India Trip: Liberation

FROM 2/2/08:

"Hello."

"Howdy."

"How may I help you?"

"Uhh. Yes. I was told to tell you that I have a security item."

"A what?"

This time I made sure to use finger quotes to convey that my word choice was not my own, "Uhh yeah. I just went through security -- the x-ray and metal detectors over there -- and they told me to come over and tell you guys that I have a 'security item.'"

"I'm afraid I don't know what that is."

"Okay. Yeah me neither. Thanks."

And so began hurdle number fourty-three on my quest to get back home. The Dubai security personnel had just politely informed me that the wire netting that I had been carrying around with me for the past month to secure my luggage when out and about was in fact not allowed on the plane. Thus it was a "security item." I still don't know what that means, and it seems others didn't much either, but, practically speaking, it did mean they had to stick it in a manilla envelope to be packed away in the cargo hold with the rest of my luggage. (Come to think of it, I never picked it up from baggage claim. Oh wells.) Needless to say I still fail to see how a small mesh net could really pose any threat. Did they think I was going to throw it over the pilots gladiator style? If so they forgot to inquire about the trident which I had cleverly stowed away in my other carry on. Truthfully, I was planning on hijacking an international flight at some point during my trip, but procrastination led to me putting it off till the very last one. Curses! When will I learn? Next time I think I'll just stick with an ingenious mixture of various gels and creams.

After that the rest of my security screen was relatively uneventful. The final twenty hours of my layover in Dubai were uneventful as well. I am not entirely sure what I did for all those twenty hours, but at least eight of them were spent sleeping behind a set of chairs in a relatively unusued portion of the terminal that I had scoped out earlier in the day. For better or worse the Emiratis are a climate control loving people, and so the generous use of air conditioning made it quite chilly during the evening. I eventually had to resort to pulling my hoody over my head turtle style to get any sense of warmth and any extended sleep. Rest aside, the layover was long and boring and marked only by two mediocre cheeseburgers from the airport McDonalds. An inpatient and unexceptional return to American cuisine. The twenty hours would be extended by another two complements of a flight delaying sandstorm.

Speaking of poor sleep and delays, though, my last evening in Delhi was also marked by both. It have never really been able to imagine how train delays can occur barring a series of individual delays at all the various stops, but it turns out, in India at least, that trains can also be delayed by simply shutting down and stopping. Not necessarily at a train station or even any developed area, but really anywhere is sufficient. My evening train from Agra to Delhi, expected to arrive at ~ 10:30, did had multiple such unscheduled breaks during the trip and so my arrival into New Delhi Station was instead a much later 12:30 in the morning. I was a little worried about bandits, but more annoyed by the seemingly pointless sometimes extensive train rests. By the time I had checked in to my hotel and showered off it was 1:20 in the morning and I had another cold night of turtle sleep to look forward to.

Before Delhi, though, there was Jaipur and Agra -- my last two stops with Kristen and Kathryn. Jaipur, the "Pink City" as it likes to be called was not terribly pink, but it was pleasant enough to visit. The city is known for its forts and city palace which are all built out of a pink stone -- or more recently just painted pink but let's not hate -- and so we spent our day roaming the old city and its landmarks admiring the architecture and history. They were lovely and many of the buildings were unique, but I cannot say there was much to write about. What was an unexpected surprise was a 15th or 16th century astronomical center complete with a number of sizeable stone devices used to measure a whole host of astronomical and astrological measurements I had little to no understanding of. It was unexaplainably impressive. We did at one point also have the chance to make off with a momentarily abandoned auto-rickshaw while I was in my bearded disguise, but we settled for some pictures instead. So that was Jaipur.

The next day we moved on to Agra home of the Taj Mahal. It's here that I feel we should stop to talk briefly about expectations. Things get praised and sensationalized, and so are made dissapointing. Things are dismissed and disregarded, and so are made amazing. Ask anyone and the Taj is incredible. Even people who have never seen it and know little about it are eager to one day lay eyes on it. For Americans it is literally half a world away in a particularly foreign foreign country. Sum this all together, and you get expectations that no structure no matter how impressive can live up to. And so I saw the Taj, and it was big and it was fancy, but, honestly, I did not have any sense of awe or wonder. I was and am happy to have seen it, but it will not go on my list of amazing sites that I have seen in my life. The lack of rooms and public spaces made it seem monolithic, and the Islamic proscriptions against the engraving of people and images made it seem characterless. I was expecting the Taj Mahal!, but got just the Taj Mahal. I am sure it was truly a site to behold; I was just expecting something else.

The Agra Fort, on the other hand, was a pleasant surprise. Extensive, well maintained, and with multiple detailed displays I was happy. Everyone talks about the Taj, but thankfully no one talks about the fort. Kristen and Kathryn were eager to attend to our "Elephant Safari," though, so we were rather pressed for time and had to leave early. Hopefully some of my photos will do it some justice.

Speaking of the Elephant Safari, if you have to ask why we would want to spend our time riding elephants you will never understand. Which is likely why I asked myself this question many times before and after our pachyderm rodeo. For reasons unkown Kathryn and Kristen both eagerly wanted to climb onto the backs of both elephants and camels, but as only elephants were in season in Agra they had to settle and settle on only one elephant at that. The safari consisted of us driving to a big dirt lot cleared of anything but an improvised cricket game, about two dozen kids, a man, and an elephant. We paid him 100 rupees a piece, climbed onto the back of the elephant, and proceeded to amble about in no apparent pattern for 5 to 10 minutes until we had our pictures and had lost interest. Thus concluded our safari. Not terribly awesome, but, hey, I probably am not the one to be asked about that. At least we stimulated their economy?

The next day Kristen and Kathryn woke up early to return to Delhi to go their respective ways, and I was sad to see them go. The sadness was tempered by a certain amount of liberation that came with their departure, however, and so I was in relatively good spirits again after breakfast. And what did I do with my last full day in Agra and India? Avoid the bloody touts is what. That meant spending a few hours atop the hotel's roof lounging and sketching the distant Taj amongst all the neighboring buildings and trees, idling away some more time at a local Internet cafe, and, later, going to watch a Bollywood film! Hurray?! Yeah, sort of.

Having become rather tired of seeing the sites and dealing with the hordes of people selling me things I had absolutely no interest in buying I decided to try and find something else to occupy myself with. And Hindi movies was the most immediate answer that came to mind. The movie I chose based soley on posters and showtimes was "Taare Zameen Par." Roughly translated it means I have no idea what. I also did not understand a single word that was spoken that wasn't in English and there only about a dozen of those. Nevertheless with the music and acting and emotion I was still able to follow the movie remarkably well, and I must say it was a very good movie. Plus the volume was of the theatre was set at such a level that I did not much notice the baby screaming next to me or the group of friends talking a few seats down. Some other curiosities about Indian cinema? Every movie begins with the Indian national anthem and each movie has a 10 or 15 minute intermission where waiters come to sell you snacks. Wacky.

After the movie I had to evade the touts a little longer, but in no time I was on the ill fated, long delayed train to Delhi mentioned earlier. My escape would take me over fourty-eight hours and would also include an unexpected medical emergency stop in Stockholm, Sweden followed by an equally unexpected night in Houston at the local Marriot Hotel on Friday. Flying into San Antonio finally on Saturday morning, though, I could not help but smile. Perhaps "liberation" and "escape" are too strong of words to use in describing my return home, but it is very much how I felt. My trip to India was a good trip not because it was always an entirely fun one. I can easily see how someone could travel only to the sites of the Golden Triangle and return strongly disliking the place. The tourist industry is like a swarm of mosquitos that envelops you whenever you leave your room. Individually each merchant is not particularly troublesome, but taken as a whole they are a continuous nuisance that slowly suck dry your desire to be there. Plus I am pretty sure they spread disese with their proboscises. The last few days have consisted of even more traveling, and I have still not had much time to fully consider my experiences, but for now I am just happy to be home.