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‹ Previous (26/01/2009) MONTH Next (2009-03-27)› ‹ Previous (2009-08-29 - Nepal) COUNTRY Next (2009-09-19 - Pakistan)› India Hampi (see on map) 26/02/2009:
From Gokak, the path towards Hampi passed off across different rural roads that made the journey very interesting, in spite of the heat. We are at the end of February and in Europe yet the cold winter has not finished, but here, in the centre of India it is one of the hottest months, because later it arrives the monsoon and cools down everything. For this motif it was interesting to visit the fresh caves of Badami, some temples excavated in the rocks, with pretty reliefs, excavated among the fourth and eighth centuries. In spite of everything, Alexandra stayed in the car, because she said that she was tired of India and did not want to visit more monuments. In the afternoon we went towards another touristic attraction: the temples of Pattadakal. I was decided to visit them, in spite of the 4euros that cost the entry, but Alexandra remembered me that i had not visited many attractions during the journey due to this price and that our budget was adjusted. It has been a simple comment that it has discouraged me, together with the heat and the poor description of the temples in the guide. So, after taking a cool drink, we have gone again in the car and we have started to drive towards Hampi, a much more interesting place. Hampi is some small village that have the incredible ruins of Vijayanagar, the former capital of one of the biggest Hindu empires of the history, dominating all the south of India since the quarter century up to the sixteenth. During the same period, the Muslim sultanate of Bahmani dominated all the north of India, facing continuously the empire of Vijayanagar. The battles were bloody and full of atrocities for both parts. In 1336, the emperor captured a Muslim city and absolutely killed all the inhabitants. In answer, the sultan promised that he would not rest until he killed 100.000 Hindus. But its forecasts were surpassed, getting to kill half a million of unfaithful in the following campaigns. Fortunately for the empire of Vijayanagar, the sultanate of Bahmani disintegrated in 1482, and the expansion and wealth of the empire grew considerably. But later, the empire also suffered different rebellions that divided it up, at the same time as the sultanates of the north created an alliance. In 1565 the Muslim coalition attacked the Hindu army in the battle of Talikota, with a complete victory for the Muslims who next devastated the capital of Hampi, populated by 500.000 people. We have reached Hampi the day before yesterday at noon. We parked on the other side of the river, in the shadow of a tree in the parking place of a hotel. Little later, we cross the river with a small boat and started to walk in the small village, installed among some ruins, that survives mainly thanks to the tourism. But the heat of the midday was too intense and had to take ourselves refuge in a bar, to be able to visit afterwards a big temple and the bazaars that formerly took up some doorways, built with blocks of solid stone placed horizontally on other columns of rock. Yesterday, while Alexandra stayed in the hotel resting, I did more effort and rented a bicycle to go over the ruin dispersion, among which they send different impressive temples and a real enclosure with some interesting buildings standing. Today in the morning, when we were about to restart the road towards the north, Alexandra has opened the freezer of the autocaravan and has done a shout of terror and has kept screaming as a hysterical. Her face was white and had the hair up (this was her impression). I have opened the freezer, I have looked briefly and terrified I have closed again the door. In Goa, a group of ants had managed to go up to the autocaravan and made one or several nests. Warned by the invasion, in Goa we had emptied all the autocaravan, sprayed it with toxic spray and cleaned it with water at pressure outside and below. In spite of everything, a group of ants managed to survive and made a new nest in some unknown corner. These first battles against the ants already have made me remember the killings described between the sultanate of Bahmani and the empire of Vijayanagar, but, the carnage has today been more abominable. As we went out of Goa and returned to the heat, the habitat of the ants probably changed and they have decided tonight to move their city towards the freezer, which we occasionally only turn on. When I have looked at the freezer after the attack of hysteria of Alexandra, this was full of small ants that worked to get installed in this new fresher habitat. We do probably not have right to killing these insects (like this give an opinion the pacific Jainistas), but the religion and traditions of the ants are different to ours and inconvenience us. So, Alexandra has taken a spray of cleaning crystals and completely sprayed the freezer killing to thousands of ants that did not have escape. We have done a great killing, devastating a big city, in spite of everything I do not think that we have finished with their civilisation and in the future we will have to face the control of the autocaravan again. Ellora (see on map) 01/03/2009:
The caves of Ajanta and Ellora ( a hundred kilometres between them) have been the last attractions that we think to visit in India, but also they have been the most impressive monuments of all the ones visited until now. As my taste, would situate the caves of Ajanta and Ellora as one of the seven marvels of the world, at the same level as Petra (Jordan), having in common numerous temples excavated in the rocks. I probably have a special preference for these types of monuments, that, are not built but emptied of the rock, converting them into some enormous works of art done of only one part. Evidently, the work of emptying requires more effort than that of building and much more accuracy, for the errors that can be produced can not be rectified changing a stone or part. Maybe that's why, I have been indulgent when I have seen in some caves few of these errors, normally walls that were left too fine and finished perforating or falling. Anyway, if in Petra I marveled for the history and the geology of the ground; in Ajanta and Ellora I marvelled for the perfection of the works, the working quantity required and the religious communal life that proves to be Ellora. The caves of Ajanta are more ancient than those of Ellora. They were cut in two phases, during the 2nd century BC and during the 5th century and all are Buddhist. They are preserved in a narrow valley with the walls of rock, where 30 caves of different measures and forms were perforated, with big columns the massifs holding ceilings and shifting boards. In many cases they have magnificent cut sculptures in the undivided rock that is part of the temple and in other cases they have extraordinary paints that have gone dark with time but which different equips of conservation they are trying to recover them. However, the 34 caves of Ellora were cut among the 7 and 10 centuries, three separate groups: 12 Buddhist caves, 17 hinduist ones and 5 Jainist. The three groups of caves emptied for periods superposed, proving the communal life that there was among the three religions, some religions that have almost never been confronted among themselves (maybe except for the current conflict of Sri Lanka). In any case, the caves of Ellora are also extraordinary in spite of being inhabited during the posterior centuries (proof of that are multiple holes in the ground used to grind the grain and holes in the columns to tie the cattle). Anyway, if the caves of Ajanta stood out for the perfection of the works, those of Ellora highlighted more the greatness. Excavated in a pending stone, the caves of Ellora also go in the mountain, but in quite a lot of cases contain temples isolated in the anteroom, created from only one rock. Of all the temples of Ellora, the most surprising of all is the hinduist temple of Kailash, an enormous work that required the work of 7000 workers for 150 years. One may not miss such a magnificent work, for it is calculated that about 200.000 tons of rock was excavated, which mean an average of 3600 kg of rock extracted daily. In any case, the rock extracted in the ensemble of caves of Ajanta and Ellora would multiply different times being gripping to imagine such a volume of workers and organisation dedicated only to the adoration of some gods or deified characters. Delhi (see on map) 04/03/2009:
After visiting the magnificent caves of Ajanta and Ellora, we started to do kilometres towards Delhi, where we had to carry out the visa of Alexandra for Thailand (she needs visa and I do not) and to meet the possible buyer of the autocaravan, although every day that passes the purchase seems more impossible for problems of papers. We had two routes to reach Delhi: one going on the motorway of Mombay and to do many more kilometres; and the other, following through the interior and to do less kilometres. In the end we decided to go through the interior where the roads were quite good in spite of the high presence of lorries. In any case, the decision of not taking the motorway was not due to the last conflicts with the road tolls, for in Goa, some travellers had explained to us that they could pass the tolls without paying, showing a document of the car that the Indians did not understand. And really it worked almost in all the tolls, even in a clandestine toll where they wanted to trick us and were asking 3,5euros. On the other hand, this journey towards the north has brought less hot temperatures (not too much) and old memories of the reality of the north of India. Really the south of India is a contrast with the dusty, dirty and forgotten north, where everything is much more chaotic; the infrastructures are worse; there is much more poverty; many people and rickshaw bicycles in all places, especially in the villages for where the road passed... Besides, in general, the Indians of the north are more impertinent, are curious without respect, transfpassing the limits of your privacy, for example trying to open the doors of the car at all times. After two days of driving, today we thought that we would drive fast, and that we would not reach very late Delhi, for we only had to cover 300 marked kilometres as motorway in the map: from Gwalior to Agra and from Agra to Delhi. Anyway, we did not count on the first road being so bad, with numerous sections of track of dented earth that appeared suddenly in the middle of the motorway. But the worst thing of everything came later. Before reaching Agra we have seen a poster that indicated a deviation towards Delhi, which had to prevent from crossing the city. Observing that the lorries diverted, we also did it, although the road only had a lane asphalted and the margins were dangerously perforated. Naturally we could not advance the lorries and numerous times remain blocked when two lorries were found in front. But the worst thing of everything had not arrived either, because as we arrived to a cross with a way of train, two lorries insisted on not letting eachother pass and had to wait for an hour at which the tangle melted ourselves. Finally, after two hours and average of going through these paths, we arrive to the motorway of Delhi with the nerves level high and well annoyed. But the motorway did not improve our way either because this passes through the middle of different towns full of people, bicycles and cows installed in the middle of the asphalt. On the other hand, there was infinity of very slow lorries impossible to be advanced without risking. In the end, tired, we decide to look for some wireless or Internet with the computer, and when we had catched one we stopped a couple of hours to work. By luck, when starting off again, the lorries had been stopped, and although the motorway was full of cars, bicycles and tractors, we could advance a little faster, arriving to the park Nehru in Delhi at 10 in the night. There we had the first joy of the day, for there were other parked autocaravans, some of which belonged to travellers that we knew. Anyway, in spite of these terrifying last kilometres, throughout our journey I was thinking that India is investing a lot in roads and infrastructures in general, in modern neighbourhoods of cities, in good universities and industries, and even throwing rockets to the space. India is becoming an economic world power, even if most of the population keeps living in rural areas or marginal neighbourhoods and does not share this development. India is an economic power, but only thanks to a very small percentage of the population. The rest of the population have economies of maintenance that do not increase the national wealth, anyway, the country does not invest in these people, so that they do not generate expense for the country. 10/03/2009:
We have been resting almost one week in Delhi, parked next to the attractive Park Nehru. Basically we have been expecting them to give the visa of Thailand for Alexandra. One of these days we met the possible buyer of the autocaravan, who was more interested in seeing technical details than to buy (the man is a builder of autocaravans). On the other hand, we have also passed quite a lot of time talking with friends that we had met during the journey and who were also parked in Nehru Park: a couple of Germans that we had met in Nepal and who were preparing to return to Europe, and a French family that we had met in Kajuraho. The French family was with a French friend, Tierrie, which had contacts to be able to cross Myanmar by car, a country normally impossible to cross over. Besides, Tierrie had very good information to follow the journey through the South Asian; afterwards for Indonesia and East Timor from where one could take a ferry towards Australia; and from Australia he thought to go to south America loading the 4x4 in an empty banana boat. Tierrie had an itinerary very similar to the one that I had drawn before initiating the journey, and was quite jealous of he being able to make it and me having to modify my plans. So much was like this, that on the third day I asked seriously Tierrie of accompanying him and the family of Frenchmen crossing Myanmar. Anyway, Tierrie is a very hermetic person and was difficult to obtain information from him nor a yes nor a no. Before knowing whether he could add me to them, he should wait to see whether they obtained the licence to enter Myanmar and to cross certain prohibited Indian states (if they did not obtain it with the contacts that he had he thought to fly to Myanmar to find new contacts). In fact i had thought to wait and to risk the thicket of plane and the plans, but today in the morning i have woken up early and I have started to do numbers. Until now it had gone very well to travel with autocaravan because we have had to take few boats, because I have been sponsored (i had bought the autocaravan with 14000 euro of discount) and because i had collaborated with some magazines of autocaravaning that provided me with extra money. But now, if i wanted to continue the journey i had to think of the expenses of the boats, that they could reach 6000 or 8000 euro (Singapore, East Timor to Australia, Australia to America of the South, Colombia to Panama, America North to Europe). Besides, i should add about 9000 euros of devaluation of the autocaravan (the three first years i had paid very few devaluation because i had bought the autocaravan with the great discount). So, travelling with autocaravan the following three years would mean an extra expense of 15000euros (I calculate that travelling with backpack we will have expenses similar to the travel with the autocaravan). Really it is an important difference and I have thought that it is better to save this money for the future. I have gone towards the Frenchmen and I have explained to them that finally we would not wait for their answer and that we would not go with them. Tierrie has appeared very surprised, but, conversing they have understood the reasons afterwards. I have an important difference to my approach of the travel, for I think to return to Europe after visiting America, but they suggested all the life to travel, perhaps finding some work or setting up some business in some lost country. In these cases, to travel with autocaravan is the best thing, for the journey with autocaravan is more economic when people travel very slowly: you do not have to pay hotel, you can cook yourself and, although the journey by train or bus is more economic than the diesel used up by a autocaravan, it remains compensated if few kilometres are done monthly. In our case, to go over the south Asia, Australia and America for three years is too little time on account of using the autocaravan. Shortly we will start to compare the costs of travelling with autocaravan or with backpacking. Nepal Pokara (see on map) 15/03/2009:
On Wednesday in the morning we started to do path towards Nepal, where we had planned to leave the autocaravan for five months to travel with backpack through the south East Asia. We had bought an aeroplane thicket from Kolcata To Bangkok for the 31 March in the morning, and a train thicket from Patna to Kolcatta for the 28 of March in the night. We planned on leaving Nepal on the 27th of March, but in order to not surpass the visa of 15 days, we had to enter the 13th of March, on Friday, in Nepal. So, we went quite calmly from Delhi to Nepal, and much more because on Wednesday was the holiday Holly and the roads were absolutely deserted of cars and only there were some youngsters that thrown dust of colours mixed with water. At night it surprised us to find a very friendly policeman that offered us to park in the checkpoint. Anyway, we had two small bad experiences the day after to say goodbye to India: in a gasstation they tried to put less diesel of what we paid; and in another point, I bought an entire chicken that they killed in front of me, but in going to cook it we gave realised one leg was missing (in the photo that I did it can be seen that the chicken was not mutilated). In Nepal we found another type of problems that seem to be quite frequent: there was a strike in all the west of the country. The main tribe that lives in these lands, the Tharu had all the roads cut since 13 days ago because the maoist government did not recognise their tribe legally. It seems that it is used frequently by the population against the maoist in the same way that years before the maoist were expressing against the king. In any case, on the border they informed us that the demonstrators only had the local traffic blocked and that to the tourists would leave pass. And in principle like this it was. In the first city there were many remains of burned tyres and in the exit we started to find the first barricades made with stones, trunks, bicycles or people standing. It was a little scary to approach these barricades, but Alexandra was shown nicer than ever greeting and smiling to everybody and kept letting us pass troublefree. The traffic was completely blocked except for a bus of Indian tourists that we crossed and some ambulances that seemed to act as taxi. In any case, after crossing the bus of Indian tourists and of crossing a barricade that previously had been burned, we found two buses completely burned down. But were not the only ones, throughout all the day we counted about 6 buses or 4x4 and burned lorries and another 6 motorcycles. One might not have missed that the roads were deserted of traffic, however they were occupied by tens of groups of people that walked full of bags or that went by bicycle. It was a little sad to see walking to so many people long distances and loading big bags, but we could not help them, because for a part they were too many and on the other hand, the demonstrators could accuse us of acting as public transportation. In fact, in a police control, an officer asked us to take him up to the next village and was more dangerous of crossing the barricades. In any case, there were not always people guarding the barricades and many times Alexandra had to go out to put rocks or branches aside, for in the depopulated areas, they had cut trees to block the road, although the police had already cut and had put aside the main branches. On the second day, the adventure followed exactly in the same way, but in a given moment, a control of the police stopped us indicating that the next village was in curfew, because the police had killed two people at dawn (on the previous days two had died other civilians and a policeman). We told the police that we were tourists, that we did not want to see the conflict and that we could not stay there, that the curfew was indefinite and that we could not pass, but we insisted. Finally, after a lot to insist and of passing two controls more we arrived to the town where waited for us a car of policeman to escort us up to the exit. It was a little Dantesque experience, to observe all the police in the streets and the inhabitants observing us to pass from the balconies and windows. But much more bloodcurdling was at a couple of kilometres of the town. We saw to come about a thousand or two thousand demonstrators walking, cloakrooms parading in two ranks and screaming and raising sticks. We parked next to the road and let pass all the crowd, which smiled upon us or asked us where we were from. Finally we passed, but we thought that this could be a terrible confrontation with the police. In any case, we followed without news until the following day, when quite early in the morning we saw arriving in contrary direction a car of the police followed by a long rank of lorries and coaches. We thought that they went towards another confrontation with the demonstrators, but little more late they communicated us that the strike had finished, because the government had accepted all the requests of the tribe Tharu. 17/03/2009:
We have not enjoyed the town of Pokhara, the second touristic destination in Nepal, at the foot of the mountainous massif of Annapurna (8091 m) and bordering a calm lake. The sky continued to be misty, hardly we could observe the other edge of the lake and the mountains snowed peaks have been maintained hidden at all times. due to the landscape I have not deigned not even to contemplate of doing some famous excursion up to some next hill. Even then we had decided to do the necessary purchases for the next journey with backpack and without autocaravan, and also made use talk with some other travellers that had parked their vehicles in a wasteland at the foot of the lake. In any case, if we have not enjoyed Pokhara it has not been for the time, basically has been for the bad experience that we had when we arrived. On the first day we left the car parked and went out to walk, but when returning after a couple of hours, Alexandra discovered with horror that they had extracted 40 Pakistani adhesives of the autocaravan. Other times they had pulled one or two adhesives in India, but 40 were too many, it seemed that they had ripped the clothes of the autocaravan. The indignation of Alexandra was terrible, and also mine, although I tried to keep it controlled. I went out to walk through the surroundings to see whether i saw any of the children that had seen beforehand roaming the autocaravan, until I discovered in a restaurant a child and a girl of about 4 or 5 years that were playing with ten of the adhesives pulled off the autocaravan. Satisfied by the finding, I caught the two children by the ears and screamed 'you will now go to the police'. To the same moment appeared the parents of the smallest and I had to leave the ears to them. I explained the misdeed that their children had done and that i thought to go to the police if they did not pay me an economic compensation. In India, we had never caught the offenders who had extracted adhesives from us, but I caught them here with the booty and people felt like applying some type of punishment or fine. But the fathers did not want to talk of money, they did not think that their children were capable of doing the misdeed and they were annoyed that I had pulled their ears. In the end the police of the neighbourhood came, catching through the path some other older boys that also seemed to have taken part in the orgy of unhooking adhesive (although they, as the smallest, refused to pay). In the end, after two hours of discussion, everything finished in a Solomonic solution, I would ask for pardon to the smallest for having pulled them the ears, the fathers would pay me 1euro as economic compensation and the other most adult children (which seemed the instigators of the small ones) would stay without punishment or fine because they lived in the street and they did not have home. The two following days, we planted new adhesives that we still had and turned paranoid supervising that no other child approached the autocaravan. Maybe this experience was a new signal to leave parked the autocaravan a season and to travel without the stress of having an accident of car and destroying our home and of the Indian-Nepalese trying frequently to open the door or to pull out adhesive. Kathmandu (see on map) 27/03/2009:
On the contrary to Pokhara, we have enjoyed quite a lot Kathmandu, as if we wanted the last days that we have in the autocaravan to be unforgettable. We parked in a wasteland close to the centre of Kathmandu where there were some other 5 caravans, proving to us that these last months we have coincided with the routes of the caravanists that is guided by the time: while in the centre of India the heat is terrible, the temperatures in Kathmandu are much fresher or colder. Among the different interesting autocaravanists, there was a couple of retired Germans that did 14 following years that travelled with a big and old van through Nepal, India and Pakistan (Karakorum). Anyway, we did not do too much social life with the autocaravanists, for we were concentrated too much to prepare the journey with the backpack, to do the last purchases and to share the maximum possible time with our friends: Jay Ram and its family, and David and Maria, which from our separation for Christmas had been travelling through Bangladesh and the North East of India. In any case, I reserved an afternoon to visit an ONG that we did not visit the previous time and which 2 different people had recommended us to visit. I got lost 45 minutes for marginal neighbourhoods until I found the building of the ONG TDHF that the Catalan Toni Aguilar created about 7 years ago. Toni is married to a Nepalese and between both they are managing a home where they receive orphan girls. Anyway, as he confessed me, one of the reasons to give up the profession of computer scientist and of going to live in Nepal was to discover the causes of the poverty and to find a solution. But after 7 years yet he had not found a satisfactory answer, because of that, little later after greeting us Toni asked me: 'Which do you think is the cause of the poverty'?. I was a good while thinking, for with the project of taking the pulse to the world I ask more than answer, even then, usually I gave my very particular opinion that I kept contrasting with his. For a part we conclude that always there will be poverty because the societies can hardly be egalitarian and always there will be people that they have less than the other ones and who will be called poor. Anyway, the living conditions of the poor ones can keep improving with time, even if the status of poor does not disappear: in very general lines, the situation of the poor ones has kept improving throughout the centuries, for example, now a large family that lives in only one room of solid walls can be defined as poor, although in the middle age this was luxury and was reserved for the well-off families. In any case, in spite of the increase of quality of life, at present there are many people in the world that live with some unacceptable living conditions for the occidental ethics, therefore it is logical that it sets off of the society is suggests of helping them. As it seems, there are two basic ways of helping: the charity (to give money, food or products in exchange for anything) or the inclusion of the poor ones in the productive world (hiring them to work or helping them in business projects). According to some studies, the charity can increase the number of poor, for it is simple to have the basic needs covered without working, by this reasons, many ONGs are focused to help the poor ones integrating them into the productive or capitalist world. Anyway, for me, this option does not stop being a little ironic, for the poverty is caused by the capitalism, which highlights the differences among rich and poor. To solve this problem or contradiction, Toni tries that the businessman widows that the ONG forms and helps return part of their profits to the ONG or the society, a goal that gets complicated as the women gain more money and turn more egoistical. The following day after meeting with Toni, David and Maria celebrated 2 years of journey. We had gone out on some similar dates towards Africa also about two years ago, and a year before I had initiated the journey in Europe ( the journey of 5 or 6 years for all the world), so we also added ourselves to the celebration, dining on some delicious spaguetty bolognese that we cooked among all at the home of Jay Ram. We have passed some other good moments with our friends, but finally today we have well cleaned and tidied the autocaravan and we have gone to park it in the south of Kathmandu, to a garage of confidence where other caravanist left their caravans during long seasons. Afterwards we have returned to the hotel where David and Maria are lodged loading the heavy backpacks and have taken a room - for our bus towards India leaves early in the morning -, being about to pass the last hours with David and Maria and Jay Ram (with who we will coincide again in five months, when we return from our journey with backpack through the south east Asia). During the last conversations, we have remembered that it was at the beginning of the last year that we met David and Maria in Egypt. Since then we have met ourselves numerous times, thinking that we would not see ourselves again till Spain, although we have refound and travelled together one a total of 5 times: in Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal. Today at night we have also had to say goodbye another time, although today we have done it convinced that our journeys will cross again before Spain, maybe in China or in South America. ‹ Previous (26/01/2009) MONTH Next (2009-03-27)› ‹ Previous (2009-08-29 - Nepal) COUNTRY Next (2009-09-19 - Pakistan)› |
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