India oh India!
Writing a summary for the time spent in India is not an easy task. There is so much I would like to say, so many things I am worried I will forget with the years.
Geographical:
We entered Indian soil by plane: Bangkok to Mumbai. We were planning to spend only about three days in Mumbai, but the booked up trains forced us to spend an entire week (including Eon’s birthday) here. From Mumbai, we took a 33 hour train (suicide!!) to Varanasi (double suicide!!!). I caught a nasty flue on the train and we ended spending four nights in this horrible city. From Varanasi we took a bus (which turned into a jeep as there were not enough people to fill a bus) to Sunauli at the Nepal border and fled from India for two weeks. A month later, we returned to India by plane from Kathmandu into New Delhi. Here we organised a car with driver to take us through the whole of Rajasthan and Agra. Our route included: Delhi - Agra - Jaipur - Pushkar - Udaipur - ranakpur - Khuri (dessert) - Jodhpur - Mandawa - Delhi. We then flew out of India from New Delhi to Hong Kong. In total, we spent four weeks in India, but there is still so many more places to see that a two month trip would only just cover it.
We were told that it could be uncomfortably hot in Rajasthan but we had surprisingly cool, sometimes even cold weather. I did not rain once. The pollution was really unbearable in Delhi - the smog was so bad that we had trouble breathing.
India favourites:
- Chai - Indian Masala tea
- Cricket craziness - if your country does not play cricket, you do not really exist in Indian terms
- Dum Aloo (potatoes covered with a sweet, spicy, creamy sauce)
- Bollywood experience
- Eon’s birthday dinner
- How it makes sense to swerve for cows in the road, but not for pedestrians!
- Henna tattoo
- Taj Mahal
- Typical Hindi conversation - hallo, where you from, small talk about cricket, what’s your name, what do you do back home, how much do you earn…not even my best friends know the answers to these intimate questions.
The ‘not so cools’:
- Constant lying, cheating and scamming
- Poverty
- Filth
- Animal cruelty
- Being constantly stared at
- The smell of open air toilets
Basic Hindi words:
- Hallo: Namaste (hardly anyone uses this formal greeting, a little side wiggle of the head is the more common way of greeting - and it is a sure way of making friends quickly)
- Thank you: Danyabad
- No thank you: Jee naheeng, danyabad (very important!!! Eventhough it seems that they do not understand this very well)
- How much: Kiet Nika?
- Counting from one to 10 and 100: Ek, do, teen, chaar, pangh, tea, saat, aat, nau, das, sau (100)
- Water: Pani
- Hot water: garem pani (a luxury word to remember)
- My name is Eon: Mira naam Eon he (Indians always seem surprised and impressed to hear this)
Overall:
The Indian trip started out with mixed feelings, and on leaving India after two weeks I felt relieved that we were escaping to Nepal. But I am so glad that we had the guts to return, because we got to see another side of India and we had a blast!!
Once we picked up some Hindi, it made the world’s difference in the reaction from the locals. This way we truly got to experience Indian hospitality.
One of the things that stood out for me was how everything just seems to blend here: The dogs and cows in the street, the chai wallah walking around shouting “chai, chai”, the cars with the continuous hooting, the woman in their brightly coloured saris, the men chewing paan, making that disgusting throat croaking noise and spitting everywhere, the beautiful display of fruit, veggies and spices next to the road and the mix of aromas, some nice and others appalling, filling the air.
India is a country of extremes - a mixture of beauty and disgust, of good and bad.
We definitely have to return one day.
Click on the image below to view the gallery for India: