India is a lot of things, and a lot of things happen a lot in India.
This was our first stop on the four-month journey that also included Nepal, Bhutan, South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique.
Our previous experiences flying with Emirates had always been good, and this time was no exception. The only negative side was that due to a long transit time we had to spend 10 hours in Dubai, in the middle of the night.
But we got a much appreciated surprise after our plane had landed. The extra long transit time meant that we were entitled to a complementary hotel night in Dubai.
So instead of lying on the hard floor at the airport with our backpacks as pillows we ended up getting a nice, hot shower and a comfy bed, for free.
Thank you for this Emirates, pretty appreciated!
No Dubai
We had to get up very early the next morning as we had an early Delhi flight. The hotel breakfast was not even open yet, but we managed to get some sandwiches on the go.
It was a shame that we did not have time to see Dubai, but it is still on our bucket list and we will get there sooner or later.
New Delhi
A couple of hours later we landed in New Delhi. As we were tired from the early wake up we headed straight to our hotel.
In hindsight, the hotel we stayed at was more cheap than good. We kind of expected it, even though it is hard to know what you book when travelling to a new country for the first time.
You often get what you pay for, and this was was as mentioned, not a very luxurious residence. Unless you are into red velvet curtains and bedsheets that is…
Big country, lots of people
Delhi has a population somewhere between 18-22 million, depending if you include the surrounding suburbs/towns. It is also one of the world’s most densely populated areas with approximately 11 900 persons per sq. km. (30 800 people per sq. mile).
The total population in the whole of India is more than 1,3 billion people making it number two in the list of countries with most inhabitants. (China has about 1,4 billion.)
But interestingly enough, India is not among one of the most densely populated countries in the world. It is not even close. It barely makes Top 30 on that list. Instead Monaco (!) is unchallenged in the top.
Even so, India is a very intense destination indeed. And it gave us some fantanstic memories for life. Some good, some a bit more, what should I say, “fascinating”.
Buckle up, and holy cow, here comes India!
Being no huge big city fans (except for NY, Sydney and Barcelona who we love!), we wanted to keep our Delhi visit short. Instead we hoped to quickly find ourselves a driver and head out on the Indian roads.
We found a travel agency nearby and we decided to go for a two week drive with a personal driver/chauffeur.
He would take us from Delhi via Bikaner-Jodhpur-Udaipur-Jaipur-Ranthambore and Agra.
From Agra we got train tickets to our final Indian destination, Varanasi. A total travel period of around three weeks.
Tata!
The next day our driver, named Kamal, showed up in a gigantic white car that felt more like an armored tank than a car. This would definitely keep us safe on the, what we had heard, quite dangerous Indian roads.
Ok, now I am lying again, the car was pretty far from being a tank. It looked like a tiny little can on moped wheels.
Say hi to the famous Indian car brand Tata!
Road mayhem
Nevertheless, Kamal was a very caring driver and took good care of us.
The only problem was that almost all the other drivers on the road showed no consideration nor common sense at all.
Jesus almighty, bloody hell and strike me pink.
I am not a religious person by any means. But from this moment on, every morning, I prayed to some higher power to keep us safe.
The expression “Crazy India” unquestionably includes some crazy drivers.
Would we bring our kids on an Indian road trip if we return someday? Most likely, not…
The Karni Mata Temple
To be honest, we can not recall exactly how we drove, but our first stop was the town of Bikaner.
We spent the night in a brick colored hotel that looked more like a miniature fort than an actual hotel. We had no idea what kind of accommodation to expect but overall the lodging on the trip was rather nice 3/4-star hotels.
The next day we visited the first “fascinating” place of our trip, namely the Karni Mata Temple. Or as it is also called, the Rat Temple of Rajasthan.
It is situated in the small town of Deshnok about 30 km south of Bikaner.
Rats rats rats
The Karni Mata Temple is home to over 20 000 rats, or “kabas”, and they are literally everywhere!
The locals do not see them as rats. They are reincarnations of the 14th century goddess, Karni Mata.
According to the legend – Karni Matas youngest son died and she asked Yama (the God of death) to bring her son back to life again.
Yama refused to help and Karni Mata then promised that all her male family members would die no more. Instead they would be reincarnated as rats in her temple.
So, there you have it! The rats are no rats, just small male descendants of Karni Mata. Running around, eating grains and drinking milk that are served in large metal bowls.
Be gentle
Shoes are not allowed inside the temple. And if you are very lucky a rat will run over your feet.
Lucky?
Yes! Congratulations! This is considered to be very auspicious!
On the other hand, try not to accidentally crush/kill a rat, as this is punishable with a replacement rat made of gold or silver. (Me, I would go for a silver rat as the gold/silver ratio is around 80 at the moment.)
Despite from all this, is the temple still worth a visit?
Definitely yes, as I doubt that there are many places like it around the world.
And, you can get a free meal!
Because if you eat the rat’s leftovers it is supposed to bring you luck and good fortune. And who would not want that?
The blue city of Jodhpur
A five hour drive south from Bikaner you will find Jodhpur, also known as the “Blue City” or the “Sun City”.
The “blue” is because houses in the old part of the city are beautifully blue-painted, The “sun” comes from the fact that Jodhpur enjoys pleasant and sunny weather all year round.
Mehrangarh Fort
After leaving our backpacks at the hotel we headed out to town.
Overlooking the city, you have the magnificent 15th century Mehrangarh Fort, one of the largest forts in India.
Jodhpur is the second largest city in Rajasthan with a population of about 1,5 million so we were not exactly on our own.
Cars and tuk-tuks are honking ALL the time. Then you have street vendors sitting in the middle of the street and cows walk around anywhere as they please.
Sacred cows
In case you did not know it. In Hinduism (which is the oldest religion in the world and practiced by 78% of the Indians) cows are considered to be sacred and are deeply respected.
Indians do not worship cows, nor belive them being gods.
The cows have owners. And they usually have a home. But the owners let them loose after milking them in the morning.
Then they do pretty much what thay want and as a tourist you should treat them with respect.
The rules are that man give way to cows, and it does not matter if you are walking or driving.
Some states in India impose life imprisonment if you kill a cow intentionally. So try avoiding that too.
Spice girls
We spent two full days in Jodhpur.
The first day we walked around the city center. We watched the clock tower and close by we found a very simple but cool shop where they sold all kinds of spices.
The shop was apparently quite famous. Despite the size of the facilities it had already been shown in several documentaries on global tv.
We had a long chat with the daughter of the late owner as she was running the business that day. She was a super sympathetic girl.
It turned out that the spice shop was run by seven sisters. They had kept their late fathers business legacy and it all was quite a story.
Being a women in India can be challenging enough some times.
Running a successful company in a male-dominated society, even more so.
You can learn more about their fantastic achievements and struggles by searching for “Spice girls of India” or by reading this article.
By the way – the shop even does export. So if you are into legit Indian spices, you have come to the right place! The only negative side is that you will have to wait an unknown number of days until you get your delivery.
(And no, we have no connection or cooperation with the shop whatsoever. It was just a very neat place that we really liked a lot.)
Rooftop restaurant
In the evening we found an absolute jewel of a restaurant!
Even though the food and the views were fantastic from the rooftop terrace, there was something else that we appreciated much, much more. Namely peace and quiet.
India can be veeery hectic. And to finally be able to get some silence while eating and drinking a glass of wine was one the highlights of the whole trip. 😊
At least I have my best travel moments when I can sit down and just absorb the present, without disturbance.
And when the clamor of traffic had receded to a distant murmur and the night had fallen over the city, it was suddenly like we were in a completely different place.
Back on the streets
Then we payed our bill and walked down the stairs and out into the streets.
BANG!
Right back in India again and my pulse jumped sixty beats in a second.
Luckily my better travel half is always calmer, and she has learned to cope with my jumping pulse. How she does it is still a mystery to me. “Just give the man a Snickers and hopefully he will get back to “normal” status again soon…”.
No true backpacker without India
Do not get me wrong. India is fascinating, it really is.
Sometimes though, it can just be a bit overwhelming.
Someone once said that you are not a serious world wanderer until you have travelled India. I truly get that.
This might be the ultimate backpackers test. Survive India, and you survive everyting. The country definitely has its highs and lows.
Me, I slowly started to look forward to Nepal and the quite, calm mountains…
Udaipur
But we still had a long way to go.
Udaipur, “The City of Lakes”, was next on the list.
If you call Jodhpur the “Blue city” you could call Udaipur the “White city”.
The white color originates from the fact that there are a lot of white buildings in the city, and the most famous of them all is the grand Taj Lake Palace. A white marble palace located in the middle of the artificial Lake Pichola.
Did you know that several scenes from the James Bond movie “Octopussy” were in fact shot in and around Udaipur?
We stayed only one night here but had enough time for a late-night dinner, overlooking the lake and the reflections from the lit-up palace.
Actually, we had time to do one thing before supper. We went on a last minute cooking class.
Cooking with Sashi
Shashi was the name of the lady that held the cooking class, and she turned out to be somewhat of a celebrity amongst travellers.
We found her through the almighty Lonely Planet India guide book, the mother of all travel guides. (The India edition was quite hefty to bring along and I hesitated before I brought it. It turned out to be very useful after all.)
Shashi held an excellent cooking class and we can really recommend it if you ever go to Udaipur.
The class took about 4-5 hours and we learned how to use and grind spices. And we got to make chapatis, pakoras, paneer, curries and chutneys.
Then, in the end, we got to eat it all! I believe we did a bloody good job if I can say it myself.
Jaipur
Jaipur is the largest city, and the capital, of the state of Rajasthan. It has a population of around 3 million and was the next city in our itinerary.
It was once again a scary 420 km (260 mile) ride, zigzagging back and forth on the road while trying to avoid oncoming kamikaze traffic.
Traffic, primarily in the shape of large, colorful, ornate Tata trucks.
The ride was really not that fun at all to be honest.
Genuinly insane
Most of the time we drove on rather small and narrow roads. We got a sudden feeling of relief when we started driving on a new, four lane road with a concrete step barrier.
Nice! How could it possibly be safer than this when driving in India?
It did not take more than maybe five minutes before we were on head-on collision course with a huge truck. It was driving on the wrong side of the road in full speed.
Just normal
Kamal managed to steer away just in time, not even breaking a sweat.
“What was that!?”, we asked.
“Oh, that is normal”, said Kamal. “The truckdrivers do not like to take a detour as the exit on this side of the road is faster.”
“Aaaaaah, stupid question. Of course, that makes perfect sense…”
Jaipur
A couple of hours later, including an unexpected change of a flat tire, we arrived in Jaipur, also known as the “Pink City”.
The “Pink” comes from the fact that almost every building in the city is painted in “Terracotta Pink”.
Why pink?
Well, in 1876, the very wealthy Maharaja Ram Singh of Jaipur decided to paint the whole city in the color of pink.
He did this to impress and welcome Prince Albert of Wales on his official state visit, as the Maharaja wanted to keep the strong bonds with the British.
The following year, in 1877, the Maharaja passed a law (with some light persuasion from his wife) making it illegal for anyone to change the colors of the buildings. This law is valid still today.
Longing for nature
There was nothing that really interested us enough in Jaipur to stay a long time as we also wanted to be able to squeeze in Ranthambore National Park, where we would have the chance to see tigers.
We made a quick stop in another other unknown small temple before we decided that we needed a brake from historical buildings for a while.
Our next destination was instead nature and wildlife!
Sum up
So to sum up Jaipur.
Arather big town, with lots of terracotta and lots of architecture, and lots of people.
Check, been there, done that.
Maybe a rather nonchalant and unsofisticated decision, but we wanted to move on…
Did you know that
India does not have a national language.
There are 22 official languages though, Hindi and English included. Besides from that there are more than 400 unofficial languages.
This of course must make India the most linguistically diverse country in the world?
Nope, not even close (again).
If you have ever visited Papua New Guinea, you would probably know that it has nearly 850 different spoken languages. Pretty cool!
