“And I was green, greener than a hill”
I have spent the last week in the state of Rajasthan. After Pushkar we arrived in Jodphur – the blue city – unfortunately any endearing features of the city were completely overshadowed by the amount of harassment we got on the streets and even from the staff in our hotel: staring, groping, pornographic slurs all became startling real. So I spent most of my 3 days there angry and losing my temper (not fun). The highlight was going to the Fort and doing a tour around, a much easier way for me to digest pieces of Indian history, and the views both within the Fort, and of the blue cityscape and desert horizon, were magnificent. We stayed in Jodphur longer than expected (we were both keen to leave the night we arrived) but my friend got very sick with food poisoning.
As soon as possible we jumped a train to Jaisalmer which is in the proximity of the Pakastan border and definitely a desert town. We were able to stay inside the grounds of the Fort amidst the winding cobbled streets, sandstone walls, Hindu and Jain temples, and spectacular 360 views of the desert surrounds. We planned to do a camel safari.
Unfortunately when we arrived I was feverish, shivering, weak and coughing up a lung – so hesitantly we sought our way into the Indian medical system. We were told there was one foreign tourist doctor at the hospital – no medical centres here – so we made our way down there. When we arrived hundreds of people were spilling out of a central room onto the verandah and the street. The tourist doctor, we were told very curtly, was on leave. We would have to come back next week! The other option was to try my luck with the local doctors available – an option I took, having convinced myself I could have malaria. I was directed into a large, unfurnished room filled with a disorderly mob of a hundred or so sick people, waiting to see the two doctors sitting at a desk at either end. There seemed to be no queueing system, let alone a triage system, so feeling defeated and weak I sat down against a wall and felt very sorry for myself. My highly assertive dutch friend pushed her way towards the doctor, clarified that he spoke english, and demanded that her friend was very sick and needed to be seen immediately, which he did. It turns out that I don’t have malaria, but I do have bronchitis. So I spent my three days in Jaisalmer pretty much in bed which is a bit tragic. But I did get to experience the incredible generosity of some of the local people, like my guesthouse owner and the woman whose cafe I dragged myself to for fresh juice every morning. It has challenged my stereotype that all Indians are out to get me or rip me off, it has helped me developed compassion and respect for these people.
Yesterday the dutch girl I’ve been travelling with left on a camel safari and I left to fight my way onto a 20-hr train to Delhi. Arriving in Delhi on cycle-rickshaw I immediately became part of the throbbing mass of colourful bodies, vehicles, animals and freight moving in every conceivable direction. I got stuck in a traffic jam, a phrase which doesn’t do it justice at all. It was more like sitting in the middle of the chaos of a full-scale city evacuation: freight loaded metres high on pushbikes being pushed uphill by sweaty men in turbans, donkeys siddling as if drunk with the weight of bricks piled upon their backs, cyclerickshaws colliding and getting stuck in each other’s wheels – requiring everyone to get off to jiggle them apart, vehicles trying to turn off the main road getting stuck and blocking traffic from all angles, small children weaving in and out of the stalled traffic, bulls with brightly painted horns pulling carts loaded with freight with lazing men on top, bicycles narrowly avoiding being dangerously sandwiched between two buses, motorcycles doing their best to weave through the gaps with three or four passengers and shopping bags in tow. And everyone looking calm. It was the look on their faces that stopped me from asking whether maybe a real state of emergency had been called. This is just like any other day in Delhi.
Tags: India
Jyai
March 20th, 2005 at 9:30 pm
Sorry to hear about the food posioning and CONTINUED hassle. Nice to meet you there Jyai. I am starting my own blog here. Thanks for the recommendation. Here is (will be) my Saturday entry.
SATURDAY –
I am leaving Jaisalmer a day early. Having spent 1250 rupees on a 20 minute camel ride to the sand dunes, one hour wait for the sunset, 5 minute gallop back [at my request], one hour of folk dancing by gypsies (actually not bad) watching a tour group of 35 French people eat, while I starve, I am pissed off.
HOTEL : “No food for you sir, you in different group”
PAUL : “Yes I am in the rip off group. Where’s my bloody food”
HOTEL : Other Hotel
{The driver from the other hotel had actually approached me to come to the Jeep to go for the food – but I had dismissed him as a beggar. Why cant I have THAT food the same as the FRENCH!!! I was screaming. If anyone knows me when I get hypogly-how do you spell it-ceamic, you will know what I mean.
Saturday Morning :-
Hotel in Jaisalmer – why are you leaving early sir.
PAUL : “I have enjoyed my stay and wish to move on”
Hotel in Jaisalmer – “Nothing in Bikaner to see sir. You stay here”
PAUL : “NO THANK YOU” {How did he know I was going to Bikaner????}
5 minutes later
DRIVER : “Paul, the Hotel Owner wants a lift to Pokin, on the way 150 kilometers”
PAUL : “Are sure its in the way”
DRIVER : “Yes yes”
PAUL : “Will there be a detour?”
DRIVER : “No no , no detour”
PAUL : “OK then”
5 minutes later thinks – oh no. This is going to be a big mistake.
{Side – of course there was a detour, a promise to a Bishnou Village, which of course “has different tribes” the day I arrived. Just happened to be the Hotel Oweners brothers villgae. Pure coincidence of course. Hotel owner disappearead as soon as we arrived.}
Song for the day “Oh what a fool am I..”
Saturday (driving throught the desert)
Thinking of waving bamboo and a conversation I had with a midwife from Newtown, not 48 hours earlier, where I said “No the Indians dont get to me, I have plenty of patience….” I just trust the universe and everything works out…..
New rule : DONT trust the universe when Indians are involved. All these gods somehow manage to stuff things up.
Sorry Jyai, I have to agree with you. India is hassly.
India 20
Paul 8