Chai Chai, Beautifull Cities, Delhi Belly and Spicy food

Hi everyone!

Finally some news from India on my blog! To start I can tell you that i really love it here! The arrival in Delhi was overwhelming. Our first experience with the Indian traffic was scary, but we are quite used to it by now. The taxi drivers are experts in using their horns (claxons) to tell others they are about to pass or just to make others drive faster once the traffic light turned green.
The hostel was quite nice and Anil taught us some basic do’s and don’ts to survive in the social Jungle of India. After an amazingly good night on a amazingly hard mattress we explored Delhi. First by foot, then again by taxi to visit the FAO office to have a lecture. Very interesting and again we had some Chai or coffee there. About chai i will have to tell you a bit more. Chai is supposed to be a milky tea, that is very sweet and to which some herbs are added. Our first experience with it was until now the worse; The chai in the hostel sucked. I am not a fan of milk anyway and on top of that a vegan so i try to avoid it from now on. Indians must be real sweet tooths!
After some sight seeing in Delhi and getting trapped in the first tourist-shop where we were dropped by our van-driver it was time to move on.
With the night train to Dehradun, where we would arrive next morning. There we would be picked up by someone from the Navdanya farm. This is a farm, founded by Vandana Shiva (google it) and strives towards more biodiversity and fair chances of farmers.
The property was beautifull and we stayed in a nice room. To my opinion we had the best food until now at that place. The food was cooked in the common kitchen, everybody could help. The second day we did that by peeling peanuts. After breakfast, dinner or lunch everyone cleaned their own utensils , plates and cups. The atmosphere was amazing there and we had great lectures, of which one was about handspun clothes, of which i bought one yesterday in Jaipur.
After 3 nights in this nice place and a lot of delicious organic mango’s and bananas later, we had to move on. On the last day we went to Mussoori. This is a village at 2 km altitude in the mountains near Dehradun. It was a nice city and we had a walk there in the cooler, cleaner and less humid mountain air. It was nice to have a familiar climate for a while. In Dehradun it was about 30 degrees and really humid; even our outdoor towels didn’t dry fast enough.
When we came back from the mountains we packed our last things, drank the last chai-chai or choffee (chai with John’s instant coffee) and entered the taxi. Once at the trainstation we had our usual delay.
Indian trains somehow tend to have at least 1.5 hours of delay, but surprisingly enough they always arrive around the planned time. Very strange. But i don’t think one of us will complain about the NS (Dutch rail ways also know as Niet Snel), because half an hour is just nothing. During this waiting we experienced our first powercut outside. Because we had a lot of luggage everybody stressed to pull out a torch to light the luggage; it can be an easy target of theft in the dark.
In the train there was the normal chaos of seats that weren’t properly booked, but at least this time it weren’t ours. After a tiring night with kids crying we arrived again in Delhi. Here we had some hours of free time before we could catch our next train to our destination; Jaipur. We stayed in a ‘ rest room’ where there were not so many people, so it was more relaxed to sit there for a while. When we were waiting at Delhi the first time, we tried to play a game of Uno, but this was such a ‘ tourist attraction’ for the Indian people there, that we had to quit. It was not safe to have so many people gathered around us with all the luggage and valuables we were carrying.
That caution is important was clear after an attempt to steal my wallet while i was about to board the train. Too bad for the bastard, but i noticed, slapped his hand and he left. I felt angry that someone had the guts to touch my money, it’s not like we don’t have to work for it because we are from Europe. But it was a good lesson and i am more carefull in messy situations since people like this take advantage of this.
Ok, enough of the bad sides of the trip until now! India is an amazing country, once i got used to the chaos i can enjoy the beautifull buildings, colourfull dressed women everywhere, the totally different habits and the oh-so-tasty food. Also the heat is nice when you stay relaxed.
Jaipur
When we arrived at the station of Jaipur i got overwhelmed by the totally different atmosphere here. My first impression was that it was more friendly than Delhi and not as stressed. The traffic is not as busy and it is not as crowded with people that are simply everywhere. But still there are the big opposits, which is the same as in Delhi. From one second to another you can smell urine or jasmine, garbage or incense, food or cowdung. When you see a nice building, it’s very likely that on the side there is an alley that, to us, looks more like a trash bin and smells like hell. There are little shops that sell everything you can imagine ranging from clothes, incense, spices, bicycles, cookware, bangles and foods to flower chains, fruits, chai and games.
Jaipur turned out to be less ‘ friendly’ than i expected. The people are more grumpy and sometimes eaven sneaky and dodgy. They are more ‘aggressive’ towards tourists, especially the beggars.
Yesterday we roamed around the little streets, had a nice lunch and after that went to a kind of theme park where we got a bindhi (red spot on forehead), traditional meal and a lot of attractions like henna tattoo ( i have one! :D), puppets theatre and a kind of fair with swings etc.
The food was really nice, but not really safe; result: my very first Delhi Belly! Very nice... i wasn’t really happy with it, but it’s getting a bit better and i could still join with the program of today.
Today we went with a AC (airco) van to do some sightseeing around and in Jaipur. We saw the city palace, water palace, Amber fort and i bought my first souvenirs and a booklet, because my diary is already getting pretty stuffed with stories!
Tonight we will depart to Agra to see the magnificent Taj Mahal, Agra fort and some other things. It will be a tiring night though, because we will travel between 24h and 6 am. But it is really worth it. I am loving India and I am really willing to have a lack of sleep for that 
There is much much much more to tell, but i will stop now, hope that dinner will bring something nice and not too spicy to safe my stomach today!
Namaste!
Zoe

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