Pawan and the City of Flies

Much has happened in the past 3 days. When last I left you, we had just practiced some yoga with our yogi, Surinder, the calmest man in the universe and were winding down our time in Rishikesh and the Shiva Festival from hell! It was such a strange dichotomy of peace and serenity with aggression and anxiety...what a place! Our driver, Pawan, met us at our hotel to walk us through the hoards of orange man/boys to the pristine taxi for our drive to Chandigarh - capitol city of the Punjab, which is primarily populated with Sikhs. This was supposed to be a 5 hour journey, but ended up being an 8 hour ordeal, as our tour company sent us to the shit hole of all shit holes with no reservation, so we called and had words and were then sent to a more "acceptable" hotel. WE have only paid for half of this tour up front so we keep toying with the idea of withholding the rest of the payment whenever a snafu arises...which is often, but Wendy and Alex are always in good spirits, while I tend to have a minor fit and then get it together. In India, whenever something terrible happens, something good will come. For example, we may have had the worst walking experience from the taxi to our hotel in Shiva Festival infused Rishikesh, but we met Surinder Singh and practiced the most amazing yoga and learned so much about ourselves. Chandigarh is a clean and well organized city, with the entire place broken down into numbered Sections and Sectors that litter the signs surrounding the roundabouts...it is difficult to get lost; however, this is Mel and Al (and Wendy) so of course we got lost. After phoning and trying to search for our hotel address on the internet, we managed to locate the shit hole (as we call it) located directly above a liquor shop in a tiny and somewhat dodgy "shopping centre." Alex and I went upstairs to look at the room and there was no reservation for us and no available rooms, which was actually a farse, as the hotel manager and other staff were merely sleeping in the 2 available shit rooms in the shit hotel. We refused and Alex had a heated, yet contained conversation with our travel agent and we were quickly whisked away to another hotel with a "gym" and no pubic hairs on the toilet seats! Much better. Another blessing in disguise, as discussed above has been Pawan, our driver, as the shit hotel experience left me feeling mild rage, but our driver continued to smile and speak with the hotel managers and the travel agency and help us sort it all out. WE took about a 30 minute break and freshened up to prepare for the whirlwind whistle-stop tour of Chandigarh in only 4 hours...I think it might be a world record. We visited a small man-made lake, which kind of reminds Alex and I of the caravan park in Wales, as there is an arcade and rides for the kids and paddle boats shaped like swans to ride in for 100 rupees an hour. We thought about taking one out, but the vision of hundreds of Indian filled swan boats surrounding us to take photos filled our heads so we abandoned this idea and headed for the rose garden. Pawan explained that the rose garden was not that great, but the rock garden was spectacular...(not the words he used, but the thumbs up and thumbs down gesture made the point just fine)...and he was so right. I think that in rose blooming season, the Rose Garden would be spectacular, but this is not rose season and we actually made a game of who can find a non-shriveled up bud and take a photo of it. Wendy won! We did a circumference of the park and took many pictures of the tear shape bins surrounding the park, as there are virtually NO bins in India and they were very cute. We then headed to an Indian art museum for the quickest peruse in the history of all peruses, as it closed at 5pm and we entered at 4:25pm. It was filled with textiles, pottery, paintings, sculptures and coins from all around India. It was actually a very interesting and well laid out museum with only 1 air conditioned exhibit in the entire building...this one was out favourite for obvious reason. We ended our whistle-stop tour of Chandigarh at the Rock Garden, in my personal top 3 favourite places we've seen in India. This place is a labyrinth of sculptures made from organic and recycled materials put together by artists. It can take all day to get yourself through the entire park, but we did it in about 2 hours...through dehydration, starvation, bug bits, exhaustion and a tiny rain storm. Our spirits dwindled from time to time, but the amazing beauty of this place pushed those feelings aside allowing us to experience the thrill of such clever creativity. These mazes led you to huge openings with waterfalls and sculptures of all the animals of India (monkeys, elephants, dogs,etc...) made of stones, bottle caps, pieces of glass and various recycled plastic. Then, you continue to walk through tiny arched doorways (Alex always had to bend down and virtually crawl through these spaces, just to give you an idea of how short they were. There were stairs made out of stones and unusually shaped recycled object to walk up and down, tiny cobble stone pathways and grass hills. Every which way you turned your head, there was some amazing creation to look at and take in...at the end, the tiny pathway curves to the right and opens up to reveal a huge stone courtyard with a hall of mirrors to make you laugh, an aquarium to make you think and a camel ride to make you cry. The best part about this courtyard, other than the yummy baby ice cream cones you can purchase, are the long swings made from rope and a sanded 4x4 piece of wood attached to gigantic stone archways with stone horse sculptures dotted along the tippy top. Every other archway had a swing, and this was by far the most popular attraction. Luckily, it was quite near closing time and there were 3 free swings for us all to take a ride! What a rush. We went back to the taxi, got taken to a huge shopping centre and had some vegetarian cuisine, walked around and went back to the hotel to drop dead...well, that's what it felt like. Pawan helped us with the bags and then dutifully camped outside our hotel room in his car all night, where he sleeps! The next morning, we drove all the way to Amritsar (finding a Subway along the way for veggie sandwiches, what a treat). We got there within about 4 hours, though we were told it would take 8, but the traffic was surprisingly nonexistent on the paved roads to Amritsar. On the way, we stopped at a Hindu temple and went in, where we received a blessing and a handful of random rock candy, aniseed bits, dried fruit and a banana. What a treat! I have decided that this city will be known as the City of Flies, as I have never seen so many flies congregating in one area in all my 32 (almost 33) years. They are everywhere...on dogs, people, food, the ground, in the air, in cars, on trees, all over the place! And, they are immune to swatting, bug cream, cursing and tears! We tried all tactics to no avail so you just have let go and become a landing strip for the flies. We did a bit of walking around and ran a few errands to get our pictures put onto disks, get some gifts for Wendy's friends and get my glasses tightened and then were taken to the Pakistan/India boarder for the most theatrical display we have ever seen. Basically, tourists and locals alike flock to the broader every single day at about 6:15pm and are herded like cattle into bleachers, along the street curbs and on chairs around the road leading to the gate separating India and Pakistan (Pakistan does the exact same thing on their side at the exact same time). There is music playing while Indian flags being raced up and down the street by Indian children. There are chants and screams and drums...it is reminiscent of a UT/ATM football game or Arsenal/Tottenham football game in that the rivalry between India and Pakistan is fierce and the fans are die hard! All this leads to the moment that the army soldiers dressed in almost peacock-like uniforms so tall they appear to be on stilts, march vigorously with a series of high kicks and loud stomps that ring in your ear due to the taps attached to the heals of their boots. They race to the gate and open it for a brief few minutes to give 5 intense hand shakes to the Pakistani counterpart (also dressed in the same costume only black and not tan, like India's costume) and have a brief flag ceremony in which they take their respective country's flag down for the day. The whole ceremony takes about 2 hours and this is done every single day and it is spectacular! We left and ate a delicious and somewhat posh dinner and retired to our room, which had no end to electrical problems, as all of the wires are frayed and crammed into electrical holes of some sort with no cover and tape holding them together, so we were moved to another room...what a fire hazard...This morning we awoke to begin our last day in India. I cannot believe that it has been 10 weeks and it is all coming to an end. We went to the Golden Temple, which is the holiest and most precious of the Sikh temples and is open 24 hours per day and is free of charge. It is HUGE...like a compound with the main Golden Temple in the middle of bright white marble buildings in a rectangular shape surrounding the circumference of the Golden Temple. There are Sikh's everywhere in various stages of prayer. You could spend all day everyday there, as they have places to bathe, sleep, toilet and a huge kitchen to eat. It is all run by volunteers and we took part in the eating...we were escorted through the cue to get our silver bowl, plate and spoon and then sat in a long row on the floor and awaited a Sikh man to toss up a chapati and scoop us ladle full of dal (lentils) and rice from a bucket onto our plate. I know it doesn't sound like 5 star dining, but it was delicious and such a way to feel like a local Sikh coming to the holiest temple to pray and take part in a spectacular day. The sun was so bright in the sky and the beams reflected off the Golden Temple and the clean white marble so brightly that it was almost blinding. What a special moment...and then the herds of people start to take photos and hand us their children to hold and kiss and touch and it becomes all to much...you can only forget you are in India for a mere second before you are quickly reminded! What a magical place and how sad we are to leave!