many MANY travels - Blogabond

Time moves at a different rate when you enter a truly foreign country. Or perhaps its just constant moving about. That is, its warped between making you feel like you've been here for forever and just stepped off the airplane. And we have done a lot of stepping off planes in the last 24 hours. We got up around 7:00 to get to Heathrow airport in order to fly the 7-1/2 hours to Delhi. There were no less than 5 crying babies in our section of the plane. I'm sure some of you know and truly trying that was for me. Once in Delhi we waited in line (at 4:30AM Indian time), constantly harassed by taxi drivers, for the free bus to the domestic flight terminal. When a 2nd one came (the first was too full and left without us) and hour later we squeezed on with our gigantic packs and headed off into the smoke-filled night.
After a long wait through security we took a second 2 hour flight to Bangalore. From there, we got a quick taxi ride to the public bus stop and got on the big bus to Mysore. After another 3 hours of jouncing we arrived in the much smaller city, smashed into a tiny rickshaw to arrive at our fancy (in Indian terms) hotel. I had a reality check when stopped at a rest area along the way and found a hole in a tiled floor a funny faucet with water coming out. That was the bathroom. I must have looked shocked as a did quick 180 because a little girl coming the other way giggled loudly at me.
People here are either very nice, or somewhat deceptive and trying to sell you something or a strange combination of both. Even driving through a city like Bangalore is difficult to describe with any accuracy. Its such a strange combination of chaotic activity, rapid development, and dilapidating infrastructure. We passed men driving bullock carts just after I read the same giant poster sign of Tiger Woods I see in the US. Horns beeping creates a constant symphony of angry drivers as they pass down the pavement which is not so much road but a river of trucks, buses, rickshaws, bicycles and human beings float from lane to lane and across intersections.
I can sleep absolutely anywhere so am really just out to take a shower. My less lucky family, however, is exhausted.
Fun story I learned: A British-Indian and his wife told us that in India its illegal to have television advertisements for alcohol. Kingfisher, the largest local supplier of beer- and a huge company that sells things across the board including an airline and bottled water- gets around this sticky problem by selling its water products as if they were beer. Can you see the commercial? Students, out in a bar laughing and having a blast drinking their refreshing Kingfisher 'water.'

written by

Drie on December 28, 2007 from Delhi, India

from the travel blog: Adventures in Hindustan

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