Team Spiers World Travels

Today we arrived in Pushkar after a long 7 hour drive. We had to pull over every 30 minutes to let my brother go the bathroom because he was sick with “delhi belly”.

Pushkar is our 7^th stop on our Rajasthan tour with our driver Guddu. Guddu is one of the best drivers in the world in my opinion. He dodges traffic like it is a game, he never manages to scrape the car and he has never got into a car crash in 15 years, that is amazing since my mom wouldn’t last 5 seconds driving in India. I am really sad to only have 5 more days left with Guddu. I will miss Guddu and his sense of humour but we will move on because that is what traveling is all about meeting new people.

Guddu and the BoyZ

On our 2^nd day in Pushkar, my mom dad and me decided to go into town, while my brother stayed in bed still not feeling well. In the town was a huge market and a couple of temples. We were walking around when all of a sudden a Brahman priest handed us some flowers and told us to go throw them into the “holy lake”. This lake is considered the 3 holiest places in India and believe me there is a lot of holy places in India. When we got to this lake my mom whispers to me “Brendan hurry up throw the flowers into the lake so we can get the heck out of here”. I am walking down into the lake when another Brahman priest tells me I have to do the special prayer before I throw the flowers into the brown and green water. Looking back I wish I had of said no thank you, but that is not the case. I accepted his offer and before I knew it I was taking off my shoes and not so happy about it because the steps were filthy ( did I mention how people spit, pee and cows poo all over every inch of India). The priest signals my dad to follow his lead. The priest tells my dad to put some water in his hand my dad refuses. Then the priest sprinkles my dad with the crappy water. He then put a red dot on his head. and then it was my turn duh duh dddduuuhhh. He sprinkles water on my face. I gasp and immediately am in need of a shower. We then get a cheap bracelet. Mean while my mom was taken a few feet away because she was a female, she was doing the same ritual. They then managed to squeeze  a small donation out of us and were on our way. It was our first taste of Pushkar…….and it was bitter.

India – Japuir          Feb 25, 09

Today we left Pushkar and headed towards Jaipur. Luckily Aaron was feeling better so we didn’t have to stop for bathroom breaks.

Japuir is just another big dirty city. But on the other hand I did get to  see our first snake charmer, just outside the Amber Fort.

I loved the Amber fort it was huge complete with huge marble pillars, dozens on gardens, and amazing courtyards. But the thing I loved most is that they don’t rope anything off so you can explore the whole fort. It was so big we got lost we kept on going up and down stair cases, running through massive hall ways, definitely my favourite fort we visited.

 India – Agra          Feb 26, 09

We arrived in Agra and I can’t believe that that how dirty it is here in Agra. And when we arrived at our hotel we knew we were in for in trouble. Our room had coach roaches, and an amazing view of the filthy kitchen. After attempting to settle in we decided to go to the Taj Mahal the only reason we are in Agra.

The Taj Mahal was beautiful it was just like the pictures on t.v. It was hard not to take your eyes off the Taj. After the Taj Mahal we decided to go to the internet café to check our e-mail. When my mom opened up the message I was hoping not to see. It was a message telling us that our 98 year old Nan had passed away. I tried to hold back my tears but eventually I cried. I was sad to know that she had died and I never got to say goodbye to her.I will miss her always calling me angel boy and also measuring myself to her. I just can’t believe that she is gone. She was my friend, she was apart of my family, she was my Nan.

We left Agra and headed towards to Varanasi. We took 3^rd class sleeper. Its not that 2^nd class was bad enough and now we have to take 3^rd!  We have cockroaches everywhere, and my dad has renamed the train “Cockroach Express” or “Roach Coach”. The only thing that is keeping me motivated is bragging rites to say that I survived.

India – Varanasi   Feb 28, 09

We arrived into Varanasi by the skin of our teeth.

We got picked up from the train station and brought to our hotel. This is the nicest hotel we have stayed in India. It has a swimming pool, hair salon, spa, restaurant, gift shop and the most important thing is internet. And I was excited to spend 3 nights there.

So our last few nights are spent in the holiest place in India and home of the ganges river. This, the most filthy river I have ever seen, is famous for the mass amount of cremations performed along its bank everyday. At anytime of day you can see dead bodies being prepared or burned and you can also watch ceremonies going on continuously. At one time I stood 20 feet away from a man who was shaving his head cleansing, himself thoroughly in the river he then ignited the fire and watched his dead father burn. What a crazy way to finish our trip in surely the craziest country we visited.

 Back to India – Dehli       March 2, 09

We flew from Varanasi to Delhi and had our driver friend Guddu pick us up from the airport. There was not much time for us to do anything in Dehli as we catch our next plane in 12 hours, so we decided to go to Mc Donalds for dinner. When we got there I was in shock, they don’t sell BEEF there. Looking at the menu trying to order I look over at Aaron and say “yyyuuummm, the Mc-Tikka Chapati sounds nice!”  That with a side of veg burger for Mom, and we are off.

The next day we caught a plane out of India and headed for Nepal, but thats a whole other blog…..