Up yours India
Trip Start
Unknown
1
5
Trip End
Ongoing
Kolkata (Calcutta),
India
Thursday, February 21, 2008
public urination is the norm here, and seems to be legal. everyhwere you look blokes with their belts undone, flys down, willys out and pissing anyway on anything in front of anyone. it didn't take long to this see in action as the first sighting of many happened on the tuk tuk ride from the chennai airport. its any wonder the place stinks. so many huddled masses, spitting pissing and shitting in the streets.
a quick aside from this diatribe. if you don't suffer from a heart condition, are fearless have little regard for your safety or your life, a tuk tuk ride in chennai is for you. we're on our strict budget rules, so no taxi's only tuk tuk's. we were coralled into this tuk tuk which not only squeezed in three humans, but two large back packs and four carry on bags, its amazing how much room there is. once fully loaded we headed out onto a major highway, crammed with buses trucks cars motorbikes and tuk tuk's as far as your eyes can see. all darting in and out of traffic, cutting off trucks and buses, squeezing through little gaps that no car could ever get through. all this with the tuk tuk driver non chalantly, guiding his chariot throught the maelstrom of chennai traffic at 5pm. peak hour traffic. you never hear the tuk tuk man, yelling out in vain as he gets cut off or hurling abuse as a bus pushes him off the road, a steely glare and a quick waggle of the head is all that he needs to recompose himself and get his mind back on the job of keeping us alive.
anyway the whole society here is just thieves and beggars. either they stand in front of you holding out hands with forlorn looks begging for money. or they're ripping you off at every turn basically pulling the money straight from your wallet. everywhere we've been they're the same. the only friendly and helpful ones we've met are the ones who want to extort money from you. the tuk tuk drivers uping the costs, the stores doubling the price for foreigners, the hotels adding this and adding that. its like les miserables and the master of the house, 10% for looking in the mirror twice. a nice turn doesn't deserve another here, it requires money. even the holy men here try their luck. we went to the kalighat temple today in kolkata, for just one example, got shown around the temple, where they kill black goats as sacrifice to appease their gods, taken to the holy bathing house with water form the ganges, and then hit up for 2000 rupees for the priviledge! not a chance, told em where to put it.
its a very patriarchal society, where man can do no wrong and the women are rude as anything. we went to see the sun temple in Kornak and admire this holy complex, be reverent, solemn, show respect. while we were there men pissing everyhwere. in the grounds on the temple, the whole place just a urinal. funnyly enough there are big signs for the tourist toilet but no local toilet in site. why would they. they don't need it, they just drop their pants anywhere.
the staring is the worst part. they all do it, and not just the men the women too, all they do is stare. especially at amber. its very disconcerting, and very bloody rude. on the train ride from chennai to Vijayawada, the women gave the look to amber. from vijayawada to bubhenswar, a man sharing our cabin in the train had a wank after seeing amber climb down fomr the top bunk, maybe seeing a little peek at her boobs. and then finally, after disliking bubhaneswar and making our to puri by bus, built up as this backpackers heaven an escape from india, its really a shit hole to, a man came right up close to amber and started to rub his forthright erection against her leg!!! disgusting men.
puri is built up as this place to go to escape india and have western food, enjoy the relaxed life and the beach, recharge your batteries and make plans for the rest of india. its not. its crap. we arrived as a final resort to get our india trip back on track, but we couldn't escape fast enough. this beach, this marvellous beach, was used by the slum fishing community as their toilet, a fetid drain halfway down oozed the rest of puri sewage, and to the west, the healthy part of the beach offered nothing but oogling locals and farting cows. we arrived on a saturday and left sunday night, losing another nights accommodation along the way. after being driven to the wrong hotel and charged about 7 times as much for the tuk tuk ride to the wrong hotel all we wanted to do was head down the beach. we caught a tuk tuk to the healthy beach, strolled along the rat infested, dirty, smelly, promenade complete with men urinating and moo moo poo's to add to the holiday feel. and walked to the stares of men and women.
the women especially were giving evil looks to amber, who was dressed very conservatively. fisherman pants and a t shirt. but these women, ugly and smelly, vile and evil hindu harlets just kept on staring. as we walked along amber was getting more and more upset, was about to cracked it. so we found a gap in the beach where there were no cows and few people, headed down and sat watching the waves crash in. i went for a little dip, with ambers consent leaving her on the beach, bikini hid beneath her conservative clothes. but not for long. striking a blow for womens freedom and independence everywhere, and a big up yours to the hindu harlets. a final stare from another local 'women', pushed amber over the edge. "if they're going to look at me anyway, they might as well have something to see". she explained as i turn around to see the big smiling face of amber, with naught on except her little black and white bikini. i thought she would get arrested, but the cops would have found it hard to break through the throng of 50 or more men who had materialised on the beach all looking seaward waiting for the next wave to bring amber back to shore... wankers.
where's the magic india?
