Here I am, safe and sound in Chiang Mai! Loving it so far, but more on that later...feel like I really should finish writing about India now that I have finished travelling there - oh it makes me sad to type that!
So I think I had gotten as far as our afternoon trekking to the dunes for sunset. Well the trekking was like the other trekking, but the destination? That was something else altogether. The dunes themselves were really beautiful; completely untouched sand apart from by these beetles that were cute, but reminded me a bit too much of the scarab beetles in 'The Mummy' so I tried to avoid them as much as possible! When we arrived, the sun was already on its way down and was hanging in the sky, a huge, luminescent red ball. The speed at which it set was impressive - I reckon I was only there for twenty minutes or so before it had completely disappeared. I found it interesting though, because it didn't actually disappear behind the horizon, but just above and so there was always a gap between the bottom of the sun and the horizon line of the desert, where you could still see sky. I'm sure there is some scientific explanation for that which Dad could fill me in on, but I found it intriguing! It was so peaceful sitting there watching the sun set. The guides had stayed down at the bottom of the dunes, setting up the campfire and starting to prepare dinner, so it was just the tourists on the dunes and I think we all instinctively knew to leave the others be. So I got to sit completely alone, looking out over the desert in complete silence, without a sign of any other human beings...pretty special experience.
After the sun had finished setting, we headed back down to the camp where chai was waiting for us and some entertaining chat with the camel guys. It only took about twenty minutes after the sun had set for it to be pitch black and starry, so it became a bit of a challenge for them to cook I think! I helped out again, but this time wasn't allowed anywhere near the chapatis and instead was peeling garlic, which I have to say I did admirably well (although I'm not sure it's possible to peel garlic badly)! Just before serving, Ramesh said he would just go check on the camels but that he would be back in a few minutes. Two hours later, after two phone calls and the other guide also disappearing into the wilderness, and long after we had eaten our delicious desert dinner, they finally returned with all the camels. Turns out the naughty creatures had gone off for a jaunt to a farm 3km away and were happily munching away on the crops there! Ramesh said he has never known them go so far...I guess they fancied exploring! It did make me giggle though to think of Ramesh and his friend trying to find them in the dark though, thank goodness one of them has a bell or I don't know how they would have located them! While they were gone I wandered around the dunes a bit, star gazing. The sky was incredible; there was no moon so the stars were particularly bright, and I guess it makes sense, considering the fact that I was somewhere completely new in the world, but they looked nothing like they do at home. We could see what the Swiss guys reliably informed me was the whole of the milky way, and they also pointed out a few constellations to me. To be blunt though, I didn't really care what I was looking exactly, and was more enamoured with the overall effect, which was sublime. I also saw three shooting stars which was amazing, especially as I have never seen any before, so to see three in one night was pretty incredible.
Ramesh then came up to join me in the dunes and was pointing out some interesting sights to me, including the Pakistan border which we could see the lights of (and the fireworks as they were already celebrating Diwali). It really didn't look very far away, Ramesh said 60km - a lot closer than I had thought it would be! There haven't been any troubles there for a while now though, so it's not like it's unsafe. Even the fact that there is such a presence there though makes you realise that the two country's relations are no where near friendly yet. We sat for a while chatting but then what seems is the inevitable happened and he offered me a 'desert massage' and I decided it was time to retreat to my bed next to the Swiss guys! I don't know what it was with Indian men, but several seem to have the idea that it's ok to ask to touch somebody, so long as you are offering a specific type of massage. In Bodhgaya it was a reiki massage, in Varansi a chakra massage and in Rajasthan a desert massage...I was honestly a little intrigued as to what a 'desert massage' was, but not enough to let him try it on me!
My bed was a blanket on one of the dunes, with the stars above me - a billion star guest house as all the guides were keen on joking! All jokes aside though, it was utterly stunning. It got chilly at night so I was tucked up in a blanket, with the sound only of the wind and an occasional camel bell tinkle, and sometimes, when the wind blew the right way, a bit of music from the Diwali celebrations. I lay there, staring up at the sky and couldn't really bring myself to believe that I was actually there, in Rajasthan, in the desert, laying under the stars, with my friend the camel on the next dune! I felt like an extremely lucky girl, a feeling I have been experiencing a lot on this trip! I slept really well and had a fabulously vivid dream about being a princess in Jodhpur and then when I woke we got to watch the sun coming up from the other side of the desert. I was sat in bed while the guides brought us chai and breakfast, and as far as I can remember, that is pretty much the most atmospheric place I have ever eaten breakfast.
Our morning ride back to the jeep was perfect. It was still early enough that the sun wasn't too hot and there was a cool (well, relatively cool) breeze. Thanks to that, we saw a bit more wildlife, including a small family of gazelles which were so graceful. I was sad to leave Lucky behind because of the sights that he had carried me to, but I must admit that my inner thighs were not sorry to see the back of him! Camel riding is a brilliant experience that I am very glad I tried, but it is definitely not the most comfortable way to travel! I can add it to my list though; plane, train, automobile (including car, taxi, auto rickshaw, motorbike, bus), boat, cycle rickshaw and now camel!
So that was Rajasthan; an amazing state to visit, and one I would heartily recommend, and hopefully will return to one day. Saying that though, I would like to return to just about everywhere I went in India, and would like to see a lot more of it too! All that remained for my India trip was Diwali in Delhi. However, the word 'all' is misleading, as there was a lot to my last stop!
Before I could begin celebrating in Delhi, I had to get there, and unlike my other train journeys in India, this one was a tad more eventful. I hadn't been able to reserve a seat when I went to the station to book the ticket because it was late to be booking and everyone was travelling for Diwali. Luckily though, when I got to the station, my name was off the waiting list and on to the seated list, so I thought all would be well. Unfortunately, I didn't have an upper berth like I had had before, so I couldn't just retreat up there straight away and stake my claim to a bed. Instead, I had to sit on the lower bunk and wait for a decent time before I could get my bed (the middle one) out to go to sleep. That would have been fine, except at some random Rajasthani village a whole load of people got on and crowded in next to me. I counted, and in the section I was in which should have had six people sitting in it, we had fourteen! Somewhat crowded I am sure you can imagine! It was four families worth, and I was a tad concerned about how on earth I was going to boot them off their seat so I could get my bed down! We travelled like that for a few hours, with them finding just about everything that I did hilarious; I may not understand Hindi, but I know when people are mocking me! However, I offered the kids some biscuits and that seemed to make me seem more human, less joke and calmed them all down a bit. Luckily, when we got to Jodhpur at about 10pm, three of the families got off, and so I took my chance to ask the other family (with lots of miming and misunderstandings) to scoot over to the other side so I could go to bed and end the drama. Or so I thought. I slept until about midnight when I was woken by a whole group of people poking me and shouting at me. As I am sure you can appreciate, this was a tad disconcerting, and thanks to the fact that I had just woken up, made me rather disorientated! It transpired that they thought my bed was theirs and they were trying to make me move. However, I was pretty damn sure that the bed was mine, so I refused to move, in a sort of sit-in, peaceful protest style! They eventually realised that they were in the wrong carriage and so left, so I was really glad I had stood my ground, or I guess, lay my ground! Being in India alone has definitely made me more assertive; there is no way I would have done that when I first started travelling and I think it's good - you need confidence to succeed at this travelling malarky!
Arrived in to Delhi with no more drama and was met by Arpit at the Badarpur border which is nearer to where he lives. He is one of the friends I made in Kolkata but studies in Delhi and lives with family about an hour out of the city. He had offered to show me around when I was in Delhi, but in the end went way above and beyond the call of duty or hospitality or whatever you want to call it, and invited me to stay with his family and celebrate Diwali with them for my whole stay. He, and they, were so sweet to me and really looked after me; I had a great time celebrating the biggest Indian festival with them!
My time in Delhi alternated between family Diwali traditions and sight seeing, with a little good old traditional British festival fun (ie drinking) thrown in for good measure! Because of the conservative nature of Arpit's family we had to be very secretive about this aspect, which made it feel much more naughty than it was! The sights I saw were the Red Fort, Connaught Place, the Lotus Temple and Dilli Haat. The same thing happened again with the fort; I didn't know what on earth I was looking at and so failed to understand the significance of each part! Fortunately, I had read quite a bit about the fort before hand, so I knew a little about it in general, so it was good to put that information in to context, and even if I didn't know which bit was which, the architecture was beautiful. Connaught Place I liked very much. It is the main commercial district of Delhi and basically two massive concentric circles which are full of shops and places to eat. We shopped there for a couple of hours and Arpit and his cousin Swati (the sweetest girl) bought some traditional dress for Diwali. It was nice to just be in a commercial district and wandering around...didn't really even feel like India! The Lotus Temple is (unsurprisingly) a temple in the shape of a lotus flower. It was stunning to see this huge flower made of white marble, and inside was so peaceful as they don't allow anyone to talk or take in mobile phones or cameras. After the chaos of Hindi temples, this was a haven of serenity, and I couldn't work out why it was so different until I discovered that it wasn't a Hindi temple at all, but a Baha'i temple. The Baha'i religion is all about unity between different religions and peoples, and focuses on the importance of community. They believe in a God, but have no religious leader, instead focusing on the importance of individual pursuit of truth and answers. They have services each day in which parts are read from all the holy books, with no discrimination or favouritism. I found the religion really fascinating and chatted for ages to one of the Baha'i volunteers there, a lovely Persian girl actually! Finally, Dilli Haat was a sort of handicrafts market, where you could buy products from all over Inida, from the makers directly. It was an amazing place with so so much to look and and potentially buy. Unfortunately, my rucksack is at bursting point already so I couldn't buy much, but did get a present for family Lewis (can't say what as they aren't allowed to open it yet!) and Arpit bought me a gorgeous top/dress that I had my eye on. I was mortified that he was buying me a present after everything he had done for me, but he insisted - so sweet of him! His family were the same though; despite welcoming me in to their home for their most important festival, feeding me, and making me feel so at home, when I was leaving two of his aunts presented me with gifts! One gave me a lovely silver pendant and earrings and another an exquisite traditional North Indian outfit, which is intricately decorated with beads and so beautiful! They all said that they would like me to visit again as well, and I really hope I'll be able to - I've told Swati I'll come back for her wedding!
The Diwali part of my Delhi stay was what made it so special though. Diwali is the Indian equivalent of Christmas; everyone celebrates it and has their own family traditions surrounding it. Obviously the history behind the festival and the way of celebrating is different, but the basic concepts of being with family, giving gifts and eating lots are the same! Diwali has two main meanings as far as I could make out (I should say sorry here in case I get any of the mythology wrong; I must have bored Arpit and Swati to death incessantly asking them questions about it!), one is celebrating the return of Rama after 14 years where he has been gone rescuing Sita, and the other is to praise Lakismi, the goddess of wealth and to ask for an auspicious and prosperous year. It's known as the 'Festival of Lights' and so candles play a huge part in the celebrations and all the houses are lit up with colourful fairy lights. On the religious side, the festival involves performing pujas (like the Durga Puja in Kolkata). We did three of these in the family houses, and each one basically involved honouring the idols by flicking red liquid at them, sprinkling rice over them and bowing down to say a small prayer before having some of the red liquid and rice put on your forehead. The final puja was the biggest, and for this one we also offered food to the idols and Arpit's family sang a devotional song (like a hymn) while I rang the bell. After each puja, the dias (candles) used were spread around the house, one in each room, so that the auspiciousness brought from the puja would be spread around the house too. The pujas were fascinating, and it was really nice to do them in such a personal, family oriented way - a completely different experience from the mass pujas of Durga Puja in Kolkata.
As well as this religious side, there are also family traditions that make their Diwali personal, just like every British family has their own Christmas traditions. The first one we did was on the day before Diwali which is the 'small Diwali'. Every year the young ones in the family get together and gamble to start the celebrations, so they taught me how to play 'pot', a pretty simple card game which is very much based on luck, luck which unfortunately evaded me! It was good fun though and we played with money from a 'bank' so I didn't actually lose anything, thank goodness! The second tradition I did was making the 'rangoli' - a design on the floor that we (we being Swati and I) made with colourful powders and candles. I have to say, ours was pretty beautiful - we used lots of bright colours and outlined it with silver glitter so that it sparkled when the candles were lit. All of their family seemed impressed with it and Swati was very chuffed with how it turned out, so that was really nice :) The last big tradition that I participated in was the 'crackers'. This is the name that they give to fireworks, but they have not only aerial ones, but actually more that you light on the floor and that make designs (and noise) nearer to earth. My favourite type was one that you lit on the floor like a spinning top, that once it started spinning emitted lovely white and gold sparks in a big spiral...really pretty! Literally every family has their own display (or at least every family where Arpit lives) and so the noise of it is immense! It's like bonfire night but a million times multiplied - I guess I should have expected it; this is India after all and they don't do anything by halves!
So like I said, we did some classic British celebrating as well; a little drinking at home on the night of Diwali, and then we also went out for a meal and drinks on my last night. This last night in particular was so lovely. We went to one of Arpit's favourite places called 'The Living Room' where they have amazing food, live acoustic music playing and (most importantly) Zinfandel Rose wine! It was a really good evening, not least because it was something pretty new for Swati. Like I mentioned, Arpit's family are pretty conservative and so are anti Swati drinking, and also don't like her to be out late. In fact, this was the first time she was out after 11pm in her life, and she is 23, has graduated from Uni and working a full time job with Ernst and Young! Even to go out until midnight for dinner she had to ask permission not only from her parents but from her brother, and there was a real possibility that they would say no. Luckily they didn't and we ended up having a great time. It was bizarre though, such an extreme culture difference, and she could definitely tell that I found it strange. I also asked her lots of questions about how traditional their family are in other aspects and it turns out they are very, to the point that all of their cousins have had arranged marriages, and she thinks that she may well end up having one too. I find the concept of that so strange, and had thought that arranged marriages were on their way out in India. Apparently not though, as Swati reckons that they are still more common than love marriages and are really the norm. I guess every culture is different though, and it seems to be working for their family in general, although they did tell me one horrible story about a cousin whose husband turned out to be abusive, and now that she has divorced him, she probably will never marry again, unless there is 'something wrong' with the new husband too. It must be really hard to be in that position in your twenties, I feel so sorry for her.
On my last day in Delhi/India, I did something that I never thought I would do: I went to a Formula 1 race. Actually, more than that, I went to the first ever race in India at a brand new racing track built especially for the occasion! Arpit's cousin had got us the tickets which were obscenely expensive and not something I would every had bought, but I am so glad he did! The race was cool enough, the cars really do go ridiculously fast and are so loud...we actually had to leave the stadium and buy earplugs because it was hurting our ears sitting there without! We were in the grandstand in front of where they do the pit stops, so that was cool as well as we got to see them doing a bit of that. However, that was by no means the best bit of the day. Arpit's cousin (I do know his name but have no idea where to even begin spelling it) somehow managed to wangle his way in to the VIP Platinum Lounge, and then was able to get us in too...for free! Being in the Platinum Lounge meant air conditioned and sound proofed boxes from which to watch the race, unlimited free gourmet food and snacks, and unlimited free drinks! Arpit and I (and his cousin) obviously made the most of this, and drank copious amounts of free champagne and ate a lot of very tasty food from all over the world. After a Diwali with an Indian family where I had stretched my stomach already, this was not an ideal place to be, and I ended up eating until it hurt! It did mean that I didn't need to buy any food until I got to Chiang Mai though, which I guess saved me money! Being a VIP should have cost 3lakh which is nearly 4000 pounds, if I am exchanging it right, which is clearly an insane amount of money, even for what we got! To be a VIP on the Sunday of the races was 5lakh...mental! It was so much fun though and I could not for the life of me stop giggling, partly because of the champagne, partly because it was so surreal and I couldn't quite believe it was happening!
All that was left then was to pop back to the house and say goodbye to Arpit's family, and then Arpit himself. It was sad to say goodbye, I really enjoyed staying with them and was so well looked after. I really hope some of the friends I have made in India will take me up on my offer of visiting the UK so one day I can repay the many favours they have done for me!
So that's it...goodbye India! Before I left I read everywhere that I would either love or hate India, and I definitely see now that that is true, and am so glad that I come down on the lover side! It is an incredible country with so much to see and do and I know that I will come back some time in the future to try and see and do some more of it! It has everything; amazing buildings, fascinating history, delicious food, diverse culture, breath taking nature, beautiful handicrafts and some of the loveliest people I have ever met. Yes, it also has squalor, heart breaking poverty, crooks, perverts and danger, but I think for me, these contrasts just highlighted the good points, and made me want to see even more of those! India attacks your senses from every side, and although sometimes, or most of the time, the experience is pretty overwhelming, it is never, not for a second, dull. Even the times I sat just quietly in a restaurant eating alone I was soaking up culture from every side and loving every minute of it. I am sad to have left there and cannot believe how quickly my time went, but I am also really excited to be in a completely new culture, ready to start learning all over again!
I won't go in to Thailand in detail now - I have only been here just over 24 hours after all! - but will just say that so far I am very happy. My volunteer house is lovely; very clean and comfortable, and tomorrow I have orientation ready to start work on Tuesday, which I am both looking forward to and nervous about! There is another volunteer in the house who has been here 3 weeks though and she is very happy so far, so that bodes well I feel :) There are loads of internet places near my house so it should be easy to keep in touch here, so maybe I will write with a bit more regularity than in India!
Lots of love, as always,
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