Khajuraho

We got in at about 7:30m. After the customaru dodging of touts and rickshaw drivers we got ourselves into a hotel in the main drag and had some dinner. The rooftop restaurant was empy when we arrived. 2 minutes later, and until the moment we left, Indian men pottered around, chatted with us, pottered around some more. They were nice, we had some pleasant talks, but we did not get one minute alone.
Today we went to see the Khajuraho temples- the whole reason why we came here. They are famous for their carvings with Kama Sutra images. They were cool. There's 3 groups of them- the Western ones were amazing (the only ones you gotta pay to get into), the Eastern and Southern ones not a big deal.
We then bought our bus and train tickets combo to leave for Varanasi tomorrow arvo. And the plan for tonight is dinner at an Italian restaurant. There's lots of Italian restaurants here for some reason. Weird. Our pick is the one advertising "Italian Chef and Dutch Supervisor"- we'll see how we go.

Llegamos tipo 7:30pm. Despues de esquivar conductores de rickshaws y tipos tratando de convencerte de ir a su hotel, como de costumbre, conseguimos un hotel en la calle principal y fuimos a cenar. El restaurante en la terraza estaba vacio cuando llegamos. A los 2 minutos, y hasta que nos fuimos tuvimos tipos Indios dando vueltas charlandonos, dando mas vueltas. Todo bien, buena onda, pero no tuvimos ni un minuto a solas ni en silencio.
Hoy fuimos a ver los templos de Khajuraho- la razon por la cual vinimos aca. Son famosos por las imagenes del Kama Sutra. Hay 3 grupos de templos- los del oeste espectaculares (son los unicos para los que hay que pagar entrada), los del este y los del sur la verdad no gran cosa.
Despues nos compramos nuestros boletos de tren y omnibus para irnos manana a la tarde para Varanasi. Y el plan esta noche es cena en un restaurante italiano. Hay muchos restaurantes italianos aca por algun motivo. Muy raro. Vamos a ir al que tiene un cartel diciendo: "Chef Italiano. Supervisor Holandes". Ya veremos que onda...

It's a long way to Khajuraho.../ Un largo camino a Khajuraho

We got up at 6am to watch the Taj at sunrise. Jane did better than I, cause she stayed up after that, I just went up to the rooftop, took one look at the Taj, uttered "Oh, yeah", and went back to bed. But hey, at least I got up for it! We then caught a train in the morning, followed by a bus in the afternoon, to get to Khajuraho. So we spent most of the day traveling. The train wasn't bad, only about 3-4 hours. But the bus was bumpy, bumpy, bumpy. And slow. It took over 5 hours to do 170kms... that's Indian roads (and Indian transport) for you. Not much to tell about the day since we spent it traveling basically. Unless I tell about the stop we made cause someone wanted to buy a packet of smokes. Or about the other stop we made cause someone wanted to pee (although we had just departed 5minutes before from our last 30 minutes stop- I guess he didn't feel like peeing 5 minutes before, but then when he had to go, he just HAD to go). Or about the other stop cause a woman wanted to pee, and she just got off the bus squatted right next to it on the side of the road and peed, in full view of everyone on the bus (maybe that's why they wear the long saris?). Or about that other toilet we went to, where a woman just proceeded to squat and pee in the general toilet area (where the basins would be if there were any), as apparently she could not be bothered walking into one of the little toilet (latrine) cubicles. But hey, it's not all about toilets and peeing only. There was also that guy throwing up through the window on the bus. Although to be honest I was asleep when it happened so I didn't see it, Jane told me about it. So yeah, maybe after all my stories are all about toilets and peeing only.

Nos despertamos a las 6am para ver el Taj al amanecer. Jane se quedo despierta despues de eso, pero yo solo logre subir a la terraza, mire el Taj, dije "Ah, si", y me volvi a la cama. Pero bueno aunque sea hice el esfuerzo de levantarme! Despues nos tomamos un tren a la manana, seguido de un omnibus a la tarde, para ir a Khajuraho. Asi que nos pasamos la mayoria del dia viajando. El tren estuvo bien, solo 3-4 horas. Pero el bondi con muchos pozos, se movia mal. Y lento. Tardamos mas de 5 horas en hacer 170kms- asi son las rutas y el transporte en India. Asi que no hay mucho para contar sobre el dia ya que nos la pasamos viajando basicamente. A no ser que cuente sobre la parada que hicimos porque alguien se queria comprar un paquete de cigarrillos. O sobre la otra parada que hicimos porque alguien queria haer pis, a pesar de que hace solo 5 minutos habiamos terminado una parada de 30 minutos (se ve que no tenia ganas de hacer pis 5 minutos antes el tipo, pero despues cuando le dieron ganas, le dieron ganas). O sobre la otra parada porque una mina queria haer pis, y se bajo del bondi, se agacho y se puso a hacer pis justo al lado del bondi, a plena vista de todos los pasajeros (tal vez por eso las mujeres usan esas saris largas?). O sobre ese banio al que fuimos, en el cual una mujer se agacho y se puso a hacer pis en la zona general del banio (donde estarian los lavamanos si hubiera habido lavamanos), porque por lo visto le dio fiaca caminar hasta los cubiculos con banios (letrinas). Pero che, no se trata solo de banios y hacer pis. Tambien estaba el tipo que se puso a vomitar por la ventana del omnibus. Aunque para ser sincera yo estaba durminedo cuando paso, asi que no lo vi, Jane me conto sobre eso. Asi que si, al fin y al cabo tal vez si que se trata de banios y hacer pis solo.

Agra

Agra-The Taj: they are almost synonnymous, aren't they? I'm sure lots of people would be outraged about this, but for a damn tourist like me of course they are. So yeah, we spent the day in the Taj. What can I say- beautiful, stunning. Not much happening inside the building to be honest, it's the mausoleum with both coffins and not much else. But the outside is impressive. Lots and lots of pictures. Lots of and lots of looking at it. And then went to the Agra fort- massive, and more views of the Taj, from a distance. Then back to the hotel, we hang out at the roftoop for sunset, until it was dark and the Taj was out of sight again.
Just as I am typying this, another float is going past in the street. Another wedding I am told, just 5mins after the first one.

Agra- El Taj- son casi sinonimos, no? Estoy segura que mucha gente estaria furiosa si me escucha, pero para una turista boba como yo obvio que son sinonimos. Y si, pasamos el dia en el Taj. Que puedo decir- hermoso, impactante. El edificio por dentro no es gran cosa para ser honesta, solo es el mausoleo con los 2 ataudes y no mucho mas. Pero por fuera es impresionante. Fotos y mas fotos. Mirar y mirar el edificio. Y despues fuimos al fuerte de Agra- gigante, y mas vistas del Teaj, desde la distancia. Despues volvimos al hotel, y estuvimos en la terraza para ver el atardecer, hasta que oscurecio y el Taj no se podia ver mas de nuevo.
Y mientras escribia en ingles, otra carroza paso por la calle. Otro casamiento me dijo el tipo de aca, 5 minutos despues del primero.

El resto de Delhi/ The rest of Delhi

So I was saying Delhi is huge. Yep. We spent the next day going around in a rickshaw seeing more sights. We went to the Lotus Temple- I loved it, shaped as a lotus (doh!), with pools around, and it's a non-denominational temple. We then went down south to Qutab Minar- a mosque in ruins, with a cool minaret/tower. First building we see in ruins in India- we've seen lots of badly maintained and unrenovated buildings, but this is the first time we see something in ruins. After that, we went to the Gandhi Museum- wow! Pleasantly surprising! It was so modern, high-tech (or at least for me...) and interactive, it was amazing. I was impressed!! It was where he spent his last days, and also where he got assessinated, so footsteps mark all the way to the place where he was shot. The next day we had just one more thing we wanted to do in Delhi before leaving- Indira Gandhi's memorial: we also saw the place where she got killed.
We then hang out at a rooftop restaurant (they are everywhere here in India) for a couple of hours, and caught a train to Agra. We arrived late at night, almost 11pm, checked into a hotel with Taj Mahal views- cheap as, but unfortunately the Taj is not lit up at night so it took us some time to even be able to make it out in the night. And off to bed.
Note- just as I was translating this into Spanish, a procession went past in the street, a wedding. Loud music, a float, horses, people danicng in the street!

Como decia, Delhi es inmensa. El dia siguiente nos la pasamos en un rickshaw dando vueltas y viendo mas cosas. Fuimos al Templo del Lotus (impresionante, en forma de Lotus CUA!), con piletas alrededor, es un tenplo no-denominacional (asi se dice? cuando no pertence a ninguna religion en particular, es un templo general). Despues fuimos al sur, a Qutab Minar- una mezquita en ruinas, con una torre/minaret muy buena. Es el primer edificio en ruinas que vemos en India, vimos muchos edificios mal mantenidos y no renovados/conservados, pero esta es la primera vez que vemos algo en ruinas. Despues de ahi fuimos al Museo de Gandhi- wow! Me sorprendio mucho, para bien! Era re moderno, re tecnologico (al menos para mi...) e interactivo, increible. Es donde Gandhi paso sus ultimos dias, y tambien donde fue asesinado, asi que hay huellas que marcan sus ultimos pasos hasta el lugar donde fue asesinado.
HA! Al margen! Recien acaba de pasar una procesion por la calle, un casamiento. Musica a full, una carroza, caballos, gente bailando en las calles.
Bueno, volviendo al tema Delhi. Al dia siguiente nos quedaba una cosa mas que queriamos hacer antes de irnos: fuimos al Memorial de Indira Gandhi: tambien vimos el lugar donde la mataron a ella. Despues pasamos un par de horas en un restaurante en una terraza (estan por todos lados aca en India), y nos tomamos un tren a Agra. Llegamos tarde de noche, casi 11pm. nos buscamos un hotel con vista al Taj Mahal- re barato, pero como el Taj no esta iluminado de noche tardamos un buen rato hasta que lo pudimos ver. Y a dormir.

New Delhi- Nueva Delhi

Yes, Delhi is definitely huge. And full of dust and smog. I'm coughing my lungs out here. But it's also the cleanest place I've seen in India so far. Not so much rubbish around. Not so smelly. It's still India of course, but not so full on... or maybe we are just getting used to it by now.
So, next day was New Delhi- Humayun Tomb (massive, hundreds of people buried there- I guess the widow when she built it didn't want his dead husband to be lonely), Tibet House (tiny museum, took us 15mins and we pottered around quite a bit) and then we went to Connaught Place.
Now, Connaught Place is the centre, the CBD, the happening area. So we first decided to chill out in a park for a bit. HA! Within our first 3 minutes of attempted chilling out we had already had men offering to sell us chips (1 even dared do it while we were both visibly eating 1 packet of chips each!), popcorn, fairy floss, chai, some wooden birds hanging from a string all tied to each other (so handy to carry around!) , shoe polish (even though I has sneakers on and Jane had sandals), shoe repair, and the best, ear cleaning. This ear cleaning is a very interesting concept. When they get a customer, they proceed to insert a long metal stick, to which they attach a bit of cotton at the end, in their customer's ear. And so they clean and clean. We saw this a couple of times being done, first time was on the front steps of the Mosque yesterday. We had a fine example here in the park at Connaught Place. There was this guy sitting in the park, holding his rice meal bowl which he has just purchased from another vendor, while he was having his ears cleaned. And he was a good cleaner! After getting the metal stick out of his customer's ear, he would clean it on his own hand, and then show his hand with the wax to his customer as proof of what a good job he had done. While the guy had his rice meal in his hand. And while we were eating our chips 2 metres away. And while another 10 Indians sat staring at us, cause us eating our chips are much more interesting than what was going on with the other guy of course. Oh, and he did get his shoes polished as well.
After this we just walked around Connaught Place- fancy shops, expensive labels, it felt like a different world, except for the street vendors and beggars everywhere. We went into a very very fancy bar and had a ridiculously ovepriced cocktail. But hey, it was happy hour, so we got 2 for 1, so we ended up paying the rip off price of $5 each for our cocktail.

Si, Delhi es definitivamente enorme. Y llena de polvo y smog. No paro de toser aca. Pero tambien es el lugar mas limpio que vi en India por ahora. No tanta basura en las calles. No tanto olor. Sigue siendo India, obviamente, pero no tan a full... o tal vez ya nos estamos acostumbrando.
Asi que el dia siguiente, Nueva Delhi- La Tumba de Humayun (gigante, cientos de personas enterradas ahi- se ve que la viuda cuando lo construyo no queria que su ex marido se sintiera solo), la Casa de Tibet (museo minimo, lo vimos en 15 minutos y eso que boludeamos), y despues fuimos a Connaught Place.
Connaught Place es el centro, el microcentro, la zona in. Primero decidimos relajarnos en un parque un rato. JA! En los 3 primeros minutos de nuestro intento de relajarnos ya habiamos tenido tipos intentando vendernos papas fritas (1 hasta trato de vendernos cuando Jane y yo estabamos muy claramente comiendo un paquete de papas fritas cada una ya!), pochoclo, fairy floss (como se decia en castellano esto??), chai (te), unos pajaritos de madera atados con hilos todos unidos unos con otros (re practico para llevar!), lustrado de zapatos (aunque yo tenia puestas zapatillas y Jane sandalias), arreglo de zapatos, y lo mej or- limpieza de oidos. Este tema de la limpieza de oidos es un concepto muy interesante. Cuando tienen un cliente, le meten en la oreja un palo de metal largo con un pedacito de algodon que le agregan en la punta. Y asi limpian y limpian. Ya vimos esto un par de veces antes, la primera vez fue en la escalinata principal de la Mezquita ayer. Y tuvimos una buena demostracion aca en el parque en Connaught Place. Habia un tipo sentado en el parque, y sosteniendo en sus manos un bowl con comida con arroz que acababa de comprar de un vendedor ambulante, mientras le limpiaban los oidos. Y era un buen limpiador! Despues de sacar el palo de metal del oido de su cliente, el limpiador pasaba el palo por su mano, y despues le mostraba al cliente, la prueba de la cera que le habia sacado y que buen trabajo estaba haciendo. Mientras el tipo tenia su bowl de comida en la mano. Y mientras nosotras comiamos nuestra papas fritas a 2 metros de distancia. Y mientras otros 10 indios estaban sentados mirandonos fijo a nosotras, porque nosotras comiendo nuestras papas fritas somos mucho mas interesante que lo que estaba pasando con el otro tipo obviamente. Ah, y tambien se lustro los zapatos.
Despues de esto, caminamos por Connaught Place- negocios caros, marcas internacionales, parecia otro mundo, excepto por los vendedores ambulantes y la gente pidiendo limosnas en la calle. Entramos en un bar muy muy paquete y tomamos cocktails ridiculamente caros. Por suerte era Happy Hour, asi que daban 2 por 1, asi que terminamos pagando el precio ridiculamente caro de $10 por cada cocktail.

Delhi

Delhi, Delhi, Delhi.... what can I say? It's bloody huge! I don't know if Mumbai is bigger than Delhi in reality or not, but it didn't impress me as much. Delhi just spreads out endlessly....! We are staying in this funny area cause there's heaps of backpackers around, hotels and restaurants galore. So it feels a bit strange to see so many whities (maybe... 1 in 15). But you walk 2 blocks out of it, and you are back into real India. Delhi has the Old Delhi part, the New Delhi part and.... the rest. Today we went to Old Delhi- the Red Fort (they certainly love their forts here), the biggest Mosque in India, the bazaars, and Gandhi's memorial and museum. After we finished our sightseeing and wanted to get a rickshaw back to the hotel we decided to have a different approach to India- counterattack. People are constantly staring at us, saying hello, waving, offering us things. So we just sat on the side of the road, and with our biggest smiles, really over the top happy, we spent over half an hour saying "HELLO!" "HELLO!" and profusely waving to every bus, truck, car, bike, rickshaw and pedestrian that went past us. They were certainly shocked. Some gave us a smile or a little wave or hello back... but majority stared perplexed or looked away. Only one of the many guys selling stuff dared to approach us to try and sell us something, and I just grabbed Jane's Lonely Planet book and insistently tried to sell it to him- lowering the price, and saying all their typical phrases they say such as "Very, very good price", "First customer of the day, special price just for you". It seemed to work, cause he initially tried to talk over the top of me offering us his own goodies but gave up when I counterattacked with my own product and he ended up walking away with me insisting after him "Very good buy, very good book!" as he escaped from the crazy reversed westerners.

Delhi, Delhi, que puedo decir...? Es inmensa!! No se si Mumbai es mas grande que Delhi en realidad, pero no me impresiono tanto. Delhi se extiende sin fin...! Nos estamos quedando en una zona que es medio raro, porque esta lleno de mochileros, restaurantes y hoteles. Asi que es medio raro ver a tantos occidentales (tal vez 1 en 15). Pero caminas 2 cuadras, y estas de nuevo en la verdadera India. Delhi tiene la parte de Vieja Delhi, Nueva Delhi, y el resto. Hoy fuimos a la Vieja Delhi- el Fuerte Rojo (y si, les encantan los fuertes aca), la Mezquita mas grande de India, los bazares, y el museo y memorial de Ghandi. Despues de nuestro dia de turismo y cuando nos queriamos tomar un rickshaw de vuelta al hotel decidimos probar una nueva tactica- el contraataque. La gente constantemente nos esta mirando fijo, saludandonos, diciendonos hola, tratando de vendernos cosas. Asi que simplemente nos sentamos en el costado de la calle, y con nuestras sonrisas mas grandes, exageradamente felices, pasamos la siguiente media hora gritando "HOLA!" "HOLA!" y saludando con la mano a cuanto omnibus, camion, auto, bicicleta, rickshaw o peaton que pasaba. Los indios shockeados. Algunos nos devolvian una sonrisa o un holda o saludo chiquito, pero la mayoria nos miraba anonadado o miraba para otro lado. Solo uno de los varios vendedores ambulantes se atrevio a acercarsenos a tratar de vendernos algo, asi que yo agarre el libro Lonely Planet de Jane y insistentemente empece a tratar de venderelo a el- banajando el precio mas y mas y diciendo todas las tipicas frases que dicen ellos cuando te tratan de vender algo: "Muy, muy buen precio", y "Sos mi primer cliente del dia, precio especial solo para vos" (porque la primera venta del dia trae buena suerte). Parece que funciono, porque en un pincipio trato de hablar por encima mio y de ofrecernos sus propios productos, pero se dio por vencido cuando yo insisti con mi propio producto, y termino alejandose mientras yo le insistia "Muy buena compra, muy buen libro", escapandose de las occidentales convertidas en indias.

Golden Temple Again/ Golden Temple de nuevo

Checked out from the hotel. Bought train tickets. Had lunch. Spend some time on the internet. Had a very nice ice cream. And then we went back to the Golden Temple. We are just so in love with this place. So far it's been my favourite thing in India (Hoff- The Taj Mahal is coming, in just a few more days, don't worry). So again, we walked around, sat around watching it, pottered around the whole place, queued up again to get into it, and stayed there until nighttime. And that was it. Not a very eventful day, just enjoying the Golden Temple for the last time. We got a train to Delhi, leaving at 9:30pm, and we arrived the next morning at about 7am.

Nos fuimos del hotel. Compramos tickets de tren. Almorzamos. Fuimos a internet. Comimos un helado muy rico. Y despues fuimos de nuevo al Golden Temple. Estamos fascinadas con este templo. Hasta ahora fue mi cosa preferida en India (Mariano- Ya se viene el Taj Mahal, en solo unos pocos dias mas, no te preocupes). Asi que de nuevo, caminaos, nos sentamos a mirar el templo, dimos vueltas, de nuevo hicimos la cola para entrar, y nos quedamos hasta la noche. Y eso fue todo. No hicimos demasiado, solo disfrutamos el Golden Temple por ultima vez. Nos tomamos un tren a Delhi, salio a las 9:30pm y llegamos el dia siguiente tipo 7am.

Amritsar

We made it to Amritsar the next day at about 4:30pm, checked into an unfriendly hotel and went next door to the "hospital". Now... the hospital. Uhm... It had a sign saying it was some sort of trauma centre. It had a reception counter with no person behind it. It had 2 women sitting around who told us to knock on a door. This room had 2 guys chatting who claimed to be Drs. The Dr who saw me had lots of questions for me after I described my symptoms- "Which country are you from?", "How long are you gonna be in India for?", "When did you arrive in Amritsar?", and some more of these clinical questions required for a diagnosis. So after this we get a jar which what looked to me like apricot jam, and I saw it had a thermometer in it- good, that's progress, but I'm not putting that in my mouth, so under my arm it went. High fever- 39.5 or 103 for the Farenheit people. After much difficulty the 2 Drs managed to take my blood pressure- very low they said. And after some more chit chatting and the Dr guaranteeing me it is not malaria, I managed to get the diagnosis as being "Food. Poor hygiene". So I got 2 injections on my bum (disposable syringes, but after used they went on the floor on the little pile of rubbish there) and he gave me 5 different types of meds to take over the next 3 days. So off I went, with a painful bum, to eat some rice, take my meds, and have a delusion filled night (as I was told by Jane the next day) during which I sweated all the fever out.
So next day we were ready to explore. We checked out of the hotel and checked into another hotel, closer to the centre. We went into the Golden Temple (has 750 kgs of gold)- amazing, impressive, it was worth the long train trip, sick and all! In the afternoon we went to the India- Pakistan border (Wagah) where every afternoon they have a ceremony when they close the border for the night. Funny, funny, hilarious, great experience. You get the music going on both sides, both countries trying to outdo each other, pumping up the music, yelling louder, making more noise, cheering more than the other. We were on the India side of course- our MC would say something to which we had to reply and yell back, and I decided after much effort that our part went like this" Ehhh, Ehhhhh, Middlesburgh, Middlesburgh, One Two, One Two, One Two"- I never knew Indians had so much love for this part of England, but there you go, I was yelling it too. At some point they got about 20 people from the crowd to come down and dance, just to show Pakistanis how much fun we are having here in the Indian side. And then the soldiers were walking very very fast to the gate and back, exaggeratedly moving their arms back and forth, and doing these really high kicks almost kicking their own foreheads. But it all ended nicely, they had a 2 seconds official and exaggerated handshake, lowered the flags, and the gates were shut.
We went back to the Golden Temple at night to see it lit up- beautiful. An indian guy and about 4 of his friends approached me and we had the following highly interesting conversation: ID:"Hello". Me:"Hello". IG:"Where are you from?" Me:"Argentina". IG: Just gives me a blank look. Me: "In South America, do you know South America?". IG: "Yes", and another blank look. Me: "Do you know Brazil?" (I know, I know, I'm sorry, I had to use some sort of reference point...). IG: "No.". Me: "Do you know any country in South America?". IG: "Yes." Me: "Which country do you know in South America?". IG: Talking in Hindi to the guy next to him, who talks to his other mate, who talks to the other, and after some discussion amongst themselves the IG looks at me and announces: "Jamaica". Enough said, have a nice evening IG, goodbye.
We walked around. And when I tried to leave the hotel at midnight to find an internet cafe I found out we had a curfew from 11pm to 9am... uhm, yeah, they forgot to mention that during check in.

LLegamos a Amritsar el dia siguiente tipo 4:30 pm, fuimos a un hotel poco amigable, y despues al "hospital". Uhm... El hospital... Habia un cartel diciendo que era un centro para traumas. Habia un mostrador de recepcion sin nadie en el mostrador. Habia 2 mujeres sentadas que nos dijeron que golpeemos una puerta. Habia 2 hombres charlando en este cuarto que dijeron ser medicos. El medico que me vio me hizo muchas preguntas despues de que le describi mis sintomas: "De que pais sos?" "Cuanto tiempo vas a estar en India?" "Hace cuanto llegaron a Amritsar?", y mas de estas preguntas clinicas tan necesarias para un buen diagnostico. Entonces nos trajeron un frasco de vidrio con lo que parecia ser mermelada de durazno adentro, y vi que tenia un termometro adentro (bien, bien, esto es un adelanto), pero ni en pedo me pongo eso en la boca, asi que me lo puse bajo el brazo. Alta fiebre- 39.5, o 103 para la gente Farenheit. Despues de muchos problemas, finalmente los medicos lograron tomarme la presion sanguinea- muy baja me dijeron. Y despues de charlar un poco mas y el medico me aseguro que no es malaria, logre que me diera como diagnostico: "Comida. Mala Higiene". Asi que me dio 2 injecciones en la cola (jeringas descartables, pero despues de usarlas fueron directo al piso, con la pilita de basura que ya habia ahi), y me dio 5 remedios diferentes que tengo que tomar durante los proximos 3 dias. Asi que eso fue, me fui del hospital, con el culo dolorido, a comer arroz, tomar mis pastillitas, y a pasar una noche delirando de fiebre hablando sin sentido (como me conto Jane al dia siguiente), durante la cual transpire toda la fiebre.
Asi que al dia siguiente estabamos listas para explorar otra vez. Nos fuimos de ese hotel, y nos fuimos a otro hotel, mas cerca del centro. Fuimos al Golden Temple (el Templo de Oro- tiene 750 kgs de oro)- increible, imponente, valio la pena el tren de 20 horas y 1/2, enferma y todo.
A la tarde fuimos a la frontera de India y Pakistan (Wagah), donde todas la tardes tienen una ceremonia cuando cierran la frontera durante la noche. Muy gracioso, muy divertido, una gran experiencia. Tienen musica en los 2 lados en cada pais, compitiendo tratando de tener la musica mas fuerte, subiendo el volumen, las multitudes de los 2 lados gritando y alentando, tratando de hacer mas ruido que el otro pais. Nosotras estabamos obviamente del lado de India- nuestro maestro de ceremonias nos daba indicaciones de que gritar y responderle, y yo decidi despues de mucho esfuerzo tratando de entender que lo que decian era: "Ehhhhh, Ehhhhh, Middlesburgh, Middlesburgh, One Two, One Two" (Middlesburgh es el nombre de una ciudad en Inglaterra, y One Two significa Uno Dos)- nunca me hubiera imaginado que los indios tuvieran tanto amor por esa ciudad en Inglaterra... pero bueno, yo tambien lo gritaba si es asi! En un momento hicieron que tipo 20 personas del publico bajaran y se pusieran a bailar, solo para demostrarles a los Pakistanes que divertido que es estar en India. Y despues los soldados caminaban muy muy rapido hasta los portones ida y vuelta, moviendo exageradamente los brazos mientras caminaban, y haciendo unas patadas bien altas, que casi se golpeaban las frentes cuando pateaban. Pero tood termino muy bien y amigable, se dieron la mano oficial y exageradamente por 2 segundos, bajaron las banderas, y cerraron los portones.
Volvimos al Golden Temple para verlo de noche- lindisimo. Un tipo indio se me acerca con 4 de sus amigos y tuvimos esta conversacion muy interesante. TI: "Hola". Yo: "Hola". TI: "De que pais sos?". Yo: "Argentina". TI: me mira con cara de nada. Yo: "En Sudamerica, conoces Sudamerica?" TI: "Si", y otra mirada de nada. Yo: "Conoces Brasil?" (Ya se, ya se, perdon, pero tenia que tratar de usar ALGO como referencia). TI: "No". Yo: "Conoces algun pais en Sudamerica?". TI: "Si". Yo" Que pais conoces en Sudamerica?" TI: empieza a hablar en indio con uno de sus amigos, que habla en indio con el otro que tiene al lado, que habla con el siguiente, y despues de debatir un rato entre todos el tipo indio me mira y la respuesta: "Jamaica". Suficiente, todo dicho, que pases una buena noche tipo indio, chau.
Caminamos por ahi. Y cuando trate de salir del hotel tipo 12 de la noche para usar internet, me entere que el hotel esta cerrado de 11pm a 9am y nos podemos salir ni entrar.... uhm... se les olvido avisarnos cuando llegamos.