One Month on the Road - Part I

Welcome to the first half of the catch-up entries. After over one month living out of a suitcase and searching for the nearest internet cafe to check my email, I am finally home in Canada (living out of a suitcase and borrowing friends and families’ internet connections).


So back to the beginning. February 28th was one heck of a busy day. In the morning I had a job interview with an NGO in Bangalore and a job offer on the spot, in the afternoon my last exam, and in the evening a flight to Mumbai. So I arrived in Mumbai on the evening of the 28th confused about the job, elated about being done school, and slightly apprehensive about a month of travelling with my friend from Saskatchewan. After three months in India there are certain things I am used to that most Canadians would be horrified by, like the masses of people, garbage on the streets, slums, begging children. But my friend was definitely having a minor melt down and Mumbai was what she attributed it to. It was too bad because I was really looking forward to Mumbai. I have read a few books set there and was hoping to see all the places that I have heard of. So we only had a brief visit and I never got to see a film studio or drink falooda. And the whole time I was trying to decide if I was going to take the plunge and accept the job in Bangalore. Lots on my mind at the time. We did manage to squeeze in a couple of the tourist sites like the Taj Hotel and saw a movie. But even still I was completely fascinated by Mumbai. You can definitely tell this is an Indian city with a long history and many adventures to be had. I will definitely have to go back sometime.










Next stop was Jaipur, the pink city, and the festival of Holi. I had been looking forward to celebrating Holi for some time, and particularly in the North. By this time I had decided to take the job, so I had a lot less stress. As Indian cities go I would have to say Jaipur is somewhere in the middle, lots of history but most of it not terribly well preserved, lots of people but only moderately friendly by Indian standards, lots of tourists and all the cheezy tourist type entertainments that come with them. Here are the high and low lights.


Highlight number 1 - Our cycle rickshaw driver was a highlight, an amusing man by the name of Govind with a fabulous laugh. He befriended us and took us around the city for our entire stay. I also think that we bought lunches and paid him very well helped! He was worth it though, and had a great sense of humour. After day two I think we moved past the realm of paid friend into realm of real friend, where it ceased about him taking us to people he knew's shops to where it became a getting to know you experience. Mind you, with the rather exceptional amount that we paid him he was able to afford to buy a cell phone after our visit, and I received endless phone calls for the rest of the month! Sweet kid, new phone, what can you do?




Lowlight number 1 - Gender issues exist in Jaipur. I am used to being stared at in India because I am a white girl, but this was my first foray into the more northern Indian experience of being "stared at", not a look of interest but of ill-intent. Govind was very upset a couple of times when men would approach or holler at us, and once made a point of taking us near to some police officers. He likely did it for a reason and I think as foreign women that there is a real danger of the cat calls turning into something a little more sinister. One man during Holi tried to rub powder across the front of my chest and get a grope in, but luckily I already had my arm across my chest since I saw that one coming. It was incredibly blatant and there wasn't a shred of shame on his face when I gave him a nasty look.





Highlight number 2 - The festival of Holi and a very sweet girl who invited us to "play Holi" in her neighbourhood with all the children. She even took us back to her home to meet her family, a very reserved bunch. We ended up spending a large part of the day in Govind's neighbourhood which was great in that we were able to meet some of the Nepali people who were there and spend some time at their little "dance party". The fact that it was a gathering of both genders in this rather male dominated city was very refreshing. Not to mention the playfulness of the people there made me think of the Nepali people I have met back in Canada. As Nithya would say, they have very good energy. All in all a very nice day.




Lowlight number 2 - The cheezy (it was so phoney I won't even spell cheese correctly) elephant festival, a manufactured event with decorated elephants and none of the solemnity that I have seen with other temple elephant festivals. The elephant decorations were very well done, but a quick look around the crowd and you could tell not even a single local would have bothered to set foot at this one. Even in my pictures you can see that all the people watching are white. Oh well, I put on a happy face and tried to keep thoughts of "would you like some wine with that..." at bay.




Highlight number 3 - Dinner in the Tiger fort. After a long evening bus tour where we drove past all the interesting sites, stopped at the obligatory government shopping emporium, and listened to somewhat uninspired commentary, we went up to the Tiger fort for dinner. The food was only okay, but the atmosphere was amazing. A well preserved fort with a view of the city lights, music drifting up through the windows, stars above and a lovely peaceful evening. We met a lovely lady from California who went on the tour with us and her company made it even that much more special. I remember skipping down the hill to the soundtrack of Dhoom 2, watching my favourite show, the constellation Orion.




Lowlight number 3 - No camel tour to the desert. Really wanted to see the desert.






But moving on - Next stop Delhi. And the next stop was a nasty round of Delhi belly, an obligatory trip out to see the Taj Mahal in Agra, a Canadian comedy show, and the beginning of the end of a friendship. It is difficult to form an opinion of a place based on the hotel bathroom. So not much to say about Delhi. We did go to see a Russell Peter's comedy show after some significant perseverance on my part (not because I wanted to see the show, but because I knew my friend did and I was trying to keep her spirits up). Normally I think he is quite funny, but this show was a little to racy in parts for an Indian audience and that killed the experience for me a little bit. The Taj must be seen at least once, but once is enough. We did the tourist thing that day and went through with the tour where they talk about the great testament to love that the structure is, but gloss over the fact that the woman was a brood mare pumping out a ridiculous number of children, and that thousands of slaves built the great edifice and likely are buried in the foundations. Not to mention seeing the polluted river flowing behind it. I have definitely seen other historic sites that have given me a profound sense of awe, but this was not one of them. Stunning. Architecturally brilliant. Craftsmanship beyond compare. But on an emotional level left me feeling like the shining white marble it is made of, cold. And as for the friendship, let’s just say that I the warning signs were all there.












Next stop Rishakesh - After an almost nine hour trip by car along some of the most dangerous roads in India, with little or no conversation, survived only by the fact that I was popping Imodium, we reached an absolutely beautiful place called Rishakesh. This trip was made even more painful by the fact that we were accompanied by an over dressed travel agent with a narrow mind and very high opinion of himself, who sat in the front seat with the driver and barely even spoke to us. He even had the gall to slam the Dalai Lama during the car trip during one of the two times he even deigned to speak to us. This was after knowing that my friend and I had been considering a trip up to Dharamasala to see His Holiness so were obviously not of the same mind. Now why was I even in this car when I had distinctly remembered saying I would only go by train or plane, and bus as a last resort because I hate travelling by road in India. Not to mention that it is way more expensive and takes four times as long as the train. Ask the travel agent. Then we get there and take a ridiculously over priced room for so remote a town. Why? Ask the travel agent (I am sure the fact that he gets a nice kick back from the resort and driver had nothing to do with it). Well, lets just say that in Rishakesh the bottom fell out of the friendship too so I was stuck in this beautiful place (where it was rainy and miserable out the whole time so you couldn’t enjoy it anyway), still sick, with a friend I barely wanted to speak to anymore, and a travel agent who didn’t even know a train schedule. Dear God! I only had one month off before I return to Canada, and this was my vacation too! I had already spent two weeks essentially trying to keep my friend happy and got kicked in the teeth for it. I am pretty sure I gave up being a martyr when I got divorced. So Eve finally grew back her spine and took the train back to Delhi. Ahhh finally. Let the vacation begin!

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