Planes, trains and auto-rickshaws

India... wow. It doesn't matter what you've heard, read or seen, the end result still shocks you. I often found myself wondering just how it is possible for a country to function in such a chaotic fashion.

It's a deeply religious, highly materialistic, beautifully colourful and unbelievably filthy place - but now I realise that before coming here I didn't understand the possible extent of those words. A sensory-overloading mix of absolute filth and pure nirvana seems to coexist here. Any traveller to India is quick to learn it's go-with-the-flow or get out... so we jumped straight in.

Snoozing in Kolkata train station local-style

From landing in Kolkata (Calcutta for the good ol' boys) we stumbled out into dry heat for our first hour-long cross-city rickshaw ride to the train station. This initiated us to Indian road laws, or rather the 2 golden laws of continuous horn use and size rules - with buses and trucks often playing a deadly game of chicken on the single-track roads until someone swerves at the last moment.

Recently I read an article in the paper about the notorious Blue-line buses, which are portrayed as killing machines running pedestrians down at will. The article stated that one of these buses had mowed down 12 people on the street (at the exact place and time we were one day earlier, worringly) before coming to a stop. Another of the deaths attributed to these "dangerous" machines was where the conductor pushed a guy off that led to his death. Clearly the sensationalist news stories wouldn't sound as good if they placed the blame with individual conductors or drivers...

In Rishikesh we were greeted with an interesting welcome (among other things a grumpy Indian shoo-ing James out of his shop - guess he didn't feel like selling anything that day) but we were relieved to finally arrive after 40 hours of travelling from our hotel in Bangkok, via metro, plane, taxi, train, metro, bus, coach, bus and finally tuk-tuk. We had a slight diversion (our Delhi "tour" as we called it) as we arrived in Delhi looking for the main bus station, little did we know there are actually several main bus stations so we went 1 hour by metro then another hour by bus to take us back to almost the same place we took the metro from. But hey-ho, we did get to catch a glimpse of the hectic Delhi life, even if it was just to let us know we wanted to get out of the city as soon as possible.

Some extreme rafting down the holy Ganges

Staying in Rishikesh was a great lifestyle for me and also James. I spent my days doing yoga twice a day and wandering along the Ganges river bank while I was getting achy-but-bendy muscles in preparation for our soon-approaching trekking in Nepal. James took another approach - he became a stationery figure either absorbed into the computer or reading. It had been so hot we are quite happy to be lazy all day, so not much site-seeing went on.

Cows and pilgrims on the bank of the Ganges

I love the diversity of this country and the people who are always beautifully coulourful and probably one of the most versatile nations we have seen. I have to admit the culture is intriguing, even the little we have seen of the country is incredible, however I do not have a great desire to spend much time surrounded by fowl-smelling stench (often momentarily masked by the strong sweet incense burning everywhere) and daily observing several people going about their 'private' business on the path in front of me... I witnessed a cow feasting on a repulsive-smelling soiled nappy in the center of the street. Only metres from this were people sitting eating! How this is possible is beyond me. I wonder if cows are so holy here then why are they not cared for instead of eating plastic and all the other options that lie along the street and open drains? The filth of India is one reason I cannot fully embrace the country's culture. However the level of teaching for yoga is second to none, plus the food is as expected very cheap and very tasty - if you follow the golden rule of avoiding all meat.

We finished up in Rishikesh by taking a gruelling 15-hour bus ride north to the small mountain station of Dharamsala (on advice from the seasoned India traveller Mr Stevens), which was a nightmare overnight mosquito-infested journey on a decrepit bus with a suicidal driver on steep windy roads. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep.

I found two great yoga teachers who soon had me growing muscles I didn't know existed and bending in positions that I was sure would break things. In search of yet more mindfulness and body-bending I found another great teacher in Dharamsala, Mcleodganj who continues to fuel my fascination with yogic lifestyle.

The Tibetan influence made a colourful difference

Dharamsala is home to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile, and as a result the atmosphere is hugely Tibetan, with the people of Tibet largely outnumbering the Indians. The Tibetan people are a quiet and peaceful bunch, and thankfully have a much better idea of hygiene than the rest of India. We very much enjoyed our relaxing time in the mountains, one day wondering along to the home of the Dalai Lama and peering through the windows to try and catch a glimpse of His Holiness. He is a wonderful leader with such a joyful and caring expession in every photogragh, despite the plight of his people.

On our walk around the Dalai Lama's residence we came across a Tibetan temple, in an area strewn with prayer flags from tree to tree and surrounded by rows and rows of prayer wheels, which in busier places are kept constantly spinning by the locals.

The mother-of-all prayer wheels

All the animals seemed to be bigger and well-fed here (if not fat!), which was a joy to see after the mangy maimed and ribby beasts ubiquitous to the rest of India. We even encountered the most chilled-out bull who was truly huge, but lovely and was happy for a nose rub.

BFB - Big Friendly Beast

After using up most of our time in two relaxing places and enjoying more yoga than most manage in years, we felt as ready as we ever were going to be for the hectic mayhem of India's cities. We took yet another delighful 12-hour bus ride to Delhi, only to get on a train for another 3 hours, finally arriving in Agra, so tired  that we slept for the rest of the day. The sunrise visit to the Taj Mahal was worth the effort, a beautiful building of enormous proportions and completely made of marble and gem stones. very elaborate and decorative, highly skilled workmanship involved and the attention to detail is abundant.. however despite it's prestige it somehow reminds me of a very posh bathroom!

The surrounding gardens are full of wildlife fun, particularly green parrots and chipmunks who entertained us with their skittish behavior.

Another of Agra's interesting sights is the unusual hobby of pigeon-fancying... at dawn and dusk every day you can witness the local men on their rooftops, exercising and (to some extent) controlling their hordes of pet pigeons.

It's a highly respectable hobby, so they say, and although we only witnessed some basic manoeuvres (circle, dive), apparently once you've reached the rank of 'Grand Master' you can control individual pigeons in a kit (collective group name, don't ya know) so presumably make them fly in true formation - sadly we didn't get to see this much.

Trains are by far the best way to travel here, one of the few good things that the British Raj introduced back in the day, but require booking way in advance to secure a seat. Apparently one week wasn't enough (some are booked up 2 months ahead) so from Agra back to Delhi we had to take the local bus - a 5-hour sweat ride with the usual delightful throat-clearing chorus and an unbelievably loud horn (easily over 120 decibels) filling our ears the whole way (drivers are obliged by law, it seems, to honk at least once every 5 seconds and often continously).

And so it was that we finished our final leg in Delhi, covered in dirt and sweat, to meet up with a our devonshire chums Janine & Tom - who by contrast were looking far too clean but in fairness they'd just stepped off the plane and had all the joy to come ;)

A few random shots to finish with, as always!

James' hunt for patisseries is never over...

Check it out Tang!

Mmmm...... SAFE!