(Note: This post was writing two days ago, but was first able to upload it now)
It’s 3am. We’re doing 140 on a dark highway in the middle of Uttar Pradesh in a brand new white Tata Indigo XL. Our driver, Bilal, is seems very competent and have not fallen asleep yet, despite the task we set him up to. But before we go on, lets backtrack a bit.
I arrived in India late Sunday night on the 3rd of April. I had just spent an astonishing week in Dubai, a city that aside from the lack of gambling and prostitutes brings Las Vegas to shame. The best way I can explain Dubai is by comparing it to the old computer game SimCity, but with cheat codes giving unlimited money. The point of the game is to build a city and run it. You can alter everything in the geography, such as waterways, hills, islands, etc. to suit your urban needs. And Dubai is just that. A city built from scratch on a clean slate with almost unlimited supplies of money. If you want to see what Oil can do other than fuel your car, heat your house, cause wars in the middle east and environmental havoc in the Amazonian rainforest, then Dubai would not be a bad place to experience it.
This post is however not on Dubai, if I have time and energy – a post on Dubai will follow in somewhat irregular chronological order.This post is about my experiences so far in the land of cricket, curry, tigers and Taj Mahal.
After arriving in the airport and for the first time setting my foot on the Asian continent, I took a cab to the hotel I had booked in advance. Despite the late hour the streets of Delhi were filled with cars and judging by the speed and reckless driving it seemed like the driver thought of this trip as a matter of life and death. However not inconsistent with my experiences with drivers in both Africa and Central America.
Later that night I met up with Jeppe, one of my oldest and best friends from my childhood who was going to join my for a 2 week India adventure. We spent the first day in Delhi getting used to the city, the people, the food and the general atmosphere every place and country has. The feel you get from walking down the narrow alleys, the smiles or lack thereof you get from talking to people and other indications that give you an idea of what kind of culture you are finding yourself in.
I was warned numerous times ahead of my journey that I would find India dirty, smelling, crowded, and chaotic and should to expect lots of problems with my digestive system due to the low level of hygiene. So is this the case?
Well, it depends. Everything is relative and if you compare India to our comfortable western world - then yes, it is dirty here. It smells. It is at times extremely crowded and seemingly chaotic. The hygiene is not always, if at all, up to western standards. But compared to Western Africa or Central America I see little difference and in many ways find India a lot easier to travel in. I would in fact say it’s on of the easiest countries I’ve travelled in so far. An observation that both Jeppe and I have discussed several times and agrees on. There is a big industry catering to tourists, a growing middleclass, and a very good infrastructure that makes transport relatively simple. The major thing I’m surprised about is the low level of English or complete lack of English skills many people have. I was under the impression that everyone at least spoke some English. Apparently not. But we are still doing well and have managed to get by with smiles and sign language, when our spoken words did not suffice.
So, after a day in Delhi where also met my good friend Tess’s lovely and friendly aunt Lena, we caught a bus to the city of Jaipur. Known for temples, history, jewels and textiles. We spent 3 nights in the city.
I will not recite every fort we visited or every meal we had. But two experiences stand out to be shared. I went to an Indian wedding and I was asked to smuggle jewels.
On the Wednesday we stumbled into an American student who was taking a semester abroad in Delhi. We talked a bit and it turned out that he was going to a wedding the same evening. He organized so that Jeppe and I, together with 3 American girls we had met earlier the day, could come along.
The wedding took place outside in a big open court. At our arrival neither the groom nor the bride had arrived, but the area was crowded with people – and at the time we seemed to be the main attraction. 30 people standing in a circle around us observed our every move closely. Unlike other experiences I’ve had in Africa these weren’t only kids but young and middle-aged men. They simply just stood and starred and tried to get as close to us as possible. This fascination with “Whites” has occurred several times. Often people have come up and asked if they could take a picture with us. We don’t really know why. The places we’ve been so far have been fairly big on tourism so the sight of a white person is not exactly an unusual exotic occurrence.
After eating delicious food and watching the groom arrive with a tuba-playing band dressed in pink we decided to call it a day and go home and sleep.
Fast forward 24hours. After spending the day sightseeing various forts and palaces, a tuk-tuk (a little 3-wheled moped-taxi) driver, who’s cousin was getting married the day before, asked if we wanted to attend a party with his boss (he claimed to also work at a jewelry store). Out of curiosity of what an Indian party might consist of Jeppe and I accepted his offer and drove with him to a 5 star hotel where the “party” would take place. There turned out to be no party. Instead Jeppe and I were drinking beer with a person who owned a jewelry exporting/importing business and gave us an offer that we could (almost) not refuse. After spending about 30 minutes asking us question about our lives and what we were doing in India and how we liked it, he said that perhaps we could help him with his business.
According to him, the Indian government has limit for how much jewelry a business like his could export without facing export duties. In order to avoid these duties, he wanted to send some jewelry to Denmark in our name, since tourist (he claimed) could bring with them 15.000 USD worth of jewelry every time the left the country. So, in order to tap into these 15.000 USD duty-free tourist limit he told us that we could come to his business and “buy” jewelry for 15.000 USD. We wouldn’t in actuality buy anything at all, but he would issue a receipt so it looked like we had purchased a lot of jewelry. He then said he would let us watch as he wrapped the goods into a package and bring us to the postal office where he, in our name, with our passports, would send the jewelry back home to our own address in Denmark. In this way the jewelry would go through customs as a tourist purchase and not as actual business export. We would then pick up the same package back at our post office in Denmark and give it to one of his agents in Denmark in return for (what he claimed to be) 8.000 Euro (60.000kr) in cash. It almost sounds like too easy money to be true.
Neither Jeppe nor I have had time to research the Indian tax-code and export duties for Jewelry, but if you as a tourist are really allowed to purchase (and bring with you home) 15.000 USD worth of jewelry in India, and are likewise permitted to import a similar amount into the EU without facing import duties the plan sounded quite ingenious. And a major loophole in the tax-code system that this guy was eagerly trying to exploit. To be honest; even though both Jeppe and are I in sound financial standing, the though of so much money for doing so little, with a method that seemed almost foolproof (since we would have a receipt verifying the purchase) – actually made us considered the option for about 10 seconds. We of course both declined and said we would make no rushed decisions and 5 minutes later in the cab back to our hotel we could of course both see that this was never something we would get ourselves into. I am however still intrigued to see if this would actually work – not for the money, but too see if it is really possible to smuggle (which this clearly is) jewels this way. If so, it would be a major loophole in the tax-code and would be really interesting for a documentary. Most gemstones that go into jewelry are not, as diamonds are, registered under the Kimberly Process. This process ensures that diamonds are not smuggled from conflict areas where they could potentially fuel violence and war (as portrayed in the movie Blood Diamonds). There is no way to know where the gemstones used in the jewelry he tried to make us smuggle came from. They could very well come from India, but also from a vast range of other countries, peaceful as well as war-torn. Think about that next time you go by Tiffany’s and purchase a necklace or an earring with Ruby or Emerald. Perhaps the jewelry was smuggled with a tourist from India, and in that way depriving the Indian government from money it desperately needs to help improve the living standard for it’s people.
After our Jaipur experiences we took off to Ranthambhore (http://www.ranthamborenationalpark.com), a stunning national park known for it’s massive fort on the top of a mountain and it’s great wildlife. Tigers used to be the big thing here, but like many other wildlife parks in the world – their numbers have decreased as a result of poaching and loss of habitat.
After arriving by train we lodged into a nice hotel and booked a sunrise tour with a Jeep. The park itself (even without the tigers) is stunning and the roads often look like the ones used in Indiana Jones movies. With monuments, ruins, narrow bridges, steep hills and stunning nature everywhere. Our guide told us that there were presently only 46 tigers left in the part, so the chances of seeing one was limited. Luck was not on our side that morning, so no tiger decided to greet us in the park. We however saw loads of peacocks, dears, monkeys, birds and two leopards – making it an overall successful safari.
Later that day we jumped on a train towards Agra, the home of Taj Mahal. We were unable to purchase tickets with actual designated seats on them – which caused a bit of a problem. First we sat on the floor between two compartments in the AC wagon, but got kicked out since our ticket was only valid in the 3rd class section (despite our location on the floor). So once the train stopped, we took all our luggage and ran down the train and jumped into a 3rd class wagon. This wagon was completely packed with people. We ended up sitting/standing in the middle of a compartment for around 2 hours while everyone was watching curiously and wondering how two white people had ended up there. In the end we did however make it to Taj Mahal.
Taj Mahal was stunning. No other way to describe it. Despite the many tourists, Taj Mahal is a monument that never fails to impress. We woke up early and entered at sunrise to avoid the majority of the tourist. For one reason or another, no one checked our ticket – so we decided also to enter in the afternoon, at which time it was packed with tourist everywhere.
In the evening we tried to catch an overnight train to Varanasi. Varanasi is located right on the Ganges River and is one of the holiest places in Hinduism. A “must-see” if you are in India we had been told. We had bought the tickets 2 days earlier on the Internet and despite being nr. 3 & 4 on the waiting list at the time of purchase, we had been assured that it would be no problem getting a seat. This turned out not to be true. After a lot of talking, haggling and running up and down the station with a helpful porter, we ended up not managing to get a bed(or a set) on the train. While trying to figure what to do now, a man came up and said he could drive us all the way to Varanasi overnight in his car for 8. 000 rupees (180$). Not having any better ideas we decided to at least go with him and check out his car, and see if was really up for the task. With us came to British guys, who had ended up in the same situation as we had. After talking a bit with him and looking at the car we decided that 2000 Rupees(45$) per person, was well worth the trip given our situation.
And this is where I’m sitting now. Dawn is slowly breaking and I’m very excited to experience Varanasi, right on the Ganges River – one of the holiest places in Hinduism, where ceremonies goes on all day. People are burnt in public on their way to heaven and where the extremely dirty water of the Ganges is suppose to cleanse ones soul. But first it’s time for a nap . . .Zzzzz..
(Internet here is too slow, so can't upload any photos. Will try to upload some later)
