Advertisement
Published: June 24th 2008
Through the trees
Back at the templeThe monsoons effectively halted any hiking in northern India and made transportation really difficult. A guy I was talking to said it was the worst rains in the 13 years he had been here. The 10 hour ride to Manali has reportedly been taking 24 hours because of all the washouts. The trip to Leh, in good weather, is supposed to be 3 days; we didn't want to experiment with how the monsoons would increase that time frame. We sat at dinner the other night discussing what our options were and where else in Africa and Asia we could go. We started just throwing out ideas: flying back and forth to Leh, going to Nepal, checking out Uganda and Rwanda, maybe Turkey, Egypt, Israel, etc. That this isn't one of those bad problems to have. Eventually, because of cost and a strong desire to spend more time in Africa, we decided to check out Kenya, Uganda, and, time permitting, Rwanda.
However, booking the tickets proved to be one of the most frustrating experiences ever. Our tickets to Africa were on Qatar Airways, and the Delhi office is
completely incompetent. We called four times and got four different answers
to our request: one said it would be $50 but he couldn't find our reservations, another said they had to call Dar es Salaam to figure it out, the third said he just couldn't do it. I was too frazzled to continue and Lawless took over responsibilities for the fourth and fifth calls. In the middle of one of his conversations it got to be pretty funny. When he came out with "You have to understand how profoundly irrational what you are saying is." everyone in the internet cafe turned around and smiled. Normally you would think that is rude, but everyone who has traveled in India knows that feeling. (Well, not everyone... There are die-hard India travelers who swear this country is currently the peak of human civilization and, inevitably, get upset when I point out how illogical and inefficient things are here. I'm sure they read this and get upset; but, I've never really minded ruffling feathers of people I consider blind to reality. If they are still reading this, I'm expecting hate e-mails.)
"You have to call the San Fransisco office. They can change your tickets," says the man at Qatar Airways in Delhi. He has
been discussing the San Fransisco office with Ben for the last fifteen minutes.
"Why do we have to call San Fransisco? What information do they have that you don't?" In the meantime, Ben pulled up the Qatar Airways site to get the number for San Fran.
"They handle these requests."
"Okay, but can you just give me an idea of the cost?"
"You will have to call San Fransisco."
"Wait, I just looked online and you don't have a San Fransisco office."
"I know."
"Then why did you tell me to call San Fransisco???"
"Because you have to call New York."
That is just a sample of what we spent a day and a half dealing with. Finally we got in touch with the company in the U.S. we originally bought our tickets through, Airtreks, and in thirty minutes we had our plans finalized. Though they couldn't change our flights, they found a really cheap flight to Nairobi for us, told us to book it locally as it would be cheaper, and got us refunds for our tickets.
With that behind us, we spent another day in McLeod walking around enjoying some of the temples while the rain
Prayer Flags
There was a great gompa down the hill along a walking path. Really peaceful. relented for a few hours and then headed down to Delhi on the next day. We had seen a few places in Delhi on our way north originally, but had missed most of the "major sites." So, we went to check those out when we got in. Qtab Minar is a set of ruins on the south of the city which I found to be really interesting. Unfortunately we forgot it was Monday when we went to see the Red Fort, the only day of the week it is closed, so we will check it out right before we leave for our flight. In all, I will say I enjoy Delhi as a city. It isn't as crazy as Mumbai, nor is it as cosmopolitan, if you will. A lot of people short shift it as they cruise through, but in the two times we've been here it has treated us well.
In Retrospect All in all, I have to say I have really enjoyed my time in India; it is among my favorite places I have ever visited. Some states I preferred to others, Kerala and Himchal Pradesh are amazing, and some of the historical
sites, Hampi, Ellora, and Ajanta in particular, are among the best I've seen in all my travels. I think it is a fantastic country to visit and I plan to return at some point. There is a fantastic history and extraordinary physical beauty to the varied landscapes. Everyone from the west should be exposed to the slow pace of life we've experienced in India, Thailand, Cambodia or Laos at some point (though I found the latter three more attractive than India's). The people (well, most) are extremely hospitable and their sense of duty to family is something, at least I feel, the west needs to learn from.
However, I have to say that Thomas Friedman's assertion that India going to rule the world in the next ten years (okay, a bit of an exaggeration) is far from anywhere near the truth. The constantly failing infrastructure, the hundreds of million of people that live in poverty, and the ethnic tension in various parts of the country that leads to terrorist acts (three in the two months we have been here) are going to take decades to surmount. Also, I don't know if it is a cultural difference, or a factor
of educational emphasis placed on sciences and math and not liberal arts, but thinking outside of the box is simply not something I have seen done well here. You are constantly given a "No", then with further questioning you realize that what you wanted is possible, it just isn't in a straight forward way. While numerous examples exist, booking the tickets to Africa, the delayed train in Auranghabad, and most times you eat at a restaurant, I'll use a breakfast in Kerala to depict what I mean. Ben ordered a set breakfast with orange juice and they said "No." He asked if they have orange juice, and yeah they did. But when asked if he can get it with the set breakfast, he got another no "No." Then, he asked what he could get, and it was pineapple juice. He then offered to pay the difference between the pineapple juice and the orange juice, and everything was okay. The waiter was unable to think of that himself.
There are also other interactions that I just baffle me and always leave us looking at one another laughing. Just the other day, Ben and I stepped into a restaurant to get
Monsoon rains
My roommate from college, Zach Kuney, was asking for photos of the monsoon last blog. It's rain, a lot of rain. Not too fantastic, but here one is nonetheless. some tea while we waited for the rain to die down. We ordered two teas from a woman and she went into the kitchen. Twenty minutes later, sans tea, a different waiter came up to the table.
"Order again," he told us.
"No, it's okay. We will just leave. No problem." The rain had stopped and we didn't really want the tea that bad to begin with.
"No, order is ready."
"Wait, the order is ready? Then what do you want?"
"Order again," he repeated with pen in hand ready to re-take the order that was supposedly waiting to be served in the kitchen.
"Why? If the order is ready why are we reordering?"
"Okay," he said as he walked back into the kitchen.
A few minutes later we got our tea.
It is something you get accustomed to; there are just weird quirks that (I find) completely illogical. If you know me, things I find illogical normally send me on a nonsensical rant of my own. What they accomplish, why they happen so frequently, why so many individuals can't figure things out perplexes me. Every once in a while it gets to you. I stepped in some weird
AC/DC
Loved this guy's hat. substance walking around Delhi and Darren in response to my inquiry as to what it was simply replied "India." I stepped into a pile of India. I find it a perfect expression for when traveling here is occasionally wearing on you.
Like I said, it is one of my favorite places I have ever visited. It is beautiful, intriguing, hilarious, expansive, and exotic while also being incredibly perplexing, frustrating, and tiring. (Seems like all my past relationships...) I love it, but it is the hardest country I have traveled in. That said, we will see what Uganda has in store for us. Anyway, I'll be back in a few years. In the meantime, I'll appreciate not hearing a car horn blaring every few minutes I'm on a street.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.169s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 15; qc: 62; dbt: 0.1017s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
tracy
non-member comment
all of the history you have taken in over the last several months has been amazing! if you have any additional pics of temples/churches/etc (along with any background info you can remember) please send them my way, i would love to see them. safe travels!