10 Rupees

A white foot hanging from an upper berth in the corridor of my sleeper train from Delhi is all I have seen of the west for more than 24hours. The last time this happened I was visiting my grandad's childhood home in central China in 1999 and the wonderment of my day rings true with that time. I will let the pictures tell of where I have been save to say that Ayodhya is the birthplace of Rama who was saved by Hanuman the monkey god and to that end, the Monkeys pretty much rule here.

I have begun to meet the indian people, especially women and their warmth strikes me. They are so keen to talk once they have seen a smile. I left the train with a woman of my age visiting her parents for the weekend. She kindly negotiated my cycle rickshaw for me, a mere 10 rupees which would certainly have been 40 in Delhi! She had a cousin in Southampton, interestingly the lady I nearly missed my train with (too busy chatting) had a cousin in Bournmouth ...it seems not only the elderly frequent Englands south coast resorts!

I took my first Vikram today, a Vikram is a large Autorickshaw with an open side leading to two facing benches for perhaps 3 small people. We had 11 in ours by the end of our 7km run although 3 of these were in the front with the driver where another few could easily have squeezed in. Essentially Vickrams do what Songthaws in Thailand and Jeepneys in the Phillipines do, which is ply a route picking-up and dropping-off on demand. The prices are cheap and fixed, I did almost the whole route for just 10 rupees!

Feeling hungry and frankly afraid of food, I returned to my tried and tested hunting technique for use in places where something sensible is simply not there. I cruised slowly through the food carts of Ayodhya in two sweeps, first sweep was to log where the locals were placing their bets. Sweep two, all the better for 6 years in the UK Food manufacturing industry, was a brief hygiene audit of the carts themselves and their operatives. After a short period of analysis and some deep breaths because the immodium was 7km away, I found myself with a 4 inch plate of veg noodles (noodles - yes I thought that too but I am quite near Nepal?) a plastic fork, a healthy number of fellow eaters and a chef who even chased the monkeys away while his clientelle devoured his work ...all for 10 rupees!

On my return from Ayodhya to Faisabad I visited a "cyber cafe". It was not 10 rupees or a cafe but it whiled away some time between the power going in the hotel and the internet going in the "cyber shop". Daylight was fading as I left and a hoard of street vendors were gathering at the junction. The warm smells and hussle around their carts drew me in and now here I am, in my enormous bedroom, monkeys screaming on the balcony, pot of black tea, Jimi Hendrix on my speaker to drown the monkeys, and a heap of warmed peanuts in shells which cost all of 10 rupees!