Blogs from Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, Asia - page 74

CASTE SYSTEM Everyone talks about the caste system in India and how archaic it is. But living in it, and seeing it, is much different than hearing about it. At the Taj Mahal, there were a pack of dogs that were barking and nipping at another dog who scuttled away. Isn’t that a caste system? At the Academy Awards, only famous and rich people will be allowed at the parties. Isn’t that a caste system? The royalty of England can openly cheat on their wives, yet are not looked down upon, but rather talked about even more. Isn’t that a caste system? O.J. can be declared innocent, because well, he’s O.J.. Isn’t that a caste system? In the U.S., people like to spout that the American dream is still alive and well. But let’s get real, ... read more

Hey all, as you can obviously see I'm still alive. Sorry it took so long for me to update this, and unfortunately this isn't really even going to be a real update. It's been tough for me to get to a computer with the internet and all, so that's why it's taken so long for me to update. Well, I do have a couple minutes, so I'll say a couple words. Well, how do I start this... Holy crap! This is a crazy place. Sandi and I (even though it's only been about a week now) have already had so many crazy adventures. We had a very sketchy first night in New Delhi. There are soooo many scam artists here. Of course we've been nailed a couple of times. But we're starting to know the ropes. ... read more

This probably won't come as much of a surprize but India is very polluted. The streets are full of rubbish, there are open sewers and people 'relieve themselves' just about everywhere. I was thinking that the government should do something about this (there are no bins anywhere for example) but I got to thinking that the government have a lot more urgent issues to deal with before they can get to cleaning up the streets. For one thing there are so many familes living on the streets who don't have anywhere to sleep not to mind somewhere to put their rubbish. There is also so much noise pollution. The sound of auto-rickshaws, motorcycles, cars and trucks is constant and there is the incessant beeping of horns. There are people everywhere so there is non-stop people noise ... read more

Jaipur again is a very busy city. It seems very dirty even compared to Delhi. We rove through a couple of nice areas yesterday but in general it has been dirty and very polluted. On the way in we stopped at the "Monkey Temple". It was a bit of a trek up past a series of temples and up e steep hill but once you got to the top there were amazing views over the whole of Jaipur. Today we have been to the two hill forts (Tiger & Jahgir). These were huge and also gave great views over the city and surrounding area. We didn't go to Amber fort as we ran out of time. We just saw an procession going down the street and followed it for a while. From what we could gather ... read more

We are now in Jaipur in Rajasthan at the start of our twelve day tour with our own driver and car! Before we left Delhi we had an amazing meal with the Drakes at Claridges hotel but I felt a little out of place with my baggy trousers and back-pack on, and the door man looked blankly at us when we asked for a taxi to return us to our less glamourous side of town! After leaving delhi we came to Agra to see the red fort and the Taj Mahal which was amazing. The sheer enormity of the palace is outstanding and every stone is carved with followers and inlaid with semi-precious stones. We ended up hiring a guide to take us to a short cut as the queue was about 2 hours long. This ... read more