Hardiwar - trip #1

It was an interesting trip into “town”. I find that the description online and in the lonely planet book about Mussoorie being this foreigner friendly bubble all too accurate. Everyone here (well mostly everyone) is used to seeing foreigners with the Woodstock School and language school, being a tourist town etc. – it makes it easy and people don’t stare as much. Nor do they video tape you or take your photo without asking. I am slightly torn over this photo taking thing. I take people’s photos all the time most of the time without asking; particularly if those people are “noise” in the photo (i.e. I take a photo of a landscape which happens to have people in it). So, why then is it such a big deal when people take my photo? I guess its the attitude or feeling I get when – particularly men – go out of their way to video tape/photograph the “white women”. It has a feeling of wrongness, but is this because I’ve been told it’s a bad thing, or would it feel this awkward if I hadn’t been told DON’T LET THE MEN PHOTOGRAPH you? I have definitely felt used after on one or 2 occasions… Typically here, the men/boys will at least ask for permission. In Hardiwar, Clair, a new travel companion, had the guts and knowledge to say in Hindi that it would cost 30Rs for a one photo with her. This got a bunch of laughs but no one paid and took the photos anyway. After this trip I think I am getting a little more used to the beggars, panhandlers and photographers….
I went to Hardiwar for 3 things: 1. To see the temple for a Snake Goddess, 2. To watch the ceremony on the Gats where they light candels and send flowers etc. down the river with their wishes and prayers, and 3. To go on my first jungle safari. Lets just say – it was all disappointing!

The temple was OMG the worst temple Ive been to yet. It was up atop a hill that we took a cable car up to and then at the top it was like going through a gauntlet of panhandlers and stalls of junk for sale. We get into the temple and are immediately accosted by “priests” who want to put a dot on your forehead and take money for their blessings. And just because you have one dot does not preclude the very next man in line to yell at you and insist that you take his dot and blessing, and then of course the very next guy after that. Then once you have gone through those men you are herded past a counter where you pay to have your offerings blessed. Yes, because even before you went up to the temple you buy things like coconuts and sugar candy to give as offerings. But before you give them as an offering you get them blessed – which costs you “donations”. Bypassing the blessing of offering lines You end up in another room where there are little windows and doors where other holy men are sitting and chanting – where again you give more donations for their blessings as well as provide your offerings. The culmulnation of this temple is to be herded as if you are going to get on an amusement park ride to pass a statue of Durga…or at least I think it was Durga. And that’s it. This is the temple. The gauntlet of trinket stalls haunts you as you head down the hill – or you can take the cable car back down and go past yet more trinket stalls. No snakes, no big statues, no solemnity of “templeness”. Loud, dirty, ostentatious, and ugh.

Watching the people en-mass send off their candle lit flower boats of prayers on the Holy Gangies River is beautiful- or so Ive been told. You see, upon arrival, due to the picky nature of some of my travel companions, certain hotels were not up to snuff, thus needing to search for alternative lodgings and of course losing track of time put us 10 minutes late to the ceremony. Seeing how the ceremony only takes 10 minutes we completely missed it. I will go again I am sure but this trip it was a bust.  Saw it in the morning, but not the prayer ceremony.

The Bazaar made up for the disappointing holy experiences.  It was way cool and I helped Clair buy a georgous Sari that I am sad I did not buy one for myself. 

Yet, I still have 9 months so I can find another to satisfy my tastes...

Our hotel, though not as bad as others, was still filled with cockroaches (ok not filled) but had some on the bed...it did have this inspirational thought:

Rajaji National Park

is not hailed as being one of the better parks to visit. I went there knowing this fact, however I was told it is pretty OK for seeing elephants. I wanted to see elephants – Asian Elephants in the wild, which would have made me feel content. Anything else would have been a bonus. I should have known that the trip would not go well when the first thing our driver specifically stopped to show us was a termite mound. We did see prior to this a heard of chital and 2 peacocks,

but these were animals I spotted before the driver. I was more of a tour guide to Sophi and Clair than our driver was…guess that safari training in Africa needs to be put to use somehow. It also didn’t bode well that a 6:30am tour in November is probably not the best time to start due to the early morning fog…that wouldn’t go away.

Our driver sort of knew English but didn’t catch on until later that I liked taking photos of birds… considering that seeing a mammal is a rare occurrence, particularly those like leopards, lions, bears, tigers, elephants, foxes – you know the cool things…so by default I look at birds.

Towards the end of the tour he was stopping for little birds as well as the big things. It wasn’t a complete bust but lets just say I will not be going back to this park unless I go for free or have some insider’s tour. The only elephants I saw were “orphaned” and housed near the tea shop at the entrance. Much like a zoo – and yet no real barriers to keep the elephants in.

Further bathroom thoughts

For those of you who are not familiar with an emergent rod, I would like to take a moment to describe the process of showering but first I will continue thoughts on overall bathroom experiences. I find it fascinating at just how alien sometimes some common placed things can be. For instance, at first I was leery of the Indian style toilet- particularly in the train, but once I used the Indian squat toilet, it all became very familiar on what to do (i.e. very much like camping), its just the fine points that I am still trying to get and refine the finesse that is necessary not to pee all over your feet and clothing as well as get the knack of no toilet paper…this I am still…hesitant. Much like camping: face downhill, spread feet wide, move clothing out of way and come to a complete squat-none of this hovering like you are going to sit. Simple enough though can be laborious if you have bad knees.
      
While in Hardwar I came across a further complication to the Indian sqat toilet…that is the squat toilet is basically a whole with places to put your feet. 99% of the time the whole is on the ground. In a hotel we looked at in Hardwar, the squat toilet was actually a modified western style toilet. So in essence you climb atop the toilet and perch. I have yet to try this out and I am sure it will not be a problem the only time I foresee any sort of problem would be if I were intoxicated – losing one’s balance squatting with pants around ankles atop a 2ft porcelain throne over cement floors would not make a pretty picture. One other fascinating part of this toilet is that it was “convertible”. As in, instead of putting down a “lid”, you could put down a cover that would convert the toilet from a perch to a seat – thus making it “western”. I will get a picture of this for you, but just for the moment let your imagination roam….

Now, in the guest house where I was residing before, I had a fairly “western” style bathroom. Sink, toilet (western), a geyser and a shower. The shower shot directly onto the toilet so you could technically shower while sitting, or go to the bathroom while showering (should you have good aim). Almost all bathrooms (and most houses for that matter) have a slight slant to them – which if you are highly sensitive to these things can throw you off for a second because nothing is quite straight. If you are lucky your geyser (aka hot water tank) will take 10 minutes to heat and you will have about 10 minutes of continuous HOT water. Also, if you are lucky, the plug to the geyser will NOT be directly in the path of the shower….I was not so lucky. I say this simply because of the constant terror of electrocution. When power fluxes and outages and surges are as common as sunshine, these are things we need to be aware of and therefore do not tilt the shower head up higher than shoulders. It seems thus far, that just because you have a shower head, does not mean that you can get water to come out of it, nor does it mean you have hot water. In this case, most bathrooms have two taps that are a little short of waist height of the average western woman. I specify the height here because I am tall for a human being in this part of India – most men are about my height or shorter. This means that most of the taps if you squat under them could be an OK height and have “running” water for a shower. But the complication arises when and IF you have hot water- it is HOT water that comes out of one tap (no controlling the temperature) and COLD that comes out of the other. So, really, squatting under these taps does not make for a comfortable shower having to hop back and forth thus by default you end up using the bucket bath style. In my current abode, my bathroom consists of a toilet and 2 taps – one of which does not work. Can you guess which one? So, I need to heat my water in some way thus enter the emergent rod.

This is an emergent rod

I was not familiar with this device until now. Its strange but makes sense – I find it similar to chemistry equipment. Stick a metal rod into the water and it will heat up….how does it heat? Good question. Well, you find a plug and plug the metal rod into electricity and then the rod will get hot and the water by default. I do not want to belabor the point or make you feel as if you are a child – but my point here is Do Not Stick Your Hand Into The Water When The METAL ROD IS PLUGED IN. I have yet to do this, but this was the warning I was given by a friend of mine. It is strange because logically you understand this and yet, the thought - “how hot is the water now??” your first moves is “oh, just stick a finger in really quick and see”. You forget that there is a metal rod attached to electrical current. I have already electrocuted myself 2 times here just plugging in a space heater – exposed wires, surges, etc you get the picture. So, I am glad I have caught myself the 3 times I have had the urge to check the temperature. After telling the short story to my landlord of how my friend Bec electrocuted herself by “testing” the water – my landlord looked at me very funny and said in an obvious tone “you just look at the steam rising off the water”. Aaaah such wise wisdom given to someone who had NO clue how to check the water because logic somehow leaves your brain when everything is so unfamiliar-yet not. It’s over thinking; making things way more complicated than they have to be because everything else is so alien - why not the way water boils? So in the spirit of the many instructions I have seen around India (see my picasa album for more Indian signs), I took the opportunity to pictorially illustrate what would happen should you do what Bec did. ..                                                                  
 

How can you tell if the water's hot??

Look for the steam!

DO NOT Stick your hand into the water while it is still plugged in.

Injury may occur

I also have 2 further suggestions for those of you who find yourself in a bathroom needing to do a bucket bath 1. Remove any toilet paper in the room – particularly if you have long hair and 2. I enjoy having the bathroom warm while I bathe so using a space heater I plug it in prior to the shower and “warm” up the room. At this point – you must be aware that outlets in India are sparse and typically you need a power strip OR share the outlet between the 2 items. Also, for Indians being so short, I do not understand the fascination with putting switches and outlets above even my head…why? And then to add to the conundrum (much like the length of a hot dog and a hot dog bun) why do they then make the cords to appliances so short? So, first heat the water (20-30min) then prop the space heater up on a stool to make it long enough to plug in to heat the room and then since it is up off the ground, why not bathe while it is still plugged in?
Heat the room after you have heated the water: