The wonderful Mr. Manu...

Well, India can be a bit overwhelming when you first arrive, so after a little help from a stranger in the street, we found ourselves in the government information office in Delhi... It was our second day in India, and although we thought we knew what we were doing, it was somewhat of a relief when we found ourselves in an air conditioned office with cups of English tea and a helpful chap from the government telling us all the possibilities of our forthcoming trip around Rajasthan - before too long, we had fully planned our next three weeks travel - from the train journey up north, to the Punjab city of Amristar and the frenzied chanting, shouting and air punching of the Attari/Wagah India-Pakistan border ceremony; to the tour through the great Thar Desert of Rajasthan with our personal driver in a 'non-AC car'.
Well, I don't know about you, but I have never had a personal driver before. Well, OK, perhaps my dad would disagree, but I have certainly never had one who's time is totally devoted to what you want to do and where you want to go... It takes some getting used to - and as you can imagine, alot of your time is spent asking whether 'it is ok to go somewhere' or seeing if he is alright to get up at 7 am to do a 6 hour journey - all met with the reply "It is my duty".
Our trip was to take us through Rajasthan - from Delhi to a little village called Mandawa (5 hours); from Mandawa the next day a 3-4 hour journey to the fort city of Bikaner; then on to Jaiselmer 5-6 hours from Bikaner, and the largest city in the far west of the Thar Desert, with a narrow street town full of people, cows and bats surrounded by massive sandstone walls. A 3 day relax here allowed us to regroup, and get some energy back before starting off again for the tour of the south of Rajasthan - Jodhpur; relaxing Ranakpur with its huge marble Jain temple; beautiful Udaipur; stunning Pushkar (perhaps a few days more needed here!); manic Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan; and finally Agra - home of the Taj Mahal.
Mr. Manu drove us all the way - some considerable distance - with no complaints, and even with some free lessons in Hindi to keep us from getting bored. Yes, it is true - we have now mastered the basics of spoken Hindi. We can count to 20 (bis), greet people, ask to buy water/drink/food (although I did try to order two bottles of mineral water (panni), and received one bottle and two bags of crisps the other day...), and the all important "go away".
Now, you may think we have been 'lording it' around India, and not getting down to the serious business of backpacking it, but let me put any illusions you may have to bed. There were four of us in total in the car - Mr. Manu; Lou; a girl called Sam, who we met just prior to leaving Delhi; and of course, me... But this car was pretty much the Indian version of a Fiat Punto. It had no air con (which in the desert in summer isn't really advisable!), and the only musical entertainment we had was a selection of 3 of Mr. Manu's tapes... 2 quite delightful Bollywood tapes, and one entitled 'Ultimate Kylie'.
OK, I am not the first to admit that Kylie has done some very good things in her lifetime - like leave Neighbours, and wear hotpants - but I can't seem to find anything good about her music - especially the songs featured on this tape... A selection from her Stock, Aitken and Waterman days. Tunes you might remember like 'Locomotion', 'Better the Devil You Know', and the all time classic 'I Should Be So Lucky'.
These 3 tapes on a succession of several 5 hour journeys. Great. Just Great.
Saying that, we have had some very nice times - on evenings where we had not much to do Manu thought us some card games for 'time pass' - Bluff & Poker were favourites, and all with Indian Beers, or Manu's favourite 'Bagpiper Whiskey'. Needless to say, I can't remember how to play either Bluff or Poker... Lucky we were only playing for matchsticks.
So before I sign off form this post - I would like to thank Mr. Manu for his kindness and his ever helpful advice on the real cost of things in India - all in the name of 'duty', and would like to just recall a very funny moment in which we had decided during our camel trek in the deserts surrounding Jaiselmer, to sleep under the stars and to awake in the desert for sunrise of the dunes - as we arrived at our camp, the wind was blowing a terrible gale, and sand was whipped up in big gusts over the dunes... As we camped down (no tents provided, just thin mattresses, pillows and blankets), trying desperately to get to sleep whilst griping our blankets to save them from blowing off & to protect us from being sandblasted from the storm - all I could hear was Mr Manu (lying a couple of meters to my right hand side) struggling with his bedclothes and grumbling 'Its My Duty.... Its My duty....'

First post!

Well, seeing as I am in what appears to be the only intenet cafe in India that has a full set of working keys on the computer keyboard, I had better make best use of it and post the first installment of what looks to be a very intermittent blog...

Culture:

Well, as you can imagine, Indian culture is a little different from ours back in blighty - along side the lack of rubbish bins, the very public toilets, and the common practice of gobbing in the street every two minutes, India is a superb place to learn about totally different ways of doing things (and no, I don't mean the hole in the ground toilet thing, either!).
Rules and regulations are not quite as strict here - and are certainly paid almost no attention to by either the general populace or even those paid to enforce them... An example of this is on the roads - a two lane road in Delhi can actually take 4-5 vehicles, two cows, and even have room for a few stalls selling fruit. Incredible. The general rule, if there is a rule, is that the biggest vehicle has priority in most situations. That said, the only rule that supercedes this is the vehicle with the loudest horn and most daring driver has priority over all other road farers except cows, elephants and camels.
Now, this may seem bizarre, I'll grant you, but I can honestly say that this does work. I have not yet seen a traffic jam - which for a country with over 1 billion people is pretty impressive.

The sense of community over here is also totally different - generally people are as friendly as you can get, and if you get past the people who are trying to make money out of you (of which there are plenty), the kindness of all others makes life so much better. Despite being in a very strange country, this kindness has certainly helped us find our feet very quickly. An example of this was in the Golden Temple in Amritsar - Seikhism's holiest shrine - and the community kitchen where free food (well we are unemployed!) is given to weary travellers. Lou and I were sat cross legged on straw mats in one of the long rows of hungry people (actually the only westerners in the whole temple, and attracting loads of attention), when the food was handed out - chapatis and dal (lentils). The lack of rudimentary cutlary was a little off putting, as the dal was of a sloppy nature. I was just about to hail the chap with the bucket of dal over, to let him know that they had forgotten our knives and forks (and to ask for a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc), when I noticed that the general trend was to use the provided chapati to mop up the dal. This is alot harder than it seems, and after a couple of failed attempts, and a dobhi-wallah required to clean the t-shirts, a tall seikh opposite (who had been staring at us the entire time - another common practice for most Indians) caught our eye and slowly showed us the practice of folding the bread into a scoop, and scooping up enough dal to make for a good mouthful. The meal was superb, and the connection with the man who did not speak english more than made up for the lack of Sauvignon Blanc.

Anyway - I have been in this internet cafe for long enough (It is really too hot here at the moment, so I have to get a little 'fresh' air before I pass out!). I will post again shortly, as I have lots more to tell, but for now, it is goodbye from Jodphur!!!