I.N.D.I.A. (I’ll Never Do It Again)

Oh boy, so much has happened I don’t know where to start. I guess I will start with the last week or so of Nepal. I forgot to mention on the last post that while trekking we ran into the Maoists that stop tourists to collect a "donation". They told us that they like the American people, but not the American government. I gave him a high five and said "right on comrade". Okay maybe I didn’t say that exactly, but you get the idea…

We went down to Royal Chitwan National Park in Southern Nepal to check out the jungles. It was the most amazing part of our trip so far. We rode elephants bareback down to the river and took a bath with them, we took a 4 hour elephant safari into the jungle looking for rhinos (didn’t see any then but saw a wild rhino later while on foot), saw crocodiles, went to an elephant breeding center and played with 2 year old elephants and saw a one week old elephant, hung out with a 2 year rhino in front of our hotel room pet it and leaned on it for photos, and the thing that topped it all, we met 3 men from Iraq and had a bit of international relations repair.

The Iraqis were refugees protected under the UN and had been for 3 years. When we told them we were American and things got a bit tense, especially after our hotel guy found out they were Iraqis (12 Nepalese men were murdered in Iraq 2 months ago causing riots and the burning of a Mosque in Nepal).

We told them how we had been to protests against the war and that many people in America were and are against the war. I got a bit choked up telling him that the night the war started I was very sad, this made him get upset and he took my hand and called me his brother. After that we were happy and we posed for a picture laying on the sleeping rhino who then let out a big fart which the Iraqis declared a sign of peace!!
I asked him what people in Iraq thought about the invasion. He said at first a lot of people supported it, but that now it is far worse that it had been. He said that the people were very mad at the "very bad situation" and want the UN to come in and clean up our mess.

We then left our paradise for India, or as some travelers say for "I’ll Never Do It Again". It didn’t take us long to find out why. Within 100 feet of the border our rickshaw driver turned from sweet Nepali guy to I’m going to milk you for all I can guy. And it hasn’t stopped. It didn’t help that after a full day of traveling I spent the 6 hour overnight train ride throwing up my first meal in India. After a day in bed to recover from illness and disgust at the filth of Varanasi I discovered why you put up with the shit and the pestering.

Varanasi is the holiest place in India. If you are planning on dying and you are a Hindu, Varanasi is the in place to be, because here your body will be burnt on the edge of the holy Ganges River and then what is left will be chucked in the river. But, even if you are not about to die, it is still a nice place to come for a pilgrimage and jump in the river for a swim to purify yourself. Yes, the same one with the dead bodies floating in it. And yes we saw some. Dead bodies floating in the river. Just next to our boat. With people swimming around them. Dead bodies. I guess we were a bit lucky, some friends of our saw two babies floating yesterday, and they don’t burn the babies.

Did I mention the filth? This is hands down the most disgustingly dirty place I have ever seen in my life. Nothing could be more disgusting anywhere on the planet, I am sure of it. There are cows and bulls everywhere which follows that there is cow and bull shit everywhere. There are no trash cans, you just dump your trash in the streets. And if you have to use the toilet, go for it, seems just about anywhere will do (okay that’s a bit extreme, but they do seem to go all over).

And did I mention the pestering? People yell out from there shops, "Hey! Come here". Walking down the street, "Where you going? Hey, where you going? You want rickshaw?" "No." "Why not?" Right in your face too. One guy grabs my hand and starts rubbing it, "Ï give good massage, only 10R". Then he is touching my neck and my shoulders, it took me 5 minutes to get him to leave me alone. The best one so far has been haggling. As a rule everything starts at 3-5 times the going rate. Once you agree on a price for saw a boat ride or rickshaw ride, taxi etc., don’t expect that to be the end of the bargaining. You may spend the whole trip trying to prevent him from doubling the price.