IndiAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

It has been a week and a half since we arrived. And let me tell you, the shock was extreme. As much as I was trying mentally to prepare myself for a major slap in the face, I got punched 10 times instead. The experience for now is really intense. All the senses are attacked here. It is so busy with people, it's loud, stinky and poverty is everywhere. The mixture of smells is weird. And in this world of dirt, crass, shit, leave really nice and gentle people. We have seen very little for now, but in this pile of dirt, there is so much treasure.
At this point it is too early to understand our feelings about this country. It is horrifying and beautiful at the same time. When it is good, it's really good and when it is bad, it is very bad.
We have no regrets for now. You just need time to adjust to the noise, the heat and the smells. That takes a lot out of you. But discovering such a different world is.... I don't know..... WOW.

We arrived in New Delhi about 3:30 in the morning and YES! our luggage arrived, and YES! car from our hotel came to pick us up. It was like winning lottery twice in half an hour.
It was dark when we arrived but you could tell that the place where we landed is a complete opposite of the one we came from - Vienna. It was hot and dusty and chaotic even at that hour. And on top of that people where starring at us constantly making us feel like zoo animals.
We stayed in Delhi only for two days and that was more than enough. It was too much. Too noisy, to dirty, and too much harassment from the rickshaw drivers and other scammers.
We stayed in Paharganj which did not help. We experienced all the scams that the Lonely Planet mentioned in their guide book right on the first day. For dealing with rickshaws you need a lot of patience, but the dangerous guys are the ones who walk by you listening to your conversation and then jump in and pretend to be helpful to finally pressure you to go to a specific tourist office while the rickshaw that would take you there magically appears next to you. That's when it was confirmed once again that Miko is too nice of a guy. Simply too nice. (He does good bargaining though) We got out of it and when we told him no, he got upset and defensive. He almost got us convinced that the next day was a holiday and nothing was working and over the weekend that everything is closed so we had to go to this tourist office NOW!! Such a scam.
Just to mention that once we finally arrived at the official government tourist office in Delhi, the guy there congratulated us.
Our second day in Delhi, we spend visiting some sights. The Lotus Temple was very nice, full of people mostly Indian, so that was nice too. The combination of the colorful clothing of the women with the white modern architecture of the temple (in the shape of a lotus), the perfect blue sky and the green garden was beautiful.


We also saw the Humayan Tomb and the Gandhi Smriti, the place where he spent the last 144 days of his life and where he was shot.
Visiting these sights was very relaxing and nice break from the madness of the streets. But getting from one place to the next by auto rickshaw was hell. So much work getting the right price because as soon as they see you they triple it or quadruple, or just refusing them when you wanted to walk, was hard. Miko was mostly upset that he could not take any pictures on the streets because as soon as we stopped someone would come to us, either to directly ask for money, or to sell us something, or to whatever.... Just constant harassment.
So, for reward, we would go to a great pastry/cake shop and buy us some goodies :) The Wengers Pastry shop on the Connaught Place. One of the sellers liked Miko a lot and gave him a free cookie and called him his brother. Don't know why...

So, after two days we took a train to Chandigarh. The ride was quite uneventful except for one shocking detail. We left around 7:30 in the morning and saw a lot of poverty along the train tracks. People, families living in structures made out of I don't know what to call it - leftovers, discarded stuff. So poor. And here we are on this AC train, touring India just for pleasure.
Then we saw a lot of people squatting, mostly men, and I couldn't figure out what they were doing at first. Then it became obvious that they were all shitting. Just like that by the train tracks, about 10 to 20 feet between them for some privacy I guess. It was obvious that they were living in the shacks nearby and this was their communal toilet.

Chandigarh
The main reason we came to this town 4 hours by train north of Delhi was to visit the Rock Garden. It is also worth mentioning that the city was designed by Le Corbusier.
Overall the impression of the city was very good. It is very green, has parks everywhere and it is very clean compared to other Indian towns (that's what we heard).
The Rock Garden was fantastic, as if you entered a magical world, imagine a garden made out of rocks of all different shapes, sculptures, with waterfalls and trees and different textures on every corner. It was created by a Pakistani men who worked for the railroad, Nek Chand. He made it out of industrial waste found nearby as the city was built.
















Now the funny part of our visit to Chadigarh. It started during the first few hours of our visit, while we were in the Rose Garden. While we were sitting on a bench in the park, a young couple came over and asked if they could take a photo with us. And that is how it started. Pretty soon a whole group of teenage boys surrounded us and wanted to take photos. In the beginning we were just laughing and did not know what to think.
The next day in the Rock Garden, it continued and so many people came over to have their photo taken with us. One guy introduced himself as Indian Air Force and asked if his wife could take a photo of him with us. But after the photo most of them would just thank us very politely and just leave. Only few asked where we were from or what our names were. Just a photo.

Finally, the highlight of our stay in Chandigarh was meeting a very nice, old man named Narinder Singh. He approached us in a restaurant and welcomed us to India. Very nice, sweet and honest welcome. He just wanted photos of us and that we write something nice about him on a piece of paper. He was all about giving (apple and a scarf for Hana, comb for Miko for his beard) and sharing helpful information (very good for confused tourists) and teaching us Hindu. He taught Hana that the bold spot like Miko has is called Ganja in Hindu and that it means he will have a lot of money :) Not so bad after all. Also, Indians always respond positively and approvingly to Miko's beard. That's a good thing too I guess.
The nice old man came the next morning to the bus station to wish us a farewell and to get us the best seats on the bus - behind the driver.












Our ride from Chandigarh to Rishikesh by bus (7 hours) was crazy. Being on the road here is like playing video games. There are no lanes, or nobody respects them. They create four out of two. Everybody is constantly passing each other and they are honking ALL THE TIME, not to be aggressive or because they are upset, but just to let the others know that they will pass, that they are there on the road. Just imagine everything on the road that has a honk constantly using it. We needed ear plugs.
To top it off, Hana caught a cold in Chandigarh followed by the fabulous tourista when we arrived in Rishikesh. Likely Rishikesh is perfect for recovery.





















But in the end we got lucky and found a very nice room with a big terrace overlooking the town below with the river Ganga running through and the mountains all around. We spent 6 days enjoying, relaxing and recovering. Rishikesh is a center of yoga and meditation with Ashrams on every corner. Very peaceful and calm compared to the other places we saw.
Here, the Beatles came looking for enlightenment with the help of a lot of drugs. They stayed for two months and wrote most of the White album.
Miko's highlight was a haircut he got yesterday in a little shop in the street. The guy trimmed his beard, shaved him and trimmed his hair with scissors. He worked really hard to do it well. It took almost one hour and in the end he gave him a head massage! Bloody Phantastic! It seems to be a custom here to get a head massage after the haircut.
Miko also went rafting on the river Ganga and he swam in it as well. It was freaking cold!
Hana in the meantime enjoyed the view from the terrace, read, got a massage and relaxed some more.
Yesterday we saw a ceremony called ganga aarti ceremony at the Parmath Niketan Ashram by the river. It was a very nice experience. There were boys dressed in yellow robes with their heads shaved except one spot in the back. They chanted and there was some drumming. When the sun went down, they lit lights and passed them around the crowd. A lot of singing, chanting, very colorful and moving sitting by the Gang and witnessing it all.

We are a little sad to leave Rishikesh tomorrow but our journey continues. We go to Bikaner next and then Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur...........