India - Cows, cars and bad cucumber

India was quite an adventure. I've heard stories of people having difficulties in India and now I understand why. I got the full India experience.

First off, it's amazing how many cows there are in India. Below is a photo of Delhi from my hostel roof. It's hard to see but in the bottom right hand corner, there's a cow. Cows are all over India, most notably in the street. This makes for driving excitement because as Anuj told me they are moving speed bumps.



On my first night in India, I met up with Munish from business school. He showed me Delhi Gate and the Prime Minister's house (the White House equivalent). Munish drove me up to the place so I could get a photo. We stopped behing another parked car, assuming stopping was ok. Munish got out first to ask the armed soldier standing by. I got out of the car and heard them exchanging words vividly. Munish hurried back to the car, said, "Hurry take a quick photo" and then he jumped back in the driver's seat. When I was back inside he explained that the soldier was yelling at him for getting out of the car. The soldier told him to get back in the car and let "sarab" or master take the photo. Munish said the soldier still had the old mentality and automatically assumed Munish was my driver since I was white. We both got a good chuckle out of it and went to grab some beers.

After some drinks, Munish drove me back to my hostel. What a drive it was. We got lost and then Munish asked for direction. We were real close because all we needed to do was take a left and then another left. Munish took the first left and we went down a narrow street only to find ourselves in a night bazaar. People were jammed into the street. Munish manouvered the car through this sea of people. I immediately recognized where we were and told him we were in the heart of it. Munish was a bit nervous. He didn't want to hit anyone because they might pull us out of the car and beat us (see my Agra adventure later). We got to the main street but had to make our final left turn. People were everywhere and the street we turned off of was only 5 feet wide. Munish squeezed the car through leaving a bit of scrape on it, but we didn't hit anyone. I later took a photo of this tight spot as shown below. Notice all the people moving about. We pressed forward but a lady with a motor scooter was just standing in the way. Munish laid on the horn but the lady didn't budge. Finally the police came over and started yelling at her. They didn't really look at Munish and me. Afterwards, we arrived safely at my hostel.

The next day I hit Red Fort in the afternoon. It was cool to see but there really wasn't a whole lot there besides buildings. It was a quick tour for me.

Oh yes, I forgot. I was a tourist attraction in the Red Fort. These three guys wanted to take a photo with me. The one to the right of me was their ring leader and he was the most excited.

For the next couple of days, I hired a driver to take me to Agra for the Taj Mahal, then and finally Jaipur. I went based on advice from most of my Indian friends, particularly Srinivas, Munish and Anuj. Little did I know where they were sending me and what awaited me in Agra.

Agra was on red alert. A curfew was imposed because mobs were rioting in the street after 4 children. I found a news article and video from India Times to show the rest of you. Munish and Anuj called me with their concerns and I consulted with the driver who supposedly knew people in Agra. He said it was safe and that the Taj Mahal was still open. He was right the Taj was open. I managed to see it for an hour before they kicked everyone out and closed it because of the emergency. (They opened it only an hour later). The Taj Mahal was pretty impressive but I think the drama outside overshadowed the exprerience.

No one was outside in Agra because of the curfew. All the shops were closed. Some people did venture out but they all went running when the police jeep drove by. I took a photo of the empty street from my hotel balcony.

Everything was fine for me in Agra because I wasn't staying in the Muslim section. That's where all the voilence was. Everything outside of it seemed to be rather safe.

My next stop was Fatehpur Sikhri. At this place, I was trailed by a guy who wanted to guide me but proved to be a nuisance. Below is a photo from the site.

We pulled into Jaipur later that afternoon. My driver took me to an expensive restaurant for lunch. Afterwards, I told him I wanted to eat at cheaper places. I knew the game. I had been traveling for over 4 months so I knew he took me to places that gave him a kickback. The driver took me to dinner that night to another place. I turned around and walked right out of there, telling him that it's too expensive. Meals are normally 300 ruppees there ($7.50) I had him to take me to McDonald's because I wanted to see if it was cheaper. It cost 109 ruppees. After I ordered my driver said he doesn't eat there because it's too expensive. I almost slapped him. But I think my request for cheap eats backfired on me.

The next day I went to Amer Fort. The driver kept on telling me to take an elephant ride up but I told him that was too expensive. He warned me that the walk up there was pretty long otherwise. I walked and it only took me 10 minutes. Man, I was mad again at my driver. Below is Amer Fort.

Next stop was the City Palace as shown below. It was quite colorful.

Afterwards, the driver took me to the hotel to get some cheap food. He finally understood what I meant or just gave up on trying to get his kickbacks. I ordered some chapati and a Indian cheese dish whose name I forget. It came with salad and I put some of the cucumbers in my chapati.

The driver told me that I had seen all the sights in Jaipur but it was only 1 pm. I told him that maybe we should head back to Delhi since all my friends were there. He didn't want to. I then called Anuj and asked him about sights to see and Jaipur. He came through with a list and off we went.

That night the driver asked if I would be upset if we drove some one back to Delhi with us. He told me this guy was the owner of a textile shop. I said sure as long as the guy pays something. I had paid 7200 rupees and wanted to try to recover some of it. Of course, the driver pretended not to understand what I was saying so I called Anuj. I explained the siutation to Anuj and he let hte driver have it. Teh driver told Anuj that the person couldn't afford anything since he was another fellow driver. This directly contradicted what the driver told me. I had had enough of this driver. Anuj offered his place to stay and I accepted because I didn't want to give any more money to the hostel that booked this driver. He sucked.

I made it to Anuj's apartment in Gurgaon. Below is a photo of my driver that I decided to take at then end. He asked me for a tip afterwards and I offered 70 ruppes. He scoffed at me and said "That is not a tip." I thought to myself, "I know. That's why I am offering it." But all I said was "That's all I have." He said nothing and drove off. Good riddance.

Anuj and I had a great time in Gurgoan. We had McDonald's and then went to TGIFriday's for drinks. I needed to get some Westernized food. Gurgoan is pretty developed and growing fast. It's a large center for business process outsourcing so a lot of call centers are there. English is also pretty widely spoken.

That night I fell sick to food poisoning. I had a high fever of 101.2 and let's just say bad stomach problems. Anuj and his wife, Aditi, took me to see the doctor the next day. I got some medicine and pretty much slept and watched TV until my flight at night. Aditi made some great rice and lentil dish called Kishishi (sorry for all my spelling errors), which is very good for upset stomachs. I really have to thank Anuj and Aditi for everything they did in taking care of me. It was much appreciated. Below is a photo of Anuj and me right before I headed out to the airport.

I did India without a guide book and I think it shows. I'd definitely recommend doing a bit more research than I did before heading there. I am very thankful to everyone who helped me out on my adventure there.