Standing in line is the bread and butter of the West. In the land where everyone is legally, if not socially equal we seem to feel that in almost every situation that standing in line is a pretty good way to fairly allocate whatever is given out.
India disagrees. India thinks that everyone pressing around whatever they're after is a good idea. India thinks that the noisiest, and pushiest person should get what they want - even if what they want is to get a good seat on the bus.
India favours the bold. India thinks that in traffic if you're in front of someone else you have the right of way - therefore everyone struggles to get in front. This applies both for pedestrians walking in traffic or for vehicles merging into traffic even if it's going much slower than everyone else. India thinks that if there is a narrow road it makes the most sense to just go into whatever bottleneck with little thought to how this bottleneck might best be sorted out.
India thinks that if you honk your horn you have the right of way. India thinks that bicycles don't need bells, the drivers of bicycles just need to make a weird "chht chht" sound that sounds more like a body being slowly dragged behind you than a bicycle that wants to get past.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
My new Rolex in Jaipur, India
Jaipur is in the province of Rajasthan, and today is our second day here. We took a very uncomfortable overnight bus to Mumbai, and then flew here yesterday. When our flight finally got here after being delayed for 3 hours (it is a 1.5hour flight) we were exhausted and went straight to sleep.
Thankfully today was a day full of happy goodness. I'm not sure what that means, but I think it's because I'm comfortably stuffed from curry - we just ate dinner at a restaurant called Saffire and they fed us until we nearly popped. We're staying at this REALLY nice place called the Sunder Palace, it is a beautiful little hotel; the room is clean, the sheets are clean, no hint of stinkyness anywhere. Also the hotel staff is really nice and very helpful. Just my 2c.
We had this idea that we would buy stuff in Jaipur, and I think we succeeded in this. Walking towards the walled 'pink city' we had to jump around auto-rickshaws and bicycle rickshaws and cows. The city is actually pink, apparently from the terracotta plaster they use here. There is a huge gate-building but the gate is quite small for the amount of traffic that goes through, and Indian driving rules don't really handle congested spaces very well - so there was this huge traffic jam as all manner of vehicles are trying to get through the gate at the same time.
Once in the pink city we're assaulted with smells of food, exhaust, and occaisionally cow and gross stinky sewer smells. Visually the city is stunning, from the pink walls, to the white tower that soars above the markets, right down to the bright colours of all the stuff people are selling. They had huge HUGE bags of chilli peppers, and sacks full of what we guessed was probably spices of some kind, but it's all just ground down and they make little mountains of it. And the textile vendors have an astounding variety of colours and textures they're selling.
We got to see some of this up close, because we decided that we needed a few things to keep us warm. I got myself a wool blanket, and we got two wool shawls. One is more of a man-shawl but I haven't worn it in public yet - although lots of the local guys wear these things.
We bought a bunch of other crap, so far I've spent about $100 on myself.
That's it for now. I'd post pictures but I'm so stuffed I can barely move. Next time. I mean it.
pw
Thankfully today was a day full of happy goodness. I'm not sure what that means, but I think it's because I'm comfortably stuffed from curry - we just ate dinner at a restaurant called Saffire and they fed us until we nearly popped. We're staying at this REALLY nice place called the Sunder Palace, it is a beautiful little hotel; the room is clean, the sheets are clean, no hint of stinkyness anywhere. Also the hotel staff is really nice and very helpful. Just my 2c.
We had this idea that we would buy stuff in Jaipur, and I think we succeeded in this. Walking towards the walled 'pink city' we had to jump around auto-rickshaws and bicycle rickshaws and cows. The city is actually pink, apparently from the terracotta plaster they use here. There is a huge gate-building but the gate is quite small for the amount of traffic that goes through, and Indian driving rules don't really handle congested spaces very well - so there was this huge traffic jam as all manner of vehicles are trying to get through the gate at the same time.
Once in the pink city we're assaulted with smells of food, exhaust, and occaisionally cow and gross stinky sewer smells. Visually the city is stunning, from the pink walls, to the white tower that soars above the markets, right down to the bright colours of all the stuff people are selling. They had huge HUGE bags of chilli peppers, and sacks full of what we guessed was probably spices of some kind, but it's all just ground down and they make little mountains of it. And the textile vendors have an astounding variety of colours and textures they're selling.
We got to see some of this up close, because we decided that we needed a few things to keep us warm. I got myself a wool blanket, and we got two wool shawls. One is more of a man-shawl but I haven't worn it in public yet - although lots of the local guys wear these things.
We bought a bunch of other crap, so far I've spent about $100 on myself.
That's it for now. I'd post pictures but I'm so stuffed I can barely move. Next time. I mean it.
pw
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Good things and bad things
There are lots of great and wonderful things about India. And there are some things that suck. Here is a list:
Good things:
Bad things:
Good things:
- cute kids that wave and say Hello
- cute kids that wave, say Hello and want a picture so they can see themselves on the LCD screen of your camera
- cute kids that wave, say Hello, want a picture with you and all their friends
- an old lady who wanted a picture with Leah, and then gave Leah a high-five!
- astonishing sculpted cave temples - carved out of the rock
- the food is amazing and cheap!
- friendly people that go out of their way to help us
- Shake the rickshaw driver who took us around the caves in Aurangabad and helped us negotiate prices from the roadside fruit vendors
- groups of girls are always friendly, smiley and they giggle when we wave and say "namaste"
- the fact that we are rockstars here, and everyone wants to talk to us (Hello where you from whats your name)
Bad things:
- cute kids that don't leave you alone, and chase you down the block (basically every group of boys)
- people with acute staring disease
- creepy men who sit a reasonable distance away and then stare unabashedly
- weird people who video tape us as we walk around
- weird people who ostensibly take pictures of their friends, when they're clearly framing the shot around us
- raw sewage
- sewer gas in the hotel
- touts that try to sell us garbage, and don't leave us alone when we don't want it
- rickshaw drivers that overcharge. every time.
- taxi drivers that overcharge. every time.
- people throw garbage everywhere
- men consider India a large-ish urinal and feel they can pee anywhere, at any time
- most toilets do not have toilet paper (of course) but they also don't have a little squirt gun, just a water bucket
India Trip
Hey everybody!
I am in Mumbai today - but first a quick background. I decided to go to India sometime in early January - and so Leah and I flew to Mumbai on Jan 10th. It has all been a bit rushed but that's the best way I think.
So we've been here for 5 days, we just arrived this morning on a night-bus. We wanted to take a sleeper train, but it was full, and then we wanted a sleeper bus, but it was full so we had to settle on a chair bus. Leah had a really hard time sleeping, but since Kimberly had prescribed us a sleeping pill I was able to get some rest. The roads were just terrible, with the bumping and the lurching and the braking and honking while we slept. Altogether it was "interesting and adventurous". I guess that's what we're here for! :)
Yesterday on the 16th we were in Aurangabad. This is medium sized city with a few good resturants. We discovered two that were outstanding - Smile at the Nirala Bazaar, and Prashant which is just down the road from the train station. We stayed at the Hotel Shree Maya, with Kimberly who had been there a couple days ahead so we could meet up. Kim was an immense help in getting us acclimatized to the nature of life and culture in India; she is also quite a hoot to have around so we were all laughing it up as we wandered around Aurangabad, and the caves.
The 14th and 15th we went to see the main attraction of Aurangabad, the Ajanta and Ellora caves. These are monolithic temples carved right out of the mountain. It is absolutely tremendous to see these - some of these temples were carved from the early days of Hinduism, Buddhism and the Jains, anywhere from 300-1000AD. In Ajanta, some of the original paint remains and the skill of the artists far outweighs pre-renaissance paintings in Europe; these guys knew how to create perspective and the illusion on depth! In Ellora, many of the caves were carved by the Jains who were masters of fine detail in their art. It is hard to believe that all of those temples were carved directly from the mountain, no assembly required!
We had a very uneventful night-train from Mumbai to Aurangabad in the first place - we took a second class A/C car and it was reasonably comfortable. Only a few bugs, and I wouldn't eat off the floor but altogether it was just fine. I have to say that the flights from Seattle to Mumbai left something to be desired, but we were stuck with them so we had to suck it up and be happy. :) I had a hard time sleeping, so I tried some Nytol (non-prescription sleeping pills) but they just made me tired and not sleepy - and on top of it they gave me restless-legs. Damn that sucked - no more Nytol for me.
Back at the beginning, Carl and Kristy gave us a ride from Vancouver to Seattle. Thanks! :)
pw
Edited Jan 21st to add links to the photo albums
I am in Mumbai today - but first a quick background. I decided to go to India sometime in early January - and so Leah and I flew to Mumbai on Jan 10th. It has all been a bit rushed but that's the best way I think.
So we've been here for 5 days, we just arrived this morning on a night-bus. We wanted to take a sleeper train, but it was full, and then we wanted a sleeper bus, but it was full so we had to settle on a chair bus. Leah had a really hard time sleeping, but since Kimberly had prescribed us a sleeping pill I was able to get some rest. The roads were just terrible, with the bumping and the lurching and the braking and honking while we slept. Altogether it was "interesting and adventurous". I guess that's what we're here for! :)
Yesterday on the 16th we were in Aurangabad. This is medium sized city with a few good resturants. We discovered two that were outstanding - Smile at the Nirala Bazaar, and Prashant which is just down the road from the train station. We stayed at the Hotel Shree Maya, with Kimberly who had been there a couple days ahead so we could meet up. Kim was an immense help in getting us acclimatized to the nature of life and culture in India; she is also quite a hoot to have around so we were all laughing it up as we wandered around Aurangabad, and the caves.
The 14th and 15th we went to see the main attraction of Aurangabad, the Ajanta and Ellora caves. These are monolithic temples carved right out of the mountain. It is absolutely tremendous to see these - some of these temples were carved from the early days of Hinduism, Buddhism and the Jains, anywhere from 300-1000AD. In Ajanta, some of the original paint remains and the skill of the artists far outweighs pre-renaissance paintings in Europe; these guys knew how to create perspective and the illusion on depth! In Ellora, many of the caves were carved by the Jains who were masters of fine detail in their art. It is hard to believe that all of those temples were carved directly from the mountain, no assembly required!
We had a very uneventful night-train from Mumbai to Aurangabad in the first place - we took a second class A/C car and it was reasonably comfortable. Only a few bugs, and I wouldn't eat off the floor but altogether it was just fine. I have to say that the flights from Seattle to Mumbai left something to be desired, but we were stuck with them so we had to suck it up and be happy. :) I had a hard time sleeping, so I tried some Nytol (non-prescription sleeping pills) but they just made me tired and not sleepy - and on top of it they gave me restless-legs. Damn that sucked - no more Nytol for me.
Back at the beginning, Carl and Kristy gave us a ride from Vancouver to Seattle. Thanks! :)
pw
Edited Jan 21st to add links to the photo albums
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