made me laugh more. Eventually we crept our way though and got moving
again and it wasn’t long before we were back at our place
We went down the road for dinner and had an amazing Dum Aloo
which is apparently one of the veg special dishes in Lucknow its potato stuffed
with nuts and Paneer (Indian cheese) in a tomato based sauce it was pretty
epic.
Feeling stuffed we packed up our shit ready to haul arse to
Varanasi in the morning.
Wednesday 18th February 2015
We knew it was 300km to Varanasi and that we should have got
shifting sooner but it’s hard to get up when there are no windows in the room
so by the time we had breakfast and got the bike packed up it was after 10am
before we were leaving the city.
Thankfully todays drive was a dream compared with the last
trip the roads were shitty and pot holed in some places and there was a lot of traffic
but we seemed to be moving a lot faster and I cushioned my arse with a blanket
so was feeling pretty comfy.
We drove from about three hours before stopping for lunch on
the side of the road after confirming it was veg we got thalis that were pretty
outstanding. Back on the road we continued on for another couple of hours
before stopping to stretch our legs. The road was teeming with people and
finding a quiet place was near impossible so we had to deal with loads of
people coming to chat.
The drive was good apart form one massive bump that we
absolutely smashed into and I felt my brain rattling around in my head but
other than that and that standard dickhead drivers on the road it was all good.
We got to Varanasi as it was getting dark the last 30km
seemed to be pretty endless and when we got into the city it was swarming with
people. We made our way to the old city and found a guesthouse down some back
windy streets (with the help of the world’s most annoying tout) it was an
average place but cheap and clean enough to spend one night rather than
searching endlessly a the bike barely fits down all the alleyways!
We got cleaned up (my face was so grimy I looked like a coal
miner!) and headed up to the rooftop for some eats which took a million years
to come. We had the most anti-social social dinner as we both ignored each
other and took to Facebook.
By the time we got to bed I was shattered and was out like a light.
By the time we got to bed I was shattered and was out like a light.
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