James & Clare, Coddiwomplers Inc: Rural India

Botanic Gardens, Chandigarh

Eventually, as it always does, it came time to leave the relative comfort that had become Amritsar and head east toward the Nepali Border, our ultimate destination.

We took a train to Chandigarh. It was an easy journey during which we made friends with a young Indian couple who now live in Austrailia.

Chandigarh itself is not like the India we had come to know so far. It is very clean and ordered. There are even traffic lights that drivers actually pay heed to! However, it was here we learned that many hotels in India, outside of the obvious tourist locations, do not actually accept foreign travellers. Apparently the red tape involved in having to report each guest is just something that most hotels can't be bothered with. So we turned up at the hotel we had booked and paid for online only to be told we couldn't stay! To be fair, it was easily sorted and the refund was arranged while we were in the taxi to the hotel that would take us. No real drama, but a surprise non-the-less. The red tape that India has itself wrapped up in really is a trick sometimes. Going forward we made sure to contact each hotel by Whatsapp to make sure we could stay.

Chandigarh is the capital of Punjab and was designed by the Swiss-French modernist architect, Le Corbusier. You can definiely tell it is a city designed with foresight and the advantage of modern knowledge. The infrastructure is really very good.

We took a walk through the Botanic Gardens and around the city in general.

Before we knew it we had happened upon the famous Rock Garden of Chandigarh. What a wonderful exhibit this is. It is a tourist attraction designed in amoungst the natural rock feature of the area, enhanced by the addition of recycled goods that have been embedded in the exhibits.

This wall is made with electrical parts

Natural rock

Made of broken ceramics

Dressed with plastic bangles and
hair ties

We also found the local lake which was super busy on a Saturday with everyone out enjoying the winter sunshine.

And this poor guy taking people
for rides.

Even the restaurants were a lot more westernised here.

This pani puri and chat was delicious

Proper pizza although still spicy

At the beginning and end of each day we always sat down with our favourite chai guy at the end of our road.

The next train journey took us to Saharanpur. Hmmm, we don't usually say this about anywhere we have been in the world, but we certainly won't be wanting to stop here again in future. It had a really grimy feel to it, even by Indian standards. As usual the people were lovely and helpful and we managed to make friends with a couple of chai guys and eventually find a place to change money. Trying to buy tissues for the cold Clare had picked up in Amritsar was another thing altogether!

Yummy baked sweet potato

We did actually manage to find a park to walk around which was a welcome break from the chaotic streets. It was technically closed when we got there but the guy let us in anyway.

This is how cold it was!

Our last train journey (for a while) was to the cute wee town of Rudrapur. We enjoyed our stay here. Wandering the streets, looking for yummy street food and engaging with the locals as much as is possible.

These guys served us some yummy twice fried chips

We found another park to walk around

Second hand clothing Indian style

Temple

We always love to find a veg stall

So cool to watch how Samosa are made!

We found a local bus to take us to our last India destination of Banbasa. It was full and crowded, as expected, with three people crowded onto our two seats. This is often where James's broad shoulders become a problem. But it is always interesting and comical to take a local bus. There is always something to look at or be amazed by.

Banbasa is a small rural border town with not a lot going on but we enjoyed some R&R. The cows that wander round town are amusing though!

The next exciting installment was finding just the right tuktuk driver to get us over the border and into Nepal. And he did not disappoint. We had read online that sometimes the drivers just drop you on the India side and it is quite a trek over the border. Our guy very graciously took us all the way across the no-man's land, waiting very patiently at each official check .... of which there was many! Indian red tape at it's finest on full display.