CHANDIGARH 24 -25 July

Photo album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116253494913081133936/Chandigarh?authkey=Gv1sRgCPHniqz62s7w1QE#5648161889439341874

The train to Chandigarh was due to leave at 8:35, but we set the alarm for 6:30 knowing we had all the packing to do, a 30 minute walk, and the unknown Delhi station to navigate. Being aware that the railway station is the prime location for theft, and having two children to survey, we were a little nervous and had talked through precautionary measures that we should take: watch our bags at all times, and particularly if someone starts talking to us, avoid the crowds if possible, keep together so that we can all watch each others bags while they are on our backs etc. In fact, the train was waiting for us when we arrived - we faced a bit of a crowd as the passengers getting off our train charged up the stairs we were trying to get down, but nothing intimidating, and we were quickly settled in our second class seats and ready to go. The girls in two seats sitting next to a man, in front of Jacqui and myself.
The train was quite honestly, fairly luxurious - the seats were almost TGV like, and we were served a cup of chai, followed shortly by a beakfast of yoghurt and bread and jam. THe journey flew by, and or course the girls wasted no time in starting conversation with the pharmacist (as he turned out to be) sitting next to them, and then to a female research doctor on the other side of the carriage. The pharmacist leant his Blackberry to the children saying they could play games on it (probably in a vain attempt to have a bit of peace and quiet) but the research doctor was pulled into the fray when none of them could understand how to find a game on the Blackberry. But, even when foun, the game was quickly abandoned in favour of the exchange of written messages to the research doctor on their notebooks:
Tamsin: "what do you do?"
Research Doctor: "I am a doctor".
Tamsin: "well if you're a doctor, yesterday I hurt my foot"
Research doctor: "oh dear, what did you do? By the way, I am a research doctor. Do you know what that is?
Tamsin: "yes"
Research doctor "then you must be a very clever girl"
Tamsin "what do your mummy and daddy do?" and so on.and When we arrived at Chandiagarh, the cuddles of goodbyes on the platform belied the two and a half hours friendship that had formed. The pharmacist was also extremely friendly, and the ice having been broken by the girls, I also got into conversation with him, and he gave us a huge amount of information on Chandigarh - the different hotels, the rock gardens, the lake, the cost of a rickshaw from the station etc, and finally made a call to his brother and offered us an appartment to stay in while we were there. We were touched but declined, as it was a bit out of town and we were only staying for one night.
On arrival we hopped into a rickshaw (a little bigger than the Delhi rickshaws, fitting, at a squeeze, all of us with our rucksacks) and headed to a street of hotels, so that I could make some price / quality comparisons before we selected. We chose a basic, but reasonably clean hotel, took a double room, and squeezed an extra mattress in for the girls.
After our best Thali lunch yet
and what we thought was a well deserved siesta, we headed off for the renowned Rock Gardens of Chandigarh - an imaginatively designed park with twisting alleyways between rock faces and waterfalls, and opening out into a very enjoyable play area, with giant swings, crazy mirrors, camel rides and an acquarium. It is made all the more interesting because it is lined with the sculptures of Nek Chand, a previously unkown artist who regenerated waste material (old plug sockets, bangles, crockery etc) into walls, animals, figurines. The overall effect of the park is somewhere between Indiana Jones and a modern art exhibition. The park is full of indian tourists, and very few foreign tourists, and We lived the photo experience again with the girls - they must have had a hundered photos of them taken while we were in there - against the waterfall, on the swing, with this person, with that person, with both of them etc. Everyone was very friendly and each time we ended up in a bit of a conversation - normally starting with where are you from, which is not the simplest question for us to answer.
We took a cycle rickshaw for the first time (as opposed to a motor rickshaw) - the girls had been begging for days - along the road to Sukhna lake. Everyone was taking an evening wander along the shoreline and there were various animations, and food stalls and we stayed for dinner at a sort of pub. A teenage deaf girl out with her family spotted Fia and Tamsin across the room, and in no time they were engaged in more writen messages, cuddles, and exchanging phone numbers (she is still texting messages to them now, several weeks later).

Heading back to the hotel we stumbled on a coffee bar, so stopped for an ice cream and coffee before we went to bed.
The night was not uneventful. The Chandigarh climate is as humid and sticky as Delhi and we went to sleep with the air conditioning buzzing away. In the middle of the night, Jacqui wanted to turn the ac up, and tiptoed across the sleeping bodies of Fia and Tamsin on the mattress on the floor to reach for the control. I was only vaguely conscious, but soon became fully conscious when the room was lit up from sparks coming out of the ac and three girls in their underwear were leaping across the bed to get to the other side of the room. I managed to turn a switch off using my walking boot and we survived the rest of the night without ac.