India – Beauty, Culture, Aggression, Cooking over Cow Shit and Open Defecation

Well, I just finished writing this post, and I'm rewriting the intro since it turned out completely different than I expected when I first started it. I guess that's fitting, since our visit to India was much the same. I wasn't expecting great things to be honest. We don't hear good things about India in the States - poor, crime-ridden, too many people, you will definitely get sick if you go there for a week, etc. Well, some things are true, most are not, and my stomach is perfectly fine.

We just spent nearly a week in India. It was the one country that probably scared our shipboard community the most prior to making port. Very few of our voyagers have been there, and the few that have were basically laughing at what everyone had in store.

This is in the bus parking lot for the City Palace in Jaipur. We parked right next to it and watched monkeys run around on the roof above (you will see one if you look). Yeah, a bit different. 

India has some of the greatest sights on this planet. And some of the worst. The most incredible smells (especially the food – it’s always been the center of the world in terms of the spice trade), and some of the foulest. You literally do not want to stand in the corner of ANY building in India – I did not go near a single one that did not smell like urine (except for the Taj Mahal), and most were still wet. It's horribly ugly in some places, yet I just saw the most beautiful thing I've ever seen humans create (the Taj Mahal, more in a minute). We were told we would love it and hate it, and probably at the same time. That is perhaps the most true statement I've heard about India.

The Taj Mahal from Agra Fort. 

Crapping next to a water hole. Saw this everywhere.

India has a population of 1.3 billion, and will soon pass China as the most populated country in the world if it hasn't already. It has an amazing history, and has given the world some of the greatest gifts and inventions. It has man made and natural beauty that few places can rival, and a host of religions that have managed to get along for the most part.  The people are outgoing, warm, and VERY friendly. Most speak excellent English and have an intelligent sense of humor that is hard not to love.  

Regal looking dude. These folks have flair and style.

The roads in India are an experience in their own right. You find pretty much everything except cars on the road. Monkeys, cows sleeping right in the middle of it, bikes, camels, tuk tuks, camels, buses, elephants, people, donkeys. What you rarely see are cars. Maybe about 1 of every 50 things on the road is actually a car. Sometimes much less than that.

Perhaps the lightest traffic we encountered. Many tuk tuks (very fun to ride), motorbikes, animals, people but few cars.

Business end of several elephants.

Very common sight in Jaipur and Agra.

Monkeys are common in the markets, parks, and along roads. Many are nasty critters that like to bite if you get too close.

India is portrayed as a rough place in the US for the most part. Yes, there are some aspects of Indian life that are more than a little rough around the edges. Some folks are still being held back because of a caste system that is not supposed to exist anymore, but still does in many rural locations. Women are not treated well in some areas, but very well in others. We felt very safe in India, even in the old parts of Delhi which were very poor and thick with people begging. We had a girl who couldn’t have been 13, carrying a baby and asking for money. If you ignored her she would pinch the baby to make it cry in hopes you would feel sorry for her and give her money, which she would have given to some “pimp” who uses kids to make begging money. That part was really horrible to watch, and there was a lot of it. This is balanced by amazing beauty and some truly friendly people. 

Yep, there is a Great Wall in India too. Around the city of Jaipur. Very impressive.

Typically condition of an upper class Indian train car. Dirty, but still more comfortable and hassle-free than flying.

My students on their elephants. 

A very common and horrifying sight. A bunch of dude taking dumps in the fields where crops are growing. Everywhere. All the time. 

But then the next day you could be in Agra, at the Taj Mahal, and have a completely different experience. It is hands down the most beautiful thing I've ever seen humans create. I have never seen a picture that can do it justice. I've said several times on this blog that I'm not into sightseeing, and buildings and art just don't compare to natural beauty for me. I've seen Monet's, and Rembrandt's. I've seen some of the most famous architecture and art in the world. It's cool to see a Picasso, and I enjoy it. But I've never had an emotional response to anything man made like I have when I've seen something like the Grand Canyon. Not until I saw the Taj Mahal. I was expecting "just another building". But when I walked through the entry arch and saw the whole scene, I actually welled up from the beauty of it. 52 years on Earth and never have I experienced that. Just go see it if you can. No one can photograph this and capture it.

I have great photos of the Taj Mahal, but they don't do justice to the place so I'm not showing them. Instead here this one of the same dumb things that all tourists do here, including me. The most beautiful things man has created, in my humble and small opinion. 

The cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Calcutta are enormous, with nearly or over 20 million each (maybe many more because of the poor who live in tent villages and in garbage dumps), but most live in the country. They use, and sell, cow patties to burn as fuel for cooking and warmth. You would see perfectly sculptured arrangements of them all along the roads, or on top of houses. There are no sewage facilities, so they go to the bathrooms in the fields where they are growing their crops. This is why so many people get sick. Not only visitors, but locals alike. They can tolerate it better than we can, but the locals get sick frequently as well.

Buffalo chips for cooking. 

It has some of the most colorful and diverse street markets in the world, but probably the most aggressive street vendors you will find anywhere. We literally had them jumping into Jeeps we were traveling in, shoving their merchandise in our faces, or simply grabbing us as we walked along. Two or three or four of them at a time. From all directions. Loud. Yelling. Angry yet funny if you pushed back or told them to go away (they always seem to have a witty comeback for you). Even guys who were 6’ tall like me had a tough time fending them off. I had to physically jump between them and Karen to keep them from overpowering her. Karen’s eyes, along with those of everyone on our trip, would be huge when we would finally reach a safe place, and then we would laugh hysterically at how over the top the whole place is. It was incredibly fun and exciting and a little unnerving all at the same time.

Parrots are a very common sight in the northern cities of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur.

We had a guide for our trip who loved to talk about history and politics. He said (and read this with your stereotypical Indian accent)  "we LOVE to blame the British for everything, but we can't blame them for 1.3 billion people!". And that is the origin of what modern day India has become. An amazing history, smart people, a wealth of resources, but so many population-induced problems that a well-meaning (unlike China) but sometimes corrupt government has not been able to keep up with.

One of the rougher things we saw. Garbage on water so thick that dogs can walk across it. Look close and you will see them.

Over 700 million people practice open defecation. Garbage disposal cannot keep up with the trash. And culturally their is huge resistance to family planning, so there is no end to the growth. Only 20% have electricity, and many of those steal it by climbing power poles and tapping into the 12,000 volt lines on their own. It's estimated that 15% of the electricity is stolen and 25% is lost due to aging infrastructure. They are trying to upgrade the system, but the population grows quicker than they can build.

Typically Indian power system. Lot's of folks pirating electricity in Delhi.

India is definitely for the advanced traveler, but if you are willing to get out of your comfort zone you can have an experience you really won't stop thinking about. I know I will be thinking about what I saw for a long, long time. I would definitely return here.

Elephant jam. They are cool, but rough to ride.

Monkey. You can never have enough monkey.

Yep, we see our students all over the countries we visit, and perhaps we see more of them than we should.  Mooning the professor, then turning around and smiling at him. Gotta love em.