I'm currently in New Delhi, India and heading back to the United States on December 20th. So far I've been to Udaipur, Jaipur, Kota, Ajmer, Agra, and Bombay (Mumbai). I've seen many forts, ridden on elephants and camels (see photos below), and learned a thing or two about how to bargain.
Instead of writing a massive post about my time in India and because there is so much to cover, I thought I would just cover what I've learned through my experiences in India.
I'm not going to rehash my first post on India, but the things I mentioned :
- Lack of personal space
- Chaotic driving
- Tasty Indian food
- Friendliness of the people
are still valid.
General Perceptions:
1. The sense of time is different than in the United States. What I mean here is that if an Indian tells you that the bus is leaving at 7am, then they really mean the bus is leaving at 7:30am or 8am. This does not mean you should be the one to cause the bus to leave late, but in reality, you probably aren't going to be leaving at 7am. At first, this is was somewhat difficult to get used to, but once I adjusted to "Indian Standard Time", (IST), I had a better understanding of when something was going to happen. I also noticed the sense of time when it came to ordering food at cafes/restaurants. In general, I noticed that Indians are not in a constant hurry and take things very easy.
2. Learn how to bargain. Services such as taxis, guides, and street goods have no set price. Instead, the person selling the service or product will start out with a price. You should then counter offer with a lower price. As I have spent more in India, I have become better at bargaining. I just wish I had known how to do it when I first started my trip. Of course there are exceptions to the bargaining rule, there are places that have fixed prices and some services like internet cafes and hotels where the price can not be bargained.
3. Everyone is a guide. Being a white, westerner from the United States, I stuck out like a sore thumb in a country of 1 billion people. Of course, people approached me claiming to be a guide, or wanting to tell me the history of a fort, park, palace, etc. I have hired three different "guides" while I have been here. Overall, the guides have given me alot of historical information. The problem is, the information is simply too much to remember. It would have almost been better if I just bought a book about each of the forts and then I could have read the information on my own time. I think the thing that made it hard for me to retain all the information is that the names are difficult to remember and pronounce and everything runs together.
4. Indian prices vs. Foreign prices. I guess I could have put this up in the "learn how to bargain" observation, but what I really mean here the drastic difference in the price of entry to forts and monuments for Indians vs. foreigners. For example, the Taj Mahal is 18 rupies for an Indian and 750 rupies for a foreigner. I understand that Indians probably don't have as much income as foreigners, but I saw this price difference at all the monuments. I also experienced this when bargaining for various goods. I was sort of nervous telling people I was from the U.S. because they might automatically think I have a lot more money and try to take advantage of me. One thing I learned is that if I shopped at the local markets (referred to by the guides as the "bad" markets), I would get prices that were fair and reasonable.
5. Bombay is not Delhi. Delhi is not Bombay. All I have to say is wow. Delhi seems more chaotic to me and there seems to be a lot more pollution than in Bombay. In Delhi, I saw a lot more animals in the street and really felt like I was in a foreign country than in Bombay. When I was in Bombay, I felt like I was in New York or San Francisco. Some of the things I really enjoyed about New Delhi were the narrow streets filled with various markets and bazaars, the smells of the vendors cooking their food, and the general feeling of not being able to find this anywhere back in the United States. My hotel was located in the main bazaar just north of Connaught Place near the New Delhi Railway Station. I would have no problems finding my way from the railway station to the hotel, but if you started me somewhere else within 5-10 minutes walking distance from the hotel, there was no way I would be able to find my way back to the hotel. I must say that on my last day, I took a city tour of New Delhi and warmed up to the city's sights and sounds. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed both cities, but if you had to ask me which one I would definitely visit again - hands down, it would have to be Bombay.
6. Being white == being different?! This was definitely a new experience for me. Granted, in country with about a billion Indian people, I wasn't expecting to find many white people. However, I wasn't expecting the type of reactions from seeing a white person. For example, when I was on the city tour of New Delhi, I was at a momument. A group of school kids saw me and some came up and shook my hand. They wanted to meet me. One of the people in my group told me they had never seen or talked to a white person before. This was pretty amazing. I took it all in stride and enjoyed the experience.
I can now add New Delhi and Bombay as major world cities that I have visited. I definitely have no regrets about going to visit India especially since I was able to experience an Indian wedding. (maybe if I had more time to see the rest of the country). Before my trip to India, I will admit that it wasn't on my "list of places" to see next. However, as I did more research about the things to do and see, I became more intrigued about the trip. I would definitely like to visit India again to experience the sights, sounds, and culture of the areas of the country I did not get to see the first time around.
I have included a couple of photos from the trip. You can see my entire trip's photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/morriswt
Hey u r almost bang on..except for the fact India is too diverse
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