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Published: August 1st 2006
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To begin with, I should have the photos for Thailand up by the time this comes out. Connection speed and access in general in India is a bit difficult at the best of times. Power outages and dial-up connections make it difficult to surf the internet, much less upload photos.
I think India has been the trial that I was led to believe Vietnam would be, but even worse. Many people warned me that India is difficult, so I was expecting some of it, but I thought I was prepared. I wasn’t…not even close.
My first impression of India is that it is an extremely desperate country. I have seen poverty as bad in China, and places in Southeast Asia, even Mexico, but the poor in those countries seem to have something that the poor and even middle class of India don’t. Maybe the poor in those countries are resigned and don’t have the will to fight, while the Indians are trying their best to survive and prosper. Another way to look at it is that the poor of other countries have a dignity that the poor of India do not have. I am uncertain as to which is
true…maybe neither view is true, or perhaps there is a bit of truth in both ideas. What this means to me, as a tourist, is that it is often more fun to stay indoors than it is to leave and explore in India.
A typical day for Jackie and I is to leave the hotel in early to mid-morning to sight see a bit. From the time we leave our hotel to the time we return, we are pestered, hounded, hassled and harassed by rickshaw drivers, salespeople, homeless, and all variety of others. Jackie is particularly troubled by the looks she receives from men and there are times where she has wished for a burkha to hide from the stares. She has taken to constantly looking at the ground to avoid their eyes and I have become ultra-protective, actually having to run a few young guys off. She has also started dressing very conservatively, but that has done little to dissuade the stares. The problem is that she is becoming reluctant to leave the hotel at all.
What I find strange about it is that these men know that it is rude behavior. These men would cause fights
if they stared at a Hindi woman in that manner. There would be bloodshed if they stared at a Muslim woman in the same manner and heaven only knows what a Sikh man would do to these guys if they were staring at his wife, daughter or sister in the same manner.
Luckily for us, she has only been grabbed once, in Delhi, and it was early on, so we were able to laugh it off. Should it happen again…well, I’m not in the mood right now to let anything pass and have started to act the Middle Eastern man, in talk if nothing else. If a man, usually a tout of some sort, starts talking to Jackie before me I will question their rudeness by asking why they are talking to my “wife” without my permission. It usually throws these men for enough of a loop that we can walk on another 20 meters before another tout is upon us.
I guess that I don’t have to say that we’re not having much fun. We have even been a bit disappointed by the food, which, in truth, was Jackie’s sole purpose for coming to India in the
first place. We still think that the food at Namaste in Seoul is better than anything we’ve eaten here. Our disappointment also means that we’ve decided to cut our time in India down to one month rather than two, with the possibility of going to Bangladesh to see the family of a friend of Jackie’s.
OK… I’ve gotten the sourness out of my mouth. Not everything has been completely terrible so far. We’ve seen some nice things and eaten well for very cheap. Delhi, we could take or leave, but the Red Fort and Humayun’s Tomb are very impressive and the area around Connaught Circle is interesting for shopping and dining possibilities.
I guess I should relate some other news as well. It seems pretty definite that Jackie and I will not be heading to Australia and New Zealand after all and I would like to apologize for that to all our friends and family we had planned to visit. We are both starting to tire of living out of backpacks and I brought up the point that if we skipped Australia and New Zealand, we’d save nearly US$5000 on our trip, which means we wouldn’t be broke
when we got back to the States. It also means we’ll be home for Christmas and we’d have time to visit both our families…and as Jackie hasn’t seen her family in three years, we thought that was important, especially as she doesn’t remember what they look like. So, it looks like we’ll be back in the States around the end of October…perhaps earlier, just in time to house sit for my parents as they take off for New Zealand and Australia in our place.
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manish
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suggestions for eating in delhi
if ur really into good indian food try karims in old delhi,belive me u will never forget the experience especially if u like meat in its various forms.try thier raan ,basically a lambs leg which takes almost half an hr to cook from the time u order.also try their phirni,its a dessert which comes in its own earthen bowl...