India
My first post from India! And after having been here for nearly a full week, I barely know where to begin...there is so much to write about, because everything here is so different and so fascinating.
First off, you guys will have to wait to see pictures until we get back, because although internet cafes are surprisingly plentiful, the fastest computer I have found moves at the speed of a very relaxed and lazy turtle...so I have no intention of sitting here for 3 hours to load one photo! But, don't you worry; we have some great pics, so you will be not be disapointed when you finally see them.
Let's start at the beginning. Flying into Delhi was unlike flying into any airport I've ever been to. It was a night flight; we landed at about 5 o'clock in the morning, but the city lights were not bright; they were a dull orange colour and were scattered about in a completely haphazard manner seemingly without rhyme nor reason, rather than stretched out along strait roads as is the norm. When we landed, there were 3 immigration cards, but about 200 passengers...not good math on somebody's part. So there was a mad rush for the 3 cards, and the rest of us had to stand around for about 20 minutes while 6 different airport officials all came up to us and asked why we were standing around, we explained because there were no cards, each one of the 6 officials said 'oh no - some will be send immediately'. But they weren't. So we kept waiting. Eventually some immigration cards turned up, so we all frantically scrambled for pens, managed to get the forms filled out and then stood in the line for the visa check. The happy man looked at our passports, stamped our visas, and welcomed to India! Very cool indeed.
The best moment at the airport occured as we were walking out of the customs section into the arrivals hall. On the wall as we exited, there was a big, official looking sign informing us that any concerns, comments or complaints could be directed to icgc_airport@hotmail.com!!!!!! A hotmail account!!! How wonderful:)
We had the loveliest guy meet us at the airport and drive us to our hotel. It was about a 30 minute drive (more on driving in India shortly) and every 2 mintues or so, he kept bursting out into laughter, sometimes due to a funny comment, but sometimes for no reason at all. He particularly liked the name of our hotel - Hotel Good Palace - and kept saying 'Good times at the Good Palace' and then giggling away to himself! He just loved to laugh and it was completely infectious, so by the time we actually arrived at Hotel Good Palace, we were both in a great mood.
The drive was pretty crazy. If I had not been to Cairo first, I would have said roads in Delhi are the scariest place in the world. As it is, they are just incredibly frightening:) To sum up driving in India, I will quote a very nice taxi driver, who told us that to drive in India you need three things: Good Horn, Good Brakes, and Good Luck!
The hotel was in the dirtiest, busiest, smellist, craziest, most colourful piece of city I have ever seen in my life. There were cars, buses, bikes, auto-rickshaws (or Tuk Tuks), pedestrians, animals (dogs, cows, even a couple of pigs!) and people, people, people. Everywhere people. It is true sensory overload here.
We met up with our group a day or two after we arrived and I am pleased to report that we are part of what seems to be a very cool group (2 Aussies, 3 Brits, 1 Peruvian, 1 Norwegian, and -crazily 5 Canucks!). And best of all our guide, Jitu, is great and has the funniest laugh I've ever heard!
The smells are often bad, but surprisingly often they are good too. Obviously the food all smells great, but there are also nice smells of burning insense and women's perfume as well. The bad smells include rotting garbage and all kinds of waste...not nice. Not nice at all. But mainly, the first thing that really strikes you about India is the colours. The woman dress in the brightest fabrics; scarlet, vivid orange, electric blue. It is stunning; especially because they stand out so much against the drab background of the dirty, brown-grey buildings so much.
In Delhi we saw the India Gate, the Indira Ghandi Museum (fasctinating), the Mahatma Ghandi memorial site/shrine, an open air mosque, a street market or 6, and an absolutely wonderful Seikh Temple. The temple was a the place to pray of course, but it was in a complex of buildings that included a free medical clinic, boarding rooms for people out of town to stay in for free, and huge kitchen full of volunteers who were cooking huge meals to give to the local poor, agian for free. And the best part was that it wasn't only for fellow Seikhs, it was for anyone of any faith, and any caste. How nice is that!? We also learned some interesting facts about the distinguishing marks of a Seikh person; for example they must wear special underware to remind them to be faithful to thier spouse and they always wear a simple metal bracelet on their right wrist, so if they extend their arm to commit an immoral deed (such as stealing or hitting) they will see the metal band, be reminded of their faith, and not do it. The dagger is worn on the left hip and is there to ensure that if a Seikh ever sees an injustice being commited, he can do something about it.
We were in Delhi for about 3 days, and then took an 18 (count 'em) 18 hour train ride, to a city called Jaisalmer, which is in North Eastern India, disturbingly close to the Pakistan border (only about 100km). The train ride...could have been worse....there were no animals, and the toilets were not nearly as bad as I'd expected... but it was quite crowded...they managed to fit even more bunks per wagon than in Platzcar in Russia, which is quite a feat.
Jaisalmer was home to some the best, most fun shopping I have ever done in my life. The fabrics were so beautiful, the clothes were so nice and so comfortable, the jewelry......ahhhh the jewelry...so many pretty things. But the best part was of course the price. People had said India was cheap, but wow oh wow! I bought a shirt, a really cool shirt for $3 dollars. A pair of pants for $2 dollars. LOVE IT!
Then we went and spent a night camping in the desert. We rode camels to get there - NOT COMFORTABLE, despite the new clothes!! But sleeping in the desert was a beautiful experience. We even had some local tribespeople come and sing, dance and play music for us. And one of the guys from our group, by name of Owen, can do this funky thing called Fire Poi which is bascially spinning balls of flame in circles around ones' body. I loved it!!! I tried to learn, but only succeeded in hitting myself on the head 15 times...Brad was very glad that I didn't attempt to learn with the spinning ball-things actually lit! Come to think of it, so am I:)
Now we are in a town called Jodhper - yup, the birthplace of the riding trousers! Jodhper is famous for its fort - Mehrangarh, which is so stunning that Kipling called it 'the work of angels and giants' and Huxley said "...from the bastions of the Jodhpur Fort one hears as the gods must hear from Olympus, the gods to whom each separate word uttered in the innumerably peopled world below, comes up distinct and individual to be recorded in the books of omniscience." And it really is beautiful enough to warrent such phrases.
But for now, we are off to yet another wonderous and wonderful meal of Indian food. The food here is fantastic...it is a very good thing that all the clothes I bought in Jaisalmer have loose elastic waist bands, because I will definitely need to go on a strict diet after leaving India! It's all that fantastic Nan bread and Shahee Paneer! So good, soooooo good!
Good night dear friends,
More adventures soon as we are off to a village tommorrow to learn something about the caste system here.
T
First off, you guys will have to wait to see pictures until we get back, because although internet cafes are surprisingly plentiful, the fastest computer I have found moves at the speed of a very relaxed and lazy turtle...so I have no intention of sitting here for 3 hours to load one photo! But, don't you worry; we have some great pics, so you will be not be disapointed when you finally see them.
Let's start at the beginning. Flying into Delhi was unlike flying into any airport I've ever been to. It was a night flight; we landed at about 5 o'clock in the morning, but the city lights were not bright; they were a dull orange colour and were scattered about in a completely haphazard manner seemingly without rhyme nor reason, rather than stretched out along strait roads as is the norm. When we landed, there were 3 immigration cards, but about 200 passengers...not good math on somebody's part. So there was a mad rush for the 3 cards, and the rest of us had to stand around for about 20 minutes while 6 different airport officials all came up to us and asked why we were standing around, we explained because there were no cards, each one of the 6 officials said 'oh no - some will be send immediately'. But they weren't. So we kept waiting. Eventually some immigration cards turned up, so we all frantically scrambled for pens, managed to get the forms filled out and then stood in the line for the visa check. The happy man looked at our passports, stamped our visas, and welcomed to India! Very cool indeed.
The best moment at the airport occured as we were walking out of the customs section into the arrivals hall. On the wall as we exited, there was a big, official looking sign informing us that any concerns, comments or complaints could be directed to icgc_airport@hotmail.com!!!!!! A hotmail account!!! How wonderful:)
We had the loveliest guy meet us at the airport and drive us to our hotel. It was about a 30 minute drive (more on driving in India shortly) and every 2 mintues or so, he kept bursting out into laughter, sometimes due to a funny comment, but sometimes for no reason at all. He particularly liked the name of our hotel - Hotel Good Palace - and kept saying 'Good times at the Good Palace' and then giggling away to himself! He just loved to laugh and it was completely infectious, so by the time we actually arrived at Hotel Good Palace, we were both in a great mood.
The drive was pretty crazy. If I had not been to Cairo first, I would have said roads in Delhi are the scariest place in the world. As it is, they are just incredibly frightening:) To sum up driving in India, I will quote a very nice taxi driver, who told us that to drive in India you need three things: Good Horn, Good Brakes, and Good Luck!
The hotel was in the dirtiest, busiest, smellist, craziest, most colourful piece of city I have ever seen in my life. There were cars, buses, bikes, auto-rickshaws (or Tuk Tuks), pedestrians, animals (dogs, cows, even a couple of pigs!) and people, people, people. Everywhere people. It is true sensory overload here.
We met up with our group a day or two after we arrived and I am pleased to report that we are part of what seems to be a very cool group (2 Aussies, 3 Brits, 1 Peruvian, 1 Norwegian, and -crazily 5 Canucks!). And best of all our guide, Jitu, is great and has the funniest laugh I've ever heard!
The smells are often bad, but surprisingly often they are good too. Obviously the food all smells great, but there are also nice smells of burning insense and women's perfume as well. The bad smells include rotting garbage and all kinds of waste...not nice. Not nice at all. But mainly, the first thing that really strikes you about India is the colours. The woman dress in the brightest fabrics; scarlet, vivid orange, electric blue. It is stunning; especially because they stand out so much against the drab background of the dirty, brown-grey buildings so much.
In Delhi we saw the India Gate, the Indira Ghandi Museum (fasctinating), the Mahatma Ghandi memorial site/shrine, an open air mosque, a street market or 6, and an absolutely wonderful Seikh Temple. The temple was a the place to pray of course, but it was in a complex of buildings that included a free medical clinic, boarding rooms for people out of town to stay in for free, and huge kitchen full of volunteers who were cooking huge meals to give to the local poor, agian for free. And the best part was that it wasn't only for fellow Seikhs, it was for anyone of any faith, and any caste. How nice is that!? We also learned some interesting facts about the distinguishing marks of a Seikh person; for example they must wear special underware to remind them to be faithful to thier spouse and they always wear a simple metal bracelet on their right wrist, so if they extend their arm to commit an immoral deed (such as stealing or hitting) they will see the metal band, be reminded of their faith, and not do it. The dagger is worn on the left hip and is there to ensure that if a Seikh ever sees an injustice being commited, he can do something about it.
We were in Delhi for about 3 days, and then took an 18 (count 'em) 18 hour train ride, to a city called Jaisalmer, which is in North Eastern India, disturbingly close to the Pakistan border (only about 100km). The train ride...could have been worse....there were no animals, and the toilets were not nearly as bad as I'd expected... but it was quite crowded...they managed to fit even more bunks per wagon than in Platzcar in Russia, which is quite a feat.
Jaisalmer was home to some the best, most fun shopping I have ever done in my life. The fabrics were so beautiful, the clothes were so nice and so comfortable, the jewelry......ahhhh the jewelry...so many pretty things. But the best part was of course the price. People had said India was cheap, but wow oh wow! I bought a shirt, a really cool shirt for $3 dollars. A pair of pants for $2 dollars. LOVE IT!
Then we went and spent a night camping in the desert. We rode camels to get there - NOT COMFORTABLE, despite the new clothes!! But sleeping in the desert was a beautiful experience. We even had some local tribespeople come and sing, dance and play music for us. And one of the guys from our group, by name of Owen, can do this funky thing called Fire Poi which is bascially spinning balls of flame in circles around ones' body. I loved it!!! I tried to learn, but only succeeded in hitting myself on the head 15 times...Brad was very glad that I didn't attempt to learn with the spinning ball-things actually lit! Come to think of it, so am I:)
Now we are in a town called Jodhper - yup, the birthplace of the riding trousers! Jodhper is famous for its fort - Mehrangarh, which is so stunning that Kipling called it 'the work of angels and giants' and Huxley said "...from the bastions of the Jodhpur Fort one hears as the gods must hear from Olympus, the gods to whom each separate word uttered in the innumerably peopled world below, comes up distinct and individual to be recorded in the books of omniscience." And it really is beautiful enough to warrent such phrases.
But for now, we are off to yet another wonderous and wonderful meal of Indian food. The food here is fantastic...it is a very good thing that all the clothes I bought in Jaisalmer have loose elastic waist bands, because I will definitely need to go on a strict diet after leaving India! It's all that fantastic Nan bread and Shahee Paneer! So good, soooooo good!
Good night dear friends,
More adventures soon as we are off to a village tommorrow to learn something about the caste system here.
T
posted by TK at 4:24 AM
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