The Ministry of Silly Walks

Other than the Golden Temple, the other main reason for us coming to Amritsar was to enable us to visit the town of Attari where India has a border with Pakistan. Every evening at sunset there's a border closing ceremony which has to be seen to be believed.

The entertainment starts at about half four in the afternoon when a couple of thousand people file into the grandstands on either side of the gate at the boarder frontier.

There then follows an hours worth of frenzied flag waving, music, dancing, chanting and shouting where the two countries try and out do each other on the noise front.

It was almost as angry as the crowd at a Wolves v Albion football match. During all of this people out of the crowd queue up to take it in turns to run giant Indian flags to and from the border gates as if in some sort of relay race.

To help whip things up even further the compare gets on the mike and leads the crowd in a chant of "Hindustan zindabad" (long live Hindustan).

After about an hour the main event starts with the arrival of the border guards dressed in their rather impressive head gear.

There then follows a half hour period where the border forces of each country march up and down in front of their own supporters and try to out stomp and out shout the opposition guards. This results in some fantastic moves that are like a cross between a goose step and something from Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks sketch. In some cases the kicking is so high that the guards appear to be in danger of knocking their own teeth in.

Once the soldiers on each side are suitably psyched up the border gates are briefly opened and the flags of the two countries lowerd. By this time we really struggled to see the action because the crowd in front of us had been whipped up into such a frenzy. The flags are then marched back to the guardrooms and the border re-closed.

We're not really sure what all this nationalistic ranting does for relations between the two countries but it was certainly an entertaining, if not slightly surreal, afternoon out.

The Golden Temple at Amritsar

On Monday we left Varanasi and made the 24 hour train journey to Amritsar. The journey was surprisingly good. We had a berth in the 2 tier sleeper carriage and it turned out to be far nicer than any of the Indian hotels we've so far stayed in. We had fairly comfy beds, sheets, towels and air con - things that were lacking in the rubbishy hotels so far. The train also served some great food including some pakoras that were almost as good as Noreen's nibbles.

Apart from when we were in Burma/Myanmar, the sleeper trains we've used have been a great way to get about. It's always quite an interesting experience to wake up in a new city. In The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux says "The sleeping car combines the best features of a cupboard with forward movement."

The main reason we've come to Amritsar is to see the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine.

The original copy of the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, is kept in the temple at the middle of the pond. The current temple dates from 1764 with the gold roof, which uses 3/4 of a ton of gold, being added in the early 1800's.

It was also noticeable that the atmosphere at the Golden Temple was really jolly, sometimes the big religious sites can be a bit stuffy.

Varanasi (Benares)

Varanasi is one of the holiest places in India. The elderly come here to die, it's a little bit like Torquay ;-), as they believe that dying in the sacred city will release you from the continual cycle of rebirth.

Most of the action in Varanasi is centered around the ghats, a 7km long stretch of steps that lead down the western bank of River Ganges to the water. Most of the 80 or so ghats are used for bathing where people come to perform puja, make offerings, prayers and to wash away their sins.

There are also a couple of burning ghats where public cremations take place. The dead, which are wrapped in a cloth, are first carried through the old city to the river on a bamboo stretcher. They are then bathed in the river before being cremated on a pyre of burning logs. About 150 bodies are burnt every day at Manikarnika Ghat.

We quite like to get involved with the local customs but there was no way we were going to get in the Ganges for a bit of a splash around. The following is a quote from the Lonely Planet India book - "The Ganges River is so heavily polluted at Varanasi that the water is septic - no dissolved oxygen exists. The statistics get worse. Samples from the river show the water has 1.5 million faecal coliform bacteria per 100ml of water. In water that is safe for bathing this figure should be less than 500!". No wonder the Ganges river dolphin is blind.

I'm no expert but I think that the 30 or so sewers that discharge directly into to river from the city might be having a slight impact. This is one of the strange juxtapositions that we've found so far in India. This is one of the most sacred places in the country and yet it is, quite literally, covered in crap.

A lot of laundry is also done in the river and considering the many "ingredients" and the colour of the water we're constantly amazed at how clean looking it is by the time the laundry-wallahs have finished with it.

Every evening the ganga aarti ceremony takes place on the banks of the river. We didn't quite undertand what was going on (any explanations would be most welcome) but it involved lots of fire being waved around.

One of the more unusual things we've seen on a daily basis has been this fella . . .

His job is to collect the cow and buffalo dung from the ghats, reform it with his hands and then dry it out in the sun. The patties of dung can then be used for fuel for fires and stoves. Give this guy a thought next time you're bitching about how shitty your job is.

Indian culture shock

The first thing that strikes you when you cross the boarder into India is the mess. There is an unbelievable amount of litter in the streets which is just left to fester at the side of the road or piled up until it is nosed through by one of the many livestock that are ambling about. Even in the cities there's huge amounts of animals wandering about the streets: cows, water buffalo, goats and dogs, all intermingling with the pedestrians and vehicles. It makes for some very unusual traffic jams.

The other thing that is quite surprising is some of the "fairly intimate" things you see going on at the sides of the road. Such as people lathered up with soap as they have a bath in the trough under a water pump on the pavement. Stranger still are the countless people we've seen going to the toilet at the sides of the road or railway track in full view of the passers-by . . . And we're not just talking about number ones here! It seems a little odd in a nation that is fairly conservative, most Bollywood films still don't show kissing and you won't see local couples holding hands, that such things go on in full public
view.

I think after being on the road for nearly a year we thought that we were immune to a bit of culture shock but India had proved us wrong.

Pokhara to Varanasi

After the nightmare journey from Tatopani to Pokhara we were a little apprehensive about what our final big overland journey through Nepal would bring us . . . nausea, nightmares, serious injury or death all appeared to be on the menu.

The first leg of the journey was a 9 hour stint on a bus to the town of Sunauli on the boarder with India. Once again we had the misfortune to have a lunatic driver who seemed to be a little lacking in the cranium. This particular fella liked to spend most of his time racing our 50 seat bus against the other traffic as if he were driving a maxed up Citroen Saxo through a Tamworth retail park. It wasn't quite as bad as the last journey but that's like saying having your foot cut off isn't as bad as having an arm removed - neither of them are particularly pleasant.

Because the traffic at the boarder is so bad the bus drops you off a couple of miles short of Sunauli. You then have to complete the remainder of the journey on a bicycle rickshaw. This was also a little nerve wracking as our wonky little bicycles didn't seem to offer much protection as we weaved in and out of the trucks.

We crossed over the boarder and struggled to find the Indian immigration office. Normally there's some sort of official looking building with flags and men in important looking uniforms. Here It turned out to be a small table at the side of the road staffed by a bloke in a grubby shirt.

Once over the boarder we then had a 3 hour taxi ride before we got to Gorakhpur where we were going to spend the night. At last it was a relief to finally have a sensible driver. Things went very well for the first hour until it got dark and we discovered that our taxi had no headlights. This made seeing the multitude of things that you find on the sides of an Indian road very difficult to spot, particularly when there's no street lighting and the traffic coming the other way is blinding you with their lights on full beam. This time we weren't as much worried for our own safety but more for the pedestrians, cyclists, rickshaw drivers, dogs and cows that wander aimlessly about. The last thing we want is to be lynched for knocking someone or their sacred cow over!

The fun continued when we eventually arrived at Hotel Bobina in Gorakhpur. It was more like Hotel Bobins. We only decided to stay there after the glowing review that it had in the India Lonely Planet guide book. It turned out to be the most awful place we've stayed in since the hovel of the Safari Inn at Dar es Salaam. Our room was terrible; dirty walls, filthy bathroom with no hot water and possibly the most evil looking toilet I've ever seen in a hotel.

We needed some dinner after being on the road since dawn but the only option was the hotel's own restaurant. We can't comment about how good or bad the food may have been because we couldn't get served. After being seated we waited 10 minutes for a menu but none came. By this time all the restaurant staff had disappeared so we asked at reception for some service. After another 5 minutes a waiter appeared so I again asked for a menu. The guy completely blanked me and walked past. We ended up buying dinner from the shop over the road and having a pick-nik in our filthy room instead!

Thank god when we eventually got on the train this morning. Hopefully the worst of the long distance, nightmare inducing road travel is behind us now that we are in India. One of the legacy's of the days of the British Empire is the extensive rail network that connects the country. Indian railways is the worlds second largest employer and has a staff of 1.6 million with a staggering 14 million passengers every day.

Pokhara part 2

We returned to Pokhara after our Himalaya trek and have spent a couple of days recovering from aching muscles and also the psychological damage from the jeep ride back. We're staying at a place called Hotel Sakura, where for the first time in over 2 months we have a TV in our room . . . oh the glory of the magic box! Best of all we have MTV and have been able to listen to some new music for the first time in 11 months (we're liking the new Muse and Calvin Harris stuff!).

We were able to finally tear ourselves away from the goggle box today to make a visit to the World Peace Pagoda which is situated on a hill overlooking the lake and the town.

On a clear day the views over the Himalaya are stunning and you can see Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and Annapurna, the 7th, 8th and 10th highest mountains in the World.

Unfortunately that was a photo of a post card as we were instead treated to a blanket of cloud.

Here's another post card shot showing the stunning view at sunrise over the lake, which was also obscured by cloud during our time here.

Akthough we didn't get the killer view from the Peace Pagoda we did see some rather interesting insects, including this mutant grass hopper that was about 6 inches long and a rather dandy looking dragonfly

Tomorrow we leave Nepal and head over the boarder to India. We'll be really sad to leave as Nepal, as along with Laos and Egypt, it has probably been one of our favorite places so far. There has been lots of good stuff to see and do, everything is really cheap and the people are very friendly.

We're just off for dinner at the Everest Stake House to have our last big chunk of cow before we hit the beef free Hindu country of India.

Back to Pokhara

The best thing about Tatopani is the view you get of Machapuchare down the valley.

Tatopani in Nepali means hot water and the town gets its name from the hot springs that flow out at the valley floor. We thought it might be a nice place to sooth the aches and pains, but like the rest of Tatopani, the springs weren't very nice.

I had intended to leave Liz in Tatopani for for a couple of days whilst I completed an additional trek to make the 2km vertical climb up Poon Hill. However; Tatopani was too horrible a place to leave her stranded on her own so we instead decided to head back to Pokhara.

There are three ways out, a two/three day walk, 8 hours on a local bus or 5 hours in a jeep. We took the jeep option and made our way out in a mighty Mahindra 4x4.

We've had the misfortune to experience some incredibly bad driving since we started our trip; me on a moped in Laos, Vietnamese death wish bus drivers, the Thai taxi driver who thought he was in a video game, the senile Egyptian who nearly killed us in a head on collision and the lunatic Bedouin who drove us around Wadi Rum are just a handful of the many that spring to mind. However; they all pail into insignificance compared to the muppet who drove us back from our trek.

The road that leads from Tatopani, out of the Himalaya to the town of Beni would have my vote in the most dangerous roads in the world competition. It mainly consisted of a mud, rock and gravel pot holed track cut into the sides of the mountains that was barely wide enough for a vehicle. Along most of the route the side road was crumbling away into valley, covered with land slides or obstructed with boulders that had fallen from above.

As if the road wasn't bad enough we had to contend with a driver who appeared to have no concept of danger. We knew we where in trouble when within 2 minutes of setting off we skidded in some gravel and nearly went off the road into the river about 20 meters below. God knows how but we were only involved in 1 accident when we skidded into a motorbike coming the other way. Thankfully both the rider and passenger where ok. We nearly had several other incidents including hitting a herd of cows, hitting some women carrying children and a hitting a donkey.

Once we got back onto proper tarmac roads we thought things would improve but it just enabled our demented driver to go even faster. The only time he slowed down was when he stopped the car to have some sort mentalist seizure at the side of the road!!!

I have never been so terrified in all my life.

The Jomsom Trek - Day 3

We woke up in Kalopani and had some stunning views of the mountains when we had breakfast on the roof of our hotel.


We left the hotel at about 9am and immediately got stuck in a massive herd of mountain goat/sheep type beasties. It felt a little bit like we were about to be pushed into the knit-o-matic from Shaun the Sheep.

The scenery between Kalopani and Ghasa was spectacular and the highlight of the trek so far. The locals claim that this section of the trek is through the worlds deepest valley. Although the valley floor is at an altitude of about 2km, the mountains on either side (Dhaulagiri and Annapurna) are both over 8km high.

We had intended to stay the evening at Ghasa but arrived there a little early. Being as the going was good we decided to press on to Tatopani, which the guide we had downloaded from the internet told us was only another hour and a half away. It turned out to be more like 4 hours! By the time we reached Ghasa we had been walking for 8 hours solid and were more than a little sore.

The accommodation in Tatopani was pretty awful, not exactly the dreaded yak blanket on a dining room table, but not much better. The rooms at Trekker's Lodge had undecorated breeze block walls with a tin roof and leaky bathroom, it was a little like sleeping in a grotty shed.

Himalaya Porters

Until very recently there were no roads in this part of the Himalaya and therefore everything had to be transported via yak, donkey or man. The life of a Himalayan porter doesn't look particularly easy . . .

The Jomsom Trek - Day 2

For the second day of our trek the scenery changed from desert plains to pine forests as we descended further from Jomsom.

We didn't have quite so good views as yesterday as the cloud moved in later in the morning obscuring the higher peaks. We still got some good views of Nilgiri as we set out from Tukuche.

We covered another 12km but the route today proved a little more challenging than yesterday. We somehow found ourselves fording knee deep through several streams of Himalaya glacial melt water when we ended up a long way downstream of a bridge. Liz suggested that we just wade through them rather that back track to the bridge. It wasn't particularly easy wading across a rocky river bed with fast flowing water when you've got a 10kilo back pack on. It's normally me who comes up with the stupid ideas so I was pleased for it to be Liz for a change!

One of the stranger things we saw today was a man parading through the main street of the village of Kokhethanti with a freshly severed goats head with all sorts of entrails hanging out of it. I thought better than to take a picture for the blog! We also met a grubby child who we took pity on and gave some apples to. He looked thoroughly disappointed and demanded money or sweets instead. Cheeky little bleeder!

We ended the day in the tiny village of Kalopani where we stayed at the Kalopani Guest House. Once again it was a fantastic hotel for £4 without a yak blanket in sight. We also got visited by this little fellow, a hoopoe . . .

The reward that awaits after a hard days trek . . .