Wednesday 8 January 2014

The joys of being a tourist in India

(The first of an occasional series, this a special guest post from "Mr Reney".)

From pushy autorickshaw drivers, to the aggressive souvenir sellers at every tourist attraction and those all-too-helpful "officials" at train stations, being a tourist in India is hard work.

But the rewards make it all worthwhile.

Let's start from the beginning. Having enjoyed the delights of Christmas in a lovely Kolkata home, we hit the road for the well-trodden triangle of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur.

The flight to Delhi was uneventful, and we counted five separate ID checks between the entrance to the terminal building (No.1) to the security guard standing just before the aerobridge for one last look after you scan your boarding pass.

Red Fort, Delhi
Streets of Old Delhi











Red Fort is simply stunning, and a joy to behold after walking through the busy nearby streets with the sounds of the car horns blaring. We also dined at the same restaurant Bill Clinton did, visited the excellent Indira Gandhi museum and learned about trains at national railway museum ahead of our ride to Agra.

Snack tray, train from Delhi to Agra
We were repeatedly warned not to talk to anyone at the station ("there are plenty of cheater men at the station," the taxi man cautioned us). Despite this, when went to New Delhi Railway Station to find our train delayed a man in an official looking blue coat told us to go to another station to take an earlier train and buy a ticket at the local tourist office on the way. He would even bargain the autorickshaw driver down to 20 Rupees. Why did I follow him towards the rickshaw as part of a well-known scam? Who knows? Thankfully, sanity, in the form of Reney, prevailed and we went to the international tourist office at the station to sort out new tickets for an earlier train. It sure felt better to be on the train rather than hanging around the station with the word "target" on our heads.
There are inflated prices for just about everything - taxis, souvenirs, even beer. The bottle shop owner tried to convince us the Maximum Retail Price on the bottle was not the actual price because it "doesn't include duties". A local we spoke to described it as the "skin tax" - the lighter your skin colour the more they charge you. While you can put it down to just part of being a tourist, it does wear you down.

However, when you wake up at the dawn of a new year and, after a cup of hot masala tea, walk through the gates into one of the world's most majestic structures you can't help but feel it is all worth it. Travelling in India may not be the smoothest of journeys, but it is one we will always treasure.
The Taj Mahal (almost)
And there it is!

Tuesday 7 January 2014

Christmas Away from Home

Everyone has a different idea of how Christmas should be spent. Growing up in Australia, Christmas conjures up images of surfing Santa, Koalas with sunglasses and Santa hats on…oh wait, that's just the cheesy souvenir cards I am picturing at the Post Office. Christmas to me is a BBQ with family and friends with lots of fresh seafood, meat, and even some salads. Lunch might be followed by contemplation of heading out to a beach. This contemplation is shortly followed by discussion on not being able to find a car parking spot, not being sober enough to drive, importance of air conditioning and ultimately, how lazy everyone is feeling.

Before leaving Australia we had contemplated having a white Christmas as I have never experienced one of these before. We had even mapped out train travel though Estonia and Christmas markets in Berlin. However, we ended up staying in Kolkata for Christmas. I have to say that I was a little curious as to how Christmas would be celebrated in a country dominated by Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims.

Christmas day is a national public holiday (but boxing day isn't). Park Street - a street full of restaurants and clubs - is lit up with Christmas lights. Shopping centres are filled with excited shoppers, friends catching up and Christmas displays. It was quite festive and fun.

We ended up spending Christmas day lunch with some friends from Sydney who happened to be in town visiting their family. The family put on an amazing lunch - veggies in gravy, massive prawns, mutton curry and bhekti - local river fish. It was so nice to be out in the burbs enjoying non-air-conditioned air and getting to know new friends over a gin and tonic.

It's kind of amazing that we were spending Christmas day on the terrace of a friend's family's house in suburban Kolkata. I suppose it just shows that you never really know what adventures life will take you on.