indiasurreal

There is a limited social scene, and women definitely do not have a social life. Therefore, Sonia and I were in bed by 8-9pm most nights. Very weird for us.

An Indian Water Fun Park. Most Indians are not taught to swim so they were unable to go on many of the water slides. Also, women are still expected to keep entirely covered, and full saris or 'suits' were worn in the water.

Hindus regard cows as sacred, therefore they are not killed and are left to roam freely throughout the country, shitting with great vigour. Instead of finding bird shit on their cars, many Indians wake to discover a big fat cow shit on their bonnets (I was lucky enough to see one in action).

Sonia and I were headed on a seemingly simple 5 km bus journey, going down from a hill station town on a South Indian mountain, to a National Park on the other side. The 1 hour journey took us scarily round 36 hairpin bends, with a 2,000m drop on either side of the road. We were sat for the entire journey squashed at the back, surrounded by bags of vegetables, munching on carrots with peasant women. We were dropped off in the rain in the middle of nowhere. A short trek through tiger-inhabitated jungle brought us to a small guest house run by an alcoholic and frequented by his alcoholic friends, one of whom looked like he had not moved for the past 50 years and amused us greatly with his drunken chat. An early night was disturbed by the sighting of a brown scorpion in our room and a spider the size of a house......bizarre day, and not much sleep that night.

Arrive late in Varanasi, N. India, with aussie friend. Get ourselves into a guest house, and wake next morning wondering who's cooking the tasty-smelling bar-be-que. Realise our guest house overlooks the 'Burning Ghats' i.e where the Hindu dead are openly cremated, and realise we were awoken by the smell of burning human flesh.

Eunuchs i.e Indian men who have been castrated and dress as 'women'. They demand money, and proceed to curse those who do not give (the curse involves a few slaps and alot of shouting). Only encountered one on the train, and Sonia and I were quick to give money. He hadn't made much of an effort though - just some red lippi and a pink sari, and a very effiminate swing.

The variety of items that peole tried to sell us that we so obviously did not need. For example, sitting on a bus with the backpacks, one woman was convinced I needed a bag of potatoes.

Statue of Gandhi in Pondicherry, South East India. A huge bronze statue (Gandhi was small and diminutive), with ENORMOUS ears, and specs that had been 'placed' on, rather than incorporated into the bronze. A sight to behold.

Getting asked by a rickshaw driver if we were from China.