Its been a great and interesting couple of days over here. I think when I left off we were in Kaharajo. We had an interesting stay there and saw the "love temples" which were quite detailed, the kamasutra scenes were interesting and our guide insisted we should pay attention and learn something. Funny. India is an interesting country in that people feel like they can just walk up to you and start a conversation. I was walking in Kaharajo looking for an ATM and a young guy walked up to me and just started talking, asking where I was from, what I was doing in India, etc. He then went on to ask what i was doing later and if i would like to go on a date. Totally harmless but needless to say I promptly ran into my hotel and waited until later to do to the ATM :)
I'm not sure what it is but there seem to be only men in this country. In hotels, on buses, on trains, on the streets, LITERALLY all men. The women are busy tending to the house, etc. but it is quite eery.
After Karahajo we headed to a National Park for 2 days. It was really a neat place, minus the many bugs and lizards that inhabited our rooms. We went on a jungle safari in one of the best Tiger Reserves in india. We split up in 2 jeeps and left at 5:30am to try to find them. Our jeep saw one mother Tiger from very far away and the other jeep saw 4 literally walk in front of them. Needless to say our car was very upset so we went back later that afternoon for another try. Instead we ended up in an open jeep during a torrential downpour. Clearly someone in our car has bad karma. We were joking that two people in the other cars had "ganesh' statutes with them, which is an elephant and the son of the hindu god sheva, and means good luck. Our leader joked that it is all about the luck. Anyway, i was disappointed but the park was still beautiful and we got to see tons of monkeys, deer, peakcocks, spotted dear (look like gazelles), and wild boars.
After the park we headed to Allahabad, which is town where a lot of the political people live, come from. It is the birthplace of Nehru, a good friend of Ghandi's and the first prime minister of India. There is a lot of controversy regarding Ghandi and the continued ruling of the Nehru family but i will spare the details now (don't worry Dad, we can talk all about it when i get home). The town is also a very important site for the hindu religion because it is where the three holy rivers meet (ganges, can't remembr the other two). We went to that spot, again in a torrential downpour, I guess now I will learn to carry my rainjacket after now having two days of wet clothes. The best thing about Allahabad was the nice hotel, including AC, TV, and a restaurant with Non-indian food. We all had banana splits for dessert yesterday, fabulous break from spice. It was also our first experience in an Indian bar that was in our hotel, again ALL MEN. Our leader was telling us its not safe for women to go, even with boyfriends, etc.
So today we took a local bus (very uncomfortable, the seats are so tiny because most Indians are short) to our last stop, Varanasi, which is right on the river ganges and the holiest place of Hindus. They come here and bathe in the river as well as cremate loved ones. We are here for two days and doing boat rides among other things.
While most of the trip was not the original plan, it was still been great, i can't believe we only have 2 days left before our overnight train back to delhi on saturday! I did have to rearrange some plane tickets, etc to get down to mumbai on sunday which was an extra expense i hadn't thought about but it has all worked out.
I fly from delhi to mumbai on sunday afternoon and get in aroudn 3pm. Apparently the program has arranged for me to go wait at some hotel lobby until 11pm that night when another girl from my program arrives and we have a driver that will take us to jamkhed at that point. All i know so far is that there are 12 people in my program arriving in the next 3 days. Looking forward to going down south so i can face culture shock all over again :)
I hope to post pictures in the next few days from my leader's computer. Keep an eye out.
I'm not sure what it is but there seem to be only men in this country. In hotels, on buses, on trains, on the streets, LITERALLY all men. The women are busy tending to the house, etc. but it is quite eery.
After Karahajo we headed to a National Park for 2 days. It was really a neat place, minus the many bugs and lizards that inhabited our rooms. We went on a jungle safari in one of the best Tiger Reserves in india. We split up in 2 jeeps and left at 5:30am to try to find them. Our jeep saw one mother Tiger from very far away and the other jeep saw 4 literally walk in front of them. Needless to say our car was very upset so we went back later that afternoon for another try. Instead we ended up in an open jeep during a torrential downpour. Clearly someone in our car has bad karma. We were joking that two people in the other cars had "ganesh' statutes with them, which is an elephant and the son of the hindu god sheva, and means good luck. Our leader joked that it is all about the luck. Anyway, i was disappointed but the park was still beautiful and we got to see tons of monkeys, deer, peakcocks, spotted dear (look like gazelles), and wild boars.
After the park we headed to Allahabad, which is town where a lot of the political people live, come from. It is the birthplace of Nehru, a good friend of Ghandi's and the first prime minister of India. There is a lot of controversy regarding Ghandi and the continued ruling of the Nehru family but i will spare the details now (don't worry Dad, we can talk all about it when i get home). The town is also a very important site for the hindu religion because it is where the three holy rivers meet (ganges, can't remembr the other two). We went to that spot, again in a torrential downpour, I guess now I will learn to carry my rainjacket after now having two days of wet clothes. The best thing about Allahabad was the nice hotel, including AC, TV, and a restaurant with Non-indian food. We all had banana splits for dessert yesterday, fabulous break from spice. It was also our first experience in an Indian bar that was in our hotel, again ALL MEN. Our leader was telling us its not safe for women to go, even with boyfriends, etc.
So today we took a local bus (very uncomfortable, the seats are so tiny because most Indians are short) to our last stop, Varanasi, which is right on the river ganges and the holiest place of Hindus. They come here and bathe in the river as well as cremate loved ones. We are here for two days and doing boat rides among other things.
While most of the trip was not the original plan, it was still been great, i can't believe we only have 2 days left before our overnight train back to delhi on saturday! I did have to rearrange some plane tickets, etc to get down to mumbai on sunday which was an extra expense i hadn't thought about but it has all worked out.
I fly from delhi to mumbai on sunday afternoon and get in aroudn 3pm. Apparently the program has arranged for me to go wait at some hotel lobby until 11pm that night when another girl from my program arrives and we have a driver that will take us to jamkhed at that point. All i know so far is that there are 12 people in my program arriving in the next 3 days. Looking forward to going down south so i can face culture shock all over again :)
I hope to post pictures in the next few days from my leader's computer. Keep an eye out.
1 comment:
just like wizard of oz i would say i would like to be with aminals sit down by the amnals and pet them.
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