Delhi-Agra-Jaipur

Our trip started on Wednesday evening when we wanted to catch the bus to Delhi. We know Chandigarh pretty well so we had no problems to book the AC bus. But as it is AC bus it means that it is freezer. Indians are crazy about AC and it is better to take warm socks, long trousers and a jacket so that you are not cold. Sounds crazy when we talk about India, right?
Anyways we came to Delhi at 4 am in the morning, took a rickshaw and went to our hotel. The other day we started our journey in Delhi. We managed to see the Secretariat, India gate and Jama masjit. We ate in a very fancy restaurant and finally had something non Indian.

Our trip was a bit tough as the other morning we had a train to Agra. We wanted to experience the true Indian trains so we took the lowest class. It was only 3 hours so it was not that bad. Me and y Czech friend Maruska are used to staring people and males taking pictures of us. The train had grillage on the windows, maybe to keep the passengers inside and it was a bit stinky, I guess because people piss on the floor.
The whole way there were people selling food, indian tea and different drinks. We rather did not eat anything because we know what street food can do with our stomach, right? After around one hour there were 2 transvestites coming into the train. They said something in Hindi, touched our heads, clapped and left. It was because me and Maruska were girls. Our other friend Ganda does not have such a pleasant experience with it. He was touched much more and they wanted money from him. I heard different stories from different interns that these people sometimes touch male's buts and when they want money from you and you don't give they can even curse you. I guess we were lucky and so we were not cursed or harmed in any way.
After we got off in Agra we found out that Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays. Such a pity. As we cannot miss it we decided to change our tickets, we cancelled our train tickets and book a bus tickets to Jaipur. In Agra you can see Taj Mahal, Baby Taj Mahal, Agra fort and some other Palaces which we did not see because they were too far.
When we went to Taj Mahal, there was a cyclo rickshaw which charged all 3 of us only 10 Rs. We were wondering why is it so cheap and after few meters we found out why. Taj Mahal was only 5 minutes walking from the place we took the rickshaw. The driver was very polite though. Even though he did not speak English he at least tried to start the conversation. He asked: Where are you from? Our reply was pretty natural: From different countries (as it was me from Slovakia, Maruska from Czech Republic and Ganda from Indonesia). The driver was pleased with the answer and said: Oh, very nice country. At least he tried :)
Taj Mahal was built by one emperor. His favourite wife died when she was giving birth to their 14th kid and she wanted him to build something unforgettable. He built Taj Mahal after few years of her death, sometimes in 17th century and it was supposed to be her tomb. Anyways there is no doubt that the building is worth to see if anyone comes to India.
The only thing that bothers me in Agra is the discrimination of tourists. If you are not an Indian citizen, you pay for entry from Rs. 100 for Baby Taj Mahal to Rs. 750 for Taj Mahal. Indian citizens pay only 10 to 20 Rs. If they see that you are white all the beggars and other dealers will come and offer you what they have. The thing is that they are so anoying that you can't rid of them. And they want to charge you for every single thing, if you take a picture or even if you don't ask for their service and they provide it without your permission.
After this we were heading for Jaipur. We almost missed our bus because of bad timing and after it came we found out that it is not a tourist bus as we booked but a local bus. We were shifted to the upper places which were meant for sleeping. As 99% of all passengers were Indian locals we felt like in the Zoo. At least we can feel how black people feel when they come to our villages.
Jaipur is a beautiful city. Although it is called pink city it is more of the orange then pink. Anyways we stayed in the trainee house. The trainees there have such a beautiful house. On a rank from 1 to 10 I will give 8. (And to our in 37 I will give 1 :D)

Cycling day in Chandigarh

Today, 23rd August was a big day for Chandigarh. At least it was planned to be a big day. Today was a cycling day. Number of expected delegates was around 1000. As one of my friends, Ganda from Indonesia is working for Chandigarh tourism, the company which organizes this event, also the AIESECers and interns were supposed to participate. And we were supposed to be provided with the bikes. Local people had to take their own bikes but it is not that big deal when you live here, right?
The planned route was from Open Hand monument to Sukhna lake, from 7am till 12.
Well as we are in incredible India, reality was "slightly" different.
I woke up at 6.10 to be at the right place on time. Chandigarh is famous for this Open Hand monument as it is a symbol of the city, but the rickshaw drivers don't know the way how to get there. Therefore it took us longer to bargain the price and find the way how to get there. Me and my Chinese friend Louis were right on time, just 2 minutes before 7. He was pretty excited about all this and rushed to find a bicycle.
Right on time, the tour started. Ganda did not showed up so we just grabbed the first bicycles we saw and rushed into the crowd. Louis obviously wanted to be the first one, although there was no price for this and he immediately disappeared. Me and Louis were the only interns who came so I decided to enjoy the the whole ride. But as shit happens my bicycle broke down and I could not fix it.
But another guardian angel came and helped me out from this situation. The journalist stopped by and took me by his car to the place. We were following the race and I was happy I am part of it and a bit disappointed because of my bike.
After 15 minutes we reached the tea place. I thought first that it is just a first stop but after couple of talks I found out that the race is over.
So imagine you wake up at 6.10, rush into the Open Hand monument to be on time, steal someone's bicycle to participate and it all only for 15 minutes race without any price. Well at least we see how things work in India.

Guardian Angel

I was walking on a street with my friend when I was stopped by an old man. He did not ask much and started to explain that he is a guardian angel of tourists and foreigners in Chandigarh. He showed a couple of years old article from the newspapers and his notebook where all the foreigners he met wrote something in their own language.
This is the article:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/40739486.cms

Amritsar

As we all know India and Pakistan are not friends at all. From the time they splitted they did not like each other and even we had experienced different bomb blasts before Indian Independence day.
Anyway there is a city near the india-pakistan borders called Amritsar. It is famous for the Golden temple, the temple which is made from gold and is Gurudwara of Sikhs. You cannot enter without covering your knees, shoulders and head.
Sikhism is a religion which is most visible in Punjab area. Sikhs came from Hindu but it is a different religion. These are the people who wear turbans.
They worship 11 Gurus where their last Guru is a holy book. There are 5 elements which show that they are Sikhs. First they do not cut their hair and never shave. The idea of this is that they are as the God made them and therefore they should not change anything on their body. Even men do have long hair and that is why they tie the turban.
The next is iron bracelet which should stop them from making anything bad. Then they wear a comb to remove the dead hair and all the bad ideas. They also wear some special underwear which I have still no idea what it is for and they have a knife for their own protection and protection of their families and relatives.
The other attraction you can see is pakistani border. It is approximately 4 km from Amritsar and it is the only place where you can cross the borders to Pakistan. And they have a celebration every day. On both sides people dance and sing although the Indian side is much louder that the Pakistani one.
Apart from these two things there is not much to see in Amritsar therefore one day trip is far enough.

Manali

Manali is a city up north on the way to Kashmir. Usually it takes 10 to 14 hours to get there. But as we are lucky we are a special case and our bus took almost 20 hours to get there. On a way there there was a landslide so we had to take a detour and that made us late.
Anyways I have to say that it is worth all of the endless hours in the bus, bumby ride on the curves of Indian mountains and broken seats of the Tourist bus.
To compare it with something I know, mountains in Manali are more like our High Tatras. They are rocky and you see many pine trees, grass and eagles. The weather is also cool and it is a nice break from hot Chandigarh.

You can do lots of shopping there and also adventurous sports. The options are from ballooning, paragliding to rafting and rock climbing. The only thing you need for that is good weather which is in the monsoon season pretty hard. Therefore we could not do any of these. On the other hand we went to Rothan Pass which is around 2 hours from Manali on a way to Leh. From this point you can see Himalayas and also a snow line. You even can get horses and coat and get directly to the snow line.
And the best thing about Manali is that their food is delicious.

Indian wedding

In India, they have two types of weddings. One is arrange marriage which is what your parents think is best for you and how they agree with parents of the other family. The other is love marriage, a marriage when you choose a person to marry but still your family has to approve it.
I have seen Hindu wedding, arranged marriage. The celebration and wedding party was for two days but we could attend only the second day. When we came everybody was very friendly to us, I guess because we are foreigners. Everybody was just eating, dancing, chatting for the first two hours.
Afterwards we saw the bride. She was wearing red dress, mendhi and lots of jeweleries.
The ceremony was as following:
The groom comes on a horse. All his friends and family are celebrating and dancing in front or around him. He was wearing a necklace made from money and seemed really happy.
Afterwards he comes to the gate where the brides family awaits him. According to tradition they don't allow him to enter unless he pays something. And here comes bargaining again. Indians bargain a lot, even the price of their bride.
When he finally comes to the hall and sits in his chair waiting for the bride it takes another one hour till she comes. Both of them then exchange rings because the fourth finger is supposed to be linked with your heart.
Afterwards people come and congratulate, celebrate, eat or leave.
Shocking part of the wedding was that neither groom nor bride seemed really happy when they were together. Both of them were a bit worried and confused. The other thing is that not all the people went to congratulate the "happy" couple. Most of them just came, ate and left. I am not sure if the bride or groom knew all of the people who came.

Hamari Kaksha

Hamari Kaksha is the NGO where I was working for the past one week. It was established in order to educate those kids who would not have a chance to do that. Most of them are from underprivileged families. They are working in the morning and from 3 to 6 they come to play to this Nursery school. This is the only way of education they can get. And I think the only time when they can really enjoy being a child.
They have been working for past few weeks on different plays on various topics. The topics are environment, road safety, corruption and byrocracy or education of women. The average age of the kids here is from 9 to 13. What amazed me a lot that they are very talented. Even though they have very hard life, they come every day and for few hours, they can be kids. They can play with the others and learn something. Most of them do not know English but even though they are trying. I am sure that it was the first time for them to hold my camera when they took pictures with it. I love the smile on their faces and the positive attitude you can see on their faces.
Working with these kids is a challenge and it definitely made one realize how lucky we are that our education is mandatory. And we do not appreciate it!
People who are working with these kids are all volunteers. They do come and spend their time teaching them just for a feeling of satisfaction and to see their smiles.

Dharamsala

Dharamsala is the city very close to Himalayas. The city itself is in the mountains and has a beautiful view. As it is so close to the border of Tibet it does not look like a typical Indian city. Although you still see many cows on the streets there are much more Tibetans than Indians.
The place is well known as Dalai Lama was born nearby. They have a beautiful monastery there (it is not very old one but still is beautiful). Every morning monks come to worship Buddha. First they come to the temple and have to go 3 times around it because 3 is a magical number. During these 3 rounds they go and spin some kind of barrels with mantras. Afterwards they find a place to sit and wait till one of the monks start reading mantras loud. The others can either join or just listen. Mantras are read loud to prevent different disasters and help monks to meditate.
After they finish they are given food. We had in the morning Tibetan bread and typical Butter tea. Butter tea is salty.
The other beautiful thing you can find there is a wonderful waterfall and the Tibetan museum. It is nice museum and it tries to show the reality of Chinese and Tibetan relationships. Because Tibetans are not free and could not keep their traditions and culture many of them flee to India. That is why there are so many Tibetans staying in Dharamsala.
The life of monks also differs. In Tibet, monks are dependent on their family, friends or other relatives. They can become monks anytime but the minimum age is 12. Monks are not allowed to work, their job is to worship Buddha and pray for preventing disasters. Monks in India, on the other hand, can work. Some of them have their sponsors and they are not so much dependent on their family and friends.
People in Dharamsala are very nice and polite, they are smiling and they are enjoying their life. That is what I loved about the city.

Rishikesh

Rishikesh is a city 6 hours far from Chandigarh, situated where the river Ganges starts. What you can do there is go rafting, visit temples (in India there are plenty of temples) and practice yoga or go for a massage. It is also very cheap city so you can find nice souvenirs, jewelery and clothes there.
I have some advices on how to survive in Indian city like Rishikesh:

- watch out where you step as there are many cows on the street and people use to spit and throw trash all around
- when bulls are fighting slowly start to move in the opposite direction
- respect the cows in the streets
- be careful with monkeys, some of them are aggressive and use to steal things from you
- if you go to the temple remove your shoes and do not wear any clothes showing your knees
- ask the guy at the hotel to arrange things for you - they like foreigners and can be very helpful
- always bargain the price

Traveling by local buses - good or bad idea?

The trip to Rishikesh started when I arrived to a trainee house to meet other trainees who were supposed to come with me. Here I got to know the plan of the trip. When you stay in India you are slightly becoming a bit unorganized and very flexible so you decide in the middle of the day to go for a weekend trip, you re-pack your stuff in the middle of the street and just go. So this happened to me. The plan was also very simple. We will take a local bus to Haridwar and then take a bus to Rishikesh. So one more time - we will take a LOCAL bus.
Let me introduce you a bit to the reality of local buses. They are full of local people who do not speak English. Most of these people are poor and stinky. Buses are usually very crowded. Even if you travel for 6 hours you have people standing in the corridor. The system of buses in India is simple - each place has a number and you buy a ticket on that specific place.
Our bus seemed to be very full so we were pleased that each of us had a seat. But we did not have any numbers on our ticket. Then we found out that the guy at the counter cheated on us and gave us a fake ticket. That was a challenge for us. We needed to go with that bus but also wanted to have our money back.
As I was with 4 other AIESECers we put our negotiating skills into practice and convinced the conductor to give us seats and real tickets. I personally was sitting next to an old woman from one side and next to other intern from the other side. The old woman did not seem pleased to see me sitting next to her. She hardly moved her butt and took half of my seat. The trip to Rishikesh is about 5 hours. Imagine sitting next to a woman who is stinky,taking half of your place and who refuses to move herself. Everytime I looked at her I hated her and when I looked at her again I hated her even more.
But we finally reached Haridwar. We were not sure how often the buses to Rishikesh go (you can see the randomness I am gaining here?) so we just had a look around. And believe me or not, Haridwar is much of an Indian city. There is a traffic jam everytime a cow decides to cross the street. And as they have so many cows imagine the traffic over there.
After around 20 minutes we got on a bus to Rishikesh.When you are taking a bus it is good to have a window seat. The ride is very bumpy and people use to use windows for throwing up and spitting when they feel sick from the ride.
But if you are looking for an adventure and want to have fun you should definitely take a local bus. I think it is strengthening the personalities of interns.

Shopping malls in Chandigarh

I am staying with Megha, VP Talent manager of AIESEC Chandigarh. The first day of my staying in her house was more of a chill out day where we stayed at home and then went with her cousin and friend to the shopping center. All shopping centers are closed on Monday, except this one.
The center itself was very modern. It even had the metal detector while entering. This meant that there was a guard checking our bags and us. The camera was not allowed but cell phones with cameras are allowed. So what is the purpose? Just welcome to India reality....
I think I will start going to traditional markets as they are much better. You just need to know Hindi and bargain the price and you can buy anything from clothes, spices to vegetables and fruit. And there is no metal detector when you want to enter!

Traffic - an (un)organized chaos

The first thing that I noticed about India is their specific style of driving different vehicles. Today I attended one conference run by the NGO ArriveSafe. This NGO was established by a guy who had a car accident which caused him several injures and he now stays on a wheelchair. The topic of the event was Road safety in India and as I was invited to share my experience with Indian traffic I started to think more about it.

So few things I noticed:
- Indians drive on the left side
- Indian roads are full of cars, rick saws, bicycles and motorbikes. There are few cows on roads and sometimes you see also horses or camels
- Indian roads have lines dividing the roads into two rows but nobody obeys them. You just need to find a gap where you will fit and you are fine
- people get of the bus while it slows down and they step right to the traffic. My recommendation: Do not try this at home!
- Indian roads miss road signs. The only sign you see nearly everywhere is U-turn prohibited.
- Indian drivers do not use back mirrors. Simple reason is that they do not have them.
- there is no space for pedestrians because they are not considered as a part of traffic
- they do have traffic lights
- kids do not learn about safety on roads in schools, it is just a recommended topic
- if a police stops you it is good to step out of the car and try to make pictures with them. They might let you go without a fine

Journey from Delhi to Chandigarh

The first thing that one feels when he comes out of the plane in India is the heat. It is now around 32 degrees and it is a "pleasant weather" as locals say.
My first impressions were amazing. I think that it was because of the fact that I am in Asia for the first time and everything is different and new for me.
So for example the traffic. If you have a road with one line in the middle you would say that it means that there fits one car in each line. This does not work for India.
I think these guys here do not have any rules. There are four cars in the line, several scooters and motorbikes, bicycles or rick saws, people crossing the road or camels and horses. They have traffic lights though and I think it is the only rule they have - to stop when it is red and go when it is green.
If you are a European you cannot hide that and that is bad for you. In the moment I reached a bus station I was surrounded by men who obviously wanted to offer me something. The only barrier is that they speak only Hindi. They even do not understand the single English word "No". When you say it to one guy no, the other one will offer you the same thing hoping you will say yes. So you have to address every single man and after a while the whole procedure repeats.
Anyways I managed to buy a ticket for a second class buss - Delux bus which was also air conditioned. I thought wow, great, I will have a great time there. Well do not consider things according to their names. I was happy that the bus had wheels. Air conditioning means in Indian style having one ventilator for 6 places. And if you will try it you can find out that this kind of air conditioning is not working as well as the one we are used to.
After 6 long hours in this bus I arrived finally to the station in Chandigarh. The story of having a convoy of fans around me repeated as soon as I got out of the bus. This time they knew the whole sentence in English: "Rick saw for lady?". But they still need to practice more on active listening especially to the word "No".
After this long journey I finally found AIESECers from AIESEC Chandigarh. These guys are crazy and random. All of them have either cars or scooters (they do not use rick saws or buses often) and they are disco maniacs.
My greatest learning point from this is not to expect Indian people to be organized, they are random even if they decide where to go, what to eat or how to transport themselves. But what is great all the time they somehow manage it.