Sorry for the delay in writing - I don't think I've ever been so busy or seen so much or done so much in 6 days.
I'm sitting in a dingy internet cafe in Varkala, in the region of Kerala (which is on the west coast, in the south). It's a heavenly, blissful sliver of peace and quiet, particularly after the craziness of Delhi and Bangalore.
Ok, I'll start back from the beginning.
Delhi - we arrived at our hotel at around 3 am after flying in to Delhi, so it was too dark to get a sense of much. The next morning, I woke to the sound of a man showering right outside our window - apparently our room looked out on the private courtyard of a family - which included him hacking the spit out of his lungs. I was soon to discover that this is a common enough practice in India - it's believed that spit is dirty and shouldn't be swallowed too often. At any rate, it was more effective than most alarm clocks (I'm thinking of practicing it on Sophie to get her up in the mornings) and sort of set the tone for Delhi.
Delhi can definitely be described as bustling. I don't think I've ever been aware of so many people before. The traffic is deafening - the honks and screeches and various inventive buzzer sounds drown out any other noise. It's also probably the most disorganised traffic I've ever seen in my life - the street lines hold no importance, and neither do signs indicating one way streets. We walked around the whole city (which is very, very large) and spent time around Connaught Place, the Lal Masjid (the mosque), the Red Fort (though we didn't go in) and spent the whole time getting used to being stared at and just taking in the atmosphere and ambiance around us. Needless to say, Delhi is exhausting, and I was ready to get on a train for Bangalore.
Now, to some, a 40 hour train ride sounds daunting. I have to admit that I will never take high speed trains again for granted, but at the same time the ride was not nearly as tedious and horrible as I half expected it to be. We had booked seats in the Sleeper class, which is the regular class without A/C and has bars, and then windows that don't close too well. It also meant we were pretty much the only foreigners on the train, and we certainly caused a fair amount of interest. Luckily, we were sharing a compartment (I say compartments, but they're not blocked off at all, so essentially the whole car is open) with a really nice Tibetan couple and their one and a half year old son (who, as you can imagine, kept us entertained). It was quite pleasant - we ended up as a little family, and exchanged food and smiles the whole way. Along the way we picked up a group of young men headed to join the army in Bangalore who proceeded to gawk at us for about 20 hours, until Christopher finally eased their curiosity and went to talk to them.
So, pretty uneventful. At each stop people selling food or other goodies would get on to sell you snacks, or beggars would get on. Through it all there is a permanent flood of Chai and Coffee (for 10 rupees a glass - or 25 cents, its quite a bargain). The only ridiculous thing that happened was when a wave of water (I still can't understand it) swept through our window and completely soaked us. Jeremy and I laughed for about 10 minutes straight (after, that is, we had determined that it most definitely was not sewage).
Then - Bangalore.
Having arrived thinking that Delhi was chaotic, I found myself rapidly wishing that Bangalore had the calm of the capital. Bangalore is definitely the most polluted city I have EVER been too - in comparison, Moscow is the land of clean, fresh air. Jeremy, Christopher and I all seemed to develop some kind of allergy to the air - by the first night I was coughing to keep my itchy throat under control. The traffic is even wilder - we took several harrowing rickshaw rides - and took shelter in the many gardens in Bangalore (it is the Garden City of India, after all!). We stayed with friends of Jeremy's in a beautiful apartment, and they took us to chic, modern cafes with at least 20 different types of tea, and lovely restaurants. Two of the girls were nice enough to help me shop for some more traditional clothes - I was so overwhelmed by the huge choice in style and patterns - and ended up buying a short kurta (a long tunic like shirt). So I officially feel a little bit more respectable!
Bangalore is paradoxical in many ways - it's modernity is clear, but I was surprised to hear that all clubs and bars have a curfew of 11:30, and they recently banned dancing in clubs. I'm still not sure if that's even logical. Jeremy's friends generally had curfews and were expected at home around 8:30 or 9 pm, even though they were all at least 25. And to think we all complained about midnight curfews...
So yesterday Christopher and I decided that we needed to get out of Bangalore before we developed lung cancer, and at the last moment (and after advice from Jeremy's Indian friends) realized that our initial travel plans were ludicrous and impossible for the time we had. So after MUCH stress (Christopher insists he felt no such qualms) and plan re-hashing, we ditched Pondicherry and Madurai (though it hurt to do so...) and decided Kerala was easier to do. We left last night and took at 17 hour train ride to Varkala (almost too short to do anything!!) and are now chilling in the beautiful coast side town. Everything is built on the edge of red cliffs that look down on a beautiful sandy beach - and we have finally escaped some of the noise and craziness. There are more tourists - and thankfully, at little more variety in the food department - but everyone seems lazy and happy. What more could we want?
We'll be here for two nights, then head either to the backwaters and try to ferry to Cochin, or just train there. And then we'll meet back up with Jeremy in Kalicut to train up to Udaipur (another massively long train ride...)
SOrry this is so long - I'll try to keep these more regular (and shorter!). Otherwise, things are good - no one has gotten sick, though I've gone through a couple of days of being a little less hungry than usual. And we're slowly figuring this traveling thing out... Miss you all!!
