I'm going to Florida tomorrow.
I'll be back in early March.
I promise to finish my India story and not to be such a bad blogger anymore.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Snail Tale
Last weekend I headed downstairs to pick up the newspaper from the front porch. On my way down I noticed something strange on the wall. It was a snail, on its way up. Husband is always ready to kill anything that moves. I have to stop him from killing lizards when we're in India. Snails are no exception. I told him there was no reason to kill this snail. I got a dustpan and scooped it off the wall and put it back outside. How this thing got in here to begin with is a mystery. First of all, it was about an inch long. Second, it had a hard shell. It is cold here, so there hasn't been a window or door open in a long time.
I didn't think about it again. Until yesterday morning. Husband was doing some exercises in front of the tv before work. While sitting on the floor, he put his hand on the carpet and crushed something hard. He picked it up and I'll be damned if it wasn't a snail. It was kind of stuck to his hand so he wiped it onto the coffee table. I know....thanks. I thought it was dead. I meant to dispose of it outside again, but I forgot. About 2 hours later I returned from the grocery store and remembered it. Except, it was gone. The snail had left the table. I have no idea where it has gone.
I didn't think about it again. Until yesterday morning. Husband was doing some exercises in front of the tv before work. While sitting on the floor, he put his hand on the carpet and crushed something hard. He picked it up and I'll be damned if it wasn't a snail. It was kind of stuck to his hand so he wiped it onto the coffee table. I know....thanks. I thought it was dead. I meant to dispose of it outside again, but I forgot. About 2 hours later I returned from the grocery store and remembered it. Except, it was gone. The snail had left the table. I have no idea where it has gone.
Monday, February 04, 2008
India v2.5
The almost final installment.
We left Delhi at 2:30am and boarded the train to Agra. In usual India fashion, the train arrived early and on a different platform than the one we were standing on. We had to quickly gather up all the luggage and haul ass up stairs then down another set of stairs and race down the platform. It was exhausting. So I decided to take a nap immediately.
By the time I woke up we were almost there. I was very excited about this part of the journey since I was fulfilling a dream to see the Taj Mahal.
We dropped the luggage off at a hotel and waited for a driver to pick us up. He would spend about 12 hours driving us to around to the historical places. I was disappointed that we did not stop at Taj Mahal first. Our first stop was here.
On the way there, a funny thing happened. The driver stopped at a fruit stand and FIL got out to purchase some bananas and guava fruit for us. I ate a banana. What to do with the peel? Without thinking, I rolled down the window and tossed the peel out. I'm not a litterbug. You should know that I won't even toss a gum wrapper out the window. However in this case I was going with "it came from the Earth so I will return it to the Earth." Not to mention, the ridiculous amount of garbage you see on Indian streets anyway. Apparently a trash bag was started in the back of the vehicle and the announcement was made in a language I barely understand. When the peel went out the window MIL started laughing hysterically and shaking the trash bag at me. She ended up telling this story to anyone and everyone for weeks. Everyone found it amusing and there were mumblings in broken English, "yeah..India just dirty country she think." I started to feel bad about it. Then I realized why a banana peel out the window could be so bad. I never looked behind us to see what mode of transportation was following us. It could have been someone on a moped or bicycle or just walking that got struck by the flying peel unexpectedly. ooooops!
Anyway we made it to our first stop. It was a very beautiful place ripe with extortion. It is a long hike to the entrance. You need either an autorickshaw or horse drawn carriage to get to the top. Somehow, 10 of us fit in 1 autorickshaw. Make that 12 including the driver and some other guy who clung to the side of the rickshaw on our way up. I thought this guy was just taking a free ride to the top. As it turns out, he was our "guide" and for a fee, including our entrance fee, he took us around. He conducted his "tour" in Hindi so I did my own thing with the video camera. We went from building to building. In one building there were vendors set up. None of us wanted to buy anything, but the guide arm twisted us. Of course, I have no idea what really happened since I don't understand the language but Husband ended up throwing some rupees at one of the vendors as a "donation." It set a bad tone for the rest of our time there. I just wanted to get to the Taj.
Next stop Taj? No. I had no idea we were going here. It was a nice surprise, but I would rather have spent as much time as possible at Taj. Husband got me in this place for the Indian citizen rate using our marriage certificate. It was quite a fight though. Don't get me wrong, it is very beautiful. And huge! And the marble walls and ceilings are exquisite. I would like to go there again. The biggest tease of all is that you can see the spectacular Taj in the distance.
Tomorrow I will tell you about the finale!
We left Delhi at 2:30am and boarded the train to Agra. In usual India fashion, the train arrived early and on a different platform than the one we were standing on. We had to quickly gather up all the luggage and haul ass up stairs then down another set of stairs and race down the platform. It was exhausting. So I decided to take a nap immediately.
By the time I woke up we were almost there. I was very excited about this part of the journey since I was fulfilling a dream to see the Taj Mahal.
We dropped the luggage off at a hotel and waited for a driver to pick us up. He would spend about 12 hours driving us to around to the historical places. I was disappointed that we did not stop at Taj Mahal first. Our first stop was here.
On the way there, a funny thing happened. The driver stopped at a fruit stand and FIL got out to purchase some bananas and guava fruit for us. I ate a banana. What to do with the peel? Without thinking, I rolled down the window and tossed the peel out. I'm not a litterbug. You should know that I won't even toss a gum wrapper out the window. However in this case I was going with "it came from the Earth so I will return it to the Earth." Not to mention, the ridiculous amount of garbage you see on Indian streets anyway. Apparently a trash bag was started in the back of the vehicle and the announcement was made in a language I barely understand. When the peel went out the window MIL started laughing hysterically and shaking the trash bag at me. She ended up telling this story to anyone and everyone for weeks. Everyone found it amusing and there were mumblings in broken English, "yeah..India just dirty country she think." I started to feel bad about it. Then I realized why a banana peel out the window could be so bad. I never looked behind us to see what mode of transportation was following us. It could have been someone on a moped or bicycle or just walking that got struck by the flying peel unexpectedly. ooooops!
Anyway we made it to our first stop. It was a very beautiful place ripe with extortion. It is a long hike to the entrance. You need either an autorickshaw or horse drawn carriage to get to the top. Somehow, 10 of us fit in 1 autorickshaw. Make that 12 including the driver and some other guy who clung to the side of the rickshaw on our way up. I thought this guy was just taking a free ride to the top. As it turns out, he was our "guide" and for a fee, including our entrance fee, he took us around. He conducted his "tour" in Hindi so I did my own thing with the video camera. We went from building to building. In one building there were vendors set up. None of us wanted to buy anything, but the guide arm twisted us. Of course, I have no idea what really happened since I don't understand the language but Husband ended up throwing some rupees at one of the vendors as a "donation." It set a bad tone for the rest of our time there. I just wanted to get to the Taj.
Next stop Taj? No. I had no idea we were going here. It was a nice surprise, but I would rather have spent as much time as possible at Taj. Husband got me in this place for the Indian citizen rate using our marriage certificate. It was quite a fight though. Don't get me wrong, it is very beautiful. And huge! And the marble walls and ceilings are exquisite. I would like to go there again. The biggest tease of all is that you can see the spectacular Taj in the distance.
Tomorrow I will tell you about the finale!
