We decided to have a quick wash and then head straight out for a little exploring. Ujjain was our first real Indian experience outside Mumbai and it was brilliant. Every year Ujjain hosts a small version of the Kumbh Mela and every twelve years it sees millions of religious pilgrims who come to bathe in the waters of the scared river, the Shipra, not quite up there with the Ganges but almost. We managed to miss this huge event (next one is 2016) thank goodness because finding a hotel with a free room was difficult enough.
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| From Ujjain, India |
There were no other tourists but us, we were the whitest faces around and we knew it. After stopping at a hole in the wall café for some deeply unhealthy breakfast we wandered through the streets passing cows, goats, chickens and children, one small boy ran out of his house and while passing in front of us, without breaking his stride he called out 'hello, I fly kites' it was possibly the most endearing thing I have ever heard. We wandered in the general direction of something we never actually found and wound up near a huge temple complex but they were so tight with security and not very nice so we decided to skip it and carry on walking. We came to another temple, it's not like the town is short of them, and went inside for a look.
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| From Ujjain, India |
While I was off snapping pictures of the different deities an old man speaking only a few, in the literal sense, words of English sat down next to Djalma and was trying to explain about the temple and the religion, we asked about the huge black candelabras and we were told that they were lit every night at 7pm so we decided to come back and see it in action.
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| From Ujjain, India |
Before leaving the temple we were accosted by a group of young men who all wanted their pictures taken with us so we stood around while they grouped together and then took it turns to have their pictures taken individually and in smaller mixed groups, they were nothing if not thorough. When we finally managed to say goodbye we saw a small family of monkeys on the wall opposite the temple, it was the closest I'd been to the mischievous and occasionally violent animals and I was quite excited, there was also a little baby monkey but not wanting to repeat the protective mother charge I'd experienced in Morocco (I got too close to a mother goat and she charged at me then stared me out while I implored a very unsympathetic Djalma to chase her away or save me).
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| From Ujjain, India |
After the monkeys got tired of being gawked at we wandered off in the direction of the ghats stopping at another temple which housed much more impressive statues and figures of different deities. The gifts different people leave the gods are lovely, the figures are marked with colourful powder usually in the form of a bhindi, necks (where it's possible) are draped with garlands of marigolds or other brightly coloured flowers and loose flowers are laid at the feet of the statues or carvings, everything is so bright and alive.
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| From Ujjain, India |
We finally found our way down to the river where small numbers of people were washing clothes, their hair and themselves by the steps, the afternoon was hot and there weren't many people around but there was one guy who insisted on having his picture taken. On the way down to the ghats we'd been stopped a couple of times usually by men, who had asked to have their picture taken. It was a bit weird because most of the time they weren't doing anything special, sitting on a balcony or waiting for a fare in a taxi and they didn't smile either, then this guy comes along and works it for the camera like a pro.
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| From Ujjain, India |
The afternoon was getting to us after a sleepless night so we grabbed lunch near our hotel and then Djalma had a little nap while I wrote some of my diary (from Iran).
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| From Ujjain, India |
We left just before 6pm and got an insanely crazy rickshaw ride down to the ghats the guy sped up when there was more than a metre in front to accelerate into and braked hard swerving to avoid nonchalant pedestrians, equally insane motorcyclists, cows and the odd intrepid cyclist. We arrived paid him off and got out in one piece, the sun had set over the river and it looked gorgeous, we'd missed the sun but I always think it's the sky afterwards that looks even more beautiful, we walked along the banks for a while soaking up the atmosphere and then decided to try and find the temple we'd been to that afternoon.
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| From Ujjain, India |
Map man got us there with his perfect sense of direction and we walked up the road listening to the bells chime and metal discs clang and rounded the corner to see the huge candelabras lit up like massive smoky beacons composed of tiny little candles. The atmosphere was incredible, we walked up into the complex and after about five minutes we were accosted again this time it started with a man and his two young girls, neither of whom had any idea of who I was or why their father had told them to stand next to me, so I squatted with my arms around the confused girls while their dad snapped away on his mobile phone and Djalma did he same on my Canon.
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| From Ujjain, India |
This small modelling sessions increased the confidence of those who'd stopped to watch and before I knew it a woman me up and threw her arms round me for her turn with the foreigner.
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| From Ujjain, India |
Then the young men all got their turn, much like before we had to stand and wait while they organised themselves into a big group, then individually and then smaller groups of three or four. It was quite a magical fun experience and I think that even Djalma got his picture taken a couple of times too, but gingers get more attention here so after a good ten minutes of non-stop smiling my face was sore and we started to walk back to our hotel. We got stopped so many times on the way back and told 'hello' and 'what is your country' by so many smiling people most of whom stopped to stare and point us out to their friends that we both felt quite special. It was nothing like the attention we'd had in other places where people can seem quite intimidating or aggressive, everyone looked so happy to see us and wanted their picture taken or to say hello and get a smile. It was one of the nicest walks I've ever had and we didn't even stop for ice-cream.
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| From Ujjain, India |
The next day I woke up with the shits and wasn't feeling so sociable, suddenly all the interest and the hellos were very annoying and I didn't want to tell anyone where I was from or what my name was. We spent a good five hours in an internet café, god knows what he did for so long but I curled up and slept on his lap for most of it. We left that evening for Pachmarhi, a hill station in the middle of the country.
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