Last Day

This is it. My trip is coming to an end tonight. I just checked out of my hotel and walked through the Main Bazaar in Pahar Ganj and the New Delhi train station to the airport express line station. I left my bag in the cloak room here and now I'm enjoying a cup of coffee before I continue the last day's tour through the city.

The procedure of transferring the visa to my new passport made me a bit anxious, but fortunately it was not too complicated after all. It took me two days and cost me some money, but after just two visits to the FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office) I had a stamp in my new passport telling of an existing visa and an official looking piece of paper stating the same. I'm all set to go.

Otherwise, the last days I didn't do much here. I went for some walks and saw a few new parts of the city. I also bought some more spices and souvenirs. Yesterday I had a little fever again, so I stayed mostly in bed watching movies. It seems I've caught something that keeps coming back every two weeks or so. Today I'm feeling much better again. I'll visit a doctor when I get back home if the fever keeps coming back. It could be that I'm just literally getting sick of this country... No, it's not that bad, but I'm not sad I'm leaving either.

I'll write a summary of my impressions and experiences when I have had a few days of home environment.

Jaipur and Varanasi - The Last Stops

A week ago I arrived in Jaipur. I planned to stay for two nights, but on the second day I got sick and my stay was prolonged with two more nights. I didn't do many touristy things in Jaipur. On the first night I did a long walk from the hostel (yes, there's a nice real hostel in Jaipur called Zostel), but while walking I didn't really see much but crazy traffic, dust and too many people.

After I felt better, I took a ride to the old city and walked around for two hours. I didn't enter any palaces or temples, because I really feel I've had enough of those. The saturation point has been reached.

On the third day I decided that I'm going to Varanasi for a few days. I had already decided against it, but I noticed that I could get a train ticket for the following day. On Saturday morning I arrived in the “city of the dead“, Varanasi. It's one of the oldest, continuously inhabited cities in the world. It's also one of the seven holy Hindu cities that can free a person from the cycle of reincarnation. Some Hindus even believe that dying in Varanasi immediately brings your soul to nirvana and therefore many people come there to die.

The city is located on the bank of the holy river Ganges. There are at least 84 ghats from the city to the river. A ghat is a series of steps coming down from the city to the river bank. Most of them are bathing ghats where religious Hindus wash their sins away with the holy water of the river Ganges. There are also two burning ghats, where bodies are cremated on a pyre of 350 kilos of wood. The ashes are then thrown into Ganges. The bigger burning ghat operates seven days a week 24 hours per day. Only the men of the families of the cremated person are allowed to take part in the ceremony. I was told women were too emotional. Before the body is cremated, the family members carry it down the steps from the city, wash it in the river for the last time and then place it on a pile of wood. The burning ghats are operated by "professional burners", who see to it that all the body parts get cremated properly by adding wood and lifting fallen feet etc back into the funeral pyre. Believe me, it is quite a sight for a westerner not accustomed to see dead people. Photos from Varanasi here.

Now I'm back in New Delhi. Today I picked up my new passport from the embassy and started the process of getting an exit-visa for it. If everything works out like planned, I'll be all set tomorrow, Thursday morning. I really hope so, since my flight is in five days and I need it by Friday the latest. The official in the foreign registry office reassured me by telling me that with "101 percent certainty" I will have all I need by noon tomorrow. I'm still not completely convinced... Keep your fingers crossed.

Oh yeah, one more thing worth telling from my train trip to Delhi. I was really happy when I got a ticket for the fast 12 hr 25 min train from Varanasi to new Delhi a few days ago. However, the train started two hours late and we ended up being 9 hrs 40 mins late of schedule in New Delhi. It ruined my chances of getting the passport yesterday, which otherwise would easily have been possible. I guess I needed one bad train experience from India before leaving as well...

Kota - This Time on Purpose

Three months ago I spent a few hours in Kota train station after I had taken the wrong train in Mathura. This time I took the train from Mathura to Kota on purpose. I went to visit Khalid, the young man who helped me during the train trip to Delhi and in Delhi three months ago.

Kota isn't a big tourist target and I didn't expect to do much sightseeing. My friend and his friends took me to see a few things worth seeing in Kota. We saw a nice garden (where local young couples secretly go to hold hand and kiss), an impressive dam and a park with seven wonders of the world. They weren't exactly the seven wonders and nowhere close in scale, but beautiful for sure. The lighting was very nicely done. There are some pictures coming soon.

It was very nice to see my friend and "philosophize" with him. I also enjoyed getting to know his friends. The delicious home cooked food was again one of the highlights, especially the local dish dal wadi.

Something very special and important for me, a language freak, happened for the first time during the trip as well. I got the feeling that it is possible to learn Hindi. I managed to understand some discussions on a very basic level and I also learned a few more words and phrases. In this respect I'm going too soon unfortunately. Another month our two in an environment like the past four days would make a big difference. But I'm still very happy I'm going home soon.

Next Jaipur!

Closing the Circle

I spent the past two days in Vrindavan, where my trip started in August. It was very nice to see the city again, but even nicer to see my Indian family again. I don't know if you remember, but I met two brothers during the last week of my first stay in Vrindavan and I've been in contact with the younger one ever since I left. I knew I would have some time before going back to Europe and two weeks ago I asked my Indian brother if it would be possible to come and visit his family. The answer was a very definite and happy yes. It was nice to meet the whole family and taste the mother's lovely food. Two days went very quickly, but we will meet again, I'm sure.

I went twice to visit Vrinda Kunja ashram, the place I volunteered in, but both times most of the people I know were not there. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

I also visited the Yamuna river and was surprised how different everything looked. The water level was down approximately two meters from my last visit in the end of August. It still was very beautiful. I'll try to upload photos soon. I'll put them in a new folder inside the Vrindavan folder.

Now I'm sitting in a train again, but only for four hours. I'm going to the place where I already accidentally went to, when I took the wrong train in early September. This time it's a planned visit. More about it in the next post.

Hurrying to Delhi

Since Varkala, my plan has been to reach Delhi by or around the beginning of December. The reason for the early return is my passport - both pieces of it. I'm guessing during my trek in McLeod Ganj, the page with my picture on it came loose from the rest of the pages. I've been able to use it as an identification during my travels, but it would not be accepted at the airport. I asked the embassy what to do. They told me that the only safe option is to apply for a new passport. But more about that later. I've got a thing or two to say about Hyderabad.

Hyderabad is a crowded and bustling city of seven million inhabitants. It's the capital of the Andhra Pradesh state. I never really wanted to go there, but transport from Hospet directly to Delhi was not possible and I needed to split the huge distance in two anyway. Hyderabad was a good choice.

After arriving there early in the morning, I directly went to the reservation office to wait for the opening of the tatkal-ticket sales at 10 am. Tatkal means last minute and it's sometimes a real blessing for an unplanned traveler. You need to pay a little extra for it and be early the day before in the reservation office, but those two minor problems seem like small things in comparison to booking the trip two weeks or more in advance. Some trains still have regular bookable seats the same day, but especially for longer distances you need to be an early bird, or go tatkal.

I was again helped by a local man, who showed me a place to stay and also recommended a few places to see. The Salar Jung museum was one of them. Unfortunately the visit was just a continuation of my bizarre museum experiences in India. I'm aware that the museum is based on a personal collection of one man, but honestly, two rooms full of porcelain figurines and a room showing walking sticks (among other kitsch,) were not really that interesting. The collection has valuable items add well, but they were buried under a lot of junk.

I also saw the Charminar, the city's most famous landmark. It's name means four pillars and when you see it, you know why. It's built in the form of a square, with four big arches on the sides and four pillars on the corners. It has been looking over the city for more than 400 years already. Pictures from Hyderabad here.

After taking the longest train during my trip so far (26 hrs), I arrived in Delhi on Tuesday morning. As soon as I got to my room, I directly went to the embassy and applied for a new passport. Everything was done in less than 45 minutes. Since I came this early, I was able to apply for a regular five-year passport instead of an emergency passport for one year. It should be ready in a week or two at the most. Then I still have to get an exit visa for it, since my tourism visa was for my broken passport. I heard that this shouldn't be too difficult.

I did some sightseeing in Delhi on foot the next day. I walked a 15 kilometer tour from my hotel to Connaught place, then to India Gate, president's palace and finally Lodhi gardens. I enjoyed it very much, especially the beautiful gardens with old tombs. It's funny to think how much I hated Delhi in the beginning and how much I liked it now. Delhi pictures here.

Now I'm in Vrindavan, where I spent the first three weeks of my India tour. But I'll tell you more about it later, since I just arrived last night.

Ancient Ruins and Relaxing - Hampi

The past three days I got to know the reasons why so many travelers have told me to go to Hampi. The whole town is a UNESCO world heritage site. Absolutely amazing rough nature combined with impressive ruins of a 14-16th century Vijyanagra kingdom. As a bonus you can also add the relaxed accommodation that made me feel like I was on a beach again.
Two nights before arriving in Hampi I spent in transit. The first night was one of the worst I've had so far in India. I was in a sleeper bus coming down from Munnar to Bangalore. Three curvy narrow road coming down from the hill station was a real shaker. I managed not to throw up, but I also didn't manage to sleep a lot even after the better roads started. The second night was a much more pleasant one on a train from Bangalore to Hospet, the closest station to Hampi.

On the first morning I went for a walk without a plan. I met a man in front of the biggest temple in town, the Virupakshna temple, who asked me if I would like to take a bicycle tour around the town and the ruins. I hadn't really planned that, but I thought I'd give it a go. A good decision. The man guiding us told us many stories and legends in addition to the history of the ruins. Besides, pedaling felt so good after such a long break...

After the three hour tour was done, I kept the bicycle and went to see the Hanuman temple. It's located three kilometers outside Hampi on a hill made out of boulders and the view from there is simply magnificent. There were a lot of monkeys though and they came very close to you expecting to get food and grabbing pretty much anything they found interesting.

Today I'm leaving for Hyderabad where I hope to get a Tatkal (last minute) train ticket to Delhi.

Photos from Hampi are here and if you haven't seen the photos from Thekkady and Munnar yet, here's your chance.

PS. I'm posting this late, because I'm experiencing some serious problems with the battery of my mobile. I still haven't found a replacement, but I'm hoping Delhi solves that problem.

Sickness and Tea Hills

It's been a strange week. When I left Varkala early Wednesday morning toward Thekkady, I was feeling tired and I had a headache. The second part of the journey, five hours in a rattg bus, was a torment and before arriving Kumily I was feeling nauseous as well. I was offered a room the second I stepped out of the bus and I went to have a look. Since the price was ok and the room was spacious and clean, I said yes. I decided to have a little nap to revive myself from the travel stupor. The nap didn't help much unfortunately and later in the evening I felt the first signs of fever.

By the time I went to sleep, I had shivers and high fever. Especially the shivers gave me alarm, since I knew that malaria shows itself with a high fever combined with severe chills and shivering. The next morning the fever was almost gone and I started studying the symptoms of malaria (damn you Dr Google), and I was able to put every symptom I had under the description of malaria. Too much time to think, confined in a room with internet and a mild sickness can turn any minor thing into a massive death-bringing illness.

The high fever didn't come back the next night or day, but a mild fever, headache and some stomach problems persisted. On the third day I was still feeling weak and I made a decision: I was going to a doctor. The malaria troll in my mind had grown too big. After I told the doctor about my symptoms, he said not to worry, but he agreed to take a blood test for malaria and dengue. After thirty minutes the results were ready and everything was just fine. No malaria or dengue and my blood values were better than average.

On my way back to my room, I felt strength returning to my body. It is amazing how big the part of mind is in illnesses. I'm not saying I got cured by the negative test result, but I definitely felt much better afterwards than I did before going to the doctor's. After the doctor's I noticed my nose had started running at some point. It might have been happening a bit longer already, but since it didn't fit the malaria diagnosis, I had ignored it...

The main reason to come to Thekkady/Kumily is the Periyar national park and wildlife sanctuary. I was looking forward to doing some trekking there, but my sickness prevented me from doing that. The last full day of my stay, after the visit to the doctor, I decided to at least do something. I booked a tour that included a tour through a tea plantation, a tea factory and a spice farm. I learned a lot about tea and spices. Especially the spice tour was interesting. The same afternoon I took a boat tour on the Periyar lake and saw some buffalos, elephants and a lot of birds. The boats (yes, there were four of them) were loud and crowded with people and not really what I had expected. I was happy to see the elephants though.

Yesterday morning I left Thekkady and I arrived in Munnar, a hill station about hundred kilometers north of Thekkady. It's probably most famous of its tea. The last twenty kilometers of the bus ride were absolutely spectacular. Beautiful hills covered in green tea plants, some water in between and higher peaks in the background.

The town itself doesn't have a lot to offer. Since I'm still blowing my nose all the time, I'm not going to do a lot here today. I booked a bus to Bangalore for this afternoon and night. I'm only staying there for the day and in the late tomorrow evening I'm taking a train to Hospet, the train station nearest to Hampi, my next destination.

More pictures are coming as soon as I find a WiFi hotspot.