India Day 6

So, I'm not going to go into detail about the various forts and temples we've seen. I find that kind of thing to be not very interesting if you haven't actually been there and there's nothing super-fabulous about the place. Instead, here's some things that I find interesting.

The street signs in Delhi are in 4 languages; Hindi, English, Punjabi and Urdu.

"Eve Teasing" signs are everywhere, particularly since the recent spate of rapes. The government and various other woman's rights groups are trying to get the message across that all women are to be treated fairly. All women are "Eve"....you wouldn't want your mother, sister, aunt, wife, or daughter to be sexually harassed, so don't do it to any woman. There are special help-lines now, similar to a 911, that women can call, and specials phone booths with locking doors and direct phone lines to the police that a woman can lock themselves in if they feel threatened. There are pink tuk-tuks (the little local taxis) that are for women only. India is trying to rid itself of the stigma of such horrendous women's rights.

Can you read #11? A woman who enters the temple while she is menstruating defiles the temple.

The trucks here are fabulous! The guys who drive them are generally away from home for long periods of time, so they decorate their vehicles to be "cozy". I love that the men enjoy the vivid colours. It's right up my alley....the glitter and glitz. 

No one pays attention to stop signs or traffic lights, so you pass whenever you want to, but you honk the horn in a polite little staccato  as you pass...often on the wrong side of the highway. Our bus driver drove the wrong way on the highway rather frequently, as did other drivers. It's quite horrifying! And I don't mean that they drive on the left instead of the right (opposite to North America), I mean thatthey actually drive facing the oncoming traffic now and then, in order to get to where they want to go.

So, just so I keep my journal in order, I'll mention what we did on day 6, except I can't really remember what we did without my notes in front of me. (I'm on the bus) I know we left Agra and drove to Jaipur. We had spent two nights in Agra at a hotel from the Trident chain, and in Jaipur we also spent two nights at a Trident hotel, and let me tell you, these two hotels are unbelievable. Extremely over-the-top as far as luxury goes, although maybe they seem that way because you leave the incredible filth and squalor and poverty and go through the gates of grounds and it's an entirely different world. Greeted with a blessing, hot scented towels, rose water, mint tea and snacks. Probably more food and cleanliness in one literal minute than some of these people see in a day, or more. Example, one day we saw a woman running her hands through the streams of raw sewage (human as well as dog and cow) looking for coins or silver that people may have dropped in it. The sewage runs down the narrow streets in little trenches and the smell is enough to make you gag, and this lady was sifting through it with her bare hands.

Oh oh losing Internet....gotta run!