EXPLORING AMAZING SITES IN INDIA

 

We are now back in Amritsar and head to the workshop. Time for the usual jobs: grease & oil change, filters etc.  Amazingly they finish quickly, and we head to our Guesthouse again. We are surprised to see another big truck from Switzerland and a motorbike from Germany there, so it’s fun to chat with other travelers for a few hours.  In the morning, we head back to the Golden Temple thinking the queues will be much shorter so that we can look inside. Well, we are wrong, if anything the crowds are bigger.  Back at GR2 we pack up, say our goodbyes and head south through miles and miles of Punjab farmland. There are no camp spots on our App so when it gets closer to dusk, we stop at the London Dream Hotel and ask to stay in their car park. They agree and we settle in for a quiet night

We head off bright and early for a big day of driving. Our toll card is nearly empty so we reload it with cash, but then the dramas start. Each toll gate says low balance. Sometimes we can talk our way through but at others we pay. Much later we realize we will not reach Pushkar as planned so when we spy a big Hindu Temple we pull over. Yes, we can stay as long as we leave early. They are expecting over a thousand people tomorrow for prayers. We leave early!

Now we are driving through the dry desert terrain of Rajasthan, taking back roads through tiny villages, passing piles and piles of hay and worst mountains of rubbish. Late in the morning we pull into Pushkar and find Chotus Farm where we can camp. Here we meet Xaiver who is here in his French camper. Later in the day, when it cools down a bit, we wander down the road to admire the Lake surrounded by gnats (Steps that run into the lake). At the first waterfront I get caught by a dodgy scam priest who wants to pray for family and then wants money. I refuse and finally he tells me to go away. John is wetting himself laughing! We wander the main street which is full of stalls overflowing onto the street, dodging rubbish, potholes, cow poo and motorbikes that race through the narrow streets. I’m not really loving this place! Upstairs in a dodgy restaurant we get some unexciting food, but at least we can enjoy a hassle-free view of the lake.  We wander back home in the dark because the power has gone off!

While it’s still cool the next morning, we head off to explore again. It is much more enjoyable this time. We locate the ropeway/cable car and ride to the top of the mountain for lovely views of the town and the desert.  At the top are dozens of stroppy monkeys all trying to steal food. Back down we wander through town stopping to admire the camels and buggies and then the shops. We have decided to go on a touristy camel ride this evening, and because you can take as many as you like we ask Xavier along. It’s unsurprisingly not very exciting and incredibly bumpy. The desert is getting ready for the Camel Festival in a week and tents are popping up everywhere. Later that evening as we sit outside chatting we hear a parade and race out to watch. There are bands, men pulling crazy lit up statues, women in their finest saris dancing, decorated camels and the groom in a fancy white outfit riding a gorgeously dressed horse. The horse gets my vote for best dressed. Then 30mins later it comes back again. All night fireworks go off. The locals are getting ready for Indias biggest festival, a time for family, food and fireworks officially known as the Festival of Lights or Diwali.

Decision time for us. Do we wait for the Camel Festival? It’s more than a week away, so we decide to drive on and maybe, just maybe return. We head to the motorway and on to the huge city of Jaipur. The road is choked with 100’s of slow trucks and as usual they can be in any lane or not in a lane at all but straddling the white line. Then of course there is the chaos of driving in a huge city.  We finally reach the parking lot where we can camp – it’s just a dirty grubby vacant lot, but it’s close to the city. We grab a tuk-tuk and head to the Old Walled City. Here we are stunned by the sheer number of tourists, local and foreign. We join the masses exploring the City Palace, the rather boring Jantar Manta/Observatory and then the Hawa Maha/palace. Back on the streets we are engulfed in much more craziness. The streets are pumping with stalls full of food and stuff for Diwali, crowds are thronging everywhere and what is left of the road is packed with tuk-tuks ferrying people about. Phew- it is getting late and we just want to get back to GR2. Our tuk-tuk driver sends his mate who asks us back to his house for chai. John instantly agrees – he loves seeing how they all live, but I’m dubious. And of course, once there the hard sell is on. They make puppets and want to sell one to pay for some Diwali fun for the kids.  Reluctantly we buy one, but it’s now dark, making finding the truck much harder. It’s a relief to sit and eat pizza and Greek salad at a nearby restaurant (mind you there is no meat or cheese on the pizza!)

Today we plan to get to Agra and camp in the official car park. The idea is to get an early start before the crowds arrive! I can’t resist finding things to look at on the way. First up the stunning Amber Palace & Jaigarh Fort that stretches for miles along the surrounding hilltop. We admire it as we eat our breakfast and as we drive past, we see 100’s of people heading in, many on top of elephants. It’s tempting to stop, but Agra is our plan. Next stop is to a small village with a stepwell. We miss the correct turnoff and head down a minor road… not a good idea as we are forced through a village with those ever-narrowing streets, overhanging roofs and numerous motorbikes parked wily nily everywhere.  I get out with the 2 way and get traffic to back up and guys to move motorbikes. In the end I have a group of guys assisting. Phew, we get through unscathed, but we do take down a banner. We are relieved to find the Chand Baori stepwell and it is amazing. Rather a relief after the effort required to get here! Then we exit on a much bigger road.

Finally, onto the mayhem of Agras streets. There are road closures, countless stalls and the usual chaotic traffic! John deserves a medal for driving in this country. We find the carpark – as usual rubbish strewn and stinky, but we can stay overnight. By 9pm all the people have left, and we only have cows, dogs and monkeys for company. Maybe it will be a quiet night! Not likely. Monkeys climb the roof and buses full of people start arriving at 3am. Then the stall holders open to feed all the people. More and more buses pile in. Goodness the Tah Mahal doesn’t open until 6am!  By 5.30 we walk up to the entrance, buy our tickets and join the queue. Finally, we are in, and it really is a WOW moment. Nothing quite prepares you for the perfection of the Taj. Just magic, and despite the crowds there are still plenty of quiet spots to simply sit and take it all in. After a few hours we head back to GR2, to find crowds of buses and people. It doesn’t matter… we have a coffee and grab a tut-tuk to the Agra Fort. We wander around for ages, and especially enjoy the view of the Taj from where the Maharaj who built the Taj was imprisoned.

 We exit the city relatively easily, by sticking to the main roads, and head south on the big Mumbai motorway. But later we get tired of all the trucks, so change to a smaller road. We hope to reach a camp spot near the Ranthambhore National Park, but as usual driving takes far longer than expected because of the crazy traffic. Near Gangapur City we spy the Pearl Hotel with a sign up for a pool. That sounds good – let’s try it. This becomes a bit of a fiasco. We park and get sorted, and later head to the stunning pool for a swim. Once we get out the guy says your time is up! Ok. But then he says it’s time to leave as they are closed for Diwali. Its nearly dark so we drive out the gate and park in the large paddock beside the Hotel. After 30mins they say “It’s not safe, so come back inside.” Go figure! Then a local guy takes John to his shop (we want a few veges) but he only sells packaged snacks. His sister has a Beauty Salon, so they insist I come over for a facial. It was amazing. What a crazy day!

We head off bright and early. Today is the public holiday for Diwali, but stalls are still open and streets busy. We stop for veges, Diwali sweets and gaudy flowers to decorate our truck. After all it is a special holiday and all the buses, trucks, tractors and even a few cars have extra decorations all over them. We wonder how some of them can see out their windows they are so heavily decorated!

Before long we pull into the gorgeous Ranthambhore Tiger Valley Hotel. We are rapt to see the lovely grassy yard where we can camp. Phew, so nice to sit back and relax for a few hours. We enjoy a non-spicy dinner in their restaurant and later sit on the top deck watching fireworks exploding all over town. The owner brings his lovely his family back to the Hotel to meet us (we now feature in hundreds of selfies in India) and has booked us onto a Tiger Hunt in the National Park early the next morning. Sadly, not a tiger in sight.  We think the huge fleet of racing open trucks full of very noisy Indians scare the elusive tigers away. We stay at our lovely grassy camp for another night and then head off the next day.

We are now finally heading south towards the famous caves at Ajanta and Ellora, but we have one final stop in Rajasthan planned at the town of Bundi. We head there via back roads and straight into town to find it totally congested with markets and people all enjoying the Diwali holiday. Each spot we stop we get moved on until a helpful local directs us to the bus depot. Perfect. From here we catch a tuktuk up to the Fort & Palace. It is already hot as we trug up inside the Fort walls to the palace, but worth every hot sweaty step. Then we wander back through the side streets and hunt down the stepwells. Disappointingly the first is full of rubbish and the second partially closed off.  Time to hit the road after a quick lunch of potato fritters from the street vendors. We spend the rest of the day driving, and at dusk heave a sigh of relief when we find a huge petrol station with a large area to camp. It’s even got security.

Tomorrow the drive will continue……