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This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
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Topic: Ian goes to India
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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 06-17-2004 08:01 AM
Midnight Bombay.
I arrived at the airport and suffered the crush of humanity to get in to my pre-paid taxi to got to my hotel. All the taxis are Fiats that were designed before I was born and in which I barely fit. They drive around at night without lights and honking their horns at each other. By some miracle we found the W.I.A.A. Club and I got checked in.
I woke up at 7:00 AM took my second shower and called Payal. I went over to her uncle's apartment and met everybody and had breakfast. Chai and toast.
It's Monsoon season here and my plane was held up an hour in a storm. It has been raining off and on all day. I expect it to rain till we go to Kathmandu. Payal's uncle took us to the bank where we got $40,000 Rupees. We spent the day at a travel agent's booking our tour of the Golden Triangle of Delhi, Agra and Rajistan.
We got back to the apartment in the poring rain and ate a late lunch. I had Dal, potatos and peas, chipati.
The crush of humanity is amazing. This apartment has a guard, door man, elevator man and thier maid sleeps in the kitchen. The travel agent employs a man just to run copies and bring stuff.
Now I am just taking a break before diving back in and buying soap and shampoo. These are not provided at the hotel. One is advised to bring toilet paper with them as it is not common in India. I'm glad I'm with Payal as the taxi drivers don't really speak English. And I don't understand the money. $45 Rupees = $1. Payal's $40,000 Rupees required a shopping bag to carry around. You don't even break open the bundles of $100 Rupee notes, you just pass them over. The guard at the bank seemed to be carrying a Lee Endfield double barraled Shot Gun.
As we were driving along Chowpatti Beach the waves were so large that they were breaking over the breakwater and coming in the cab windows and the driver was steering for the bigger ones, I guess he thought it was a free car wash.
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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 06-22-2004 09:24 PM
Kathmandu Nepal,
I like it here, it feels like Cuzco in Peru. People are smiling and generaly happy. The streets are narrow and teaming with life. Yesterday Payal and I spun off from the group and went and explored the central temples. The group went shopping. The group is all Indian. We're talking Saris and hiking booths here. Vineeta is the tour leader, she is Payal's cousin by marriage. We are 25 strong. half are from Mumbai and half are from another town. They were set up buy another tour company and then grafted into Vineeta's group. There is some problems but she is handling it well. There are only 4 Americans but three of them are of Indian decent, so I am the only white guy. Payal is the only other American by birth. She is trying real hard to be Indian. She only speaks hindu to the Nepal people. This helps with admissions as Indians are charged 10% as much as the westerners. Admission to the plaza yesterday was R20 for her and R200 for me. Of course R200 is about $1.10. Last evening we went to a Hindu temple where non believers are not allowed. Hindu and Moslem are ok but Buddist and Christian are not allowed. The Parsi got in because he looks Indian. I got a tour of the grounds outside by a local guide and charged appropriatly. I saw the platforms along the river where they burn the bodies. Three were burning there. It costs R300 to burn your dead, or about $3.30. There are monkeys everywhere. There are cows ambling along. I was the only westerner in site. Now that there aer Maoist Terrorists tourists are staying away. I saw the caves where the hermits live. I met Milk Baba who is a holy man who has lived in California. He has hair 2-meters long and consumes only milk. I saw many other temples that I could go in to. I am learning a bit about Hindu but I'm sure only a light scratching of the surface.
Vineeta jokes that she is going to teach me Hindu, Gujrati and Nepali in 14-days. I will be lucky if I can say please, thank you and where's the bathroom. All the Indians and Nepali speak English to some extent. All Nepali speak Hindu as well. Nepal seems exotic to me, but to an Indian it's like visiting Yosemite valley. Half of these Indians have children or relatives in the USA and have come for a visit.
One observation is that the Indian tourists are culturally isolated. They eat nothing but Indian vegitarian food prepared by the hotel or tour company. It's culturally interesting for me, but please, there is a world of Nepali food out there waiting to be tasted.
Tomorrow we leave for tibet. There will be 5-days of driving 800 kilometers on bad roads to reach Mt. Kilash and then the tora will be three days. We will have one day of aclimatizing before setting off on the 3-day trek. Every Indian I talk to says how lucky I am to be going on this trek. Food going out will be very plain as befitting a pilgrimage. Food coming back will be more masala or spicy and interesting as befitting a celebration.
There is a married couple who are in their twenties and their mother. Payal is 26. I'm sure Vineeta isn't much over 30 and I'm 42. Those are the young ones. Pigrimages are undertaken by older people who are successful in life, so the rest of our group is middle aged or just plain old. Were going to spend a week at 13,000 feet and at one point top out at 19,000 feet. I'm worried about myself and wondering how these old people will get along.
I know that these people are probably tougher then Americans but please, this is a trek. Some of the people didn't realize that we would be camping. I didn't know how much camping. We will be in tents for 6-days. The tour company provides Tents, porters, yaks, sleeping bags, and parkas. As a rule Indian people don't own coats or proper shoes. Some bought shoes yesterday! Everybody in India wears sandles as you would if it were 100 degrees for 6-months of the year.
This will be my last post for a while. We will not run in to Internet cafes in Tibet. Hopefully as we get higher I will sweat less. I cant do laundry for the next two weeks and I sweat out my cloths every day. But the higher I get the better I will feel to a point.
Today we will visit more temples and I need to buy snack food. I think I am gaining weight on this trip. Beware the Indian buffet.
Ian
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