Religion

I don't pretend to know anything whatsoever about the religions in India. As a matter of fact, I really wish I'd read up on them in order to understand the people better. But a couple of things stood out. Please know that I am only writing about what I experienced -- I am not generalizing about the religions or the religious people themselves.


The Sikhs were the least likely to swarm us or to cheat us (as far as we could tell). They were serene and elegant. Amritsar is their spiritual center, where the Golden Palace is located. In order to enter the grounds, you must remove your shoes, wash your hands and feet, and cover your hair (both men and women). Once inside the temple (after a long wait in line) there were seven or eight maharajis chanting prayers inside a small, beautiful and very hot room. Visitors would simply sit themselves down anywhere (including in line) and start chanting with the maharajis, which was a little disconcerting. One woman was scolded by a guard when her headscarf slipped off.

The Taj Mahal is a Muslim mausoleum, but of course is visited by people of all walks of life. We heard the Muslim call to prayer while we were there, but did not see anyone step out of line to pray. As a matter of fact, there were "line police" specifically there to keep people from mobbing the crypt.

Several times when money was exchanged, whether in a rickshaw, buying bananas at an outdoor market, or paying our hotel bill, we saw the recipient gently waving the money in front of an icon, bowing, and moving his hands in some way, giving thanks for the blessing of having made a sale, I imagine. Many many businesses had incense burning in front of a painting of a god or goddess. Even some rickshaws had a tiny makeshift altar with incense burning!

In McLeod Ganj, where the Dalai Lama resides, was a Buddhist temple where several gods were depicted in statues or paintings. The altars had offerings laid on them, mostly boxes of foods such as Oreos, Ritz crackers, Chips Ahoy. Personally, that detracted a great deal from the solemnity of a religious altar, but being an athiest myself, I simply thought it lacked decorum. Believers would prostrate themselves in front of these altars, so we had to avoid stepping on them as we passed. There was a sign upon entering the temple warning us to watch that our shoes don't get stolen. Hmmmm, how do we do that?

The People

We flew to India on Etihad Airways, the national airline of Abu Dabi. Besides our plane being delayed in Chicago for 24 hours, it was a nice flight. On the TV screen were a million choices of entertainment but when that all got old, I would leave the map on. Slightly different from other airlines, this one showed the time, temperature, miles flown, miles remaining, and miles to Mecca. Before takeoff and landing a prayer was spoken in Arabic and not translated. (I know this because my seatmate was Arab/American and he told me).

I got an Ayurvedic massage from a very old woman in Varkala. She spoke no English but laughed a lot; strongest arms in the world and a great massage--VERY different from any I've had here -- no partial coverage with a sheet, no body part left un-massaged. It started with me sitting in the buff on a stool, and the masseuse pouring several ounces of oil on my head. Took quite a few tepid showers to get all the oil off!!!!

Waiters were a trip. I believe every restaurant we went to had only one burner in their kitchen, because every meal came out one at a time. If there were six of us, waiters gave us 3 menus; if there were three, they gave us one. In one breakfast place (very western-looking, imitation Starbucks) the waiter took our order, left and came back with a half liter of milk, brought our coffees. Left again, came back with two yogurts (which Mags and I had ordered). Brought our yogurt, muesli and fruit; left again and came back with bananas for Michael's porridge. The whole shindig took 35 minutes; no, not to eat; to just get served!

At every train station we were swarmed by taxi drivers, touts and beggars. In the very first moment after meeting up with Maggie I was getting into the taxi and shutting my door when I saw this hand reaching in! I looked down to see a man with no legs, whom I almost killed with the taxi door! (In most of the towns, at the train stations there is a little booth staffed with a police officer whose job it is to find out where you want to go; then he tells you how much the taxi costs, you pay him and he gives you a voucher. This is for the traveller's protection from getting ripped off by the taxi driver. Twice Maggie paid the policeman with a 100 ruppee bill, took her eyes away for a nanosecond, and there was the policeman with a 50, claiming that was what she gave him. So much for protecting the well-being of the traveller!!) Once, I got so frustrated with the gang swarming us that I just yelled out "WHY do we have to have 12 people around us every time we want to do anything??!!" and a tall, handsome, elegant man dressed in the white tunic and white pants, with the embroidered pill-box hat and a beautifully trimmed gray beard, said, "Madame?! This is India!!" Of course I had to laugh. Yes, that is definitely India.

Shopping In India

Shopping in India was a trip in itself! No one would give us a firm price, of course, so all our time was spent drinking chai and trying to agree on a price for whatever little goodie we were trying to acquire. Most prices started at least twice as high as what would be considered even ballpark. The first couple of weeks, this pastime was kind of fun, but after a while it just plain got stupid. Instead of telling us a price, the vendor would pretend to figure out the very best price and show it to us on his calculator. I never figured out why he would do that, so I finally pretended I couldn't see it and he would have to tell me out loud how much he'd come up with.

One of the most interesting vendors we saw we didn't snap a photo of -- it just seemed too invasive for some reason. He was an ancient old man sitting on the road surrounded by a sundry assortment of empty bottles he'd found -- a liter of Smirnoff, a ketsup bottle...He had a plastic bucket with a honeycomb in it, and was filling these found bottles with honey and selling it. No, I didn't buy any, if you were wondering.

We went into a ginger factory. There was a large courtyard completely full of drying ginger. Inside an unlit, windowless room were two women standing next to a shoulder-high mountain of ginger, shaking a screen box full of the stuff; the air was full of tiny pieces of flying ginger, which made our photos come out with strange star-like spots on them. Of course they asked for money after we snapped photos, which we were happy to give them.

In Delhi we stayed in Pahar Ganj, a wholesale neighborhood where people from all over India come to sell their wares to reps from the tourist shops. They had rock bottom prices, but of course I'd already fallen for the silk sari in a totally tourist ripoff store, and had bought plenty of scarves. I fell in love with a bangle bracelet but was required to buy 12 due to it being wholesale. We went to another wholesale district, Sadar, where yarns and threads were sold to weavers; that was quite a learning experience, as there was no real wool, cashmere, linen or silk yarn to be found anywhere, even with an escort from one yarn shop taking us through the labyrinth of dead end alleys full of other yarn and thread wholesalers. We were educated by a vendor who said all the silk products (scarves, shawls, etc) in India were actually made from "authentic imitation silk." It is a viscose rayon, spun into a fine yarn and woven by hand (mostly) into these sumptuous items. It is a beautiful fabric, and the yarns hold dye marvelously, but, alas, it is not silk. Too bad we learned about this on our last day!

Animals in India

(First I must apologize for the sideways photo of the goats above. It was straight when I uploaded it but has gone whacky on me and I can't seem to fix it).

The animals in India have their own jobs to do. Working elephants move tourists, move lumber, move rocks. They are true laborers. We were thrilled to have the Auntie Mame experience of riding one, but felt at the same time the cruel exploitation of these magnificent beasts. The goats and cows on the streets also have their jobs. They are the garbage eaters, and can be found on every block in diligent employ. Trash is handled, in the small towns we were in, by first the livestock and only later by humans, who sweep it into piles and burn it. There is always the smell of burning trash, wherever you go. In Delhi I did see a government garbage truck, but only one, and it didn't make a dent. The "trash" created by the cows is collected and dried in the sun, to be used later for cooking fuel. Garbage in, garbage out.

India!

I will not have much time to write today, but wanted to let my friends know that after 55 hours of travel we made it to India. The plane in Chicago got stuck with technical problems, and after sitting there for almost 5 hours we were sent to hotels and started the journey 22 hours later.
We flew through Abu Dhabi which was an amazing sight from the air -- flying over gorgeous blue ocean and suddenly seeing nothing but sand for as far as the eye could see. Pretty airport, but out in the middle of nowhere!
We arrived in Trivandrum at 5 AM to find thousands of people outside the airport -- taxi drivers, families awaiting arrivals...seriously thousands of people there, and there was my 6 foot tall Maggie, standing above everyone else, smiling and waving like crazy! What a wonderful sight!
We hopped into a taxi to the train station -- also crowded and bustling with life at that hour on a Sunday morning. The train was a decrepit old thing but went really fast nonetheless. We got off in Varkala and grabbed a tuk tuk, which is basically a three wheeled cycle with a roof and a back seat, powered by a lawn mover engine. Thankfully, I couldn't really see the road as the driver went zooming around town to our hotel. We are in the Santa Claus hotel, on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It has a/c and a private bath, which is a little room with a miniature sink, toilet, and shower all together so everything gets wet when you take a shower. We are very very happy to have it!
The beach is below a long long flight of uneven cement stairs. The cliff is basically where everyone throws their trash, which is pretty much what I expected in India. The water is deliciously warm but with huge waves and a vicious undertow. We rented lounge chairs and umbrellas, and many mangy dogs came to enjoy the shade under our chairs. When it got too hot even for them, they sauntered off to take a dip in the ocean -- I've never seen a dog do that before!!
Along the walkway at the top of the cliff, where our hotel is, are dozens of little shops, restaurants, and tiny hotels like ours. Really really cute little strip, with a view that knocks your socks off. Of course I am looking at all the goodies for sale and not looking at the ocean! Silly me.
Off to dinner soon, and then hopefully a long and luscious night's sleep!

Packing

Oh I used to be such a good packer!!! It was so easy, back in the day. Then I started cruising, or worse, started travelling to diverse locations -- some hot, some cold, some rainy; all on the same trip. And of course when I go back to Pamplona I have to look nice, so there's a problem right there!

This India trip is different. First of all, it is going to be hot hot hot, so I don't need a bunch of stuff for cold weather. And Indians are so colorful, everything goes with everything! And clothes are so cheap there, I can buy whatever I want. Therefore, I have packed 3 bottoms and 5 tops. Amazing! Still, there is the huge problem of the electronics.

Charger for the phone, charger for the iPod Touch, charger for the camera. Plugs for the chargers, and converters. Cable to attach the Touch to a computer. Plug that fits the airplane seat in case it has two holes instead of one for my headset.

There are no fewer than six books loaded onto my Touch. I LOVE it!! I don't need to turn on a light in order to read, and I don't need to carry a ton of books. What a great little toy! My headphones have a microphone, and I've downloaded Skype, so I can use it to call people even tho it's not an iPhone. Genius. Worse - I can buy episodes of the shows I am addicted to for only $1.99, so I won't miss anything. That is pathetic, I know.

So, back to packing: we have decided to travel with backpacks, on the advice of many friends who have travelled in India. Even though I have so few clothes, I have so much other crap that the pack weighs 20 lbs and has very little room for purchases! All soft items are in oversized ziplock baggies with all the air squeezed out, and I'm only bringing two pairs of shoes, so I need to see if there's anything I can jettison. A lot of hard stuff like hand sanitizer, sunscreen, bug spray, and aforementioned electronics -- they take up a lot of room! Yes, of course I know I can buy all that over there, but then I'd still need to have space to pack it when we move from town to town.

Wish me luck. What a fabulous adventure ahead!