Middle East 08

this culture shock is really kicking my ass.  India has proven to be overwhelming, frustrating, exhausting, everything… it is also incredibly interesting.

so far, I’ve been in the state of Rajasthan.  I went from Delhi – Mandawa (shekawati) for some Jain temples.  from there, went to Bikaner, where I saw the Laigarh Palace, Jaswant thada, and forts galore.  After Bikaner was Jodphur, where I spent a few days at marbel memorials, and the Mehrangarh fort.  From there, to Ranakpur, an absolutely beautiful village in the hills.  I left Ranakpur today for Udaipur, where I write to you now.  Today, I visited Saheliyon Ki-Bari; a beautiful ornamental garden for the 48 women who came as part of a princess’ dowry.  My favorite part was the lotus pool.  Tomorrow, I go to lake Pichola, Jaghiwas Island, and the city palace.

Our days here are spent in transit, drinking chai tea, riding through small villages, cursing at the power outages, seeing palaces, forts, playing rummy or texas hold ’em, talking about the frustrations of travelling in India, and all around enjoying being here – to an extent.  I am having a hard time with the stares.  I cover my entire body with baggy clothes, and still get stared at.  My mom thought that the little kids asking for money would be the hardest part for me, and it does make the top ten list, but there is much, much more.  this is an incredibly poor country, which is hard to see in itself. I read today that 41% of the population lives in one room homes, that is, their entire family, including the parents’ parents.  It is sad to learn that schooling is free for all children, the uniforms, lunch, and transportation – and some parents still make their children go out on the street to beg.   It is hard to be covered in this incredible heat.  It was not incredibly wise to come to India in the middle of the monsoon season, because, well, it f’ing rains cats, dogs and cows here.  Which, in turn, brings on the bugs. Thank whomever for inventing malaria pills. 

I’m signing off to get some sleep.. but will update in a few days hopefully in higher spirits!

 I’m trying hard to keep pushing through this difficulty and to enjoy my time here, but it is difficult to always be on edge, never relaxed, and acknowledge that this is the end of an extended vacation. 

after tomorrow, I’m going to Pushkar, Jaipur (the pink city) , agra (for the taj mahal!) and back to delhi, before starting my train journey up north to rishikesh.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.