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Published: March 14th 2008
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Jodpur's 'The' Omelette Man
Lonely Planet famous...beware of imitations! Moving around:
Local buses...these are fine if you are only going a short distance and can ignore the occasional man standing on the pavement masturbating at the sight of western women (luckily only a sight we were subjected to once on our first trip!)
Not recommended for long journeys, however, since the seats are rock hard and designed for very small people. On the 8 hour bus journey between Delhi and Mandawar I was unlucky enought to end up next to the most heavily built Indian man I have seen, who was forced to squash himself into an itsy bitsy middle seat and crushed me the whole way. The poor man was trying hard not to flatten me, seeing as I was giving many hints, but nevertheless, it was a painful journey!
The 'deluxe' buses are preferable since they have only two in a row seats and occasional headrests, but the still rock hard seats require a cushion, or more precisely a rolled up jumper.
Better still are the sleeper buses, which we caught at stupid o'clock in the morning on two occasions, where you can enjoy an reasonably sized seat or a compartment above the seats
into which entire Indian families squeezed themselves. My only complaint was that it was blooming freezing. The constant beeping of the bus horn almost goes without saying!
Public bus rest stops leave a lot to be desired for females. Men can relieve themselves anywhere...and do whether countryside or street, or they can use specially built urinals. Women, however, should be thankful if they happen upon a female toilet, quite often with no hole, just mess...some societies are just plain unfair!!
Autos are the Indian version of tuktuks, pumping out equally hideous fumes and often even more rickety than the SE Asian versions. Some rides are slow, as the thing struggles to work, others are crazily fast as drivers weave in and out of traffic, pedestrians, cyclists and cows, somehow avoiding collision with each near miss!
For shorter distances you can act like a queen, or the many India passengers, and take a rickshaw. It is amazing how the often elderly rickshaw drivers manage to pedal the rickety old bikes complete with passengers through the beeping traffic, often over long distances. As to be expected, bargain hard for auto and rickshaw fares before getting in and get
Family near the railway line
We had to stop due to a train coming - so they came out to say hello! used to repeatedy saying no to drivers looking for business.
Food:
I am now very adept at understanding Indian food menus, at least in the regions I have been. Bread is cheaper than rice in northern India, so chapatis, naans and paranthas of varying types are common curry accompaniments, though plain rice, pulaos and biriyanis are widely available.
India is fantastic for vegetarian cuisine. Whether you are vegetable, dahl or paneer (cheese) fan you will find plenty of options. An easy option, if you are hungy, is to order a thali and you will received three small individual curries with plain rice and chapati.
As far as meat goes, however, you are restricted to chicken and mutton (goat), both of which traveller's often avoid unless they trust the place they are ordering from. Nevertheless, I have eaten both tandoori chicken and mutton curries on occasions and both have been delicious.
My favourite street and snack foods are samosas and pav bhajis, the latter being small white bread rolls toasted on a hot plate with oil and served with a tasty curry sauce and raw onion. India is not good for the waistline. By and
large most food is either oily, deep fried or very sugary...chapati, daal and plain rice are the best ways to avoid this, but even they are stodgy.
For dessert Indians' favour the intensely sweet and although I have tried various Indian treats I have to say that most are not for me. The western style sweet tooth tends to favour rice pudding (not that I could ever manage this after a curry!) or safe to eat ice cream. Needless to say, various chocolate bars and biscuits are available in every small store. The crisps, however, cater for the Indian market and come in favours such as masala
Chai...or masala chai to be precise, is a delicious concoction of water, milk, tea leaves, sugar, ginger and cardamon, boiled in a pot and served in small glasses. Although most food places serve chai it is best purchased at a street side chai stand where groups of Indian men sit on the basic stools and chat over tea! Luckily they provide plastic cups if you wish to break the trend and take your chai away to avoid the all male domain. Indian women drink chai too but are rarely found at
The snake bite healer
Held in great respect by the villagers this man heals snake bit wounds through sucking out the venom. the chai stands. Personally, I would say that the only other drink that rivals it is sweet lassi, a wonderful tasting yoghurt drink that is effective in counteracting the effects of chilli!
People:
I found that Indian people are by and large very friendly and rather curious about you, however, you do not always get to see this on the tourist trail due to the constant hassles for business and money.
As a traveller I met mainly men...men run the shops, hotel and restaurants. An interesting fact of Indian society - women do all the cooking at home but if you eat out it will often be a man who makes your meal. Most men nowadays seem to dress in jeans, but many wear more traditional forms of dress, the poor version of which is a white sheet wrapped around and tucked in at the front and back to create a pair of shorts. Turbans come in an aray of different sizes and colours. One pair of gentlemen once told me that their design of turban indictated their caste status, however, I could not be more specific than that.
Women's clothing is far more
colourful. Although some females do now dress in jeans and western style tops, most women I came across wore either salawar (punjabi) suits or saris. The suits are for unmarried women though some married women still continue to wear them. They consist of large waisted trousers with a pull cord, a long top, often knee lengh but with slits up the side to the waist, and a scarf that is draped over the shoulders and hangs below the neck...the three pieces are always matching and usually very elegant. Saris are a six metres length of fabric wrapped around and gathered at the front, worn over a petticoat and belly top blouses. The variety of colours, patterns and needlework found on saris is wonderful and they are so beautiful. Nevertheless, I was bemused that in a society where to show your legs and shoulders is a taboo, women would walk around with their stomachs showing. Far more amusing was that older or just plain overweight women would have their large belly and rolls of fat on display, a big no no in our society's dress expectations!
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