Warming up to India

We had the best day today. We were tired of all the tourist stuff, so opted out of the palace tour, and wandered around to old town/fort area of Jaisalmer. The town is a desert town, and all the buildings are made from golden sandstone. Most of the windows and doors are beautifully carved. And the people hassle you so much less than in the cities. They understand the word "no" and don't continue to bug you. We wandered around the shops looking at things and joking with the sales people. We bought some pretty anklets that we used on our wrists and people kept looking at them and giggling, cause we were wearing them wrong. Also, the people selling them kept trying toget us to buy more even though we insisted we already had some and waved them in their faces. One little girl was really cute and we proposed selling ours back to her, and joked around with prices of 3000 and 5000 rupees (one is about 10 really). And whenever someone wants to take a picture with us, Eman says "100 rupees!"

Towards the end of the day, we were tired and stopped in a shop where they gave us tea and kept unfolding piles and piles of pashmina scarfs for us to look at. They call the reversible ones "Sunday-Monday" because you wear one color the next day and another the next.

As we were walking back to the hotel filled with yummy pasta, we saw some girls playing badminton on the street and went to talk to them. We ended up meeting their whole family of 11 and having tea and talking and playing for about an hour and a half. We have finally found the nice Indian people. Lesson: small towns rock.

Yesterday, we went on a camel safari (riding around for a couple of hours and stopping on a sand dune for a while). The dune areas were really pretty, with endless sand and pretty designs. Camel riding really sucks though. It's super bumpy. I thought that maybe once they started running fast, it would get smoother, like a horse, but definitely not. My guide kept trying to get me to do a long 21 day camel safari, but I don't think I ever need to get on a camel again.

We finally have returned to Indian food after a 3-day hiatus. The awful food the first couple of days put us off, but we're following the trusty lonely planet and doing ok. It's funny, every store and restaurant has signs saying "recommended by Lonely Planet" even if they're not. And if they are, there are 3 with the same name in one block, so you never know anyway.

The next two weeks are going to be ok. I swear we spend at least an hour each day talking about home or food at home, but we really are having a blast.

More insanity

For more information about our oncoming insanity, visit Eman's blog at http://lapursuitedubonheur.blogspot.com/

All the Indian food we've had here has been awful. Westernized, oily, sickness-causing. How ironic. I'd give a lot for some EP India Palace food right now. We did go to McDonalds today. Though I should have realized this, there is no beef burger here. Chicken and veggie burgers, even Chapati McAloo Tikka, which really amused me.

India is nuts.

Oh. Man. This place is so freakin crazy. I think the Delhi Belly refers more to the mad frustration you get whenever you try to do something useful in the city than to the food bugs you get, though we have had experience with both now. We got into Dehli at night on the 7th and luckily, our hotel pick-up had waited around for our flight, which was 2.5 hours late. Unfortunately, he took us to a different hotel which was supposedly affiliated with the one we booked, but we paid the same price anyway. Seems like whenever you get into a cab or autorickshaw here trying to get to a hotel or tourist information place, they take you to their favorite hotel or travel agent and get a hefty cut of your spendings there.

It seems like you have to hassle your way through everything as everyone expects to squeeze something out of our gullible American-looking faces. We have taken to saying that we are Iranian and Chinese, respectively, which is fun. Actually people ask so many ridiculous and nosy questions that I've decided to answer with ridiculous answers. Like where did you stay, how much did you pay, where are you from, what is your dad's name, are you married, what did you eat last night, where are you going, and can I take you to my friend's travel agency.

We had hoped to obtain our bus tickets once we arrived in Delhi, but the bus station was such chaos and only booking for Indian nationals. While trying to get to the Tourist information Bureau, we were led into a travel agency that claimed to be the bureau, then an agency representing the bureau, then an agency certified by the bureau, then a place with a guy certified by the bureau working there, in succession. They guy was really smooth and good at his stuff. We ended up buying a package deal with trains and hotels for the next 2 weeks for a price that we knew was a scam, but were willing to pay to avoid having to go through all the hassle in every city we go to. We got out with about $40 a day. Livable I suppose.

We've seen at least 10 forms of transportation side by side on the roads here: Car, truck, rickshaw, autorickshaw, bike, motorbike, horse-back, pony wagons, camel wagons, oxen wagons, walking, mule-back, and probably some others. In short, the roads are complete chaos. They do have traffic lights (absent in Nepal) but the sheer mass of traffic keeps the chaos intact. It was really stressful being on the streets the first couple of days, and we are very glad to have our own hotel rooms to relax and chill out in. I'm usually all for dorms, but here, I really need some "goodbye, India" time. And the people, oh man. When we got out of our car at the Taj Mahal parking lot, there were at least 6 people pouncing on us to sell cart rides, rickshaw rides, necklaces, snow globes, random pins and all sorts of stuff we didn't want. And they sure are insistent.

Despite sounding miserable, we acutally are having a grand time. The key is to not take anything to seriously and never expect anything to be done in a reasonable time period. Patience is the key. It's fun to play around with the people bugging you and try to get them to crack a smile. Making an effort to learn Hindi really helps and they get excited about that and (for a while) forget about getting money from you. Eman once tried to offer her empty 7UP bottle for something and the guy went away really quickly. Today, there was a cute, smart little 8-yr old kid who spoke really good English and was selling something or another. Eman gave him some gum and later, when another kid asked for gum, he shouted, "She's no having and chewing gum!" We cracked up.

We have had a driver for the past two days, which is really nice. After spending about 5 hours finding/deliberating/finalizing our travel deal, we went to Old Delhi, but Eman had gotten really sick (Delhi belly type 2) and I did a quick run around Chandni chowk and we hurried to the hotel, where they insisted we give them an extra 10 rupees for the fee for photocopying our passports. We politely refused. Prices are more based on what they think a sucker like you would pay than on how much something is worth.

Day 2, we drove to Agra, stopping at a few temples in between. The Taj Mahal was actually really gorgeous. An elegant white marble edifice against a blue sky with a foreground of red stone, green lawn, and silver fountains. It was also huge. The inside has intricate carvings and semiprecious stones inlaid into the marble. It was flanked by two beautiful red and white mosques. We got cool little shoe booties that reminded me of parade of homes.

Today, we went to Fatephur Sikri, which was capital of the Mughals for 15 years and is now a fascinating collection of ruins and old palaces. The mosque there was also huge and lovely. Many things around here are made with a really pretty red sandstone. Now we're in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan for a couple of days.

I love lassis, but my tummy does not.

Last Days in Nepal

Today we leave Nepal for India. I've been here about a month, and I think I may have to come back someday. The scenery is lovely, and the people are super friendly. When you get out of the touristy areas of course. On returning from Pokhara mountain area, we did some much needed laundry (in the room against rules. were such rebels.) and went to the Monkey temple high above the city. The long stairs were a little rough on our tired legs but the view of the valley was worth it. Not as many monkeys as expected, but the ones there were very cute.

Yesterday, we went to Bhaktapur, a very old town in the valley which was really beautiful. They head really good local curd in locally made pots. yum, and had dinner with my co-volunteers before they head off to a 10-day tour. It was good to see them again.

Eman and I survived our 5-day trek in the Himalayan foothills. It was so gorgeous. Mountains are tall. The tallest we say was about 22,000 ft, though we didn't get above 10,000. I still managed to get miserably altitude sick for one evening, but quickly recovered. Strangely enough, it's still green and 60 degrees in the day at that elevation in January. There were really pretty terraced fields everywhere at the lower elevations and a really wide variety of vegitation wherever we went. We walked for a few days with a nice Vancouverite girl who grew up in Victoria, and all three of us liked to talk about food. Our guide was great and really sweet. We were glad to not have gone thru a travel agent. Probably could have gotten by on our own, but was way easier with someone who knew the language and how to get around. And we stopped in interesting places. Like today in some random people's home (a one room mud building with corrogated steel roofing and three walls) for some fresh hot buffalo milk.

Nepal is really great (though bothersome for someone with already loose stools) and I can't believe I've been here a month already. we go to India on the 7th and plan to go to Dehli, Agra (Taj Mahal), Mumbai, and various places in the provinces of Rajasthan and Gujarat. It should be really fun, but I'm not sure what to expect. Maybe a mix of Nepal and China but with something more.

to the Himalayas

I'm leaving my host family today to meet my friend Eman at the airport. The family has been so great and the co-vols also are awesome. We made momos (Tibetan stlye bao-zi) last night, which was really fun. I'll miss them all. It's amazing how accomodating they are with having 3 or 4 volunteers coming and going all the time. And they're fun too. Eman and I will be heading to Pokhara at the edge of the Himalayas tomorrow and will go on a 4 day trek in the mountains for some genuine Himalaya experience. We're going with a guide who is the brother of one of the kids at the DRC, so it will be nice to have someone around who knows what he's doing. Hedoesn't speak good English, but I'll just pretend I'm Edmund Hillary and he's Tenzing Norgay. The full experience right?

Yesterday was the last day at the DRC, which was emotional. All the kids said goodbye and asked me when I was coming back, and I didn't really know what to say. It's been so great there. Everyone is so nice, the kids are really sweet and quite mature for their ages. And they take care of each other so well. And so happy. It's amazing that they can be so happy with so little, while many Western kids are discontented when they don't get cookies after school or a new Xbox. It's been really eye-opening living there, and you realize how much stuff is really superfluous and unnecessary. I will be excited by toilet paper for a while though.

Tuesday was Losar (new year) for the Tamang caste. Every caste seems to have a different new year festival day. We went into the Bouddnath area, where there is a huge stupe and a lot of Tibetan people, and there was a big festival in a yard for the celebration. The was dancing, rock bands, and local singers as well as some Nepali kids from the school that the other volunteers help out at. It was fun talking to them and observing the people who came to watch. We were definitely the only foreigners there.

Yesterday, my co-vol Cassie and I went to the kids' school for a couple hours to see what it was like. We taught one English class to 6th graders, which was hard. Then we sat in on two other classes taught in English about population and environment (what a cool class for primary schoolers) and computers, which was interesting, since none of the kids have computers at home. The kids are really good at spitting out memorized sentences (in English) about definitions and explanations, but I don't think they really understand most of it. It's strange. Again, so much taken for granted at home.

I'm off to the mountains.

Welcome to the Zoo

My host family's house is pretty crazy right now. They have a dog, a rat, a fish, and four foreigners along with the 6 family members. And this week, they've adopted three stray kittens who hang around the house after finding affection and food there. The dog gets jealous of them and comes inside too. It's quite a zoo. Home life is really good. Everyone is fun and we play cards sometimes. I helped make Nepali bread once and on Wednesday, cooked dinner for the family. Pasta with mushroom cream sauce and garlic bread. I had planned to make a salad, but what I though was romaine was actually bitter mustard greens. Oh well.

The DRC is still fun. The kids are really silly. They play a lot of games that I only half understand. More of them keep arriving, so names are hard. There are two kids, one without feet and one without a second leg, who run around really fast like little monkeys. A few of the young boys are pretty sick at chess.

Most of the kids started school on Thursday, so me and my fellow volunteer walked them there. Coming into the gate, we saw some abandoned looking structures with two concrete walls an corrogated steel roofs. It took a few seconds before I realized these were the classrooms. They each have a few rows of benches and tables and a measly little chalkboard. No lights. No decorations. Not even walls on all sides. The kids have to wear their school uniform correctly, and Hemanta, who is about 7, was crying because she had forgotten here belt and was going to be beaten for it. We went up to the dusty patch of bare ground which is their playground and played with their makeshift hacky sacks (which are made from tying together bundles of rubber bands) until classes started. When the bell rang, everyone lined up according to class and gender and did morning exercises. The kids all wanted us to stay and help teach their class, but we haven't yet. They do not have enough teachers to go around, so half the time, any given class has no teacher present. We take so much for granted. . .

I have four more days here before I meet Eman at the airport and go trekking in the mountains for a few days. It will be nice to get out of the city and away from the pollution and noise. The water at our house has been on and off and it seems like everytime the pump gets fixed, the electricity is out, so we still have to wait 8 hours for water to work. Electricity cuts are down to 14 hours a day! Wooo! Welcome to Nepal. Welcome to the Zoo.