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NAMASTE INDIA!!! home
This is the diary during the trip I took with my dear friend Barbara in January 2001.
After a very boring night at Fiumicino airport in Rome, and a very shitty 5 am coffee, we proceeded to the check in and then went onboard the aircraft.
The plane looked better than we expected :)
JANUARY 18th,2001
After a nice flight, we finally got to Dehli.The airport looks pretty busy, a bit like I had imagined, not as modern as Bangkok or anything,but surely better than I thought actually:) My dad's friend's wife, an Indian woman, came to pick us up at the airport .This Indian family is really nice,they are upper class and they live in a very nice area just outside Dehli, Gurgaon,which is in the state of Haryana.They have a nice small villa,with very flowered garden.The two daughters,Suprada and Superna are really educated and kind. As soon as we got home, we slept a bit,then we had a very good breakfast with laddoos (small almondballs) -Ganesh is very fond of laddoos,ihihiihih:)- and chai(Indian tea with ginger and little bit of milk). Inside the house the temperature is really cold, but the lady told me they do not need a heater as cold weather is just for 2 months a year...well, we were actually freezing,but we were sleeping on a kingsize bed:)ihihihi. From the airport to this house it took about 20 minutes by car,and during the trip I saw a lot of poor people,starving in the streets, living in unhuman conditions, and for istance on the other side of a "favelas"-area,there are big villas for rich people.Our first impact in Dehli was a bit shocking,as for anyone I guess, we saw a lot of contraddictions.But this family is really helping us out to "experience" the Indian way of life. After we woke up we had lunch in the garden,it was delicious, fresh chapatis,veggie samosas, mixed veggetables curry , nan bread and chai.Oh my Gosh,I was sooooooooooo satisfied. On the other hand i was a bit worried, cos Barbara is allergic to any kind of pepper,and Indians put chilli basically inside everything..so she started feeling sick.. People kindness is extremely amazing, they absolutely say the guest is sacred, they obey to all we need. We do not extremize situations like that in Europe, so I was amazed and anything extra they did for us was weird, but I was glad about it, even if I felt guilty, cos I know I'm the European with tons of money , and they are poor, compared to me(even if their class is upper).A man's dignity depends not on his wealth but on what he is...and these people know it's all about that. We love Indian women's dresses,they are so charming:)
JANUARY 19th,2001
Today we went to Vrindavan, Mathura and Agra. We woke up early in the morning around 3 o'clock,and by our friends'friend's car we headed down to Vrindavan. The road conditions are sooooooooooo bad, the streets were digged up, full of paddles and muddy...Indian people drive like crazy...no road rules...we were feeling kind of shaky actually. After these fucking four hours drive we got to Vrindavan, which has always been one of my dreams ever, Hare Krsna Main Temple. Apart from the temple, there's a big community of devotees from all around the world there, especially Americans. It was a great experience. After this visit, we went to Mathura...oh GEEE!!Those streets had outdoor sewers every single where!!!! It smelled sooooooo bad!!! A guy tried to rip us off by offering himself as a guide around the temples and then he wanted money from us....also, in one of those temples, a man hearing we were Italian even tried to touch my ass....yuck!!! Well, then we evenutally got to Agra around 1pm. The traffic was horrible there and pollution too. Rickshaws and Tuk-tuks everywhere made the driving even harder, in the meanwhile Barbara was still feeling sick and we had to stop in the middle of the main road to let her throw up....oh I didn't envy her...I was afraid she had the Dehli Belly or something...Then we went to see th Taj Mahal, and I got a bit disappointed at the entrance. The fee was supposed to be 500rupies, but as foreigners, we had to pay fucking 20US to get in !!!!That is NOT fair!!!As soon as I got inside, even if I was still mad, I got amazed ...this building is soooooooooo big and charming, Gosh. All made of marble. wowwwwww. On the one side there's a mosquee. And in the back the Yamuna river. It was worth of going there, but I still wonder if It was worth to give out those 20bucks... After this, we had lunch at the Red Fort, where I saw a deformed guy, whose feet were like an elephant's...it was a terrible view!!! Thinking about all I saw, I feel so lucky I am the was I am, usually in the West one looses his/her consciousness of being lucky, just because he/she is healthy...during this trip, I enjoyed every single small thing which belongs to me... Back to our trip, after the Redfort we took the motorway back to Dehli, but before Dehli we had to go off the road and go back on a digged up road to get to Gurgaon, Haryana. Barbara was still a bit sick, I had a terrible headache cos of the sun. As soon as we got home, I fell aleep on the bed.
JANUARY 20th,2001
We went to a market square today, where we bought some water to be purified and 2 cans of coke. We found out there is a postoffice here in Gurgaon#7, so we sent some postcards. Our "hostfamily" said we will probably go to Jaipur with her friends if they go there for business. Today we just did nothing, only hanged around and chilled in the garden.
JANUARY 21st,2001
We
woke up early this morning, we were supposed to leave to Jaipur with those
friends of the Indian family,but they were not going so as it was foggy the lady
drove us to the busstop at 10am. A jeepney arrived and he offered to take us to
Jaipur for the same price as the bus, 150 rupies each. So we hopped on it. It took
just 3 hours to get there, this time the road conditions were very good,
althought
still the views were sad, and the land got drier and drier.
JANUARY 22nd, 2001
We all went to the train station to make reservations and then we hired a tuk-tuk for the whole day. We saw Amber Fort and loads of different places such as the water palace(a palace built in the middle of a lake). Everything was great today. We all laughed a lot and took lots of pics. I also bought a lot of silver jewelry:) We also found a train to Varanasi, it is a night train sleeper...I am just wondering what it 's like..The Australian guy is leaving tonight and he is going to pick us up there in 2 days in the morning when we get there.
JANUARY 23RD,2001
Geee!!!!!!!!!What a chaos at that train station!! It was very hard to find our wagon and after that I almost missed the trains cos it started going while I still was on the track...so I had to run and jump on it...not a safe way to get on a train... but that's the Indian way...It was amazing on the train Barbara met her ex teacher from a school in Paris there...the world is soooo small...Indian trains are such an experience...Smelly, smoky,full packed like animal-wagon... and It was hell of cold in the night and strange police officers walked around with strange weapons..we had to chain up our back -packs...otherwise eveything would get stolen..
JANUARY 24TH, 2001
We
safetely got in Varanasi. It was a total chaos cos of the Kumb Mela
festival..Mark came to pick us us,,,we could not believe that...
JANUARY 25th, 2001
I felt better this morning. We walked in the downtown and we spent all day at the trains station trying to make reservations and stuff like that...Varanasi train station is a pain in the ass, at least during this period we visited, la crème de la crème of poor people...no light at night..we were just walking on bodies on the ground..to go back and get on a tuk-tuk...it is almost unbelievable to say I did this...but I had to..Then I called my boyfriend again and said I was alright..We finally went to eat at the Temple on The Ganges Restaurant, even if I was not feeling like eating...I had shitty tomato- maccaronis...yuck...Barbara had the same problem with spicy food...That night I didn't go out, I just went straight to bed.
JANUARY 26th, 2001
We were supposed to leave to go to Kajuraho(train to Jhansi)but our train was 29hours late!!!!!!!So we deicided to catch the first train to Dehli and stop on the way...we got a normal ticket after "fighting"with a crazy crowd of homeless Indians, but as soon as we saw the track from the bridge...we realized it would have been impossible to catch the next train...Another herd of hundreds crazy people was on the track...so we dediced to give up and do something different for the day and try on the 30'th IIIclass. We ran back to the youth hostel but rooms were no more available, so we asked if we could stay in the room of the French teacher, as they were in Allahbad for 2 days...he said it was ok...as they are our friends, so we stayed there and relaxed a bit. Then we went to see the real Kumb Mela festival by a bus in Allahbad...it was a scene I had only seen in movies and could not believe this was actual real..there have been picks of 70 millions people a day in Allahbad during somedays..we did not see our French friends, so we went back to Varanasi to spend the night.We got there realy late, but the French guys didn't show up...
JANUARY 27th,2001
JANUARY 29th,2001
We decided to hire a taxi to Dehli as all trains were hours late and all booked up...so we found this very cheap taxi ride to Dehli, it was supposed to take 8 hours , leave at 10pm and treach Delhi at maximum 9am...well,,it took 27 hours of non stop-taxi..our driver was crazy,,,he drove through the regional streets and not through the motorway..it was hell..after one and half hour of driving he stopped in the middle of the bush and left us alone in the car in the middle of fucking nowhere at night till 6am...Can you guys believe that?We actually could not run away..nor steal the car or somehting..we were so scared..but we survived this time too!! hahhah
JANUARY 30th,2001
All day by car..it seemed like we could never reach Dehli...and we were worried about the family from Gurgaon cos they were waiting for us...but at 3pm we were still in Lucknow..this stupid driver was always like "Me ,chai" and stopped every hour for a tea...Finally we reached the surrounding of Dehli at 12.30 at night...the man said the car had broken down so we had to spend the night again in the car...we got very mad, I really wanted to fight him...I was soooooooo stressed after 27 hours of driving...so we found a tuk-tuk at the end and we only gave the man 400rupies and said"go to hell!!" ,t he thing is: it was about +4 C degrees, and from East Delhi we had to go to West Delhi to the airport where we decided to spend the night....It took 2 hours and half by tuk-tuk(men are not used to see girls at night around in the streets in India, so everyone was looking at us and we felt really uncomfortable...).We we got to the airport we wanted to kiss the ground, like Muslims do at the Mecca. ihihiihih. We could not believe we were there and after being so cold on a tuk-tuk we felt like being at the Ritz Hotel in Paris (what a nice comparison!!!) ihihih
JANUARY 31st, 2001
Out family's friend finally came to pick us up in the morning, we had a very stressing night...we needed to sleep, take shower and so on. Finally in Gurgaon we felt back home..We went to the hindu temple and to the Gainist temple near our friends' house and we talked to very nice and kind people:) We even met the "preacher" of the gianist temple and he showed us around and even invited us over to his family's house for a dinner. It was a nice afternoon. We spent the night at home, speaking with the woman and playing around with their dog.
FEBRUARY 1st, 2001
We went to the postoffice and the the woman drove us with her friend and Superna(one of the daughters) to the bazar. We were soooooo happy, I bought some typical dressed,a saree, silver things and had a supergood meal with very hot spicy samosas and dahl.I was satisfied today.India is a food-paradise for vegetarians/vegans like me:)
FEBRUARY 2nd, 2001
We woke up early and our friend's nephew drove us to the busstop to go to Dehli. We made a nice tour of the city, I really enjoyed myself there. We met again some nice Australian people, and visited the observatury, botanic gardens, the Baba temple (which looks like Sydney opera house), the mosquee, Gandhi's tombgrave and loads more. We felt like eating somehting really western, so we went to Pizza Hut where we ate more then the whole days we spent in India, hihihiih Again, today we were satisfied:) We didn't do shopping,just sightseeing today, so we planned we would do it tomorrow.
FEBRUARY 3rd, 2001
We spent the morning getting tanned in the garden, then we took a rickshaw and went to the Sadar Bazar of Gurgaon, and I bought some stockings and silver jewelry. It was a cool day, even If I stepped into a big fresh cowshit....here in Italy pepple say it brings you good luck..I wonder if it is true...as I stepped into a lot of shits during this trip, it means I should be the luckiest girl in the world now!! ihiihiih We went to eat at our friend's friend's house. She cooked a delicous meal for us. I was sooooooo full and happy. These people made me really appreciate India and their customs, even If I 100% prefer our culture. Then the woman, Superna(other daughter) and Mr G (the family friend) drove us to the airport and we took a flight after doing some shopping to finish our money.
FEBRUARY 4th,2001
We arrived in Moskow at 6 am, and we were supposed to leave at 8.30, but when we were about to take off, the plane pumped the brakes suddenly and loads of firemen arrived all around, the pilot said the plane could not take off cos' of 15 cm ice on the wings!!!! We started fearing we would never reach home....It was such a scary flight, the airplane was an Antonov from the 1960 ...it was sooooooo fucked up...man, its sound was like a tuk-tuk's one!!!! And eveybody looked terribly scared.. It was the second time in my life(after Gulf Air's broken engine in the monsoon in Sumatra) I started praying.. BUT: WE SURVIVED!!!!!!!!!We got in Rome with 4 hours delay, but we got there:) I was sooooooo happy...
*SO I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS JOURNAL; I JUST WROTE ANYTHING I HAD WRITTEN ON MINE; HOPEFULLY YOU UNDERSTOOD EVERYTHING:)
*TIPS*
1) Remember to always keep the receipt of the bank you exchanged money at,you will need it at the trains station to make reservations.
2)Second class on trains is all right, so do not waste your money on 1st class.
3)Always take care of you bak pack on the train while sleeping ...you knwo what I mean.
4)Varanasi is one of the most "magic-atmosphered"cities I have ever visited..once in India you cannot miss it!!!
5) Jaipur has the best silver jewelry in northern India, just walkaround the Bazar in the narrow streets and bargain a lot...you get a good quality for a better price!!! Beware of Dehli bazars, quality is not so good and people are used to tourist so they will definately rip you off. If you are not ina hurry I suggest to take a bus to Gurgaon (Haryana State ,30 minutes) and go to the Sadar Bazar there, you will find top quality stockings, silks,and jewelry there!!!
6) Do not drink water in Dehli,do not even brush your teeth with that water, you will get the Dehli belly,and it hurts...
ENJOY YOUR TRIP THEN!!!
 
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But the good thing about Aeroflot is that you get a coupon for a free meal at the restaurant there in the airport of Moskow if you proceed
for an Intercontinental flight, which is
good.
As soon as we got there I had the feeling as If I had gone back to L'Havana, Cuba. The shape of the airport is just the same, not to talk about all those military police in there.But it's cozier inside than the Cuban airport.
We went up the restaurant and asked for the meal and this creazy rude woman came to us and said "YOU SIT DOWN AND EAT!!" after 10 minutes she came back and gave us a tasteless mushroom soup, dark cereal bread, chopped tomatoes and
chopped onions and an apple.
We arrived at the
Jaipur Inn Hostel. It is a very nice place to stay, but unfortunately we had to
sleep in a room without a glass window,just a whole in the roof...so as we are
near the desert, it gets really cold at night...At the reception we saw the guest
book and we noticed that an Australian guy was going to Varanasi on the 25th or
something, so we decided to go and look for him. We had dinner on the very scenic
toproof restaurant and we met this Australian guy and a couple of Australians and
2 Canadian girls. It was a very mellow night, we all sitting around a fire
talking about our previous trips and about our next days in India.
After wandering
for two hours by the Ganges, we eventually found a nice clean guest house.
It is
called the SINGH GUEST HOUSE and it is near the Temple on Ganges Hotel, near the
gahts. We paid 100 rupies each. And considsering we had a very nice fresh clean
room during the Kumb Mela festival, it was more than ok. They also have this huge
flowered garden and as soon as we got ready to go, we got invited at this
Japanese guru's party.We had to eat from the buffet as the usage says; I started
with rice and then I tried some pastries..Holy shit!!! Guess what happened?!? The taste was really bad but I dont know
why, I just swallowed them...yuck!!!As
soon as they reaced my stomach I started to feel sick and had the feeling of
throwing up..I started panicing...but I thought this sour taste would fade away..but
it kept on...I then found out these pastries were made of Hashish, which is not
the weed you may find here in Livorno....that might be a reason why I was sooooo
fucked up...So i felt sick the whole day...we were walking by the Ganges, but
every moment I smelled something bad (which is: all the time) I felt like puking.
Then we went to a vegetariana restaurant with Mark and another Australian
couple..oh shit...it was in the night bazar...I called my boyfriend back home
and he even told me there had been an earthquake...I was not consiouss then, I
started sweating a lot and didn't understand if the eartquake was in Italy or
there in India...I started to ask around and noone knew about it,....then
Barbara called back home and they said the earthquake was in Gujarat...hundreds
of dead people...by the way, my mom didn't know that I was here in India....so
you can imagine ..my mind was spinning...Finally around 11pm I "picked"
all the energy I had left and went back to the guest house...it took 35 minutes
by fast walk by the Gange..oh shit...It seemed like I could never reach that
place...During the night I kept feeling really sick and like throwing up...and
Barbara had a diarrohea ...so she had to run outside to the toilet and all
mosquitos would come inside...It was a nightmare...
We
woke up at 4am and caught a bus to Kajuraho to see the temples and the Kamasutra
statues, it was a long trip on a fucked up road, but it was worth of it ,
especially
if you think we only paid 300 rupies return. Then we ate a fucking dinner,
Barbara
had biscuits, I had sliced bread with ketchup...
