I am absolutely wiped out. It is all I can do to type anything at all today. We were on a bus all day, and shown all of the sights of Delhi, old and new. The thing that stands out most today was the tea. We had true Indian tea for the first time today. It was amazing. I think they make it with milk and spices, not water like we do in America. I think it also had some coriander and green cartamon. To die for. If you never experience anything else in India, experience the tea!.
I'll write about more of today later. I'm pooped.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
First Impressions
Our first night in India... wow, I am in a kind of awed shock right now. It is absolutely not what I expected at all, and yet everything that I expected, if that makes any sense.
We landed in New Delhi at around 10:30 pm. There were a lot of happy people on the plane, let me tell you! After 16 hours of sitting in a chair, you start to hate having knees! We deboarded the plane, and walked down a long corridor. To the left were windows looking outside, but we couldn't see much. Even though there were street lamps, their light had trouble passing through the smog that covers the city. We made it to a large room, with four or five long lines going toward the front. Customs. Being our first time through, I was a little nervous that we would have some trouble here, but after a 15 minute wait, the customs officer took less than a minute to have me through the line, with barely a word. After Jeremy finished, we walked into a larger room, where luggage was being loaded onto a conveyor belt much like the way we do it in America, except that the doors through which the luggage rotated were essentially holes to the outside. There were 2 deisel forklifts and 3 men loading the luggage onto the conveyor. Every once in a while the wind would catch the forklift's exhaust just right and blow a big black cloud into the airport. So maybe its not really like the way we do it in America...
After collecting our luggage, we proceeded to exchange our American money for Indian rupees, and head out to what I would call the foyer. You enter the foyer by walking up a nine foot wide ramp, with metal bars running along the sides for people to lean on while waiting for their arrivals. These bars ran the length of the ramp, probably 30 feet, and they were covered with people and signs, written in both Hindi and English. Of course, none for us on either side, so we walked beyond the ramp. And that's when we got our first incessant merchant, trying to sell us a cab ride. It doesn't matter what you tell them, they just ask again. I think it took about 20 Nos and 3 times walking away to finally get him off our backs, that is as long as we didn't walk past him again.
Jeremy made a call to the man arranging our pickup, and found out that he was waiting for us outside. We made an exit, and found a man waiting for us with a sign that said 'Jeremy Corson and Dale Quimby' in big letters. He said hello, and asked us to follow him. While we waited for a car to pick us up, Jeremy and I stood there, getting our first look at the roads of Delhi. Everywhere you looked at the road, there were cars, bikes, and people. Yes people, in the middle of the road. Everyone seemed to gun it, and then slow down quickly if something or someone gets in the way.
So when our ride arrived, we stowed our bags in the trunk and hopped in. The driver dove right into the road, and very quickly weaved in and out of the traffic. Keep in mind that the road systems in India are left-sided, as well. We stayed in the far right lane, which I''m guessing is the fast lane. There was also a LOT of honking! Everytime we approached a car in the other lane from behind... HONK! Everytime there was a car in front of us slowing us down... HONK! Just because it seems like the thing to do... HONK!!!
I have to say, I was a little nervous... it looked like everytime we made a quick move that someone was going to hit us. And not really having a full understanding of the horn's role in Indian driving, all the horns going off really scared the crap out of me! Imagine a 3 lane highway with horns ablaze and 6 physical lanes of traffic, and motorbikes mixed in too! Then you'll start getting an understanding of driving in India!
After a roughly 20 minute drive, we made it to the Kerala House. We walked in, and were asked to sit down. After some discussion, we were given a key and shown to our room. In the room at this time was the man who picked us up, the man showing us to our room, Jeremy, and I. All four of us stood around for quite some time, no one really sure what was expected of the other. It seemed also that the two men with us did not speak much of eachother's language. One spoke Hindi, the other spoke Marallaram (S. India). This made it very difficult, but eventually we all muttered our way through it and the two men left.
Jeremy and I discussed our surprises and then went to bed, exhausted!
We landed in New Delhi at around 10:30 pm. There were a lot of happy people on the plane, let me tell you! After 16 hours of sitting in a chair, you start to hate having knees! We deboarded the plane, and walked down a long corridor. To the left were windows looking outside, but we couldn't see much. Even though there were street lamps, their light had trouble passing through the smog that covers the city. We made it to a large room, with four or five long lines going toward the front. Customs. Being our first time through, I was a little nervous that we would have some trouble here, but after a 15 minute wait, the customs officer took less than a minute to have me through the line, with barely a word. After Jeremy finished, we walked into a larger room, where luggage was being loaded onto a conveyor belt much like the way we do it in America, except that the doors through which the luggage rotated were essentially holes to the outside. There were 2 deisel forklifts and 3 men loading the luggage onto the conveyor. Every once in a while the wind would catch the forklift's exhaust just right and blow a big black cloud into the airport. So maybe its not really like the way we do it in America...
After collecting our luggage, we proceeded to exchange our American money for Indian rupees, and head out to what I would call the foyer. You enter the foyer by walking up a nine foot wide ramp, with metal bars running along the sides for people to lean on while waiting for their arrivals. These bars ran the length of the ramp, probably 30 feet, and they were covered with people and signs, written in both Hindi and English. Of course, none for us on either side, so we walked beyond the ramp. And that's when we got our first incessant merchant, trying to sell us a cab ride. It doesn't matter what you tell them, they just ask again. I think it took about 20 Nos and 3 times walking away to finally get him off our backs, that is as long as we didn't walk past him again.
Jeremy made a call to the man arranging our pickup, and found out that he was waiting for us outside. We made an exit, and found a man waiting for us with a sign that said 'Jeremy Corson and Dale Quimby' in big letters. He said hello, and asked us to follow him. While we waited for a car to pick us up, Jeremy and I stood there, getting our first look at the roads of Delhi. Everywhere you looked at the road, there were cars, bikes, and people. Yes people, in the middle of the road. Everyone seemed to gun it, and then slow down quickly if something or someone gets in the way.
So when our ride arrived, we stowed our bags in the trunk and hopped in. The driver dove right into the road, and very quickly weaved in and out of the traffic. Keep in mind that the road systems in India are left-sided, as well. We stayed in the far right lane, which I''m guessing is the fast lane. There was also a LOT of honking! Everytime we approached a car in the other lane from behind... HONK! Everytime there was a car in front of us slowing us down... HONK! Just because it seems like the thing to do... HONK!!!
I have to say, I was a little nervous... it looked like everytime we made a quick move that someone was going to hit us. And not really having a full understanding of the horn's role in Indian driving, all the horns going off really scared the crap out of me! Imagine a 3 lane highway with horns ablaze and 6 physical lanes of traffic, and motorbikes mixed in too! Then you'll start getting an understanding of driving in India!
After a roughly 20 minute drive, we made it to the Kerala House. We walked in, and were asked to sit down. After some discussion, we were given a key and shown to our room. In the room at this time was the man who picked us up, the man showing us to our room, Jeremy, and I. All four of us stood around for quite some time, no one really sure what was expected of the other. It seemed also that the two men with us did not speak much of eachother's language. One spoke Hindi, the other spoke Marallaram (S. India). This made it very difficult, but eventually we all muttered our way through it and the two men left.
Jeremy and I discussed our surprises and then went to bed, exhausted!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
A Few More Hours!
Only four more hours to go until Jeremy and I hop on the bus for Boston! I am posting this entry while I wait for the last of my clothes to finish drying.
Here is a map of India, and a somewhat accurate map of where Jeremy and I will be traveling within India. There is one minor mistake - instead of Johdpor, we are actually going to Jaipur (a little to the east).
We will be arriving in Newark, NJ around 6:30 pm, and flying out for India around 8:20pm or so. We will land in India at 9:30pm IST (Indian Standard Time), but it will only be 10:00 am here in NH. That is a 16 hour flight and time difference of 11.5 hours.
Well, the clothes are done!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
How The Chance to Go To India Came About
Most of you visiting this site didn't have a clue that I was going to India until today, five days before the flight. You probably got a text message from me today (yes I posted this BEFORE I sent the text... I wanted you to have something to read!), and now you're wondering just what the hell is going on here. Well, it's true, I AM going to India for a wedding, but here's the skinny on how exactly it came to be a reality.
My buddy Jeremy works for the State of New Hampshire Office of Information Technology (OIT). One of his friends at work, Amit, a native of India, announced that he was getting married, and in December he invited Jeremy to the wedding ceremony. Amit told Jeremy that if he could take care of his plane ticket, everything Jeremy needed in India would be taken care of. What an opportunity! To be able to see and experience a countryand its people on the other side of the globe! Of course Jeremy, not really imagining that he could pull off paying for the $1100 plane ticket, stuck with the perspective reality and chose not to tell his friends about the opportunity. Lucky for him, he told his mother about it.
Just before Christmas, our mutual friend Adam called Jeremy's mother to discuss potential Christmas gifts for Jeremy. Our group of friends was initally considering pooling some money together to buy Jeremy a new paintball gun, something that he'd been wanting for quite some time. It was at this point that the secret was out: Jeremy's got an offer on the table to go to India, and all he needs is the money for it.... NEW PLAN! Gathering money together for Jeremy's India Trip, and keeping it a secret from him until his birthday (Dec. 31)! And so we did. We gathered for his birthday at The Outback, and after meals were had, we presented Jeremy with an envelope containing a card and $800 toward his trip. Adam and I were hoping we could get the bastard to shed a tear, but he held it together quite well, and with a HUGE grin on his face the entire time!
All was fine and well, and Jeremy was off planning his Indian trip, quite meticulously I must say. Initially, the trip was to be for 6 days, and Jeremy would fly into Mumbai with Amit, and stick with him during the entirety of the trip. That wouldn't have been a problem for Jeremy, but he also recognized the fact that this may be the only chance he gets to see India, so he'd better make the most of it. A 6 day trip turned into a 12 day trip, starting in Delhi rather than Mumbai, and landing in India 6 days before Amit was due to land. Now the trip included visiting Agra and the Taj Mahal, stopping in Jaipur, flying to Mumbai in-country, meeting up with Amit, and then taking part in the wedding festivities.
Though Amit had quite a bit of heartburn over the thought of Jeremy being in India without him, there had been up until this point, another co-worker of their's that was going to the wedding anyway and had been willing to travel the extra days with Jeremy. Unfortunately said co-worker did not have any more vacation time, and could not afford to take the additional time off. Now Jeremy really WAS going to be alone in India for 6 days.
And that's when I got the call.
Thursday, January 15, 2008, 7:30 pm. "Hey man, ahh, you wanna go to India with me?"
Of course at this point, I'm laughing at him, because OBVIOUSLY it's a ludacris idea. Me, with no passport, no visa, and 3 weeks before the trip is scheduled. So Jeremy says "If you really wanna go, I think we can pull it off, but we'll have to move fast." Can you say understatement?!
Trying to remain rational and not wanting to give in to the immediately "Damn right I'll go!" answer, I told Jeremy to let me mull it over for the night. I hung up the phone and walked back into my mother's livingroom, and told them what Jeremy had called for. And I asked her if she thought it was a good idea. She said "What the hell is stopping you?" GOOD Answer I say! And so with that, I was on the phone with Jeremy not less that a half-hour after the original call, confirming that I would go. Another half hour later and I had an appointment with the Passport Agency of Boston for the following Tuesday at 8:30 am.
Thus began the trip to India!
(Check out Jeremy's blog, http://jeremypuneindia.blogspot.com/ for details on how our trip to the Boston Passport Agency went!)
My buddy Jeremy works for the State of New Hampshire Office of Information Technology (OIT). One of his friends at work, Amit, a native of India, announced that he was getting married, and in December he invited Jeremy to the wedding ceremony. Amit told Jeremy that if he could take care of his plane ticket, everything Jeremy needed in India would be taken care of. What an opportunity! To be able to see and experience a countryand its people on the other side of the globe! Of course Jeremy, not really imagining that he could pull off paying for the $1100 plane ticket, stuck with the perspective reality and chose not to tell his friends about the opportunity. Lucky for him, he told his mother about it.
Just before Christmas, our mutual friend Adam called Jeremy's mother to discuss potential Christmas gifts for Jeremy. Our group of friends was initally considering pooling some money together to buy Jeremy a new paintball gun, something that he'd been wanting for quite some time. It was at this point that the secret was out: Jeremy's got an offer on the table to go to India, and all he needs is the money for it.... NEW PLAN! Gathering money together for Jeremy's India Trip, and keeping it a secret from him until his birthday (Dec. 31)! And so we did. We gathered for his birthday at The Outback, and after meals were had, we presented Jeremy with an envelope containing a card and $800 toward his trip. Adam and I were hoping we could get the bastard to shed a tear, but he held it together quite well, and with a HUGE grin on his face the entire time!
All was fine and well, and Jeremy was off planning his Indian trip, quite meticulously I must say. Initially, the trip was to be for 6 days, and Jeremy would fly into Mumbai with Amit, and stick with him during the entirety of the trip. That wouldn't have been a problem for Jeremy, but he also recognized the fact that this may be the only chance he gets to see India, so he'd better make the most of it. A 6 day trip turned into a 12 day trip, starting in Delhi rather than Mumbai, and landing in India 6 days before Amit was due to land. Now the trip included visiting Agra and the Taj Mahal, stopping in Jaipur, flying to Mumbai in-country, meeting up with Amit, and then taking part in the wedding festivities.
Though Amit had quite a bit of heartburn over the thought of Jeremy being in India without him, there had been up until this point, another co-worker of their's that was going to the wedding anyway and had been willing to travel the extra days with Jeremy. Unfortunately said co-worker did not have any more vacation time, and could not afford to take the additional time off. Now Jeremy really WAS going to be alone in India for 6 days.
And that's when I got the call.
Thursday, January 15, 2008, 7:30 pm. "Hey man, ahh, you wanna go to India with me?"
Of course at this point, I'm laughing at him, because OBVIOUSLY it's a ludacris idea. Me, with no passport, no visa, and 3 weeks before the trip is scheduled. So Jeremy says "If you really wanna go, I think we can pull it off, but we'll have to move fast." Can you say understatement?!
Trying to remain rational and not wanting to give in to the immediately "Damn right I'll go!" answer, I told Jeremy to let me mull it over for the night. I hung up the phone and walked back into my mother's livingroom, and told them what Jeremy had called for. And I asked her if she thought it was a good idea. She said "What the hell is stopping you?" GOOD Answer I say! And so with that, I was on the phone with Jeremy not less that a half-hour after the original call, confirming that I would go. Another half hour later and I had an appointment with the Passport Agency of Boston for the following Tuesday at 8:30 am.
Thus began the trip to India!
(Check out Jeremy's blog, http://jeremypuneindia.blogspot.com/ for details on how our trip to the Boston Passport Agency went!)
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