We’ve only been in India a few days but we’ve already seen a lot. In many ways it’s similar to Nepal, so that was probably a good prep for travel in India. There are, however, some differences that we’ve already noticed.

Holy Cow

Everyone knows cows are holy in India. The funny thing is that they are everywhere here: wandering through traffic on busy streets, sleeping next to people at train stations, hanging out by the ghats on the Ganges, or wandering through the narrow alleys of the old city. And these holy cows are not graceful animals. They are mangy, filthy beasts that rummage through and eat trash all day. Having them wandering around, pissing and shitting as they please does not help to keep the place clean, even if they do eat some of the trash. Some of them are huge, and squeezing past them in a narrow alley can be a little scary. We’ve even seen some locals giving agitated cows a wide berth.

I can’t understand you with that crap in your mouth

The second thing that is a first for us is seeing people chew betel nut. It’s a mildly narcotic seed, and people chew on it and spit, kind of like chewing tobacco. It’s bright red, and there are big red spit globs all over the streets. The worst part is having to talk to people who are chewing it. It makes their teeth and mouth all red, and chunks of it get caught in their teeth. A few times we’ve tried to talk to a rickshaw driver with the crap in their mouth, and it’s disgusting. They can’t speak properly because their mouth is full, and up close their teeth look gross. It rots out your teeth eventually, so talking to someone who chews it a lot when they are currently chewing it is not a pretty sight.

Nature Calls

The third thing is the sanitation. Most people have heard that India is not exactly the world’s cleanest place. We’re not surprised by the things we’ve seen so far, but they are certainly worthy of description. Just like in Nepal, buses stop by the side of the road so people can get out and pee. But people will urinate anywhere here: the side of the road, against the wall in the train station, on a busy street corner, wherever. Our auto-rickshaw driver stopped driving so he could hop out and pee. Basically there are people peeing everywhere. Now we are even more wary of puddles and wet spots. Val swears she saw some human excrement on the ground at the train station in Gorakhpur (the same ground so many people are sleeping on).

Oh Well

I don’t want to harp on the sanitation thing too much, but I don’t want to gloss over it either. There’s also no concept of littering. The family closest to us on the bus from the border to Gorakhpur actually told their two year old daughter to throw the seasoning packet from her ramen (people eat them dry as a snack) out the window because she didn’t need it. When she did it her parents smiled, obviously pleased.

You obviously have to take the good with the bad, and there’s plenty of good things to see and do in India. We’re just glad we have lots of Purel with us.