Just for fun...or maybe not!

Out here in India so many people look at us and smile, wave, whistle, shout that after a while it gets rather annoying. We will walk into a shop and for the duration of our stay there will be several men surrounding us asking us: "You like?" "You want to buy?" "I give you cheap price." Or when we are walking down the street people call to us: "You need taxi?" "Come look at my shop." (all in their Indian-English accents) Did you know that here in India they drive on the "wrong" side of the road? When they say "yes" they rapidly sway their head from side to side, and this takes some time to get used to. It seems, as if they are uncertain when they do this. It's fun to negotiate a price in the shops even after they say that it is a fixed price. One of our taxi drvers told us this: "In India, a good taxi driver needs three things: first, a good horn, next a good brake and finally a good heart." Trust here is another huge issue: who do you trust? Each driver, each pedestrian, each salesperson says the rest are liars, cheaters and dishonest. Remember: every thing happens on Indian time. When they say it takes 45 minutes to get here, it may only take 15 minutes. Or they tell you they will be here at this and this time sharp, you can count on them being at least 10-15 minutes late or not show up at all! Everyone is in a rush here, but not everything happens quickly. Piet and Maryke, the newly married couple, have been asked the question if this is their first or second marriage. When you drive through the streets at night you will see people sleeping in the oddest places: on stone walls, against a tree trunk, in a bike carriage, or just in the middle of an alley. Jumping from brick to brick to stay out of dirty, toilet water along the road, dodging piles of human feces, and tip-toeing past a few sleeping men laying in an alley are just some of the ways one needs to walk here. In each bathroom, there is a little slab with a pit and a hose on the wall which you use after you have gone to the bathroom. If you are a gemophobe, I will warn you now not to come to India. After a shower, you will still stink because the water is so gross here. Once outside you will sweat so badly that everything sticks to you. Do not wipe your face off on your white shirt, it will be yellowish brown. Take a look under your finger nails, a black layer will be lodged inbetween your skin and nail. Grossed out yet? I wonder why there is a black layer at the bottom of my cup in a restaurant?! All over you see little puddles of yellowish/brown liquid. I finally figured out (after I seen it happen) that it is spittle. Disgusting! When one girl orders she says: "No spicy. Abosultely no spicy." What can you expect in India? On one of our flights to India, the stewardess asked one of us, after that person (due to embarassment, I won't mention names) ordered coffee, if they wanted poeder melk (powder milk) or normaal melk (normal milk). That person thought she had said: Moeder melk (mother milk) so s/he said: "Please, give me normal milk." During lunch one time, we were telling each other what we wanted to do and eat when we got back in Holland/Canada. Some of the responses: shower, wash our clothes, share our stories and pictures, eat normal brown bread, drink water and devour a quarter wheel of cheese. All in all this has been an awesome adventure into a now known land!