India Haiku #1

One billion people

Fifty-five million autos

Eight traffic signals

My epic journey to Agra and the Taj Mahal

Last Wednesday, my Indian colleague asked "While in Delhi, do you want to see the Taj Mahal?" - I am quite sure I gave a very enthusiastic "YES" before the last sylable had left his mouth.  I remember clearly seeing a picture of this amazing place when I was 8 or 9 years old and thinking I had to go there someday.  That day finally came this past Sunday.

The Taj Mahal is located in Agra, around 125 miles or so from my hotel.  According to Google Maps, this trip should take just under 3 hours.   I will have to have a word with them about this estimate...  Nothing against the capable folks at Google, but I think they need to add a few steps to their algorithm which calculates travel times.  Some suggestions:

Are there more than three of these per mile?

If so, reduce average speed by 5 mph.

Is the average occupancy of an auto rickshaw on this road greater than 12?

If so, reduce by another 5 mph...

Will any villages be encountered along the way?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJJP0ROo_K0

If so, add 5 minutes per village - 10 if it is market day



I could go on and on...  The trip took 5 hours which comes to an average speed of 25 mph on what is for India, a major highway.  Apart from the road being in overall poor condition in most stretches, the traffic is heavy, and all manner of vehicles are sharing the same road - cars, trucks, buses, bicycles, pedestrians, wandering cows, tractors, carts being pulled by horses, oxen, and camels, auto rickshaws, and even herds of sheep.  Add to this the total disregard for lane markers, turn signals, right of way, etc..., I even saw numerous cars and trucks going the wrong way down divided sections of highway.  After 5 hours of this I was exhausted.  I squeezed the "oh s#!t" handle in the back seat of the car  so hard and for so long I think I left my palm print impedded in the plastic. 

The Taj was incredible - worth the journey anyhow.  Sadly I left the cable at home which connects my camera to the laptop, so I will have to upload pictures and post them when I get home.

Animals in Gurgaon

Camel ride anyone?

Here is a partial list of the animals I have seen either in use or wandering in Gurgaon, India where I have been for the past three days:

Cows - lots

Buffalo

Pigs - many

Donkeys

Horses - pulling carts

Oxen - pulling carts

Camels - pulling carts and giving rides

Monkeys

Dogs - all strays

Peacocks

Sheep - herded

Gurgaon is not rural.  It is part of the Delhi metro area and is apparently the only city in India that has run electricity to every one of its apartments.  This is not to say the electric grid is reliable - the power goes out at my hotel here around 4 times per day...

"Two all chicken patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese...

Sad to admit I still remember the entire Big Mac song from the 1980's commercials...

In Indian manufacturing plants, there are often no places nearby to have lunch.  In addition, most workers do not have their own cars so the company provides a cafeteria.  I had lunch a few times this week in such places, and the food was not bad, at least by my standards.  On one day, my meetings lasted through lunch so food was delivered to the plant - McDonalds.  Perhaps they did this because they thought I woud like it, or perhaps they order from here often.  At any rate, a Big Mac is clearly not the same thing here, made with chicken patties in place of beef.  I have to say it was surprisingly good - the chicken was spicy and the sauce had a nice smokey flavor.  Otherwise, it was just like its American counterpart.  I think I would take this over its beef version any day.

If you like spicy foods, you will likely enjoy India.  I have had nothing that was painfully hot, but everything has been flavorful, well prepared, and I am glad to say recognizable - with a couple of exceptions.  The dipping sauce pictured above was apparently made from cilantro and lava.  Wow!!  Following dinner Saturday night, an amazing plate of rogan josh, my Indian coworker offered me an Indian after-dinner item - it looked like a mint leaf wrapped around something.  My friend popped his so I followed, popping the entire thing into my mouth and biting down...   I think the leaf was wrapped around a urinal cake.  As after dinner mints go, this was maybe the worst ever.  I smiled, chewed and swallowed....  Hey, I'm a pro after all!



Beware of wandering cows!

In Ahmedabad (pronounded ahm'-da-bod), cows and stray dogs are everywhere; wandering in fields, lying at the edge of the road, foraging through piles of garbage which I am sad to say are numerous here.  While riding through town in a taxi, we passed 4 lying in the middle of the road with busses, taxis and auto-rickshaws whizzing past.  They all have rather menacing looking horns too...

I asked Samir, my Indian coworker how the cows survive here - there seems to be little for them to graze on.  Samir told me that some people will give them food, but mostly the feed on whatever they can find.

There seem to be a lot of donkeys too.  I tried to snap a picture of one standing in the median of a busy road from my speeding taxi - but I think I hit the shutter a half second too soon...



Just another ass on the road!



Hotel Security in India

When I arrived at my hotel in Delhi late Monday night, I was surprised to see the hotel access road blocked by a heavy gate manned by guards.  As my driver approached the gate, he popped the hood and trunk of the taxi before stopping.  One guard opened the hood and inspected the engine compartment with a flashlight while the other opened the trunk and ran a metal-detecting wand over my suitcase.  After the guards waved us in we drove to the hotel entrance where I had to put my backpack through an airport type scanner and I had to walk through a metal detector.  I suspected, and my local contacts later confirmed that these security measures were put in place following the terror attacks in Mumbai last year where Pakistani extremists invaded three hotels and killed many hostages.  The Indian Government now mandates that all hotels in the country be secured in this manner.  Sure enough, every hotel I have stayed in this week so far (4 and counting...) all had similar measures in place. 

Secured entrance to the La Meriden in Ahmedabad

Airports in India are also heavily secured.  You are not allowed inside the terminal building at all if you dont have ID and a printout confirming you have a ticket.  Every passenger gets a full security scan and pat down, and they have segregated security lines for men and women.

I suppose this should make me feel more secure, but it doesn't...

The Trip to Delhi

It wasnt an unpleasant journey from Minneapolis to Delhi via Paris, but I wouldnt call it fun either.  I couldnt sleep on the 8-hour overnight leg to Paris, arriving dazed at 6:00 AM to a nearly empty terminal for a 3 hour layover.  At least Starbucks was open...

At 6:00 AM, DeGaulle Airport looked about this blurry...

The Air France flight from Paris to Delhi was mixed.  On the plus side, the food and wine were not bad by airline standards.  However, Air France has somehow managed to pack this 777 10 seats wide when every other airline goes with 9.  They accomplish this by making each seat more narrow, and by shrinking the aisle width.  The result of course is that I have to lean towards the aisle to avoid shoulder contact with my neighbor, placing my other shoulder well into the aisle where is gets slammed by every passing body, suitcase and service cart.  8 hours of that was quite enough.  Next time I will fly KLM!  I arrived in Delhi at 11:00 PM, sore, exhausted and needing a bed. 

A driver had been arranged for me, a short young man with barely decypherable English who played 1940's pop songs on the car radio.  At least he knew where to go. 

The hotel was not far, at the end of a badly rutted road leading to an even more rutted parking lot which contained no cars.  the room smelled of mildew, the power across the hotel failed twice within the first half hour, the furnishings were worn and shabby, and I didnt care a bit.  All I needed was sleep which came around 1:00 AM.  

I was wide awake at 4:00...

Hard to see through the dirty windows of the Pllazio Gurgoan Hotel...

"Ah Beef! I will miss you most of all..."

This morning I finalized the details of my upcoming trip to India, my first time going there.   This is a place I have always wanted to see.  I will be there for 8 days with stops in Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Ahmadabad.  If I can squeeze out any fun time while in the Delhi area, I hope to get to Agra.  We will see.

I got the needed shots and malaria pills, now if I can just survive a week and a half without beef and avoid anything that will make me sick, it should be a great trip!