30 June 2009
थे १स्त तो फाल -The 1st one to fall
28 June 2009
The Rain Has Come!!!
I’m so tired! Our day started late today (late in regards to how early we always usually get up) 8am. The breakfast at the hotel was good…Indian food for breakfast was actually pretty good. Best part was toast w/jelly and the Orange&Mango Juice (SOOOOO good!). We met an American girl at breakfast who was heading home today after volunteering for a month with an HIV clinic for truck drivers and prostitutes. What she said is how we are feeling after only 5day- She was very happy to be going home, wishing that she wanted to stay longer…I’m pretty sure that’s how we might end up lol After breakfast and figuring out what we were going to do today, we soaked in a little more of the coveted cold AC air and relaxed a little while Kelly headed out for mangos. I’ve never been a huge fan of mangos in the states but OMG this mango was one of the best things that I have had here so far! Must be because they are super fresh here?
While out Kelly met an auto-rickie driver who for R20 offered to meet us at the hotel and take us to Connaught Place…sweet deal considering we probably would have paid 5xs as much with anyone else since R100 seems standard for 3 white people wandering through Delhi to get anywhere near by. What we didn’t know was that Connaught Place, which is a huge shopping area, is closed on Sundays, so we were slightly S.O.L. but on the way there we stopped at Cottage Emporium, because Kelly wanted to get saffron. It was a pretty tourist trap kind of a place but Sadie and I talked to a guy working there for a good while- he was a pretty cool guy and gave Kelly a discount since we (Sadie and me) were “pretty face” since “ulgy faces” like theirs (sales guy and Kelly) don’t get discounts for their looks…it was hilarious! After this our auto-rickie’s friend who drove with us took us to the Indian Tourism Board place down at Connaught Place which is pretty sweet. For $15 each we got a driver (annnd the car had AC) from Noon to 7pm to take us to all of the places we wanted to see! It was awesome! Our luggage and bags were safely stored in the car all day so no lugging around anything, no haggling with rickshaw drivers or walking even more through the dirty, hot, crowded feet.
1st stop of the day was a Hindu temple- it was amazing but no cameras were allowed inside. It was HUGE and very ornate- one of those places that you have to see for yourself.
Next stop, the DC of India. There is no parking allowed but our driver drove by all of the parliament buildings and president’s residence and all of that- of course it’s absolutely BEAUTIFUL and CLEAN!!!! …imagine that! But these buildings are huge and amazing!
Really close by is the city gate which was really cool. Sadie and Kelly got harassed by the man with the monkeys…I saw him coming and walked away…they took pics of the monkies and were harassed for money lol
After that, the fun really began, and by fun I mean really cool places. We went to Humayun’s Tomb, which was built by his widow for him. This place is INSANE!!! It is perfectly symmetrical and so incredibly gorgeous that pictures really don’t do it justice! There were tombs and tombs and tombs here- seriously they were everywhere, but Humayun’s tomb was stunning! Lucky guy! Lol It was built before the Taj and is pretty awesome. There were a few drops of rain which was a good sign that the monsoon might actually be here!
Next stop Lohdi Gardens…gorgeous of course! This place was actually green! The architecture here is insane! This place of course had guess what…more tombs! As we were strolling through the gardens, the monsoon rain hit! And by hit I mean DOWNPOUR!!! I was wearing a white tee, knee length skirt and flip flops…not the best pouring rain, super windy weather attire. By the end of our adventure here I had somehow managed to become completely covered in dirt head to toe! My feel looked like something you could put into one of those- for a dollar a day you can sponsor a chid commercials…I’m not kidding! We hid in cave-ish carvings in a section of wall along side other people (mainly couples) stranded in the rain as well waiting for it to subside. Best part of the rain was it INSTANTLY cooled everything down, but as soon as it stopped the humidity kicked in and was miserable. Up until now there hasn’t been a ton of humidity but I have a feeling it’s about to hit. But it is good that the rains have finally come- they are late and apparently last year there wasn't much rain and this reallllly has messed things up here. Almost all of the electricity is hydroelectric and since there is no water here, we have lots of frequent power outages. Annnd if there is no rain, food becomes more expensive which means all of the poor people on the streets in their tarp shacks are going to be even hungrier and it's not like they have any fat on their bodies to burn off...it's one of the most depressing things ever...welcome to the third world!
Our driver took us to an Indian restaurant after this since we hadn’t eaten since about 8am and were getting hungry (it was about 5pm at this point). This place rocked! The one good thing about living here is I get to eat Indian food alllll of the time…like really that counts for a lot in my book!lol After dinner and a shopping center which was also a lovely tourist trap we headed home. It’s nice to be back to our apartment. After scrubbing my blackened feet for a good while, I have come to accept the fact that my feet will not be clean until I come home and get a pedicure, which will be happening as soon as I land. But you know what it’s ok, I don’t have shoes, neither do most of the people here, so I will endure the sore feet, filthy toes and blisters from walking barefoot at temples when it is 115F outside, and remember not to complain about anything ever again when I get back home…especially about the heat! Apparently it was 115F yesterday and we were walking around outside alllll day yesterday! I have drank more water here in the last couple days walking around than I probably do in a week at home…it’s insane!
27 June 2009
Adventuring
What a day, what a day! We started our day out as normal…7:30am wakeup for chai and the cleaning lady…yes she come on weekends too! I always feel so bad when she comes because once we wake up I chill in bed Skyping while she sweeps- and when you smile at her she just stares at you and keeps on going. I actually drank my chai today too! Hopefully the more I drink it, the more I’ll like it and it will be easier to drink! After hanging out we ventured to the Sipra Mall in hopes of getting cell phones since we had the info of a contact here (which we found out last week is needed to get a cell if you are a foreigner), we get there to find out that not only do we need that but we also need two passport sized photos and a letter on Drishtee letterhead saying that we are working for them…I swear they should be Commies for how much red tape and requirements there are! China was infinitely easier to deal with- you walk in, buy your phone and walk out! So we grabbed lunch at Kennucky Fried Chicken (KFC for those who don’t know Kris)…the smallest meal I’ve ever seen buuut it was food and only about $2 so who can really complain!? We had quite the adventure getting a cab into Delhi, after no luck, we had to take a motor rickshaw or as we affectionately call them: auto rickies. This wouldn’t be a big deal if it wasn’t about a 45min ride w/no traffic and it wasn’t 110F outside! By the time we got to the hotel, we were all soaked in sweat, coughing up lord knows what after inhaling so much smog from the cars around us…once we arrived they greeted us with cold water (thank God!)- we vegged out in the room for a bit enjoying the AC!
After relaxing for a bit and letting our sweat soaked clothes dry a bit, we headed out for what turned out to be an indescribably crazy/fun/sad/hot/dirty/amazing day all wrapped into one. 1st stop was the Red Fort- this place is AMAZING!!! TONS of history in it and well if I think it is interesting then it has to be since I am sooo not a history person! Best of all was seeing my 1st chipmunk ever…SO cute! Apparently this place is where Ghandi was assassinated. This place is so insanely gorgeous…everything is marble and intricately carded and inlayed…basically no words, nor pictures can really capture how gorgeous it is! At this place we were also celebrities of sorts. We had about a million people ask to take pictures with us and about a million more just take them. But best picture of all was Sadie and myself with one of the guards posing with his big gun…my idea naturally to want a picture with the man w/the guns!lol I was really surprised when they said yes…he was very excited that we asked if we could lol
2nd stop of the day a Sikh Temple. This place was gorgeous and quite an experience. We took off our shoes and gave them to the shoe people, rinsed our feet walked up the stairs where they covered our heads for us since we didn’t already have them covered. There were people sitting listening to a leader talking and we walked through with some other people (basically just following the lead of locals), headed outside and got a thumbs up by one of the people that works there. After walking around a bit we decided to head out…it was a little weird walking through their temple not really knowing a ton about their religion or what we should/shouldn’t do.
3rd stop of the day was the largest Mosque in India…this is where the real adventure/craziness begins. The whole area that we were in is called Chandni Chowk which is a huge market area- VERY dirty, lots of poor people and insanely crowded. So we made our way down the urine smelling streets ( I swear I’ll never get use to how foul some of the streets smell here) to the mosque. People would say “hello” and beam when you said “hello” back. At the steps (and there are a LOT of steps) up to the mosque we saw lost of grossly deformed people begging and about a million more just poor people begging as well. When we got to the top we were lucky to find that we had come just in time because any later and women and foreigners would no longer be allowed in for the night due to evening prayers. We get to the top, take off our shoes, get put into long gown type things and charged R200 for each camera we brought in- and of course as soon as we walk in my camera is deeead so booo to that! Once we walked in a guy was like this way and took us around telling us a little bit about the history. Walking around on the red Indian Marble was HOT! Our feet were on fire; I have no idea how everyone else there was ok! Once we got back outside though, well that was interesting! We were then charged R50 for each robe thing and then the guy who gave us the “tour” wanted R200 each for his tour- which he never said anything about before we got in there. So we gave robe man his money and tour guide R200 for all of us because at this point we started getting swarmed with beggars and just wanted to get out of there asap. Sadie had pulled R10 out to give to the robe man when we were paying but she didn’t need to and slipped her R10 into her pocket…and 30 sec later when she reached for it the beggar that had been behind her had swiped it from her pocket- he was quite the smooth operator! We were quite impressed with how quickly he had pick-pocketed her and she didn’t feel a thing.
After that exciting experience we were so beyond whipped out that we hopped into an auto-rickie and headed back to the hotel…we hopped in and realized we didn’t know what had happened to our paper with the hotel address, couldn’t find it on the map and couldn’t remember the street name to save our lives! Buuuut I remembered that I had the room key in my purse and that they usually have an address on it…thank god this one did buuut for the 1st time ever the driver actually knew the hotel we were talking about or at least knew what road it would be on (our hotel is on a narrow street with a TON of other hotels) so we were actually ok and didn’t even need the address- seriously it was a big 1st because getting anywhere here the drivers always have to ask about 10 different people for directions.
The nice thing about this area is that there are a lot of places to eat so we actually had dinner tonight! We ate at a nice restaurant at the hot next door. Reallllly good Indian food!!! All for a huge spluring grand total of about R750 (with tip)…about $15…it is amazing how cheap everything here is!!! I mean China was pretty cheap but India is realllly cheap!
When we finally got back to the hotel and I took off my sandals my feet were BLACK! I was wearing a long skirt all day so I didn’t really see them until that moment and it was filthy! We all were just COVERED in dirt and sweat and Lord knows what else! Before my shower I looked like I had a tan- or that I had developed a dark brown skin tone…after my shower, no more dirt tan and I was back to being very white (I hope I get a real tan at some point here not just a dirt one).
But yeah, what a day, what a day! It was a very interesting day, and tomorrow starts a new adventure and then our weekend will be over, back to the office on Monday. Tuesday should be fun though, Sadie and I are going on a field trip a few hours away to a village that Drishtee works in doing “research”…should be a rough adventure.
26 June 2009
We are Idiots...
Day 3, Day 2 at the office…
After losing our AC multiple times last night to do several power outages we finallllly got it back just before bed! Thank God! We were woken up today at 7am for tea time…it’s too early and too hot for tea…so once again I poured mine out like the terrible person that I am, but I’ve decided that I’m going to start champing up and drinking it because I feel way too bad not to. 7:30am the cleaning lady was there…at least today I was prepared- all of my junk was off the floor (our room has been a little bit of a wreck since we landed).
Getting to the office this morning was a bigger adventure than yesterday…I have a little over 2min of the ordeal captured in video- I’ll try to upload that at some point- it’s exciting, trust me!
I’m working on two projects while here and am sitting next to the head of my 1st project which is somewhat of an in-house wikipedia for the company about anything and everything you could want to know or have questions about. After feeling a little awkward and unproductive (we know how much inefficiency and being unproductive can drive me crazy) I asked the guy I’m working with what he would like me to work on…it went something like this:
Him: You want to start working?
Me: (confused bc we are at work righ?) Yeah I suppose so?
Him: you think we should start working; Michael Jackson died.
Me: (laughing inside/still confused) yeah, i guess it’s not really surprising though. I was sad that Farrah Fawcett died.
Him: yeah that was sad because I read she lost all of her hair.
Me: yeah I can’t imagine.
Awkard silenceness
Me: ok well let me know if you would like me to work on anything…
…and somewhere in there was talk about how MJ was suppose to go on tour soon and all of that…it was a pretty funny yet wonderfully awkward convo lol
So we had this plan for the weekend, get a hotel room in Delhi with 24/7 AC and tour around Delhi for the weekend. After work we wait for over 45min calling cab companies to take us into Delhi and finally one agreed… he shows up, and then has to change the back tire- he was really fast though! We get to the hotel after about an hr long cab ride with lots of traffic and getting lost to find out that you HAVE to have your passport with you to check into any hotel or hostel in India…no big deal right because foreigners ALWAYS have their passports on them right? Yeah not if you are Sadie or myself, we left our passports at our apt not thinking that we would need them. So since it is Indian law that you must have it, we had to take an hr and a half cab ride back to the apt! We had a really cool driver on the way home though- he was from Nepal. He was really fun to talk to (and we could understand what he was saying). The western radio station was doing a MJ tribute and people were calling in talking about him…it was pretty entertaining! So basically we spent over 2 ½ hrs in a cab today, spent R1,600 in fares for no AC and no dinner…I’ve officially had dinner once since I’ve been here lol Tomorrow looks to be better- we will venture back into Delhi, passports in hand, get a hotel with AC, real showers and all of that amazingness, tour around and then hopefully go out with a friend from the office that we would have gone out with tonight had we gotten our hotel room lol
25 June 2009
The Office
Day 2 Continued…
Day one at the office…we spent from 9:30am-6:30pm there. The building is HUGE and modern looking and not even close to finished! When we walked in today there was a doorish sized hole in the wall by our office which opened into a giant warehouse sized room that was just cement and cement pillars- left for lunch and the opening was closed! Lol it was kind of bizarre/funny. All over there is tons of construction but so many of the buildings are not really being worked on. Everywhere there are these partially finished buildings- it’s really weird. Apparently a lot of it is due to the economic slump, even though India has not been affected to the level the US has, it’s still had quite an impact.
We were basically worthless at work today- found out the different projects that we could work on and then decided on who would take which project. I’m pretty excited for the possibility of going to a verrrry rural village about 16hrs from us for a field trip…I mean field work. We’re all crossing our fingers that this will work out! The rest of the day was spent surfing the web…like I said, worthless. Oh there is also a pretty good cafeteria in the building- we had a good lunch- standard vegetarian Indian food, for about the equivalent of $1!
The office itself is ok…pretty secure room- you have to swipe an access card twice to get in and out…and well if you are us, this means you have to have other people let you in and out because you don’t have a card! It’s basically a big room with long tables w/clear glass dividers (not cubicles like in the US). There were also lots of power outages- at one point, we had about 3 in a 30min period! Thank God for Lappy and running off of battery- lots of people in the office are on desktops, which means no power, no computer! The building has it’s own backup power but its such a HUGE building that it takes a bit to kick in- quite exciting! Our innkeeper Revan is also the tea guru at work…yes that is his job- he makes tea…pretty sweet set up if I’ve ever heard of one! …housing, a super chill job and a salary- what more could you want!?
After work we went to the mall across the hwy from work- BEST DECISION EVER!!! Lol It’s pretty bad that after 2days I was SO excited to see Baskin Robbins, Kennucky Fried Chicken and Mc Donalds!!! I immediately went and got an ice cream cone at BR, for just over $1…I’m really starting to like this place!lol I think it was a happy discovery simply for the fact of knowing where food is, since there is nowhere by our apt that serves food! Getting to the mall was quite the adventure that I was not willing to do ever again …until I saw food!lol So, we played Frogger like normal but the highlight of this trip was walking through an underpass that is pretty much one lane except for of course there are cars going through it in each direction- and well not just cars but all the different types of rickshaws too. We came with in cm of traffic…pretty exciting…Sorry Mom, I’m going to do it again for the sake of shopping and food (trust me you would do it too!)! Oh and this place has a movie theater too…with American movies too!!! So no worries Ryan on waiting for Transformers- hopefully it will be coming here soon!;) We had Mc Donald’s for dinner! They really don’t serve any beef- thanks for letting me eat that burger in your car Ry bc I really won’t be eating beef for 2mo lol Being as in China the only burger I ever got at Mc Donald’s was a Big Mac since that’s pretty much the best thing ever when in search of something familiar, I got the Chicken Maharaja Mac- India’s answer to the Mac…gotta keep with tradition right? It was surprisingly really good! Think curry chicken patties on a big mac…without the big mac sauce stuff and a curry sauce instead. And if it wasn’t for Sadie, I probably wouldn’t be writing this in a happy healthy state…I totally forgot to say no ice and was happily drinking my ice cold Coke until Sadie pointed out the amazing ice that would have made me amazingly ill…so I stuck to the warm Pepsi I had in my bag lol (See Mom it could be worse lol)
Tonight, we also discovered why the fridge isn’t always very frigid- it’s on the same timer as our air conditioner which means it’s only on for a few hrs at a time then off for a few more…it alllll makes sense now! Thank God there’s nothing perishable in there!
We also learned that we got super lucky and are here experiencing record breaking heat!!! It’s just like home in the middle of August!!! It’s 9:30pm, 98.6F with 36% humidity…quite lovely! Monsoon season should already be upon us here but apparently, thank you el nino, it hasn’t come yet but should be here in the next 7-10 days. I never realized how much India depends on the monsoons for EVERYTHING. If the rain doesn’t come we will have no hydro-electricity meaning more power outages, no crops, no anything. Many people in the religious communities here have been praying for the rain…their prayers should be answered soon.
K time to end this madness. Love you all!
L
24 June 2009
Day 2
Day 2
Well we made it! I got my 45lb adventure pack on all by myself, we got a cab ($20 for over an hr long ride w/”air conditioning”) it took FOREVER to find out guest house… when we finally arrived, well not what we were expecting. There are two towers, were 5th floor- and an “elevator”. How we smashed all of our luggage and 3 people into it I have NO idea because it’s maybe 4ftx4ft. There’s a “pool”- nice green color- that women can swim in from 7-9pm, we waited on the dusty stairs for 20min playing Go Fish until our guy arrived to let us in. The inside is surprisingly nice compared to anything else around.
Our innkeeper if you will is really nice, although understanding what he’s saying is well fun!lol Everyone here speaks English…LIES!!! And if they speak English, gooood luck understanding what the heck they’re saying! Lol But it’s an adventure! He called an “electrician” to fix the air conditioner in our room…it works a few hrs at a time and its heaven! We have it and a fan in our room…it’s a nice balmy 80F in our room w/the air on…its heaven…we have discovered that if you get your bath towel wet, lay it on your legs with the fan on it has an amazing cooling effect for about 30min until it dries…quite fabulous. Thankfully the weather here is just hot and dry w/no humidity…I can handle it…although getting cold bottled water is a lil chanllenging. We have a purifier in the kitchen but the fridge doesn’t keep things super cold but whatever it’s water. My snickers is getting solid and cold which is exciting. I’m holding out until the last possible moment of desperation to eat it though…which almost happened last night. Since I’ve been here I have had a granola bar, some almonds and a bottle of coke, and a couple glasses of water (I’m telling myself that whatever is floating in it- those lil particles- that I backwashed in it- not that I’ve really eaten anything that could do that). Oh and we should be getting WiFi in our apt tonight!!! YAAAYYYY!!!
Kelly and I ventured out last night questing for a restaurant…ultimately unsuccessful. It’s hot and dirty- basically like China but the parts that I wasn’t in much, let alone living in for the next two months. But we’ll adjust. People here stare at you too, although for some reason here the stares are a little more creepy than in China and make you feel somewhat uneasy- not sure why though. We literally had a guy in a rickshaw stop in the street and stare at us, pedal a little more and then stop and stare. Oh and it’s totally like Frogger crossing the street! People don’t stop at all and there aren’t really cross walks- at least not where we are- it’s quite the adventure. Going out at night is too, we ended up being out past dark and man it gets dark here QUICK! And there aren’t really street lights so the only lights you have are coming from the on-coming traffic that you’re walking against…it’s exciting. There is construction EVERYWHERE …meaning lots of dirt/sand piles on the sides of the street that you have to walk into the road more, to avoid. There are also trash piles on the sides of the roads in some areas- they smell fabulous, but really the smells could be MUCH worse so I can’t complain. Lucky me forgetting real shoes and only having sandals- my feet got dirty and did I see shoes at the stores to buy? NOOO just more sandals! I’m going to need an AMAZING pedicure when I get home! Lol
We’re going into the office today…air…internet…omg what more could I want!? And I hear there is a cafateria…FOOOOD!!! I think we might brave the hour long ride into Delhi to get dinner tonight or at least find out where there is food here. We’re also thinking maybe a weekend trip to a nice hotel in Delhi every now and then…air all of the time and food!!! And showers!!! …we have a shower but the water pressure isn’t good and well a cold shower well doesn’t exist. There are a bunch of places in Delhi that we plan on visiting which will be fun…hot but funJ
Our innkeeper makes us breakfast in the mornings…I’m excited for food! (I’m writing this at 7:30am…we woke up at 6am) He brought us some sort of creamy SWEET tea concoction earlier that was scalding hot…I tried to drink it and just couldn’t. It was SO hot and well a nice 80F isn’t really hot tea weather. I realllly tried to like the taste of it, but in the end, I just couldn’t do it, so I poured most of it down our bathroom sink. I felt really bad but I just couldn’t…
I realized that I have music on my computer (duuuh) and so Sadie and I are laying on our beds, scantly clad (shots and tank tops) listening to music and it’s glorious. Thank God for Sadie having an old MacBook charger with only two-prongs. Mine has three-prongs and my converter is only for two! So if it wasn’t for Sadie I wouldn’t have Lappy right now, or my cell phone which charges off of Lappy. …later today we will probably go get cell phones for hereJ
Cleaning lady just came- there’s no point in cleaning our room, it’s clean and has luggage and packing stuff everywhere but whatever. I smiled…I feel bad…we’re sitting in here on our beds w/our air on full blast, shorts, tanks, while she’s cleaning and our innkeeper is making us breakfast…I feel like a spoiled American but there is literally nothing for us to do right now…so here I am typing about to clean my sandals of their dirt to venture to the balcony to take pics!
Oh and I saw my 1st AK-47 yesterday!:) There were a few guards at the airport with them and then I’ve seen a lot more guards around w/big riffles.
I’m now at the office…we had our 1st power outage- apparently they happen w/some frequency lol
