The night before lift-off I decided not to go to bed but stay awake through the night instead, this resulted in me sleeping during the whole flight to Delhi, needless to say it was one of the best flights I ever had ;-)
It was night already when we arrived in Delhi so we didn't get much to see but we already met our driver, a little scrawny Indian guy who ends each answer with "next question"
After a good nights sleep and a hell of a breakfast in our hotel we're ready to leave for our first real destination in India => Mandawa
This city is known for it's beautiful haveli's, beautifully decorated houses of rich merchants.
For those who prefer reading in dutch => Hilde also writes our story on her Blog http://hildeontour.blogspot.com/
The first thing we notice while we're en route is the smog that hangs over Delhi, actually that's no wonder seeing that there are living over 12 million people in this town.
The second thing is the contrasts between rich and poor.
The third is the traffic, like in most Asian countries it's pure chaos with a lot of hooting ;D (but still nothing beats the traffic in Jakarta)
Our driver Raju says that in order to survive the traffic in India you need good brakes, a loud horn and lots of luck. Later on in our journey we're gonna learn how true this is.
The fourth is the huge amount of trash that's lying almost everywhere alongside the road, sometimes I get the feeling that we're driving through a dumping ground.
Obviously these people have no clue about trash collection or recycling and it's sad to see such a beautiful country being littered like this.
And finally the fifth is the cow and camel shit, people gather it and make flat disks out of it. They stick these disks to a wall to dry (looks weird to see a long wall completely "plastered" with shit pancakes). When these "pancakes" are dry they're stacked in big piles for later use.
(I know for a fact that my ex-girlfriend 'd have ran off kicking and screaming already so it's a good thing I never took her here)
Some pictures from along the road
Anyway, once we managed to leave Delhi our progress to Mandawa goes a lot smoother.
Along the road we see lots of trucks, tuktuks, motorcycles, busses, camels and ofc cows.
We even see a shabby roadside camp which seems to be a kind of night time whorehouse for truckers. Hygiene, privacy and comfort seem totally absent here and never did I see worse "working conditions" than this, I pity the poor women who have to work here.
Whoring camp for truckers
Due to bad road conditions and many detours we arrive too late in Mandawa to go sightseeing so we install ourselves in our hotel room and decide to have a beer on the patio, have diner and a refreshing dip in the pool.
The next day we finally got to see the beauty of Mandawa and how beautiful it was !!
Those haveli's, built around a central courtyard, are nicely decorated with paintings from top to bottom, a lust for the eye.
While we wander across the city we try to imagine the splendor of how it looked when the city was still in it's best state, that must have been stunning to see.
Maybe one day I get to realise my dream to open a nice guesthouse and opening one in such a beautiful haveli just seems like heaven to me but until I find a rich sponsor I think I'll have to keep dreaming. Any candidates ?
It was night already when we arrived in Delhi so we didn't get much to see but we already met our driver, a little scrawny Indian guy who ends each answer with "next question"
After a good nights sleep and a hell of a breakfast in our hotel we're ready to leave for our first real destination in India => Mandawa
This city is known for it's beautiful haveli's, beautifully decorated houses of rich merchants.
For those who prefer reading in dutch => Hilde also writes our story on her Blog http://hildeontour.blogspot.com/
The first thing we notice while we're en route is the smog that hangs over Delhi, actually that's no wonder seeing that there are living over 12 million people in this town.
The second thing is the contrasts between rich and poor.
The third is the traffic, like in most Asian countries it's pure chaos with a lot of hooting ;D (but still nothing beats the traffic in Jakarta)
Our driver Raju says that in order to survive the traffic in India you need good brakes, a loud horn and lots of luck. Later on in our journey we're gonna learn how true this is.
The fourth is the huge amount of trash that's lying almost everywhere alongside the road, sometimes I get the feeling that we're driving through a dumping ground.
Obviously these people have no clue about trash collection or recycling and it's sad to see such a beautiful country being littered like this.
And finally the fifth is the cow and camel shit, people gather it and make flat disks out of it. They stick these disks to a wall to dry (looks weird to see a long wall completely "plastered" with shit pancakes). When these "pancakes" are dry they're stacked in big piles for later use.
(I know for a fact that my ex-girlfriend 'd have ran off kicking and screaming already so it's a good thing I never took her here)
Some pictures from along the roadAnyway, once we managed to leave Delhi our progress to Mandawa goes a lot smoother.
Along the road we see lots of trucks, tuktuks, motorcycles, busses, camels and ofc cows.
We even see a shabby roadside camp which seems to be a kind of night time whorehouse for truckers. Hygiene, privacy and comfort seem totally absent here and never did I see worse "working conditions" than this, I pity the poor women who have to work here.
Whoring camp for truckersDue to bad road conditions and many detours we arrive too late in Mandawa to go sightseeing so we install ourselves in our hotel room and decide to have a beer on the patio, have diner and a refreshing dip in the pool.
The next day we finally got to see the beauty of Mandawa and how beautiful it was !!Those haveli's, built around a central courtyard, are nicely decorated with paintings from top to bottom, a lust for the eye.
While we wander across the city we try to imagine the splendor of how it looked when the city was still in it's best state, that must have been stunning to see.
Maybe one day I get to realise my dream to open a nice guesthouse and opening one in such a beautiful haveli just seems like heaven to me but until I find a rich sponsor I think I'll have to keep dreaming. Any candidates ?
A beautifully restored haveli
The old water well
Poor people's hutsPeople on their way to a religious celebration, some of them already walked 100'ds of kilometers
knap hoor! Meteen even gaan lezen hoe je het daar stelt....
BeantwoordenVerwijderenGeniet er daar maar van.... hier is de lente weer even voorbij :-(
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Groetjes
Joke