Another sad farewell....well maybe not sad

Back in Sivakasi now, packing up and getting ready to head out. But let me wrap up some last bits of my travels up north. The Taj Mahal was not really what I had expected. I thought of some big bustling city, crowded streets, beggars everywhere. After all, it is the marquee attraction in India. I thought I'd enter some big square and immediately be overun by small children grasping whatever part of me they could asking for money while I had to simultaneously fend off the venders trying to sell me miniatures of the Taj and constantly be asked which country I was from and what my name was... That wasn't it at all. The area around the Taj doesn't allow cars and for some entrances, you can only take a horsedrawn or bicycled rickshaw. The streets weren't too crowded, almost a little quieter and more peaceful than other places we'd been in northern India. The Taj is surrounded by four big gates, where people by their tickets and get in line... well, indians don't quite understand what a line is and the authorities shouted and shoved all the of the people that blatantly cut in front. After passing through the big gate, you came upon a large garden area and a stunning view of the Taj. Trees and grass and ponds littered area. There were many people, but I'd call it far from heaving with people. We eventually manuevered our way inside, which wasn't nearly as impressive as the outside. We then sat on the grass and watched the sun fully set, then set out for dinner.

The next day we got a taxi we had hired to drive us the 5 hours back to Dehli, where Adrienne and Hannah had to fly out of at 4:30. Sander and i then made our way to a hotel that said they had english movie channels, but didn't. The guy that carried sander's bags to the room also snatched his ipod in the process. This all occurred quite quickly and we fortunately hadn't checked in yet. We managed to get his ipod back which was "left on the bed" (yeah right" and grudgingly made our way to a hotel much closer to the airport and with much nicer staff. We then were scheduled to fly out at 9:15AM Dec.5. Of course, nothing is ever on time in India and our flight was delayed for 4 hours. We arrived late in Trivandrum and had to catch a late train back to Satur. We didn't arrive in Satur till 3AM and had to catch a one hour rickshaw ride back to Sivakasi because no buses ran that late. Not only was the rickshaw driver slow, but every time a truck approached, he would slow way down and stop in the middle of the road until the last minute when the truck was about to smash us he'd swirve out of the way.... Don't ask me, Indian logic.

Sander and I spent only a few days in Sivakasi before we left again for Varkala. It was our last weekend and our favorite place in Southern India. We wanted to get a nice tan and relax once more before going home. We unfortunately had to grab the late train back from Trivandrum again. Taking a train isn't always easy. You have to keep a sharp eye out to see your stop. It isn't announced, and no one tells you anything. When it's 2:30AM my observation levels aren't always 100%. Unfortunately, the platform was located on the side of the train where all the doors were locked in our carraige and all the windows had grates pulled over, so I needed to run halfway down the next carraige to see the stop. I realize it as Satur when the train started moving, ran back, awoke Sander who was slumbering away and ran back. The train had gathered a deceptive amount of speed, but that didn't stop us from jumping ship. The train was moving much faster than I thought so when I hit the ground I really 'hit' the ground. I tore a hole in my pants and gashed my right knee. I also accrued various cuts, scraps and bruises on my hands and feet. My body seared with pain.... why do we say the word seared? to associate pain with burning? That sounds too much like an STD, I think I'll use the word shot... Pain "shot" through my body (yeah, that sounds better). Fortunately I wasn't bleeding too profusely because we needed to grab a rickshaw to drive us the hour back to Sivakasi. All I could think about was infection, I wanted to clean my wounds. I had falled and got cut on the rocks beside the tracks, the tracks which are covered with human excrement flowing from the train toilets. Awesome.... I hadn't been worried this much about my health since the time I was bit by a dog riding my back through sivakasi. Should I get the rabies vaccine which involves certain blood products? In india blood products usually involve HIV, Hep C or other nasties. Or should I risk getting rabies which has a zero percent survival rate in the existence of the disease save one girl which happened very recently and most likely not in a developing nation? Well, I convinced myself that the dog wasn't rabid and the wound was very small and any saliva it had should have been soaked into my pants instead of my skin when it bit through. I still have no rabies and hopefully no serious infection of my wounds by the time I return home.

I leave tonight for Chennai, spend the day there, then fly out at 4AM the next morning to London where I spend 6 days visiting friends. I'm really looking forward to it. I wish you all well and can't wait to see everyone on my return home.

Get me away from rickshaw drivers!

So much has happened since last post. On our last day in Bombay we were treating ourselves to some delicious western cuisine at McDonalds when a man approached us and offered us parts in a Bollywood film. Much to our dismay, we were unable to take him up on the offer because we were leaving that evening, otherwise I would have totally been down for it. All you need to do is be really melodramatic and have minimal dancing skills. Basically, the hip thrust will get you by in India as far as dancing in bollywood films goes. We hopped on a train that evening at a really really sketchy train station and embarked on a 20 hr journey to Udaipur. What an awesome way to spend my Thanksgiving! A bottle of water, a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips and a packet of milk cookies... Wish mom would make me such a feast at home for future Thanksgivings. On the plus side, I saw som monkeys out the train window... big monkeys. They are honestly really disturbing with how many similarities they have with humans.

We arrived in Udaipur in the evening. It's the "white city" with some beautiful palaces on ome lakes. It was a relatively pleasant place with beautiful views. The people weren't overly pushy (but still pushy, they are indian after all) and the city was relatively clean (once again, lan for indian standards). We saw some palaces took a boat ride and just generally enjoyed the views of the city from rooftop cafes. I also wrangled some apple pie from a western bakery to make up for the deliciousness I missed out on during Thanksgiving. One of the most notable differences up north is that we finally started to realize "Oh yeah, it's winter time". While the days are still quite warm, the evenings can be rather brisk.

After two days and a night in Udaipur we hopped another train to Jhodpur, the blue city. My first impression of Jhodpur was not a good one. We arrived in the evening and hopped in a rickshaw. Apparently, all the rickshaw drivers try to charge commission from the hotels from taking you there, so the hotels have you get dropped off elsewhere and they come pick you up. After telling the drivers multiple times to take us to the clock tower and get seemingly compliant answers, they took us to a totally different hotel. Apparently, the owners son raped a girl recently and he has fallen out of favor with most everyone, so he pays rickshaw drivers to take people to his hotel. We finally got sorted and managed our way to the hotel where we actually had reservations. The people were very friendly and laid back. When we awoke the next morning we went atop the roof and had breakfast where e had a beautiful view of the Fort overlooking the city on top a huge rocky cliff, the city's primary attraction. That day we visited the amazing fort, learning about its history and the battles fought there. It was an impressive piece of work and beautiful to boot. In all it's history, it had never been conquered. It also gave us a wonderful views of the blue city below. The city itself had a very crowded feel. The alleyways were narrow and covered in cow pies. Although it had underground sewage, which is better than anywhere in tamil nadu, the streets were filthy and the people very dishonest. What little trust I had of Indians left me in Jhodpur. I eventually came up with the name Indiots, which explains the people of this country pretty well.

The next day we let our hotel to embark on a camel trek into the desert. After driving for an hour and a half and listening to the same indian song over and over, we arrived in a small village where we mounted our camels and took off. I was "lucky" enough to get on a camel that was a little ornery. After much coercion and groaning from the camel, they managed to get his saddle on. I then proceeded to mount him with a little apprehension. The apprehension was well warranted because once I had swung one leg partiall over, he stood up and started spinning in circles with me clinging to for dear life dangling half way off the saddle. They finally calmed him, I straightened myself and they then decided the saddle was crooked so I needed to get off. They retightened and straightened the saddle and told me to mount again, once again with much groaning (maybe more from me than the camel). I got myself upright and asked in earnest if it was safe. The man answered "Oh yes yes, just hold on tight". At this point, I decided to call my camel sweetums. We then rode off. Camels are NOT comfortable in any way, shape or form. After several hours of riding and several instances of sweetums acting up, we stopped at a sand dune and set up camp for the night. My entire lower half was sore from both bumping and chaffing. That evening we had a meal cooked for us and music entertainment was acquired from a nearby village. I don't know if I would really call it entertainment.... or really musical for that matter, but the indian camel drivers really got into it. We then crammed underneath surprisingly warm blankets (but not quite warm or big enough) and watched the stars as we fell to sleep. The next day we arose with the sun and had breakfast. The camel driver then took sweetums and whacked him several times with a sitck, made him run around in circles and get up and down several times. Sweetums was really not a happy camper... neither was I when he told me to get back on. He said "it's ok, he's had good training this morning". I gingerly mounted the massive animal and set back for civilization. Clearly the training wasn't good enough because every time I shifted my weight, sweetums would rear his head and shake his back. Exhausted, we made it back to jhodpur and moved into another hotel for the night, once again encountering problems with rickshaw drivers not taking us where we wished.

We left the bothersome city of jhodpur for Jaipur, the pink city. We were only in Jaipur for the day, but made the most of it by eating both pizza hut and subway. Yummy! Jaipur was a little like jhodpur, dirty and dishonest. We visited the palace where the current maharaja lives and also made our way to the monkey temple. There were a lot of monkeys.... so creepy. We boarded a bus and made our way to dehli. Dehli is a HUGE city.... After dealing constantly with annoying rickshaw drivers and stall owners, we made our way around the city seeing the Gate of India, the presidents house and a couple of tombs. The next day we made our way to the largest mosque in India (India muslims are very very unwelcoming and aggressive) and the red fort). We then left on a train for Amritsar.

Amritsar is a wonderful place. It is where the Golden Temple resides, holiest place of the shiekhs. Shiekhs are much much more tolerable than other indians. The shop owners weren't pushy, nor were the rickshaw drivers and the people were all quite friendly. Plus, many of them carried around swords and axes, which is just cool. The Golden Temple was possibly the most beautiful thing I've seen in India. It is surrounded by a white marble palace and extends into a small enclosed lake. Chanting is projected from the inside throughout most of the day. That evening we left for Wagha which is right along the pakistani border. Every evening at 5pm there is a military "Stand off". It has become so popular that both sides have built stadium seats for people to come watch. It was absolutely rediculous. It basically involved a lot of shouting and feet stomping at each other, followed by a handshake. We then left that evening and made our way to Agra, to see the Taj Mahal, which is where I am now. The Taj Mahal is truly an amazing sight, but marred by the immense crowds and the leering eyes of the indian men for western women. I'm running out of time so I gotta wrap this up. I hope you're all well and I'll write again soon. Take care.