Week 100 - Bangkok, Delhi, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur (Thailand, India)

We had the day free while we waited in hope, with fingers and toes crossed, for our Indian visas to arrive, and decided we should spend it seeing some more of the hundreds of beautiful temples Bangkok has to offer. The city really is quite majestic, nestled in between the shopping malls, skyscrapers, tatty backstreets and traffic jammed roads there are little pockets of white buildings topped with the most beautiful green and gold roofs and adorned with incredibly ornate and sparkly window and door frames. 

After a delicious breakfast pastry in a bakery near our hotel, we set out to our first stop of the day, a giant Buddha statue that we’d seen in passing a week previous. Next, we walked towards a temple complex that we’d noticed from the bus window on our way back from Koh Chang, stopping on the way at a completely different and equally beautiful complex with a towering golden stupa. Wat Ratchanadda, the temple we’d seen from the bus, was huge, after walking through a garden with a buildings dotted around we reached the temple with it’s 37 black, metal spires, signifying the 37 virtues towards enlightenment, rising skyward at each level. From the top of the temple, we spotted the Golden Mount, and wondered how we’d never noticed it before, a golden castle towering over the neighbouring buildings, built on top of a man made, white hill. 

The temple complex Wat Ratchanadda, Bangkok.

After walking to the Golden Mount and feeling suitably cultured for the day, we were starting to flag from the heat and humidity and decided to head back to the hotel. We had time to refresh and recharge before we had to head to the agency in Sukumvit, to see if our passports had turned up in any of the afternoon deliveries (when we called at 3pm they were still being processed but we had to try or face missing our flights the next day and spending £450 on new ones). We got there after a very long taxi journey, where the driver got fed up of the traffic and dropped us at a train station to finish the journey. Our passports still weren’t in and they were unsure whether the embassy was having printing problems and whether they’d even been able to print that day. They suggested we wait around in case there was a final delivery and 10 minutes before the agency shut, our passports arrived. Extremely happy, we headed back across town to the hotel.

Another quick turn around and cursing that we hadn’t even had a chance to use the roof top jacuzzi at our hotel, we were back out to Khao San Road to meet Mario for dinner. We wandered around before finally deciding on a street stall that turned out to be pretty mediocre. As we walked back to Khao San, the rain started and we dived into a bar to wait it out. Leaving the boys to their beers I went to the closest massage parlour for a heavenly foot massage, then as the boys hadn’t finished, I went back for an aggressive back, neck and shoulders massage that seemed to involve a disproportionate amount of elbow. Saying goodbye to Mario, and leaving him still in a quandary over where to go next, with a fast expiring Thai visa, we walked back to the hotel to try to get a decent night sleep before our morning flight. 

The next morning we took a cab to Phaya Thai from where we caught the airport express train, arriving in plenty of time for our flight. After check in, we had an early lunch before it was time to board. The plane landed in Delhi early and the airport formalities went very smoothly. When we got to the arrivals hall, the driver who was supposed to collect us, wasn’t there. As we’d only turned our clocks back an hour we thought he was late, Rhys went to check outside and was barred from coming back in while I worked out the pay phone and called the hostel. Our lift arrived and it turned out we needed to wind our clocks back another 30 minutes. He wasn’t late at all. We settled in the car ready for the drive into Delhi feeling a bit flustered. And then the car broke down in a tunnel on the dual carriage way. The driver managed to start it again but another mile down the road and it broke down again, at traffic lights. The heat was oppressive and everyone was honking their horns angrily while we blocked the road. He tried to start it and even ran off to get more fuel (it wasn’t that), before another guy turned up from nowhere, tried to help him, and then agreed to take us the rest of the way to our hostel.

By the time we found it, down a winding alleyway off of Main Bazaar in Paharganj, we were disgustingly hot and sticky. Turning the aircon up in ou room we cooled off before braving the heat again to explore the backpacker ghetto we were staying in and to grab some dinner. Initial impressions of Delhi were that it wasn’t as dirty or as in-your-face as we’d expected. I think we’ve been to so many cities that we’re abit desensitised and you hear such bad things about Delhi that you expect the worst. 

Market square in Paharganj, Delhi.

Our first evening in Delhi, after dinner on a roof top terrace, we hailed a rickshaw to take us to the Red Fort for the sound and light show. It was the slowest rickshaw in the world. At one point Rhys had to get out and walk as we were over taken by every other rickshaw in the city. Once out of Paharganj we started to understand why people always talk about the congestion, pollution and homeless people of Delhi. The traffic was shocking and there were homeless people curled up asleep tucked into every nook. But it wasn’t all bad and we rolled at snails pace past some beautiful buildings and arches until the walls of the Red Fort loomed. We entered the fort through the Lahore Gate and realised we had the place pretty much to ourselves and 30 minutes until the show started. 

The sandstone fort was constructed between 1638 and 1648 and by the 19th century it was already much dilapidated. Mughal rulers, sapped by civil war had been unable to maintain the fort properly and then, during the First War of Independence in 1857, the British demolished the lesser buildings to make way for barracks and army offices. It’s impressive for it’s scale rather than for detailed craftmanship. After passing through the main gate, you find yourself in a covered shopping arcade called Chatta Chowk, from there we continued to the outdoor seating area for the light show, to listen to the history of the fort while the surrounding buildings were lit up with music playing. I thought it was great but Rhys was struggling with the heat so we left halfway through. Having learnt our lesson about cycle rickshaws we grabbed a autorickshaw to take us back to our hotel to bed.

The next morning we jumped on the metro and headed out to the lavish Akshardham Temple on the outskirts of Delhi, a huge, ornate Hindu Swaminarayan temple, inaugurated in 2005, made of sandstone and white marble. We were in awe as soon as we entered the complex, it’s beautiful with every surface covered with ornate carvings. From the Ten Gates, inviting goodness from the ten principal directions, to the Bhakti Dwar gate of devotion and the Mandir itself, reaching 141ft high and featuring 234 intricately carved pillars, 9 domes and over 20,000 sculpted figures, resting on a plinth carved with 148 life size stone elephants. The complex includes three exhibition halls that you can pay extra to visit. We went in the first, the Hall fo Values, that taught of the life of Bhagwan Swaminarayan through a number of rooms showing films, light and sound shows and robotic figures. I thought it was a great way to make religion accessible to modern generations. Rhys was getting tired from the heat and was ready to go so we skipped the other two exhibitions. After picking up our photos (we couldn’t take a camera in so paid to have some taken)., we headed back to our hotel. We had lunch at another roof top cafe before chilling in our room for a couple of hours to hide from the heat.

Our photo purchase, Akshardham, Delhi.

That night we had a night train booked. Originally, we’d managed to get one bed and one cancellation in AC2 which meant we could both get on the train but didn’t have a second bed confirmed, luckily we got the second bed. We had another slow trip through the Delhi traffic to the Old Delhi Train Station before waiting at the station for an hour for our train to leave. We boarded and settled in to our seats. Rhys had a curtained off bed that was ridiculously skinny and I had an open bed in a group of four with a window. The journey was pretty painless, apart from the man sleeping next to me who snored worse than a rhinocerous with a cold, meaning I got about 3 hours sleep. 

We arrived in Jaisalmer at noon the next day and were met by the hostel for a free transfer. There were another 4 people on our train staying at the same hostel, Dylans Cafe, and we sat on the roof terrace trying to catch the breeze, eating lunch and chatting. It was stifling hot, over 40C and we were grateful to get in to our air con room for a shower.

After a couple of hours we headed back to the roof terrace for a drink with the others, before wandering into the fort. Jaisalmer is like something out of Aladdin, it’s the city you’d draw if someone told you to draw a desert city. There’s a massive fort that towers over the muddle of streets below like a giant sandcastle, with every building made from local sandstone. The first day we walked through the main gate and into the medieval warren of stalls and houses that fill every inch of space around the palace inside the fort wall. The fact that it’s still lived in makes it incredibly atmospheric with women disappearing around corners with their brightly coloured saffron and fushia saris billowing behind them, men riding rusty old bikes with their turbans piled high, cows at every turn and bright embroideries hanging on the walls.

Wandering the streets inside the fort, Jaisalmer.

View from the cafe, Jaisalmer fort.

After a circle of the fort walls, stopping to admire the view of the town below, stretching out to the sandy plains in the distance, with the horizon dotted with wind farms, we found a roof top cafe high above the main gate where we settled for a cold drink while we waited for sunset. That night we ate on our hostel roof terrace and watched the football on TV with the other guests before bed.

We were up early the next day to beat the heat. Before heading back in to the fort area we wove our way through the maze like streets, being pointed the way by lots of happy locals, until we reached the Nathmal-ki-Havali (haveli being the Hindi word for ‘mansion’). We didn’t go in, just admired the carved exterior with a shop keeper pointing out differences between the left and right wings, carved by two brothers in competition. Our next stop was the Patwa-ki-Haveli with five interlinking buildings, built in the early 19th century by five Jain brothers who were jewellery merchants. We went in one of the privately owned sections for a pretty rubbish tour but spectacular views from the roof. We had one more haveli to visit, the Salim Singh-ki-Haveli, built 300 years ago and home to one of the Jaisalmer prime ministers. The building was a beautiful shape and the guide who showed us around (and who still lived there in the lower stories) was really informative.

View of the fort from Patwa-ki-Haveli, Jaisalmer.

Passageways within the fort, Jaisalmer.

Salim Singh-ki-Haveli, Jaisalmer.

After exploring the havelis, we headed back into the fort where we stopped for a cold drink at another roof top cafe, before following the signs to the Jain Temples, an interconnecting complex of seven temples dating from the 12th to 16th centuries. The carvings were beautiful, with every inch of surface looking like honey coloured lace, and you could easily find quiet corners to admire the artisans work in peace with the scent of sandalwood swirling around. It was midday by the time we emerged so we took a slow walk back to the hostel to hide from the heat.

Inside the Jain temples, Jaisalmer.

That afternoon we’d booked on to a camel safari. We were picked up in a jeep with another English guy, and drove out into the scrub of the Great Thar Desert. Our first stop was at an oasis, not that pretty but cool to see how little lakes can crop up in the middle of somewhere so incredibly hot and dry (you can go seven years in Jaisalmer with no rain and while we were there, temperatures were in the low 40C’s every day and it wasn’t even the height of summer). Next, we drove to a small fort. Again, it wasn’t really mind blowing and we were more taken by the ruins of an abandoned village lying in it’s shadow. 

Finally, we drove to camel point, where our camels and a dutch couple were waiting. We mounted our trusty steeds and strode out, caravan style, into the plains. I thought mine (i’m pretty sure it was called Noggin) was grumpy, but it had nothing on Rhys’s, Sala, the grumpiest camel you could ever imagine. We spent about two hours riding through the desert, spotting deer and mouse/rat things and birds, before we arrived at the sand dunes. There was no one else (one other jeep appeared in the distance later) and there and not a piece of litter in sight. Climbing down from our camels, we wandered through the dunes, taking photos and enjoying the view. It’s not like the Sahara with dunes as far as the eye can see but rather a small patch of dunes among the plains. 

Our camels being grumpy, Jaisalmer.

Me, enjoying a beer on the sand dunes, Jaisalmer.

Rhys on the sand dunes, Jaisalmer.

We stayed for sunset before dinner cooked on the camp fire, then our jeep took us back to Jaisalmer in time for bed. Many people stay out but we were keen for a good nights sleep in our comfy air con room. Driving home with two Indians and Indian music blaring, dodging cows and goats, was one of those experiences where the memory will always make you smile.

The next morning we were up early again to dodge the sun and walked to the palace within the fort. There was an audio guide so I said goodbye to Rhys at the gate who whizzed around before having baked beans in a roof top cafe while I absorbed the information from the tour. It wasn’t as pretty a building as the havelis and temples from the previous day but was interesting to see. 

The palace within the Jaisalmer fort.

We treated ourselves to a relaxed lunch in one of the posher heritage hotels in town before spending some time to cool down in our room, preparing for our evening train. We took a tuktuk to the station and found our seats in the sleeper class carriage, the cheapest carriage with open windows instead of air con and triple bunks. Luckily we had seats together by the window and, for the start of the journey, the train was empty and we whiled away the last hours of sunlight watching the desert landscape roll pass and talking to people who appeared at our window when we pulled in to stations. So far, we have a really good impression of Indian people, they’re very warm and welcoming, they’re keen to speak English and to say hello and they don’t generally want anything in return.

Rural train station on route to Jodhpur.

As the train passed through more stations we stopped to pick up more and more people until there were at least two people to each bunk and ten of us in our little carriage meant for six. The journey took 6 hours and with very numb bums, we were happy when we pulled in to Jodhpur at around 11pm. Then we had the fun of fighting our way off the train, climbing over whole extended families sprawled in the aisles and then tackling the station platforms that had entire villages camped out on them. In the main building of the station and in the forecourt, it looked like a refugee camp with people curled up asleep in every available space. I have no idea why they were there.

We found a tuktuk straight away to take us to our hotel and, having warned the hotel we’d be arriving on the train, they’d stayed up late to let us in. The room was fantastic with a four poster bed although the water was off and the first thing you want after a 6 hour non-aircon train journey through the desert, is a shower. We freshened up as best we could with bottled water and fell into bed.

We had a lay in before breakfast on the roof of our hotel. As we’d arrived in the dark we hadn’t realised just how close we were to the fort. Once we’d climbed to the roof terrace we were faced with the huge, solid walls of the fort towering over us and ate breakfast in awe with a Rudyard Kipling quote from 1899 running through my head “the work of angels, fairies and giants”. The old town of Jodhpur is a 16th century muddle of blue painted cube buildings, earning Jodhpur the name ‘The Blue City’. The views from our roof terrace were spectacular.

The fort, Jodhpur.

After breakfast we were excited to wander up to the fort and after a sweaty climb, through fly filled, cobble stone, cow filled, maze like streets, we paid our entry and collected our audio tours. The fort dwarfs the city, with walls that reach up to 120m tall and has a proud history having never fallen to invaders. We wandered a third of the way around before Rhys got fed up with the guide and just wanted to admire the buildings. We took off our headphones and walked around the rest of the site, wishing more of it was open to the public and having photos taken with locals. It didn’t impress us as much as Jaisalmer although the collection of palanquins and royal cradles were cool to see, and we didn’t spend long before heading back to our room to escape the heat.

The palace within Jodhpur fort.

Jodhpur, the Blue City.

We ended up staying in our room for longer than we’d intended and only went out again at about 5pm. We walked to the clock tower and through the Sadar Market, enjoying watching the local people going about their business with stacks of brightly coloured fabrics and tables of fresh produce. We stopped for a makhania lassi, a super thick and sweet yoghurt, flavoured with saffron at a little local cafe where we were the main attraction. On the way back to our hotel, we saw a beautiful piece of fabric and spent ages looking through piles and piles of embroidery before buying a throw. We found a roof top restaurant for a delicious vegetarian dinner (yes, Rhys ate, and enjoyed, vegetarian) and listened to the mosques call to prayer bouncing around the old town.

The clock tower, Jodhpur.

So far, we love India, it is hot and tiring and can be dirty and smelly but the colours here are just that little bit brighter than anywhere else.