- women hold their children. in their arms. there are no strollers or moby wraps or carriers or car seats or anything of the sort. im surprised that they dont wrap the children onto their backs
- where are all the cats?!? there are next to no feral cats, after being in the country for 3 weeks i had counted literally 12 cats.
- delightful endless rich bright color. no two saris or punjabis are the same. so many different colors and patterns. gorgeous!
- lots of muslim influence in architecture - palaces, temples, forts, (taj mahal) and even in things like turbans
- cows and more cows everywhere --> cow shit. everywhere! sometimes the scent of fresh cow pies is a very welcome one! not as many cows in dehradun as other places travelled but still plenty just roaming around - in the streets, in the medians, in the doorways, on the sidewalks, in the fields, in the trash piles, on front porches... everywhere.
- the indian people sure do love to stare at us white people, esp the men and children. many have asked to be in pictures with us and then they want to see the picture (being digital and all). one family in jaipur wanted me to hold their small child for a picture, the child of course screamed bloody murder and will probably have ptsd towards white people from now on.
- filth. everything is dirty. everywhere is dirty - the air, floors, streets, the linens, the bathrooms, the floors, the walls, the coke bottles. mold grows everywhere and most walls in most establishments had visible mold growing. trash piles everywhere, the few garbage cans seen were tipped upside down so that no trash could be put in them. sometimes the trash was conglomerated into piles of trash. pigs cows monkeys dogs and donkeys search the trash piles for food. when it rains (monsoon style mind you) the streets become rivers of trash, literally. the humans do not distance themselves from the loose trash nor the huge piles of trash.
- unreal smells, except they were. often you get a particularly pungent whiff of rotting putrid acridness of carcass/food remains/feces-of-all-different species/diesel/burning plastic/god-knows-what-else + the thick humidity and scorching heat... the nose is assaulted.
- no traffic rules, at least not any that are willingly followed (with the exception of jaipur) its crazy! british influence left behind round-abouts. no intersections means no red lights, no stop signs and no real 'right of way'. one driver told us that you need a good horn, good brakes and good luck to drive in india - SO TRUE. the road is clustered with cars, trucks, busses, motorcycles, rickshaws, autorickshaws, vikrums, bicycles, pedestrians, cows and donkey/camel/horse drawn carts.
- rarely did i see helmets being worn until i went to jaipur (where it was enforced). most cars and motorcycles etc were stuffed with way more passengers than there were seats for- the most i saw on a motorcycle was 7 (2 adults, and kids/babies) and the most i saw in a minivan sized car was abt 18 (it was full of school children and the seats had been removed). the women and kids dont hold onto the back of the motorcycles - they must have amazing balance because the roads are full of potholes.
- lots of the roads are hardly 'roads'. pot holes are huge craters and not really patched up, lots of rocks and gravel, when it rains this creates massive lakes... none of hte vehicles have much int he way of suspension and this all makes for a very bumpy ride, often injuries were incurred - hitting head on top of roof, elbows/shoulders/knees/fingers crushed/bumped/banged/squished while commuting to clinic!
- vikrums are the mini buses we rode to clinic while in dehradun. they are kinda like the jeepenys in the philippines, but smaller. they are supposed to seat 6 but always hold at least 8 people and often bags. a very squished and very bumpy ride, but affordable! only 5 ruppee (55:1 US$) walking was often preferable, even if it was a 30-45 min walk because the bumps of the bad roads were so uncomfortable.
- drivers honk incessantly, if youve ever been in asia, then you know what im talking about. they honk to let you know they are there, for passing, for starting and stopping, for right of way... basically for all communication you could ever need to convey while driving in mindblowingly insane traffic. but in india they also honk when there clearly is NO reason to honk ie we are driving/walking/riding down the st, the st is completely empty of all other motorized vehicles at that moment and a motorcycle/car comes from the opposite direction, and both parties lay on the horn from abt 50 ft infront of each other until abt 10 ft past, as if there was any possible ay they didnt see each other without honking. situations like this and regular/busy traffic habits leads to constant honking and the horns are obnoxiously loud. being anywhere near a street is an assault to the ear drums.
and it was all fabulous.
to be cntd....
to be cntd....
