Roland Barthes

Jeg kom hjem fra fylla i går natt, og fikk ikke sove, etter å ha tatt taxi hjem sammen med Hege. Hun sendte meg et fantastisk sitat fra Roland Barthes:

"En annen dag sto vi i regnet og ventet på båten nede ved en innsjø. Den samme lengselen etter avgrunnen kom over meg, men denne gangen skapt av lykke. Slik faller av og til ulykken eller gleden over meg, uten at det etterfølges av kaos eller patos, jeg er oppløst, men ikke sønderknust, jeg faller, jeg flyter, jeg smelter. Denne tanken som jeg prøver ut og føler på (slik man stikker tærne ut i vannet) kan vende tilbake. den har ikke noe høytidelig i seg, det er nettopp dette ØMHETEN består i.

Time travels

After a problem-free flight fro Jaipur to Goa, we found ourselves in a (for India) overpriced 'pre-paid' taxi on our way to our pre-booked hotel. Getting to our hotel in Anjuna, took about an hour by car, where our nice driver drove on alot of smaller country roads allowing us to see a bit of the 'real' Goa before we headed to the Indian eqivalent of Tenerife.

For about 450 years, Goa was a Portugese colony - until it was annexed by India in 1961. But still Goa is strongly influenced by the Portugese heritage. The older Goans speaks Portugese as a rule - and we've even seen Indian-made 'Port' in shops here.

However, we didn't see much of this at first, going as we were to lick sun and bathe at Goas beaches. When we arrived at our hotel, it turned out not to be 'a short 10 minute walk' from the beach, but more than half an hour walking in the scolding heat. The hotel in itself was nice, though - with international tv-channels, hot showers and a nice balcony where we had breakfast made out of western cheeses and bread bought from the ex-Pat store nextby.

The beach Anjuna beach itself, however, turned out to be a pure and utter hell. The blend between junked out hippies persistently trying to sell you as wide a variety of drugs as you could think of, and Indian shopkeepers (as) desperate (as they come) trying to nag you into buying their useless crap blended in with extremely loud techno music from the early nineties made this place unbearable for normal backpackers and other people with their eyes and ears intact.
We tried to escape to another beach after only 2 days - but to no avail. Calangute is just as bad. (As a side note I may add that this is the only time we've thought 'why didn't we consult lonely planet first).

After 3 days we had enough, and headed to the Goa State Capitol, Panaji - to catch a train out of this schitzofrene package travel paradise.
The state capitol, Panaji, is worth a visit - to take in some of this Portugal-gone-strange. Not many turists comes here (compared to the beaches), and it bears a feeling genuinity. It's also very small for an Indian capitol with only about 100 000 inhabitants - if you include the suburbs.

Before we knew it, we were on our way to Hampi, with its houndreds of temples.

The city of kites.

Going from Agra to Jaipur by bus, was a fantastic (although somewhat expensive) trip. Taking about 4 hours it really gives an opportunity to see a good deal of the northern Indian countryside. Also the transformation from the lush climate of Uttar Pradesh (the state which Agra lies in) and to the desert state of Rajastan.

The trip is worth it just for seeing (and taking pictures of) the life along the way. You'll see farmers and fruit sellers going about their business, not to mention the cows, dogs, camels and crazily overloaded trucks along the way!

Well there, Jaipur turned out to be a nice, and quite busy city. Known as the pink city, after the local Maharajah painted the whole city pink in anticipation of the British king arriving on a visit, it yields both history and a great opportunity to buy jewelery and clothes.

We arrived in Jaipur at the same time as a kite festival took place there, and on the 14. of january the sky filled with kites in all shapes and sizes. Our host in Jaipur, Arvind - an amiable ex transport officer in the Indian army now running the "Explorers Nest" - told us the hospitals were on high alert during the festival, fearing all from cuts from the line holding the kites to birds falling down and hitting people after getting tangled up in the lines (sic!).

We greatly recommend hiking up to the Nahargar (or Tiger) Fort, a place where the Maharajah used to hunt tigers from, back in the days when there were still tigers to be found in India. It gives a great view of the whole city, and it's also a good starting point to walk to the other forts in the area.

Unfortunately after a few days in Jaipur, I caught a high fever, leaving me struck out for several days - and a strife of bad stomach that has kept on all through our trip. This somewhat destroyed our plans on seeing the rest of Rajastan, forcing us to fly out of Jaipur to Goa.

The road to Agra

A day in Delhi was enough. The city is difficult to get by in without a guide, and having a guide is difficult - as they are always trying to sell you something or other on top of the tour you're already on. At least we had a nice hotel on the last day, the first since we got to India with clean sheets and a hot shower. After fussing about how to get traintickets on the overcrowded (and overpopulated by touts) New Delhi railway station, we gave in an had the hotel manager at the hotel book tickets for us. We were on our way to Agra.

Departing from Delhi at 4pm we didn't arrive in Agra until 10pm, and the train station turned out to be in the outskirts of town, we had to grab a taxi of a bunch of sketchy looking guys waiting outside of the train station. However they found us a nice enough hotel with dirty sheets, but hot showers (the Kirandeep).

Agra is a small town by Indian scales, with only 2 mill. inhabitants. And although it's full of sightseeing points (the Taj Mahal, The Baby Taj, Agra Fort and so on) it doesn't seem to offer much else in terms of leisure.
The Taj was great! We were in awe by the shere greatness of the structure. And the Baby Taj was also great, and with a calmness to it that the outside world lacks.

Today we're aiming to go to Jaipur, if we can get train tickets.

The Delhi suburbs

I've never seen cows scavaging through trash to find food before. 

After a rather long trip, with a ten hour stop-over in Copenhagen, where we sought out all the irish pubs we could find at 11AM in the morning, leaving us comfortably tipsy when we got on the plane again, taking us to New Delhi, India. 

We arrived at the airport some 7 hours later, beaten to the bones from the uncomfortable plane seats that SAS has to offer. Coming of the plane was a blessing to a tired soul although here starts the problems. Our appointed driver wasn't there! We went looking outside, where a mass of people where standing - looking at us - with no apparent reason. What was all these people doing here? Going back inside, we discussed wether we should try and find the way ourselves, or go to another hotel. Then the driver suddenly turned up. He took us out in the suburbs of Delhi, where it turns out we're living in his home. But we're thinking fair enough, he's probably done this before. After a quick trip around the nearest surroundings, we come back to find our room ready. At the same time our host tells us that there's no water for the moment, but it should be fixed in half an hour. Still now, 30 hours after, we still haven't got a functioning shower - and we're looking for another place to stay. 

This said, we had a good meal yesterday, at a place called something like "Klahmat". Also turnes out even though most people we've spoken to, speaks english - then it's a type of english we've got great difficulty understanding. But hopefully it'll get easier the next few days. We're going into the Connought Place (Delhi centrum) to look for train tickets and a new place to stay. 

Tomorrow we've planned for a new hotel, some new tickets, and a trip to Agra and Taj Mahal.

Anticipating India

As we're finishing up the last of our packing, I thought I'd write the first entry in this blogg. We're setting off to India for a month, leaving cold Norway today. We've never been to India before, and needless to say, we're looking very much forward to visit the country! 

We've got some plans on where to go, even though we know that things never work out as planned. Landing in Delhi, we'll be staying there for a couple of days before heading of to Agra and the Taj Mahal. After that, we've got some plans on going up to the north west, to Himachal Pradesh - to visit Dharmasala, Shimla and the McLeod Ganj where the tibetan exile government resides - and then of course a look at the monkeys: (http://www.dagbladet.no/tv/index.html?clipid=30151)

Then we're eastbound - to Nepal and Darjeeling for some sights of the mountains and to follow in the footprints of Kipling. Also we're going to try and get a taste of the world acclaimed Darjeeling tea! 

Next is the sacred city of Varanasi by the river Ganges. Varanasi is considered one of the 7 most important holy cities of Hinduism, and is a site of pilgrimage both for hindis and buddhists. 

From here we've got some loose plans on flying to the south of India, for some days of sun and bathing, and to visit a place called Hampi.