Injuries, Camels, and A Goodbye

After our long and tedious train ride, we settled in Delhi. Our first order of business was to check e-mail. We discovered that my sister and Alex, who were in the south of India, had had their hotel room door busted open and their bags slashed! A few items had been stolen. The hotel staff gave them the usual, "There there, Madame" treatment, and suggested that they lost these items at some point while they were out. This, despite the obvious damage to the door and the razor which was still lying on their bed! Sadly, I was not overly surprised by this as I had endured some of the same condescending attitude myself. On one occasion, a store employee told Jas to, "Take her back to your hotel room and have a talk with her..."!

Later that same day, as Jas and I were deliberating the positives and negatives of India, I was hit by a motorbike! We were walking down the street when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bike heading straight for me. As usual, it was weaving in and out of people and traffic. I tried to quickly move out of the way, but I was hit hard by the handlebars across my back. The bike swirved, lost control, and fell skidding on its side. Luckily, the two male passengers were uninjured; I, however, walked away with a nasty row of lumps and bruises!
Just when you feel like the most miserable person on the planet, reality strikes you hard across the face. This check came from a group of hungry, starving children who were begging us for food. As we walked with our heads down, a dozen small hands grabbed at us and pulled at our clothes. While this is common in India, one particular boy stood out and I looked up to meet his gaze. He had tears streaming down his face and his big brown eyes were full of despair. In that instant my heart was broken, and it was then that I realized the biggest reason why so many people hate India. It makes you think. It makes you ask yourself the question, "What am I doing to make this world a better place?" And sometimes the answer is scary.

We stayed a full week in Delhi before heading east to the yellow sandstone city of Jaisalmer. It was a long train ride of twenty hours, but we splurged on good tickets so that our trip was smooth and comfortable. We were excited to see the small desert city. Our first day was spent wandering around the quiet streets. We admired the beautiful buildings and the large fort that is perched above it all. We even met a man named "Aladdin"!

In order to experience the Great Thar Desert, we went on an overnight camel safari. There were only four of us: our guide, his young helper, Jas, and myself. A jeep drove us part of the way, and then we rode our camels over two hours into the vast desert. I enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by nothing but desolate landscape and large sand dunes. We camped overnight in the open air, and fell asleep under an amazing blanket of stars! The following day we returned on our camels, and passed a gypsy village. The downside of our adventure? I ended up getting skin tears on my ass!

Our next destination was Jodhpur, known as the Blue city. Originally, blue houses were reserved for Brahmin (highest) class people as per the caste system; however, non-Brahmins soon joined in as the colour blue is thought to deflect heat and keep mosquitoes away. The old section of Jodhpur is now a beautiful sea of blue. We spent a couple of days exploring the amazing palaces, fort, and temples in the area.

Due to the fact that we were running out of time in India, we had a whirlwind tour of Jaipur. It's the Pink capital of Rajasthan province. We spent an entire day touring the sights, including the Amber Fort and the old pink city buildings.

We returned to Delhi for a short time, and finally visited some of the tourist destinations. We explored the Red Fort and enjoyed the amazing Jama Masjid mosque (the largest in India). Once again we splurged for our long journey back to Kolkata, and took a luxury train for the seventeen hour trip.

And so...after three months of exploration we were headed back to Bangkok. We both had an incredible experience; however, along the way I realized that the longer I stayed in India the less I liked it. This is mostly due to the fact that I'm a woman. For me, no other country has inspired such strong feelings of love or hate. I look forward to returning to India someday, but it will be for a shorter amount of time!