Jalgaon/ Fardapur/ Ajanta

Early morning I arose to my alarm and checked our position. Luckily I had reception and saw we were about an hour late, so we could sleep a little longer. Well the others could I rarely can fall asleep once I'm up.
I wanted to go to this place because it is supposed to be beautiful - Ajanta is known for the caves important to buddhist monks. So William and Christina agreed to do this stop with me and we checked in into a small hotel and got it pretty cheap (I guess almost no other room, if at all, was booked). We tried to get a train onward and realised almost everything was booked. The only option was 2AC (expensive with only 2 beds per wall) to Varanasi. Our plans to visit a tiger park on the way were gone when we found out, that the parks only opened in the second half of october!
So we booked the train (or tried and tried and tried). Finally my visa card was accepted by the website of the indian railway and we had the tickets. Before that we tried with all our cards and different options. No use. It took so long, that even the tickets for the 2nd AC class were getting scarce... luckily, in the end we succeeded!
Then we headed out to the caves. We took an auto and were unbelievably annoyed by all the money to spend to get there. Apparently we have to pay a charge to walk over a parking place and be talked to by all these vendors, then we have to pay for a bus to get to the cave entrance and then we have to pay 500 rupees. This price was again raised a few months back from 250. We should have done some research...
Wait... 500?! So this site also belonged to the Archeological Survey of India. Thank you ASI...
I tried argueing with the people untill the security guard came and he realised I had payed and only wanted to know why it was so expensive not causing any harm, other than wanting them to understand my english and talk to me. They couldn't so I gave up and we went inside. Guides talked to us and wanted more money, when we said we already paied 500 and we can't pay more they told us to complain to our embacies, that the foreigners prices are so high...
Anyway we ditched them and went inside the caves. It was very interesting. Each cave had a big statue of Buddha and each of these statues had a different hand gesture. Sometimes involving both hands, sometimes just one. As far as I can remember it was always a different one, implying that these all have a significant meaning to buddhists or at least the monks. And maybe each cave being used for one sort of ritual or something like that.

A panorama of the valley (taken from on of the last caves if I remember correctly)

A small look on the all the caves and the small valley they surround

Even outside the monks show buddha and in the background 2 indian men holding hands

A smaller Buddha (the big ones were mostly too dark)

A bigger Buddha

Two elefants at the side of this gateway into a cave:

There were over 30 caves in total, not all of them were open for visitors. In a few caves the ASI had small exhibits about their work here, not really saying anything other than "we are working at the cave" "look here, we have cool tools to restore this cave!" So yeah... kind of cool I guess.

A small modell of the valley and the caves

Anyway... The caves were cool and some really impressive to walk through. We were almost always way too long in the caves. At least comparing our time in a cave to that of other groups and people. There was a big group of indian women, all dressed in pink sarees, who started half an hour after us and were finished 2 hours earlier I think... We took our time and let the feel of all the caves sink in. William said he could very well imagine meditating here in the caves, so calm and far away from all the busy traffic in India. If it wouldn't cost that much...

The pink ladies walking to the next cave

A Buddha monkey, waiting to meditate in peace... (not sure if Buddha monkey is actually a thing...)

A small Buddha statue on the side of one of the caves

Inside a cave, small paintings showing Buddha and other small carvings

Cool looking doorway

CHristina and me infront of the last cave entrance

(or at least one of the last - not the same doorway as before!)

Shortly before the caves closed it started pouring. Luckily we were near some houses and got refuge there. We waited till it had calmed down and the took the same route back. Paid for a bus and when we wanted to complain about our "parking ticket" (we had paid in the beginning) no one was there to complain to. Grudgidly we retreated back to Fardapur, had nice dinner and waited for the next day to head back to Jalgaon and get into the fancy train to Varanasi!

It took quite a while for a bus to arrive and bring us to Jalgaon. In Jalgaon I searched for a post office. Finally I gave up and took a tuktuk to one. In the post office no one knew how much a postcard to Germany costs so they sat me down and the work in the post office stopped. Everyone was staring at William (who joined me for fun) and me. Then they told me it cost 30 rupees. 30? I told them it just cost 15 in Kodaikanal. Kodaikanal doesn't have a train station, their trainstation in Jalgaon is 2 km away, how can it be more expensive?! Because I wanted to send the postcards I paid and heard them apologize and say it's the system not them. I told them to tell their Boss it's a stupid system. Jalgaon is closer (by airmiles) to Germany than Kodaikanal and has a better infrastructure, it shouldn't cost more. It was the most expensive a postcard had ever cost me in India. While I was discussing even more Indians had shown up. About 20 were standing infront of me, while I was talking to them, William had to restrain himself from laughter. I finally bought the stamps, gave them the cards and left. They told me they would complain on my behalf about their system.
Then we waited at the train station and I felt like in a zoo. Here apparently it is once more rare to see foreigners and so everyone stopped and stared at us. The entire stairway to the other platforms was filled by people looking down at the foreigners who were waiting on their delayed train. William got really annoyed and started asking for money for even looking at us. When one man wanted a picture of Christina she asked him for 10 Rupees and he actually gave it to her!
When we found out at which platform our train left we moved there and weren't in the center of stares any more. Not as many people walked by here.

The train class was kind of a joke. We got sheets, a blanket and a pillow. Additionally the side beds had curtains for each bed, which was nice, but no power outlets! The horror for Christina and so she always asked other people to use their outlet. The food was cold and bad and they actually charged more than it should have cost (never happened to me in the sleeper class, or the price was still cheap by restaurant standards). I was really desillusioned by the great fancy 2AC coaches and felt validated, that the sleeper class is unbeatable in price and comfort. Because the other classes don't really offer more comfort (except the curtain, which I wouldn't pay extra 1500 Rupees for)...
With a delay of 3 hours we arrived in Varanasi, the holy city at the Ganges.

Colonial lord Jakob and Foto-ception: Will taking a picture of Christina taking a picture of me

A look back on India

I love India.

So I came to India in the end of June. Almost 4 months ago. Unbelievable. 1/3rd of a year I have spent in this country, where I spent my childhood.
I had a really good time and enjoyed my travels. Though I miss my friends and family and Germany (especially Hamburg) I felt good and was most of the time comfortable here on the road (or the tracks of the indian railway). Today I arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal.

India is an extraordinary country. So many people, so much tradition and good food. Loads of rituals, rickshaws, noise, dirt and animals. Huge fields, temples, beaches, mountains, crowds and plantations.

I loved it, raoming around town, haggling with people about prices, getting food in small stalls and creating a smile on the man selling me a samosa.
I adored the children who loved to wave to me and yell "Hi!" or "Bye!" or the parents making staring babys wave, though they were scared of this pale human.

The huge cities making me feel nauceous of the smell of dead animals or fresh piss, making me deaf of all the honking, making me blind with all the dust and dirt in the air and making my skin red because I forgot to put on sunscreen.
The smaller towns where white tourists were rare and because of that them staring at me, maybe seeing a foreigner for the first time in their life, helping me out of the goodness of their heart, smiling and greeting me like a fellow human and feeing alienated by me because I look very differently (with my blond hair, redish beard and white skin).

Just great. I loved it.

Arriving in Chennai I was immediately ripped off by the taxi to get into town. From there I was overwhlemed by the city. I wasn't even able to cross the street without an heart attack! I would have really enjoyed someone in the first few days, I managed and the food was greaet. Mmmmm.
I had my first Biriyani in India since 17 years... And dosas (crepe made of rice dough), idlis (basically rice cakes), vada (savoury spiced "donuts") and the curries! Masala everywhere, with aloo, ghobi, paneer, palak, tikka and more with names I forgot. Sooo good. I loved the Thalis in south India. Mainly big rice portions with alot of different sauces, chutneys and other dips (often with vegetables). Thali was translated to me as "meal", so you get if for lunch or dinner, it is cheap and in south India I got second, third or even fourth servings of rice (if I wasn't careful) and each time new sauces.
Being vegetarian is no problem in India. Vegan might be I guess (they put butter, cheese or milk into alot of things and that concept of food is unfamiliar to them). But because of the religion and culture many animals are considered holy and therefore many won't eat any animal. Though there are enough that do, so chicken is very common, mutton a little more rare. Beef is pretty hard to get by, mostly it is even outlawed, but you might stumble across someone who knows someone who knows someone who has a guy - if you get what I mean.
So you will find vegetarian options in all restaurants. Even McDonalds, Burger King or KFC. And often it is a 50:50 ratio, not like in other places where McD might have 1 vegetarian burger.

Food aside, I soon got more accustomed to haggling, negotiating (though I am still REALLY bad at it) and knew a few prices which is very valuable. But if you get ripped of the first time and you think the price was right the second time you might still be paying too much. You will know as soon as the vendor sells it to you without at least trying. For example:
"How much?"
"500"
"300?"
"ok"
"..." - At this point you know you still paid enough to guarentee him a good (if not huge) profit, so he doesn't even have to try.

I enjoyed the typical tourist places at the beginning, not to crowded, not too much haggling (set prices) and only rickshaw drivers to fend off. I visited forts, temples, churches and museums. Especially museums were a calm haven for me, mabye an annoying class rushing through, otherwise quiet. Most temples will be quiet and peaceful aswell, though if it is popular you won't have much space or calm, because devotees will be rushing through and trying to recieve darshan or prasada. If I was in bigger cities gardens and parks were great for a retreat.

Later I would venture more into the bazaars, try not to be pulled into any shop, or at least not buy anything unnessacary for way too much money, because I had no idea how much it cost. As an advice: Never buy at your first place. In the second you might hear another price or while walking out the shopkeeper will try and keep you interested by dropping the price significantly.

Amongst all I loves meeting people. Be it other tourists or Indians, whose short chats often resulted in them asking for my number or facebook name, to keep in touch. I still think it is weird just to walk up to a stranger like that, but I guess otherwise you won't meet other people.
I really enjoyed travelling with Christina and William, hanging out with the people in the hostels in Goa and meeting the people in Mysore and Alleppey.
Doing trips, be it in a tuktuk, on a canoe, a local bus, scooter or train.
I probably forgot alot of the people I met, I'm sorry, if I do, just remind me, maybe I wrote about you in my blog ;-)

The south stayed my favorite. It might just be, that I was there longer than in the north and I rushed through the northern states. Or maybe just because I had a more emotional connection towards it (growing up there and so on shouldn't be ignored).

Things definately stuck in my memory are visiting the places of my childhood: Tirupati with the people still feeling gratitude towards my father and projecting this unto me. Kodaikanal, where I saw our old home, walked the well known paths to old friends homes, through the woods of our compound or just over the campus. Thiruvannamalai where I met people from different faiths and later relaxing on the beaches of Kerala. The lush hills of Munnar and the calm hikes through the tea plantations. The busy cities of Bangalore, Mumbai, Varanasi and Delhi with their bazaars, shops and sights. Having drinks with other travelers in Goa and driving with rented scooters. Visiting religious sites of both Buddhism and Hinduism aswell as amazing muslim arcitecture in Agra or Jaipur. And lastly visiting the border of India and Pakistan and feeling the patriotism of this country rise high over all I have felt before and trying to hard to get into a fort in Delhi.

The last mentioned experiences will follow in their own blog posts. I apologize here for being so slow with writing my posts. I have finally made a map of India, which I have uploaded to this post. You can see where I have been and it is even coloured (I am after all planning to become a teacher!) For the next countries I will try to get a map uploaded earlier, so people can "track" me - if desired. I'll try.

Now for my poorly made map: Numbers show in which states I was during the travels
1: Tamil Nadu
2: Andhra Pradesh
3: Kerala
4: Karnataka
5: Goa
6: Maharashtra
7: Uttar Pradesh
8: Rajasthan
9: Haryana/ Delhi
10: Punjab

Here the route I took:
Tamil Nadu: Chennai -> Tirupati -> Sri Kalahasti (back to Chennai) -> Thiruvannamalai -> Pondicherry/ Puducherry (and back) -> Madurai -> Kodaikanal (and back) ->
Kerala: Trivandrum -> Alleppey -> Kochin/ Ernakulam -> Munnar (and back) ->
Karnataka: Bangalore -> Mysore -> Hampi ->
Goa: Palolem -> Anjuna ->
Mumbai -> Jalgaon/ Ajanta
Varanasi -> Agra -> Jaipur -> Gurgaon/ Delhi -> Amritsar

Mumbai

After the adventures of Goa I headed to another indian metropolis: Mumbai!
I took a night train from Margaon to Mumbai. I sat down at my seat and was suprised the train was so empty! About an hour later when the train stopped at an station I noticed people staring at me. It was an entire indian family. Apparently they reserved the other berths in the compartment and were flabbergasted at what a white person was doing in their seat. They stood there for a few seconds staring at me. Their faces were priceless! Slowly they arranged and sked me if I was really in the right seat, so I showed them my ticket and they realised the family was split into 3 groups.. They didn't ask me to swap or anything or talked to me after that. I heard them joking using the word "english", I guess they were wondering about if they'd have to use english now that I was in their midst.
Only later, when they were having dinner they asked me, if I could move and let them all eat together. This again was a wonderful picture, though I was too afraid to ask to take one. Probably 12 people had gathered, some sitting on the floor, 4 on each berth and talking, opening their huge bags and pulling out huge amounts of food. They had Biriyani, sambar, other sauces and chicken. They all shared it and had a nice time. Once they were done they split again and I was able to eat (after they had finished I got my ordered food from the train-pantry). A lovely family experience =)

After arriving I headed to a small "hostel" quite far away from anything happening. Getting there was interesting. It was basically a "hostel" inside an appartment. So while I was walking with my big backpack people asked if I was searching for the hostel and sent me down alleyways untill I ended at an dead end and only thanks to 2 other backpackers, who were exiting the building I found out it was actually in there. One floor was remade to a hostel, with bunkbeds and the lot.
I soon met up with Will and Christina again and we did a tour through one of the Slums of Mumbai, the Dhavari Slum (it was featured in the movie slumdog millionaire, though people from the slum dislike the movie, claiming it shows a person from the slum but actually portraying a person from a different place or something like that...). It was really interesting. Someone I met told me that Mumbai was the most dirtiest city he saw in India and people were living in garbage. But in the slum I saw they were more living of it rather than in it.
They were recycling alot of old plastic and many other smaller industries were housed here (like tailors, making trousers, shirts, gloves and suitcases). Another one was a leather shop, who named their business after the slum: Dharavi.
Our tourguide (who grew up in the slum himself) said it's good quality and in the shop in the slums it's much cheaper than at other places. Same with most of the other places here, once they move to stores the prices go way up.
The tour was really nice and was organised by a NGO called "Reality Gives". Alot of the money from the activities and tours go towards their project, to support children from the slums. So here the kids could learn different subjects additionally to school and get help and support.
At the end they sold some of the articles people living in the slums made with the help of the project. It is a fair trade based upcycling system. So old Sarees would be made to scarfs, bags and other things. But they would also use other materials to create more.
Mumbai has a really high population density, it is over doulbe than that of London or Hamburg. There are still alot of slums, though the govournment is trying to get these people better living spaces, but is bound by a law made a few decades ago, where new slums won't be allowed, but the old ones preserved. So unless the people leave the slums voluntarily, the cannot force anyone out of there.

Me infront of the slum, picture taken by Will

The next days Christina, Will and I did some more sight seeing, visited the Gateway of India, through which in 1947 the last british troops left India.

The Gateway of India, directly by the ocean and quite nice!

And a fancy Hotel (I think) close by in a victorian british style (or something like that)

And I was in contact with Peter. Peter was our neighbor and we spent alot of time together playing after school and also in school. He was in the same class as my older brother, so they were almost inseperable. I had met his mother in Kodaikanal and was now eager to meet him once again.
We met one evening for a few drinks, Will joined us. We talked alot about the old days, Kodaikanal, what he was up to and so on. He is currently working for a big company and visited a very good business school, so alot is expected of him but he makes alot of money. Thanks to this he has only little time left for holidays and is only rarely in Kodaikanal, but is travelling around India on business trips.
It was great meeting him again and I enjoyed seeing him in such a good place and being able to talk again as adults. His company was going to send him to Delhi in the middle of october (when I'd also be there), sadly that meeting had been postponed so he couldn't make it. But next time I'm in India we'll definately meet I hope =)

The last day I headed to the Helen Keller Institute in Mumbai. Helen Keller was a blind and deaf woman who had achieved some fame in her day and is often shown as a prodigy, that educating people, who are deaf and blind, works. There are several institutions named after her in the USA (where she lived) but the one in Mumbai only shares the name. Unfortunately I arrived too late at the school and so teaching was over. But I was able to talk with the head of the educational board of the school.
She told me, that their teachers are all trained by the institution and so are more or less specialized in deaf and blind education. The building I visited housed the school for mostly children with multiple disabilities, so deaf and blind or other "combinations". The deaf school was a little further away more in the "new Mumbai" area. When I asked about the Cochlear implant she explained it is too expensive in India. And they would always tell the parents, that the surgery isn't the only step. After this the child needs extensive training to learn how to cope with the implants and maybe be able to hear again. Often this makes the parents think double to pay this huge sum of money. So the main form of communication is sign language. She showed me a book, that people from this Helen Keller Institute made, which contained alot of signs. Here was shown clearly the origins of the sign language. Depending if the schools had british founders they'd use the two-handed alphabeth or if it was more us-american they'd use the one-handed alphabeth. She also explained, that almost every school uses a different set of signs and so the talking between them is difficult. But they manage. In their school they'd use a system more similar to ASL (American Sign Language). While the school in Andhra Pradesh used something derived from BSL (British Sign Language).
It was very interesting to talk with her and hear about the work in their school.

Modern Architecture of Mumbai: A walkover above a very very busy junction of junctions

A Mosque I stumbled across while wandering through town

In the evening I met with Christina and William again, we saw a movie in and old cinema. "The magnificent 7" is a western, of a "typical" us-style. 7 cool good guys fight 1000000 bad guys and win. Though not every good guy survives. And the us-american flag wasn't always visible, which was a nice touch.
But in all an ok action movie and so we headed to the train station to get into a train to Jalgaon, a city from where we could get to the Ajanta caves (oooold monastaries of buddhist monks). We arrived there not too early but not too late and when I didn't see our train written anywhere we asked at the enquiry and they said the train leaves at a different station! Mumbai has approxametely 5 big train stations. Or 10? I don't know. This one was new to me and I still don't know what the abbreviation for the mumbai central station is. Our ticket said mcst (mumbai central station, right?!), nope. So we rushed to a taxi and he sped to the right station, luckily just in time, so we could get into the trian. Damn that was annoying... I just jumped into a coach thinking the coaches are all connected and walkable (from my previous travels), but apparently there were several AC-cars between the one I got in and the one I should be in. the others just ran outside the train and then I had to wait till the first station to be able to ge to my berth...
Annoying. The guy should have told us, when we bought the ticket, we  asked if it would leave here (we bought it at the central station) he said yes... Bah!
But we made it and were finally able to relax a little and eventually sleep and arrive in the early morning in Jalgaon...

Pictures of the Dhoti Ghat (place of the laundry men/ business): 

Drying clothes on a rooftop

View from above

Even more clothes hanging t dry, mostly sorted by colours

Random pic of the day: India! Newest member of the EU?! Britain is out, India comes in... sounds fair