The poshest (most posh?) city in northern Indi

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The last stop on our trip was Chandigarh, said to be _the_ cool city in northern India. Also said to be the cleanest and greenest. The city was planned out by some French architect. Normally, the thought of planned cities sends shivers down my spine and brings to mind memories of Irvine, California, where I just could not stand to live despite their excellent graduate school program. However, it might be that India could use a little bit of planning. For example, I was not quite as afraid for my life in the car because there are a whole bunch regularly placed of roundabouts, as opposed to the few sparsely placed traffic lights which are largely ignored that I've noticed in other India cities.

As far as being posh, well, I did stop by a few trendy stores, which was kind of fun. And we went to a delicious sweet shop. One of the Hindi words I've made an effort to learn is "swadisht," delicious. The Indians love sweets, which works out well for me. They're not so into chocolate, unfortunately, but they do have a lot of candies made out of this sweetened condensed milk and spices like cardamum (however that is spelled) that have a really nice taste and texture.

On the other hand, my hotel room was just as full of bugs (both dead and alive) as anywhere else I've been in India. I can handle the poverty, the crowds, the garbage in the streets, and the daily power outages here, but for some reason I can't handle the bugs. More about that in another entry.

The coolest thing about Chandigarh, as far as I was concerned, was the rock garden fully designed by one Indian artist out of reused materials. Lots of statues and doorways and little animals made out of dishes and electrical sprocekts. Take a look at the pictures, they're super cute.

And that wraps up my side trip with RUCHI. Next I'll explain what it is I actually did at RUCHI.

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Comments

[aileen]

I love the pictures! That Indian artist is awesome. I'm impressed. I love this travel journal of yours. It's such a cool idea. I'm gonna give you a call sometime on your international cell phone, Anne. I've got so much to tell you. I miss you!