Itinerary: Samarkha and Ahmadabad- Bangalore- Goa- Ahmadabad again- Rajasthan- New Delhi- Agra (Taj Mahal)- Ahmadabad- home....
Excerpt from journal and email sent to family and friends:
Hi
Everyone!
We
got here ok, a little worse for the wear, but Pat's family just took us in and
are taking really good care of us! We're coming to you from Bangalore now and are off
on our own. We couldn't have done it any better so far. Had we not
had the two days to acclimate with Pat's family showing us the ins and outs,
we'd be utterly lost! By ins and outs, I mean how the
"toilet system" works here, and showering etc. We shower with a
filled bucket of boiling water from the stove, and temper it down with cool
water and use a cup to pour the water over us! It's adventurous, somehow
fun, and I don't mind it at all. However, the non-western toilets, aka,
the dark hole in the ground, are harder to come to terms with! Grin.
Got to use a flushing toilet today the first time at the hotel.
Oh, for the finer things in life.
My
first impression was that India
in whole is intoxicating and assaulting on the senses. And it seems that
it's essence is a dichotomy of opposites. The smog, which you can see in
the digital photos- it looks like rain, but it's dirt- and the camel dung on
the sidewalks, that I've already stepped in, and all the crowds, are
overwhelming. The women in saris and choli's, seemingly no two alike, are
brilliantly colored in comparison to the grey and browns of the landscape and
are utterly beautiful. The constant sense of poverty is infiltrated by
the alluring rich aromas of food cooking outdoors, indoors, and in streetside
stalls.
I
knew I was in for a one of a kind culture shock when I saw a shepherd roadside,
wearing a robe and carrying a curved staff and truly tending a flock of sheep while our driver shepherded us along the
freeway to the city. The city being a whole conglomerate of the bustle and
business of women carrying brass, huge jugs on their heads, baskets of sticks
and kindling, or laundry stacked high on their crown. The
camels pulling carts down the street next to the cars and rickshaws, the
colors, the temples, these are a sample of the intoxicating parts!!! OH, the
cows! The cows have the right of way,
but the people and cows all live harmoniously! It's hilarious!!
The
food is unbelievably delicious. I'm encouraging Pat to at least find his
ethnic roots in the cooking here! I learned to make some roti, Indian
flat bread, and learned to speak some Gujarati. Everyone keeps talking to
me, and I don't understand a damn thing, but they're unphased by that, so I
figure I'd better learn some of it. Pat's family is wonderful and I know
we'll be back. The first two days, Pat and I have been taken all around
to different kin folk and are kind of "shown off". Please,
Pat is fluent, even if he says he's not. He's with his people now!!!
LOL I keep giving him a bad time, but there is something very
endearing that he is seeing his homeland for the first time and he says
that he understands about his family a little better now. I think it
makes him feel good. And that makes me feel soooooooooo good!
