Jaipur to Pushkar

Miraculously everything went to plan with regards to the travel arrangements to get to Jaipur, Rajasthan, which was great. It was a very easy 5 hour bus journey (although the driver was a lunatic) and then a 7 or so hour train journey over night. We arrived at our intended guest house without a hitch! Sweet.
Jaipur is renowned for its shopping. It is described in the guide book as shopping heaven and we would concur with this. It has most things you could need and all at very cheap prices (very best price and quality sir!). It is famed for its silver, gemstone jewellery and fabrics. It is also well known for its forts and the colour of the old city (most of it is painted salmon pink!). For once we were lazy and we shunned the sightseeing as you can only stomach so much before it feels like you are doing it just for the sake of it, which aint right really.

So we relaxed a little and spent a couple of days wandering around looking at shops and investing time and a little cash in some possible future ventures. It was a nice place to treat ourselves with lots of local snacks and lassis (very tasty yoghurt drinks).


We have planned a route through Rajasthan that will take us up to and including Christmas in Udaipur but next in line was Pushkar, yet another special holy place. It is said that Brahma (a Hindu God) dropped a lotus flower on the earth and Pushkar floated to the surface. Pushkar surrounds a magical lake which is in turn surrounded by many Ghats much like the ones in Varanasi (only a lot cleaner). It is quite a sight at most times of the day.

Hindu pilgrims and tourists alike flock here to bathe in the holy water and pray (puja). After meeting what seemed like a genuine priest by the water, we decided to give a small donation (for which we got a receipt) and have him conduct a proper blessing for us and for our family. The blessing was quite long and involved repeating many mantras (which we mumbled after him in Hindi and in English) and touching the holy water from the lake and hoping not to make contact with the long snake like fish swimming around. The ceremony ended with Dipi having to wash my feet (about time I would say) and we then had to do some more repeating of Hindi and then, after we got our tikkas and rakhis (string tied around our wrists) we were done! It was all good Karma.


Along with the lake the area also boast hundreds of temples (which we again didn’t bother with visiting, some might say criminally). You have to dress respectfully here (so I shelved my short skirts), you are not allowed to kiss in public and you are not allowed alcohol or drugs (although some people seemed high off bhang (hash)lassis or space cakes). You can go on short treks or camel rides into the desert, but again we were being lazy and just chilled out and wandered about looking in shops, taking it easy and of course taking in the weird sights that seem to be never ending in this country. Never a dull moment!


I managed to pick up a couple of pairs of tailor made casual/ comfy trousers (now Dipi will stop going on about my trousers!) for less than four quid on one of our walks through the village. Clothes are so cheap here.


We didn’t really do much else, apart from the one thing that Dipi had put on the ‘to do’ list which was to get some reflexology in. There is one guy recommended in the guide book so we went on the hunt for him. We tracked him down and got ourselves booked in. One word to describe the experience is agony! Most people would think of reflexology as being a relaxing treatment involving maybe something like a foot massage. Not in this case let me tell you! This guy went to work on our feet with all sorts of implements which, I must say, was way more painful than having my tattoo done! It was so intense in places that I started to sweat and tears nearly came to my eyes! (my right toe is still smarting!) He was very good though, not only for his physical work but for his words of wisdom and his sixth sense which was pretty spooky. We went to see him twice in two days and he has helped us both massively in that short amount of time. Dipi would really like to go and do a Reiki course with him but as we are yet to decide on back tracking.

It was a nice couple of days albeit a little too touristy for us on the whole. We must add though that the hotels here are cheap as you like and the standard is very good for the money. We had our first thick mattress (where you can’t feel the wood of the bed through it) for as long as we can remember!! That makes a huge difference, trust me! The staff at the Everest Hotel were very helpful and super polite. We would recommend it to anyone.

So now onto our Christmas destination: Udaipur. We have, what sounds like, a nice place booked (through the Everest hotel) overlooking the lake where Octopussy was filmed some 30 years ago. Although our hopes are not too high, we are looking forward to getting what we want for Christmas day, which is some good food (maybe a goose?!?) and a nice bottle of wine! Wish us luck and Happy Christmas to everyone!

A little bit of Indian art

Next on the hit list were the so called ‘Kamasutra’ temples in Khajuraho, approximately 400 km west and slightly south of Varanasi. The first half of the journey was by train and was supposed to take 5 hours. Unfortunately, it ended up taking 10 hours! The train left on time but seemed to be stationary more than it was moving and contrary to our previous train experiences, only a couple of snack-wallahs and tea-wallahs walked up and down the aisle, so we were pretty hungry and cranky by the time we arrived at our stop! We decided to break the journey up with an overnight stop in a grim little town called Satna, a place known for its cement factories, where we could catch connecting buses to Khajuraho the next day. We found a small hotel near the station which was pretty grim too with its collection of stains on the bedding. The room was justly cheap so we crashed there for the night.

We made our way to the bus station first thing in the morning, bought our tickets, and had some chai and a couple of vegetable samosas for breakfast before leaving. We got talking to the only other foreign couple on the bus, Paget and Phillipe from the States, and as we all got on well over the course of the journey we decided to stay in the same guesthouse and spend the next couple of days together.

On arrival, we got out of the bus we were promptly ‘greeted’ by the usual hotel touts and rickshaw-wallahs who tried to convince us that their hotel was the best and the town was way too big for us to walk through. We decided to walk, against all the advice, and turned down offers of cheaper rickshaws even when it came down to only 5 rupees (it may as well have been free). Lo and behold it only took 15 minutes to get to the first hotel of our choice!

Khajuraho is a village consisting of the usual bunch of hotels, restaurants and shops but it also contains some of the ‘finest temple art in the world’. The three groups of temples surrounding the village are known for their erotic kamasutra carvings by many but, as we later found out from our guide at the temples, they only account for 2% of the total carvings. The remaining stonework depicts a storyboard of life a millennium ago in the Chandela dynasty between AD 950 to 1050.

After a relaxing afternoon of socialising and stuffing our faces with western food, we had a beer and went to bed. After a nice slow start to the day, we went to the main temple and hired a guide in order to make some sense of what we were looking at. He turned out to be very knowledgeable and we could all understand him when he spoke. Brilliant!

He quizzed us on our limited knowledge of the Hindu Gods (looking specifically at me most times but I let him down quite a lot) and then told us all about the three main deities in order, Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver) and Shiva (the Destroyer), all of whom are a manifestation of Brahman (the formless, the eternal and the source of all existence). There are a multitude of other gods and goddesses, all manifestations of Brahman, but thankfully he didn’t attempt to explain them all.

There are bands of artistically carved ‘sensuous’ figures running through quite a variety of kamasutra positions and possibilities. Some quite interesting...


And some quite gross (Matt obviously laughed).

It was at this point he made jokes regarding sheep, the Welsh and the Kiwis! He was a funny guy.

We spent 2 hours looking at the other temples. There were sculptures of gods, goddesses, musicians, warriors, children, servants and real and mythological animals.




We were pleased that we had hired a good guide as we had learned quite a lot from him. He talked us through the many stories and meanings of a few as we walked round which was both interesting and fun. After a while, feeling suitably templed-out, we decided to go for lunch. The rest of our limited time here in Khajuraho has been chilled out and pleasant enough.


Ladies selling tikka powder and other nik naks

Wondering around the local market.

The best vegetarian thali we have had so far

In the local village

It turns out that Phillipe used to be a software engineer and has helped us out with quite a few ‘issues’ that we had with our laptop. This is such a bonus and we thank you Phillipe!

Next stop, Jaipur in Rajasthan. We have booked our train tickets for the overnight journey to Jaipur from Sagar, a 5 hour bus ride away from Khajuraho. We have been assured that the bus WILL be on time and that we WILL catch the train at midnight so we hope what they say is true. Fingers crossed.

City of Shiva

We awoke in the grubby place that is Sunauli, home to many a mosquito and wretched fly. Wobbling up to the border with our back packs we were apprehensive about what India had to offer us on our return, especially as we knew we were heading straight into a potentially tricky situation at 6.30am (confronting the shop keeper that ripped us off on the exchange rate on our previous visit). So after checking out at immigration on the Nepal side we made a beeline for the shop on the Indian side. We confronted the guy and after much haggling and Karma references Dipi managed to get him to give us some of our money back (aided by some local guys associated with the coach company we were travelling with). He had to go and get us 600 rupees, a figure well short of what he robbed us of 4 weeks previous, and give it to us. Even when he handed the money to us he tried to short change us by 100 rupees! We got the final amount from him and walked off laughing as we really didn’t know what else to do! You gotta laugh really.
With our regained money in our mitts we walked with the rep from the travel agency towards our awaiting “Tourist Coach” which, as we drew nearer, looked well below our expectations. We had paid 700 Indian rupees to the place in Chitwan (Jungle Adventure World) a couple of days previous, so we expected something top drawer. We had an idea what the standard bus should cost from the lonely planet and we trusted the guys at the hotel when they told us it would be a “nice coach”. We were told that the coach only went three times a week and we had also seen nice coaches on the border previously so all the signs pointed to it being a proper tourist coach. We were wrong to have trusted them it would seem as the bus we got leaves from the border every day and was the same standard tourist bus that others had paid 300 rupees for! Easy come easy go! This was a great start and in hindsight fairly comical as well as a bit annoying. “Welcome back to India” we joked (although this was obviously connected to Nepal too). All this was before 7 am and the bus was due to leave in 1 ½ hours, which was an hour later than we were told by Jungle Adventure World. It was certainly time for a cup of tea!!!

The bus journey was actually not too bad and we arrived in Varanasi (city of Shiva) after 11 or so hours and awaited our free pick up from the hotel. This of course didn’t turn up and we eventually got in an auto rickshaw and headed for the hotel in the old city. We chatted to the owner on arrival and found out that we were not at the bus station where our pick up was searching for us, but further along the road. Now of course we understood our rickshaw drivers’ sureness when he said that our pick up would never arrive (he had also previously told us that we were at the bus station!). We were starting to feel a little dumb.
We put that behind us with a wry smile and had a bite to eat in the roof top restaurant. That night we lay in our neat, clean room wondering what the next day would bring in this very famous and holy city.

Varanasi, city of Shiva the God of destruction (but without whom creation wouldn’t occur), lies on the west bank of The Ganga (Ganges) and is one of the holiest places in India. The city is at the heart of Hinduism and the Ganga is seen as the river of salvation and hope for all. The lines between the real and spiritual world are very blurred and Hindu pilgrims flock to bathe in the holy water and to cremate their loved ones or to even die themselves. Dying here offers moksha (the release from the cycle of birth and death) and the city is famed for its’ Ghats where all sorts of activities from washing clothes to open and very public cremations take place.

The morning looked very misty as we tried to look out at the river from the roof top restaurant without much luck. We were keen to get out and about so we ate up our breakfasts and had the best hot shower for a long time, in preparation for our assault on the outside world. Stepping out into the very narrow streets in the old town we were reminded of the smells from the previous, dark evening. Cow poo smell mostly!!

Making sure not to step in the many cow pats in the lanes we negotiated our way down hill, past many “hole in the wall” stalls and shops. The air was now filling with many other interesting and sweet smells.

The place had an instant atmosphere and vibe to it and it was not at all unpleasant.

We quite literally popped out onto the main road which was of course and very busy. After being pointed in many directions by different people (voluntarily given directions I might add) we made our way along to the river our own way which was easy enough. We stepped down the main Ghat and avoided the gaze of the many beggars who were not too much bother. At the bottom we were greeted by the sights of what goes on each and every day here.
People were bathing.....


....washing clothes....

....rowing around in boats....

....selling all sorts from massage services to trinkets and cups of chai....

.... or just chilling out.

We took a few snaps as we walked along the river rebuffing people offering massages, boat rides, opium and weed. You are never left alone it would seem, but this you expect and it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be (from reading the book) so it was manageable and mostly funny.
We were keen to get a look at the burning Ghats (of which there are two) so we headed north to where the main burning Ghat was. As we approached we saw a good photo opportunity down by the river which takes in the area of the burning Ghat in the background.

We arriced at the Burning Ghat and looked on at the cremations being carried out in front of us. Above the area is a balcony on which you can get a good view of everything going on, so after a quick cup of chai we headed up to this point for a look.
We looked down in into the hive of activity in amazement. There were men busily and sometimes nonchalantly tending and building fires. There were men huddled over smouldering ashes sifting through them. There were bodies draped in gold shiny sheets being carried high on mens’ shoulders down to the river for their last dunk in the Ganga. Bodies were being placed on piles of wood which were stacked in a well versed way with straw inside them: then they were being lit by shaven headed, white robed men. There were huge piles of wood sat out in the boats and the whole, surrounding local area was of course crazy with too much going on to mention.

It had an atmosphere that is truly difficult to describe! We felt privileged to be there but there were obvious things tugging at our conscious and typically it raised some environmental questions.
It wasn’t long before we were approached by a guy offering to give us a little talk and show us around. This is all part of a so called scam, described in the book, so we were aware. We tentatively went along with it as we knew we wouldn’t have to part with a large slice of cash at worst and we may actually get something out of it. As it turned out it was well worth the “donation” that we did give because he knew a great deal about what was going on. He talked us through everything we were looking at and answered any questions we had. We must stress that we only took photos after being told to by this guy.
The men sifting through the ashes were looking for and collecting the deceased’s jewellery. This can then be sold to local jewellers.

He talked us through the types of wood used to burn the bodies and what that meant. The different quality of wood used was directly linked to class/ caste as was the location of the cremation on the Ghat. The better quality the wood (The best being sandle wood) and the higher up the Ghat the bodies were burnt meant they were from a higher class/ caste.


The shaven headed, white robed men lighting the fires were usually the eldest sons of the deceased (below you can see one of these men having their heads shaved).

They walked around the body five times to represent the five elements, then lit the pyre of wood in five different places with a flaming straw bundle which had been ignited by the Eternal Flame (which has been burning for 3000 years!).

During the cremation the skull is broken by the man tending the fire with a piece of bamboo or the skull pops which releases the spirit. After about three hours the burning is complete and the son has to throw water over the smouldering ashes five times from a clay pot (five elements again). The fifth time he has to throw the water and the pot over his right shoulder and the pot explodes on the fire sending ashes and steam up into the air. Some of the ashes are then scattered in the Ganga and the whole process is complete. The deceased has, by cremation here, achieved moksha. We witnessed the full ceremony in varying different stages which was a sight to behold.

Raj then explained that pregnant women and children under 10 did not need to be cremated because they were already pure and didn’t need purifying form the eternal flame. He also explained that people bitten by the cobra didn’t need cremated because the cobra is directly linked to Krishna, one of the Hindu Gods. Lepers did not need to be cremated as they had already been punished in this life for anything in their previous lives, and Sadhus (holy men) were also exempt as they were already enlightened. In these cases the bodies are simply taken out into the middle of the river, weighed down and placed into the Ganga.
After taking all this in, being shown around the area and getting blessed using the ashes from the Eternal Flame (probably by some random rather than anyone holy), we were talked into going to a silk factory. This was all part of the so called scam, but we were happy with what we were doing so we went along just to look. There was no pressure at all, we didn’t buy anything and we got to see a little more of the old city.

Finally Raj took us along to a Temple by the river and talked us through what we were looking at in detail. It was all pretty cool really but by now we fancied some time to ourselves so we gave Raj another 100 rupees (this was voluntary on our part) in addition to the 100 rupee “donation” we had already parted with, which he was overjoyed with. He had spent many hours with us, he had been clear with his communication on most things, at no time did we feel pressured and we learnt a lot from what he told us, so we were happy and felt we got our moneys’ worth. As a friend said to me recently; you are only ever ripped off if you are unhappy with a deal.
We chilled there for a bit, people watching and taking in the sunshine.

The rest of that day was spent wandering around taking a few more snaps along the river and in town as were the next couple of days. We were taking in new sights all the time.
Here you can see a wedding party enjoying their reception by the river.

This guy seemed to be giving teachings to four men along the river.


Comedy is never far away.

The stalls were always colourful.


This guy looks like he has had too many sweeties!

We found a very busy and very cheap local place for something to eat which also had fantastic Indian sweets.

There are many stray dogs here.

The streets are very busy and noisy, but also fun to take in.

There are even nightly ceremonial Ganga Pujas (prayers for the Ganges river).


One activity that is highly recommended is an early morning boat ride, something that Dipi was keen to do. We woke at 5am on one of the days and mad our way to the main Ghat. We bought some candle lights to send off down the river from some young children selling them on the steps. After negotiating a price with a boatman we took our own small boat down out into the mist.

We lit some candles, two for Dipi’s grandparents who passed away two years ago and two for the rest of our families.

It was interesting to see the Ghat from a different perspective, and also really nice at that time of the morning. As the sun started to rise the photo opportunities were abound.


After our boat trip, we sat in a roof top restaurant and had some breakfast whilst taking in more views of the river. As we looked down we could see one man bathing in the river. About 20m away from him was a body floating face down in the shallows (we had already seen the carcass of a cow on one of our walks). This was not as shocking to see as you might think, but it did highlight how crazy to us it seemed for people to be bathing in the Ganga given what goes into it and how massively polluted it is! This was a unique way to kick off the day, Varanasi is unreal!!


The next day we were all packed up and ready to go...

....so with that we set off on a rickshaw...

....made it to the station in good time and waved our goodbyes to the City of Shiva, it had been interesting and lots of fun!