Where Anja went for breakfast

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From Agra we continued through Rajasthan were we visited places like Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur where Anja one morning went to have breakfast in that fancy Taj Lake Palace Hotel on a small island in Lake Pichola, Udaipur´s famous lake where some scenes for the Bond movie Octopussy were shot.
I did not accompany her because I did not care about some expensive breakfast in some fancy hotel.

During our time together in India we had also a few clashes because of our different attitudes.
I think it was already in Delhi that I freaked out because she gave some money to some beggar woman with a baby. While she believed she followed her heart and did some good, I scolded her for supporting mafia-like structures. Before I came to India I had read that beggging is big business controlled by crime lords, that parents would chop off a hand of a child, so it would get more sympathy and money by begging. Long before Slumdog Millionaire I had read that children were sometimes blinded with acid for the same reason. So I believed that if you wanted to do good in India you gave money to some charity making good use of those donations, but not to some individual beggars and for sure not to children.

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Thanks to Anja I still have some pictures of our time together in India, because she brought a camera with her. This is my favorite picture, taken somewhere in Rajasthan in the morning. Since my first visit to India, I am definitely a fan of the cows there, I like how so very self-evidently they particpate in public life.
The edding marks were apparently applied by the Indian guy who developed the photos, I don´t know what was the reasoning behind his actions. Did he not like pictures of holy cows being taken by tourists, was there something wrong with the quality or did this image appear backward to him, not in line with his vision of a modern India? We will never know.

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In Mount Abu, Rajasthan´s only hill station, I went a few times to the different Dilwara Jain Temples, because if there ever was intricate marble carving it was to be found in those temples, totally out of this world. I would wait till the crowds had left the temple for a moment and when I had achieved solitude then, I would just sit there and look at the ceilings in total rapture. I remember that in one of those temples the priest looked at me at first very surprised that I spent so much time in there, meditating on those beautiful carvings, but then he got it, smiled and nodded appreciatively.

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Divine Ceiling

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Jains believe very much in non-violence, some cover their mouth with some surgeon-mask-like cloth to not accidentally swallow any insects, some go even further and sweep the ground in front of them to not step on any insects and the carvings in those temples were out of this world too.
Never in the field of human conflict had I seen so much beauty.

I am normally no fan of too intricate, too refined, too elaborate, too playful art, like for example rococo, but here I sensed the spiritual aspect of it, the ultimate devotion, the perfect concentration, the superhuman craftmanship which went into the creation of those wonders.
What the Taj Mahal had failed to give me, some spiritual dimension, some otherworldly experience, here in those Jain temples I got plenty.

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Indians finally figured out how to walk on water

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From Mt. Abu we went to Gir National Park in Gujarat, famous for its Asian Lions, but alas, we didn´t spot any, but it was a great place to visit nevertheless.
Then we went to Diu for some beach days so that Anja did not pack her bikini for nothing.

After that we went to Bombay, or Mumbai as it is called now, and there we were in for a big surprise. We had thought the further we would get away from Ayodhya, the further South we would go, the more peaceful India would become, but Bombay was burning. Some of the worst riots in connection to the Ayodhya incident were happening in India´s Maximum City.

We stayed of course in Colaba, the tourist area close to the Gateway of India and, as usual, the tourist area was peaceful because it was sealed off by army and police. There was no curfew, so Anja and me ventured a bit north, towards the black clouds of smoke we saw rising over the city, but when we wanted to wander deeper into the burning neighborhoods we got stopped and turned around by police.

Bombay burning

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On our way back to the hotel we suddenly encountered a Hindu mob, some 20 guys, still quite young, with cricket and hockey bats and all sorts of weapons, swords, spears, Shiva tridents and stuff, but they were friendly to us, waved and laughed. They were shouting some slogans about Shivaji, the Maratha warrior king, famous for his fight against Muslim rulers in 17th century India. It was an eerie scene, one could only imagine what those guys were coming from, they looked and acted like hooligans whose team had won.

The next day we went to Victoria Terminus, now, thanks to Maratha pride, named Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, to enquire about trains to the airport.
I will never forget the sight I saw inside the station. The whole station building was crowded with desperate Muslims, just trying to get out of the city. It looked like one big refugee camp, with, I don´t know, hundreds of people sitting and lying on the floor waiting for some train, but alas, there were no trains, those people were all stranded inside the station.
But at least they were safe there.

The way out of Bombay by train led through some of the biggest slums of India, and apparently there the situation was much worse than what we had seen just north of the tourist area.
So the authorities had stopped all train traffic to avoid the trains getting attacked by fanatical mobs.
If you know about incidents like the Godhra train burning, probably a wise decision.
Anja´s plane was about to leave two days later, and there were still no trains, so the train to the airport did not run again yet, and we were not sure if she would make it to the airport, apparently also no taxi driver was willing to drive there, but in the end she made it, with a combination of buses and taxi, somehow to the airport, while I took a bus out of Bombay to my next adventure.

I have now combined all my Pakistan travel stories into one chapter, which can be found here.

For more adventurous stories check out my blog @likedeeler

For more inspiring stories and a group of inspiring and supportive people check out @ecotrain.