Sunday, July 30, 2006
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
The grand plan for India: get to the cool, mountainous northern region asap. Stay there for the rest of the trip. However, I didn't think I could cope with getting a train straight to Delhi...Mumbai had been intense enough. Mount Abu, in Rajastan, seemed like a good place to break the journey. It's a 'hill station', which just means that it's in the hills and therefore slightly cooler. I decided further that I needed a break for a few days; I'd been pretty much on the move non-stop since leaving Australia. I eneded up staying in Mount Abu for four full days. Here's a picture overlooking the centre of town.
It's not massively beautiful...a bit scruffy and dirty in fact, and there's not a huge amount to do. But I had a very relaxing few days and I enjoyed it.
On the first evening I had a cooking lesson at the guest house. This mainly consisted of us watching the woman do the cooking, but on the plus side we got to eat it all at the end. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be able to recreate any of it. After this, I had a drink (tea) with the others from the lesson: two girls from Holland and a woman in her 30's from Australia. The Dutch girls had been round the town, filming absolutely everything, and we watched the videos. We also looked at the Australian woman's photos. They put my endless set of buildings and landscapes to shame: these were all of people, and were very interesting. I resolved to take some like that myself. Their enthusiasm had a very positive effect on me. Because of all the hassles of Mumbai, I think I'd become more cautious and shut out some of what was going on around me. But that meant I shut out a lot of the charm and the funny and interesting stuff. Speaking to them renewed my enthusiasm for India.
As we were talking, we gradually became aware of a racket coming from somewhere: it sounded like people banging drums and/or saucepans. As this got closer, we went to the gate to investigate. Initially, 4 or 5 children ran up, all going mental with excitment and dancing. I did some dancing with them, which they loved. Then the drummers came round the cornew, followed by a huge crowd of adults. In the centre of the crowd, people were holding the four corners of a square of fabric, and under this was a woman, waving at everyone, who seemed to be the centre of attention. I found out that she was getting married at the weekend...so naturally, they were parading through the town each night for the four nights leading up to it. How cool is that?
On the first day, I walked with the Australian woman to see some Jain temples. Jainism is the religion that refuses to harm any living creature: they won't even eat root vegetables because they think digging them up would disturb the insects. The temples were made of marble, and the walls, ceiling and even floor were covered by the most intricate carving I've ever seen. The oldest one was 1000 years old, but you'd never believe it from how good it looks today.
On that excursion, I got a feel for what the locals were like. Again, everyone wanted to speak to you. In Mumbai, they all wanted money or wanted to sell something...but here they were simply curious, or thought it was funny, or whatever. It was obviously a great novelty for them to see a white person. But it made a refreshing change from Mumbai, and it was fun walking down the street shouting cheery hellos to all these total strangers. The downside to their curiosity was the staring. It was really blatent. In this country, if you sense someone is staring at you then you can look at them, and they'll look away. I tried this in India: somebody, often standing right next to me, would be staring at me and making me uncomfortable. So I'd glare at them, but they wouldn't stop, then I'd get embarrassed and have to look away. And they'd keep on staring!
That night I developed a fever. It was the kind where your mind races out of control and you can't stop it. About 24 hours previously, I'd been licked by the hotel dog, so I was worried it was the onset of rabies. Eventually I managed to calm myself down and get to sleep, but I felt awful the next day. It was the most ill I got on my travels.
So for the next few days I took it easy and didn't do much. I did investigate this spiritual group called Brahma Kumaris. It's a worldwide organisation/sect with branches in 95 countries, and their headquarters was right there in Mount Abu. I visited the university (above) and the museum. When I first read about them, I found they beleive that all religions are equally valid and should be studied because they lead to God. OK, sounds reasonable. But I thought the museum was bloody weird. They seemed to have just made up their own religion, arbitrarily drawing elements from the mythology and symbolism of others. Even if I think some of the major religions are a bit weird, I have the greatest of respect for them. But I don't think much of one that was made up in the 1930s. That picture a few entries back was from the museum, as is the following picture:
There was something about how we're currently living in the end of an 'iron age', and we're about to enter a golden age. It was quite obscure and confusing. Well, if you want to know more, visit www.brahmakumaris.com !
My diarrhoea hadn't quite gone away...it wasn't bad, but I need to go to the toilet a lot. This began to really annoy me simply because it was inconvenient. The problem was exacerbated by the toilet paper situation in India. You can't use it because it blocks the drains. Therefore, after using the toilet, the only option is the left-hand technique. I began to get fed up of doing this after a while. Sorry to mention that...I should only mention diarrhoea...oooh...3 more times before I finish the blog!
India has the most amazing food - the best out of all the countries I went to. Look at this meal I had.
It was all you can eat: the waiters came round with naans, rice and all those sauces and just topped up your plate when you wanted. It was amazing.
The grand plan for India: get to the cool, mountainous northern region asap. Stay there for the rest of the trip. However, I didn't think I could cope with getting a train straight to Delhi...Mumbai had been intense enough. Mount Abu, in Rajastan, seemed like a good place to break the journey. It's a 'hill station', which just means that it's in the hills and therefore slightly cooler. I decided further that I needed a break for a few days; I'd been pretty much on the move non-stop since leaving Australia. I eneded up staying in Mount Abu for four full days. Here's a picture overlooking the centre of town.
It's not massively beautiful...a bit scruffy and dirty in fact, and there's not a huge amount to do. But I had a very relaxing few days and I enjoyed it.On the first evening I had a cooking lesson at the guest house. This mainly consisted of us watching the woman do the cooking, but on the plus side we got to eat it all at the end. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be able to recreate any of it. After this, I had a drink (tea) with the others from the lesson: two girls from Holland and a woman in her 30's from Australia. The Dutch girls had been round the town, filming absolutely everything, and we watched the videos. We also looked at the Australian woman's photos. They put my endless set of buildings and landscapes to shame: these were all of people, and were very interesting. I resolved to take some like that myself. Their enthusiasm had a very positive effect on me. Because of all the hassles of Mumbai, I think I'd become more cautious and shut out some of what was going on around me. But that meant I shut out a lot of the charm and the funny and interesting stuff. Speaking to them renewed my enthusiasm for India.
As we were talking, we gradually became aware of a racket coming from somewhere: it sounded like people banging drums and/or saucepans. As this got closer, we went to the gate to investigate. Initially, 4 or 5 children ran up, all going mental with excitment and dancing. I did some dancing with them, which they loved. Then the drummers came round the cornew, followed by a huge crowd of adults. In the centre of the crowd, people were holding the four corners of a square of fabric, and under this was a woman, waving at everyone, who seemed to be the centre of attention. I found out that she was getting married at the weekend...so naturally, they were parading through the town each night for the four nights leading up to it. How cool is that?
On the first day, I walked with the Australian woman to see some Jain temples. Jainism is the religion that refuses to harm any living creature: they won't even eat root vegetables because they think digging them up would disturb the insects. The temples were made of marble, and the walls, ceiling and even floor were covered by the most intricate carving I've ever seen. The oldest one was 1000 years old, but you'd never believe it from how good it looks today.
On that excursion, I got a feel for what the locals were like. Again, everyone wanted to speak to you. In Mumbai, they all wanted money or wanted to sell something...but here they were simply curious, or thought it was funny, or whatever. It was obviously a great novelty for them to see a white person. But it made a refreshing change from Mumbai, and it was fun walking down the street shouting cheery hellos to all these total strangers. The downside to their curiosity was the staring. It was really blatent. In this country, if you sense someone is staring at you then you can look at them, and they'll look away. I tried this in India: somebody, often standing right next to me, would be staring at me and making me uncomfortable. So I'd glare at them, but they wouldn't stop, then I'd get embarrassed and have to look away. And they'd keep on staring!
That night I developed a fever. It was the kind where your mind races out of control and you can't stop it. About 24 hours previously, I'd been licked by the hotel dog, so I was worried it was the onset of rabies. Eventually I managed to calm myself down and get to sleep, but I felt awful the next day. It was the most ill I got on my travels.
So for the next few days I took it easy and didn't do much. I did investigate this spiritual group called Brahma Kumaris. It's a worldwide organisation/sect with branches in 95 countries, and their headquarters was right there in Mount Abu. I visited the university (above) and the museum. When I first read about them, I found they beleive that all religions are equally valid and should be studied because they lead to God. OK, sounds reasonable. But I thought the museum was bloody weird. They seemed to have just made up their own religion, arbitrarily drawing elements from the mythology and symbolism of others. Even if I think some of the major religions are a bit weird, I have the greatest of respect for them. But I don't think much of one that was made up in the 1930s. That picture a few entries back was from the museum, as is the following picture:There was something about how we're currently living in the end of an 'iron age', and we're about to enter a golden age. It was quite obscure and confusing. Well, if you want to know more, visit www.brahmakumaris.com !My diarrhoea hadn't quite gone away...it wasn't bad, but I need to go to the toilet a lot. This began to really annoy me simply because it was inconvenient. The problem was exacerbated by the toilet paper situation in India. You can't use it because it blocks the drains. Therefore, after using the toilet, the only option is the left-hand technique. I began to get fed up of doing this after a while. Sorry to mention that...I should only mention diarrhoea...oooh...3 more times before I finish the blog!
India has the most amazing food - the best out of all the countries I went to. Look at this meal I had.
It was all you can eat: the waiters came round with naans, rice and all those sauces and just topped up your plate when you wanted. It was amazing.# posted by Alex @ 1:38 PM 
