Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Saturday, November 3, 2007
It was like the Twilight Zone
i thought the drama would cease yesterday. even the end of yesterday things chilled out. the sea had been crazy since i arrived, and not until today, after claiming 3 lives, the sea was calm. i had come back from town, hot and sweaty and tired, i decided to go into the water. i wanted to get rid of the creepy feeling i had about the whole ordeal. so me and another friend, a guy from spain named Pau went in to the water. after wards we walked over to this other cafe, and as we're walking there, i see something on the shore. and i'm like, oh shit, is that another body? and yeah, it was. it was the body of the half english half indian man who drowned and wasn't found yesterday. he was beached on the shore. his best friend saw him in the water and pulled him out. he was more than 24 hours in the ocean so you can only imagine the state of his body. he was white and purple and bloated and his face (which i didn't have a good look at) had been smashed against the rocks. the police finally came 3 hours after we called for them. i'm not sure there's a such thing as emergency response here. they just covered it with a sheet and left it there all night until around 11pm when his family arrived from England. As it laid there all day in the setting sun, decomposing, hundreds of flies landed all over the body. it was terrible.
the strange thing is, but i guess more natural things is, life goes on, and on, in the most normal fashion. death happens, even when it's violent or morbid, and life stills goes on.
Today, we finally had a normal, pleasant day in Kudle Beach Gokarna. I ran with Liz, and Michal and Dov played frisbee. People were swimming, and hanging out in the sun. We all sat together during the sunset.
It's starting to feel okay here.
the strange thing is, but i guess more natural things is, life goes on, and on, in the most normal fashion. death happens, even when it's violent or morbid, and life stills goes on.
Today, we finally had a normal, pleasant day in Kudle Beach Gokarna. I ran with Liz, and Michal and Dov played frisbee. People were swimming, and hanging out in the sun. We all sat together during the sunset.
It's starting to feel okay here.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
there's something wrong with the sea
my parents left two days ago. after they left i took four local buses for almost 5 hours and ended up in a small dusty middle of nowhere town called gokarna. it's a place that's been recommended to me to see. there was no one around. it's the type of place that closes down randomly in the middle of the afternoon. i spotted some rickshaw drivers and hopped in one. i was headed to kudle beach. he brought me to the edge of the mountain/foothill. i was confused. this didn't look like beach. then he pointed to a footpath down the mountain. i grabbed my stuff and hiked down the footpath. it opened up onto this beautiful beach nestled between two mountains. a cove of sorts. it was like a secret beach world. barely anyone there. just a handful of foreigners. this was kudle beach.
i walked a few hundred meters and saw liesbeth, a friend from dharamsala, sitting in a cafe, smoking a cigarette and drinking a coffee. it was good to see my friend again.
two days later, i woke up and went out to the beach. it was early for here so there weren't many people out except for a group of young indian student tourists playing together in the waves. i went for a walk with my friend dov along the beach. while we were walking back when we saw this israeli girl standing there crying and pointing toward the water and panicked. she said that they was an indian guy drowning in the water and her boyfriend went in to save the indian guy. then several girls from the group i saw earlier came running over to us screaming that their two friends were in the water and couldn't swim and were drowning. they were frantic, crying and screaming, help us, somebody call an ambulance, call the police, save them, please, please, help us, go save them, please somebody that knows swimming.
we were running back and forth along the beach trying to find someone that could help, but remember we're not near civilization at all. the closest town is a 20 minute trek along a rocky path, and even that place is like a ghost town.
more and more people came out to the beach to see what was going on. there were about 5 people who were trying to go in to the water, but the waves were too strong. they relentlessly came one after another. and i stood there holding the girls whose friend it was in the water. he was so far out in the sea. we could all see him struggling. it was clear that swimming out there would be impossible. there was a old wooden rowboat beached on the shore. dov ran to it and screamed to people standing near to help him. There must have been 40 indian men, standing around, and none of them helped him. it was tourists that were running quickly to come help dov, finally they got the boat to the water, and dov and a few others tried to get the boat past the breaking waves, but it was just too strong.
everyone was out on the beach watching what was going on. there are only about 30 foreigners staying on this beach. the rest of the people here are indian construction workers, and cafe/restaurant workers and other locals.
all this time, none of the internet cafe people or restaurants, who all have phones, called the police or an ambulance. i was running up and down the beach trying to get service on my cell phone to call the police. i finally got through and explained what was happening and that we needed an ambulance right away.
a tourist, i think he was american, was able to save one of the indian guys from the water. it had been at least half an hour by now that he'd been drowning. where were the fucken police?? we were at the closest beach to town and they should have been there right away. we called again and again, and they said help was on its way. but so much time passed and no one showed up.
we immediately started cpr on the first guy that came out. he was a young man, probably in his early twenties. between myself, the american guy that saved him, and this french guy, we took turns giving cpr. everyone crowded around us. there was no doctor, and no one who knew anything about emergency medical care. the indians just stood there, looking at us, not helping, just staring.
there was just so much water in his lungs. sea water was foaming from his mouth. we pumped his chest and turned him to his side to drain him of all the water. after most of the water was out we gave him mouth to mouth recessitation. i was doing the pumping and the other guys were breathing into him.
i kept wondering if there was still a chance for this young man to live. he'd been in the water for so long, and didn't have a pulse for so long and he wasn't breathing for so long. the brain can only live without oxygen for so long. but we kept on going until the police arrived. but the police did absolutely nothing. the victim's friends went screaming for the police to come help. but they just stood there. we screamed at them to get an ambulance. they just looked at each other, not knowing what to do, not knowing what number to call, doing nothing. i can't describe how unbelievable it was. then they said there was an ambulance waiting at the top of the foot path. we got a sheet, and put the young indian man on the sheet to carry him to the ambulance. we were on the opposite side of the footpath. it was about 600 meters away. several foreign men came to help, but among the 100 able-bodied indian men standing around, not one of them came to help us carry him, even though we were struggling. it was me and another girl, dov and two foreigner men. we were all barefoot and the footpath is entirely uphill made of jagged, sharp rocks. it was so hard to carry him. we had to put him down a couple of times and then the sheet we were carrying him on started to rip. people passed us, and no one helped. at one point the guy at the front and his girlfriend said that he was already dead. he was foaming at the mouth and nostrils. he was excreting greenish yellowish fluids. after the sheet ripped they said maybe we should just leave him there. i couldn't fucken believe it! leave him on the footpath!
we finally got him into the ambulance.
during the time that i was helping give cpr, dov and michal, along with some other saved the israeli guy that had gone in to save the drowning indian guy. he too, got swept away by the water. his girlfriend was hysterical and crying, but he would be okay. they pulled him out, and as we walked past them on the shore while carrying the first indian guy, i saw that he was coughing up water, breathing, and was able to respond to questions. another group of people carried the israeli guy to the ambulance soon after.
completely shocked and fazed i walked down the footpath back to the beach. went home and took a shower. i came out to the cafe in front of my guesthouse and was sitting there with liesbeth. then we see a crowd of people standing in front of our cafe pointing in the water. they were pointing at a floating body in the water. there were about 30 indian people standing there and none of them did a thing. when liz and i realized what they were pointing at we ran from the cafe and into the water to pull the body out. it was the second indian guy, the other friend in the group of indian students. she and i struggled to get the body out of the water. it was so heavy. all those people stood around and none of them helped us pull him from the water and onto the beach. we yelled for the guy at the cafe to call an ambulance. but he just stood there and said he's probably already dead. i couldn't believe these people. she and i didn't know what to do. an israeli guy came running over and tried to drain water from the young man's body. i ran into the cafe to tell them to call for help. finally he did. we got a sheet, and put the body on the sheet. i know that he must have already been dead when i pulled him out of the water. but we still needed to get him to a hospital. it's like if we didn't do anything, they would have just left him there. we eventually some other tourists came over to help us and they carried him to the ambulance waiting at the top of the footpath.
afterwards i went back to the cafe to sit down. then i heard news that actually there was another person still in the sea. he was a half english half indian man who lived in the area. i had no idea there was a fourth person who drowned. his body has not turned up yet, and we're not sure that it will. we found his backpack with his wallet and car keys in the sand.
the rest of the day dragged. i guess people saw me help give cpr, so when i took a walk in the afternoon everyone was asking me if i was okay. i guess my face couldn't hide that i felt twisted up inside. i can't describe it. i just feel it.
it's very ironic. a few days ago i finished reading Blindness by Jose Saramago. I had this book for years but never read it until now. Throughout this entire ordeal, I kept thinking about the story in Blindness.
A city is struck by a sudden blindness. Everyone is the city goes blind except for one woman. The government starts to quarantine the blind in a prisons until eventually even the government goes blind. The story tells about the terrible things that people begin to do to each other because they are only concerned with themselves and their own survival. It talks about greed, and fear, about violence, about apathy, and about the perverse and twisted lack of humanity that pervades the people struck with blindness. but despite this, there still is the glimmer of love and compassion that exists between the people who selflessly help each other.
today i lived that story.
i walked a few hundred meters and saw liesbeth, a friend from dharamsala, sitting in a cafe, smoking a cigarette and drinking a coffee. it was good to see my friend again.
two days later, i woke up and went out to the beach. it was early for here so there weren't many people out except for a group of young indian student tourists playing together in the waves. i went for a walk with my friend dov along the beach. while we were walking back when we saw this israeli girl standing there crying and pointing toward the water and panicked. she said that they was an indian guy drowning in the water and her boyfriend went in to save the indian guy. then several girls from the group i saw earlier came running over to us screaming that their two friends were in the water and couldn't swim and were drowning. they were frantic, crying and screaming, help us, somebody call an ambulance, call the police, save them, please, please, help us, go save them, please somebody that knows swimming.
we were running back and forth along the beach trying to find someone that could help, but remember we're not near civilization at all. the closest town is a 20 minute trek along a rocky path, and even that place is like a ghost town.
more and more people came out to the beach to see what was going on. there were about 5 people who were trying to go in to the water, but the waves were too strong. they relentlessly came one after another. and i stood there holding the girls whose friend it was in the water. he was so far out in the sea. we could all see him struggling. it was clear that swimming out there would be impossible. there was a old wooden rowboat beached on the shore. dov ran to it and screamed to people standing near to help him. There must have been 40 indian men, standing around, and none of them helped him. it was tourists that were running quickly to come help dov, finally they got the boat to the water, and dov and a few others tried to get the boat past the breaking waves, but it was just too strong.
everyone was out on the beach watching what was going on. there are only about 30 foreigners staying on this beach. the rest of the people here are indian construction workers, and cafe/restaurant workers and other locals.
all this time, none of the internet cafe people or restaurants, who all have phones, called the police or an ambulance. i was running up and down the beach trying to get service on my cell phone to call the police. i finally got through and explained what was happening and that we needed an ambulance right away.
a tourist, i think he was american, was able to save one of the indian guys from the water. it had been at least half an hour by now that he'd been drowning. where were the fucken police?? we were at the closest beach to town and they should have been there right away. we called again and again, and they said help was on its way. but so much time passed and no one showed up.
we immediately started cpr on the first guy that came out. he was a young man, probably in his early twenties. between myself, the american guy that saved him, and this french guy, we took turns giving cpr. everyone crowded around us. there was no doctor, and no one who knew anything about emergency medical care. the indians just stood there, looking at us, not helping, just staring.
there was just so much water in his lungs. sea water was foaming from his mouth. we pumped his chest and turned him to his side to drain him of all the water. after most of the water was out we gave him mouth to mouth recessitation. i was doing the pumping and the other guys were breathing into him.
i kept wondering if there was still a chance for this young man to live. he'd been in the water for so long, and didn't have a pulse for so long and he wasn't breathing for so long. the brain can only live without oxygen for so long. but we kept on going until the police arrived. but the police did absolutely nothing. the victim's friends went screaming for the police to come help. but they just stood there. we screamed at them to get an ambulance. they just looked at each other, not knowing what to do, not knowing what number to call, doing nothing. i can't describe how unbelievable it was. then they said there was an ambulance waiting at the top of the foot path. we got a sheet, and put the young indian man on the sheet to carry him to the ambulance. we were on the opposite side of the footpath. it was about 600 meters away. several foreign men came to help, but among the 100 able-bodied indian men standing around, not one of them came to help us carry him, even though we were struggling. it was me and another girl, dov and two foreigner men. we were all barefoot and the footpath is entirely uphill made of jagged, sharp rocks. it was so hard to carry him. we had to put him down a couple of times and then the sheet we were carrying him on started to rip. people passed us, and no one helped. at one point the guy at the front and his girlfriend said that he was already dead. he was foaming at the mouth and nostrils. he was excreting greenish yellowish fluids. after the sheet ripped they said maybe we should just leave him there. i couldn't fucken believe it! leave him on the footpath!
we finally got him into the ambulance.
during the time that i was helping give cpr, dov and michal, along with some other saved the israeli guy that had gone in to save the drowning indian guy. he too, got swept away by the water. his girlfriend was hysterical and crying, but he would be okay. they pulled him out, and as we walked past them on the shore while carrying the first indian guy, i saw that he was coughing up water, breathing, and was able to respond to questions. another group of people carried the israeli guy to the ambulance soon after.
completely shocked and fazed i walked down the footpath back to the beach. went home and took a shower. i came out to the cafe in front of my guesthouse and was sitting there with liesbeth. then we see a crowd of people standing in front of our cafe pointing in the water. they were pointing at a floating body in the water. there were about 30 indian people standing there and none of them did a thing. when liz and i realized what they were pointing at we ran from the cafe and into the water to pull the body out. it was the second indian guy, the other friend in the group of indian students. she and i struggled to get the body out of the water. it was so heavy. all those people stood around and none of them helped us pull him from the water and onto the beach. we yelled for the guy at the cafe to call an ambulance. but he just stood there and said he's probably already dead. i couldn't believe these people. she and i didn't know what to do. an israeli guy came running over and tried to drain water from the young man's body. i ran into the cafe to tell them to call for help. finally he did. we got a sheet, and put the body on the sheet. i know that he must have already been dead when i pulled him out of the water. but we still needed to get him to a hospital. it's like if we didn't do anything, they would have just left him there. we eventually some other tourists came over to help us and they carried him to the ambulance waiting at the top of the footpath.
afterwards i went back to the cafe to sit down. then i heard news that actually there was another person still in the sea. he was a half english half indian man who lived in the area. i had no idea there was a fourth person who drowned. his body has not turned up yet, and we're not sure that it will. we found his backpack with his wallet and car keys in the sand.
the rest of the day dragged. i guess people saw me help give cpr, so when i took a walk in the afternoon everyone was asking me if i was okay. i guess my face couldn't hide that i felt twisted up inside. i can't describe it. i just feel it.
it's very ironic. a few days ago i finished reading Blindness by Jose Saramago. I had this book for years but never read it until now. Throughout this entire ordeal, I kept thinking about the story in Blindness.
A city is struck by a sudden blindness. Everyone is the city goes blind except for one woman. The government starts to quarantine the blind in a prisons until eventually even the government goes blind. The story tells about the terrible things that people begin to do to each other because they are only concerned with themselves and their own survival. It talks about greed, and fear, about violence, about apathy, and about the perverse and twisted lack of humanity that pervades the people struck with blindness. but despite this, there still is the glimmer of love and compassion that exists between the people who selflessly help each other.
today i lived that story.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Sarees and My Serogate Family
The other night Kusum (CP's wife) dressed me up in a saree and then we took pictures in their living room. They are the sweetest people ever. It felt like old times when I used to dress up in my mom's clothes.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Dharamsala to Delhi to Mumbai
It’s been a seriously long time since the last time I wrote. So I’ll do my best to catch up on what’s been happening.
To start off I’m in Mumbai now. I got here about two days ago. I finally made it to the south! I left Dharamsala a couple of weeks ago. The weather there was just beginning to become perfect – warm, sunny days, and chillier nights. A whole new flux of people were arriving because the Dalai La,ma gave another teaching. But I felt like it was time to go. The south beckoned so with the help of Eric, a friend from Paris, I got my bus ticket bound for Delhi. Before we left though, the last bunch of us had a farewell picnic on a grassy knoll behind the Dalai Lama’s palace.
Saying goodbye to any place like Dharamsala is so hard. The place itself and the people I met there has left me with a great feeling of warmth. Eric was also headed to Delhi because he was flying back to Paris. His trip in India was already over. Eric was part of the group I met when I returned Dharamsala so after saying goodbye to him in Delhi, it really felt like a new phase in my travels.
I chilled out at Bryce’s house in Delhi. Bryce is a Fulbrighter from last year who still lives in Delhi. I didn’t plan to be in Delhi so long, but I ended up hanging out for a week. I did a little sightseeing, but mostly just chilled out and figured out what I’m going to do next and where I’m going to take my parents (they’re coming to visit on the 15th!). I finally bought a guitar while in Delhi too. I started to learn how to play guitar in Dharamsala. So now I’m traveling with a guitar myself to hopefully learn along the way. I also went to the Hare Krishna temple complex in Delhi. It’s HUGE. And while there saw the most amazing show on the Bhavad Gita. I usually don’t expect things to be so fancy in India, but this ‘Vedic Expo’ as they call it, was a walk through maze of sound, lights and smoke upon different themed displays of the Bhavad Gita. It was like a ride at Disneyland, Hare Krishna style. There are parts of the show where I walked into a room and then a spotlight goes on and I saw the mirror image of myself and then a deep dark voice goes, “Look at yourself! Do you think that you are your body. That piece of matter, your clothes, that container is who you are??” Then you’re shown a display of figures that are going from birth to a decrepit death. And of course, no Hare Krishna experience is complete without chanting! I happened to come at the time when there was a famed speaker who came from America and was leading a huge room people in mantra song and dance. Since it’s a temple I didn’t take any photos, but damn, I wish you could have seen what I saw. It was so fun, everyone in the room, including myself got swept up in the energy, chanting and singing and dancing and clapping, “Hare, Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Hare!”
I got into Mumbai two days ago. The train ride was cool. Traveling in the A/C coach is the way to go for a clean and comfortable ride. I recently joined couchsurfing.com. It’s a network of people around the world who have decided that we’re all part of a global community and have opened up there homes to host travelers. It’s an amazing concept, especially in this day and age, that people can travel to other places and meet and by hosted by local people in that town or city. The Mumbai Couch Surfing group is great. I contacted them and got connected with an older couple who offered their spare bedroom for me to stay in. Mumbai is ridiculously expensive compared to other places in India. The cheapest room I could find here at a hostel is about 600 Rupees ($15). Compared to the 125 Rupees ($2.75) I was paying in Dharamsala, it’s a lot.
But more than just the money or a couch or spare bedroom, it’s a great opportunity for cultural exchange. CP and Osoom, my hosts here, are retired and live in the beachfront area of Mumbai. They are truly the youngest couple I’ve met. They’re so full of life, and are so warm, friendly, open and generous to me. CP told me that the only rule he has for me is to make myself feel at home. This is the first time I’m experiencing some true Indian culture. Like breakfast is usually around 10, lunch at 2, tea at 4 or 5, and then dinner is at 10. They’re a social couple and have tons of friends in the area. CP and Osoom just want to enjoy life at this point. Their daughter is grown and married, and CP only works when he feels like it (in finances), and the rest of the time they travel, talk long walks on the beach (which is a two minute walk from the house, but you can’t swim there cause the water is so dirty), eat, drink, sleep and enjoy.
My first day in town I met up with another Mumbai CS member, Sanu and walked around South Mumbai and saw some sights there. Mumbai is huge! There are tons of different neighborhoods. Mumbai is an island so it’s tropical weather – humid and hot. The architecture is amazing all around the city, and it’s super green with lots of tropical trees and plants everywhere. And just like every other Indian city, it’s heavily polluted and overcrowded with people, cars, buses and rickshaws. I’ll be here for several more days. On Saturday there is a Mumbai CS meet up at a downtown art gallery and then my parents arrive on Monday. I hope everyone is doing well wherever you are.
XOXOXO
Friday, September 14, 2007
Home Sweet Home
It’s strange that we travel to far away and foreign places just to seek out the things that make us feel at home like a good room, good food and good friends.
I've been back in Dharamsala a week. The bus ride from Delhi turned out to be pretty good. No major complications, besides a flat tire (which I slept through) or weird men. And when I arrived, I was happily greeted by a wonderful and kind familiar face – my good friend Choedar. Coming back to Dharamsala felt like coming home. I went back to my old room in McLeod with the sweet Tibetan landlady and it was available! I couldn’t have felt luckier.
It’s so nice to be back. The weather is great. It’s sunny and warm during the day, rains a little bit in the evening and cool at night. Walking around the first couple of days I passed by and ran into so many familiar faces, but at the same time there’s a whole new crowd of travelers in town.
Traveling alone has been so intense and rewarding. I’ve had to confront (but yet to conquer) my deepest insecurities and fears, and I’ve been rewarded in countless ways. It’s hard to realize all of this during the hard or frustrating parts, but at the end of the day I feel so fortunate and grateful for this opportunity.
The other night I went out to grab dinner thinking it would be a quiet night. I ended up at Carpe Diem, a great after school hang out type of café run by two really nice, young Nepali guys. I walked in and it was packed full of people and the house band was just getting started on a jam session. Everyone was sitting at the tables in huge groups. At first I felt like, ‘damn, I don’t know anyone,” but let it go and relaxed into the scene. The band was great. They played everything from Pink Floyd to Coldplay to Indian pop to Bob Marley. Then the band opened the mic up to musicians in the café. A Danish couple went up and performed a few of their own songs. The entire restaurant was captivated by their songs. It was so beautiful and genuine. At one point everyone in the room was singing along with them. I ended up joining a table with about 20 people from all over – Norway, Australia, Denmark, Ireland, Canada, Israel, Zimbabwe, Belgium, Yemen, Holland, France, Japan, Korea… It was so beautiful to be there with so many travelers, most of them also traveling alone and in their twenties, listening to each other sing their hearts out, eating good food and having great time.
There’s an indescribable, fulfilling sense of friendship and humanity in traveling that I’ve fallen in love with.
I've been back in Dharamsala a week. The bus ride from Delhi turned out to be pretty good. No major complications, besides a flat tire (which I slept through) or weird men. And when I arrived, I was happily greeted by a wonderful and kind familiar face – my good friend Choedar. Coming back to Dharamsala felt like coming home. I went back to my old room in McLeod with the sweet Tibetan landlady and it was available! I couldn’t have felt luckier.
It’s so nice to be back. The weather is great. It’s sunny and warm during the day, rains a little bit in the evening and cool at night. Walking around the first couple of days I passed by and ran into so many familiar faces, but at the same time there’s a whole new crowd of travelers in town.
Traveling alone has been so intense and rewarding. I’ve had to confront (but yet to conquer) my deepest insecurities and fears, and I’ve been rewarded in countless ways. It’s hard to realize all of this during the hard or frustrating parts, but at the end of the day I feel so fortunate and grateful for this opportunity.
The other night I went out to grab dinner thinking it would be a quiet night. I ended up at Carpe Diem, a great after school hang out type of café run by two really nice, young Nepali guys. I walked in and it was packed full of people and the house band was just getting started on a jam session. Everyone was sitting at the tables in huge groups. At first I felt like, ‘damn, I don’t know anyone,” but let it go and relaxed into the scene. The band was great. They played everything from Pink Floyd to Coldplay to Indian pop to Bob Marley. Then the band opened the mic up to musicians in the café. A Danish couple went up and performed a few of their own songs. The entire restaurant was captivated by their songs. It was so beautiful and genuine. At one point everyone in the room was singing along with them. I ended up joining a table with about 20 people from all over – Norway, Australia, Denmark, Ireland, Canada, Israel, Zimbabwe, Belgium, Yemen, Holland, France, Japan, Korea… It was so beautiful to be there with so many travelers, most of them also traveling alone and in their twenties, listening to each other sing their hearts out, eating good food and having great time.
There’s an indescribable, fulfilling sense of friendship and humanity in traveling that I’ve fallen in love with.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Delhi
I realize that I must have sounded extremely dire in the last posting. But how quickly things change. Saying goodbye to Eva was so emotional. We both cried. It was just so damn touching.! I know I’ll see her again, but God knows when and where. It’s crazy how quickly attached I become. It’s just so hard to let go of the good people. I love that traveling brings people close together so quickly. The friendships that form are beautiful. I switched guesthouses to one nearby where Dikla was staying called Shiva Ganga Lodge. I wished I had stayed there from the beginning of my time in Varanasi. It has just a relaxed and peaceful vibe. It’s run by an Indian family, has a beautiful coutyard of tropical plants and flowers, and is next to an ashram that overlooks the Ganges. The other people staying there were from all over – Thailand, Nicaragua, UK, Germany, Israel, the US, and they were all chill. I only stayed a day and a half more after Eva left. I would have stayed longer at the new place, but I already bought my ticket to Delhi.
Indian train rides are an experience all their own. This one was only my second time traveling on a train. Luckily, I got placed in a section with other tourists – a young, chain-smoking, infatuated French couple, a lesbian Korean couple, and a middle-aged Italian man who couldn’t wait to leave India. It was a good mix.
Indian men are all about staring. Six Indian men squished into a space that only fits two people comfortably, to stare at us. It doesn’t matter what we do, and it doesn’t matter what we say, they stare and stare and stare and don’t see that there is anything awkward, annoying, or creepy about it.
The train got in late and after haggling with and getting hassled by rickshaw drivers, and escaping some crazy Indian woman trying to scam me, I found the pre-paid taxi booth and got a legitimate rickshaw to drive me. Especially around tourists hubs, like railway stations, rickshaw and taxi drivers will offer to take you for a fair or cheap price if you just ‘stop and take a look’ at a couple of shops. You end up getting taken to places where either you’re in the middle of nowhere, the stuff is crap, or you get interrogated to buy overpriced crap, or they keep taking you to shops until you do buy something before dropping you where you needed to go in the first place. It’s a big headache dealing with those kind of people. That’s the part of traveling I hate. All the haggling sucks me dry and turns me into the bitch demon I never knew existed within. I don’t like that. But these parts of India bring it out in a person.
While I’m in Delhi, I’m staying with my friend Bryce, a Fulbright alum. It was heaven getting to his apartment. It’s like home!! It has A/C, Internet, premium cable, a kitchen, a clean shower and toilet, and an extra mattress! And his roommate Nandani is the most hilariously, sarcastic down to earth Indian woman I’ve met yet. She’s a black sheep in this society. She’s successful, independent, living on her own and not looking to get married any time soon. To us that’s normal. Here, it’s blasphemy. She’s only 26 and already the senior art director of a big Mumbai-based production design house. After decompressing from the train, I chilled out with her in front of the TV. A perfectly pleasant way to spend any hot, lazy Sunday afternoon.
I walked around in the late afternoon. I finally got my hair cut after like 5 or 6 months of not cutting it, and my legs waxed, after 3 months of not shaving. I feel like a new person. Since I’m in a residential place and around locals, I realized I’ve been so removed from regular life where people where regular clothes, and have clean shoes, and carry normal bags. It’s nice to be back, if only for a few days.
Indian train rides are an experience all their own. This one was only my second time traveling on a train. Luckily, I got placed in a section with other tourists – a young, chain-smoking, infatuated French couple, a lesbian Korean couple, and a middle-aged Italian man who couldn’t wait to leave India. It was a good mix.
Indian men are all about staring. Six Indian men squished into a space that only fits two people comfortably, to stare at us. It doesn’t matter what we do, and it doesn’t matter what we say, they stare and stare and stare and don’t see that there is anything awkward, annoying, or creepy about it.
The train got in late and after haggling with and getting hassled by rickshaw drivers, and escaping some crazy Indian woman trying to scam me, I found the pre-paid taxi booth and got a legitimate rickshaw to drive me. Especially around tourists hubs, like railway stations, rickshaw and taxi drivers will offer to take you for a fair or cheap price if you just ‘stop and take a look’ at a couple of shops. You end up getting taken to places where either you’re in the middle of nowhere, the stuff is crap, or you get interrogated to buy overpriced crap, or they keep taking you to shops until you do buy something before dropping you where you needed to go in the first place. It’s a big headache dealing with those kind of people. That’s the part of traveling I hate. All the haggling sucks me dry and turns me into the bitch demon I never knew existed within. I don’t like that. But these parts of India bring it out in a person.
While I’m in Delhi, I’m staying with my friend Bryce, a Fulbright alum. It was heaven getting to his apartment. It’s like home!! It has A/C, Internet, premium cable, a kitchen, a clean shower and toilet, and an extra mattress! And his roommate Nandani is the most hilariously, sarcastic down to earth Indian woman I’ve met yet. She’s a black sheep in this society. She’s successful, independent, living on her own and not looking to get married any time soon. To us that’s normal. Here, it’s blasphemy. She’s only 26 and already the senior art director of a big Mumbai-based production design house. After decompressing from the train, I chilled out with her in front of the TV. A perfectly pleasant way to spend any hot, lazy Sunday afternoon.
I walked around in the late afternoon. I finally got my hair cut after like 5 or 6 months of not cutting it, and my legs waxed, after 3 months of not shaving. I feel like a new person. Since I’m in a residential place and around locals, I realized I’ve been so removed from regular life where people where regular clothes, and have clean shoes, and carry normal bags. It’s nice to be back, if only for a few days.
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