On The Road Again

 STOP PRESS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 

MICHELLE

(we won't mention that it is a pretty special birthday...)

So we leave with Sabu (our driver) with out breakfast... (well we had a apple pie). We look out the window of the car at the small houses and their slaving owners taking care of their babies and doing the washing at the same time. They are much the same as the slum ladies but they have built a warm mud house instead of a plastic tent. Its a long drive to Amritsa . I try to meditate by counting to ten 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 …...10 times with out thinking about anything else. We stop at the place we stopped at the first time we arrived in Pathankot. We all had a disgusting mango shake and bought some bickies and chips for the way. To make a long story short we drove all the way to Amritsa. Then we arrived in our hotel which is paradise!

Only rich people go there ha ha ha . We had pizza for lunch and left for the Pakistani- Indian border.

We arrived and went through the checks to make shore we had no guns and stuff. Then we sat down and watched Indian people run with the Indian flag. I could not believe that there was a metal gate that separated India from Pakistan. The music was so loud and the Indians started to dance, it was lovely. The army solders did their bit. This is all happening while the Pakistan are doing their thing across the gate from India.. Once the Indians and the Pakistanis opened their gates and the two generals shook hands, they paraded around kicking their legs up down pathetically and stupidly, much like a rooster fight. They even had a head dress that looked like a rooster's comb and shook their heads and arms like roosters ruffle.
 After that Sabu took us back to the hotel where we had dinner and then he drove us to the Golden Temple which was beautiful and so peaceful. We watched Sihk men sing and say prayers. The one thing I did not like was I having to wear something over my head, it was so hot even at eleven o'clock at night. The rest was spectacular.

We sat for a while and watched fish swim past the edge of the holy lake. The day ended by hops in da bed and snnor snnor.

In the morning we had an egg and juice for breakfast;it was so good. We packed and Sabu took us back to the Golden Temple to see what the temple looked like in the day time . Again it was lovely. We sat and talked to some Indians who thought we were three angels (NOT DAD!) .

Next we went to Jallianwallah Bagh, which is where when Gandhi was protesting against the British Occupation, the British locked all the gates out of this court yard and shot the Indian protesters just to show they were bigger and stronger than the Indians. The protesters jumped down a water well to escape but the British still got them. There was little signs of blood but it was not just a well.

Sabu took us back to Pathankot to catch the train to Pushkar.

 our faithful stray who guarded us and our bags while we waited!

RMS

ABBEY

Abbey has pretty well described some of the journey to Amritsar, with the only things I want to add being the huge number of lorries that shed their tread on the roads as they ply trade across the continent; and I cannot fail to briefly mention the rash and perplexing way in which bus drivers transport their precious cargo; if they want to overtake, they overtake. On coming traffic (foot, bike, cart, lorry, military, other buses) just have to make do with the width of the road at the point of potential impact.

On our little road adventure the equilibrium of life was maintained for kilometre after kilometre, and we breathed a slight sigh of relief when we reached Chakki Bank, knowing that rail transport was somewhat safer, if we could only negotiate the platforms!

A man called Jurgen approached us whilst awaiting on platform 1 for the 20.00 hr Poojar Express to Ajmer. Turns out he knew our American budette Jeevita from McLeod; he had missed out on his wait list ticket on a previous train and so had booked a hasty general ticket on our train. Once aboard he negotiated an upgrade to AC Sleeper class 2 for his journey to Delhi. During the night we were awoken many times as various passengers clambered off at their destinations, or clambered on to their awaiting destinies. We emerged at Ajmer into a stifling heat. Armed with the knowledge of the price of taxi ride to Pushkar, we negotiated a fair fare and pressed on. After a brief misunderstanding, the taximan dropped us at the Horse Ranch and we settled into our new lodgings with the able assistance of mine host Marcos.

Pushkar is famous among many things for its fabulous blue holy lake, lapping at the steps of the only temple in the world for Brahma, the Creator. Yes, the only one (there is a Hindu story about that). Thing is, the lake is now empty. Two years ago, a committee was formed to place a tribute to Ganash, the elephant look-a-like God, into the lake - as is performed each year. But for a first (and last!) a large statue of Ganash was made from cheese, and some associated condiment... relatively huge for a cheesey construction (one tonne)....you can only imagine. Anyway, the statue sank and rested on the bottom of the lake, and 'melted', and hey presto, next day or so, the thousands of holy fish that inhabited the lake were all dead, to the very last one. Some of the fish were over a metre long, as there was no fishing allowed in the lake. So, three weeks before the annual Pushkar festival (a major festival on the Indian calendar, going for over 15 days) a putrefied lake greeted the town; stank it out. So the lake was drained and dredged to a extra depth of 2-3 metres, the fishy layer being removed first, and further dredging still continues. The dreadful smell slowly abated and the festival went ahead (truth is the smell would not have stopped the festival anyway!). Unfortunately Rajasthan experienced its second year without a monsoon and so the lake remained empty, and now it awaits this monsoon to fill...but the jury is still out, will such a major disturbance to the base of the lake allow its deliverance from a human-wrought 'drought'... Will Brahma forgive them the blasphemy of his lake or will Shiva, the Goddess of Destruction, maintain her new dominance over this sacred site? And who were the creators and approvers of this cheesey statue? In India acceptance seems to come as quickly, easily and indiscriminately as criticism or punishment, so, as they say themselves, 'who knows '?

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The stifling heat only slightly abated during the night, but at least we had access to a shower, water cooler and ceiling fans. In the morning we enjoyed pancakes and went for a walk to capture a view of Pushkar from a slightly higher elevation. We bumped into a Baba at his temple, and were duly enshrined into his entreating manner and lack of mystique! He offered our family a blessing, which we agreed to have the following morning (as Frances was still resting at the Ranch).

It is easy to see why all the Westerners head to Northern India at this time of year. It is so hot here, average summer temperature of 47 degrees, reminding me of our time visiting Camille's dad at Desert Hot Springs in California a few years back. Still, we are managing OK, drinking plenty of water, and staying within 27 or so degrees Celsius of being cool!

Gerard

Horses At Last!

YAY! After an over night train ride to Pushkar in Rajasthan, we walked into the gates of Shannau horse ranch, where we were greeted by a neigh from the resident stallion. The guy, Marcus was very happy to see us and lead us straight to our room. While Mum and Dad chatted to him I splashed my face with water and lay on one of the beds. There are four horses here, one chestnut mare, two paint mares and one grey stallion.

We (The Girls) looked at the horses. 

They all had the curved-in ears of Indian horses. The chestnut mare was kind of head shy and the older paint a bit grumpy. The stallion was friendly and so was the other mare. In India horses are valued by their colour and height. White horses are used in weddings all the time so they are most expensive. The stallion is maybe fifteen hands high but looks massive. He has real power in the front of his chest and neck. The stables are only three sided. The back and the sides are walled in with the front open to the yard. Bamboo poles stop the horses from getting out of their loose boxes,the walls are made of stone and concrete and look really old, the roof is tarp and bamboo.

The power just went off leaving us to the unmerciful heat of the desert. I can feel the sweat forming on my face and back of my neck.

The room we are staying is very plain compared with the hotel in Amritsar, but in a good way. All four walls are red brick and on one wall there is a painting of one of the Hindu goddesses with the Himalayas in the background. The roof on the inside is grass (It looks thatched) and on the outside there are slate tiles. Right now some tailors in the factory have a Hindi pop song on full blast to keep them awake; it is kind of intrusive, disturbs the peace...

Part 2

Today I woke up feeling sick and chucked up. EWWWW!!!

So after that lovely start to the day I had pancakes with Abbey and the rest of the adults. Mum, Dad and Abbey walked to some temple and they can tell you about that! I came inside watched the time ticking away (aka. I was BORED!). They came home just when it started to heat up. We had a very nice MANGO and then did maths. We had to do two maths today and I fell asleep before we could start the next one!

We RODE!

 

Marco's stable hand saddled up the paints and the chestnut Arejeey (RJ). He led the older paint out and waited till we had finished petting her then he said 'Little baby on this one' (Just to tell you Abbey HATES being called 'Little baby' I don't like being called 'Big baby' but not many people do call me that!). I could tell Abbey was not pleased with herself being on the eldest. I hopped on the younger paint. The groom rode off on Arejeey and we followed. He took Abbey and I along small roads next to fields of flower farms and veggies. We rode along a concrete canal and came to a place were a group of young Indian men were playing guess what?! CRICKET!!!

They stopped playing while we trotted past them and I felt like us and our horses were on a fashion show! Their eyes were glued to the horses. On the way back a tractor with very loud music on drove up behind us. My 'bombproof' but not 'tractor-proof' mare spooked. She hated the loud music. I reach out to pat her paint neck and she tried to buck but only managed a mini rear thing. The groom swapped horses with me (Which was SOOO cool). I rode Arejeey back the rest of the way! She had the best trot to sit to and lovely head carriage. But sorry to that mare, Lochy tops all horses I have ever rode!

I was not game to try their canter because when the groom cantered the paint her canter was so uncoordinated and it looked so uncomfortable!

Write More Soonish

Frances

So from Pushkar to Jaipur, just to spend the day as real tourists doing the sights. We, well I, actually started the day with a little drama. While Gerard signed our bags into the cloak room I agreed to a little shoe polish from a nice shoeshiner for a price of 30 Rps. While polishing he noticed my shoe needed a little stitch so knowing that it may be a little more I reluctantly agreed and he proceeded to restitch both of my shoes... and charge me 200 Rps ($5). Knowing it was a rip off by Indian standards I laughed and told him he had tricked me. We haggled for a while, I pointed out that he should have renegotiated the price if he was going to up the price that much. A crowd gathered, the poor guy got very defensive. I gave him 60Rps and we left it at that...so I thought. Then while we had some breakfast the police arrived, with the shoe shiner. He asked what he had charged and for what work and how much I had paid. Then he took 30Rps off the guy and gave it to me, grabbed him by the collar and pushed him away. He explained that someone (in the crowd) had put in a complaint and that shoe shiners weren't allowed to charge that much for that service. I tried to tell him I was happy to pay 60 but he wouldn't allow it. I don't like injustice as I have said before, it made me all... well anyway I paid the fellow that 30 after the police left. I mean it was all of $1.50 to have both my shoes restitched and polished. Sure he shouldn't have done the sneaky price rise but can you imagine a system that says he will never be allowed to earn more than what the law says...

Then we carefully negotiated a taxi to show us the sights for the day - $15 to take us everywhere all day and wait while we do our thing and take us back again. I don't really enjoy sight seeing but the Amber Fort was beautiful and we could have spent the whole day there, wandering in and out of the maze of passage ways of the palace fort, imagining life as it would have been.

Then tiredly we caught the train to the next adventure, to arrive very late at our hotel Tiger Safari.

As we have said before it is wonderful to get your comments and know that we are entertaining you.

Keep writing, it reminds us that we have a home to come back to!! Camille