Breaking Headline: 12 days and still SOLID!
Unlike Egypt, where the question of “Is it gas or is it mass?” rears its ugly head like a prairie dog every few hours, India has been surprising. I originally thought I would go through enough toilet paper myself to have the tree-huggers crying foul. The food here is good, but we have paced ourselves a bit better and they tend to tame it down a bit for us.
So we started off our India adventure in Mumbai(Bombay) in style as we had booked very early and were in a five star hotel being pampered so we didn’t really get out to much as we just wanted to relax after Egypt. However, on the taxi ride to the hotel, we seen the poor of India. Apparently Mumbai has the largest slum of anywhere in Asia. For about 75% of our drive from the airport to the hotel (40+km) there were shanties along the side of the road. The nicest of these homes had brick walls and were at least 60sq ft. However, those were few and far between with the vast majority made of corrugated sheet metal and being smaller. About a third of them were simple sticks and tarps no bigger than 4ft by 8ft. In these a whole family would live with washing, cooking, and toilet facilities being the roadside in front of your place. Quite a shock from what we are used to.
Mumbai - flower petal decoration for Diwali (beginning of Indian New Year)
After Mumbai, we flew to Delhi to join an organized 9 day tour with the first stop at Agra- the Taj Mahal. Many say it is the most beautiful building in the world; it was definitely nice but didn’t make me fall to my knees weeping or give me a sudden urge to propose or anything crazy like that. We also visited the Fort there which was where the Shah who had built the Taj was imprisoned by his son. For a brief background, the Shah built the Taj for his wife as a tomb, and from his room in which he was imprisoned, he had a perfect view of it. I bet all of you are thinking that the son was a real ass, but remember this story when you are putting your 90 year old parents in the Geezer Palace close to your home! That’s right Alison, to be nice, Mum and Dad can live with you 
Some monkeys we found in the entrance to Agra Fort.
Agra Fort - monkeys near the entrance
At the Taj Mahal
From here it was off to Khajuraho to visit the temples. There are a few temples remaining here that have intricate carvings all over them. However they are most known for 2% of the carvings…those from the Kama Sutra. Some of the things depicted are more hard-core than anything you can find anywhere on newsstands. If you doubt me on this statement, lets just say the horse had a big smile on it’s face! Everywhere you went, there were “hawkers” selling Kama Sutra books and keychains with movable parts depicting some Kama Sutra positions. And yes, of course I loaded up on those, never know how many stocking stuffers you need.
Here is one of the temples from an angle that shows some of its sculptures
A Temple at Khajuraho and some of its sculptures
After here it was off to Allahabad to see one of the most holy places in Hinduism, the meeting of the three rivers (actually only 2, as one supposedly is an underground river, but it apparently dried up 20 or so years ago). From the small boat it looked much like the Thompson and Fraser meeting- clear water mixing with brown silt. Driving here was just as chaotic as Egypt, but unlike Egypt where biggest wins, driving in India is one big game of chicken, where the boldest goes where they want first. There are thousands of the tuk-tuks (motorized rickshaws) with a larger size looking like they came straight out of the movie Mad Max.
Next on to Varanasi, the holist place for Hindus. This is what you expect when you come to India. It is absolutely nuts. People, tuk-tuks, rickshaws, big trucks, cows, goats, pigs, beggers, and the occasional elephant all trying to share the same piece of road at the same time.
Here’s a cow looking for some kebab leftovers…
A cow looking for some kebab in Varanasi
If you are Hindu and die in Varanasi, you receive salvation instead of reincarnation. So it was pretty funny dealing with one boy trying to sell you stuff, he kept saying “good deals at this store, no money for me, just want good Karma”…..that speech worked well until you said that since they were going to die here anyway, Karma meant nothing. That seemed to get rid of him….or it could have been the person we were with who told him she would send him to salvation immediately if he didn’t get lost. By the way, we think he gets about 40% commission.
It was unlike any place, on the shore of the Ganges watching the cremations on wood pyres, some 200 a day happen, and I think I inhaled at least a few people and another few were stuck to my shoe….We walked through a building where there were about 5 old ladies, all of them just waiting to die. Do you say hello, ask them for tea, play cards….
Cremation on the Ganges
The Ganges is a scary river, certain castes of people are not burned and are placed in the river once dead. Better yet, some priests go into a trance just before death, and are then sunk in the river. Needless to say, I didn’t order the fish, although someone else did, and funnily enough, stopped eating it when I asked where the fish comes from.
It was interesting travelling through the small villages, take out the road with the cars going through, and it could have been 200 years ago. When we would stop, people would just show up to stare, and if you took their picture, the thought of asking for money never even entered their minds (unlike everywhere else we have been). The kids (and their parents) really liked to see pictures or short videos of themselves on the camera and would all start giggling like little school girls upon seeing themselves.
Then it was back to Delhi. On the overnight train back, when I first looked out the window I was greeted with a site I have never seen before. Sunrise glistening off of about 50 Indian bums. Apparently the whole town took their morning toilet duties together in a field. There they were, 20 feet apart, all in a perfect squat and looked like a field of cabbages. The beauty of that kind of disappeared when there was one close to the tracks and you could see him in full squatting action. No breakfast that morning.
Spent 3 days in Delhi visiting the local sights etc., and being hounded every 30 seconds to change money or buy a shawl. Interestingly, in New Delhi (the modern area and where the government is) there are no cows anywhere. The papers call them a menace. I think it will be interesting to see what happens in India in the next 20 years….I am sure blood will be spilled as the government wants to progress, yet hang onto the culture….cows, technology, and religion don’t seem to mix so well here. Just the other day thirteen people died when some Hindu children retrieved their cricket ball from a Muslim mosque (or the other way around, doesn’t really matter though) and they took offence to that.
The Baha’i Lotus Temple in Delhi.
Bahai Lotus Temple in Delhi
Well, that’s about it for India. See you in Thailand
June 16th, 2010 at 4:05 am
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