David, You just confirm that India is not on my list of places I must see before I die. I know people from the US who go there on business on a regular basis and always take their own food supply with them. My SIL has been and raved about the beauty of the country, but I don't fancy the trials of getting there.
Do you have any horror stories about S. Korea as I am going there in October? Keep your stories coming, and I hope you don't mind when I pass them on to other ex-Pats in the US, stripped of your info though. Janice Janice Blair Crystal Lake, 50 miles northwest of Chicago, Illinois, USA www.jblace.com http://www.lacemakersofillinois.org ________________________________ From: David C COLLYER <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wed, May 9, 2012 7:21:11 AM Subject: [lace-chat] Mother India Dear Friends, Yesterday I finally returned home after one month in India and 3 weeks in Vietnam and I feel I must write of my feelings and observations whilst they remain fresh in my mind. Although I knew beforehand that life in India would be confronting, it was in fact far worse than anticipated. We here in Australia constantly hear about India's rise and rise as a high-tech society and yet in my experience the vast majority of India's gorgeous people are blissfully unaware of this fact. Despite what we are lead to believe the Caste System is alive and well with the borders of its 36 levels NOT to be crossed. Every city, town and village has thousands living well below the poverty line in nothing but grass huts on the edge of town. The streets are filled with the stench of urine and worse, and it is common place to see folk pissing and shitting by the roadsides. Even in the more developed centres there is still no sign of digital television, but there were advertisements advising folk that they ought to consider buying a set-top box prior to the forth-coming conversion. I had previously thought that the traffic in Saigon was the worst I'd encountered, but throughout Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Himalcha things are in dire straights on the roads. There are a few snippets of freeway and a number under construction, but with the amount of traffic (and some 10,000 new cars per week) these roads are simply not coping: in fact India seems to be slowly grinding to a halt. The maximum speed allowed in India is 80 kph, but this is seldom possible. On the other hand, the average speed is 40 kph and often much less. The journey from Delhi to Simla in the foothills of the Himlayas is about 250km. I spent my last week in the gorgeous village of Chail, some 45km east of Simla. The trip there took 9 hours EACH WAY! Road rules seem non existent and even the driver I employed thought nothing of going along the wrong side of the freeway, as did everybody else. I am not exaggerating when I say that all traffic drives only 2" (5cm) away from other vehicles. On a number of occasions our driver actually passed his bonnet (hood) UNDER the end of a tray truck in front as he turned right or left. Footpaths don't exist in India, so apart from the cars, motor bikes, rickshaws, bicycles and cattle, there are pedestrians with which to contend. There was some very bad press here in Australia a year or so ago when a number of Indian students were murdered. We were hailed as the world's worst racists. It did eventuate that not one of these murders was racially based: more to do with drug deals I believe. However, in India, it immediately becomes quite obvious that when it comes to paying entry fees for any museum, ancient monument etc., there is a queue for Indians and another for Foreigners. On average the fee paid by Indians is about one tenth of what I had to pay. Try doing that in Australia and see if you'd get away without being called racist!! Finally, while we all know that flying is no longer the joy is used to be, leaving through the Delhi airport is the worst I have experienced. You have to produce your passport and e-ticket just to be allowed into the airport itself. Then after that the scanning starts - at least 4 times in all. When I went to exchange my remaining rupees into US dollars I had to fill in 2 pages of inane questions in triplicate using CARBON PAPER!!! - so much for a high tech society. The final insult came after I'd shown my boarding pass and thought I was free to enter the aircraft. That was when the police demanded to go through my wallet!!! By this time I was so sick of smiling, saying thank you, and being gracious, that all I wanted to do was shout, scream and get angry. But one is not allowed to display such emotion in someone else's country. Well, having now vented my spleen, I hope to be able to bring you some of the wonderful stories and adventures I had over the forth-coming days. It's great to be back. David in Ballarat, AUS To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent
