I would categorize India as fascinating but challenging. The sites were amazing, the food great (when I could eat it - more on that later), and the people varied. Not to sound negative but I would classify my time within India as "enduring" the experience more so than having "fun". It's actually what I expected though I was surprised by how much trouble I had with the non-hygenic practices of the place. I thought the DR would have prepped me for it but no, this was on a whole other level. Don't get me wrong, I am glad to have seen what we saw - it lived up to expectations of going to an exotic land of desert, forts, camels, chanting, and wild religious practices. It was just a different type of travel than say Thailand, which by the way we are happy to be in now!
I think Veronica felt it was an experience to be in a world so completely different but not necessarily fun all the time either. Then again I am not sure anyone said India would be fun....but they did promise you'd swing wildly between loving and hating it.
So, here were our favorite places in India and some of what we saw:
- Mumbai - experiencing Mumbai expat life with Pieter (Veronica's cousin) and Valerie at their very comfortable shangrila of a house right on the ocean in the middle of the city; seeing a polo match at the racecourse grounds with Vet Valerie as our chaperon, sunset drinks atop the Intercontinental Hotel overlooking Chowpatty beach, yummy Indian snack food at Swati Snacks, hanging out with little Anna in her kneepads on the floor with her nanny, Lucy
- Udaipur (very much the Venice of India) - taking a boat ride out on the lake looking back at the gorgeous palace, walking through the spice market not seeing a single other foreigner and seeing the most amazing outfits of men in brightly colored turbans, women in saris, and spices of every kind and color piled high, seeing my first elephant just right there in the middle of the tiny street
- Jodhpur - the huge 12th century fort towering high above the city, seeing the sandstorm coming over the fort and turning the sky brown and then black and instantly making it black as night, chanting from nearby mosques such that we kept saying "Are we in Kabul, Afghanistan actually? No really..."
- Jaisalmer - camel riding out in the desert and under the stars courtesy of Mister Desert - ala Lawrence Arabia, the surreal sandstone fort that we could gaze at from atop the rooftop of our hotel, great food at the Trio Restaurant (the best we had in India)
- Pushkar - mainly we loved where we stayed at the Seventh Heaven Inn, truly an oasis from the challenges of Rajasthan with all its cows in the streets along with dung everywhere, open sewers, flies as bad as the Australia Outback practically, the hot dusty Rajasthan air; seeing the Hindus washing themselves in the holy Pushkar lake from the Ghats (at least it seemed cleaner than the lake at Udaipur). Hardly anyone pushed us to buy something there - a welcome respite from constant touting throughout the rest of Rajasthan.
- Agra - the Taj Mahal was truly stunning. Wish I didn't have a headache and could have enjoyed it more...Veronica was visibly moved by the Taj and couldn't stop taking pictures (which was a good thing!) The surprise of Agra was that there was not a lot of touting, but maybe this is because we had hired a tuk-tuk for the full time we were there, which was so much less hassle. Agra Fort was also quite a site - great to see the Mughal architecture of both the Taj Mahal and Fort...this was very Arabic feeling versus the forts and palaces of Rajasthan that had their own different vibe.
- Darjeeling - seeing the beautiful people of Nepalese and Tibetan descent, cooling off in the mounatin air, sweeping views of the Himalayan foothill mountains and tea plantations all along the street valleys, a sneak peak at the snow capped big boy mountains of the Himalayas on the sunrise trip up to Tiger Hill (just barely saw the third highest mountain in the world), the visit to the Risheehat Tea plantation where we saw the tea pickers (all women) bringing in their tea leaves within wooden baskets to be weighed, high tea at the Elgin Hotel - a relic from the days of British rule, seeing all thechildren, many of which were often dressed in formal school uniforms of ties, sweaters, and blazers (also a relic of the British rule).
- Jaipur - living on and above the toilet for most of my 2 days there. Who would have thought it would be pizza that would be the culprit and kickoff of my prolonged India sickness? Delhi Belly they call it but somehow mine should include Jaipur Hell or something. From then on until even now, 12 days later, my stomach has not been the same. Too bad as I have not had a curry since....here's hoping Thailand and Vietnam suits my stomach better. Gotta find me a green coconut as Marijean had suggested.
- Seeing the rat on the train from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur within our 2AC cabin. I think there were actually 2. Gross!
- Roasting in Bundi - Bundi wasn't actually that bad but somehow it wasn't the same as Pushkar so we hightailed it back there with "our driver" which made for a dusty 8 hours of driving over 2 days. The Ambassador car was very hip though.
- Skipping Varanasi - we made a change of plan and chose to go to Darjeeling instead. I wish we could have been teleported to Varanasi for at least a day. However I think seeing a dead body floating down the Ganges River may have been too much for me with my fear of deep dark water...still it would have been something to see that. This English guy, Sean, who we inadvertently met up with twice(!) in Udaipur and then at 4am in Darjeeling by chance as he jumped into our jeep, said he saw 20 dead bodies there. Another guy said he saw half a body along the train tracks in Varanasi. Whoa....
- All the throat clearing and spitting by the Indian men. The pushing and shoving by the Indians. I guess when you are 1.3 billion people you gotta push to get anything, but the spitting, what the hell is that? Get a kleenex or just plain kick the habit please.
Well, that was India. Here's a link to photos I posted up on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22084&l=25579&id=667267269 In the meantime, it's off to pick up our laundry. 3.5 weeks of hand-washing was getting real OLD. I hope as the Thai woman promised our clothes will be "good clean" and "good smell". Then it's off to cruise the river on a ferry boat to see some Thai culture and sites. And for all you people STILL looking forward to summer, it's good and hot here. It feels like the DR! Adios!
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