Last May, Sean and I went to India. I have finally scanned all my pictures. Here is my travel diary. The pictures are in random order, and I apologize for the terrible scan quality. I have no idea what I am doing.... we took a 16 hour flight from JFK to New Delhi, which was more or less painless (thank you Ambian!). However, New Delhi was a nightmare. Basically, you needed to have a boarding pass, to get a boarding pass. genius.
Sunday
A small child stole my Coke Cola. swiped it right out of my hands. I think we're both having a hard time adjusting due to exhaustion. There are cows in the street & children without clothes. There is a homeless man that lives outside of the hotel and has to crawl on all fours to get around.
Breakfast: Eggs & Coca cola
Dinner: Samosas, veggie massalla nan, mango juice, beer. $10 each.
We got ripped off by a cab driver taking us where all the laundry is washed. This morning we had a lovely tour guide tough. We saw where Gahandi lived. We saw women in cages. Two Indian children asked to take their picture with me. I think they were making fun of me. I'm excited to be here, more excited for tomorrow when we are at least a little bit rested.
TUESDAY
Woke up before 5 a.m. to catch a 6:55 a.m. train to Goa out of Victoria Station. A woman wearing all yellow helped us purchase our tickets, then asked us which movie stars we had seen in New York. She had seen Brad and Angelina, so clearly had us beat. I had imagined that the train would look like the Darjeling Limited. A Wes Anderson set.
It does not, but there is gentleman walking back and forth selling coffee made with milk rather than water. It is the first time I’ve had it since leaving NY, and it is amazing.
Yesterday we went to the bazzars in the morning. It seemed as though there was nothing to buy except old motorcycle parts and produce covered in flies. It was without a doubt, the hottest, loudest, most overwhelming place I have ever been & I felt like I was in an Indian Jones movie.
There were Muslim prayers over loud speakers, and so far, this has been my favorite 5 minutes here. In the late afternoon, we walked up Marine Drive to Chow Patty Beach & saw the sun set over the Arabian Sea.
A little girl asked her father if she could shake my hand, and did. I am begining to think, they must think I am someone else.
At night some sketch ball took us to the Dohbu Ghats (hanging laundry), so we could take pictures. All the men gathered around Sean as he stood up on a platform with his 4 x5 and giant tripod. I shoudl have taken a picture of that, but was too scared.
The sketchy guy told everyone there that Sean was taking pictures for a magazine. It was unreal, and unsettling, and completely awesome. I am writing from the top bunk of a train and worried that I will fall off during the night.
WED. ( I think)
The train ride was more or less one of the coolest 11 hours of my life.
We sat with a gentleman from Goa who gave us tips and his card in case we needed anything, 4 Portuguese travelers, and a teenage boy who asked to take a picture with me (I am seeing a pattern).Sean is still super jet lagged & slept most of the way. I have no time to be jet lagged and stood between the cars with the doors open watching the landscape change and talking about pictures and Woody Allen with the other travelers.
Last night I dreamt that I saw Giraffes on the ride. I am pretty sure I didn't
Eating at the hotel restaurant last night we met a 65 year old ex-pat from Texas. She's been in India for 4 1/2 years. I can't decide if she is brilliant or terribly sad.
I'm not sure, but I think I hear monkeys in the trees & Goa looks like the sort of place where a tiger would cross your path on the way back to your room.
The lady from Texas said that she had spent 6 months in an Ashram. I asked if she has spent 6 moths just meditating. She said no, but that she had many revelations. The most important of which was that she didn't have to do ANYTHING.
I think today we will rent a scooter and go to the beach and explore.
THURSDAY
On Tuesday I was worried that I had too much time left here, now I am sure I don’t have enough. Yesterday we rented a moped for our time in Goa. We hadn’t gotten more that 15 minutes away when we got pulled over. We were told we needed a motorcycle license. Not having one, we were told we could pay a 1500 ruppee fine, or instead just 1000 to the cop. I offered him 500, he took it & sent us along. Last night we decided to risk it, and drove to Colva Beach. It seems where that is the Indian toursit go & there were hundreds and hundreds of people standing around in the stand.
We got a beer at a beach shack and inquired about the most amazing looking corn that everyone seemed to be eating. Our waiter told us it was from a stall down the beach. Ten minutes later he showed up with the 2 most burnt/undercooked corn one could imagine. We tipped him 100% for being so so lovely, and left with uneaten corn shoved in my bag so he would not know we had not eaten it. Finally, we both slept through the night.
Today, we hired a taxi and went to the organic spice farm in Ponda. When we showed up, they put red dots on our heads, and jasmine around our necks and gave us lemon grass tea that had been made at the farm. We were given a tour, and shown all the spices, and led to the elephants!
We pet a trunk. We opted out of giving them a bath for 600r. It seemed unfair. At an old church we had 2 families ask us where we are from. When they found out we were from the US, they asked if they and their families could take pictures with us. We obliged.
After lunch in the city of Panjim, we were crossing the road to the river and ran into the man from Goa that we had shared a train ride with. Small world.
We saw camels ridding on the highway, and water buffalo crossing the road, & relutclantley spent $14 on a bag full of souviniers. Last night I dream that Paris HIlton would be replacing me at my job. I guess it's the malaria pills.
Somebody forgot to wear sunblocccckkk…. Last night I dreamt that Amy went full on gutter punk dying her hair black and blue with white tips. She wore black combat boots, black sorts, and a muscle tee. I love malaria pills. I’m on the overnight train from Goa to Mumbai. Sean is a few cars down. I feel antsy and claustrophobic the train is crowded and someone’s feet smell terrible. Things I keep forgetting to mention: I have seen up to 4 people at a time on one moped, including babies. Rather than nodding or shaking their heads, people here bob their heads from side to side. I’m not entirely sure what it means, but it seems to stand in for “yes” “no” and the equivalent of a wink. Like when the police black mail you they do this.
An hour later:
We must have stopped at the Jersey Shore of the Indian Subcontinent. Just before the train left the station about 8 people close to my age rushed onto the train. The men all wear cutoff shirts and slick sunglasses. The women bedazzled Ed Hardy type shirts & high heels. They’re loud and crowded me out from between the cars. I accidentally kicked a woman in the head trying to get down from my bed. Only 11 more hours to go….
When we got back to Mumbai, the heat was unbearable. The kind of heat that gives you a throbbing headache & all you can think about I air conditioning; which is really rare over here. We took a one hour boat rode to Elephatana Islands. It was hotter there, maybe 110 degrees F., but there were monkeys. Viscious, viscous monkeys that growled at eachother and stole food from children. A family gestured that a monkey was eyeing my water bottle as I waited for Sean. They fed the monkeys crackers as I took pictures and the little girl said to me “I am not English, I am Hindu”, it was the only English she knew.
I am on the plane watching tv and reading magazine and am astounded by the amount of ad’s for skin whitening creams. There are a lot of white people on the plane wearing clothes clearly bought on their trip who will go home and say things “well in In-dya the curry is really much better”
