Observations of a Strange, Strange Land
It's November 11th - my birthday - and today, we took a bus from a small town called Pushkar* to a big city called Jaiper and I had to climb over a goat to get to my seat. . . . . . .
Let me repeat; I had to climb over a GOAT!!!!!! A four legged, very hairy, quite friendly, and not in excellent control over its bowels or bladder GOAT was in the aisle blocking the way, so I had to climb over him to get to my seat. Brad and I had been making jokes about having to ride buses with chickens during our stay in India, but, wow, it's totally different when joke becomes reality! Our bus ride from Pushkar to Jaiper was about 4 hours, but thankfully Mr. Goat and his owner were only on the ride for about half an hour, which was plenty of time for us to get lots of photos and the goat to make the whole bus nice and smelly! Then again, the smell may have been because there were about 50 people on a bus designed for 30 on a hot, dusty day..
I can safely say I have never had, nor likely ever will have a birthday like this one again.
Moving on to my observations about India.
Observation 1: Driving
We have been here for nearly 3 weeks now, and I still don't know whether Indians are supposed to drive on the right or the left hand side of the road. The steering wheel is on the right hand side, implying that they ought to drive on the left, however, no vehicle that I have been in has stayed on one side of the road longer than the other. The drivers just aim towards where ever there is a space; it could be up on the curb, it could be directly over the massive pot hole in the middle of the street, it could be behind the cow, but in front of the guy on the bicycle...doesn't matter...they just blare the horn, step hard down on the accelerator and confidently zip and zag forward and around until they get to their destination.
Tuk-Tuks, also known as auto-rickshaws, are small open-air vehicles that run off a lawnmower engine. They can turn on a dime, are quite fun and often adrenaline inducing because of the risks they take. For example, recently we were in a town called Udaipur in the north west. Udaipur's main claim to fame is a beautiful (but run down, decrepit and abondoned) palace called the Monsoon Palace. It is famous because the James Bond film Octopussy was filmed, in part at the Monsoon Palace. It is called the Monsoon Palace because it is built on a really high, really steep hill and the fancy ruler type people of Udaipur used to retreat to this palace when the monsoon was occuring and watch the poor, ordinary people get washed away by all the rain water. Anyway, being good tourists and Bond fans several of us from our tour group decided to go to the Monsoon Palace to see the sunset and we took Tuk-Tuks to get there. The ride up was pretty rough, because the lawnmower engine had a wee bit of trouble hauling 3 fat decadent westerners up the very steep hill. But we managed to get there and the sunset was spectacular and we all quote cheesy Bond lines which was great fun. The way down though, was crazy!!! The driver of Brad's and my tuk-tuk didn't turn the engine on, he just aimed the tuk-tuk down the hill and took off. He was going really, really fast. So fast, in fact, that we past another tuk-tuk whose driver told our driver to slow down. He merely shrugged, looked back at Brad and me and said "It's all up to God". . .
And that, in a nut shell, explains the Indian belief system surround roads, traffic and driving. You might as well drive like a maniac, beacuse whether or not you make it 'is up to God'.
Observation 2: The Indian Smile
Indians, more than most other races know that life is, in general, pretty much crap. After all, many of them, millions in fact, live surround by festering heaps of garbage, have no money, and no functioning sewer system. Therefore, when you see an Indian man, woman or child they might, at first look rather glum. However, I have come to the conclusion that the Indians, as a race, love to smile more than any other group of people I have ever encountered.
I have developed the theory of the Indian Double Smile. When you give an Indian a reason to smile you get a double smile back from them; one smile for the reason (maybe you waived at them, maybe you decided to buy thier painting, whatever) and one for the sheer joy of being able to smile; they smile because they have been given a reason to smile.
It is truly a beautiful thing.
Observation 3: Colours
Indians are obssessed with colours. The women dress themselves up with electric blue, neon green, scarlet red saris, and all kinds of sparkly and shiney silver and gold jewlery. Indian men dress up their vehicles with christmas lights, tinsle, streamers and painted good luck signs. They also dress up their tuk-tuks, thier tractors, and even their oxen, by painting the horns bright red, green and blue. India even has an annual celebration called Holi where they completely cover friends, neighbours and bystanders with buckets of coloured water.
My theory on this, is that the love of colour is a reaction to the landscape which is dry, barren, desolate and, simply, unpleasant. Everything in the cities is covered with a layer of brown dirt and dust, and everything in the country is either a dry faded green or dust covered and the people here react to the barrenness by adding bright splashes of colour whenever and where ever they can.
Whew! Done for now.
TK
* Pushkar was a horribly, dirty little town. It is supposed to be very holy town, with a lake the shape of a lotus petal and the only temple to the god Brahma in all of India. However, I have dubbed it 'The Town where Hippies go to Shop'. It was full of tacky little run down shops selling tie dye shirts and gypsy skirts. It was full of dred-locked, half-stoned French and Israeli backpackers who showed up 5 years ago intending to stay for 3 days and never found the exit sign.
** For the record, though, the town of Agra (where the Taj Mahal is located) is even worse. Even more garbage and slightly more water, making the garbage smell worse and the mosquitoes more ubiquitous than anywhere on our travels thus far.
Let me repeat; I had to climb over a GOAT!!!!!! A four legged, very hairy, quite friendly, and not in excellent control over its bowels or bladder GOAT was in the aisle blocking the way, so I had to climb over him to get to my seat. Brad and I had been making jokes about having to ride buses with chickens during our stay in India, but, wow, it's totally different when joke becomes reality! Our bus ride from Pushkar to Jaiper was about 4 hours, but thankfully Mr. Goat and his owner were only on the ride for about half an hour, which was plenty of time for us to get lots of photos and the goat to make the whole bus nice and smelly! Then again, the smell may have been because there were about 50 people on a bus designed for 30 on a hot, dusty day..
I can safely say I have never had, nor likely ever will have a birthday like this one again.
Moving on to my observations about India.
Observation 1: Driving
We have been here for nearly 3 weeks now, and I still don't know whether Indians are supposed to drive on the right or the left hand side of the road. The steering wheel is on the right hand side, implying that they ought to drive on the left, however, no vehicle that I have been in has stayed on one side of the road longer than the other. The drivers just aim towards where ever there is a space; it could be up on the curb, it could be directly over the massive pot hole in the middle of the street, it could be behind the cow, but in front of the guy on the bicycle...doesn't matter...they just blare the horn, step hard down on the accelerator and confidently zip and zag forward and around until they get to their destination.
Tuk-Tuks, also known as auto-rickshaws, are small open-air vehicles that run off a lawnmower engine. They can turn on a dime, are quite fun and often adrenaline inducing because of the risks they take. For example, recently we were in a town called Udaipur in the north west. Udaipur's main claim to fame is a beautiful (but run down, decrepit and abondoned) palace called the Monsoon Palace. It is famous because the James Bond film Octopussy was filmed, in part at the Monsoon Palace. It is called the Monsoon Palace because it is built on a really high, really steep hill and the fancy ruler type people of Udaipur used to retreat to this palace when the monsoon was occuring and watch the poor, ordinary people get washed away by all the rain water. Anyway, being good tourists and Bond fans several of us from our tour group decided to go to the Monsoon Palace to see the sunset and we took Tuk-Tuks to get there. The ride up was pretty rough, because the lawnmower engine had a wee bit of trouble hauling 3 fat decadent westerners up the very steep hill. But we managed to get there and the sunset was spectacular and we all quote cheesy Bond lines which was great fun. The way down though, was crazy!!! The driver of Brad's and my tuk-tuk didn't turn the engine on, he just aimed the tuk-tuk down the hill and took off. He was going really, really fast. So fast, in fact, that we past another tuk-tuk whose driver told our driver to slow down. He merely shrugged, looked back at Brad and me and said "It's all up to God". . .
And that, in a nut shell, explains the Indian belief system surround roads, traffic and driving. You might as well drive like a maniac, beacuse whether or not you make it 'is up to God'.
Observation 2: The Indian Smile
Indians, more than most other races know that life is, in general, pretty much crap. After all, many of them, millions in fact, live surround by festering heaps of garbage, have no money, and no functioning sewer system. Therefore, when you see an Indian man, woman or child they might, at first look rather glum. However, I have come to the conclusion that the Indians, as a race, love to smile more than any other group of people I have ever encountered.
I have developed the theory of the Indian Double Smile. When you give an Indian a reason to smile you get a double smile back from them; one smile for the reason (maybe you waived at them, maybe you decided to buy thier painting, whatever) and one for the sheer joy of being able to smile; they smile because they have been given a reason to smile.
It is truly a beautiful thing.
Observation 3: Colours
Indians are obssessed with colours. The women dress themselves up with electric blue, neon green, scarlet red saris, and all kinds of sparkly and shiney silver and gold jewlery. Indian men dress up their vehicles with christmas lights, tinsle, streamers and painted good luck signs. They also dress up their tuk-tuks, thier tractors, and even their oxen, by painting the horns bright red, green and blue. India even has an annual celebration called Holi where they completely cover friends, neighbours and bystanders with buckets of coloured water.
My theory on this, is that the love of colour is a reaction to the landscape which is dry, barren, desolate and, simply, unpleasant. Everything in the cities is covered with a layer of brown dirt and dust, and everything in the country is either a dry faded green or dust covered and the people here react to the barrenness by adding bright splashes of colour whenever and where ever they can.
Whew! Done for now.
TK
* Pushkar was a horribly, dirty little town. It is supposed to be very holy town, with a lake the shape of a lotus petal and the only temple to the god Brahma in all of India. However, I have dubbed it 'The Town where Hippies go to Shop'. It was full of tacky little run down shops selling tie dye shirts and gypsy skirts. It was full of dred-locked, half-stoned French and Israeli backpackers who showed up 5 years ago intending to stay for 3 days and never found the exit sign.
** For the record, though, the town of Agra (where the Taj Mahal is located) is even worse. Even more garbage and slightly more water, making the garbage smell worse and the mosquitoes more ubiquitous than anywhere on our travels thus far.
posted by TK at 4:53 AM
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