Happy Diwali – Health and Safety Hell

Diwali is a wonderful celebration and one I really enjoyed.  I enjoyed walking around the town and seeing all of the coloured lights, candles and lamps. Although I now realise that Diwali is also a lot like one long intro scene from Casualty (for all of those outside the United Kingdom it was or shall I say still is a fictional drama series set in an Accident and Emergency department of a hospital, cheerful it is not!)

Some of the things I saw whilst going around the town were:

·         Children as young as 1 with sparklers, OK so their parents were holding them with them but they definitely didn’t have gloves on OR a bucket of water to put them in when they had finished.

·         Children as young as 4 setting of fireworks in the street with sparklers, they also had on some rather flammable looking attire.

·         Rockets being let off around very built up areas, including about a foot away from my window!

·         Shop keepers with fireworks in cardboard boxes with candles all around them.

·         Shop keepers with candles attached to rather large wooden tables with fireworks displayed on them.

·         Fireworks and fire crackers being let off in the middle of the street. I was on a rickshaw as a small (thank goodness) roman candle was let off and my seat was directly over the top of it by the time it went off, too much squealing and waving of arms (from me). The rickshaw driver just turned around, tutted at me and shook his head. Sorry for making a scene but you know fiery colourful stuff was dangerously close to my bottom!

I could not take photos as both of my camera batteries have now died (collective sigh of relief as you do not have to look at my shoddy photography anymore)

I can honestly say I am a fireworks wimp and even the small and sweet fireworks I was running away from. I guess I took the health and safety messages to heart and they have been rather effectively drilled into me from the years of Bonfire Night warnings. That aside I did not see throngs of people with missing limbs/burns which means they are either really lucky or celebrating Diwali does work after all!

A little bit ridiculous - part 1

As you may or may not know I went on holiday to Agra to go and see the Taj Mahal and Varanasi for a week during Durga- puja (the Durga festival). My holiday was what can only be described as a little ridiculous, starting with a whole 28 hours in Agra.

So I arrive in Agra after a 24 ½ hour train ride from Jasidih into Agra. Many of the guide books echo the same message… get in, see the Taj, Baby Taj etc. and get out. Never a truer word was written. Agra is HARD work, from the touts, pollution and in my case, a lack of sleep. I checked into the hotel which I did previously check online and I was shown to my ‘air conditioned’ room and quickly shown up to the roof top restaurant which had an amazing view of the Taj Mahal, I could not deny that.

I enjoyed the view and had a drink and went down to the room. I had read about this hotel doing this to other tourists but I really had not looked at the room before I had been whisked back out and sadly there was no big white box blowing cold air out so I went downstairs and declared my air conditioning had been ‘stolen’. They looked sheepish and refunded me the difference for the room and I went back upstairs to get ready to go and get some food. Sorry to say this, well I’m not actually, I went to Pizza Hut and Costa coffee. When I later spoke to my mum and sister I think they were a little concerned as I did sound like I could and probably would be, doing the wall of death around my hotel room thanks to some junk food and proper coffee. Oh yes, I actually sat in the back of an auto drinking a Costa iced latte, I cringe now even thinking about it.

I was lying in bed at midnight and I could not get to sleep, I felt very uncomfortable and itchy so I lay there watching television until about 3 a.m. when I decided enough was enough and I flicked on the light to discover I was not alone, sadly this time it wasn’t a gecko but bed bugs, a whole colony of bed bugs. Nice! So I went downstairs to go and complain and resisted the urge to kick the night guard awake and complained, they did offer to change the sheets (like that would make a difference) but I just told them not to bother as I was getting up at 5 a.m. anyway. I did leave with the warning shot that I would see the manager later…

I watched the sunrise over the Taj Mahal and then went to see it; it is stunning. Even after 20 hours of no sleep it is amazing to go and see it. It was beautiful, breath taking in fact.



Sunrise over the Taj Mahal

I had spoken to a tourist the previous night who had said I could walk between the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort so that is what I had decided to do. Unfortunately I had managed to break a pair of sandals when walking around so managed to find a nearby shoe shop (you have to love India) bought another pair and went on my merry way.

Sadly on being spotted on the quietest road in India a gentlemen decided to sexually relieve himself in front of me (for those in the UK he was having a tommy tank!) I mean really is that kind of thing necessary – it was 8:30 in the morning! He also did not think out his plan very well as I just crossed the road when I realised what he was doing and he was pretty much stuck where he was, I may have been tired but even I could foil that wily plan (no not willy plan, wily!)

So I went to Agra Fort and found… a sceptical dog. I could post many photos but this is one of my favourites.

My memories of the fort are a little sketchy, well my thinking power was reduced to very little apart from ‘gosh this is big’, then ‘wow this place really is massive’, followed by ‘will this place never end!’ After dragging myself around Agra Fort I headed back to the hotel to go and shout at the manager, which I did and managed to get a room for the afternoon and a refund. Sadly it was not how I planned to spend my afternoon but at least I got some rest before going to Varanasi, turns out I would need it…