Well, we survived India I think. I had a feeling this was going to be a tough port for the family, with a population of 7 million and air pollution unmatched in the world. Before India was done we managed to get both kids sick, Jen pneumonia, and I picked up an Indian flu bug which cleaned me out for a day. We have all recovered from India, but it wasn't easy navigating a small area of the country.
While in India we did a city bus tour of some local sights as well as a service project to two schools and an orphanage. There is no shortage of people in India, and the poverty is off the charts for he parts we visited. The school children work hard and are incredibly disciplined. I did notice the elementary teachers each had a stick they used to herd or discipline students. We went into a math class at one school and asked some questions of the students. There were about 40 students crammed into a small dirt floor room, but every student had 100% attention on their teacher when she talked.
On one of our days in Chennai, India (population 7 million), we took a rickshaw ride around town. The rickshaw is a three wheeled vehicle with a motorcycle engine, which can hold as many people as you can cram into it. The transportation in India is an incredible experience. The roads have few if any stoplights, and you'll find ox driven carts, rickshaws, motorcycles, cars and buses sharing the roads. Essentially what happens is there are no lanes, and everyone manuevers at will using their horn to tell how close others are to them. The result of all this is a massive, loud, chaotic scene where generally the laws of physics are followed. The motorcycles yield to rickshaws, which yield to cars, which yield to buses. The driving ends up being this herky, jerky, experience which will cause motion sickness. We enjoyed our short rides in the rickshaw and took one to a shopping center and a mall for lunch.
After three days in Chennai we decided to take a trip down south a few hours to a smaller town called Pondicherry (Population 800,000). I took some time and rented a car and driver for the trip down. With temps in the 100's with high humidity I forked a little extra money for an AC ride. The car was great but a half hour into our trip William got sick and threw up from the erratic motion of the car. Fortunately we had a garbage bag and happily he didn't make a mess. After he was done I asked the driver to pull over at a garbage can. He pulled over and told me to throw it in the ditch. There happened to be about 5 people sleeping in the ditch, but he insisted that I just chuck it over them. I obliged and looking at all the other trash didn't feel so bad about littering. The erratic driving continued until William lost his lunch for the second time, and once again fortunately had a bag to throw up into. I pitched it into the ditch and we continued on our way. We finally arrived at our hotel and checked in and enjoyed the great pool that it offered. The drive took us about 4 hours and we all felt great to feel the cool pool for the afternoon.
We spent two days in Pondicherry and walked around the city, went to a park, ate at pizza hut, and walked around an India cult grounds. India was the home of the Bagwan Shre Rajneesh who caused problems in Oregon, and is littered with different guru's and followers living and worhsiping various things.
Speaking of religion the vast majority of Indians are Hindu. As I can figure Hindu's worship cows, elephants, and a variety of combinations of these and humans. They are vegetarians, but since cows are so worshiped they are found roaming all around the city with goats and chickens. You'll be walking around and all the sudden 5 brahma bulls will stroll by you with elaborately painted horns and ornaments. They graze on garbage mostly and would make great rodeo bulls.
As we finished our two days in Pondicherry and headed back to board the ship, we got to ride in the 1950's ambassador car upon return. The ride back was much smoother and we returned to the ship in plenty of time for departure. While at the hotel I unfortunately caught something from the food, air, etc., which turned me inside out. Fortunately the bug lasted about 24 hours and I was able to recover fairly quickly. I got a good ab workout in the meantime from the Indian flu.
To summarize our time in India is tough, but imagine the mostly densely populated country in the world, with people from third world conditions to first class conditions all living together. The mass of humanity in India is overwhelming at times, and the pure stimulus thrown at your senses wears you out in a hurry. When I returned to the ship I kicked up my feet, opened a cold one and read a few chapters of Lonesome Dove. India was quite an experience, but I'm glad I don't live their.
Other Indian Observations/Goings On
* The people are very nice and helpful and loved to touch the kids. As we would walk down the street people would gently grab William or Vivian's hands, shoulders, head, and smile at them.
* We ran out of gas on a rickshaw ride and the driver pushed us to the side of the busy street walked to the back, pulled out an empty pop bottle and said "I'll be back in 5 minutes." As he started to run his blanket wrapped around his waist came loose and fell to the ground. He hastily retrieved and retied it and continued on. He came back, poured 16 ounces of gas in the rickshaw and cranked it back up.
* The Hindu people have temples throughout the country. These temples can be found everywhere and usually involve burning candles, cows, elephants, and lots of gold.
** Hope all is going well at home, we will soon be in Singapore for 1 day and then onto Vietnam. Best Wishes..
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