India Recap

India Recap,

Again this is my experience and only my experience.

India, is indescribable in words, its name alone brings so many feelings and emotions to my mind. India is an intense saturation of the senses, just hearing a towns name brings a specific sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch that will never be erased from my mind. Unlike an place I have ever been India is truly a unique place to visit.
I will say this, it is not a place for everyone, you have to be prepared for what you are about to step into (in my case, SHIT a few times), and even if you think you are ready for it, your NOT.

Mumbai, the over whelming amout of pollution and poverty, mixed with the immense population is what blew my away. This was to the extent I never thought possible, garbage everywhere, people sleeping anywhere, animals, feces, foul odors, beautiful aromas, friendly people, cold people, beggars, thieves, pollution, and over population, people and animals living in sub standard conditions. It was simply mind blowing. It was a way of life I have never seen, never experienced, never thought was possible. In a way It was quite depressing, but in order to survive mentally you have to rise above it and take the good with the bad, put them together and turn it into one big experience. To get the opportunity to look into someone else’s culture and experience their way of living is a privilege and to judge or criticize would be unfair. I’m happy to have experienced it but I’m glad it is not my life

Goa was a different experience a much greener lush landscape away from all the B.S. involved with the city life. A tourism based life with distinct seasons and off seasons (the off season being filled with rain which I was so lucky to enjoy). Even in the rain it was a pleasant place to visit and it gave me a better understanding of Indian Culture. I liked Goa, I wish I could see it in tourist season, I was happy with where I was and getting a chance to eat some food while being a bit more carefree (eating in Mumbai I was very selective) was great. On that note I did break the seat off the toilet in my hotel room at 2am on a mad dash to release some spicy Vindaloo that I sampled a few hours earlier. Goa, good food, more relaxed, and a lot cleaner than the rest of the places I visited in India.

Delhi was amazing but i attribute that to my experience and my host. Staying with a new friend Kerrun and his mother was excellent, taking me in and showing me another side of India was something I had yet to experience. As a traveler you can only scratch the surface, but having an inside point of view, a guide, a cultural mentor, a LOCAL, is an experience you can never put a price on, for me it made my time in India worth while.

I think with out my Delhi experience my view of India would not have been accurate or better yet my opinions would have been overall a LOT harsher.

Agra, Lucknow, Gorakupur, and train travel was a bit of a ZOO. I met some amazing people along the way, but the train was a disaster for me, being sick, not being able to find my seat, and walking aimlessly was not my cup of tea. The train was confusing but great, squat toilets that empty directly onto the track, an unavoidable culture of just taking your trash and throwing it out the window, a car system which still confuses the hell out of me (how you find your car is still beyond me when ½ the time they are labled and the other ½ they are not), yeah train travel was interesting.
The garbage thing got me though, I mean it’s not just on the train, it’s every where, people just throw trash where ever they want, I didn’t see one trash can until I got to Goa, it’s baffling. Kerrun explained it to me best I think. “People of India don’t know how to think ahead” he explained it to me with buildings, road ways, and major infrastructure, but you can translate it into people just throwing trash where every they like as well. It is a serious problem that no one is thinking about (at least no one I can see).

I can write for ever and I have only seen a tiny portion of a huge country. When I think of India I can still HEAR the blaring horns honking uncontrollably everywhere, I can still SMELL the foul odors of feces, animals, body odor, as well as the beautiful aromas of the food, I can still TASTE the masala which is masterfully blended into everything, I can still FEEL the humidity, heat, and perspiration, and I can still SEE the millions of people living below the poverty line in hard, very hard living conditions.

My experiences in India were limited, only seeing a small portion of a huge country. My recommendations are these:
Visit another Asian City first to warm you up to the insanity and maybe even desensitize you a bit.
Do your homework, don’t try to wing it because it is a tough place.
Travel with someone, no hostiles makes meeting people more difficult and it isn’t a bad place to have someone with you especially to experience the insanity.

PHOTOS:

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