June 30, 2006
I am surprised that I haven't seen many backpackers here in India compared to all the other countries I have been to on this trip and many other backpackers I have met have noticed the same thing. But now that I am in Delhi I have seen a lot more. Not to much to see in Delhi and it is just a place you come to, to grab a flight or apply for a visa. I went back to pick up my $50 "letter of recommendation" from the Canadian embassy and was shocked to see only 4 1/2 sentences on the letter which basically contained all the information that is on my passport and the day before the official said he was too busy to do the letter on the same day and told me to come back tomorrow (Maybe he is a really slow typer? I don't know). My Pakistan visa cost another $75US so I am looking at $125US for a Pakistan visa. I had to wait 2 days to process the visa and went back on Friday to pick it up.
I just shake my head when I see cows wandering around the city aimlessly. I often wonder what they eat since there is no grass or anything leafy in these concrete jungle cities but I see the odd food vendor giving them food. The cows are basically skin and bone with no meat on them. I don't understand why they don't put the cows in green pastures where they belong.
As soon as I got my Pakistan visa I grabbed the next train to Jaipur in the Rajasthan province for the next morning at 6am. Jaipur is known as the "Pink city" because of all its pink buildings. Since Delhi I have still felt sick and was basically bed ridden for 2 full days in Jaipur (Thank god for the cipro I bought in Bangkok). I didn't like Jaipure since it is a desert city with no trees or any greenery. I only spent an hour looking around Jaipur and then caught the next bus to Pushkar.
Pushkar is a neat little town nestled between mountains and has a lake in the middle. All the buildings are white washed plaster buildings which reminds you of Greece. They have strange rules here like you aren't allowed to wear shoes or sandals within 40 feet of the lake. The Lake is green and full of slime but of course that doesn't stop the Indians from doing their daily dips in it. It is a small lake and you can see lots of big fish floating upside down on the surface (Not a healthy sign).
Lots of big monkeys in Pushkar and it is more like something out of planet of the apes with these huge monkeys leaping from building to building and you can hear them pounding their feet on the roof as they run along it. I went to a restaurant and after having some pasta I decided to order a potato salad and was shocked when they brought a plate of sliced potatoes. I told the kid that this wasn't potatoe salad so he called the cook out of the kitchen and I told him that this wasn't potato salad and the cook insisted that it was. I said "No that is basically sliced potatoes and there is no salad here" and he says "Yes it is sliced potatoes but it is also potato salad". I was getting a little frustrated since I was looking forward to eating potato salad after my meal and was going to say "So I guess to make apple pie all you do is peel the apple and cut it into 8 slices" but I didn't just out of fear he would nod his head in the affirmative and say "Ya, that is how you make apple pie!".
In the morning I caught the 6:45am bus to Jodhpur and I was shocked at the bus that the hotel people booked me on. It was basically a chicken bus and I sat at the back where I could stretch my legs and every 10 seconds when we hit a bump I was airborn basically hitting the roof with my head and cursing everytime that happened. The bus attendant thought it was very funny since he does this bus ride everyday but I was not amused. We stopped off in many villages along the way and I seemed to draw unwanted attention from the locals. Sitting at the back of the bus as we entered a village I could see the kids spotting me then going around to grab their friends and come over to the back of the bus where I was saying the only english they knew like "Hello!" "What's your name?". It can be somewhat annoying when you just don't want to be bothered but they don't see many foreigners and are extremely curious about us. I now just pretend I am a big movie star showing up in their village and I play the part :). 6 hours later I finally arrive in Jodhpur.
Jodhpur is known as the "Blue city" since many of it's buildings are blue. I went up to Mehrangarh fort which was built in 1459 and is perched up on a hill overlooking the city. In the fort I went into a little cafe and ordered a clubhouse sandwich and received some funny Indian version of it that didn't even resemble a clubhouse sandwich. I am pretty sure that this cook went to the same cooking school as Mr Potato salad in Pushkar.
I have to admit that I am now looking at cutting my trip short and will not be going through Iran for a few reasons. I applied online to an Iranian agency (www.key2persia.com) 10 days ago filling out all the forms and I haven't heard anything from them since they do say they will contact everyone within 48 hours. They were recommended by other backpackers since you only pay the $35US service charge at their offices in Iran but it takes time after they send your info to Tehran to be processed and then they issue you an authorization code which you bring to the closest Iranian embassy and pick your visa up the same evening. I will be in Pakistan tomorrow and am going to spend around 7-10 days there and it usually takes 3-4 weeks to get an authorization code but I thought it was better to get my Pakistan visa first since I have to go through Pakistan to get to Iran Also I am still feeling a little sick and am definitely sick of India at this point not to mention it is extremely hot here right now which is taking it's toll on me. Unless some miracle happens from this agency I will be flying back to Bangkok and spending a few days on one of the beaches there to unwind before catching my flight back to Canada.
I was originally going to go to Amritsar and head into Pakistan from that crossing which Lonely planet says is the only crossing but after talking to the hotel owner I can grab a once a week train ride into Pakistan that has only been running since February of this year and runs every Friday at 11:30pm and takes around 11 hours or so. It is a non-stop train ride from Jodhpur to Khokrapar, Pakistan. You can only purchase this ticket on the Friday it leaves so I went down to the Jodhpur train station and with all the line ups it was easy to spot which line up was for the Pakistan route since one line was full of men with big beards wearing their white cap and gowns. I think some of the train officials thought I was lost since here was this 6'3 white guy in the middle of all these muslims but I assured them that this was my line up since I was going to Pakistan tonight. Still getting more stares from the muslims in the lineup and it was bothering me a little but yet again it was just their curiosity and after time they would come up with what little english they knew and asked where I was from and if I was going to Pakistan.
After waiting 2 hours in the line up I only moved a few feet and I told a guy to save my spot as I sat down in a chair next to the line and an old muslim guy asked me to stay in the que if I was going to get my ticket so I was about to get back into line when he took me to the front of the line up (love it when this happens!) to get me my ticket in front of everyone else. I heard some arguing from the other muslims I was budding in front of and I totally understood why and said I would go back to my original spot but then they all said no that it was ok for me to bud in front of them to get my ticket. That saved me a few more hours. Some people are really caring and I am always shocked when they do things like this for me. This morning I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to do whether I should go through the Attari/Wagan crossing up north into Pakistan or take this train and had a rickshaw guy take me to the bus station back to the train station then back to the bus station and repeated this process a few times and I still didn't know what I should do so finally I went back to my hotel and looked at the map in my guidebook and realized how much backtracking I would be doing if I stuck to the original plan of going through the Attari/Wagan border crossing and I was saving time and less time on a bus taking this once a week train ride into Pakistan. So because Friday is tonight I will be skipping Jaisalmer which is a sandstone city and just going right to Pakistan and work my way up to Islamabad.
Kevin
I am surprised that I haven't seen many backpackers here in India compared to all the other countries I have been to on this trip and many other backpackers I have met have noticed the same thing. But now that I am in Delhi I have seen a lot more. Not to much to see in Delhi and it is just a place you come to, to grab a flight or apply for a visa. I went back to pick up my $50 "letter of recommendation" from the Canadian embassy and was shocked to see only 4 1/2 sentences on the letter which basically contained all the information that is on my passport and the day before the official said he was too busy to do the letter on the same day and told me to come back tomorrow (Maybe he is a really slow typer? I don't know). My Pakistan visa cost another $75US so I am looking at $125US for a Pakistan visa. I had to wait 2 days to process the visa and went back on Friday to pick it up.
I just shake my head when I see cows wandering around the city aimlessly. I often wonder what they eat since there is no grass or anything leafy in these concrete jungle cities but I see the odd food vendor giving them food. The cows are basically skin and bone with no meat on them. I don't understand why they don't put the cows in green pastures where they belong.
As soon as I got my Pakistan visa I grabbed the next train to Jaipur in the Rajasthan province for the next morning at 6am. Jaipur is known as the "Pink city" because of all its pink buildings. Since Delhi I have still felt sick and was basically bed ridden for 2 full days in Jaipur (Thank god for the cipro I bought in Bangkok). I didn't like Jaipure since it is a desert city with no trees or any greenery. I only spent an hour looking around Jaipur and then caught the next bus to Pushkar.
Pushkar is a neat little town nestled between mountains and has a lake in the middle. All the buildings are white washed plaster buildings which reminds you of Greece. They have strange rules here like you aren't allowed to wear shoes or sandals within 40 feet of the lake. The Lake is green and full of slime but of course that doesn't stop the Indians from doing their daily dips in it. It is a small lake and you can see lots of big fish floating upside down on the surface (Not a healthy sign).
Lots of big monkeys in Pushkar and it is more like something out of planet of the apes with these huge monkeys leaping from building to building and you can hear them pounding their feet on the roof as they run along it. I went to a restaurant and after having some pasta I decided to order a potato salad and was shocked when they brought a plate of sliced potatoes. I told the kid that this wasn't potatoe salad so he called the cook out of the kitchen and I told him that this wasn't potato salad and the cook insisted that it was. I said "No that is basically sliced potatoes and there is no salad here" and he says "Yes it is sliced potatoes but it is also potato salad". I was getting a little frustrated since I was looking forward to eating potato salad after my meal and was going to say "So I guess to make apple pie all you do is peel the apple and cut it into 8 slices" but I didn't just out of fear he would nod his head in the affirmative and say "Ya, that is how you make apple pie!".
In the morning I caught the 6:45am bus to Jodhpur and I was shocked at the bus that the hotel people booked me on. It was basically a chicken bus and I sat at the back where I could stretch my legs and every 10 seconds when we hit a bump I was airborn basically hitting the roof with my head and cursing everytime that happened. The bus attendant thought it was very funny since he does this bus ride everyday but I was not amused. We stopped off in many villages along the way and I seemed to draw unwanted attention from the locals. Sitting at the back of the bus as we entered a village I could see the kids spotting me then going around to grab their friends and come over to the back of the bus where I was saying the only english they knew like "Hello!" "What's your name?". It can be somewhat annoying when you just don't want to be bothered but they don't see many foreigners and are extremely curious about us. I now just pretend I am a big movie star showing up in their village and I play the part :). 6 hours later I finally arrive in Jodhpur.
Jodhpur is known as the "Blue city" since many of it's buildings are blue. I went up to Mehrangarh fort which was built in 1459 and is perched up on a hill overlooking the city. In the fort I went into a little cafe and ordered a clubhouse sandwich and received some funny Indian version of it that didn't even resemble a clubhouse sandwich. I am pretty sure that this cook went to the same cooking school as Mr Potato salad in Pushkar.
I have to admit that I am now looking at cutting my trip short and will not be going through Iran for a few reasons. I applied online to an Iranian agency (www.key2persia.com) 10 days ago filling out all the forms and I haven't heard anything from them since they do say they will contact everyone within 48 hours. They were recommended by other backpackers since you only pay the $35US service charge at their offices in Iran but it takes time after they send your info to Tehran to be processed and then they issue you an authorization code which you bring to the closest Iranian embassy and pick your visa up the same evening. I will be in Pakistan tomorrow and am going to spend around 7-10 days there and it usually takes 3-4 weeks to get an authorization code but I thought it was better to get my Pakistan visa first since I have to go through Pakistan to get to Iran Also I am still feeling a little sick and am definitely sick of India at this point not to mention it is extremely hot here right now which is taking it's toll on me. Unless some miracle happens from this agency I will be flying back to Bangkok and spending a few days on one of the beaches there to unwind before catching my flight back to Canada.
I was originally going to go to Amritsar and head into Pakistan from that crossing which Lonely planet says is the only crossing but after talking to the hotel owner I can grab a once a week train ride into Pakistan that has only been running since February of this year and runs every Friday at 11:30pm and takes around 11 hours or so. It is a non-stop train ride from Jodhpur to Khokrapar, Pakistan. You can only purchase this ticket on the Friday it leaves so I went down to the Jodhpur train station and with all the line ups it was easy to spot which line up was for the Pakistan route since one line was full of men with big beards wearing their white cap and gowns. I think some of the train officials thought I was lost since here was this 6'3 white guy in the middle of all these muslims but I assured them that this was my line up since I was going to Pakistan tonight. Still getting more stares from the muslims in the lineup and it was bothering me a little but yet again it was just their curiosity and after time they would come up with what little english they knew and asked where I was from and if I was going to Pakistan.
After waiting 2 hours in the line up I only moved a few feet and I told a guy to save my spot as I sat down in a chair next to the line and an old muslim guy asked me to stay in the que if I was going to get my ticket so I was about to get back into line when he took me to the front of the line up (love it when this happens!) to get me my ticket in front of everyone else. I heard some arguing from the other muslims I was budding in front of and I totally understood why and said I would go back to my original spot but then they all said no that it was ok for me to bud in front of them to get my ticket. That saved me a few more hours. Some people are really caring and I am always shocked when they do things like this for me. This morning I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to do whether I should go through the Attari/Wagan crossing up north into Pakistan or take this train and had a rickshaw guy take me to the bus station back to the train station then back to the bus station and repeated this process a few times and I still didn't know what I should do so finally I went back to my hotel and looked at the map in my guidebook and realized how much backtracking I would be doing if I stuck to the original plan of going through the Attari/Wagan border crossing and I was saving time and less time on a bus taking this once a week train ride into Pakistan. So because Friday is tonight I will be skipping Jaisalmer which is a sandstone city and just going right to Pakistan and work my way up to Islamabad.
Kevin
No comments:
Post a Comment