February 2024 - India!

We started with a lovely couple of weeks in Rye. The weather was good. This is always the way in Melbourne - school starts back and the weather heats up! We had quite a few gatherings of friends and family, even some old work colleagues and the days passed very easily!

Mid February, Andrew and I set off for India. Andrew had been to Mumbai 20 odd years ago for work but I have never been so we were both excited and a little nervous.

We started with two days in Delhi then went by car to Agra, Jaipur, Bikaner, Pushkar, Udaipur, Chandelao Garh and Jodphur. The tour included an English-speaking Driver and Guide and they looked after us very well. We kept being told that, in India, guests are “like Gods!” so they couldn’t do enough for us. In Jodphur, we left the tour and hired a different car and guide to take us to Jaisalmer. At the beginning of March, we will fly from there to Delhi and then back home to Melbourne.

I’ll leave the descriptions about what we did where as GoWorld Travel Magazine are going to publish a story about that. I’ll try and get some other stories placed too and will link anything that is published back in my blog. In my brief writing journey, I have realised that publishers don’t want duplicate content even on a little blog.

I will just highlight one part of the trip which was an overnight stay in an old Fort in dating from 1744. The Fort was in a village called Chandelao. Our accommodation was called Chandelao Garh (Fort). Thirty odd kilometres from Jodphur (a city of some 1.6 million), Chandelao (a village of some 2,000 people) is a world away from Jodphur and a complete other world from Melbourne. 

The Fort itself was lovely – comfortable rooms with ensuites, a bar, a restaurant serving delicious food and an inground swimming pool. The night we were there was the last night of a music festival so Indian “techno” music blasted outdoors on a stage set up outside. There was vigorous dancing by a group of French women on a yoga retreat.  Some villagers came along to listen and some village kids joined in the dancing. Luckily for us sleepyheads, the music finished about 10.30pm. It was a Sunday night after all!

The Fort was a terrific experience but the indelible impressions were made by wandering around the Village and by visiting neighbouring villages the next morning on a Jeep safari. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and local kids were playing in the street. We were asked by the hotel staff not to offer gifts nor money so as not to encourage begging. We did get asked for money by a few children but it was a friendly question asked with a cheeky smile. A gentle “no” from us and the topic was closed. All the local kids really seemed to want was to be in photos and to ask us our names and where we were from. In turn, we asked them their names and ages. They giggled and we smiled. It was lovely.

We came upon two boys playing cricket with a rubber ball and a tiny bat fashioned out of a piece of wood. My Husband bowled them a few balls and they were delighted. So much happiness from so little. 

On the Jeep safari, we saw village life such as: locals making shoes and pottery and ladies picking chickpeas. We stopped at a house and had Masala Chai whilst watching an opium tea ceremony. We looked around the house where the couple have raised 5 children and saw a very basic home. Nothing remotely resembling what we are used to in Australia. It was deeply thought-provoking to consider that people living in the world at the same time as us have such different lives.

Before I came to India, I thought that I would have a visceral reaction to India and I have. This trip will live with me for a long time.

What are my general impressions, never having been to India before? 

• Chaotic, incredible traffic snarls;

• Magicians and mad people in equal measure (“drivers”);

• A very obvious rich and poor;

• Colours - of the decoration of Palaces and of women’s traditional clothing;

• Incredible Palaces and Forts;

• Long driving distances between towns in Rajasthan;

• Huge menus and delicious food;

• Cows acting like humans beside the road and on the road;

• Humans crossing the road in front of any size vehicle;

• Rubbish (mainly plastic waste) everywhere;

• Rubble everywhere;

• Roads randomly partly closed;

• Partly finished freeways and building projects that seem to be abandoned or at least suspended; and 

• Smiley children.

Highlights included:

• Smiley children;

• Marvelling at the colours of women’s traditional clothing;

• Admiring incredible Palaces and Forts;

• Seeing thousands of cows!; and

• Making new friends - our travel buddies.

Lowlights included:

• A camel safari;

• Kids not attending school and begging (tapping on the car windows in Delhi); and 

• Seeing rubbish and rubble everywhere.

What do I think of a tour never having done one before (other than cruises)? 

Firstly, I’ll say that the Driver and Guide have been invaluable so I am very happy choosing that assisted method of travel (rather than flying solo). We have learnt a lot and it has been lovely to have no stress about getting from Town A to Town B or getting tickets anywhere. Forget trying to drive here if you’re not local – impossible and foolhardy.

There was only one other couple on our tour – a couple about our age from NSW. Luckily, we got on well as it could have been very awkward spending every waking moment together. We assumed that there would be 20 people on the tour so having 4 was a shock – better in terms of decision-making but, if we didn’t get on, it could have been a long trip!

I don’t leave the regimented nature of being dropped somewhere and told you only have x time but there is really no alternative on a tour so I just have to suck that up. I don’t love the high pressure selling at the local handicraft places either but the demonstrations are very interesting. We saw crafts being practised including: block printing, marble inlay and hand knotted rugs.

This tour has been mainly one night stays. I thought that that would be tough but, given that the logistics are handled by the driver and guide, it hasn’t really been an issue other than laundry. For the first time ever in our travels, we have used the hotel laundry (twice) but you can only do that when you have longer than a one night stay.

The tour itself has been a comedy of errors (from the tour company’s point of view) but, regardless, we have enjoyed it immensely. Our tour is called “Colours of Rajasthan” and the colours are truly amazing! 

We have ridden an elephant and a camel, we have been on boat rides, jeep rides, rickshaw rides and TukTuk rides, we have gazed at Palaces and Forts and then also at shocking poverty, rubbish and rubble. I have never before been up close and personal with cows (SO. MANY. COWS!!) and we’ve also seen heaps of monkeys, goats and squirrels. Even some antelope and gazelles. We have seen things in India that we have never seen anywhere else.

Overall, we are really glad we did a tour in India but we’d rather travel independently in most other places we visit.

In Writing Wins, I had a couple of stories published and also some travel writing pieces:

• “Our Cabin”- https://impspired.com/2024/02/01/leonie-jarrett-3/;

• “A Day at Wimbledon” - Epic Unlimited Volume 2 e-magazine. You can purchase this at Epic Unlimited - Volume Two (smashwords.com);

• An article on beachfront yoga where I interviewed the founder of Hartig Yoga Palm Cove) - Cairns Local News - https://issuu.com/cairnslocalnews/docs/cln23feb24ma00-issuu (p17); and

• A story I wrote for Go World Travel Magazine about Buenos Aires - https://www.goworldtravel.com/guide-to-buenos-aires/

I also found out that a flash fiction story of mine – “Birthday Balloons” - is being published in a short story compilation in June. Yippee – I am on my way to being a properly published author!!