Final Thoughts On India

Now that I've been out of India for about a week, I feel as though I have enough perspective to write a final assesment of what it was like.

India is, in a nutshell, bizzare.

It is a third world country that is rich enough to build and maintain a massive nuclear arsenal. Cows are holy, but are largely left to eat garbage. People and institutions have to bribe the garbage collectors to do their jobs, but individuals take fastidious care of their selves and their property. Thousands of children in the slums die each monsoon season due to entirely preventable cholera outbreaks, however, rich westerners are more and more frequently going to India for optional surgeries in amazing high tech and advanced hospitals. The people drive like absolute maniacs, but there are, proportionally, far fewer deaths in road accidents in India than in the West.

I liked the upsidedownness of the country; I liked the happy smiling people; I loved the food; and I loved the Taj Mahal and the desert and the shopping! And I also loved our Intrepid tour; we had a great group of people and a fantastic guide, who made the trip entirely memorable and so much fun! So, here are a few memories that I take away from India:

Top 7 Wierd Things you can Buy in India
- Whips (Full on Indiana Jones style whips)
- Fake Beards
- Clackers (Sold on train stations platforms in case you need more help to go insane on the 17 hour ride to whereever you are going)
- Helicopters (Little plastic do-hickies that are made of cheap plastic and fly up in the air by the use of an even cheaper elastic band; they last 1 to 2 flights and then break)
- Feather Dusters (India needs a pressure washer, not a feather duster)
- Plastic Guns (sold just before the security checkpoint of the Red Fort in Agra...)
- Blow up pool toys (no pools in sight; no water in sight, in fact, nothing you could float in in site...and yet...pool toys!)

Funniest Quotes from the Funniest Tour Group ever:
- "That's crazy" (with Jazz Hands) (Everyone)
- "It's not septic, it's holy" (Jitu, said in reference to the Ganges River, just after we floated past a rotting corpse of a cow)
- "Stop it" (Jen)
- "Which would you rather" (Everyone)
- "Yes. Please" (Jitu) (All the time)
- "I'm going to die....in 3 minutes" (Owen, about mid-way through the first 17 hour train ride, and after 3/4 of a bottle of White Mischief)
- "Believe me, or believe me not this may be the best audio tour you have ever heard in your entire lives!!!" (The most enthusiastic guide we encountered on the whole trip, located at the Fort in Jodpher)
- "One Pen" (small child from village near Jodpher...didn't speak much english, but wanted a pen!)
- "It's all up to God" (Crazy Tuk-Tuk driver from Udaiper)

So, those are some final reflections and some of the funny things that I hope to remember forever.

TK