Pilgrim's Progress

Monday 19th May

- leaving Ahmedabad for Mount Abu
- talking to god on the train
- a road into the sky
- Mount Abu - pilgrim's choice

no sooner had we arrived in Ahmedabad than we were leaving, it seemed, but we knew that we were coming back and that thought was not one of which either of us were especially thrilled. the city is noisy, odorous and badly polluted but, as the main railhead for the state, it is one of the best places for travel connections.

one of those connections would today take us to Mount Abu, but first we had a sweet lassi (only) downstairs, deciding on this occasion to forego the Worst Tea In India. packing finalised, checking out incurred a minor but still irritating 'luxury tax' on our room, something we had been aware of but had managed to avoid thus far. Ahmedabad's steady business trip customers clearly bring with them a range of additional issues. to be fair to the Moti Mahal, it was on the forms when we checked in and we now know it's a common if irksome charge in the city. by around 9am, we were crossing the main road for what felt like the 100th time and making our way to the railway station - fortunately not to see Mr Joshi.

our train started from Ahmedabad and so was already idling at its platform. we found our carriage - second class sleeper again - and were the first people on it. however, the rest of the train was already pretty full and our carriage soon followed suit. the nearest station to the holiday destination of Mount Abu is Abu Road, after which the train eventually makes it to Delhi, a major route that may explain why tickets were so hard to come by.

our compartment was shared by two women and a man, all wearing the breast badge of the Om Shanti religious movement. they were going to Mt. Abu on a one week holiday to 'meditate, join our minds together and talk to god.' unquote. Mt. Abu is the world headquarters of the white-clad Brahma Kumaris spiritual movement. a group devoted to helping others, doing good and meditating, they are more of a self-help and humanitarian organisation than a religious cult. the members of our carriage were very curious and often smiled or laughed at odd junctures, but they were unfailingly polite and very generous. the man spoke excellent English while the two women, clothed in dazzlingly white and mysteriously spotless saris over undershirts, spoke some but understood more. they were quite well off, sporting patent leather bags and the latest version iPod Nano, the first Indians we had seen using one, and had flown in from Hyderabad in the South. the man frequently engaged us in enquiring conversation while all three offered the odd headphone and more space on a regular basis.

passing time

the stations rolled on, cripplingly slowly at first, so much so that the first hour of the journey appeared to be a tour of Ahmedabad's sidings. the landscape morphed from flat, arable land with some verdant green fields and large numbers of healthy trees to a more barren vista of drier climes and dusty back roads as we drew closer to re-entering Rajasthan. we were going to have a late lunch at Mt. Abu when we arrived and so had only brought a pack of crisps for the journey. our Om Shanti companions saw this and were concerned, asking us if we did not have a proper lunch with us. we explained our plans, but they were obviously a little worried for us and thought we needed feeding. they proceeded to extract various edibles from their bags, preparing and pushing towards us a tasty main meal-sized lunch of a rice based dish, crunchy fried accoutrements, a bright yellow potato mix and flour-based sweets. they were at least having their own lunch, too, but the portions that they gave us were huge and much larger than their own. they insisted that we eat every last bit. even they threw all of their rubbish straight out of the window, as absolutely everyone does here. it's little wonder that much of India resembles an unregulated garbage dump. as the journey neared its end, one of the two women also forced some washed fruit on us, but since it had not been cleaned with treated water, we had to hold off its consumption and say that we were saving it for later. more generous companions one could not hope to travel with.

Abu Road station looked small and did little to excite us, as did its immediate surrounds. the hill station of Mt. Abu sits 1220 metres above sea level and a 45 minute to one hour climb away by bus. however, our train had been over an hour late in arriving and we were both pretty tired - again! - so we walked towards the bus stand and away from the rail station's clamouring taxi drivers, picking up a taxi jeep further down the road for a much better price.

the climb up to Mt. Abu was just that, a seemingly never-ending slow spiral and double back up a very steep path with sheer drops. so monotonous did the road become that we joked that we were trapped in an Escher painting. a continuous stream of pilgrims decked out in their finest Rajasthani dress were making their way back down in the other direction, an extremely long walk indeed in the hot sun. taxi jeeps would flash by downhill carrying large number of people, men hanging off the backs of the tailgate in groups. the group of hills in which Mt. Abu sits had been dimly visible in a haze as our train had neared, but we had no idea such a mountainous area lay beyond. the drop offs were alarming enough as it was without passing abandoned tractor-trailers that had crashed, or groups of ragged workers rebuilding sections of smashed safety wall. it was a very long way from the flat lands around Ahmedabad.

after an eternity of dizzying pirouetting, we arrived in Mt. Abu to find it absolutely teeming. possibly thousands of people, many of them pilgrims to the important Hindu and Jain temples around the town, were idling around, trying to get a ride downhill. when our taxi finally stopped near the centre of town, by its polo ground, dozens tried to swarm onto and into our jeep before we'd even had the chance to get out. they paid no heed to our protestations and we had to use our packs as battering rams to reach the safety of the ground.

the walk that we took to our latest home, the Shri Ganesh, was a little circuitous, but it allowed us to see more of the town. with its pony rides and large numbers of tourist stalls and shops (many with signs in Gujarati and English, as well as English-only), it had something of the seaside resort about it. the air was noticeably cooler and there was even a regular breeze. we located the hotel up a relatively quiet, open street, like all of the town on a rolling gradient. the manager was distant at first but soon warmed up when he got our measure, revealing that his daughter lived in Walthamstow. the rooms weren't cheap but they were comfortable and quite spacious and it was great to lie down and reboot.

our rest and sleep lasted several hours, unexpected after what had not been one of our longer journeys. it was early evening again before we ventured out to do a little exploring.

the town is centred on Nakki Lake, said to have been formed all the way up here when the gods scratched away at the mountain with their fingernails. the appearance of the lake now is less mythic and more Blackpool (in the opinion of our Indian filming co-star Will) or Torquay (according to Philippa), but this does not mean that it has lost any of its beauty. bordered by rocky outcrops, the lake is now home to fleets of pedalos and ringed with hundreds of stores and stalls, boasting 'fine imitation jewellery,' tacky hats and souvenirs. ice cream shops and candy floss hawkers abound, with the large crowd comprising massed ranks of pilgrims heaving with (non-imitation) jewellery and rich fabrics, shy Indian couples (some of whom were holding hands, virtually unheard of anywhere else), and boisterous family groups.

there's always one.

we had arrived at the end of day two of a three day festival of the arts and culture and Mt. Abu was at its busiest.

Mt. Abu is also the last home of the famous giant Indian swan.

after a pleasant amble, we retraced our steps past the sunglasses and belt sellers to our hotel, skirting small children being taken on dull up and down the road pony rides or into the Brahma Kumaris-run 'Museum of Spirituality,' its entrance slogan 'Gateway to Paradise' surely promising more than it could deliver. even though we were paying R750 a night for our room, which was admittedly a pretty good size, the hotel's food was good and inexpensive. still feeling the stomach-filling effects of our Om Shanti lunch, we just had snacks and fruit salads downstairs by the hotel's shop before going to bed after what seemed like not much time out and about, still tired and vowing to spend tomorrow doing very little.

Mt. Abu is a real shock from the polluted chaos of flat Ahmedabad. the fresh air and breeze, plus unexpected surrounds, do make you feel a little like you have left India altogether. but there is much to see, here, especially the world famous Dilwara temples, and we hoped to combine some of this with several lungfuls of relaxation before we headed back down the mountain again.

love to all

edd & philippa