India, Mudumallai, Mysore and Mamallapuram

With this toe ring I they wed. Today we crashed four weddings before we even brushed our teeth this morning. If you are married you have a toe ring on your second toe. So part of the ceremony is putting on the toe ring amongst smashing coconuts, throwing flowers, washing peoples feet in milk and yogurt and putting a third eye on their forehead.

We were not dressed in our finest with our hair done or teeth brushed. We had just gotten off a 12 hour night train and went to see a temple on our way to breakfast when there were four weddings taking place at the same time at the temple. We were invited to have front row seats and at the end our pictures taken with the not so happy couple. The bride did not smile throughout the ceremony and it made us wonder what it was all about. Was this the first time she saw her husband? Arranged marriages in India. Did she have a love relationship and wasn’t allowed to pursue it and had to marry this guy? Who knows?  But like I said all this done before we even brushed our teeth after that “lovely” night train with 64 other people in our car. Weddings in the South take place on Sunday at 8:30am.

In Mysore we happened upon elephants in the back of trucks being transported after a festival. There must have been a least a dozen and the elephants were all painted up for the festivities.

Mysore has a beautiful palace that is even prettier at night because it is illuminated with full size light bulbs all over the whole structure.

We went to Chamundi hills temple with the masses and witnessed bananas being pelted at the monument and coconuts being smashed all in offerings to the gods. There were thousands of people there. Then we came down a thousand or more steps with the masses on their pilgrimage.

We went to a village and saw that families there live with their cows and livestock inside the house in the main living space. One side of the open room was the TV and the other side was shi**ing cows and ox. I have never seen the animals right in the house before. This village was old school as well with buckets they send down the well on a rope to retrieve water.

These are wild elephants we saw as we were driving down the road.

We stayed in another jungle “resort.” There were elephants along the perimeter when we went to go back to our bungalow from dinner in the main area. We were all spread out along the property and the others had wild elephants outside their door in the night. They could see the droppings and branches down off the tree in the morning. There were cannon like sounds going off in the night to ward off the animals. We went on a Jeep Safari and saw lots of spotted deer, peacocks and elephants, but no tigers.

We have been spending lots of time on the road and seeing lots of country side. The bus we had left a lot to be desired as far as a/c and leg room were concerned. We did happen upon a livestock auction that we stopped to check out. You can get a “nice” cow and calf for $400. There were ox there too and we witnessed a guy shaving off part of the horns with a large knife to make them look cleaner.

Oh yes a cow head butted me the other day as I was walking down the street in Mysore. Cows are everywhere roaming freely and this one just decided it was going to push into my torso with its head and horns.

In Mamallapuram (which is on the East Coast of India) we had bicycles for the day to ride around to the many stone archeological sites. The bikes were interesting. Hard seats with narrow handle bars which made for difficult turns but a great way to get around in this laid back backpacker town with not much traffic.

There is a great big boulder here that they call the butterball, and many ornately carved out elephants, gods, animals and temples.  

Barry the 70 year old former doctor went to the hospital today as he was having some urinary problems or prostate problems and wanted a urine test done. His emergency room visit cost 350 rupees or $7. Yes $7. It was a short lived illness as he was swimming only a few hours later and feeling much better.

A few people have had the Delhi belly this week and have been down for the count for a few days.

We have been able to get some nice seafood in this town and I have taken advantage of the jumbo tiger shrimp and calamari. They bring it out to the table for you to see it before it is cooked.

A cyclone has been going through the south of India but luckily we have only had heavy rain and there doesn’t seem to be any in our current town. It was a good day to have it rain as we spent 10 hours in a bus. When we arrived in Madurai the streets were barricaded off and there seemed to be demonstrators all over the place. At the hotel there is a notice that no alcohol is to be served for two days under government mandate. It must be to keep the protestors in line.

Click on this link for more photos from the South of India

Kochi, South India

South India: Pictured are the Chinese fishing nets in Kochi.

We have been in Kochi and are now in the jungle after an 11 hour day of trains and non air conditioned busses. South India is very different in comparison to the north. It is very lush, green and quiet. But very hot and humid, 100% humidity and it made it hard to breath with the thick air in Kochi.

Kochi is a nice town on the west coast with lots of fish and cultural shows. They follow traffic rules and do not excessively use their horns. Our ears don’t know what to do with the quiet. We took a ferry to see the different peninsulas in Kochi. We had a great all you can eat lunch for $2 served on a banana leaf. The food just kept coming, served at our place out of silver buckets. Bottomless curries.

We are now in the jungle and took a hike today. Luckily I didn’t have a run in with the leeches but some did just small trickles of blood. There are wild elephants in the area and there are watch towers manned in the evening to protect the farmer’s crops from the elephants coming to raid them.

Click on this link for photos from Kochi and the Jungle in India

Varanasi Days 13 - 14 India

Day 13 and 14: Varanasi India

The photo waas taken on the Ganges in Varanasi.

The 12 hour night train to Varanasi went well. There were about 60 beds in the train car and they were separated into areas of eight, triple bunks and then two length ways across when in most trains it would be the corridor, not here, pack them in and make a small alley way through. Each area of eight is only separated by curtains, no doors to lock just curtains. It was interesting; I slept ok with my ear plugs in.

Varanasi is another large city and the sounds of Varanasi are honk, honk, honnnnnnnnk, continuous honking 24 hours a day. It is necessary to wear ear plugs while sleeping and even that doesn’t block it out. The pollution is intense and it has made me happy that we have visited villages and small towns along the way as the traffic is crazy and it is so busy.

The Ganges River is in Varanasi and being around it has been a life lesson. The vibe in that area is incredible. Hindu’s cremate their loved ones on the banks of the river. There are continuously fires burning along the side and you know that that is a person. We took a sunset and then a sunrise boat trip along the Ganges and saw many fires burning at night and in the morning. They cremate their loved ones along the river bank and then put their ashes in the river.

The fires are bodies being cremated.

If you are a monk or a pregnant woman they don’t cremate them so they are tied to a rock and sunk in the Ganges. Then people bath in this river and do their laundry too. That is a bit much.

We were in an alleyway and a body came past us on a bamboo stretcher and then when we were walking to a temple on the bank we saw a body stacked up amongst firewood ready to be burned. It is a very spiritual place and Hindu’s are to visit at least once in their lifetime and send a marigold flower and candle down the river making a wish.

Our guide made an Amazing Race for us through Varanasi and it was wicked. My team was awesome and we won! Yeah team. We were to take a minimum of three modes of transport and if you count piggy backing like we did we took 11 modes. It was awesome. For team spirit we wrapped scarves on our heads kind of like turbans and struck out to three temples, a bakery, a lassie shop (like a yogurt shake) and had to buy the cheapest Shiva statue we could find. While getting receipts for purchases along the way and it is India there are no cash registers for receipts. It was a ton of fun and we were efficient and our guide was shocked when our team made it back an hour and an hour and a half before the others. We got 98 points the others 84 and 80.

Got to love India the power just went out again. Good thing this thing has battery backup. It usually goes out at least a few times a day.  

Click on this link for photos from Varanasi India, remember there are captions there so you know what the photos are about

Orcha and Alipura India

This guy was hanging out front of the castle.

Day 10: Orchar and Alipura

We had a fantastic day today. It was filled with cool palaces, temples and cultural experiences. I feel like I have been snap happy with all the photos, but I have actually been holding back as the bus and tuk tuk rides have been incredible but you cannot capture it through the bus window or at the chaotic rate that a tuk tuk moves. In the bus today we were stopped for a train crossing and the road was in chaos. While sitting there, there was a guy plucking a chicken and people going to the bathroom anywhere. The smell of urine emanates and I am sure I have seen over a hundred people peeing now.

We did a cooking class today. It was $5 and that included the meal of what we made that is shown above. There must have been about 10 dishes. I took pictures of the recipes so those that want to make them can. The food turned out really well and it was an excellent experience in a villager’s home. It was all vegetarian dishes.

We went to a paper factory and watched paper being made out of scarps of material. In the factory there was a large pile of certificates just laying around that said Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery on them, anyone can be a doctor here, just need to put your name on that piece of paper. No problem.

There are beautiful ruins, castles and temples in Orcha that we visited. One is the Raj Mahal. The castle was beautiful and there are many neat temples along the river. The structures reminded me of Ankor Wat in Cambodia.  

We are now in Alipura staying in a castle. The rooms are very cool and quite large. Each one is different and ours has many curtains throughout it like a palace. They have a lot of character and we are the only ones here. There is marble everywhere. In Michelle and Zeena’s room their beds have mirrors on the head and foot boards.

It is Michelle’s 23 birthday so we had a party. Nothing like dancing in the courtyard of a castle to cassette tapes while having some Indian rum. The hotel staff went 30 km’s away to get her a “milk cake” (made out of condensed milk), as they do not do cakes over here or birthday cakes. It had the edible tin foil on it. They also put up balloons.

The monkeys were out in full force today Grace. Got you some pictures.

Day 11: Alipura to Khajuraho

We took a bus for 2 hours to Khajuraho Temples or the Western Group Temples. On the way we drove by an accident between a local bus, which are usually packed to the gills and a transport truck. Today we learned that 17 people died in the accident and 19 people were injured and in the hospital.

We visited the Khajuraho Temples which were very neat and from 950 AD. They were discovered in the 20^th century covered with jungle growth. They reminded me of the temples at Ankor Wat, but these ones are covered in erotic carvings and Karma Sutra poses. They are very graphic and some of the photos are x-rated.

This morning a group of us was up and doing yoga with a guru at 6am for a two hour class on the roof top patio of the palace. What a backdrop. Barry was camera happy and documented the class in photos on all the participants cameras.

We walked through the village today and continually saw people at the local wells collecting water. We saw a woman sitting in her door way surrounded by children while she worked making cigarettes. If she makes 1000 she gets $2.

We visited the hospital where it costs 2 rupees to see the doctor and 50 rupees are needed to make $1. At the hospital it had about half a dozen rooms. We saw the delivery room and at the wash station it appreared they were reusing the rubber gloves.

We visited the village police station where they had two cells, one for woman, with a curtain and one without a curtain for men.

We also went to a school and provided the school with school supplies. They do not have desks and sit on a runner of carpet with their note book. They practiced their ABC’s for us with a leader at the front instructing the group and they did their numbers for us.

We just happened to walk up the street and see a goat giving birth.

The woman make patties of manure and hay with their bare hands and use this patties as fuel for cooking.

We are off to a 12 hour night train tonight to Varanasi and will be spending a couple of nights there. Our guide has arranged an Amazing Race activity that is to take 3 -4 hours for us to do in teams. Should be fun.

Click on this link for photos from Orcha and Alipura, remember the captions are there so you know what you are looking at

India day 6 - 9

Day 6 and 7: Agra Day 9 Orcha

We were up for sunrise at the Taj Mahal today. What an impressive structure. It is a mausoleum that the King built for his third wife. We also went to the Agra Fort and the Baby Taj Mahal, which was built first. Both Taj’s have impressive inlay work done on them. All of the colour you see on each building is tiny, tiny pieces of hand carved stone. We saw artisans still doing the piece work today, time consuming, expensive and laborious work. The Taj Mahal took 20 years to build and 22 000 people worked on it.

The Baby Taj Mahal was quite impressive and most people don’t make the effort to go across town and see it.

Agra has its own aroma that is not so pleasant. The smell of sewage is pretty bad in spots. We did a lot of walking last night and it was hard to get the sent out of my nostrils once we returned to the hotel. There was a festival on last night, a huge celebration in India. We were amongst the masses. At one point our picture was taken and a couple of groups of us ended up in two different India newspapers. The caption said “even the tourists cannot stay away from the festivities.” So that was pretty neat to see two different photos of us in Indian newspapers.

On our way to Agra we stopped at Fatehpur Sikri, a temple and a stair well. Fatehpur Sikri was pretty interesting. It was a palace created by the king in 1760. He was Mughal, from Mongolia and was married to three wives at the same time and had ~400 concubines. One of his wives was Islamic, one was Catholic and the other was Hindu. He had all three living with him. Each wife had their own separate part of the palace and place of worship. We thought he was a bit of a renascent man to have wives from three different religions. He believed in one god and was excepting of all religions. Where he spoke to his ministers from there was a pillar that has symbols from six religions on it and to think he spoke from the top of this pillar in the 18 century. Jain, Mughal, Catholic, Hindu, Islam and Persian were represented in symbols.

Jain’s are naked people. They don’t believe in killing things, so they walk with a fan sweeping the ground in front of them or where they sit so they do not kill any bugs. They don’t wear cloth’s or believe in any modern means of transportation etc, so they will walk from town to town if need be. Now that being said if they don’t believe in modern conveniences I am not sure why I saw and add for a wife in the newspaper. Jain looking for wife. That is another thing. Because they have arranged marriages in India the newspaper has pages of want ads. Brides wanted, husbands wanted. We had an English paper to entertain ourselves while riding the train. Education and fair skinned are common things they are looking for.

The train was nice. We had breakfast and depending on what was on your tray you ate it or not. It was just a two hour trip and it was a pretty nice car. The breakfast was bread, ketchup and a bag of mixed nuts. Interesting. Or an omelet, jam and bread. I opted to pull out my peanut butter and had that with jam on the bread, not going for the egg on a train.

We have arrived in Orcha and are staying at a nice hotel in deluxe tents. They have a toilet, shower, electricity, a/c, TV, the place has a cloudy pool and it is on a river. It is a nice laid back town with no hassle while you walk through. If you want your haircut there are stalls lining the side of the road.

The trip is going smoothly and I am loving not having to figure out my own transportation and accommodation. The streets are so small and there are so many places tuk tuk drivers do not know where things are. It would be such a hassle. I am loving being able to rock up to a new place and being dropped at our hotel. I also don't seem to be having any real side effects from my malaria pills this time, so that is great too. Just tons of dreams, all night long, but at least they are all pleasant.

  Click on this link for pictures from Taj Mahal, Agra and Orcha

India Day 1 - 5

India

Day 1: Delhi

I have arrived and it is quite the tail to tell about getting from the airport to the hotel. First of all my flight came into Delhi at 3:30 am. I was not met at the airport by my prearranged hotel transfer. I did the walk of shame up and down the corridor looking for my name or the company name on the signs three times. Then I went outside to check out there, nothing. Then I wasn’t allowed back into the airport by security, once you’re out, you’re out. Finally after having to show my passport and visa to another security guard it was ok for me to go in and use a pay phone. Luckily there was a dude there collecting the money and making the calls. I called the hotel twice as they hung up on me the first time and then the third time they didn’t answer. Lovely. Here is where PATIENCE needs to come into my world and where I realize these people do not know how to say the word no and choose to say yes to everything, even when it should be no. So I asked the hotel guy are you coming to get me? Yes in taxi you go to hotel. Yes the taxi ride I have already paid for or a taxi that I get at the airport? Yes. Yes to which question? Yes. Click. Second call; is there someone coming to get me? Yes you take taxi get to hotel. Right. Then I call G adventures as there are two numbers to call if there is trouble with your hotel transfer. No answer at either number.

I head out of the airport again, this time on my way to the taxi stand. When I am approached by people, you need taxi? You need taxi? No thank you I will get it. You are to make sure you go to the Delhi police taxi stand to book your taxi. So I go there pay my 400 rupees ($8) and get a receipt that says go to the parking spot numbered 41. As I am walking to number 41 a guy grabs my ticket and says come with me, I am #41. No you are not. I can see the cab in the 41 spot. Yes, yes, fine come with me. So I get into the cab with a guy who is sitting in the front in what in North America would be the driver’s seat but I haven’t registered they drive on the other side of the road here, so he is another passenger. Turns out he has to be dropped off at the domestic terminal. Yes, yes, ma’am, no problem, on the way. So after we drop him off he asks again where I am going and checks my information out using his cell phone as a light. He says the receipt says a different address so you must pay 200 more rupees. I say fine. In my paperwork it says if you are coming from the airport and not using the hotel transfer you should pay 700 – 800 rupees. So another 200 was fine with me and because I didn’t argue and said fine right away he told me good girl.

Then we pull into a gas station and I have to pay for the gas, 100 rupees. I say fine but that comes out of the 200 I am giving you. Yes ma’am. So we head out on the road and he says you pay now, I say not now I only have a 500 and I know you have no change (this conversation and fiasco already took place with domestic terminal drop off). So he turns around and goes back to the gas station takes the 500 and changes it there. He comes back to the car and counts off the hundred rupee bills 1, 2, 3 and stops. I say and 4? I already paid the 100 for the gas, so I need four back. Yes, ma’am right. Yes math teacher is what I am thinking.

So now the rest of the drive, it is pitch black out and we head down this road that looks deserted. It looks forested with all of the trees and at the roads edge on both sides is an 8 foot high concrete fence for kilometers. I cannot see anything else. No buildings no houses, no people sleeping on the side of the road and I wonder where are we and where are we going? So I figure chat the guy up then he maybe won’t do anything to me in the middle of the night. We discuss families, ages etc, he thought I looked 21, no body, I am old. He is in night college, drives the night, it is less busy on the roads easier traffic etc. Just trying to pass the time. I figure at least there are other cars on the road, if I need to get out of this vehicle it won’t just be me and him on a deserted road.(Later I found out behind that concrete fence was jungle and the concrete fence is up to keep the animals off the road). Finally we get into a populated area then he asks for my hotel information again. This time he calls the hotel and gets the specifics for how to get there as the streets turn into chaos. It was a dodgy ride in the middle of nowhere but I made it to the hotel and he only kissed my hand when I got out. Have I told you I hate arriving anywhere in the night because trust becomes a huge issue? He was telling me as a woman I should not be out after 11pm, you cannot trust the men. I am thinking, right and it is what 5am now and I am out with you and having this dodgy ride? Finally at 6am I made it to the hotel. You fine he says? I am fine. Thank you, good luck at school.

I have met my group. There are 15 of us and it is quite the group. A wide range of ages my roommate Emma is from the UK and in her early 20’s. She thinks there might be a 50 year age span. Should be interesting. 10 people are doing the full 28 days and 5 others just do 14.

So yes means no. I checked into the hotel at 6am. I had booked a room for the night before the tour started. So I literally paid for 6 hours as check out was at noon. I asked at 6am do I have to change rooms at 12pm? Yes. So at noon I repack and put on my backpack, carry my other bag and head down the three flights of stairs to check out and head to my new room. You stay in room ma’am, other girl come join you. Nice, you could have said that at 6 and I could still be sleeping is what I am thinking.

The group met at 5:30pm and did our paperwork and then headed out for an amazing meal. It was awesome. Aloo something? It was stuffed potatoes with cottage cheese and other things, it was so flavorful and of course butter naan.

The rest of the day went well, it is patience and yes means no, my new mantra. In the afternoon I did computer work and booked the next leg of the journey as I know this month will be really busy. After this? The Maldives. I am so lucky. What a cool place to look forward to.

 Day 3: On a air conditioned bus to Jaipur

I never imagined that I would be able to type this portion while riding a bus. There are 15 people in my group and we have a large air conditioned coach bus to ourselves to take us the six hour trip to Jaipur. While I sit at the front looking out the large window watching the traffic and listening to the continuous honking I type this.

Our guide said when you travel in this country you need three goods. Good brake, good horn and good luck. The traffic is insane and I couldn’t believe we were taking this huge bus through the city. On the highway there is less traffic than I thought and the ride is quite pleasant. We saw hundreds of cows crossing the highway and coming in herds for kilometers down the side of the highway.

Horns, horns, horns. Oh my. It something to get use to.

We just passed another “local” bus that was jammed packed and had about 50 people sitting on the roof.

Yesterday we battled the traffic in rickshaws, bicycle taxis. We took eight of them and only one popped a chain and had to change rickshaws. We took these to the metro station where we then took the metro. Shocking the metro was clean, clean, clean. The front car is the women’s car. The women were separated from the men, less feeling up that way. At one point the security guard was jamming the men’s car door shut as they were packed in like sardines. We were just tight but not as tight as sardines.

Coming out of the metro we saw this huge pile of garbage and people having to pick through it for scarps, nasty.

We went to the Jama Mosque. Again women needed to be covered and were supplied with this time, bright and colourful abahas. Unlike the Arab countries where they are black. I climbed the minaret there for a great view of Delhi and the Red Fort.

We went to a Sikh Temple, Sisganj Gurudwara. That was a new experience for me. As part of their religion they do not cut any of their body hair and consequently have it wrapped up in turbans. They believe in paying kind acts forward so there is a soup kitchen attached to the temple and they feed people three meals a day. We were able to help make naan and roti (breads). The roti is not like Caribbean Roti it is like naan, but is made with whole wheat flour.

We had free time and four of us crammed into a tuk, tuk and went around the city to the India Gate and the Presidents House and Parliament. In this part of town we saw nice cars and we had a competition to see if we could find a car with no scratches. They drive so close together that they are bound to have dents and scratches. We did find one; it must have just been driven off the lot.

Our second tuk tuk driver was hilarious. He was smiling, clapping and jumping all around as we drove through town. You are only allowed to have three people in a tuk tuk so he was happy to be breaking the law. We caught in out front of the presidential palace so there were lots of police around. He drives up to the police and excitedly yells at the cop and is jumping up and down pointing as us crammed into the back, four people. Ha ha and puts his finger up to his mouth indicating shh, keep it quiet. Clapping, jumping up and down, saying ha ha four people. Cost up  a $1 each for the ride.   

We have been having Indian showers. It consists of taking a bucket of water and dousing yourself in water with a medium size plastic measuring cup. It does the trick.

Delhi has a population of 17 million people and at any one time 8 million people are on the road. India’s population is 1.2 billion for comparison there are 7 billion people in the world.

Our group has quite the age range as I mentioned. It is actually closer to a sixty year gap in ages as Doug is 81 years old. Good on him. Man India is a hard place to tackle and for him to be an American (not many travel) and 81, impressive. He is a little hard of hearing but he is making out just fine. He is only with the group for two weeks. The group is Canadians, Americans an Italian/Canadian and two people from Belgium.    

Day 4: Jaipur

Jaipur is known as the pink city. All of the buildings facades must be pink. Now a days it is a terra cotta colour mixed with dust and dirt. The city of 3 million people has wide streets and large markets.

We went to the Wind Palace which is a building with many windows looking out onto the street for the harem to watch the goings on of the people on the street. The multitude of windows were put in so the people on the street wouldn’t know which windows the women were at and that they were being watched.

We went to the Amber Fort/Palace. It has a 27 km wall around it that reminded me of the Great Wall in China. It was a beautiful area with hills, water and neat architecture. The palace was a mixture of Muslim and Hindi architecture. The King had 12 wives and 256 concubines living in this palace. 268 women to please, he must have been a busy man.

There was also another neat palace in the middle of a manmade lake, the Water Palace that was neat to look at.

I hit the market later for an exhausting look around. The haggling wore me out. But I managed to buy a few Indian tunic type tops, but I had to work for them. You are to bargain around 80% off of what they ask and it was an effort where I was.

The group headed out to a Bollywood movie in the evening. It was a not to be missed experience. It is not like going to the movies at home. It was in a large auditorium/theater with neat architecture that would remind you of the 60’s. The people clap, yell and hoot and holler when their favorite actors/actresses appear in the movie or there is an action scene or a good speech etc it is hilarious to be a part of. It was called English Vinglish and was about this mother going to the States and learning English. So even thought it was in Hindi we were able to follow it easily and parts of it were in English.

The movie was ~ $2 and about another $2 for popcorn and a drink. The drink I had to buy separately from the popcorn. The drink was 35 rupees and the guy didn’t have 5 rupees change so he gave me 5, 1 rupee or penny candies to make the difference. I was not interested in eating them and thought that was pretty funny that they wouldn’t have change and they were giving everyone these candies to make up the difference. So when I went to pay for my popcorn which was another 35 rupees I gave that guy the 5 candies as part of the pay as again I didn’t have another 5 rupees and he took it. So I paid with candy today. 

Popcorn for sale on the street, not how we got it in the theater.

When we arrived to our hotel in Jaipur we were greeted with a marigold lay, a cold towel to freshen up and a glass of Pepsi. We also saw snake charmers at the sites today.

Day 5: Bhadarej (A rural Rajasthan village)

We have arrived to a quiet rural village and are staying in a palace. It is from the 18^th century. It has lovely open, green courtyards in the center and rooms around the outside. This area of India is not the typical tourist destination. My ears are getting a little bit of a reprieve from the continuous noise of honking horns. It took them awhile to adjust.

Wow we are just back from camel and cart rides through the village to an untouchable community. Wow. For the first part I felt as if we were in a parade. Well we kind of were. They paraded us through the village on three carts being pulled by camels. All of the children came out of their houses to wave and say hello. It is a poor community and one of those times where you count your blessings.

We arrived and were thoroughly welcomed by tons of children yelling hello and following our carts to the untouchable’s community. Doug the 81 year old guy said; “well they could sure use some birth control over here.”

India has a cast system and the untouchables are the lowest in the system. Never did I think we would see their homes and visit an untouchable community. The children and adults all wanted their picture taken and then wanted to look at them. It was a lovely experience.

There was a loom there and a woman was weaving a rug while we were visiting. She gets 10 rupees per row we were told, so about 25 cents. The math didn’t add up so not quite sure, but she is getting some money for her family which is great. She has been taught a specific pattern and will always make the same pattern for the rug company she works for.

At seven and eight years of age children in this community get married. Now the girl still lives with her family until she hits puberty, but seven or eight and married, I cannot imagine.

Click on this link for tons of photos from India's first few days

India

Here is what is to come for the next month of my travels.

PS I forgot to tell you that the price of gas in Qatar is 20 cents a litre.

Doha Qatar

Look Canadian Thanksgiving in Qatar. The gravy was even done in a pan the same as mothers. It was such a good meal. Happy Thanksgiving!

Well I never would have thought that I would be wearing my long johns in 45 degrees Celsius weather but they did double duty and served as a pair of tights. I am in Doha Qatar and it is very conservative. Shorts and short skirts are a no, no in public. So when I visited Haley’s school I was wearing a dress but my legs needed to be covered, hence the long johns and I pushed the limits because my forearms were exposed as my sleeves only came to my elbows.

Haley is at a Qatari school, Qatar Academy. It is on a campus that houses a primary and secondary school as well as a recreation center and university. The school is very well off and has great facilities with each student receiving a Mac book with their tuition. I sat in on an English class, a higher level IB math class, read to a grade four class and helped a primary class make wordels for a math lesson they did. The IB 11 math was interesting, it was high level for sure, and it made me think.  They were doing topics we would not cover as in depth in our high school curriculum. It was neat to sit in on.

Haley lives in the part of town they call Education City because it is close to this Academy which is the sheikas (the sheiks wife’s) special project. Haley is in a housing complex that has very spacious apts and a club house with a great pool area and a gym. I have been taking advantage of the nice pool area. But remember that I mentioned the country is conservative? At the pool area I have gotten in trouble from the lifeguard for wearing a two piece bathing suit, not allowed. I have been told I must cover my stomach. So that nice scarf/sarong/blanket/skirt/… became a tummy cover. I just wrapped it around my midsection and swam like that.

The souk is great in Doha and Chloe and Laura you will be happy to know I have gotten my big flower for my hair and I am set to be Effie from the Hunger Games for Halloween, compliments of the souk (market) here. It is huge and should do just nicely. The souk had incredible people watching, many sheiks and men in full garb. Oh yes there was a falcon souk. It is an area devoted to multiple shops where you can purchase a falcon. I guess it is a big thing here if you are male to go falcon hunting in the desert. So I saw lots of men and boys parading their falcons around. At first I didn’t know what the he** was going on. It was night time when I went there and like I said cool people watching but not great lighting for more photos. I went in the evening as it is outdoors and the heat was more manageable in the evening. I said yes it is noticeably “cooler” and guess what the temperature was? 39 degrees and I could feel the difference.  

Haley and I went to an open mic night. It was great, lots of expats singing and playing. It was very entertaining. There were a few bands there and lots of individual singers. It was great live entertainment.

Another thing to do in Doha is walk along the Corniche. It is the waterfront area and I walked 6km’s of it when it was 45 degrees Celsius out. Needless to say I was a little sticky when I made it to the Museum of Islamic Art for a little reprieve. They had the A/C pumping in there and I was then freezing. Doesn’t help that I was good and sweaty entering. There was neat architecture along the walk, the Sheraton hotel is a Doha icon with its pyramid like shape and the museum itself was pretty good.

Arabs love Baskin and Robbins which can be found everywhere, so I have been treating myself to my all time favorite, chocolate peanut butter. It always reminds me of home to see a Baskin and Robbins with its only plant in the world being in Peterborough, until now, since they have pulled out of the Patch this fall.

 I am not sure if you are aware or not but the weekend is different in the Middle East. It falls on Friday / Saturday. Friday most things are closed or for part of the day at least as Friday is their Holy Day and their “Sunday”.

Wayne and Meg a lovely couple from Australia took me and their son Ethan (who just moved here) on their patented driving tour of Doha. Whenever there are visitors they kindly take them around to see the sites.  Wayne and Meg have lived here for 3 or 4 years and Ethan is in grade 4 and had lived with his mom in Sydney.

One of the pictures turned out to be really fussy as the air was full of sand particles. They are so fine you don’t see or feel them, but they came up in the picture and you cannot see too far in the horizon because of it. Just thought you might be interested in that piece of information.

We saw the camel race track today. You will have to tell dad the track is 6km’s long and they had two of them side by side with paved driving lanes around them so you can drive in your car and follow the camels. I tried to get to a race but the season has not started yet, also there is no betting on the camels allowed.

Camels use to be driven by children but they have outlawed that now and they are driven by robotic jockeys, which we happen to see. So that driving lane around the track is not just full of cars watching the camels but people remote controlling their robot jockeys, telling the jockey to hit the camel to go faster etc. The roads are chaotic here so I can only imagine seeing that take place.

Driving is crazy here and parking lots just as bad. The locals choose not to get out of their cars to order food or ice cream, whatever. They just keep honking the horn and someone comes out to their car and takes their order. Someone said no wonder they are overweight.

Some stats for you. There are 300 000 Qataris and 2 million people living here. There are tons of nannies, laborers, servers, clerks etc, they are the workforce.

We went to the Pearl Qatar which is a ritzy island area in Doha shaped like a pearl and shell. Beautiful homes and apt buildings, mega cash there. The Maserati, Rolls Royce and Ferrari shops are all there, was thinking of having one sent home? Not.

We saw some cool war art that was made out of Arabic tea and coffee utensils. We also went to a red velvet cupcake shop, girls you would have loved the cupcake shaped table and chairs. The visit came in handy as Canadian Thanksgiving dinner was later that day and as the day was going we were not going to have time to make that pumpkin pie as previously planned, so cupcakes will have to suffice.

Click on this link for pictures from Doha Qatar

Happy Thanksgiving. Ten Canadians got together for Thanksgiving. It turned out there was even pumpkin pie, whip cream, cranberries and amazing juicy turkey. It was a fabulous meal.