First few days in India!

Hello. We are in India! We are safe and well-fed. We have enough light to read and we are warm enough. What else would people worry about?

Wonderful comments on the blog all! Thanks. The NZ posts are set on a timer. We're at our first internet cafe in Kolkata. We took a rickshaw the wrong way to get here and then walked. This place has a low ceiling and Jingle bells just played, followed by an Indian tune.
3 - Number of times I thought I was having an allergic reaction. Just spice.
2 - Number of times I actually was having an allergic reaction. One was very tiny bit of puffy eyes (no problem) and the other is ongoing - I'm am either actually sick or allergic to the pollution. Lots of coughing and nose blowing, most ever.
1 - Number of times we cried together so far about the state of the world.

So far our routine is to hang out in our ballin sweet hotel room with AC and then get hungry. We venture out to eat and have an adventure. Once we are getting too overwhelmed, we come back and gear up for the next outing.

4 - Number of friends. Already it seems we've met more travelers than in NZ and AZ. We met a couple from Portland and it was also their first day in India, so it was great to relate to each other. At a big church yesterday we met a woman from Seattle with whom we went to the art gallery. She was great to talk to because she'd been in India three months already, and three times before this trip. We also chatted a great deal with a man from India who told us all about the best city in the world, his city, Varanasi. He was very nice, and scowled at the boys that were walking by looking at us. ("I have three daughters..." he explained to us. so he doesn't stand for that sort of thing.)

5 - number of people wanting to take our picture so far because.. we are white tourists? We'd actually been told in advance about this. A girl we met in AZ said, "well, it is nice at first, feeling like a celebrity." It's true, nearly everyone looks at us, many are blatant stares.

Sights:
Queen Victoria memorial - big nice building in beautiful park
Mother Teresa's mission/orphanage and room and tomb. The nuns were all very happy, smiling all the time. The kids seemed very happy too. Felt odd touring a orphanage, didn't quite feeling right.

1000+ - Number of things we've never seen before. Life is all around you, on the streets. I mean, people bathing, sleeping, begging, working, eating, peeing, driving, puppies playing with flies, people selling you books or any number of things, men with no legs, blind singers, children working, honking, honking, honking, garbage piles, business men, goats, butchers... this is really hard to discribe. Just... everything. Think Guatemala, but even more exaggerated. We were both glad we had been to Guat or things would have been a totally shock. There's more poverty here than in Guatemala, at least that we see. It's hard. I've thought many times "why are we here?" Why would you be a tourist here? But really, it's not really about the buildings and the sights, but seeing how billions live in this world. It's hard to see, but I think it's important to see. Not much we can do - what do we know of India? Nothing.

Good news
not as hot as we thought it would be. I feel safer than I thought I would feel, obviously not everyone wants to rob you or rip you off, hardly anyone of course. Actually, there's huge protests in New Delhi right now against corruption. A man named Anna who follow Gandian practises in on a hunger strike til death!

Ok, more later loves, we are fine and happy. Hope you are too.

India

Caryn had a dream that I wrote a blog post and that I called it “India.” It’s not often that you have such a wonderful chance to make a dream come true so I thought I’d seize the opportunity.

So, India. I just finished the novel A Fine Balance. I loved it, although by the end it consumed my life. At random times during the day I wondered what would happen to the characters next, and even now it’s truly hard to believe they aren’t real people. This is similar to how I feel about Glee, but that’s not the point.

I feel a lot more prepared for India having read the book. It seemed to go in depth into so many parts of Indian culture and different Indian experiences. I’m glad I’ve got a little insight because I’m sure it will be a huge culture shock. Sure, on the one hand, India is a traditional tourist spot, so no problems right? On the other hand, there’s the travel video I watched (ps I recommend Globe Trekker vids for where ever you want to go, or just to watch for fun). So anyway, this guy is a pro traveler ie it’s his job. How does he like India? He gets sick, the pace is frantic (at one point he’s at a HUGE event just asking random people, “so what’s going on exactly?”) and he said, “I think India is an experience I’ll enjoy in a few months.” That is, looking back on it.

But I’m excited! As long as we go slow and take time to adjust, things should be ok, right? I’m ready to see people being cremated on open-air pyres along the Ganges River (our first stop... maybe “I’m ready” is a bit over-confident). I’m expecting to see beggars of all types (the man with no legs and hands was one of my favourite characters in the book). Bring on the masses of people! The traffic! The noise! The daal! The strays! The this! The that! The everything! Oh man... what have we gotten ourselves into? I can’t wait to find out.

So, dear commenters, my experience with India so far has been through A Fine Balance and a Lonely Planet guide. How about you? Movies, Bollywood, or have you been? Tell us what you know of India.