Bouncing and Shopping

Kerri and I completed 26 hours of travel by Jeep and train this afternoon, and then jumped right into a long shopping spree. We left Darjeeling yesterday morning in a Jeep with 11 adults and two children -- one of them carsick. Kerri felt it was the worst ride of her life, but due to very heavy rains the night before, we could finally see four snow-capped Himalayan peaks -- so I was transfixed. But she's probably right, it wasn't the world's most comfortable ride! We arrived in New Jalpaiguri (sights: none. internet access: broken. inhabitants: all very pushy rickshaw drivers. Apparently.) in time for our 1:15 train. We thought we would arrive in Delhi in a mere 17 hours, at 6 AM -- but the train got in at 11:45!!!!!! This seriously cramped our style.

For the rest of the day today, we ran all over Delhi, buying saris, bangles, sandals, inexpensive jewelry, and bindis. Or at least trying to. Shopping in the developing world takes time, both for bargaining (all the while feeling that, no matter how low the price, you're being had) and for scanning the vast panoply of merchandise secreted away in small bins and attics all over the marketplace. Andy, who is in Bangkok, was kind enough to give us a list of good shopping locations, so we were definitely in the right places. But the sheer size of it! Wow. We could have shopped for a week. (Please don't get excited about souvenirs -- we found remarkably few things that were on our list, and we're having a tad of buyers' remorse over what we DID find. Luckily, I have two more countries to shop through before I see my friends and loved ones! Kerri is not so lucky...)

We had intended to have one last, grand dinner before leaving for the airport, but Kerri somehow hurt her foot in our last two hours of shopping, so she's resting in the hotel. I plan to bring up some delicious street food (mmmm, grilled chicken and chapati) to the room and that will have to do as a final feast. I'll write you from Florence tomorrow!

Chillin' in Delhi

Yesterday Kerri and I made the trip back from Agra on a much slower train. We were the hit of the third class -- everyone craned their heads out of their bunks to get a better look at the two American girls playing Crazy Eights. You would think we were Bollywood celebrities. After 20 minutes or so, our mediocre card playing and inept shuffling bored everyone but one man and three little children, so we spent the rest of the ride fairly unobserved. I mention this because it is a consistent theme of my time in India -- everywhere we go, people stare. It was worse when I was alone, because people were incredulous that I would be travelling without my father or at least a group of other young people. But it continues even now. Kerri hates all the staring -- I'm slowly getting used to it and simply pretend that I am a movie star. It's probably the only time in my life that I will ever be such a head-turner!

The brazen stares bothered Kerri yesterday, but the blazing temperatures bothered her more. We spent a rather slow afternoon and then met up with our friend Andy for dinner. Andy is the best restaurant guide anyone could want -- we had dinner at a chic little restaurant with red glass chandeliers and those chunky, austere dark wood tables that are so popular in New York now. The paneer or fresh cheese curry was delicious, and Kerri really enjoyed her chicken biryani, a dish akin to fried rice, Indian style. Andy dared me to eat a chili and I survived -- but barely! Kerri went to bed after dinner and Andy and I continued to doctor our sodas with some gin I keep in a water bottle in my bag (there are many bars, but not every restaurant serves alcohol. You know my motto -- be prepared!). We were talking about India and the developing world in general -- Andy doesn't think he wants to live here, and is looking for an international post after his MBA. I have to say that I wouldn't want to live here either, mainly because I get the sense that I would always be an outsider. As they say of my new hometown, I suppose -- nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there!

Delhi with Friends

Today was great and also successful, in the sense that Kerri didn’t melt in the heat and jetlag (bravo!) and we managed to book our train tickets (no mean feat here). I picked Kerri up last night (only a tiny back-pack and a messenger bag – rock on!) and then spent 1.5 hours trying to get back to the hotel, since the driver would not follow my directions and preferred to ask random groups of strangers – even after talking to our hotel owner. But all is well that ends well. Today, we spent the day touring monuments – an astronomical observatory built in the 1700s to measure the diameter of the sun and the local time, a few tombs, and the Qutb Minar, a very high tower built by a king so that his daughter could pray in view of the holy Yamuna River, located about 20 kilometers away from their palace. We had intended to meet my friend Andy, who I met on the plane from Milan, at the astronomical observatory, but the government closed many roads in Delhi due to the rioting and so it took him an extra 1.5 hours to reach the monument. We thought he went back to bed and left – but luckily, all was well by the afternoon and the three of us visited the Qutb Minar, a delicious restaurant, and the Lodi Gardens. At night, the spotlit ruins of a small tomb glow amid the trees and the air is cool. Too bad there were four very friendly and potentially rabid dogs to consider – Andy and Kerri laughed, but I would rather travel another 8 hours by local bus in the scorching heat than tango with a stray dog in Delhi!

Kerri has added a lot of fun to the trip, being the brilliant funny person that she is, jet-lag or no. Today, she introduced some fine and useful phrases to our trip lexicon:

Delhi Belly – the consequence of indulging in the delicious and not-so-hygienic snacks available in this city
“Without Charmin’, bathroom breaks are less than charming!” as a reminder for me to pack the travel-size toilet paper she brought.
And finally, “ONE LINK ROAD!!!!” – a phrase of warning, encouragement and information to be shouted at taxi drivers when trying to navigate our way to the lovely but quite hidden apartment that serves as our hotel.