Ok,
this bit of my blog is to assure that I have not in fact turned into a raving lunatic (which may well be assumed from my previous post) and I am in fact a well balanced individual who intends to now bore you to tears yet again with more lengthy explanations that I missed in my last blog!
One thing I forgot to mention was that when I arrived in Mumbai and went down to the Gateway of India although the water was polluted and it stank, there was a beautiful quality of light that I have never seen anywhere else, especially in the morning, which seemed to feel very spiritual and special. The end of the day feels and looks as tired and sad as the sunsets. Mumbai has some beautiful old colonial buildings, if you ever go to Mumabi go and see the Taj hotel, Victoria train station and the Gateway to India.
One thing you notice straight away in India is body contact and touch. Men and woman generally dont touch each other in public, even if they are married. Everyone carries, hugs, kisses and generally adores children. I've lost count of the number of children and babies that have been plonked on my lap! I have no idea if what I am about to describe is a direct result of the 'no touching' thing but in India you see men from school age to pensioners walking around hand in hand, arm in arm, sleeping on the floor wrapped around one another etc! If you were in India for the first time and were not aware of this phenomenon you would be forgiven for thinking that every male was gay when in fact male homosexuality is illegal in India. I have no idea why this weird phenomenon developed, and can only conclude (somewhat sadly) that it is due to a lack of touch elsewhere in their lives.
Another feature very common in India is of course the cows. They are a holy animal here and while they produce milk and pull heavy loads they are put to work. When this is no longer the case they are turned out onto the street where they stand around (usually at the busiest crossroads they can find) and look for all the world like they are waiting for Gary Larson to turn up and start drawing them. They seem to just wander around and stand and chat oblivious to the honking and swervng traffic around them. Their life from once they are released is to wander the streets eating rubbish and plastic until they die. I think I would rather be an unholy scottish cow for all that!
Talking of India and the roads, Indians use their car/motercycle/rickshaw horn to mean
'I will now turn left'
'I will now turn right'
'I will now swerve to avoid the cow'
'Get out of the bloody way'
'Let me through' etc etc.
In India the bigger your vehicle the more right of way you have - no seriously! Pedestrians are at the bottom of the pecking order and the cows are at the top, so if a cow steps onto the road in front of a bus, he's fine. If you do the same thing, forget it!
I wrote in the last blog about the skewed population and how I wasnt sure how much of it was true. I read in the paper today - the 'Hindu' no less, that there is a lot of 'female genocide' goes on in the lower caste families ie manual labour and farming communities where there are only 700 females born for every 1000 males. Men are more useful and can do manual labour etc.
The tradititional dress in India is a Sari or a punjab suit. Most younger woman wear punjab suits and you only wear toe rings if you are married and if you wear one anklet only apparently thats like wearing half a t-shirt, you look half dressed and women will point and laugh at your ankles!
The colour of Saris and punjab suits here I cannot begin to describe. Its like someone has given kids in a playground every colour of paint imaginable and left them to paint a wall, glorious colours abound everywhere, whereas the men in comparison look quite drab. Saris are so practical too really. They are a cloth, a towel, a baby wrap, a pillow, a pashmina, a blanket etc and all while you are wearing it!
After Mumbai I went to Goa (Vagator and Anjuna) and I can say honestly that I wasnt that keen on it at all (sorry Fiona).
The train ride to Goa was fun as there was a few of us to pass the 12 hours together. Every 5 minutes there was someone coming along the corridor yelling 'Chai' or 'toys' or 'sweets' and this went on for 12 hours interspersed with kids begging for money on the train. Every time it stopped they would get on. They were very persistant and one guy who was with us eventually yelled 'chello' at them (go away!) and he said immediatly that he felt bad, but on the same tolken we were sitting in the cheapest part of the train and there were plenty of rich Indian people on the train but people always beg from white people as they think we are much richer than anyone else in India and that simply isnt the case.
This brings me to the meals they serve on the trains. A man came along and asked us if we wanted lunch? We asked what it was, veg/chicken biriyani. Always opt for the veg option if either A) you cant see the kitchen or B) you have done a kitchen check on the way into the restaurant and thought 'yuck' - no hang on scrap that. You will almost always think 'yuck'. If it looks moderatly clean and if the waiters look clean then meat is probably an ok option. However if you ask for chicken they invariably bring you goat.
Anyway to grag myself back from yet another tangent..... we wento to the kitchen on the train - wow!
It was basically a converted carriage with one guy in a whole compartment to himself peeling mounds of potatoes - the trains are huge so a lot of food is needed. A guy in another compartment was rolling out chapattis and a third guy was frying rice on a huge gas hob. The wok he was cooking in I could have sat in with another person quite easily (size wise I mean, not because it looked comfortable!)
Lunch cost 50p and was washed down with a glass bottle of coke (20p)
The other huge thing I forgot to mention in the last blog was 'hand etiquette'. Your right hand in India is used for eating, shaking hands, receiving things from another person etc. It is your clean hand. Your left hand is your toilet hand and your body hand and is therefore not used for eating. I had to sit on my left hand for days until I got used to not using it (at mealtimes I mean, not in general!!)
Anyway Goa was fun zipping around on a scooter for 2 days in the red dust that is so indicative of India and enjoying the beach and the beer. Made me think of when Grandpa was in India as he had a moterbike here as well and there are so few cars here, everyone has a scooter or moterbike.
I got the bus to Hampi after that, the place where I had my first squat toilet and learned about the Gods!
Catching the overnight bus to Hampi was fun! At one point we stopped at an eating place and I looked out the window to see 2 men holding hands beside a sign that said 'brain soothing cream' and 'skin whiteness cream' and then a couple of cows wandering around in the foreground and my one thought was 'if I take a picture of that scene no-one will believe it!'
They use skin whitening cream a lot in India as the higher up the caste system you go the lighter your skin becomes and they are horrified when the learn that most of the western world is very concerned with getting brown! I was travelling with a very fair skinned girl at one point and she was pestered and stared at far more than me as her skin was lighter than mine.
Hampi is certainly beautiful - if going to India it is a definite 'must see'. Here there are some principle temples to the Gods, the friends of the Gods and the hangers on/companions of the Gods.
They have a huge temple to Ganesh in Hampi and every morning they bring the temple elephant down to the water. It is a beautiful sight to see to get up early and walk down to the waters edge, where accross the river the elephant is coming down the ghats to the water. Further down the river a group of boys are swimming and shrieking in the early morning sun. In a quiet inlay of water, the woman wash their Saris and lay them out to dry until the ghat looks like a huge patchwork quilt of every concievable colour imaginable.
A man is coracle fishing at this side of the river. Coracles are used a lot in Hampi and local boys will take you for a spin down the river in one (for the right price of course!)
The place I stayed in Hampi was full when I arrived, but 'would I like to sleep on the roof for 40 rupees a night?' Would I ever!!!
I slept under the stars and mosquito netting and rose at sunrise every morning to the sounds of the parade leading the elephant down for his morning bathe.
One other thing of note I did in Hampi was visit the Hanuman temple. Hanuman is known as the monkey god and has the face of a monkey but is actually a devotee of Lord Rama.
While I was up at the top of the temple watching the sunset over Hampi, a monkey sauntered up and had a chomp at my arm!!! Naturally the thought of impending rabies ruined my peaceful sunset watching, so, frothing at the mouth I returned to Hampi for some immediate injections.
From Hampi i took another overnight bus to Hyderabad, simply to connect to Varanasi. Hyderabad is worth a look if you find yourself there. Hotels are pricey though and the mice were not only included in the room price but they ate my hot chocolate in the middle of the night! Hyderbad has virtually no white tourists and instead of measuring things against how many fast food chains there are as I did in Central America I do a ratio of White Person : Stray dog and the higher the stray dog ratio gets, the happier I get.
I MUST mention the Indian head wobble here as I've started doing it! So you ask an Indian person a question and instead of saying 'yes' or 'no' or 'its that way' they wobble their head!
I guess in its purest form it means that 'I dont want to say no', or 'I'm not sure', so I will wobble my head' So far it seems to have meant
'Yes'
'No'
'I'm not sure'
'Maybe'
'I don't know
'I don't understand'
'I dont know where Scotland is'
'I dont know WHAT Scotland is'
There is a huge issue in India about saving face. The head wobble is a great way of saving face without saying 'I dunno' If you ask for directions in India they will always tell you - even if they are lying through their teeth, as long as it sounds good then all is ok. This can be very frustrating if you are trying to find something as everyone will point you in very specific and totally different directions with the utmost confidence they know exactly where you want to go!
this bit of my blog is to assure that I have not in fact turned into a raving lunatic (which may well be assumed from my previous post) and I am in fact a well balanced individual who intends to now bore you to tears yet again with more lengthy explanations that I missed in my last blog!
One thing I forgot to mention was that when I arrived in Mumbai and went down to the Gateway of India although the water was polluted and it stank, there was a beautiful quality of light that I have never seen anywhere else, especially in the morning, which seemed to feel very spiritual and special. The end of the day feels and looks as tired and sad as the sunsets. Mumbai has some beautiful old colonial buildings, if you ever go to Mumabi go and see the Taj hotel, Victoria train station and the Gateway to India.
One thing you notice straight away in India is body contact and touch. Men and woman generally dont touch each other in public, even if they are married. Everyone carries, hugs, kisses and generally adores children. I've lost count of the number of children and babies that have been plonked on my lap! I have no idea if what I am about to describe is a direct result of the 'no touching' thing but in India you see men from school age to pensioners walking around hand in hand, arm in arm, sleeping on the floor wrapped around one another etc! If you were in India for the first time and were not aware of this phenomenon you would be forgiven for thinking that every male was gay when in fact male homosexuality is illegal in India. I have no idea why this weird phenomenon developed, and can only conclude (somewhat sadly) that it is due to a lack of touch elsewhere in their lives.
Another feature very common in India is of course the cows. They are a holy animal here and while they produce milk and pull heavy loads they are put to work. When this is no longer the case they are turned out onto the street where they stand around (usually at the busiest crossroads they can find) and look for all the world like they are waiting for Gary Larson to turn up and start drawing them. They seem to just wander around and stand and chat oblivious to the honking and swervng traffic around them. Their life from once they are released is to wander the streets eating rubbish and plastic until they die. I think I would rather be an unholy scottish cow for all that!
Talking of India and the roads, Indians use their car/motercycle/rickshaw horn to mean
'I will now turn left'
'I will now turn right'
'I will now swerve to avoid the cow'
'Get out of the bloody way'
'Let me through' etc etc.
In India the bigger your vehicle the more right of way you have - no seriously! Pedestrians are at the bottom of the pecking order and the cows are at the top, so if a cow steps onto the road in front of a bus, he's fine. If you do the same thing, forget it!
I wrote in the last blog about the skewed population and how I wasnt sure how much of it was true. I read in the paper today - the 'Hindu' no less, that there is a lot of 'female genocide' goes on in the lower caste families ie manual labour and farming communities where there are only 700 females born for every 1000 males. Men are more useful and can do manual labour etc.
The tradititional dress in India is a Sari or a punjab suit. Most younger woman wear punjab suits and you only wear toe rings if you are married and if you wear one anklet only apparently thats like wearing half a t-shirt, you look half dressed and women will point and laugh at your ankles!
The colour of Saris and punjab suits here I cannot begin to describe. Its like someone has given kids in a playground every colour of paint imaginable and left them to paint a wall, glorious colours abound everywhere, whereas the men in comparison look quite drab. Saris are so practical too really. They are a cloth, a towel, a baby wrap, a pillow, a pashmina, a blanket etc and all while you are wearing it!
After Mumbai I went to Goa (Vagator and Anjuna) and I can say honestly that I wasnt that keen on it at all (sorry Fiona).
The train ride to Goa was fun as there was a few of us to pass the 12 hours together. Every 5 minutes there was someone coming along the corridor yelling 'Chai' or 'toys' or 'sweets' and this went on for 12 hours interspersed with kids begging for money on the train. Every time it stopped they would get on. They were very persistant and one guy who was with us eventually yelled 'chello' at them (go away!) and he said immediatly that he felt bad, but on the same tolken we were sitting in the cheapest part of the train and there were plenty of rich Indian people on the train but people always beg from white people as they think we are much richer than anyone else in India and that simply isnt the case.
This brings me to the meals they serve on the trains. A man came along and asked us if we wanted lunch? We asked what it was, veg/chicken biriyani. Always opt for the veg option if either A) you cant see the kitchen or B) you have done a kitchen check on the way into the restaurant and thought 'yuck' - no hang on scrap that. You will almost always think 'yuck'. If it looks moderatly clean and if the waiters look clean then meat is probably an ok option. However if you ask for chicken they invariably bring you goat.
Anyway to grag myself back from yet another tangent..... we wento to the kitchen on the train - wow!
It was basically a converted carriage with one guy in a whole compartment to himself peeling mounds of potatoes - the trains are huge so a lot of food is needed. A guy in another compartment was rolling out chapattis and a third guy was frying rice on a huge gas hob. The wok he was cooking in I could have sat in with another person quite easily (size wise I mean, not because it looked comfortable!)
Lunch cost 50p and was washed down with a glass bottle of coke (20p)
The other huge thing I forgot to mention in the last blog was 'hand etiquette'. Your right hand in India is used for eating, shaking hands, receiving things from another person etc. It is your clean hand. Your left hand is your toilet hand and your body hand and is therefore not used for eating. I had to sit on my left hand for days until I got used to not using it (at mealtimes I mean, not in general!!)
Anyway Goa was fun zipping around on a scooter for 2 days in the red dust that is so indicative of India and enjoying the beach and the beer. Made me think of when Grandpa was in India as he had a moterbike here as well and there are so few cars here, everyone has a scooter or moterbike.
I got the bus to Hampi after that, the place where I had my first squat toilet and learned about the Gods!
Catching the overnight bus to Hampi was fun! At one point we stopped at an eating place and I looked out the window to see 2 men holding hands beside a sign that said 'brain soothing cream' and 'skin whiteness cream' and then a couple of cows wandering around in the foreground and my one thought was 'if I take a picture of that scene no-one will believe it!'
They use skin whitening cream a lot in India as the higher up the caste system you go the lighter your skin becomes and they are horrified when the learn that most of the western world is very concerned with getting brown! I was travelling with a very fair skinned girl at one point and she was pestered and stared at far more than me as her skin was lighter than mine.
Hampi is certainly beautiful - if going to India it is a definite 'must see'. Here there are some principle temples to the Gods, the friends of the Gods and the hangers on/companions of the Gods.
They have a huge temple to Ganesh in Hampi and every morning they bring the temple elephant down to the water. It is a beautiful sight to see to get up early and walk down to the waters edge, where accross the river the elephant is coming down the ghats to the water. Further down the river a group of boys are swimming and shrieking in the early morning sun. In a quiet inlay of water, the woman wash their Saris and lay them out to dry until the ghat looks like a huge patchwork quilt of every concievable colour imaginable.
A man is coracle fishing at this side of the river. Coracles are used a lot in Hampi and local boys will take you for a spin down the river in one (for the right price of course!)
The place I stayed in Hampi was full when I arrived, but 'would I like to sleep on the roof for 40 rupees a night?' Would I ever!!!
I slept under the stars and mosquito netting and rose at sunrise every morning to the sounds of the parade leading the elephant down for his morning bathe.
One other thing of note I did in Hampi was visit the Hanuman temple. Hanuman is known as the monkey god and has the face of a monkey but is actually a devotee of Lord Rama.
While I was up at the top of the temple watching the sunset over Hampi, a monkey sauntered up and had a chomp at my arm!!! Naturally the thought of impending rabies ruined my peaceful sunset watching, so, frothing at the mouth I returned to Hampi for some immediate injections.
From Hampi i took another overnight bus to Hyderabad, simply to connect to Varanasi. Hyderabad is worth a look if you find yourself there. Hotels are pricey though and the mice were not only included in the room price but they ate my hot chocolate in the middle of the night! Hyderbad has virtually no white tourists and instead of measuring things against how many fast food chains there are as I did in Central America I do a ratio of White Person : Stray dog and the higher the stray dog ratio gets, the happier I get.
I MUST mention the Indian head wobble here as I've started doing it! So you ask an Indian person a question and instead of saying 'yes' or 'no' or 'its that way' they wobble their head!
I guess in its purest form it means that 'I dont want to say no', or 'I'm not sure', so I will wobble my head' So far it seems to have meant
'Yes'
'No'
'I'm not sure'
'Maybe'
'I don't know
'I don't understand'
'I dont know where Scotland is'
'I dont know WHAT Scotland is'
There is a huge issue in India about saving face. The head wobble is a great way of saving face without saying 'I dunno' If you ask for directions in India they will always tell you - even if they are lying through their teeth, as long as it sounds good then all is ok. This can be very frustrating if you are trying to find something as everyone will point you in very specific and totally different directions with the utmost confidence they know exactly where you want to go!
posted by Amy | 7:44 AM
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