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Published: February 28th 2007
WOW
I dont know where to start.....unreal
1. Monkeys Galore
about a week ago we were in Hampi, looking at jewelry and trinkets, when I felt this sniffing of my hand, assuming it was a dog, I casually looked over to come face to face with a 700 pound cow....just roaming the streets....it is amazing how they run this country....the drivers all move for them, and it as if the cows know this and deliberately stand in the middle of major roads..thus causing even greater anxiety on what I would say would be the worst driving conditions ever, worse then laos or vietnam or KOrea, ANYWHERE, scary as HELL, white knuckle gripped the whole time everywhere, and to make it worse, 1 billion people, and single lanes all over... to finish Hampi, it was great, monkeys everywhere running around, at one point a man came up to me as if I had something on my head, sure enough he tries to thrust a metal object into my ear...turns out to be an ear cleaner....ahh didnt happen, I said beat it!
Also walking up monkey temple we got ambushed by monkeys , since we were carrying cookies, so we took turns politely feeding the monkeys until the BIG guy came down, april paniced and fired the whole bag at the...them I made two futile attempts to get them back, and realize after the shine off his teeth the rabies shot was going to cost more than the few crumbs left.
2.Irish Cometh
We met the Irish, at 7:30am in the am in a small place called Bundi they came hammering on the door yelling our names and the reunion began, we have had a great last week with them, super to see them.
3. Stare to a glare
We took the train to Mumbai ( Bombay) unreal rip off, but at one stage we felt like the amazing race trying to get trains ( subway ) tickets at 9:oopm at night, with loads and loads of Indians staring at us, even when April yelled "WHAT" they didnt even look away....no common sense at all, just stare and stare, very uncomfortable .
4. Anyone for a drink
The Irish told of this story in Pushkar where they were walking down the street , while walking by a cow it started to Urinate...at this time two old ladies from India went over and cupped their hands under the piss and proceeded to lap it up....I guess pee is only good when fresh, I will not let you know how that tastes.\
5. Beggars
Tha untouchables as the government calls then are all over the place and dirt dirt poor begging at each corner. the one day we were in a rickshaw and these two young kids were taking turns as the traffic stopped to go beg...the boy lit up when he saw tourists and sure enough came running, but we reckon it must have been the girls turn to beg, so a verbal exchange happened on the streets with the boy turning to us to ask for money, when the girl wound up and nailed him in the back, he burst out crying and they took their tears and fight back to the meridian.....alls fair in love and begging.
6. Chris' business school 101
Ok so little kids sell all over the place and the cheeky little buggers can be quite relentless...I took a liking to this one kid and he tried and tried to sell me these postcards... i said over and over no, and after looking at them explained it was due to the size. I sat him down and in little english vocab that he knew, told him, " look around everyone is selling the exact same thing" you need a competive edge....I brought up how small all the postcards are and that people like bigger ones and told him to source out some larger cards...the next day he came to me with bigger ones, and ofcourse I bought, having a laugh about the situation, but to my delight I found him later that day playing. I said "why are you not out selling?" wouldnt you know the little bugger sold all his cards and he needed to go get more the next day, meanwhile his friends still had fists ful of the littler cards and having no luck!!!! A young Indian Donald Trump in the making. give a person a fish they eat one day, but teach them........
7. BUNDI BOGUS BUS
Wow I thought i had seen some crap buses, but this one took the cake. we went to the bus stand, it was pissing rain out and there we stood being stared at the likes we had not seen, everyone staring and us trying to get tickets to these buses that looked like they should have went to bus heaven or hell, long long ago.
We got on the one bus and it was filthy dirty, seats hard as rock and the indian men staring profusely. the bus was on a skinny skinny back road and through some of these villages that had never seen a foreigner before. the 4 hour bus took 6 hours and ended with them dropping us off in the middle of the street to find our own way to a place to stay, this was all to get to a national park with tigers,,, but we saw no tigers.
8. Train battle
I have been in many pushing matches before, but never over buying a train ticket. Fiona and I bagged with 60 lbs bags bullyied our way into the line up and got strong armed out about 4 times before we got aggressive. it was so intense I had to grab one guy and say backoff, this was 40 minutes of this, followed by us sitting for 2 hours on a train platform, while the train had already left .....travelling is great hey...we ended up staying in Jaipur and got drunk.
9. Contrasts
ok 1 billion people trying to get places, but single lane hiways
people riding camels on the street while using sell phones.
billboards with halfnaked women and walking underneath the signs a lady wearing a full Buhka
cows and pigs all over, but they believe in a god that will not let them eat the animals, I guess he would rather them starve to death
men hold hands while walking, but no one is gay
these are just a sampler, this place is great though the culture you see in one day would change peoples lives and the way we think....we are off to see the Taj Mahal tomorrow and then into Nepal. ANYTHING POSSIBLE IN INDIA, that is the saying and so far very true
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Brenda
non-member comment
Just got the Bogs
Glad you forwarded this as I wasn't getting them. Now I can see India through your eyes (closes I'll get!) Keep them coming love them. Take care both of you! Don't do anything I won't!!! Ha! Love Brenda