D is for Dan and Ness are outta here!
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2005
1
36
37
Trip End
Dec 10, 2005
Delhi,
India
Friday, December 9, 2005
All in all India has certainly been quite the travel experience. We have had good experiences and we have had more than our fair share of bad experiences too - All tourist who travel to India are gifted a massive quota of bad experiences to fill im sure. A challenge in itself and one that I am glad I have taken on although I cant count how many times I have wished to just get outta this crazy, dirty, polluted, unorganised, cow loving, shambles of a country. It is definatly one place that words cannot fully describe. Prior to coming to India, I had heard many a story on what to expect but none of those fully prepared me for what I was to experience. I am still struggling with the revoulting filthyness of the towns, the poverty, the smelly animals everywhere and the money hungry dishonest people.
Our afternoon in Delhi was spent in a tuktuk for 1 last blat around Delhi to take in the sights of India gate plus the bonus overprices shopping places the driver insists on taking you to in hope we purchase and he gets commision and tha chance to take in our last breaths of air in the world most polluted city
India Gate
. Of corse after this we were in need of a cold Kingfisher or two and a sit down in a "Zen" restaurant in the upmarket area of Connaught Place to reflect on our 3 weeks in India. There are many things we have seen that we dont understand and seam a little strange. To fully figure out the many "why" questions we have, we would have to spend a lot longer here which I know for me, Im not quite ready for that. Here is a few of the odd things that have amused and some confused us along the way:
*men wear sparkly gem earrings in both ears
*a man and a women cannot show affection in public but guys freely walk around holding hands
*Indian people like to say "yes" even when they mean "no"
*The head wobble means "yes", "no", "whatever".
*you must eat with your right hand as the left is for toileting however we have seen ladies sitting around moulding cow patts into nice rounds and drying them in the sun?
*you can do no. 1's and no.2's in public however it is rude to stretch?
*"relax" is written on the red lights at crossings, but it is near on impossible to relax with the amount of horn abuse going on, people starring at you and beggers on either side of the tuktuk/taxi with their hands out
*they worship the cow!
*kids who have near to nothing, just want a piece of chocolate and not money, clothes, soap, shoes etc
*in a holy town where there is no meat, eggs, alocohol or public displays of affection we were offered weed and people bath naked in the lake
*everyones brother and/or cousin owns a shop
*the government owns bhang lassi shops when bhang is illegial
*babies wear eyeliner
*in restaurants where there is no alcohol licence they serve beer from a teapot and you drink it out of tea cups
*who is the man who sings loudly and poorly at 4.30am every morning in every city?
*we did not realise that "no", "no thank you" and "no, I do not need/want that" means please follow me for at least 500m shouting "how much you pay?" and telling me more about it
*the cow is the boss and dogs, camels, monkeys, dogs, pigs, goats and chickens also rule the towns
*The 3 T's = things take time. Nothing runs with any obvious organisation or to the printed schedule
*Free Chai is an attempt to get the customer to stay longer in the shop
*kids request us to "please come look at my shop"
*how can people who state they believe in all the qualities of a good religous person, bend the truth, lye and rip you off straight faced?
*guys believe a successful sales pitch involves snorting, picking their nose, burping, scratching themselves and undoing their pants to re-tuck in their shirt
And that is just a few that came to our mind druing a beer.
This place is crazy but I am read to get back into the Western World. Dan said his highlight was seeing the Jain Temple Ranakpur and my highlight was seeing the Taj Mahal. We have done some cool stuff and seen some amazing things too. Some of the good that springs to mind is staying inside the Jaisalmer Fort, visiting the intricate marble Jain style temples in Jaisalmer and Ranakpur, the afternoon we spent learning to paint Indian minature style paintings and painting our own cards, relaxing on the guesthouse roof high above the streets of Udaipur gazing over the lake and palaces, shopping for all our goodies, chatting with the nice and friendly people (this excludes many!)and drinking chai with kind shopkeepers (this also excludes a few), eating vegemite on toast in a restaurant in Jaisalmer, the many adventure tuktuk rides. India has been the one country that has really REALLY made me appreciate being a kiwi and all things about NZ - We dont know how lucky we are mate!
