India made such an impression on us that we feel she requires some parting comments.
We thought we were fairly hardened travellers before we arrived in India. After all, we'd lived/studied in China and Lebanon, and just made our way through the Middle East. But we were not prepared!
When I was in China during the summer of 1999, I remember going to a backpackers' restaurant in Xi'an that had guestbooks where various travellers had written their thanks, or impressions, or notes to other travellers. Many people were complaing about something... the buses, or taxi drivers, or getting sick, or spitting on the street.... One person had written "You should all stop your bitching. China is the goddamn Ritz compared to India." And now I know for sure: China is the goddamn Ritz.
The India we saw is rough, poor and very unequal. In a country where the minimum wage is somewhere around $2 per day, tourists are an easy source of income and the hassle factor is very high. I will never again take a paved sidewalk in a major city for granted. After two bad samosas in Agra, both Jerome and I can also testify that it is possibly one of the worst places in the world to get food poisoning. And just when you feel things are looking up, you step in a cow patty.
But in India we also saw some of the most wonderful things of our trip. People were very nice and helpful. The food was wonderful (minus those Agra samosas). And until India, nothing almost moved us to tears as did the Taj Mahal.
We were only able to visit a tiny corner of this country, and were barely able to scratch the surface of India, and I'm sure we'll be back.
We thought we were fairly hardened travellers before we arrived in India. After all, we'd lived/studied in China and Lebanon, and just made our way through the Middle East. But we were not prepared!
When I was in China during the summer of 1999, I remember going to a backpackers' restaurant in Xi'an that had guestbooks where various travellers had written their thanks, or impressions, or notes to other travellers. Many people were complaing about something... the buses, or taxi drivers, or getting sick, or spitting on the street.... One person had written "You should all stop your bitching. China is the goddamn Ritz compared to India." And now I know for sure: China is the goddamn Ritz.
The India we saw is rough, poor and very unequal. In a country where the minimum wage is somewhere around $2 per day, tourists are an easy source of income and the hassle factor is very high. I will never again take a paved sidewalk in a major city for granted. After two bad samosas in Agra, both Jerome and I can also testify that it is possibly one of the worst places in the world to get food poisoning. And just when you feel things are looking up, you step in a cow patty.
But in India we also saw some of the most wonderful things of our trip. People were very nice and helpful. The food was wonderful (minus those Agra samosas). And until India, nothing almost moved us to tears as did the Taj Mahal.
We were only able to visit a tiny corner of this country, and were barely able to scratch the surface of India, and I'm sure we'll be back.
3 comments:
I totally relate. I'm so glad you experienced that. It only gets richer when you go back!!
Post a Comment