Greetings, greetings! Holy moly, what a week we have had.
We arrived in Delhi having spent a fantastic 5 days with Damien and Moira
in Siem Reip, Cambodia. Honestly, I loved that place.
Ankor Wat is amazing and the whole place is just so relaxed and
everyone is so happy, calm, chilled and cheerful.
Twas great to chill out with D and Moira, we had such a laugh
with them drinking 'Tombraider cocktails (nearest we'll ever be to Ange)
and catching up. Thanks for meeting up with us, was fab to see ye x
And so, off we went ready for our next adventure. ENTER INDIA
M.E.N.T.A.L is the word I would use to describe Northern India.
Bananas is another.
The hubbie and I joined a group of 15 people from all over the world on an
Intrepid Tour and took off to experience the Golden Triangle which consisted of
Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and back to Delhi - about 700km in total over 7 days.
The type of tour meant we caught local transport - buses, trains, tuk tuks.
Ok, how can I explain it? Delhi is like being on a different planet!! Honestly.
The hoards of crowds on the streets, its so so so filthy everywhere you look,
its just so poor (and so upsetting to see tiny kids with flip flops way to big for them
on their feet roam the mounds of filth with the pigs looking for food) not to mention
locals squatting on the side of the road (oh yes) to do their business.
And I'm not talking a number 1.
Add tens and tens and tens of anorexic looking bulls, cows, diseased ridden monkeys,
painted camels, pigs, elephants and millions of skanky looking emaciated dogs roaming
all over the streets along with music blaring from all over, street vendors shouting and
selling their stuff, hundreds of tuk tuks, lorrys, cars, rickety old bikes, richshaws, beeping
beeping BEEEEEEEPING every 2 seconds and you get the picture.
MADNESS..............Shhhh India be still for a minute, pretty please.
And so, a few SODster things that I observed on this trip .
1. The Movember tache seems to be an annual thing in this country. Lads, its not cool.
2. Blokes walk around arm in arm or hand in hand with no sexual implications at all.
Women don't really do it as much, wierd.
3. Indians love our white skin. So much so they think NOTHING of coming up to you and
whipping our their camera phone in our face (oh yes) and taking a VIDEO of you.
I've been feeling a bit famous this week but man, its so annoying when they pretend
they're not taking a picture and then they follow you and then pretend to take a picture
of a tree. Its got to the point now where I almost believe I'm a popstar and to get it over
with make eye contact with them so they come over and jump in a pic. (scarlet for me).
Literally, my week of fame.
4. No such thing as 'this is my personal space, this is yours' in India. Its taken us a while
to get used to this.
5. Same for queueing. Doesn't exist. Can you imagine the fun we have had trying to get
train tickets and the like. Fun!
6. We have been walking along the street when people have come up and thrown
themselves at our legs and touched our knees. I know! Initially, we were like 'get offfff
you lunatic!' but then we were told touching someones knees is a sign of humility and respect.
Jeeeeeesh. Go on then Singh, just one touch then!
7. Asking some something in particular tends to get lost in translation as we have found out
many a time. In fairness, we are in THEIR country and don't speak their language.
But, when we do speak slowly in English and ask them if whatever we're looking for can
be done, they tend to look at you blankly. In the end you hope for the best.
One example of this was ordering a taxi transfer to the airport. We had met a couple from
the UK on our trip who were also travelling on a flight similar time to ourselves so we said
grand we'll share a cab. We went to reception ; heres an idea of how it went ;
Susan - hi, could we order a taxi to the airport for tomorrow please
Guy - taxi? yes, yes. morning or evening.
Susan -morning please, at 7am
Guy - 7 in the evening mam?
Susan - no 7 in the morning, early please
Guy - ok evening
Susan - No morning. 7am very early.
Guy - very good mam
Susan - can you also order a big car as we have 4 people?
Guy - car?
Susan -yes, big car? We are very big people (steady now peeps!), we need big car for
taxi tomorrow morning
Guy - yes, yes
7am comes. I am not joking you. The car was a Fiat Cinquento!!! We all looked at
ourselves and the size of each of our backpacks and cracked up. What followed was
pure comedy.....
Yer man (who wasn't a taxi driver at all, he was a mate of yer man at reception)
decided to tie all our backpacks onto the roof of the cinquento. With eh, one rope!!
Off we tore down the road, yer man with one hand on the horn (apparently its normal
here giving us little heart attacks as he practically went up on two wheels to get through
many a gap on the road)Every few minutes, we would glance behind us hoping NOT to
see a lost bag on the road! Next thing, we get to the airport and we're about 1km away,
we're tearing along when suddenly the car cuts out. And wont start! We all start laughing
coz we're fierce giddy at this stage, and yer man turns to Mal and Darren and says, can
you push? No problem Gunter! So out the lads get and start pushing the car with us chicks
still in it, yer man the driver shouting yes yes velly good, yes After 30 seconds of pushing
and running, the engine starts to cough and splutter and jump, the lads jump in as
the car is tearing up the road and yer man shouting and laughing 'velly good'
Two minutes later we get to departures and we girls have tears streaming down our
faces from all the laughing....and this is now 7.25am!
So yeah its just been classic. I know I will look back and think 'we did the madness'
and regale the tales.
By the way, and I definitely have to mention the highlight of the Golden Triangle trip
was the visit to the Taj Mahal. Its awesome.
Taj means 'Crown' and Mahal means 'Palace'. Most cities in India have at least 3 or
4 palaces so I am a bit 'Mahal'-ed out of it at this stage.
The Taj though....WOW. Its HUGE and when you walk in and see it, you draw a
breath and think 'crikey,I'm here'. Awesome.
For now, we are off to Southern India where we hear and we HOPE the madness and
noise is no more and we can chill out for a few days before hitting Goa for Christmas.
Enjoy the lead up to Chrimbo at home, everyone- man, bit envious :(
Namaste (good bye!) from the North
Shilpa Bradley x
