Oh India.....

Oh India! I am finally figuring out why people say YOU are such an enigma and a mind-boggle! Yes…we went to the wedding- but more importantly I need to blog about India in general. A few thoughts:


~The people are AMAZING- we have the best head-bobbling interactions on a daily basis. Today- we gave away bubbles to children who were selling items on the beach- and THOSE are the moments that I travel for. Just a sweet smile and the discovery of something as simple as bubbles.

~ It is VERY dirty here….unbelievably so, almost unexplainable. I almost don't even know how something gets so dirty.....I’ve taken to assigning jobs to people who are sitting doing nothing…we leave a store and I say to Ang “see that man, well, he could be dusting the bookshelves instead of sitting there.”

~ We both cracked for the first time yesterday in a ‘mall’ (notice quotes). We were meeting the guys from Zenta (the company I used to work with, when I worked on the India project) and they wanted to meet at Spencer’s mall. We went early excepting it to be a little haven away from the streets we had been roaming…and low and behold…it was a enclosed cave-low-ceiling-low-light-dirty-bazaar-type mall and overwhelmingly hot! Ugh. So we ate at a Pizza Hut and sulked.

~ We have asked the question to each other several times…"why are we here?!”….and then we quickly remind ourselves that if we want to see the whole world….this is just part of it.

~ It is the hottest place on earth. We have taken numerous pictures of sweating through clothes that has occurred in obscene places.

~ Kids always say “hello” and then giggle when we say “hello” back….it is cute!

~ Ang got bit by something on her eyelid last night—so, she currently looks like she was in a bar fight. The swelling has gone down throughout the day- and of course since I’m a nurse…I will fix it if it gets worse.

~ We haven’t gotten sick yet! (knock on wood!)…we have been very careful about food and water….I have even seen Ang turn down some food which is VERY unlike her.

~ There was a baby lying on the sidewalk today…and it tore me up inside. I’m struggling with why some of the world suffers like they do.

~ We spent 5 hours on a bus yesterday- initially we put our backpacks on a seat- only to be told (in Tamil- the local language) that we couldn’t do that. So, we had to shove one below our feet and one above our seat- which led to 5 hours of cramped-knees on a bus ride, no A/C and incessant honking.

~ Speaking of honking…it is insane! Nobody really gets upset driving in the chaos…they just honk all of the time. Ang looked at me today and said “I think we just went one minute without honking.”

~ We got a cake on our last day at our hotel in Chennai…yes, a cake. It read Bon Voyage and was presented to us at breakfast.

~ We went to a tourist office today…and honestly, I’m not even sure they guys working there knew what city he was in. We ask a few questions before figuring out that he was recommending we take a bus to a small town an hour a way…but we had no idea why he was recommending it. OH lost in translation……even in English.

~ We are in Pondicherry, India--it is along the Bay of Bengal...and we have roamed around all day- went to a temple and an ashram.

~ We are less than a week in and have laughed hysterically everyday….along with wondering when we will fall in love with India.