Varanasi - The End of the Road

Having seen all we could in Agra, we boarded a sleeper train for Varanasi fully expecting to get no sleep but very excited about the journey. Much to our surprise the beds were really comfortable, and after chatting to our travelling companion who shared our 4 bed compartment, we all managed to sleep soundly until the train arrived in Varanasi at the unearthly hour of 5.30am.

Emma updating her journal on the train.

Once we arrived at our hotel, right by the bank of the Ganges, and saw the early morning sun shining over the river, we were very glad that we were awake to see the beautiful sight.

Morning meditation by the Ganges.

Varanasi, a city built on the banks of the holy river Ganges, is considered the holiest of all holy cities in both Hinduism and Jainism. Along the banks of the Ganges there are over 80 ghats, or steps, and each has its own name and function. Some are well known as being popular bathing sights, or where many people wash laundry. There are also two cremation ghats, the largest of which is called Manikarnika Ghat, where people burn the bodies of loved ones on huge pyres. Some Hindus consider it particularly auspicious to die at Varanasi, so there are many people who move there specifically to die. Many also believe that if your body is burnt on the banks of the Ganges, you achieve “moksha”, or release from the cycle of life and death. Because of this, the burning ghats were very busy, and apparently ran throughout the night as demand was so high. Unlike other places in India that we’d seen there was far more emphasis on caste- depending on the caste of the family, there were different sites for the pyres, and the only people who handled the bodies were those of the very lowest caste, the “untouchables”.

Washing drying by the Ganges having been washed in the holy waters.

We went for many walks along the ghats as there was always something different happening – cricket matches, beautiful cows just sat by the riverside, buffalo rolling around in the mud, Brahmin priests teaching people how to perform various ceremonies, bathing, meditating, worshipping. All this took place while we were walking along, trying not to stand on anyone’s clean washing, and avoiding men attempting to get us to hire their boat, or to shake our hand only so they could charge money for a hand massage – such a chaotic and lively place!

Early morning bathing in the river.

We also took a couple of boat trips along the river - one as the sun was rising which was a great time as the ghats were full of people coming to take their early morning bathe, beginning the washing of the morning or mediatating. Seeing the river banks from a boat in the early morning light really was magical, and we learnt a lot from all the stories and tales that our boatman told us along the way.

The view from our boat as the first light of day appeared.

Every evening at Dashashwamedh Ghat a ceremony takes place called “ganga aarti”, in which a number of priests perform “agni puja” and offer dedications to the river Ganges and Lord Shiva. This involves the priests, all aged under 30, waving incense, a multi tiered candleholder holding 51 candles, and finally a huge bowl full of fire over the river and the crowd gathered on the ghat. During this, there is music and singing performed, as well as the ringing of many bells and several gongs adding to the clamour.

One of the priests performing agni puja.

We watched this once from the ghat itself, where we could see (and hear!) the ceremony up close, and once from a boat in the river. Being able to see the whole thing from a distance was incredible, and sitting on a boat in the Ganges, sipping chai that our boatman had insisted on buying for us as his guests, watching this traditional ceremony was an amazing experience.

The Ganga Aarti ceremony from our boat.

James trying his hand at rowing us back!

Our last night in Varanasi happened to be the first day of an important festival, which drew thousands of people to the riverside. It was celebrating the marriage of Shiva, and many pilgrims would visit and walk around the temples in Varanasi barefoot, giving money and rice to beggars who lined their route. We got caught up in this never ending stream of people, and managed to get to a distance to take a photo of the throng.

The steady stream of people arriving for the festival.

No blog post of ours would be complete without a mention of food, so we will briefly mention the best lassi we have ever had. The Blue lassi shop was tiny, with barely enough space for 10 chairs in, but the lassi was wonderful - it looked like a work of art, tasted heavenly and was possibly the most surreal place to drink in, as bodies were taken past the shop to the main cremation ghat along the very narrow street, with the relatives walking behind, chanting and throwing flowers onto the covered stretcher.

Tucking into our extraordinary lassi's!

It was a unique place. All of life and death takes place publicly on the banks of this revered river. There was always something new to see and a never ending cacophony of noise, bustle and worship. We were all incredibly glad that we managed to get here on our travels as it was such a fascinating place to experience.

Lighting candles on the banks on the Ganges as part of the Shiva festival.

After a fantastic few days here we set off on the last leg of our journey, back to Delhi for one more day before heading to the airport, and with mixed feelings boarding our plane back to the uk. It was the most amazing two months. We learnt so much about medicine, the world and ourselves, had our eyes opened, minds stretched and taste buds tantalised. We saw things we had only ever dreamed of, met amazing people along the way and by the end India felt like home. Thank you to everyone who has been following along and sharing in our adventure. It was lovely to be able to share our experiences with family and friends and we loved having you along for the journey!

Take care to all of you, and if you ever get the chance to go to India, grab it!

Lots of Love

Emma and Michaela

Travels in India - Agra

So we set off from Jaipur to our next stop – the city of Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Ever since we had first thought about doing our elective in India over a year ago, the Taj Mahal had been something that we had wanted to see, so we were quite excited about this almost being a reality!

The day that we arrived in Agra, it was chucking it down. However, being British and not so easily deterred we set off for Agra fort. It reminded us quite a bit of the Red Fort in Delhi which was unsurprising as it was built by the same man. Shah Jahan was the fifth Mughal Emperor of India and he ruled from 1628 to 1658. Incredibly, as well as these two forts he also built the Taj Mahal along with the Jama Masjid in Delhi (the biggest mosque in India) and a few other more minor buildings. His son, Aurangzeb, locked him up as soon as he became ill so that he could seize the throne. He was imprisoned in Agra fort and, so the stories go, he died looking at his beautiful creation, the Taj Mahal, in the distance.

The fort was beautiful and had within it some very intricate carvings, particularly in the red sandstone buildings. The marble buildings were also very striking, and in some areas the marble was so thin that when the sun was behind it, the light caused the marble to glow.

Some of the ornate carving in the fort.

The thin marble, glowing with the sun behind it. 

Utterly soaked, and now in the middle of a thunderstorm, we had a quick look at the Jama Masjid in Agra (unsurprisingly there was no one else there!) before finding somewhere to dry off!

By some miracle and in defiance of the weather forecast, the next morning was dry! This was the day we had been waiting for, and just before sunrise we made the short walk from our hotel to pay our money and queue up in eager anticipation to see the Taj Mahal.

When finally through the security checks and queues, we walked up to the main gate, and stepping through got our first glimpse of the incredible building. All the reports we had heard had not been exaggerated. It was utterly breath-taking. It was as if it had been put there by a giant hand reaching down from the skies - it felt almost like it was not of this world. Emma now knew what her great aunt (who had been a missionary in Calcutta for many years) meant when she said “It just hangs out of the sky”. Rabindrath Tagore, India's Nobel laureate described it as 'A teardrop on the face of eternity', whilst Rudyard Kipling went for 'the embodiment of all things pure'. Emperor Shah Jahan himself said it made 'the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes'.

Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in memory of his third wife Mumtaz Mahal who died whilst giving birth to their 14^th child. The whole complex was completed in 1653 and took the work of thousands of men.

The first glimpse of the Taj Mahal.

Spellbound, we walked slowly up to the building and took of our shoes so that we could go inside. Up close, you can see the incredible marble inlay work which is made up of over 35 different types of precious and semiprecious stones, laid in beautiful patterns within the marble. There is also beautiful calligraphy around the entrance to the mausoleum itself, and the writing actually gets bigger towards the top so that from the ground it all looks the same size. Inside, the beauty continued. There were two tombs in the centre – one for Mumtaz Mahal and one for Emperor Shah Jahan who was later buried here alongside his wife. These are actually fake tombs, with the actual bodies buried underneath the main mausoleum. The two tombs are surrounded by an exquisite marble screen which has beautiful lattice work and is covered in more marble inlay. Incredibly this huge screen is carved out of one piece of marble.

Back outside of the Taj, we could visit the two buildings that flank the marble mausoleum – both in complete symmetry. The building to the west is the mosque, however the identical one on the east is not a mosque as it faces the wrong way, but was actually just built for symmetry and is called the jawab.

By this point the sun was fully up and incredibly the Taj had changed colour slightly. Apparently because marble is translucent, the Taj looks slightly different colours depending on the light. Emma then spent a while taking photos, and got the photo that she had dreamt of being able to take for a long time.

THE photo!

Us at the Taj Mahal!

We eventually dragged ourselves away from the most beautiful building in the world, but not for too long, as we went to grab some breakfast on a rooftop café with a pretty spectacular view!

Breakfast with a view!

We spent the rest of the day seeing a few of the other sights around Agra including the first Mughal gardens, a tomb for a poet and his brother who was the man who had done the calligraphy around the Taj, and the tomb known as “The Baby Taj” (which is actually called the Tomb of I'timād-ud-Daulah). You can see how it got its name! This was also covered in marble inlay work, which although was beautiful, was a lot more chunky and less refined than the examples we had seen on the Taj.

The Baby Taj

Close up on an example of the inlay work

The last stop of the day was the Mehtab Bagh, a park on the other side of the Yamuna River to the Taj Mahal, but built to line up perfectly with it. From here, you were far enough away that you could see the full effect of the Taj with the mosque and the jawab on either side. It was absolutely stunning.

The Taj as viewed from Mehtab Bagh 

Whilst in Agra, we did a few other things including a day trip to Fatehpur Sikri, a town close to Agra which is home to a huge palace complex and apparently the world’s tallest gate! The palace complex was indeed massive, and was composed of a great deal of buildings. One of our favourites was one that reminded us of a tiered wedding cake overlooking some lovely gardens. The Emperor would sit on the very top tier whilst his many ladies would be taking the air on the layers below.

The tiered building

Unlike a lot of the other places we had visited, this was lacking in the typical Mughal symmetry. It felt much more like it had grown up over time, with bits added here and there. We had been spoilt by visiting a lot of buildings and complexes designed in perfect symmetry and started getting annoyed that arches didn’t line up!

The palace complex

Before setting off for Varanasi, we managed to squeeze in one last thing and visited Akbar’s Mausoleum. Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal Emperor and was apparently one of the greatest Emperors of his time, although we are yet to discover why! His mausoleum was a beautiful place, with a stunning gateway. Inside, the incredible decoration gave the effect of a beautiful patchwork quilt lining the walls and ceilings. However, interestingly, unlike all the other tombs, when you got into the room where the tomb actually was, it was completely plain. The walls were painted white, the tomb itself was block white and the only other thing in the room was a solitary metal lamp hanging down from the ceiling. Such contrast to the tombs in the Taj Mahal!

Outside Akbar's Tomb.

The amazing decoration inside. 

So, dreams came true in Agra! The Taj Mahal was always something that you see in pictures as a child and actually being there and seeing it for real was really mind-blowing. We had one more stop before heading back to Delhi, and our first night train was ready to take us there…

Travels in India - Jaipur

Hello! We have now arrived safely back in the UK having had an amazing two weeks travelling in India. As promised, we will post up a couple of extra posts for any of you who are interested in knowing what we got up to on our adventures!

Our first stop was Jaipur and, once we had met James in Delhi and spent a few days showing him our favourite sights there, we set off on our first Indian long distance train. We all quickly fell in love with Jaipur and had a few amazing days here.

The Old City in Jaipur is enclosed by huge imposing pink walls and is made up of a grid of enticing bazaars selling beautiful shoes, fabrics and gemstones - all things that Jaipur is renowned for. Also within these walls are many old and important buildings, our favourite of which was called the Hawa Mahal or "Palace of Winds", built in 1799 by the Maharaja at the time.

The Hawa Mahal

It was an extraordinary building, built over five storeys. Each floor had lots of hidden passageways, tiny rooms and hidden courtyards found down little corridors, miniature shutters, beautifully painted doors and windows with brightly coloured panes of glass, causing colour light to dance on the floor. Exploring the building we got utterly lost, and even when we thought we were heading back the way we came, we would suddenly stumble upon another courtyard or a hidden room! That was the joy of that building though.

Emma with some of the mini shutters

From the top, there were amazing views over Jaipur, and towards Tiger Fort - a fort on top of one of the hills around Jaipur that looks down on the city, and one which we were soon to visit.

Tiger fort on the hill in the background

Whilst in Jaipur, we had a whole day of visiting three different forts, which ended up being one of our favourite days of the whole trip. The first fort was in Amber - a city a short bus ride from Jaipur. When the journey to the fort is by elephant (which we can now confirm is the best way to travel) you know it is going to be a good day!

James and Michaela on their elephant!

Emma setting off on her elephant ride!

The weather was gorgeous that day, and Amber fort looked very striking, nestled in a valley which was surrounded by fortified walls in all directions.

It was a huge place, and similarly to the Hawa Mahal, had lots of rooms, courtyards and passages that you stumbled upon accidentally whilst thinking you were going towards somewhere else! There was a lot of beautiful ornate decoration including one hall where the entire surface of the walls and ceiling was made up of tiny mirrored tiles laid in patterns. There were also beautiful jaali (stone latticed windows), through which you could look at the ever impressive views over Amber. Throughout the complex there were many other exciting things to find, including a beautiful garden, a stunning gateway, at one point a very long water collection system complete with jars and cogs and even a holy basil plant.

The ceiling covered in mirror tiles

Some of the beautiful jaali

If we thought that the fort was beautiful, we had something even better waiting for us. After lunch we walked the kilometre long tunnel uphill connecting Amber fort to Jaigarh fort, on a hill above Amber. As we climbed, the view got more and more impressive. Once in the fort we went and found the highest point, and were greeted with this.

As well as a stunning view, Jaigarh fort also boasts the world’s largest wheeled cannon  - Cannon Jaivana. It was cast in 1790 and apparently weighs 50 tonnes! It did look pretty big, and I don't think it's been moved anywhere in a little while!

Cannon Jaivana

Views from Jaigarh Fort

After dragging ourselves away from these stunning views we headed back to Jaipur for our last fort of the day. Our excellent guidebook had told us that a bar terrace in Tiger fort was one of the best places to watch the sun setting, accompanied by a cool glass of wine or beer. It was another steep walk uphill, but we made it to the top just in time to witness this incredible sunset before the sun slipped behind the low clouds.

We then sat overlooking Jaipur watching the light slowly fade, and the lights start to come on in the city below. It got even more magical when all the calls to prayer started drifting up to our ears from all the corners of the city creating a wonderful cacophony of sound.

The last thing in Jaipur we will tell you about was the Monkey Temple that we visited. This was a Hindu temple, where we believe monkeys are encouraged to live by being fed, and it had certainly worked! It had a very strange feel to it - it almost felt like an abandoned film set that monkeys had come to live in. The temple was built into the side of a hill, and there were monkeys everywhere!

So, having thoroughly enjoyed our time in Jaipur, we set off on a very early train to Agra...watch this space! 

The End of Our Placement and the Start of Our Travels!

As this will be our last post before traveling, we wanted to look back on the amazing time we’ve had in Delhi over the past 6 weeks. We’ve met some lovely people, eaten a lot of food, and seen countless tombs, monuments and temples, and hopefully we’ve managed to convey to those reading a little of what this experience has been like for us. It is just impossible to capture in words exactly what  it’s like walking down the dusty road in Old Delhi, trying to avoid being run over by motorbikes, rickshaws and cattle drawn carts, smelling the spices and street food of the stalls - such an assault on all the senses is so hard to describe! 

One of the many cow drawn carts making its way down the streets of Old Delhi

The hustle and bustle of the roads is non-stop

One of the best things we’ve found about being here for such a long period of time compared to the average tourist is that we now feel at home in Delhi; many areas are very familiar, having walked around them looking for the best bargains many times! We have got to know several stall holders by sight – unsurprisingly the people running the Jalebiwala stall (which sells the best jalebi in Delhi) know us well now, thanks to Emma’s addiction! 

A bowl of Jalebi and a very happy Emma

Emma ensuring she gets every last bit of the sugary syrup!

Eventually we have managed to get the hang of haggling, to such an extent that recently Emma was praised by an Indian shop keeper on her bargaining ability! Before coming I don’t think that either of us would have guessed how prevalent bargaining is in India; even to buy stamps at the post office we had to argue that as the stamp said “15 rupees” on it, we should not pay 20 rupees for them! 

A more welcome difference to the UK is that strangers talk to each other far more readily here, and we have had many conversations with people curious to find out more about us and England. Admittedly a lot of the people who have approached us in the street have been after a photo, or trying to get us to go to their friend’s shop, but many people just wanted to chat. On the metro we’ve had several good conversations – once a woman overheard us talking and recognised that we were English, so started talking to us about her daughter who had studied in England, and what a lovely country she thought it was. Her daughter had apparently really enjoyed studying in the UK, in part due to the hospitality of strangers, so she was eager to return the favour by giving us her business card and inviting us to her house any time we fancied home cooked food. 

On another metro journey a woman kept smiling and looking at us, (quite common as we do stand out!) and eventually tried to talk to us in Hindi. It transpired that her English was almost as good as our Hindi, but we managed to have a conversation in which we told her that we were medical students, at which point she announced excitedly to the whole carriage that we were doctors working here. This led to more smiles and a definite air of approval from the rest of the passengers, before we sadly had to get off the train and say goodbye to our new friend. 

We have been very pleasantly surprised by people’s reactions on finding out that we are English as it has been overwhelmingly positive, despite the fact that India only gained independence from Britain in 1947, so relatively recently. On one occasion we were complemented for our “wonderful English accents, just how the beautiful language is meant to be spoken”! Recently when buying tea, the shopkeeper told us that he saw it as a pleasure and a privilege to be able to discuss and sell tea to the English, as he felt that the English were the ones to introduce tea drinking to Indians – how true this is we’re not sure! 

Chai being made for us at our favourite chai stall...they recognise us here as well!

There have been many more occasions where people passing by have helped to translate for us when trying to explain to tuk-tuk drivers where we’d like to go, or stopped when we were buying street food to tell us that they are really impressed we were eating like locals. The kindness of strangers in a city like Delhi, which we warned beforehand could be a dangerous city for women, has been unexpected and very welcome to us as we’ve spent the past six weeks so far from home in such an unfamiliar environment. 

We have also had an invaluable experience working in the hospital and community health clinic here. We haven’t been able to blog extensively about this due to being bound by patient confidentiality and so forth, so apologies if it has been a bit medicine light! We have both seen and learnt about conditions we had never come across before, had our eyes opened to some of the huge issues in global healthcare such as poverty and education, overcome differences in language and culture to communicate with our patients and caught a glimpse of how healthcare is just part of a huge tangle of factors contributing to peoples well being. We have learnt lessons here that will stay with us throughout our careers, and hopefully enable us to be better doctors as a result. 

Over the next two weeks we hope to do a bit of traveling around with James (Michaela’s boyfriend) who has just joined us out here! As well as showing him our favourite bits of Delhi we will also be going to Agra, Jaipur and Varanasi.  As such, we will probably not be able to update the blog, but if we can’t we will post up a couple of updates once we are back, letting you know where we went and what adventures we have had! 

For now we will leave you with a story that we think epitomises the joy of traveling. Emma had stumbled across something online about a food-stuff that was found in Delhi only for a few months during Indian winter. Wondering around Old Delhi this afternoon, down one of the tiny streets of the old bazaars, hidden in the shade, was a man with a little cart and a bowl on it with what looked like this elusive food. We of course, had to try it to see, not even knowing at this point whether it was sweet or savoury! To our delight, we discovered that it was indeed the Daulat ki Chaat that Emma had read about. It is a sort of cross between a soufflé and a cloud, is incredibly sweet, and is so light that as soon as you put it in your mouth it vanishes leaving nothing but an astonishing taste. The story goes that this is made by the light of the full moon, and set in the morning dew. It has to be served and eaten before the sun gets too high in the sky, otherwise it is reduced to a milky puddle (hence why you can only get it in winter, and they stand in the shade!). It is made of buffaloes milk, and the process is a closely guarded secret. You cannot get it in shops or stalls, but you have to find one of these men hidden away in the streets of Old Delhi. Some even say it is made by angels. Totally magical. 

The man selling Daulat ki Chaat, hidden away in the shade

A bowl of the magical cloud stuff!

Just one of many priceless experiences and memories that Delhi has given us, which will cherish forever.

Thank you so much for sharing on this adventure with us! We will update you on the final installment before too long!