Thursday, 6 August 2009
Agra
Agra was less than a days drive away and passed without incident (at last). Duly sorted for accommodation we had a quick bite to eat and set the alarm for 0500hrs to get to the Taj Mahal for 0600hrs. The fact that it was our wedding anniversary was more by luck than judgement but the greatest ever monument to enduring love, you've got to admit, is a pretty good place to spend it. It's talked about loads, and whenever something gets as built up as the Taj then you always go to it with a little trepidation. We needn't have.. walking through the South gate and seeing it framed in that arch was breathtaking. Speechless we both looked at each other with tears in our eyes. It is truly magnificent and when you appreciate why he had it built it makes it even more significant. Wow.
Feeling ever more lifted we drove over to the fort in the afternoon. It gets by passed by a lot of tour groups as from Delhi they really only have time to visit the Taj, but if you get the opportunity it's well worth a look. I'd say it compliments the Taj in some ways, tying up the loose end of the stories and giving you the opportunity to see the Taj in the distance as the imprisoned (by his son!?) emperor would have have seen it. And the architecture and stone work is astounding.
Feeling ever more lifted we drove over to the fort in the afternoon. It gets by passed by a lot of tour groups as from Delhi they really only have time to visit the Taj, but if you get the opportunity it's well worth a look. I'd say it compliments the Taj in some ways, tying up the loose end of the stories and giving you the opportunity to see the Taj in the distance as the imprisoned (by his son!?) emperor would have have seen it. And the architecture and stone work is astounding.
Delhi
Seeing Fatima the following morning was fantastic, for two people so low 24hrs earlier we were certainly making up for it. The fact that she'd very thoughtfully prepared a goodie bag for us was the icing on the cake. We lounged on the queen sized bed just chatting all day and Kym and Fi went for a late afternoon swim while I watched the cricket. All too soon we had to say our goodbyes as Fatima was flying out at stupid o'clock in the morning (she's a stewardess if you hadn't guessed). The following morning at breakfast the main man asked if we were checking out that day and asked if we would like him to prepare a couple of bags of goodies to take with us (everyone knew we had the truck). What a nice man, armed with enough food (fresh pastries, coconut water, yoghurt's etc etc, the valet brought the car around and it was sparkling.... top marks to the Sheraton for going out of their way for us, I'm convinced they'd picked up on our vibe on arrival and had conspired to do everything they could to change it. The main man even went as far as to advise us to be careful in Delhi because "like some of the Negroes in America some Delhi boys are up to nonsenses' and will kill for a dollar"!!? With this in mind we headed off to a battery place we'd found on the Internet and swapped over for two new ones. Next was the Air Con. We'd filled it before leaving England but when it came to using it for the first time in Turkey all the gas was gone. The garage in Turkey stung us for a re-fill without checking for leaks so 3 days later it was gone again. Delhi being 37c and choked with traffic we thought it's be a good idea to get it sorted. Again and internet search took us to Autocool India where the young Sikh owner got his man to find and fix two leaks, fill it up test it and insist on not charging us anything. Things were definitely looking up.
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Ho hum another crashed truck.
Every morning for the first couple of hours driving all we saw was carnage of the night before being dragged to the side of the road.
Hard times too..
Holy mother of whatever you believe in....NH3..... the main road from Mumbai to Delhi. We had fair warning that driving wasn't easy in India but we certainly had no idea it could be as bad as this. In fairness I think we picked the worst road in India to try out on as the roads we've been on since have been a relative breeze.
Lorries, nothing but lorries. Truck after truck after truck belching cheap black diesel fumes and hammering along at a break neck 35km /ph!!!! The road is single carriageway and in the odd place where it is dual carriage, separated by a central reservation, it makes no difference as you get the odd lunatic heading down it the wrong way in the outside lane. Honestly I'm not kidding. The first time it happened I was flashing my lights and gesticulating wildly at the guy coming towards me; the hundredth time it happened I just pulled in like everyone else. On top of this of course your dealing with bicycles, motorbikes, rickshaws, tractors, ox carts, cows, goats, water buffalo and combinations of them all. No cars though, or very few, I think they stick to the cities and use public transport for any distance travelling. We're not sure if they really understand the theory of dual carriage ways and are convinced they think that they just have two roads next to each other and can choose which one they want to drive on?
The mode of driving you have to take can probably be best described as "no rules" driving. When the two lorries coming towards you overtaking each other are blocking the whole road no one bats an eyelid at you taking to the fields on the wrong side of the road. Likewise, when we arrived at the back of a queue of trucks that we couldn't see the front of, no one was fussed when I pulled on to the other side of the road and drove 3.5km to the front of the queue occasionally having to move into the fields if something was coming. The queue was waiting to take it in turns to cross a single lane bridge!! On the national highway!!? The queue the other side was twice as long and the drivers at the end of it were sat on the road playing cards.
Oh my god I almost forgot the horns!! It seems the drivers spend all their wages on competing to see who can get the loudest sing song air horn in the world and all the vehicles here have a hand painted message on their rear saying "horn okay please" or "blow horn okay". The reason for this is they have no mirrors so it's considered bad form if you overtake someone and don't blow your horn to let them know your coming! The cacophony throughout the day leaves you with shredded nerves and a ringing in your ears.
Trying to find somewhere to eat you think would be a doddle but really honestly most of the "cafes" I wouldn't even go to the toilet in let alone eat, another result of the villages all being on a truck route I guess. At he end of the first day, eyes on stalks, we spotted the relative oasis of a hotel. It didn't look like the sort of place you'd need to book in advance but it did have a big garden that they allowed us to park and sleep in free of charge. It also had a restaurant and as we arrived the electricity went, they fired up the generator (yeah.. of course it was next to our parking spot) and the lighting took on a subdued note. We ate and crashed out, even the noise of the generator couldn't keep us awake. Our first night back in the truck. yee haa. We went back to the restaurant for breakfast and were immediately grateful for the subdued lighting the night before.
The morning of the third day (Mumbai-Delhi 1483km) after a night on a petrol station forecourt the truck wouldn't start (it did with a jump) and we knew it would need new batteries. By now we we're both pretty low. We'd witnessed in the last 48hrs all manner of human and animal degradation, seen people shitting on the side of the road, dogs tucking into the long dead carcass of a cow. A dead water buffalo bloated to twice it's size by too much sun on the back of a tractor and wooden villages knee deep in stagnant mud and shit with all the animals trying to shelter with the inhabitants under makeshift tarpaulin covers. So when we got a text from Mum saying that she'd booked us in to the Sheraton Delhi for two nights we cried.
Lorries, nothing but lorries. Truck after truck after truck belching cheap black diesel fumes and hammering along at a break neck 35km /ph!!!! The road is single carriageway and in the odd place where it is dual carriage, separated by a central reservation, it makes no difference as you get the odd lunatic heading down it the wrong way in the outside lane. Honestly I'm not kidding. The first time it happened I was flashing my lights and gesticulating wildly at the guy coming towards me; the hundredth time it happened I just pulled in like everyone else. On top of this of course your dealing with bicycles, motorbikes, rickshaws, tractors, ox carts, cows, goats, water buffalo and combinations of them all. No cars though, or very few, I think they stick to the cities and use public transport for any distance travelling. We're not sure if they really understand the theory of dual carriage ways and are convinced they think that they just have two roads next to each other and can choose which one they want to drive on?
The mode of driving you have to take can probably be best described as "no rules" driving. When the two lorries coming towards you overtaking each other are blocking the whole road no one bats an eyelid at you taking to the fields on the wrong side of the road. Likewise, when we arrived at the back of a queue of trucks that we couldn't see the front of, no one was fussed when I pulled on to the other side of the road and drove 3.5km to the front of the queue occasionally having to move into the fields if something was coming. The queue was waiting to take it in turns to cross a single lane bridge!! On the national highway!!? The queue the other side was twice as long and the drivers at the end of it were sat on the road playing cards.
Oh my god I almost forgot the horns!! It seems the drivers spend all their wages on competing to see who can get the loudest sing song air horn in the world and all the vehicles here have a hand painted message on their rear saying "horn okay please" or "blow horn okay". The reason for this is they have no mirrors so it's considered bad form if you overtake someone and don't blow your horn to let them know your coming! The cacophony throughout the day leaves you with shredded nerves and a ringing in your ears.
Trying to find somewhere to eat you think would be a doddle but really honestly most of the "cafes" I wouldn't even go to the toilet in let alone eat, another result of the villages all being on a truck route I guess. At he end of the first day, eyes on stalks, we spotted the relative oasis of a hotel. It didn't look like the sort of place you'd need to book in advance but it did have a big garden that they allowed us to park and sleep in free of charge. It also had a restaurant and as we arrived the electricity went, they fired up the generator (yeah.. of course it was next to our parking spot) and the lighting took on a subdued note. We ate and crashed out, even the noise of the generator couldn't keep us awake. Our first night back in the truck. yee haa. We went back to the restaurant for breakfast and were immediately grateful for the subdued lighting the night before.
The morning of the third day (Mumbai-Delhi 1483km) after a night on a petrol station forecourt the truck wouldn't start (it did with a jump) and we knew it would need new batteries. By now we we're both pretty low. We'd witnessed in the last 48hrs all manner of human and animal degradation, seen people shitting on the side of the road, dogs tucking into the long dead carcass of a cow. A dead water buffalo bloated to twice it's size by too much sun on the back of a tractor and wooden villages knee deep in stagnant mud and shit with all the animals trying to shelter with the inhabitants under makeshift tarpaulin covers. So when we got a text from Mum saying that she'd booked us in to the Sheraton Delhi for two nights we cried.
Hard times cont.
We wern't a milion miles from the hotel we'd booked for the night so we ditched the car and went and got our heads down. Sleep came easily! The next morning after a quick yellow pages search I was in a taxi with a man from the battery shop and a couple of batteries to jump the car. Back at the shop it was checked over and concluded that everything was working okay but since the batteries were getting on a bit (and I guess they're working 24 hrs a day with the fridge and stuff) thay might need replacing. Mr Singh was reluctant to sell me two new batteries as he "didn't want to appear to be selling something that was unneccessary" and suggested as we were driving to Delhi perhaps this might be enough to get them back to normal. He had them on charge all afternoon and the following morning we head off for Delhi.
This is below the no spitting sign!
Alot of the men here chew paan which is a mixture of betel nut and various other herbs that gives them red teeth. They spit it everywhere.
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