Background
When I went to Carnegie Mellon for college, I made a lot of indian friends. We went to different sorts of cultural events around Pittsburgh. Thus I was further immersed in Indian culture and life. My interest in visiting the intriguing land was rekindled.
During winter break '95-'96, I took off with Sushen, his brother Sushant, his cousin Bharat, Shanti, Gautam, and a couple other random people to visit the Motherland.
We took British Airways and stopped in London. I'd never been
anywhere outside North America before, except
Spain and Morocco a year and a half prior.
Here is a few of the things which I did while in India for
three weeks. If you would like to know more detail, please ask.
London, England
Delhi
quite nice to not have to deal with the crowds when we first
arrived.
We toured around Delhi and down to Agra, the Taj Mahal. I got to
see many sides of Delhi life - from the highest levels of the
aristocratic upper crust to utterly forsaken destitution and poverty.
And a little in between.
I stayed in Delhi for a week and a half. A certain unnamed friend
(ahhem... ahhhhansonem...) was supposed to come meet me, but didn't
make it, like aNee other person who I thought would travel with me.
Anyway, I started traveling by myself, the night after I was coughing
all night and thought I was going to die (love that air quality).
So I left in the morning on a second-class train, bound for..
Jaipur
I went on a tour of Jaipur, which was fantastic. I especially liked
the city palace there, with all its truly unbelievable artwork.
As I'm a fan of calligraphy, the ultra-miniature inscriptions of the
Qu'ran and other illuminated manuscripts astounded me.
Later that day, I was back in the market. The sun had set and I was getting a bit tired of the crowds. I was walking by a street corner to go back to my room at the Athithi Guest House, when a couple of boys approached me. "Scuse me sir"..
I was about to keep walking when I changed my mind and answered in a skeptical tone, "Yes?" The boys proceeded to ask me why all European people were so angry. I informed the boys in a slightly-annoyed-and-tired voice that I was not European, but American.
We started talking about this subject, then just talking in
general. The boys, Happy and Amit, were quite surprised when they
discovered that I could read and speak Hindi. We stood at the corner
for a couple of hours, talking about everything from American slang
to the meaning of life. Happy would ward off any vendors who came
up to try and sell me something, and many stood by staring at us.
Unfortunately, I had to leave on a train a couple of hours later.
We shared an auto-rickshaw back to their apartment, then I went to
the train station and was off to..
Udaipur
The next day, we arrived in Udaipur early in the morning. It was very
dusty. Emma and another man we met, Rafael, found a little hotel
together which was Rs. 50 each. I found that Emma was from New
Zealand and had been trekking in Nepal. I have always had a soft
spot for Nepal ever since my Uncle David told me about his climbing
in the Himalayas. After Emma told me these stories, I decided I
definitely want to go. Emma was headed to work with Mother Theresa
in Calcutta.
Rafael was from Canada. I think he and his girl friend had been traveling Europe, and I guess he came over to India. He was headed up to Jaissalmer to go on a camel safari.
We took a tour outside of the city, stopping in a small village and at a couple of temples. One temple we visited was about 1200 years old. The energy in this place was incredible. All cold, grey stone. Ancient. It seemed like it had been there from the beginning.
We also got caught in the middle of a funeral at the city temple. This was pretty cool, quite a festival. Later, we came back to the temple and were invited to come to a 'service', which we did. It was great.
I really liked Udaipur the best of all the places I visited.
It was beautiful, mountainous countryside and on a lake. The
people were very friendly, and even though it was moderately
crowded, people weren't attaching onto the tourists and desperately
trying to get them to buy their wares. It was very relaxed.
Quite my style.
Bombay
Next, I tried to find a room without much success. Bombay has the
highest-priced and most scarce living accomodations of anywhere in
India, and most of the world. So needless to say, my initial
feeling about Bombay was not very good. It was quite a contrast
to Udaipur.
The next day I got more settled and took a ferry trip out to Elephanta Island, where there are huge cave carvings. That was very nice. I really love the ocean, and being near it grounds me and clears my head.
I wandered around the city quite a bit, buying some music and riding the buses. I even went to see Golden Eye -- I had heard it was pretty bad, but was willing to pay 20 rupees to see it.
By the time I had left Bombay, I felt a lot better. I returned to Delhi and stayed a couple of days until I flew back to school.
My trip to India was incredible. I saw and learned a lot, and will never forget. Perhaps one day I shall return...