Rishikesh

Rishikesh is most famous as the village where the Beatles met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and took up transcendental meditation. For us though, it was just another peaceful place to sit back, relax and get used to the idea that our trip is almost over (less than a week left). We wandered along the banks of the Ganga river (the same holy river that later passes through Varanasi), hiked in the Himalayan foothills and did a bit of yoga.

Amritsar

After a couple days of Delhi, we had to get out! We headed north to Amritsar (our original destination after Pushkar) - home to the Sikh's holiest shrine, the Golden Temple. It is truly beautiful - simple, but ornate and somehow not gaudy (despite a lot of gold). It sits in a pool of water (err... nectar of immortality), surrounded by white marble buildings. To enter the complex, you have to remove your socks and shoes, and wash your feet. The marble floor is very cold! You must also cover your head.

People of all faiths are allowed to enter the temple (unlike many Hindu temples), so we crossed the bridge to have a look inside - more gold! With music filling the air, standing in line with hundreds of pilgrims was a really "spiritual" experience.

The real highlight for us though, was the meal in the community kitchen. Everyday, thousands of people visit the temple for a free meal of dal (lentils) and chapati (bread). Volunteers prepare the food, serve it and do the dishes. The idea is that everyone sits side-by-side, regardless of caste, religion, gender or race. It was another amazing experience.

Amritsar is also very close to the only entry-point to Pakistan. The nightly flag-lowering ceremony is somewhat of a spectacle and attracts hundreds of tourists (mostly locals). While the guards on both sides of the border march about (like John Cleese at the Ministry of Silly Walks), the crowds cheer and chant patriotic slogans. As the gates slam shut, everyone rushes in for a photo. It seemed more like a sporting event than an official ceremony.

How to take a rickshaw

Delhi is a large, sprawling city, with poor public transportation and roads that are actually hostile to pedestrians. So, we have been forced to take several rickshaws (little three-wheel taxis).

Here's what you have to do:

1. Approach a group of rickshaws (near a train station or major intersection). A lone rickshaw near the hotel will demand a very high price and won't negotiate. Alternatively, stop a passing rickshaw on the street. Other rickshaws should also stop to see what's going on.

2. State your destination to the driver. They will agree and tell you to get in.

3. Ask the price (say "Rupees").

4. The driver will eventually state a ridiculously high price.

5. Walk away. Sometimes, the driver will offer a lower price. Sometimes, other drivers will offer you a lower price. Sometimes, all of the drivers form a cartel and claim that is the only price (in this case, you must walk off and find another group of rickshaws).

6. Keep stating the price you want to pay (we generally stick to what the guidebook recommends as there can be huge differences between cities).

7. Eventually, someone will agree to your price (or close to it).

8. Get into the rickshaw. If you are lucky and the driver is honest, you will soon arrive at your destination. Depending on the city and the traffic, you may fear for your life for the next few minutes as the rickshaw weaves its way through traffic, narrowly avoiding hundreds of collisions.

9. If you are unlucky, this is where the scams begin:

a) You can be taken to the wrong hotel or restaurant - often with a very similar name, and always with inflated prices to cover the driver's commission.

b) You can be taken to shop along the way. Sometimes you agree to the detour, in exchange for a reduction in fare (the driver will get a commission just for taking you). The stores always have inflated prices and poor quality, but you can always
walk out.

c) The driver can attempt to change the fare en-route. He can pretend that the fare is per-person, or say that 15 is really 50...

d) The driver can leave you in the middle of nowhere. This happened to us once when we took a cycle-rickshaw - he took us to an expressway and said that he wasn't allowed on and this was as close as he could get and then demanded full payment.

Pushkar

Hindu pilgrims head to Pushkar for a dip in the holy lake and to visit on the only temples to Lord Brahma the creator. However, even more hippies now head there to "get away from India." It is a small town, with plenty of cheap guesthouses and restaurants serving "multicuisine" and nutella-mars-bar-pancakes. It was a great place to visit for a couple days, to sit back and do nothing (and eat nutella-mars-bar-pancakes!)

However, we couldn't settle in (like many of the hardcore hippies do) and we were glad to be moving on. At least until our train was three hours late - meaning we missed our connection, almost stranding us in (hellish) Jaipur again, and so forcing us to detour to Delhi. But hey, only one unexpected detour in India - not bad...

"Chittor"

Our experience in Chittaurgarh was quite representative of our time in India. We were approached by aggressive "touts" at the train station (often rickshaw drivers interested in commission from hotels or restaurants). We managed to escape them and find a guidebook-recommended place, which was surprisingly nice (we haven't yet found the bedbugs or grime that we were expecting). There is an impressive fort overlooking the city, and it is full of temples (officially 113, although some are hard to spot). And, in general, we were overwhelmed by the friendliness of the locals (in our restaurant, a young man was celebrating his birthday and he bought us ice cream sundaes!).

Cooking in Udaipur

Our plan for Udaipur was simple: to take cooking classes. Our guidebook recommended a couple places, but upon arriving in Udaipur we realized that every restaurant and spice shop in town offered their own courses. Luckily for us, this meant that we had plenty of options... We ended up taking four classes, in a very-packed three days. While there was some overlap between the dishes that we learned, we definitely benefited from seeing the different styles and techniques that each cook used.

The first class was with a mid-thirties man who owned a spice shop. He did a really good spice demo, gave us recipes to make our own spice mixes and taught us some of the more time-consuming curries like malai kofta.

The second class (by far our favourite) was taught by a late-thirties widowed woman. Her overall personality and the quality of her cooking and food were fantastic. We also learned some different things like chutneys and sweet coconut parantha (which is SO tasty). Unlike the other classes, we got to actually get involved in cooking.

The third class, wasn't a complete course. We had amazing banana and pumpkin curries at a small restaurant, run by a charming elderly couple. They were so good that we HAD to learn how to cook them.

The last course that we took was with the wife of the owner of our guesthouse. She also taught us a number of dishes, mostly focusing on Rajasthani specialties and desserts.

We made enough food at each class to cover breakfast, lunch and sometimes even dinner that day. Mmmmm...Tasty food...We wrote down all the recipes and so we hope to be able to put on a fantastic Indian feast when we get home!

Between classes, we also managed to see some of the city, including the City Palace and an old haveli (mansion) that had been converted into a museum. We also watched Octopussy, which was filmed here (and shown nightly at every restaurant). In the mornings, we attended a drop-in yoga class, which felt really great. All in all, we had an incredible time in Udaipur.

Ahmedabad sucks

We were forced to stop twice in Ahmedabad (on our way to and from Mandvi). We barely made it out of the train station - it took us ten minutes to cross the first road, filled with a relentless stream of cars/trucks/buses/rickshaws/carts piled with vegetables/wood/parcels/etc going in every direction at once. We hated it!

Eventually, we did escape the train station, and visited a couple nice sights: we took a "Heritage" walk through some interesting small neighbourhoods, we visited a Ghandi museum and we had a buffet meal (on banana-leaf plates) at a (re-created) traditional village. Still, we wouldn't recommend visiting Ahmedabad unless completely necessary...

Mandvi

We decided to escape the tourists and touts in Rajasthan, by heading south to a remote beach in rural Gujurat (still in NW India, near Pakistan). We basically spent two nights and a day on the train to get there, but it was worth it.

We stayed in a small town called Mandvi, whose economy is based on ship building and windmills (kinda like Denmark...). The harbour was filled with beautiful (and huge) wooden ships being constructed by hand. We lazily walked around (and biked - just like Denmark...), talking to the ship builders and lumber yard workers. Enormous logs are imported from Malaysia, and manhandled onto sawmills. Then, the huge boards are carted to the ships and carried up rickety scaffolding. It was all very impressive. One ship takes two years to complete.

We spent the rest of our time relaxing on the local "Windfarm" beach. It was a perfect 'vacation' from the rest of India.