OK, imagine Vasranasi then DOUBLE it!!!! Lucknow is the maddest, meanest, baddest place ever (and I don't mean this in a nice way).
Our arrival somewhat clouded our opinion of the place as after we had hired a motocar into the city we got out and proceeded to walk down the main road checking out all the hotels ... at the start of this we picked up a tail of a rickshaw driver who followed us for the whole mile of the road shouting at us to get into his rickshaw. I'd had enough in th eend and it all got a bit confrontational. what I had'nt realised is that ALL rickshaw / motocar drivers are like this in India .... they push and push and don't take 10 polite no's for an answer ... they then seem to get confrontational when I tell them to p*** off!
OK, rant over ....... we went to Lucknow to see the residency where 3000 British men, women, children and loyal Indian sepoys held out against an Indian army of 30,000 for 4 months before re-enforcements arrived. The site is, of course almost demolished given the fact that it was bombarded for all this time but it was quite moving to see and strangely made us feel very patriotic. One particularly moving area is where the children of the school held a breach in the defences. The small museum glosses over the acheivement of the occupants of the residency and focuses more on the bravery of the 30,000 'Freedom Fighters' ... still, I guess that this is to be expected ... no doubt Britain would do the same. Something that did niggle us was that whilst the Residency is 5 rupees for Indian citizens, it is a whopping 100 rupees for Europeans (plus extra for the Museum). Would not mind so much if the peoiple were polite but so far all we have encountered are the rudest, most ignorant, ill mannered people we have ever come across.
To top off the visit w ewent to the immambara (20 rupees for Indians and 350 for everyone else) where an individual then insisted on following us everywhere we walked and then followed it up with a demand for 20 ruppees for his 'guiding services' after I had volunteerd 10 ruprees to get rid of him .......... amazing!
Anyone reading this is probably getting the message that Emma and I are, as yet, unimpressed with the inhanbitants of India!
Our arrival somewhat clouded our opinion of the place as after we had hired a motocar into the city we got out and proceeded to walk down the main road checking out all the hotels ... at the start of this we picked up a tail of a rickshaw driver who followed us for the whole mile of the road shouting at us to get into his rickshaw. I'd had enough in th eend and it all got a bit confrontational. what I had'nt realised is that ALL rickshaw / motocar drivers are like this in India .... they push and push and don't take 10 polite no's for an answer ... they then seem to get confrontational when I tell them to p*** off!
OK, rant over ....... we went to Lucknow to see the residency where 3000 British men, women, children and loyal Indian sepoys held out against an Indian army of 30,000 for 4 months before re-enforcements arrived. The site is, of course almost demolished given the fact that it was bombarded for all this time but it was quite moving to see and strangely made us feel very patriotic. One particularly moving area is where the children of the school held a breach in the defences. The small museum glosses over the acheivement of the occupants of the residency and focuses more on the bravery of the 30,000 'Freedom Fighters' ... still, I guess that this is to be expected ... no doubt Britain would do the same. Something that did niggle us was that whilst the Residency is 5 rupees for Indian citizens, it is a whopping 100 rupees for Europeans (plus extra for the Museum). Would not mind so much if the peoiple were polite but so far all we have encountered are the rudest, most ignorant, ill mannered people we have ever come across.
To top off the visit w ewent to the immambara (20 rupees for Indians and 350 for everyone else) where an individual then insisted on following us everywhere we walked and then followed it up with a demand for 20 ruppees for his 'guiding services' after I had volunteerd 10 ruprees to get rid of him .......... amazing!
Anyone reading this is probably getting the message that Emma and I are, as yet, unimpressed with the inhanbitants of India!
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