Is this a great coin or what?
Shouldn’t all handkerchiefs be dark green in color?
I always thought that in India the worst train ride is better than the best bus ride, but I went to Nawalgarh, northwest of Jaipur, and endured a soul-crushing train that took four hours and fifty minutes to go exactly 183km, which is 85 miles. This is why I don’t travel with rope: I would have hung myself to end the agony. (My shoelaces weren’t strong enough.)
It was a local train with one class, cattle class, and I lost some life expectancy from it. Coming back was a three and a half hour bus ride which—I don’t want to talk about it.
There is a six page classifieds section in the newspaper just for arranged marriages, or 'alliances', as the euphemism goes. There is a premium for fair skin, it appears, which is a shame. Black is beautiful, but you turn on Indian TV and all you see are ghostly-looking white Indians that you never see in real life.
Go register the email address 'perfectbride2012@gmail.com' and sell it on ebay and clean up. ANOTHER free business idea from The Dromomaniac!
Have I mentioned yet that it’s hot? A nice complement to the furnace-like heat are the late afternoon sandstorms that whip through town. The camels are unperturbed.
I have a horrendous flight sequence courtesy of Air Arabia. Listen to this: depart Jaipur at 4am, arrive in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, at 6am, then a 15 hour layover before I fly to Istanbul and arrive at midnight, too late to get to town by public transport so I will sleep in the airport until the morning. Ugly, but $290 one way. I am supposedly allowed to leave the airport in Sharjah so I will go to Dubai for a few hours, where the temperature is 43C in the day and 33C at night—exactly like here. Oy vey.
That is sad that women want to have lighter skin. I saw the same thing when I was living in South Korea. There it is nearly impossible to find any skin products that don’t contain bleaching ingredients. So many women in Korea also undergo plastic surgery to get the so-called “double eyelid”. Also I find it ironic that in the west so many people are damaging their skin by goint to tanning salons – I guess all women are taught to be unhappy with who we are. It’s too bad more women don’t realize how naturally beautiful they already are!
Great comment, Carolyn, thank you! I try to tell women all the time how naturally beautiful they are, but I get slapped.
I was in Sharjah TWO weeks ago! 😀 Good thing you can get into the city, because such a thing as a “good hang-out airport” exists anywhere, Sharjah is NOT one of them.
For overnight travel in India, I came to prefer the busses. I know, scandalous, but hear me out: maybe it’s a new thing, but now the overnight busses have a “sleeper” option where you get a bed mounted above the seats, which is actually big enough for ME to lie in, AND there’s a sliding door over the entire opening so you actually get some PRIVACY!
My final night bus, in which the mattress had bedbugs, somewhat tempered my enthusiasm, but this could happen on a train as well…
Great blog! I’m heading to India next week & your articles helped me get a little bit of an idea for what to expect!
Cheers,
Luke
Good luck, brother, good luck.
This is Jonathan from Bolivia salar de Uyuni tour.
Your travel are keeping me inspired!
So now I am thinking of going to Ethiopia and may be somaliland as well. Going to get a guidebook and reread your blog.
Good luck with you flight and happy travel!
Wow, you do have a funny blog man, and pretty informative too.
If you ever plan to visit India(again), do contact me. Associated with a travel agency ensures cheap tickets, and cheaper hotels. Though you prefer the road, and what challenges it presents.
Good Luck 🙂