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Published: March 5th 2007
I DONT KNOW WHERE TO START THIS ONE!!!!!!!!!
Well if you can imagine the amount of things we have seen and done in the last 28 days that I have FORGOTTEN to say things that I would have talked about for months back home if they happened there... Example a city with a population of 3 million or so ( Jaipur) with some dirt streets and rickshaws and cabs and cows and things everywhere, we were driving through and there in the middle of the street April says... that guy is naked.." I looked back but he was behind cars, so i thought well maybe our minds are going...but then after waiting 4 more minutes, her story was confirmed, when another older guy 45ish in age, walked in front of our rickshaw, naked as the day he was born, no shoes or anything, crossing with the rest of the traffic.....that is just one story ...I had more on how 95% of marriages here are arranged and how the people in them justify them, and of course everyone here has a moustache, so when in Rome...yep you guessed it I am sporting one now too, we will send pictures, me and april and the Taj Mahal and my moustache.sweet!
OK so those are the things you missed ...here is what i have for you today...THE DAY FROM HELL....
It started with us leaving Agra after seeing the Amazing and breath taking Taj Mahal, this is a must see for anyone... we got on a train to Delhi, nothing exciting here...
we got off the train and the fun started, we got these autorickshaws, prepaid to go across town to the other train station so we could head to the border to cross int Nepal.
You have to remember everyone if India tries to lie to you, so the signifigance of the autorichshaw is there were 10 rickshaw drivers saying autorickshaw service is not avaiable so they could get you in their rickshaw and charge way more....
anyways we got on the train and had to kicked an old man and his two kids out of our seats for the train to the border, as the young boy was getting up the crack of his pants were ripped and there in front of us was his left nut...nice way to start the trip. We sat down and we had paid for 4 seats, 3 on one side and 1 on the other, they are supposed to be 3 on each side we knew there would be people beside us, but we didnt expect 4 and 5 people....these people dont have paid seats they are squatters just moooching in and making it uncomfortable but this is INdia, anything goes....at one point Sean yelled he wasnt moving anymore(at who turned out to be our Saviour from Nepal,) because of the frustration and the poor little guy didnt know what to do...once the train got going, the Nepalese guy and his uncle were sitting with us and these "ladyboys" came on the trains, they are MEN, BIG HAIRY FACED men dressed in make up and dresses and they go on the train to embarrass people to the point where the people give them money to go away....the nepal uncle ended up getting the worst of it when the Ladyboy slapped him lightly in the face and then grabbed his balls, we killed ourselves laughing and this broke the ice, once the ladyboys cleared out.
As all of this was going on , the other side of the aisle there was this lady who we all thought was 5 mintues away from dying in front of us, coughing up the worse sounding stuff and when she breathed she sounded like a snake out of breathe hissing....it was freaky and her husband was right beside her ( her husband comes in later in the story) well the lady had her head out the window and not realizing that TODAY was HOLY DAY, a festival where people throw dry PAINT on each other and then throw buckets of water, while drunk out of their minds....the poor lady in the window on her death bed, sure enough got a face full of red paint from a person outside the train, and we thought this might be the icing on the cake for her to croak...she didnt, but she might of the minute we left the train, it sounded bad...
So the train is going along and the situation comes where we had to put our beds down since this is a sleeper train, the people with no seats dont want to move, but eventually they do.....so the 4 of us have out bunks and reading and getting ready for bed. I get up to go to the bathroom and come back....who is in my bunk?? the husband of the sick woman, laying in my bunk head all the way to my pillow...I immediately burst out laughing because really, what is this guy thinking??? I said to the nepalese guy, what is going on here?? and the guy finally moved.. Remember this guy and his sick wife dont have seats let alone bunks.....
the night goes along and throughout the night a few things happened but they were hilighted with me looking over at sean at 2:30 in the am, and the guy who stole my bunk when I went to the bathroom had snuggled up to sean and stealing half of his bunk...and then 3:30 I awoke to a man moving my feet so he could sit down...the man got a quick solid boot, for I was tired and not having that...patience wearing thin...
NOW we get off the train and you think it ends there, sorry not.
WE get into the this prearranged mini bus heading 2 hours for the nepal border, avoiding that paint and water that is part of this HOLY DAY!!!! The Nepalese guy was great,him and his uncle helped us so much....now we got within 1/2 a KM from the border but the mini bus wont go any further, we dont know why??? we had to get out and get these rickshaws to the Indian border to let us out of the country.....WELL Imagine 4 clean, white foreigners in the back of rickshaws, going through what can only be described as a war zone of paint and powder and water.....The Indians wasted no time in bombing us in paint and then came the water, absolutely destroying our clothes and permantley giving our backpacks red, yellow, blue and pink color.... it didnt end there, we still had to walk across the border to Nepal, dirt roads about 50 metres away...you guessed it, bombed again, worse than before and walked into the nepal border crossing looking like all colors of the rainbow, not knowing whether to laugh or what...we ended up laughing for a while, because this was just the start of our day to get to Kathmandu...
SO recapping little sleep on the train, havent eaten, now drenched in paint and water, head to toe, and having to get on a bus which we were told was not working by this drunk guy who we almost fought over a 50 cent bag dispute, and this is 930am.
We got on the bus going GOD knows where but instructed by these same Nepalese guys to stay on until a certain point. We got to the point and got off to a roar of laughter by the police standing around. We got on yet another bus with 7 hours to go to get to Kathmandu....the bus was repeatedly stopped by what we can describe as rebels, they were 14-15 year old kids that attacked the road and demanded money for us to get through, all in the name of the "HOLY DAY"
Nepal is much like India they dont waste space, so the bus kept stopping to get more and more people and at one point I saw a man who needed picking up and thought, ok, when he gets on we are full....I didnt see his wife and sister and 4 kids, so instead of 1 there were 7 piling on....I ended up offering to hold this little 4 year old, and she was terrified at the start. Imagine her spot, not seeing a foreigner before, I assume, and I have this sweet moustache and covered in all colors of paint...poor thing, but she drifted asleep within 3 minutes which was cute.
the story I thought would be wrapping up, but it was 5 hours of roads that shold not be roads and going along the cliffs of mountains without guard rails, with a bus driver who was trying to make record time we think.
NOw in Kathmandu and one more hiccup we had a scene where these drunk guys got on the bus and we instantly thought they were going to steal our bags up atop the bus, so I Tried to get out of the bus and had a small pushing match to find out , my money sack had been ripped open, but I luckily caught it before they reached their hands in to grab money or passports.......OK then we got off that bus got a taxi and went to our hotel..... 24 hours of "EXPERIENCE"
We are of to Everest tomorrow cant wait, but we said goodbye to India for about 4 weeks before we go back there and fly to the Phillipines....Indians they are something else....... Imagine quickly if you will someone either coming into YOUR country, or leaving YOUR country and on the way in or on the way out, they hammer you with paint and water????? seems a little weird, and to be honest if you tried to get into say Canada looking the way we did last night, the border patrol would have put us on the bus where we came from...
here is a link to the first round of picture, pre moustache days....
It is Awesome to have Sean and Fiona with us, there is power in numbers at this point.... Be well everyone
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Jeff
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I finally got a blog. But now i have 5 hours of reading to catch up!! Anyway what i have read so far sounds pretty sweet!!