Hello friends and family!
I arrived in India 5 days ago, and what an adventure it's already been! If I wasn't sitting at a roadside computer in a scary internet cafe, I would try to upload some pictures to show you, but I'm afraid those might have to wait until I get to Spain and have my laptop again.
We spent our first two days in Delhi, navigating the metro system, wading through swarms of people, avoiding hagglers, and riding on crazy death bike and auto rickshaws. The most amazing part of Delhi we visited was Old Delhi, which is where I think the city probably gets it's bad reputation from. It is a hot, stinky, rundown part of town. People are everywhere - gambling on the sidewalk, sleeping in the trash, selling and eating food on the side of the road, and yelling "hallo, hallo" at the two weird white girls walking past. The traffic is also insane, although I've decided since I could successfully cross the street in Old Delhi, I can do anything!! There is constantly bumper to bumper traffic and honking horns, made up of cars, taxis, cows, and the occasional dumbfounded looking goat, but mostly rickshaws. They are everywhere! One of the best parts was the end of the day when school got out and we saw a million small children in school uniforms stuffed like sardines into the bike rickshaws, waving at us with bemused excitement as we passed.
Two days in Delhi was a great experience, we saw many a dilapidated monument (to quote Emily, "Everything in India is falling apart, even their museums"), bought some kurtis to wear so we aren't so obviously foreign (didn't really help), and met some very interesting people. I was happy to get out of there at the end of it, though.
On Sunday we took what was supposed to be a 10 hour train ride to Amristar, which turned into more of a 13 hour train ride. At first we went to the wrong train station, thinking our train left from New Delhi, when it really left from Old Delhi (yes, we had to go back there... duh duh duh), so we ran back to the metro, ran through the metro, and ran through the other train station. We made it in time, but were quite possibly the sweatiest, stinkiest people on the entire planet by that point. For the next ten hours I listened to the man in the berth below me play Shakira over and over on his cell phone.
Once we found out that our train was going to be late, we became a little worried about showing up to a strange city at one o'clock in the morning, so the only English speaking train worker set off to save the day for us (people here are very concerned about two females traveling by themselves) and made the bedding collector, who was also going all the way to Amritsar, act as our guard dog. He wouldn't let anyone into our car after that (although the police still managed to come in and steal our dinner. I didn't know how to say no! Apparently that's not an uncommon thing.), and found us a safe taxi when we finally arrived at the train station a billion years later.
Yesterday it rained ALL DAY LONG!!! Helloooo, monsoon!!! At first we didn't think much of it, busting out our uber-nerdy yet incredibly practical matching yellow rain jackets to explore the city, but as the day when on and the rain never slowed down, we came to understand the meaning of "monsoon". Friends, this is not a little rain. This is a torrential downpour that floods the entire city. Yet even the great Biblical flood cannot slow things down in India. Life still goes on even though you're sitting in an inch of water inside your auto rickshaw.
We went to the Golden Temple in the morning, an amazing Sikh holy place, and the only place we've been to that isn't falling apart. A huge marble complex surrounds the solid golden temple that sits in the middle of a pool where a ceremony is always taking place. All are welcome at the Golden Temple, with free meals being prepared and served by people of all ranks and classes throughout the day. At this point, it wasn't raining too badly, we we're only standing in about two inches of water, so it was very enjoyable. When we left Emily said that she felt as if she had "just seen the Pope." Awesome.
From there we took an auto to the bus station to check out times for the Pakistani/Indian border ceremony and buses to Dharamsala. This is where the real rain began. At one point our rickshaw (and every other car/bike/shoe-less Indian walking in the road) was in about a foot of water. We got stuck in such a bad traffic jam that the rickshaw driver told us to get out and walk the rest of the way to the bus station. This meant getting in the brown muck with everyone else. I may come home from India with diseases. But as with every daily unexpected twist and turn here, you just do things because you have to, so we plopped out into the flood water alongside women in drenched saris and men covering up their turbans with shower caps. We weaved through the traffic, trying not to think about what was in the water with us to find out the times, and then waded across the street to the cinema, figuring a four hour Bollywood movie would be a good way to pass some rainy, rainy, rainy, muddy, hours. Mind you, every Indian we passed along the way was laughing at our matching Morton Salt Girl rain jackets. I think they were really just jealous.
The Bollywood movie was hilarious!!!! I can't remember what it was called because the name was very long and in Punjabi, but it cracked me up. Women don't really go to the movies by themselves in India, so the workers escorted us into the theater, found us seats, and then escorted us out. The best part of the movie, besides the copious amounts of cheesy fight scenes and random song and dance (which I think I'm slightly addicted to), was the cheering crowd. The whole theater would erupt with cheers at certain points in the movie. Sometimes someone would yell something out about what was happening and the crowd would burst into laughter. When a bad guy would get punched with over-the-top sound effects and end up with an instant black eye, everyone would holler and applaud. The movie was also so long that there was an intermission. I have a feeling life in the US may seem very dull and square after all of this...
We have one more day in Amristar and then we're off to seek Tibetan enlightenment in Dharamsala/McLeod Gang. We'll see what other adventures come our way today in this pulsing, chaotic, poverty-stricken place. There is never a dull moment in India.
I arrived in India 5 days ago, and what an adventure it's already been! If I wasn't sitting at a roadside computer in a scary internet cafe, I would try to upload some pictures to show you, but I'm afraid those might have to wait until I get to Spain and have my laptop again.
We spent our first two days in Delhi, navigating the metro system, wading through swarms of people, avoiding hagglers, and riding on crazy death bike and auto rickshaws. The most amazing part of Delhi we visited was Old Delhi, which is where I think the city probably gets it's bad reputation from. It is a hot, stinky, rundown part of town. People are everywhere - gambling on the sidewalk, sleeping in the trash, selling and eating food on the side of the road, and yelling "hallo, hallo" at the two weird white girls walking past. The traffic is also insane, although I've decided since I could successfully cross the street in Old Delhi, I can do anything!! There is constantly bumper to bumper traffic and honking horns, made up of cars, taxis, cows, and the occasional dumbfounded looking goat, but mostly rickshaws. They are everywhere! One of the best parts was the end of the day when school got out and we saw a million small children in school uniforms stuffed like sardines into the bike rickshaws, waving at us with bemused excitement as we passed.
Two days in Delhi was a great experience, we saw many a dilapidated monument (to quote Emily, "Everything in India is falling apart, even their museums"), bought some kurtis to wear so we aren't so obviously foreign (didn't really help), and met some very interesting people. I was happy to get out of there at the end of it, though.
On Sunday we took what was supposed to be a 10 hour train ride to Amristar, which turned into more of a 13 hour train ride. At first we went to the wrong train station, thinking our train left from New Delhi, when it really left from Old Delhi (yes, we had to go back there... duh duh duh), so we ran back to the metro, ran through the metro, and ran through the other train station. We made it in time, but were quite possibly the sweatiest, stinkiest people on the entire planet by that point. For the next ten hours I listened to the man in the berth below me play Shakira over and over on his cell phone.
Once we found out that our train was going to be late, we became a little worried about showing up to a strange city at one o'clock in the morning, so the only English speaking train worker set off to save the day for us (people here are very concerned about two females traveling by themselves) and made the bedding collector, who was also going all the way to Amritsar, act as our guard dog. He wouldn't let anyone into our car after that (although the police still managed to come in and steal our dinner. I didn't know how to say no! Apparently that's not an uncommon thing.), and found us a safe taxi when we finally arrived at the train station a billion years later.
Yesterday it rained ALL DAY LONG!!! Helloooo, monsoon!!! At first we didn't think much of it, busting out our uber-nerdy yet incredibly practical matching yellow rain jackets to explore the city, but as the day when on and the rain never slowed down, we came to understand the meaning of "monsoon". Friends, this is not a little rain. This is a torrential downpour that floods the entire city. Yet even the great Biblical flood cannot slow things down in India. Life still goes on even though you're sitting in an inch of water inside your auto rickshaw.
We went to the Golden Temple in the morning, an amazing Sikh holy place, and the only place we've been to that isn't falling apart. A huge marble complex surrounds the solid golden temple that sits in the middle of a pool where a ceremony is always taking place. All are welcome at the Golden Temple, with free meals being prepared and served by people of all ranks and classes throughout the day. At this point, it wasn't raining too badly, we we're only standing in about two inches of water, so it was very enjoyable. When we left Emily said that she felt as if she had "just seen the Pope." Awesome.
From there we took an auto to the bus station to check out times for the Pakistani/Indian border ceremony and buses to Dharamsala. This is where the real rain began. At one point our rickshaw (and every other car/bike/shoe-less Indian walking in the road) was in about a foot of water. We got stuck in such a bad traffic jam that the rickshaw driver told us to get out and walk the rest of the way to the bus station. This meant getting in the brown muck with everyone else. I may come home from India with diseases. But as with every daily unexpected twist and turn here, you just do things because you have to, so we plopped out into the flood water alongside women in drenched saris and men covering up their turbans with shower caps. We weaved through the traffic, trying not to think about what was in the water with us to find out the times, and then waded across the street to the cinema, figuring a four hour Bollywood movie would be a good way to pass some rainy, rainy, rainy, muddy, hours. Mind you, every Indian we passed along the way was laughing at our matching Morton Salt Girl rain jackets. I think they were really just jealous.
The Bollywood movie was hilarious!!!! I can't remember what it was called because the name was very long and in Punjabi, but it cracked me up. Women don't really go to the movies by themselves in India, so the workers escorted us into the theater, found us seats, and then escorted us out. The best part of the movie, besides the copious amounts of cheesy fight scenes and random song and dance (which I think I'm slightly addicted to), was the cheering crowd. The whole theater would erupt with cheers at certain points in the movie. Sometimes someone would yell something out about what was happening and the crowd would burst into laughter. When a bad guy would get punched with over-the-top sound effects and end up with an instant black eye, everyone would holler and applaud. The movie was also so long that there was an intermission. I have a feeling life in the US may seem very dull and square after all of this...
We have one more day in Amristar and then we're off to seek Tibetan enlightenment in Dharamsala/McLeod Gang. We'll see what other adventures come our way today in this pulsing, chaotic, poverty-stricken place. There is never a dull moment in India.
5 comments:
sab kuch milega!
Sounds adventurous...to say the least! Happy Travels!
i love it. i love you.
Sounds crazy! Best of luck with your travels!
fun stuff! Now, I can let my friend know what to expect when she goes there, safe travels!
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