Saturday, January 13, 2007

Gillian's first post

India is India. Filthy yet fascinating. My lungs crapped out completely between Delhi and Agra and I was trying to eke out the doses on my puffer so I could breathe but didn't go over the daily limit.

My cpap machine filters are supposed to last a month or so. After 1 night in Delhi, it was literally BLACK. Not any shade of grey mind you, but black as night, black as coal as the Rolling Stones are fond of saying.

You are supposed to take off your shoes everywhere and walk around in your socks at temples, internet cafes, houses etc. There is about 1/4-1/2" of dirt everywhere so the old socks make some dandy brown wash water.

Heather is just getting better after about 5 days sick. Poor kid I hope she is OK for a while now.

Jacob got bitten by a monkey and has to have rabies shots. 2 down and 4 to go. It is OK here with Suja running interference for us, but I am not looking forward to trying to get it done in Thailand and Australia later to finish up the shots.

He still claims that feeding the monkeys is the highlight of his trip so far....

We went on a camel ride in Rajastan. The camel wouldn't get down for me to get off so I had to jump off. Heather missed it because even is he had got it to kneel down again for her to get on, I wouldn't have trusted it to let her off again. She was REALLY pissed. Luckily I persuaded a guy with a camel pulling a cart near the Taj Mahal to carry her across the struts holding the cart and put her up on the camel's back. After 5 steps, she deemed the experience complete. Believe me, I concur. I am glad I got up on the camel (even if I had to make an undignified egress), but I sure wouldn't want to travel any distance on the back of one. Talk about a bumpy ride. We decided to save the elephant rides for Thailand. Al and I have already done that long ago anyway.

My own favourite thing so far is the trip to the brackish lake two days ago. We rented this very ethnic boat (huge bow and stern that several people could lie on) with two benches down the sides under a canopy. The outboard motor was rigged up so the prop was on the end of a long pole. It went at about 2 mph I think. We went from the village out past a bunch of shy dolphins (there were lots of them but you never saw any one of them for longer than it took to get a breath) to the estuary where the lake met the ocean. There were a whole lot of "restaurants" on the beach selling tea, coffee and seafood. The "ladies urinal" was a cardboard box set out in the middle of the sandbar. You had to pay for the privelege. Luckily my bladder is still made of cast iron.
The sun was setting in front of us in the hour it took to get back from the restaurant to where our driver was. It was full dark when we got back. It was beautiful and peaceful on the water for 4 hours. The only boats we saw were others like ours and some that were being poled along. There were fishing areas cordonned off with bamboo stakes all over the place. Picturesque as all get out. I rememered then why it was I love to travel so much.

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1 comment:

Richard and Martina said...

Very poetic postings, Makes me want to go back...
Winterlude is on, according to Attractions Canada, even though there is no snow and the Gondolas can still navigate the Canal. We have, however, had our first blast of winter....More like freezing rain. Good thing you're missing it.
We're probably going to stay with George and Ambreen.
Domino now comes to the Kindergarden and plays with the kids. Shadow is as elusive as ever.
Stimpy went to a Plastic Surgeon to see about facial reconstruction. The things we will do for our pets. We are trying to come up with things that will make our experiences here as exciting as your adventures. We are not succeeding... Actually we are having an Indian Dinner Party in a couple of weeks. So if you can make it, wear your sari, if not we'll toast you with lassis.