India From Delhi to Bombay

INDIA! - Good Golly! ..... The very word itself - "India" seems to spring from my mouth in only two ways. There is either a joyful proclamation with hands flung in the air with praise. For the Magic, the culture, the craft, the history, and so many places you could only find in India and no where else in the world. Or the the word "India!" rolls out of your throat like you just swallowed a dead bird. The congestion, the crowds, the worst hygene, the stares, the long lines, all the haggeling, all the cheats, and the men.....oooh tut tut tut tut tut!!! We won't go there. But my first word of advice to all and to any who decide that they want to go to India. Is "Trust no one!" No matter what they tell you, no matter how friendly, it is all a matter of finding a way to get those American dollars into they're pockets. As many as they can get. I know it sounds mean. But I have only met one guy on a packed bus on a dusty road who wanted to talk for the sake of it. They say you either love india or Hate India. I've been In India for 6 weeks now. 3 of those I loved it and would proclaim it as three of the best weeks I have had travelling and for the people I met along the way. But the other 3.........Was by and large the hardest travelling I have ever had anywhere anytime hands down. I can't think of one place that could come close. If anything i'm earning my world traveler stripes over here.

How to Sum up the first 3 weeks in a fun way. Day 1. - our introduction to India. Me and shell arrive at the airport after flying Jet Airways again. Now my favorite airline in the world. for 2 reasons. One our flight was only 1 hour long and we were served a full meal - tea - snacks - and a cool wet towel to wipe your hands and face with. I've taken 4 hour flights back home and all i got was a bag of pretzels and a small cup of sprite. the second reason for jet airways is all the Hieneken you can drink....cool condensation streaming can by can......SO! we get to the airport where we had a fun 11 hour lay over 6 weeks previouse, we fly through customs, we get our bags walk out the door to a pre paid taxi driver so we don't get ripped of(The cars are old vintage mobster cars from the 50s) and head out to the Main Bazaar in Paragange Delhi by the rail station. A place I would later rename "The piss hole of India" All seems fine, they know where to go, which hotel, life is easy and in the fast lane. Quite literally! Some guys pissed off out turban wearing cabbie and he started speeding and chasing them through the streets like a bat out of hell...even after they turned off he took out his vengence on every other pedestrian and driver out there....Welcome to India. The main Bazaar where we stayed was every bit of India but mostly the bad bits which mad it a good bit to experience if you understood that little bit at all.

The streets were narrow and very congested. Thousands of people walking and selling they're wares ( it feels like you are walking through a mid evil village a few hundred years ago with everything and every slogan they yell and sell......"Tin shop....you need metal work done Sir!...TAke a look at my fine collection of belt buckles here my friend....A green shawl for you miss perhaps a beautifull sari...You look thirsty Sir.....I like the look of you ,,for you special price for this monkey leash...Where are you from...Excuse me sir...What is your name...Hello..and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and aaaawwwwwwww IIIINNNNDIIIIIIAAA!!!!!!!!! but usually with a bad word or two yelled before it. But listening is fun even if it is crazy. But the vendors are just one part along with bicycle rickshaws - auto rickshaws - waterbuffalo pulled carts - Elephants - and quite literally a whole herd of cattle mozying up and down the streets eating trash or sleeping to they're hearts content where ever they felt like sleeping. which more often then not seems to be the middle of the road. (this is all over India by the way....cows are worshiped and they Know it, not to say they are smarter then the cows we have back home but they do seem to carry themselves a little more proudly and haughtily as well) I never really thought there were any wild cows left in the world till I walked the streets of Paragangh Delhi. The reason it is aptly named the Piss hole of India, is because of the livestock and human refuge and fieces everywhere. The streets are paved but there are no street cleaners and there are no garbages anywhere. So it all goes to the street. It can be a muddy cakey mess of this that and everything else. the first day we ate at a street side restaurant but the amount of smell and exhaust that was pooring in took the appetite from you. From there on we ate top side on the rooftops of Delhi. Which will remain as my favorite memories of delhi. All the roof top meals looking out on the city. Listening to muslims being called to prayer, the sun sets that you can only see in India. A huge hazy red sphere setting on the heat of the city with the all the sillouhttes of childrens kites flying high, pigeons and a hawk like bird that numbered in the hundreds sometimes that fought ariel battles all day long, and all the adobe buildings, minarettes, and mosques that made up the horizon. There was also one great night on a rooftop in Delhi watching a big Golden Full moon rising over the city.

We spent 2 weeks in Rajasthan on a marathon. (Know more Rhyming now I mean it.....) We saw palaces and forts, forgotten cities and maharajas castles, great empires that long ago vanished leaving so much behind. The deserts of Rajasthan are littered with them. Most sitting all alone as you pass by staring out bus windows. We stayed in towns large and small and all of them Ancient desert Kingdoms. Visiting bazaares and Markets that had been run by the same famalies for generations. There was so much and so much more we should have seen. The hand made crafts and textiles were unlike any i had ever seen anywhere in the world. Elephants, turbans, twisted mustaches, tikas (red spot of forehead), Camels everywhere and they are big, colorful saris of everye hue that women wore, pottery, craft and endless deserts filled with history. But it was also the hardest travelling I have ever had. So after Our friend Andrew flew back home to the states we bought the first ticket out of town to Bombay. And me still for the first time saying about any place i have ever been too.."I hope I never have to return to delhi aka Hell on earth!"

Although one last story of Rajasthan should be relayed. We went to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The biggest symbol of ever lasting love in the world as well as perhaps the most beautiful piece of architeture ever dreamed and ever built. The TAJ MAhAL. You see pictures of this place as a little kid. And everyone wants to see the TAJ. And to be honest it wasn't really high on my list to see. In fact I never really thought I would see it.......It was Amazing and I was very glad that i did see it. It would be strage to travel all of India but to neversee the symbol of it. It would be like going to Nepal but never seeing Everest. And I was glad to add another check to the list of life. It is something you just have to see. It is very magical and some how other worldly. When you go to walk up on the Taj itself you have to leave your shoes behind. Something I have come to admire about muslims. Some how I feel a little closer to the world and a little closer to god above with my feet on the ground. We walked around the out side marveling at the beauty of it. Went in to see the crypts and so much more. The outside has the indented alcoves that you can sit up in away from the sun. So we did. Sitting up on the white marble we talked of the beauty of the Taj Mahal and what in the world could realy come close to it. Was there any thing more beautiful in the world. The Taj Mahal this and The Taj Mahal that and then it just slipped out on its own accord. I suppose there was something I could have done about it. But it's only natural.............So I farted on the Taj Mahal!!!!! And proclaimed it so to Andrew and Michelle. Here we were having a conversation of the most beautiful thing in the world and it had to end like that. Maybe it's a bragging point I don't know. But Andrew semed to thing it was the best and funniest thing that ever happened in India. And from that day fourth if you had to let one loose it was called "dropping a Taj."

One paragrapgh on Bombay. Michelle arrived shoeless. On our 26 hour long train ride from Delhi to Bombay. A turban wearing thief with a strange obsession for womens flip flops stole off into the foggy dawn with them. some weeks later me and shell had our shoes stolen off the porch of our bungalow as well.....strange. Bombay! 2 days there but I liked it quite a bit. Aside form the hundred or so mums all toting babies asking for money for food. You help a few but you can't help them all. And it just hurts to jkeep saying NO! all day long. But there were good things in Bombay. It was very hot for a change, a change we were looking for. And the city itself is very clean and very cosmopolitan. It is also along the coast and on the Arabian sea. We had our western day there. Mcdonalds - then a james Bond movie - then some pizza hut followed cappucianos at a nice cafe. (That day in a taxi out driver ran right into a guy bicyling and of all the things to have he had a huge box full of glass bottles weel you can see the outcome and so did our driver......he just kept driving...the guy was alright but broken bottles littered the street along with a mangled bike!) We ate at the world famouse Leopolds restaurant several times and celebrated michelles 21st birthday......Kind of. The day she would turn 21 at midnight we went out to a swanky night club that was packed with people, Drinks, smoke, and loud music. Michelle claims I gave her to much to drink....I just claim that she passed her 21st intiation rights when she got rid of those drinks in the hostel bathroom a few hours later. The night of her birthday/hangover day we caught a bus south. I wish we had a few more days...we could have been in a bollywood film. I guess that check on the list of life will have to wait. And so we headed south along the coast for the holidays and place where fate was waiting.

Well that's all I will report for today. Sorry it took so long. I was without a working lap top for awhile but thanks to Cousin Dan(especially dan the man!) but also the efforts and kindnesses of- Leah - Casey - and uncle Pat (Who I am supposed to be meeting here in Cochin today or tommorow hopefully) So I have a spanking new flashy lap top. I don't quite feel worthy of how nice this thing is. Like It has expectations of how I should dress or what I should drive. The best christams present i could have got. Any how hopefully tomorrow I can finish up on the last three weeks on the beaches of Goa and the lost City of Hampi. The best of the 3 weeks in India. I will get picts posted as soon as I can. Wi-fi can be very hard to find. I love and miss you all. And we'll be in touch. From the Kerelan coast of southwest India - Jeremy.