The Streets are Madness

Dogs and cats living together.... Mass Hysteria.

India is absolutely and completely chaotic and unlike anywhere we have ever been. Flying into Chennai from Sri Lanka for the night was an eye-opener, and the pollution was strangeling. We thought Sri Lanka was crazy, well it is a walk in a spring garden after this.

Chennai was too much and we immediately left the next day and flew to Mumbai (Bombay), home of Bollywood and the largest gettho in India. Mumbai was good, being the most cosmopolitan and westernized city in India, it was a nice warm up for a few days before we started moving north. Our ride from the airport to the hotel was shocking and included a lost taxi driver and a slight fender bender (oh yeah, and him trying to make us pay for the damage). We took a breather in our hotel and then hit the streets that were lined with crazy drivers, beggers and vendors selling everything from the most amazing (cheap!) jewlary to silk scarfs and incense. We saw a few beautiful buildings and ate at some great resteraunts and made a trip to Chowpatty Beach in the heart of the city and full of man propelled carnival rides and other random sights. Most of our time in Bombay however was figuring out the "slightly" confusing train system so that we could get out of the city and head to a quieter place (hahaha). After no help from the train "foreign tourist only" window we managed to get the right ticket (we hope) to the right place.

As we drove to the train station with our luggage, through the dirtiest, forgotten, heatbreaking slums (right in the middle of the city, modern city) it was one of the most surreal experiences we've had. These slums are unlike any we have seen before. The poverty and the serious lack of sanitation was unbelievable. I couldn't look out the window, it was terrible. These people are poor. They have nothing and are cursed to a life of begging, the untouchables.

Wow, walking from the cab (surrounded by small kids begging) to the train platform, was the most terrifying and crazy thing in my life. We were literally stared at by everyone as we were the only non-indians there. It was like the record skipped and the whole place turned to watch... We were (and still are) quite a novelty here. Dinner in Jalgon (crazy buisness town that also doesn't see many tourists but a necessary stop for the Ajanta Caves) was complete with a whole slew of kids (maybe 3 families) stopping by on their way out the door to shake our hands and say "Hello" and "Good Bye" and "What is your name". Bizaar. That is my new word to discribe this country.

Ajanta Caves: Absolutely amazing and definately worth the hard work to get to. We spent the day here admiring the ancient Buddist caves (from around 600 BC to 500 AD) which were lining a horseshoe type canyon. There were 30 caves in total and all had beautiful carvings, paintings and Buddha sculptures. They are very well preserved because they were forgotten when Hinduism took rise and not found again until the early 1800s. I guess this is where the Buddhist monks would come to meditate and pray. So ancient. We wandered through them for hours, along with a lot of locals school children on field trips. We ended up being more of a novelty to the kids than the caves and had many kids ask to take our picture with them. Back in Jalgon, buisness center, we would take 2 hour spurts out into the madness to get things done before we would have to head back to the quietness of our room for a breather. Intense.

This country, like I said, is crazy; but there is never a dull moment. We are constently bartering prices, ignoring the pushy vendors and "tuk tuk" drivers, avoiding the random cows and dogs in the street and trying not to inhale as we walk to the train platform. (Another story). There are temples all over and we could sit on the side of any road and be entertained for ever! We could go on and on with random stories already and we haven't even been here a week... How exciting!