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Published: December 17th 2008
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We have finished our travels through India, and it was quite an experience. After 2 1/2 weeks we are now moving on to Southeast Asia. India was everything that you hear it is: desperately poor, chaotic, filthy, shocking, polluted, disease infested, yet full of amazing buildings, vibrant colors, constant motion, diverse people, and lots of energy.
Dehli:
We arrived here knowing a bit about what to expect as we laid over here on the way to Nepal, but we were not prepared for what we saw. This is probably the most disgusting place on the earth. The entire city is completely covered by "The Cloud" as it has become known. This is the name given to the thick brown haze of dirt and pollution that covers the city and everything near it. The sun can't ever be seen here, tall buildings 100 yards away appear as faint silhouettes, and the sidewalks anywhere outside the city center (Canaught Place) are ghettos for the homeless and their countless children. We were able to escape the madness by hiding out in the Tibetan Refugee area, which is about the only place that isn't full of traffic, thieves, touts, starving animals, and endless
masses of homeless. The following day we were picked up by our tourist bus to go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and Fort Agra. This was an interesting tour as we happened to be the only white people on it, but it was actually quite interesting. The only downfall was that our time at the Taj Mahal was cut short because the bus stopped for too long for us to shop (bus employees trying to make commissions), so we had only 2 hours to admire it. Oh... and we spent 20 hours on the bus total. We returned to the Tibetan Refugee area, slept, packed, and raced to the airport to move on to Aurangabad to view the caves of Ellora and Ajanta.
Ellora:
This is a site of 34 different cave temples and monastaries carved into granite mountains by Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains around the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries. The treasure of the caves is the Kailasa Temple, which is a temple cut into the mountain that is about 6 stories high and done with amazing detail. This temple alone took over 100 years and over 250,000 tons of rock were removed. It is
hard to imagine the intricate patterns and sculptures that surround every inch of this temple were carved from one peice of stone with no room for error. This is the largest monolith sculpture in the world (so I am told), and we spent hours staring at it trying to understand how it could have been possible. This temple is not as beautiful as the Taj Mahal nor as famous as Machu Pichu, but I would venture to say that it is every bit as amazing.
Ajanta:
This is another site of caves built on a sharp U-shaped bend in the river in the mountains. This site contains all Buddhist caves and is famous for floor to ceiling frescos that once covered many of these temples. Some of the frescos can still be seen clearly and others not much at all. There is incredible detail in these temples as well, and it is interesting to imagine them as they looked in their prime. There are also a few caves that were abandoned before being completed, which put into perspective how they went about excavating and sculpting. Both of these places were great.
Goa:
This is a state
on the Southwestern side of India that is famous for its beaches, nightlife, and sunsets over the Arabian Sea. This was a great place to relax after traveling in India. We stayed in Baga Beach for a few nights on the first visit and returned here to stay in Palolem after fitting in one last city. It is hard to beat staying in bungalows right on the beach for $4-6 per night, eating seafoof fresh as it is delivered to the restaurant owners right in front of us, and not wearing shoes for several days at a time. We met a lot of great people here and had tons of fun. This was more of a vacation from our vacation in India, as it is very westernized, clean, and easily traveled (read: nothing like India).
Hampi:
This is an ancient 15th century city of ruins that spread throughout a landscape full of very odd-shaped boulders. We toured this site with a Chinese girl and a Lithuanian guy that we had met on the overnight bus and we had a blast. The first day we walked miles and miles stopping into random ruins and temples throughout the area and
we had to hitch-hiked back to our hostel after the sun had set. The second day we toured on bicycles, seeing the few main ruins that we didn't get to the first day.
All in all, India was a great place to experience. Some of the not so great things about India: constant harassment by beggars and merchants, extremely poor air quality, people constantly asking you to pose for pictures with them (white people are like aliens in some areas), always needing to be skeptical of anyone selling anything, the stench in some places is nauseating, seeing extreme poverty all around, lack of toilets & toilet paper, and incredible difficulty arranging transportation. Highlights: losing our tour group at the Taj Mahal and wandering, exploring cave temples for days at a time, meeting many great friends and sharing similar stories of the chaos of India, almost hitting a cow on my scooter while touring beaches in Goa, volleyball on the beach every evening in Palolem, crossing the river in a saucer paddled by a child to hitch-hike back to our hostel after missing the 6 p.m. final ferry, the massive flea market in Anjuna, spending $10-$20 a day and having
an awesome time doing it, seeing a cow headbut a man on the beach to encourage him to share his watermelon, experiencing many places with 75% of the tourists not there this year, being blessed by an elephant in a temple in Hampi, and watching the total chaos of India pass me on every train/bus/taxi/rickshaw we took.
I am in Bankok for the night tonight, and Reed and I will part ways for a couple weeks as Connie comes here in about 8 hours and we are off to Vietnam and Cambodia. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! I look forward to seeing many of you for the next holiday season!
Trevor
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