I present to you a random collection of some observations I've made while in India:
* Generally speaking, it smells a bit.
* The roads are wide enough for (usually) two cars and a pedestrian, but only barely, and if you're a little bit creative. Traffic passes much more closely than anywhere else I've ever been, but nobody seems to mind.
* You can drive the wrong way on the road as long as you stick to the outside and put your hazard lights on. Everybody does it; it's just how you get around here.
* There are an awful lot of animals in the roads, mostly dogs and cows. They seem to have an understanding with the drivers that they will move reasonably out of the way as long as the cars make an effort to go around them.
* There are cool birds here I've never seen before.
* In New Delhi the streets are filthy, but the subway is pristine.
* There are very few trash cans in public places. Most people throw their garbage on the ground. You can imagine how much I'm loving this.
* Almost all prices are negotiable.
* All the signs are in English but everyone seems to make up their own spellings.
* All the signs are in English, but most people speak Hindi unless you start speaking to them in English (or unless they are trying to get you, an obvious Westerner, to buy something).
* "Fog" is the default weather condition on the mountain in monsoon season. When it really rolls in, you can't see anything in the valley or more than a few dozen feet in front of you.
* Due to the fog, nothing ever really dries here. This means if you leave the windows open your blankets (and your clothing, and your towels...) will be damp.
* There's no air conditioning. Instead there are "coolers," fans with water dripping down. They actually work pretty well to cool the area, but not so much to take out the humidity.
* The menus include "buff," which at first I took to be a misspelling of "beef." You can't kill cows in India, though, and I was later informed that "buff" is in fact buffalo.
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* Most menus don't have an explanation of what the items on them are, even when they have vague names like "special dumpling" or whatever #2 is on this one:
* Coca-cola is huge in India.
* The vast majority of Indian women wear beautiful traditional clothing, even when doing hard labor like construction.
* Everybody wears flipflops, all the time.
* The power goes out at least once a day.
* Most bathrooms have a shower. It's one room, all tile, with a shower head, a sink, a toilet, a bucket, a squeegee, and a water heater with a switch. No shower curtain. You just take your shower and then squeegee the water on the floor into the drain when you're done.
* If you want toilet paper in a public bathroom, you better bring it yourself. If you want a seat, you might need to shop around.
* Many of the floors are made of marble, even in otherwise modest buildings.
We went to a restaurant last night where, in order to get to the bathroom, you had to go outside and walk through some hallways and down a few flights of beautiful marble steps. I seriously felt like I had entered some dungeon or temple in a video game. Obviously this was the highlight of the evening. :)
* Generally speaking, it smells a bit.
* The roads are wide enough for (usually) two cars and a pedestrian, but only barely, and if you're a little bit creative. Traffic passes much more closely than anywhere else I've ever been, but nobody seems to mind.
* You can drive the wrong way on the road as long as you stick to the outside and put your hazard lights on. Everybody does it; it's just how you get around here.
* There are an awful lot of animals in the roads, mostly dogs and cows. They seem to have an understanding with the drivers that they will move reasonably out of the way as long as the cars make an effort to go around them.
* There are cool birds here I've never seen before.
 |
| I'm not sure what these are, but there are a lot of them in New Delhi. |
* In New Delhi the streets are filthy, but the subway is pristine.
* There are very few trash cans in public places. Most people throw their garbage on the ground. You can imagine how much I'm loving this.
* Almost all prices are negotiable.
* All the signs are in English but everyone seems to make up their own spellings.
* All the signs are in English, but most people speak Hindi unless you start speaking to them in English (or unless they are trying to get you, an obvious Westerner, to buy something).
* "Fog" is the default weather condition on the mountain in monsoon season. When it really rolls in, you can't see anything in the valley or more than a few dozen feet in front of you.
* Due to the fog, nothing ever really dries here. This means if you leave the windows open your blankets (and your clothing, and your towels...) will be damp.
* There's no air conditioning. Instead there are "coolers," fans with water dripping down. They actually work pretty well to cool the area, but not so much to take out the humidity.
* The menus include "buff," which at first I took to be a misspelling of "beef." You can't kill cows in India, though, and I was later informed that "buff" is in fact buffalo.
.jpg)
* Most menus don't have an explanation of what the items on them are, even when they have vague names like "special dumpling" or whatever #2 is on this one:
.jpg) |
| Is it made with real goblins? |
* Coca-cola is huge in India.
* The vast majority of Indian women wear beautiful traditional clothing, even when doing hard labor like construction.
* Everybody wears flipflops, all the time.
* The power goes out at least once a day.
* Most bathrooms have a shower. It's one room, all tile, with a shower head, a sink, a toilet, a bucket, a squeegee, and a water heater with a switch. No shower curtain. You just take your shower and then squeegee the water on the floor into the drain when you're done.
* If you want toilet paper in a public bathroom, you better bring it yourself. If you want a seat, you might need to shop around.
 |
| A traditional/standard Indian toilet. |
* Many of the floors are made of marble, even in otherwise modest buildings.
We went to a restaurant last night where, in order to get to the bathroom, you had to go outside and walk through some hallways and down a few flights of beautiful marble steps. I seriously felt like I had entered some dungeon or temple in a video game. Obviously this was the highlight of the evening. :)
Those birds look like House Crows. Their presence would certainly be emblematic of the waste disposal problem in India.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Crow
(This is Edwin, btw.)
Wow, Maggie, it sounds like you are having quite an adventure! I'm loving reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteHow is the vegetarian food over there? I always enjoy Indian restaurants, so hopefully you are fining as many good options as the restaurants around here seem to have.
-Tracy
The food is good! My roommate Julie is actually vegan, and she says it's great! There is a lot of "milk tea" here, and milk and yogurt are used in a lot of foods so it's difficult to stay away from dairy entirely, but there is also a ton of fresh fruit and every restaurant has lots of different green teas and rice, and pancakes, and good veggie dishes. :)
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