Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
I took a bus to Jodhpur on July 2nd. It was so hot, I spent most of the journey in a stupor. After I arrived, I needed to do some jobs: find a cashpoint to get some money, then go to buy train tickets. My endurance level for this type of activity - the time between walking out of the guesthouse door, and the time when I'm totally fed up, exhausted and want to go home - would normally be quite good...say half an hour or an hour. Here in Jodhpur, it took about 2 minutes. It was SOOOOOOOOOOO hot...must have been the hottest place out of everywhere I went. There was no moisture in the air - it was just dry, baking heat, like being in an oven. I was deep in the maze-like lanes of the old city: all concrete and brick absorbing the heat of the sun, no open space, no cooling breeze, no respite. There was a large amount of pollution from the autorickshaws and motorcycles, and also a lot of cow shit about. These smells settled heavily in the narrow lanes, with no breeze to disperse them, and nowhere for the air to go. It was uncomfortable to breathe and it made me cough.
On the subject of cows, I feel so sorry for the cows in India. In most towns and cities, cows roam the streets. I don't know why they're there or if anyone owns them. I know cows are supposed to be sacred in Hinduism, so I guess that rules out killing them...but surely for their own benefit they should be moved into the country. They seem to survive by eating rubbish: not necessarily food, sometimes just bits of cardboard. They're all disgustingly thin and bony. They would stand there, chewing and staring ahead blankly, while around them the chaos of crowds, traffic and beeping horns went on. I often wondered what was going through their slow brains. Surely something deep down inside longed for open, grassy fields. Surely something told them there's a better place.
So anyway, I was looking for a cashpoint. My map didn't seem to correspond to reality and there was no cashpoint where one should have been. Then I found one, but it didn't work. And that was all I could stand: thoroughly defeated, I retreated to the guest house.
In the evening I decided to go and sit on the rooftop restaurant. I thought it might be pleasant in the cool evening air. No such luck: even at this time, the breeze was hot.
The next day I went to visit the huge fort. Here's a picture of some of it...as you can see, it absolutely dominates the city.
From up on the ramparts there were great views of the blue old city. When you stood right at the edge, the sounds of a whole city wafted up: a general hum of traffic and people, with the occasional horn or even voice mixed in. That was cool.
Later on I managed to find a working ATM, and book my train tickets. It turned out that yesterday, I'd been reading the map totally wrong. After this achievement, there was no way I was going to exert myself any more for the rest of the day.
So the next day I caught my train. I was travelling to a city called Chandigarh, which is directly north of Delhi. I was pleased that I'd found a way of getting up north which avoided Delhi. The drawback was that the journey took the rest of that day, and all of the night. The day was pretty dull. In the evening, a little kid came and sat right opposite me and started talking to me in a strange language. He spoke reasonable English, and I told him that I didn't understand. He spoke to me in English a bit, but kept lapsing back into this other language. He couldn't believe that I didn't speak any of it. The people sitting opposite started laughing. I thought the kid was just taking the piss and I started to get annoyed and wished he'd go away. But soon the whole family had arrived, and we started to have great banter - showing photos around and stuff.
I got woken very early, and got out at Chandigarh. Finding a room was a hassle, but eventually I moved in somewhere. Then I had diarrhoea again. I was fed up of it by now, so I considered going to see the doctor. I thought there would probably by loads of forms to fill in, it could take hours, then it would be a huge hassle claiming back the cost on my insurance. I went for it anyway. In fact, it was the most efficient doctors' surgery I've ever visited. I went in, and the doctor saw me straight away. (At Bradford on Avon surgery the other day, I had to wait 45 minutes....and that was when I'd had an appointment!) He did some doctory things like poke me and take my blood pressure, then prescribed some antibiotics. That totally cleared the problem up. As a side effect of that episode, I finally learned how to spell diarrhoea.
Then I was finally ready to go out and explore Chandigarh...and it was still only about 10 o'clock! The interesting thing about Chandigarh is that it was planned and built from scratch, starting in the 50s. Whereas all other Indian cities feel crowded, here was very spacious. In fact, it was slightly too spacious for my liking...it took so long to walk anywhere. I was finding it slightly boring...until in the afternoon I reached the 'Fantasy Rock Garden.' This was just a huge labyrinth, complete with ponds, caves, bridges, waterfalls, and decorated with pretty patterns and statues of animals. In the centre was a large open area, with a line of arches; under each arch was a swing. I immediately rushed to use one. After a few swings it struck me that I was, totally unselfconsciously, swinging in a public place. But everyone else was doing the same, so it was ok. There were lots of Sikhs about with their big turbans and even bigger beards - for some reason it seemed surprising and comical to see them on swings.
On the way out of the maze, these men wanted me to take a photo of them. Check out the random little statues in the background.
I stayed up late to watch one of the world cup matches in my room - I forget which. The next day I took a bus to Amritsar.
I took a bus to Jodhpur on July 2nd. It was so hot, I spent most of the journey in a stupor. After I arrived, I needed to do some jobs: find a cashpoint to get some money, then go to buy train tickets. My endurance level for this type of activity - the time between walking out of the guesthouse door, and the time when I'm totally fed up, exhausted and want to go home - would normally be quite good...say half an hour or an hour. Here in Jodhpur, it took about 2 minutes. It was SOOOOOOOOOOO hot...must have been the hottest place out of everywhere I went. There was no moisture in the air - it was just dry, baking heat, like being in an oven. I was deep in the maze-like lanes of the old city: all concrete and brick absorbing the heat of the sun, no open space, no cooling breeze, no respite. There was a large amount of pollution from the autorickshaws and motorcycles, and also a lot of cow shit about. These smells settled heavily in the narrow lanes, with no breeze to disperse them, and nowhere for the air to go. It was uncomfortable to breathe and it made me cough.
On the subject of cows, I feel so sorry for the cows in India. In most towns and cities, cows roam the streets. I don't know why they're there or if anyone owns them. I know cows are supposed to be sacred in Hinduism, so I guess that rules out killing them...but surely for their own benefit they should be moved into the country. They seem to survive by eating rubbish: not necessarily food, sometimes just bits of cardboard. They're all disgustingly thin and bony. They would stand there, chewing and staring ahead blankly, while around them the chaos of crowds, traffic and beeping horns went on. I often wondered what was going through their slow brains. Surely something deep down inside longed for open, grassy fields. Surely something told them there's a better place.
So anyway, I was looking for a cashpoint. My map didn't seem to correspond to reality and there was no cashpoint where one should have been. Then I found one, but it didn't work. And that was all I could stand: thoroughly defeated, I retreated to the guest house.
In the evening I decided to go and sit on the rooftop restaurant. I thought it might be pleasant in the cool evening air. No such luck: even at this time, the breeze was hot.
The next day I went to visit the huge fort. Here's a picture of some of it...as you can see, it absolutely dominates the city.
From up on the ramparts there were great views of the blue old city. When you stood right at the edge, the sounds of a whole city wafted up: a general hum of traffic and people, with the occasional horn or even voice mixed in. That was cool.
Later on I managed to find a working ATM, and book my train tickets. It turned out that yesterday, I'd been reading the map totally wrong. After this achievement, there was no way I was going to exert myself any more for the rest of the day.So the next day I caught my train. I was travelling to a city called Chandigarh, which is directly north of Delhi. I was pleased that I'd found a way of getting up north which avoided Delhi. The drawback was that the journey took the rest of that day, and all of the night. The day was pretty dull. In the evening, a little kid came and sat right opposite me and started talking to me in a strange language. He spoke reasonable English, and I told him that I didn't understand. He spoke to me in English a bit, but kept lapsing back into this other language. He couldn't believe that I didn't speak any of it. The people sitting opposite started laughing. I thought the kid was just taking the piss and I started to get annoyed and wished he'd go away. But soon the whole family had arrived, and we started to have great banter - showing photos around and stuff.
I got woken very early, and got out at Chandigarh. Finding a room was a hassle, but eventually I moved in somewhere. Then I had diarrhoea again. I was fed up of it by now, so I considered going to see the doctor. I thought there would probably by loads of forms to fill in, it could take hours, then it would be a huge hassle claiming back the cost on my insurance. I went for it anyway. In fact, it was the most efficient doctors' surgery I've ever visited. I went in, and the doctor saw me straight away. (At Bradford on Avon surgery the other day, I had to wait 45 minutes....and that was when I'd had an appointment!) He did some doctory things like poke me and take my blood pressure, then prescribed some antibiotics. That totally cleared the problem up. As a side effect of that episode, I finally learned how to spell diarrhoea.Then I was finally ready to go out and explore Chandigarh...and it was still only about 10 o'clock! The interesting thing about Chandigarh is that it was planned and built from scratch, starting in the 50s. Whereas all other Indian cities feel crowded, here was very spacious. In fact, it was slightly too spacious for my liking...it took so long to walk anywhere. I was finding it slightly boring...until in the afternoon I reached the 'Fantasy Rock Garden.' This was just a huge labyrinth, complete with ponds, caves, bridges, waterfalls, and decorated with pretty patterns and statues of animals. In the centre was a large open area, with a line of arches; under each arch was a swing. I immediately rushed to use one. After a few swings it struck me that I was, totally unselfconsciously, swinging in a public place. But everyone else was doing the same, so it was ok. There were lots of Sikhs about with their big turbans and even bigger beards - for some reason it seemed surprising and comical to see them on swings.
On the way out of the maze, these men wanted me to take a photo of them. Check out the random little statues in the background.
I stayed up late to watch one of the world cup matches in my room - I forget which. The next day I took a bus to Amritsar.# posted by Alex @ 3:20 AM 
