(If you’re here looking for graffiti knitting click here)
“If the rhino runs, we must run in a zig zag or climb a tree.”
We shuffled our feet nervously in the leaves on the jungle floor.
“If we see a bear then do not run. You run, bear run faster. Do not climb. You climb, bear climb. If bear come we stand in a group and we make noise. Stick,” our guide waves his thick face-high walking stick, “is for bear.”
“If we see tiger we are quiet and meet him eye to eye. Do not run.”
Extract from Chitwan National Park: “If we see a tiger, we are quiet and meet him eye to eye.’
Knitting Queen of the Desert
Purl Interrupted is the travel journal written by whoever I was before I became Deadly Knitshade. My camera and I spent September to December 2008 travelling in India and Nepal with “two sticks, string and a backpack”, joined by three manly companions (I was the only girl).
It was one of the most fantabulous periods of my life so far. Witness epic train journeys, dances with angry cows, ancient ruins, jaw-dropping views, cockroach nightmares, near-death rickshaw rides, the Taj Mahal (at long last), unexpected knittings, ghastly toilet facilities and a whole lot of monkeys.
You can read it all here by clicking the arrows on the images below (you can click the magnifying glasses for sneak peek at picture) or jump to the Purl Interrupted category.
Best take along some peanuts for the monkeys.
Udaipur: “Are you jamisponding me?”
There is really only one thing about Udaipur that people go there for as far as I can tell. A shaken but not stirred thing that is regularly viewed with golden eyes and pointed out with gold fingers, and... oh hell, I cannot be bothered with anymore James Bond hints. You get the idea.
Jodhpur: “Excuuuuse me, ma’am! You know what is wool?”
At one point, a bit yarn hungry by now, I happened upon a dusty bag of nasty pink acrylic wool. A small boy leapt from the shadows of the shop, "Excuuuuse me, ma'am! You know what is wool?" he demanded. I did know what is wool. That wasn't wool.
Jaisalmer: “Oh… It go ice.”
It is clear to me that the waiter has the power to freeze water at will, and that sometimes, maybe when he has spilled birayani down a customer who would have been a big tipper, or a cow gouged at him on the way to work because he looked at it funny, he loses control of his power and ends up showing it to us mere mortals in the form of sudden soft drink freezing.
Jaisalmer (Thar Desert): “In the morning we go to meet your camel.”
I was first introduced to my camel as Michael Jackson (the camel's name, not mine), but I later found out that his real name was Rallu. A much more camel-sounding name if you ask me.
Agra (Taj Mahal): “A teardrop on the face of eternity”
The Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore called the Taj Mahal "A teardrop on the face of eternity" according to my trusty Lonely Planet. Which leaves me feeling that nothing I say can really better that. Still I'll give it a go...
Orchha: “Hello Auntie!”
It is the place where I finished my first ever sock. In a restaurant where rats ran in and out of the kitchen, jumping off shelves and around jars, causing a French woman to feed her dinner to a passing street dog and say to the owner "You should beeee ashaaaaaamed of your restauran', eeet eeeez full of rats!" before storming out.
Jhansi: “Aoooowwwwp!”
Suddenly she spies the sleeping hound. My stomach screws up as I watch her hand flail behind her and close around a thick bamboo staff leaning against the wall for just such an occasion. She wrenches herself to her sandalled feet with anger blazing from behind her thick spectacles.
Varanasi: “Welcome to Varanasi.”
People waded into the Ganges to bathe, bent to wash clothes, stood beside the water to place floating lights on its surface, fished about in the depths for errant cricket balls, and in some cases took a quick healing drink (I didn't join them on that one).
Pokhara: “I’ll have the steak, please. Rare.”
Nepal won my heart immediately by having pavements, neat little front gardens, and more bobblehats than you can shake a pompom at. It doesn't take much.
Naya Pul (1340m) to Tikhedhunga (1540m) – Trek Day One: “I can’t wait to put my beast legs on.”
We were off to the middle of the mountains with no guide. It was okay though. I had my woolly hat and my knitting. What more does a girl trekking to thousands of metres need?
Ghorepani (2870m) to Poon Hill (3210m) to Sikha (1935m) – Trek Day Three: “Are we nearly there yet?”
It is 4.30am. It is very, very dark. It is very, very, very cold. What in the hell am I doing climbing 340 metres of perilous rock stairs with only a headtorch for light?
Sikha (1935m) to Tatopani (1200m) – Trek Day Four: “My name is Large Joyous Wisdom.”
Brushing your teeth with a quietly buzzing electric toothbrush while standing outside at a water tap with a view of Annapurna One, and being observed by several curious water buffalo in the field next door, is probably one of those moments where you feel like the luckiest person on earth.
Chitwan National Park: “If we see a tiger, we are quiet and meet him eye to eye.”
"If the rhino runs, we must run in a zig zag or climb a tree." We shuffled our feet nervously in the leaves on the jungle floor.
