Red Sky At Night

Notes from an Indian adventure, by Iggy Hammick

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great picture

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Invite Love, taken in Soho

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Calcutta photos

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Calcutta

After Sikkim I headed back to Darjeeling. I had 3 days to kill before heading south and Darjeeling is prefect for killing days, especially in the colonial-styled Glenarys cafe/restaurant.  

My plan from Darjeeling was to head back into regular India, catching a 3 day train from Calcutta to Goa, an uninspiring prospect. After checking some alternatives I decided to get a flight from Calcutta down to the south-west coast.  I just about had the budget to manage it and I feel I've served my time on the Indian rail network, I've earnt that badge now thanks. 

So* I headed to Calcutta on the night train as planned. I was met at the station by the mad German guy (Matthias) from Yuksom. Turned out not only where we on the same train, but also the same carriage and then the same bunk. He was a very interesting guy and we had a solid 3 hour chat about relocating from major city to country village. He started every sentence with "Well listen..." as if every time he was about to say something very intelligent and profound, but it would then just be regular stuff. Even so, every time he did a "Well listen..."  I got excited that something good was coming, but then nothing, every time. I woke up in the middle of the night as the Indian guy opposite's phone was going off but he was sleeping through it. Eventually Matthias leapt up and shouted "Listen, turn that shit off man, it's making me crazy", funny!

We reached Calcutta, India's second largest city, early the next morning. I'd read it was as crazy as Delhi, only less tourists and so wasn't looking forward to 24 hours I had there before the flight. Whilst riding in the taxi to Sudder Street, and area famed for cheap tourist guesthouses, all apprehensions about Calcutta slipped away. This wasn't a patch on Delhi. The streets were clean, the roads were organised. Instead of tatty rickshaws they had 70s styled yellow taxis. All the buildings were way more developed. I was expecting the chaos of Delhi, but it was absent. When we got to the guesthouses we had a real hard time finding a room. Matthias was adamantly not paying more than 300 rupees for a room, and rooms in that price-range were either all taken or in a very bad state. Whilst trekking round looking for one I bumped into some South Africans I'd hung out with in Darjeeling. They'd been in Calcutta for 2 days and said to come meet them for breakfast when I had a room. I decided to let Matthias find his own budget place and headed for a mid-priced option. I was only there for 1 night and didn't want to waste time. Most travelers I meet are travelling until their money runs out, so it's understandable they'll want the cheapest possible option. I'm not in that boat though and still thinking in pounds. A shit room for £6 or a really nice room for £10 is a easy decision.

I'd arranged to meet Matthias in 15 minutes back on the street but he didn't show up. I guess he'd more problems finding a room and had gone further afield. I never took his details though and assumed I'd see him later that day but sadly never saw him again. I caught the South Africans up though, Harriot, Jeston and Chris. Chris was a huge cricket fan and was planning to head to Eden Gardens, the cricket ground at Calcutta where England were playing the 3rd test in a few days. I'd spent a few days with him in Darjeeling watching both the England v India and South Africa v Australia 2nd tests, both incredible games in their own rights! We were pretty central and the ground wasn't too far away. The security couldn't work out if we were important or not and so just let us into the stadium anyway. It was good being in there watching the pitch preparations. There was also a TV crew there setting up and we were interviewed on Bengali TV, hopefully the guy emails on the footage. After the cricket ground we grabbed some happy hour beers and then went to the Victorian Memorial gardens. Chris had a cricket ball so we played a big game of catch with some India guys. It's been a few years since my soft hands caught a real cricket ball and after a good hour of catching my hands were bruised and red raw. Chris and the Indians had some brutal throws on them. After I tried to blag my way into Victoria Memorial building, based on the fact I was British, but this time the security were having none of it. I guess the days of British people doing as they please in Calcutta are behind us. 

That night we ate in the same restaurant we'd had breakfast in. I was hoping to meet Matthias there but he wasn't about. After we took a bottle of wine up to the Saffies fairy-lit hotel rooftop. It was a good day hanging out with them. I learnt a new word 'oke' or 'oake' (they didn't know as they never write it), but it means person or people. One use was... "Harriot was trying to get of this train bro, but there were like hundreds of okes around her and I was like 3 okes back too, was mad bro". It's a funny word, I'm going to try and adopt it. 

All in all I wish I'd had more time in Calcutta. It's a much nicer city than it gets credit for in short guidebook summaries. The architecture is beautiful and you really do get a British sense about it. The Next morning the Saffies were also heading to the airport at the same time, they were flying to Bangkok. We hung out for a few hours at the airport before I jumped on my very convenient flight to Goa. 

*Allowed use of 'so' at beginning of sentence, Astrid!

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Sikkim photos

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Sikkim

Sikkim is a the state to the north of West Bengal. It's squashed between Nepal and Bhutan and when you look at it on a map looks a bit out of place being part of India. Sikkim takes you closer to Khangchendzonga and has an extensive trekking network. My aim was to sped a few days walking from village to village.  

From Darjeeling I took a jeep to Pelling. It took the best part of a day so when I arrived in Pelling I went straight to a guesthouse and grabbed dinner. I wanted to find some other travelers to do some day trekking with and I'd heard Pelling was the place to find them. No such luck, even in the 'backpacker hotspots' Lonely Planet had recommended. I wanted to find someone to walk with as some div girl in Darjeeling had told me there were King Cobras on the forest trails in Sikkim. She couldn't have said anything worse to me really, I'd have rather heard there were gangs of cannibals hiding and waiting for me, it would have scared me less than the snakes. I'd spend the rest of that day in Darjeeling researching Cobras, which just fed my anxiety. Anyway without finding and company I headed to bed, considering walking the next day by myself. The next morning at breakfast I lucked out and met a German guy heading the same way. "I can't walk today because I have the diarrhea" he said, so I agreed to take a jeep some of the way with him. Before we headed off we visited nearby Pemayangtse Gompa. This was the first Buddhist monastery I'd seen and it was fascinating.  Inside there were monks chanting and the decoration was incredible. Crazy paintings of various Buddhist spirits and gurus, it was well worth the detour. After this we got a jeep to Lake Kechopari, a sacred lake for both Hindus and Buddhists. We stayed in a homestay amoungst some tiny Tibetan villages, timeless, they could have been from 200 years ago or something. We made a big fire and drank Chang, a kind of Sikkimese wine made from seeds. There was also a Czech family there, Mum, Dad and two girls, 5 and 3. They'd been travelling India for 3 months and the girls seemed to be coping better than some of the other travelers I'd met, funny. One thing in Sikkim - there isn't much to do in the evenings so we ended up going to bed once the fire was out, around 8pm, can't remember the last time I went to bed that early. 

Till (German) was up early the next day for a jeep to the next town, but I'd decided to walk. Snakes or no snakes I was going to do some trekking. I set off from the homestay around 7am and walked down to the lake, from there there was a sign post into the forest to Yuksom, the town I was trying to reach. Lonely Planet had a vague synopsis of the route, but I was assuming there'd be signs along the forest path... bad assumption. It would have been a fun walk had my King Cobra research not been at the forefront of my mind. I was putting more effort into evasion of potential snake attacks and no effort into directions and where I was meant to be walking and after 2 hours I'd totally lost where I was meant to be. Fortunately there were tiny farms scattered around the hills so every now and then I got back on track by asking directions, but I'd managed to turn a 90 minute leg into a frantic 2 and a half hours. The irrational fear of snakes were also still on my mind. After hours of walking, I'd actually invented a character in my head "King", I'd imagine locals telling me "The King is on the move", a bit like Aslan in Narnia, so weird, but I was really scaring myself. Through the woods I saw a glimpse of tarmac and decided to stick to the road for the last 9km. You can't go wrong on the road, it always goes to somewhere and it reduces the chances of actually meeting "King". There were markings on the road every 1km to Yuksom and I figured out I walk 1km every 15 minutes. A long 2 hours later I made it to Yuksom, the most northern town in West Sikkim and beginning of the Goecha La trek. I ate my body weight in momo's and checked out some of Yuksom's tourist sights. It was previously Sikkims capital and so had an assortment of chambers and monasteries, none as impressive as Pelling's Pemayangtse one though. That night I sat out and had a beer with a mad German guy, 2 French guys and some funny Russians. The Russians had met each other on a plane to Delhi 8 years ago and been travelling together since. They were determined to break every Sikkim trekking law by walking without guides and permits, the German guy loved this. The bar closed at 7pm, leaving nothing else to do but go back to the hotel, this time I was in bed by 7.30pm! I didn't mind too much though after the days walking, and it gets you up early too. 

The following day I decided to head back to Darjeeling. I only had a few more days before getting the train down to the South, and wanted to spend a few more days in Darjeeling so I took a 6.30am jeep back through the Himalayan foothills, back to my favorite place of the trip so far... Darjeeling!

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Darjeeling photos

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Darjeeling

The train from Varanasi to New Jalpaiguri was one of the worst journeys so far and one that I won't grace with any further thought. After the train came a 6 hour jeep ride up through the West Bengali hills, the dry, flat landscape slowly changed to green fields, then rugged forest hills and then up further into the tea plantations of Darjeeling.

Darjeeling sits 2,135 meters above sea level (Britain's highest peak, Ben Nevis, is only 1,334 meters). It was originally developed by the British in 1835, after it's position was identified for strategic importance. Now, it's main population is Nepalese and the signs 'Welcome to Gorkahland' welcome you as you arrive. The change of landscape, weather and laid back people make Darjeeling a world apart from the India I've visited so far. It's an excellent place to kill time and re-charge batteries, soaking up the mountains over a cup of Darjeeling's local tea. 

The mountains dominate the horizon. The main attraction is Khangchendzonga, India's highest peak and the worlds 3rd highest mountain at 8598 meters. It sits to the North of Darjeeling, tucked away in Sikkim on the India/Nepal border. There's some good view points in and around town, one of them being Tiger Hill, which you're meant to visit at sunrise, but my travel buddy, Andrea, and I went at sunset, rebellious, but the light was still good and instead of 200+ Bengali tourists there was just us and our jeep driver. He also pointed out Everest in the distance, not as striking as Khangchendzonga from our position, but still felt good seeing it in the flesh.

Darjeeling also is the home of the Indian Mountaineering Institute, as many a Nepali mountaineer is based here. None more famous as Tenzing Norgay, who, from my limited knowledge, is a very cool dude, being one of the first two men to reach the peak of Everest in 1953. He'd also got within 800 meters the year before and successfully reached it's peak again in 1954. Kudos Tenzing. There are many statues and plaques of respect for him dotted around Darjeeling and in the Mountaineering Institutes museum. Next to this is Derjeeling's zoo, which is meant to be one of India's finest, but It wasn't too special. I did see some Red Pandas, Sikkims national animal, up close though.

Darjeeling was just what was needed. A calming, European-style town. There's not many sights too rush around seeing like Rajasthan, you just look out the window of whatever cafe you're sat in, the dusty world of dirty cities, rickshaws and beggars really does seem a long way away from here. Next up I'm heading north to Sikkimto do some trekking around. I'm leaving half of my stuff in Darjeeling and will be coming back to spend a few days before leaving for the south. 

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Varanasi photos

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Varanasi

I'm not sure the following account of Varanasi is going to truly do the place justice, but here goes...

Simply getting to Varanasi was an event in itself. Train travel is very busy during Diwali and we'd made no reservations, thus or route to Varanasi went like this... Rishikesh - Hairdwar (1 hour bus), Hairdwar - Delhi (5 hour bus), Delhi - Lucknow (18 hour bus), Lucknow - Varanasi (6 hour train). It was a hard slog, but the addition of rum made it go by a bit quicker.

If you read any guidebook on India, it's pretty unanimous that Varanasi is one of the most places to be, and being there for Diwali only adds to the tenseness.  Varanasi is undoubtedly India's most holy city, drawing in Hindu pilgrims and followers from around the world to bathe in the waters of the Ganges. It's an especially sacred place as being for a Hindu to be cremated by the river is an escape from the birth death cycle. Around 200 public cremations are made at Varanasi's burning ghats, a process that goes on all day and all night. As well as the cremations there are nightly ceremonies on the banks of the Ganges, where worshipers and tourists alike gather to watch the spectacle. During the day the Ganges banks play host to locals washing themselves, clothes and cattle  bouts of tourists and traders and wandering Sadhus. The river is Varansis beating heart.

We arrived there around midday. Because I'd got there a day later than scheduled, the guesthouse had given away my accommodation  I didn't mind to much as it was pretty expensive given what most travelers pay in India, I'd relegated myself into the budget accommodation category since Rajasthan. The problem now though, was we had no accommodation on the day of India's biggest festival. After some failed attempts we reluctantly allowed a commission kid take us to "best place for you" which actually turned out better than expected. Once checked in we went off in search of fireworks and beer in readiness for the celebrations. Uttar Pradesh is an alcohol free state, but it didn't take the Scotts long to find it. A few hours later we were up on the roof watching hundreds of homemade fireworks lighting up Varanasi's skies and explosions from bangers on the streets below. The streets below were the next destination, late into the Diwali night, it's was more like a war zone than a celebration with unsupervised kids roaming the streets with rockets and home-made gunpowder packages, health and safety doesn't really go in India. Also that night, whilst slightly drunk, I watched as an old lady hand-fed a dying cow in the middle of the road, only to then squat next to the cow and poo all over the road. Also, that cow lay there slowly dying for the 4 days I was there. It actually became a landmark of ours, "meet at the dying cow in two hours".

The following few days the festival rolled on, not with the same aggression of the opening night, but you were never safe from a banger. These days I spent exploring many Ghats along the river, most notably the before mentioned Manikarnika (burning) Ghat. I'm still not completely sure what I make of it. The whole thing was so alien. I couldn't work out if the relatives were mourning or celebrating. It was made even more surreal with the addition of us tourists watching on, kids about the fires flying kites and cows wandering about the charred remains. A local told me the men's chests and woman's hips don't completely burn so these are hurled into the already rank river - Varanasi on the whole is a very dirty and polluted place.  

Three days is about all I could handle of Varanasi, it's definitely not for the feint-hearted. I'd have stayed a few more nights with my travel crew, but I had a reserved ticket and there was no availability for the following few days. This was my que to leave the most mental stop of the trip, maybe even my life.     

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Rishikesh photos

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Rishikesh

After a 18-hour train ride, a disastrous 7 hours in Delhi and then an 8 hour bus I finally made it to Rishikesh. It's a renowned backpacker haven, the global capital of yoga and Himalayan trek base. My reasons for heading here were to meet up with a group and escape the madness of Rajasthan. 

Delhi was as chaotic as usual and trying to find the right bus ended up a nightmare. I finally got one leaving at 8pm after covering a lot of miles on the streets of Delhi. I did find some sanctuary this time in the Connaught Place area, it was clean and more London-like than India. By the time I got to Rishikesh it was 3am, everything was shut so I set up a little camp and tried to sleep rough outside a guesthouse. This is now mountain-country though, so it was a whole lot colder than Rajasthan. I was saved by a drunk Glaswegian guy randomly strolling about, who started banging on all the doors on my behalf demanding someone put me up for the rest of the night. I was eventually allowed to sleep in reception and the friendly Scott suggested I come to his hostel for breakfast as there was a group of travelers there. 

The next morning I strolled out of my room and glared across the valley into the mountains. Far down below I could make out the white swirls of the Ganges, this place was really peaceful, coming here was a good plan. The area of Rishikesh I'm staying in is called High Pass, It's out away from the main town and across the river from the ashrams and yoga haven. Remembering the Scottish guys breakfast invitation and my quest to find friends, I headed over to the other guesthouse. I was greeted at gate by the same Scottsman (Kevin) in exactly the same state, apparently it was a liquid breakfast. He took me over to his group of friends, a snowball-effect collection of travelers heading in my direction, result.

A couple of my new buddies the following day were keen to go Kayaking in the Ganges. I'd done some kayaking back in scouts but was pretty rusty, I just figured it would be common sense. This turned out to be a pretty bad assumption, confirmed by Dillon, a Canadian sea kayak instructor commenting "wow, that river's going fast" and also some harrowing stats from the guide about how many people drown in the river each year. We took off in the water and within minutes Dillon (professional kayaker) was upside down, very quickly followed by me. None of us could roll back up, it was just a case of breaking out and swimming for shore. At this point I realised this was no longer a kayaking trip, it was a survival mission. I'd have been happy swimming or even walking 9km down-river if it meant not dying in a capsised kayak but this wasn't possible - I had to kayak down. Next up came some grade 2+ rapids, about 7ft high. A lack of confidence and misplaced balance plunged me in again but this time there was no swimming, just desperately holding onto the boat and paddle and trying to avoid rocks. I think I must have been pummuled about 2km along the river, swallowing a good few pints of it too. After collapsing on a beach for 5 minutes and with the news there were another 2 rapids coming up, I was regretting the entire thing. Over the course of the next stretch I went in about 2 more times, but did slowly start to get it and even survived the final rapids.

The next day was spent in the courtyard of the adjacent guesthouse. 4 of the group were heading for Varanasi the next day so I decided to move on with them, seeing as that was my next stop anyway and the following morning we headed out to Varanasi for Diwali, where a whole load more chaos awaited.

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Catfish in lake in Jaisalmer

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Jaisalmer photos

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Jaisalmer

Back in Jaipur I had a decision to make. Since I'd become quite jaded with Rajasthan I was considering cutting my time here short and heading East towards Rishikesh. I hadn't planned to go into that part of India, but by skipping Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Agra (for now) I could get about a week there. After considering all things, I decided I couldn't miss Jaisalmer, even though it was the completely wrong direction, right over by the Western Pakistan border. It turned out to be a great decision. I'm currently writing this on the sleeper train heading back to Delhi, and pleased to be leaving Rajasthan on a high after the Jaisalmer visit.

Jaisalmer is geographically isolated, way out in the Thar desert to the west. It's a desert city. It has an interesting history, blossoming when the first Indian - Pakistan camel trade routes opened, then being put out of business when the British started trading via sea routes to the south. It's now booming again due to tourism (75% of employment is tourism), and has also become a strategic Indian army base since the wars with Pakistan at the end of the last century. When the city was founded it was built around a huge fort, that stands tall above the surounding landscape. The yellow sand coloured stones that the city is built with give it the nickname 'Golden City'. The fort now, that once served as a formidable defense, has 3,000 people residing in it's walls.

I knew I was short on time in Jaisalmer, so I made sure I knew exactly what I wanted to see in good time. Firstly I headed for the fort, It took a while to find the way in as there's only 1 narrow opening to the north-west. Minutes after stepping inside my decision to come was vindicated. The place was timeless, peaceful and beautiful. Despite the heavy tourism the fort had lost none of it's medieval charm with it's narrow meandering lanes and ancient eastern architecture. I was waiting for some sort of gimmic, some actor guy dressed in ancient battle gear to hop out and do a tour, but there was none of that, it was just genuine. The people inside were friendly too. They attempted the normal sales routine, but then were too laid back to really push it, opting to just chat and answer questions instead. Deep inside the center of the fort were 7 ajoining Jain temples. These were unlike the other temples of Rajasthan, they were more grand and clean. I suddenly became aware I knew hardly anything about the Jain religion and so grabbed a *just spotted a mouse running around on the floor below on the train, pleased in on the top bunk* guide to explain some things. From what I think I learned, and I need to read up on it more, Jains have 1 god, a Devil, a heaven and hell. I originally thought Jainism was a type of Hinduism, but the 1 god and a heaven kind of contradicts Hindus many gods and re-birth ideology. I was also surprised to see Hindu and Muslim figures in the temple, the guy just told me religon is an arm, and Hindi, Budda, Jain, Mus;im are all fingers of that arm. I'm not sure exactly how that works, but its a nice way of looking at it. Looking forward to some WiFi so I can read up on it some more. Also in the fort are some famous Havelis. Havelis are a type of Eastern house, equivalent to Morrocan Riads, or English stately homes I guess. These famous ones aren't inhabited now so you can wander around them for a small entrance fee. They too are synonimous of the surrounding architecture, it's really stunning and my photos aren't going to do it justice. These Havelis were also completely full of bats, so naturally I didn't hang around. I also made it out to lake <name>, it was the least spectacular lake I've seen so far, but that wasn't reason for visiting. I scored a loaf of bread of some local kids and threw it in. The moment the bread touched the water, the lake completely erupted with swarms of catfish scrapping over every bit. It was incredible. This Japaneese girl next to me didn't know it was coming and completely shit herself. I took a video of it and will try and upload when I upload this post.

So to conclude this post and wrap up Rajasthan. Jaisalmer was well worth the effort. It's like stepping into a fantasy and I wish I'd had more time there. I missed out on venturing into the Thar desert, which is what every tourist goes to do. I made a half arsed attempt with one travel operator but I wasn't really that fussed. I already been on a camel into the desert in Pushkar and was happy chilling in my room watching The Book of Eli and then Angles and Demons till bed time. Rajasthan on the whole has been a rollercoster ride. People told me India was a hard place to travel and I'm pretty sure i've seen the best and worst of it already. I think doing it solo has had an impact. It seems a very couple place, with nothing to do in the evenings except sit on rooftop restaurants watching the surrounding landscape. Not the sort of thing you do by yourself. If I could have this time over again, and the advice I'd give to other travelers heading here would be to spend more time outside the chaos of the major cities. Most poeple I spoke to were feeling the same and some were skipping some stops because of it (Most people are traveling round anti-clockwise, exiting Rajasthan from Udaipur in the south), which is a shame because Udaipur was one of my favorite places so far. So now sat on the train, heading East to Delhi, should be there in 18 hours, then a 5 hour bus to Haridwar, and then a 1 hour bus to Rishikesh - the Yoga capital of the world!

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Jaipur photos

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Jaipur

Jaipur is Rajasthan's bustling capital. I arrived here early yesterday morning and again managed to get into my hotel room at 7am and went straight to sleep. I hadn't bothered trying to sleep on the night train this time, opting to watch 8 episodes of Broadwalk Empire instead. 

When I woke up I headed into the city center. It's an area known as Pink City as in 1876 the whole city was painted pink (the colour of hospitality) to welcome King Edward VII, it's now a legal requirement for any building development in the area to be painted pink. In the center of Pink City is the City Palace, a collection of buildings housing the former royal family. It was 300 rupees just to get in and look so I skipped out on that one. I didn't skip out on Amber Fort though, I'd read plenty about it before arriving in Jaipur and was excited to see it, I even paid and extra 100 rupees for the audio guide. The 400 year old fort is an amazing example of the advanced architecture of the that time. Every small part of it served a purpose, from an advanced cooing system to carefully segregating the men and women of the fort. The women who lived there - all married to the Raja - weren't allowed to be seen by anyone other than the Raja and his eunuch guards, pretty crazy.

There are more sights to Jaipur I've regrettably missed out on. The Water Palace and Monkey Temple both sound pretty cool, but I haven't had enough time to get around it all. I'm about to hop on a 12 hour train to Jaisalmer, the city in the desert, and then I'm planning on getting out of Rajasthan for a while and over to the mountains. It's incredible here, just so very frantic and I'm all city-ed out for now. 

Still no friends either!