This is just a short video we made in Bombay before leaving. I’m rethinking the video format on the site. That explains why there hasn’t been much lately. Everyone is on YouTube, and then there’s Travelistic. So I’m thinking of distributing videos that way from now on, as well as making them shorter and more frequent. We’ll see how that turns out. But for now, check out some different food!

While not always a traveler’s paradise, we will hopefully be returning to India again sometime in the future.  Six weeks isn’t enough to even scratch the surface, so we left wanting more.  Our original plan was to spend two months exploring the major sights in the north and south, but this proved to be overly ambitious.  It’s possible to travel cheaply in sleeper class on trains, but the long distances make this exhausting over time.  Maybe if we hadn’t been traveling for six months already it wouldn’t seem so daunting, but for whatever reason, it does.
 

Most guidebooks don’t recommend trying to tackle both north and south in one go anyhow.  Multiple trips are much better, breaking the huge sub-continent into manageable pieces. 
 

There is certainly a period of adjustment when traveling in India.  I’m sure it’s different for everyone.  For us, it was a few weeks.  We experienced culture shock, which isn’t surprising.  Some things are truly shocking:  men peeing anywhere at any time, filthy streets, near constant harassment by would-be con-artists, beggars and street children.  Once you get used to handling it all, you barely even notice anymore, and you are able to fully enjoy the best that India has to offer.
 

And does it have a lot to offer.  The food, as many people know, is delicious.  India’s history is captivating no matter how you look at it, whether you are interested in the European colonization and control of India, or its much older history of Hindu empires, the Muslim invasion, the founding of Buddhism, etc.  One of India’s greatest treasures are the people you meet on buses, trains, or on the streets who are profoundly curious and interested in you, and want nothing more than for you to have a great time in their country.  At first the long stares feel offensive, but as soon as you smile or wave, many of them melt.  To quote a fellow traveler, they often wear their heart on their sleeve.  It’s the sort of thing that really grows on you.
 

Our main reason for leaving early was not because we were fed up, it was simply an overwhelming desire to hit the beach (in Thailand).  We felt like the best course of action was not to rush through South India, but rather to come back on a separate trip and give it the time and attention it deserves. 
 

So to sum things up:  There are far more awesome things going on in India than there are bad things, and we hope we get an opportunity to visit again.  We certainly left enough of the country uncharted to warrant at least one more trip!

Bombay is also the home of Bollywood, and movies here are like an institution. The exclusivity of Bombay makes it a lot more expensive than the other major cities in India. We were paying $25 a night for a business hotel with nothing but a shared bathroom with a faucet and bucket for “showering” and tiny, cramped rooms. There are cheaper places to stay, but they were all full.

We used the suburban trains to get around to places like Bandra and Chowpatty Beach, and they were a breeze to navigate, cheap, and not as crowded as you might imagine. Taxis are by far the easiest way to get around, and for once people use the meter, have change, and don’t hassle. Imagine that!

Here are a few choice photos to give you an idea of what the city is like:

Of course, a city the size of Bombay is not without its problems. On our trip to Bandra to pick up a package from DHL, we saw a shanty town right next to the train station. After six months of traveling in some of the poorer countries, it was still a shock.. It was massive, and obviously home to thousands of people. Because tourists never go there, we saw them leading their daily lives: children playing on trash piles, some naked, some with distended bellies from lack of food. Definitely not something you see every day, and something you can never really be prepared for.

All in all, we thought it was a great city with a lot to offer the traveler. On our next visit we’d probably like to change hotels, but other than that it was good fun.

There are even symbols denoting whether or not an item or entire menu or restaurant are “Veg” or “Non-Veg.” This makes things pretty easy for everyone to figure out, and must be really convenient for locals and travelers alike.

Beyond that, however, things are pretty vague. There are sometimes two soups on the menu: Veg and non-veg.. Or “Non-veg curry” and “Veg curry.” I guess it isn’t always so important exactly what ingredients make something “non-veg.” This ambiguous terminology can create some humorous exchanges. At Christmas dinner in Nepal, we overheard this conversation:

(While trying the soup)

“Excuse me, what kind of soup is this?”

“Non-veg.”

(Silence).

Most commercial products have the veg and non-veg symbols on them as well. These Lays potato chips are animal-free:

While this “chicken burger” from McDonald’s was made from non-veg ingredients:

And here’s my favorite kind of example, the completely vague:

I guess not everyone needs to know exactly what contribution to the recipe makes something non-veg, but as a general rule, I like to know!

Jaisalmer to Delhi

The train to Delhi took twenty hours. TWENTY HOURS. Definitely a record for us! Luckily we chatted with a really nice American guy named Shane, which made the time fly by. It’s always great to talk to someone from back home who’s doing what you’re doing. Shane runs cultural food tours through his company called Chicago Food Planet and designed the products for hammockbags.com – check ‘em out because they look fantastic!

Shane wasn’t going all the way to Delhi, and after he left some nice Indian guys sat down with us. One of them could speak Japanese! I took a step back for a moment to wonder, if ten years ago you told me I’d be on a train going to Delhi talking to an Indian guy in Japanese, I might’ve called you crazy. Anyway, he told me his favorite song ever is My Heart will go on from Titanic and proceeded to sing it to show he’d been practicing. It was funny. They asked if our relationship was for love or arranged by our parents. Also a first, and also funny. Then we heard them muttering to each other and finally work up the courage to ask if we eat beef, which of course led to a discussion about cows being holy and cultural differences. It was tough not to exclaim, “we love beef and we really really really miss eating it!”

The Taj Mahal

We didn’t give ourselves enough days in Delhi to really explore it, which is unfortunate. We went to the Taj Mahal on a day trip, though, which of course was fun. Our main goal was to reduce the infamous hassle associated with going there. We heard so many stories of aggressive guys trying to sell you things, beggars, and ridiculously long lines to get in. Plus it costs around twenty dollars for a ticket. It seemed impossible to enjoy it under those conditions, so we opted to go on a Friday when it’s closed! We just sat on a rooftop with a great view and some beer. It was perfect. It didn’t cost much and there were almost no tourists or street hawkers around.

Holi Festival

Our last day in Delhi coincided with the Holi Festival. It’s a crazy holiday where people throw colored paint or powder on each other all morning! Anyone walking down the street is a target for colors or water balloons. It looked really fun, but we heard some of the colors have toxic chemicals in them. You can buy safe herbal ones, but we just didn’t know what kinds the people on the street had. Plus it was a travel day, and any colors thrown on us would’ve been there for at least 24 hours. So we just laid low and watched the mayhem from our rooftop. Occasionally the police would come down the street and rough up some of the Indian guys, I think you’re not supposed to throw colors or balloons at people who don’t want to get hit and maybe someone complained. Still, the cops were slapping them pretty hard. It was really sad to see and hard to believe those guys deserved it.

The festival is such a fantastic idea – an entire country playing a paintball game at the same time? Sign me up! I wish we had that back home once a year, too. It’s just such a shame things can taint it like toxic chemicals and bullying cops.

Bundi was a nice and quiet town beneath a dilapidated but cool palace-fort. Our guesthouse rooftop was directly below the palace for great view. At dusk the bats would fly out of the castle and retreat to the forest.

The town also has some pretty mischievous monkeys. One night out of nowhere one came up to our dinner table and snatched the napkin holder before scampering off. And one morning a monkey grabbed our sugar bowl so quickly it flung sugar everywhere. It tried to lick some up before running away. Those crazy monkeys, they work up the courage to steal something but never get anything of value to them.

Next we traveled on a crazy Harry Potter-like overnight bus to Udaipur, Rajasthan’s “romantic city.” Its several ornate palaces sit serenely on a huge lake.

It’s pretty relaxed and different because it’s the only place in Rajasthan on such a large body of water. We had a fancy dinner there at a really nice hotel with tasty tandoori chicken.

From Udaipur we hopped over to Jodhpur, the blue city. The place was pretty urban, but just enough to not be as touristy as other Rajasthan towns, yet it didn’t feel too big or polluted. The central market square around the clock tower was great for people watching and cheap papayas (yummm).

And we stuffed ourselves on giant spicy potato lentil pancakes (masala dosas) with curry and lassis for $2.50 (!) at place popular with locals.

Jodhpur’s fort is the most fantastic in all of Rajasthan. You enter through seven ridiculously high gates (the tallest I’ve seen) before even starting to explore the place. On one of the gates are the handprints of a past maharaja’s widows, placed before they threw themselves onto his funeral pyre. It was so heartbreaking. The current prince has taken really good care of the fort with an impressive audio tour and museum exhibits inside.

Finally we hit up Jaisalmer, a small town far out into the Thar Desert close to Pakistan. Its sandstone fort is still inhabited by the locals, which is neat but it’s also slowly destroying it. But inside are not only their homes but temples, shops, restaurants, and guesthouses. Although we were tempted to stay inside, we slept at a hotel in town to help the conservation efforts. The rest of the town is built with golden-colored sandstone, too, which makes the whole area pretty gorgeous from above.

Talking to the locals has been really fun. You never know what they’re going to say next sometimes. This guy in Jaisalmer told Kevin that the small moles and freckles on his arm were really bad. He said they’d turn black and fall off if he didn’t go to the doctor and get some cream for them. I guess he didn’t understand that it’s pretty natural for us to have those, and they definitely won’t come off by any cream (at least any that wouldn’t give you more problems than moles and freckles). So random and funny.

Despite the near-constant sightseeing and touristy aspects, Rajasthan was a pretty impressive place. We couldn’t get enough of the warm desert climate and rooftop cafes with unbeatable views. It’s pretty easy to get from place to place, too. But there’s a lot more of India to see (isn’t there always), so next up we’ll launch into the chaos of Delhi, the teeming capital city.

Setting out at 8:30am, we were on a bus to Ajmer by 9:00am (cost per person: 6 Rupees), and in Ajmer by 9:30am. At the Ajmer bus station we inquired about the bus to Bundi, and soon had two tickets for the 9:45am bus (cost per person: 90 Rupees).

When I asked the guy at the ticket counter how long the bus would take, he said it would be four hours. That’s what it said in the Lonely Planet, and made sense: Bundi’s only something like 160km from Pushkar. It’s amazing the things people will tell you sometimes. And of course the total cost of local bus tickets for two was less than what he told me it would be for one person. Whenever they say, “Better you book now,” it really means, “Don’t trust me as far as you can throw me.”

Our New Friend

Once we got settled on to the bus heading for Bundi, everything was great. Our backpacks fit in the overheard racks, so we didn’t have to worry about them getting stolen off the top of the bus. After about an hour the little girl sitting next to me got off the bus and was replaced by an Indian man in his 30s. He didn’t say anything to us, but seemed really curious about everything we were doing. Not surprised, we just sort of laughed about it a few times, but didn’t let it bother us.

Eventually he worked up the courage to try to communicate with us, but unfortunately for all of us he didn’t know very much English. He started with his name, getting ours, and then our nationality. After that he was pretty much at a loss for a while, but it was obvious that he was thinking really, really hard. He obviously wanted to talk to us, so it was impossible not to like the guy. Lots of people are curious about us, that’s what makes people stop what they’re doing, or stand right in front of us, or slow down their car/bus/truck/rickshaw to stare at us. Few people actually try to communicate.

Over the next few hours he kind of told us where he was from, established that we were heading to Bundi, that it had a very beautiful palace, and that we really liked Rajasthan so far. He had me write down our names and email address on a little piece of paper for him. At a quick stop in some town on the way he hopped off the bus and came back with a folded up newspaper square full of grapes. After eating a few he excitedly offered us some. It killed us to turn him down, but there was just too much risk involved. I tried to pantomime that they would give me a bad stomach, but I’ll never know if it got across. A little while later he pointed to the small bundle of grapes wrapped up in a Hindi newspaper on his lap and asked if we didn’t like fruit. I again pantomimed a bad stomach. I’m pretty sure he bought the grapes mainly to to offer them to us, to keep the interaction going. Sadly it’s just not worth hours of agony in the bathroom to make a guy sitting next to you on the bus happy.

As we neared Bundi we got a picture with him, which he obviously enjoyed. Val read on a blog she stumbled across that lots of people in Bundi wanted you to take pictures with them, but they never wanted it emailed to them or anything. Just seeing it flash up on the LCD for a few seconds was enough. Our new friend was much the same way.

When we started pulling into Bundi he pointed out the palace and the rectangular lake nearby. Before actually pulling up to the bus stand, though, the bus stopped and turned around. It wasn’t obvious whether or not this was the end of the line for us, but vehicles on the road in front of us were moving at a standstill, and it sounded like there was a parade or something going on. Between our new friend a few other guys on the bus they told us to get off, then go down the road and turn left in order to get into town. We shook hands with him as we got off the bus, his face split in two with a grin.

As for us, we had to walk through a massive parade with all of our stuff, not entirely sure where we were going. The parade would stop as young men fought with long sticks, a marching band nearby playing loudly. People were piled into the backs of large trucks, slowly moving down the streets. As we walked down the length of the parade, we felt like we were more interesting to the people hanging out on the trucks than the parade itself. Getting around India is always exciting, but seldom for the same reason twice.

In Nepal a “Tourist Bus” is often a nicer than average bus taken primarily by locals not wanting to take the local bus. Almost every time we took a “Tourist Bus” anywhere in Nepal, we were the only tourists on it. The same cannot be said of our tourist bus from Jaipur to Puskhar: all tourists, with the exception of two Indian women, one of which I think was a nun.

The fact that so many people were on the same bus heading to the same (small) place made us think two things: Pushkar must be nice, but it must be pretty touristy as well.

Arriving there resulted in the usual dealings: hotel touts trying to take us to their place. One particularly persistent guy even went so far as to tell us off when we refused to look at his place. We have a pretty general policy of not going to hotels with touts hanging out at bus stations and on the street. Even if they don’t get a commission, they always try to pressure you into staying once you get there. They’re pretty sure if they let you walk out, you won’t come back. It’s always best to look around at a few places and decide that way anyway. This guy didn’t like that, and the conversation went something like this.

“So that place you try is full, Will you look at my place now?” (very loud and pushy)

“No, we’re going to go this way.”

“Is it because it’s not in the LP [Lonely Planet]? Do you only follow the LP?”

“No, we just don’t like to talk to people we meet in the streets about hotels.”

“Oh!” (very angry now) “Better you not come to India then, my friend! Better you stay home!”

He was obviously a jerk not worth dealing with, so I let him have the last word. He’s not going to get guests in his hotel acting like that, nor will he get himself listed in the “LP.”

Eventually we found a really nice place with a fantastic balcony overlooking the city, with a view of the lake.

Pushkar is a small, pretty city on a holy lake that attracts pilgrims, tourists, and hippies. The hippy imprint is probably the largest on the town, and most of the foreign tourists wandering around look like hippies. Despite the fact that our current lifestyle and the fact that we only have three changes of clothes might lead some people at home to think that we’re hippies, we felt out of place with our fake North Face fleeces and khaki trousers. What a change from just a month ago, when we were dressed like everyone else in Kathmandu.

Despite the high concentration of barefoot or strangely dressed fellow travelers, Pushkar was a really nice place to spend a few days. There’s no meat, eggs, or alcohol allowed in town. Unfortunately there weren’t too many imaginative vegetarian restaurants around, but we found one place called Honey-N-Spice that had some great food.

There are hundreds of creamy temples dotting the city, and there are numerous ghats around the lake for ritual bathing. Hanging out by the main ghat watching the sunset accompanied by banging drums, dancing hippies, actual Hindu pilgrims and the odd wandering cow was a neat experience.

The last night there we had a big thunderstorm that dropped some hail on the city. The rain and then the hail made the locals pretty happy. Apparently it hadn’t hailed in ten years.

We spent four nights there, and that was enough for us. Some people spend weeks there; it’s not hard to see why. We decided to take a bus to Bundi, another small and peaceful town that doesn’t see too many visitors.

Back in the day the maharaja painted the whole city pink, “the color of hospitality,” for a visiting Prince of Wales. The old town’s walls and buildings are still a nice salmon color.

We explored a palace, the fort above the city, the beautiful Amber Fort 11km away, as well as an interesting astronomy observatory built by the maharaja a couple hundred years ago. The giant stone objects all chart star trails, eclipses, etc. My favorite was the 80+ foot sundial. Kind of reminded me of a skateboarding park.

It’s wedding season, which means there are multiple weddings every single night – pretty different from back home in spring when people only get married on Saturdays and maybe other weekend days. Each wedding party is quite the fanfare. They parade down the street with a marching band, guys carting giant lights, fireworks, a generator truck for the lights, and sometimes elephants and camels! Very festive. But not as fun when you’re trying to get some sleep. The photo’s fuzzy, but you get the idea.

On our last night we went to a revolving restaurant downtown. Although the food was too oily for our liking, the views were awesome and you can’t beat the novelty of a revolving restaurant!

We enjoyed Jaipur, but it was a little too stressful at times. After a few days we changed our scene to the small town and hippie playground of Pushkar.

We’ve stayed at four hotels in India so far (one in Varanasi, two in Calcutta, and one in Jaipur), and the staff has been stone-faced at each and every one. What’s the deal? It’s been five months now since we left, so we’ve stayed in dozens and dozens of hotels and guesthouses, and eaten in even more restaurants. We feel like we know what to expect from people who are used to dealing with tourists, and this is just not normal. It’s impossible to not think that they’re downright rude.

If you’ve ever met Val, you’ll know that it’s not easy for her to stop smiling. After a week and a half in india, she’s trying pretty hard. Get your room key from the guy, but don’t smile, because he’s not. Place your order or say thank you to the guy at the food counter, but don’t smile, because he’s not going to. The manager acts like he could care less if you stay there or not.

For the most part, the only people who smile are rickshaw drivers, children, and people in rickshaws that pass us and wave and say, “Hello!” Depending on your current mood it’s either incredibly endearing or extremely irritating. But never being able to develop a rapport with the people at the hotel you’ve been staying at for three or four days is really annoying. Every day it’s the same frosty, stoic reception.

It’s a stupid thing to find irritating, but just think about it for a minute and you’ll see why it could get under your skin. Try to imagine checking into a hotel and staying there for three days and not getting smiled at once by any of the fifteen staff members. It could never happen, except maybe here in parts of India. This is all very tough when coming from Nepal, the land of smiling people, or Turkey, or Egypt, or Amsterdam. Everywhere else we’ve been, people really like smiling, as much as us even. And why not?

Now we’re on the ridiculous mission to stop smiling at people because it only pisses us off when they never, ever smile back. Observe:

We noticed in Japan that Japanese people don’t smile in pictures. Whenever we were asked to be in a staff picture, we were the only idiots smiling. I remember trying a few times to not smile, but it just seemed so unnatural. I don’t know. But outside of pictures at least, they’re like everyone else: they smile at each other during most interactions, business or personal.

There are a few exceptions: Western or Western-like establishments. The staff at places like McDonald’s, Subway, KFC, Pizza Hut, or coffee shops like Barista and Coffee Day Cafe (not sure if it’s only in India) are always bright, attractive, and extremely cheerful. Going there is a breath of fresh air, and not just because of the sanitation standards: the workers are so damn warm and friendly, it’s hard not to be impressed (and smile). At Coffee Day Cafe if they don’t smile at you, your coffee is free. But it’s not like they’re forcing the smile just to keep with company policy, they seem genuine. Maybe it is a cultural thing after all.

There’s a lot of things to get used to in India, and this is the most surprising so far.