Flying Into Chaos

After a long and hard 7 days, Nat and I finally made it to a peaceful, quiet (in comparison) little town in India called Pushkar. We landed in Delhi last week and it has been a daily challenge from the moment we set foot off the plane. If traveling to South America was a slap in the face, India is a flurry to the abdomen finishing with a solid right hand upper-cut.

We have been subject to scams that will make your head spin, pollution that is almost unbearable, extreme poverty, 45 degree heat, people, people, more people and “hospitals”. Yes, Nat was so sick one day that we had to take her to a “hospital” in Ajmer. I was running around making sure we had clean disposable needles as she needed an IV drip. In the end everything was alright and we moved on after several hours.

This country is indescribable. Landing in Delhi was a shock to our system, with our backpacks missing in action, autorickshaw and taxi drivers at our heels trying to give us the best “deal”, and suffering from jet lag, we crawled into bed that first night not knowing which way was up. After a few days in Delhi “acclimatizing” (as if anyone can acclimatize to the amount of pollution and fumes spewing from cars and autorickshaws – basically a taxi motorbike with 3 wheels that has a seat in the back for 3 people, lots of fun) we took off for Agra to see the Taj Mahal with a taxi driver that we hired for 10 days to take us around the state of Rajhastan. The Taj was incredible and the first thing that we have seen in India that I can call beautiful. However, seeing it was not without its down side as Nat ended up vomiting in the in the Taj Mahal grounds. This was not a good start to our journey.

From there we took off to Jaipur the most polluted city in Rajhastan. We could not take the heat and fumes so after staying a night we drove straight to Pushkar. Relief. This is what I pictured India to be like – narrow streets, very little pollution, friendly locals, bright yellow mango stands, cows, camels pulling small 2 wheeled carriages filled with fruits, rice and wheat through the streets, and a small holy lake.

Yesterday we found a little spot just down from our hotel on the outskirts of town where we were able to feed peanuts and popcorn to wild monkeys. Amazing. We got out of the car and within a minute there were about 50 monkeys around us taking peanuts right from our hand. That evening, accompanied by a nice breeze, we sat by the holy lake and watched the bats fly all around us. One has to see it to believe it.

So, with Nat’s health problems hopefully behind her (no pun intended) we are just beginning to enjoy India. We will probably leave for Ranakpur on Wednesday after an overnight camel trek into the desert Monday.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2003 at 4:48 pm and is filed under He Said. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. Add to del.icio.us.