Jerry Springer: Final Thoughts (India)

STATS: Day count=115; Current Illness count=0.5 (still not 100% after previous illness); theft count=0; rip-off count=1; tourist screw-up count=3; Chris’ photo count=1180; Emma’s photo count=51

As we prepare to leave India, in true Jerry Springer style I will leave some final thoughts and opinions. First though, a run-down of our last week…

A week of contrasts, much like our entire time in India.  After a couple of days in Pushkar, we had originally planned on travelling to Bundi, but altered our plans to head instead to Chittor, as the fort there is reputedly excellent. So we hopped on the local bone-rattler bus for the 5 hour journey to Chittor. Unfortunately the bus was full, and we had to struggle with fitting ourselves, our two large rucksacks and our two daypacks on a double seat. It wasn’t comfortable. Even when the bus cleared a little after a few hours, and we were able to spread ourselves around a bit, it wasn’t helped when some guy decided he wanted to sit next to me even though there were other seats around, meaning continued discomfort for the remainder of the journey. I wasn’t impressed.

Arriving at Chittor, we had the usual hassles from the local taxi/rickshaw drivers who hone-in on us tourists and don’t take no for an answer. The obvious mood I was in at that point did mean that this time they did actually take no for an answer fairly quickly!

The hostel was a dump. The rat droppings may have been fine in the Karni Mata temple in Bikaner, but weren’t really ideal in our hostel room. The room was dirty, noisy and unpleasant. And this was apparently the best of them! The town of Chittor itself was nothing special – it had nothing to appeal – few places to stay, fewer places to eat. Even Emma lost her rag a bit at the apathy and bureaucracy at the train reservation centre (4 staff, only one of whom was actually doing anything and a queue building up).

Luckily we were in Chittor only one night. We would have preferred less than that. We visited the fort the following morning and it was ok. Set atop a hill overlooking the town it looked better from below than inside – which comprised a few buildings of interest. It was peaceful and had some lovely views – worth a visit if you’re in the area, but not worth a detour (and not worth putting up with dingy Chittor for) in our opinion, though the Lonely Planet guide disagrees on that point!

We couldn’t wait to leave the place,  which proved to be harder than we had hoped – only one bus out to our next stop, Bundi (5 hrs away), and that didn’t leave until late, and there was some confusion over the train – in the end we got on a train which we thought might be the right one, but we had no way of knowing – no signs or numbers in English, no one who spoke any English on the train to ask and no guard or ticket collector. All we knew was that it was going in the right direction! Turned out it was the right train, and we did end up in Bundi. Phew!

The station was deserted and was miles from the main town, with only a single rickshaw waiting at the station. You would think that would give the rickshaw driver the upper hand on haggling a price, but he didn’t reckon on Emma. She decided to call his bluff and walked away when he wouldn’t accept a lower price. I have no idea where she was walking to (I was blindly following as a dutiful husband should) as we didn’t know where the town was (only that we weren’t in it, as it was pretty desolate!). It worked though (luckily), and the rickshaw driver backed down! He then proceeded to try to kill us on the journey to the hostel by driving more recklessly than most, but we are used to that by now.

Bundi restored our faith in India once again.  Everyone was really friendly, saying hello even when they weren’t trying to sell us something! The shopkeepers didn’t try to rip us off, and our hostel room was really nice. On top of that, the obligatory fort & palace, which is in the process of being renovated after being left to rot for decades, was really nice – fantastic views over the small town, lovely wall paintings, people happy to tell you a bit about the place without wanting a fee or a tip. We would have happily stayed longer in Bundi but had a train to catch to Mumbai in order to get our flight out of India, so we only stayed a couple of nights.

After a sleepless 18-hour train journey we arrived in Mumbai. The first taxi we got tried to rip us off (covering up his meter, which already had an amount running on it) – the really annoying thing was that many of the taxi drivers were in on the scam as they had ‘conferred’ before agreeing which taxi would take us. Luckily we spotted it and got him to stop and let us out (after some harsh words!). Not an ideal introduction to the city. After finding a nicer taxi driver, we drove through the slum district, and surrounding areas. Mumbai reminded us of Kolkata – not a great memory! However, after finding a nice hostel and having a shower and some rest, we were much more disposed towards the place and actually liked our initial wanderings.

On our one full day in Mumbai we started off with an organised tour of the largest slum in the city – Dharavi. This covers an area of 1.75 sq km and houses over 1 million people. It also featured in the film Slumdog Millionaire and the two young kids in the film came from there. It was an excellent tour (run by Reality Tours, if you are ever in the area) with a really helpful and knowledgeable guide who took us around many areas in the slum and showed us the industries that are contained in there – from plastic recycling to pot making. The slum has an annual turnover of $650 million – people are not only hard working there, but also really friendly – we probably felt more welcome and less threatened there than in most other cities and towns in India! No photos I’m afraid – cameras are not allowed on the tour (a good policy, I think). In the evening we met up for a really nice meal with an old colleague of Emma’s who is living in Mumbai with his wife – lovely restaurant on a rooftop overlooking the southern part of the city. Good getting the thoughts of ex-pats living in India – though we have found Mumbai to be a lot closer to Western culture than other parts of India. Definitely leaving India on a positive note.

Flying back to the UK tomorrow (Wed) for a week before returning to Thailand for our stint in the gibbon sanctuary. What with flights into Europe being grounded due to volcanic ash from Iceland and riots and bombs in Bangkok, it looks like eventful times to come…

Final Thoughts…

On Poverty

Many people who have visited India come away with a lasting image of the poverty they see around them. Maybe I am more cold-hearted than most but I do not have the same impression. I have seen a lot less poverty than I expected to see. Yes, there are many people sleeping on the streets and yes there are a lot of people with little or no income. But who are we to judge their quality of life by our standards? We have encountered many beggars, but probably no more than we see on the streets of London each day. Millions of Indians live in slums, but community spirit seems strong, and that means a different way of life from the West, and hence it is difficult to judge poverty on the basis of income and living conditions. I am not saying there is no poverty, and not saying that it isn’t a big issue, just that I am unable to judge the needs of people living in a different culture and environment from that I have been raised in. If you want more thoughts on this, buy me a beer sometime!

On Culture

We have struggled with the culture here. ‘Culture shock’ is a term often applied to people’s first time in India, and it is probably true to say that we (or at least I!) came out here with a level of arrogance of “We’re travellers, we’ve seen a lot of the world, it won’t be a shock to us”. But it was. Especially starting in Kolkata, which after our 2 months travelling in India is still probably the place that stands out as our low point. As my mate Steve reminded me, we can only judge or measure another culture from a standpoint of our own. Many aspects of the Indian ‘culture’ that we have experienced annoy, frustrate or even disgust us, but that doesn’t make them ‘wrong’. We still dislike the spitting, the littering, the staring, the seeming selfishness that we see every day here. But it is not our place to judge, only to observe.

Emma has correctly pointed out that the definition of ‘culture’ is a difficult one, anyway. We have spent much of our time in the poorer areas (‘working class’ to use our English terminology and background) and what we see there may not reflect what happens in other areas. You wouldn’t necessarily judge or even expect to observe the entirety of English culture by only visiting a council estate and a working men’s club for a few weeks.

On Tourism

I think that seeing India the way we have – using local transport, staying in cheap accommodation, not having a tour operator to fall back on or nice hotels to escape to – has given a different insight into the culture than we would have got if we had come on an organised tour. Having said that, however, two months is not enough time to get a good feel for the place. You would need to live and work here for years to really get an understanding for how things, and people, ‘tick’ out here. My / our comments should definitely be taken within that context.

Even in very popular places to visit, tourists are considered to be a novelty here (the exception we have seen is Mumbai). The staring did get to us on some occasions, as it doesn’t come across as friendly – more as rude (but again, that is judging their culture based on our own). In Thailand we would sometimes be stared at, but in general a smile from us would solicit a wide, beaming smile in return. That happened much less here. We usually dealt with it ok, and with the perpetual “which country?” queries from everyone you pass in the street, but it got oppressive at times, leading us to sometimes become snappy and grouchy with the ‘offenders’. Unfair of us, maybe – after all they weren’t to know they were the 20th person to stare and bluntly ask “Which country?” on that road, but it did get draining.

We would have struggled without the Lonely Planet guide. English is the official national language (still, just about!) but it isn’t all that widely spoken or understood, especially in the rural areas. The downside, though, is that the Lonely Planet is the guide – there are few alternatives for India (other guide books are available, but LP is far more of the gospel here than in other parts of the world) – which means if your hostel / restaurant / cafe is in the LP guide, you’re made, and if it isn’t, you will struggle to get any western tourists to visit. Unlike in other countries, we (and I suspect other western travellers) have been far less likely to try out other places not in the book on the off-chance, mainly due to the high risk of becoming ill in India. It’s a shame, I think, but in relying on the guide as much as we did, we only contributed to this.

On Spirituality

I have often heard India being quoted as a very spiritual place. We haven’t really observed that, but then, once again it depends on your definition of spirituality. We have seen many people visit the various temples of the various Gods and go through the motions of ritual, but that to me does not mean spirituality. Priests who bless you with holy flowers and paint powder on the one hand whilst asking for money with the other is not spirituality. The trip on the Ganges at sunrise in Varanasi did come across as very spiritual, but I personally would not say that we have seen much in India to suggest a very spiritual place – than again maybe I’m just not a very spiritual person! Or maybe we went to the wrong places – or maybe coming from a very overtly Buddhist country like Thailand, which I did find much more spiritual, has set a high benchmark. Others will have different opinions from me, I am sure.

And Finally…

India has been a really interesting experience, and one which I am really glad we did. It was great meeting up with Laura half way through – not least for getting another opinion on the place. It was also really useful having that meet-up, and the flight home, scheduled, since it meant we had to stick with India through the bad and frustrating times – otherwise we may have flown out of the place much more quickly and would have missed out on a lot. It’s a massive sub-continent and there is so much we haven’t seen or experienced.

We really liked Arambol beach in Goa, though :-)