So Much to Say, So Little Time

India has been an experience. One not soon to be repeated (I hope). While I am glad I came, I have not connected with the country the way I thought I would.

Agra was good: the Taj Mahal was as beautiful as it is in every movie and photo we've all seen before. The Baby Taj was also good (although skippable). But Agra had other things going for it: nice hand-woven rugs at (relatively) low prices, McDonald's(!), and somewhere for me to get my haircut. Sadly, Thai people (no matter how remote their villages and lack of English) seem far more talented than Indians when it comes to cutting non-straight hair. 10 days after my haircut in Agra, it already looks messy and needs fixing.

After a while, things started to blend together: Jaipur and Udaipur and Agra (although not the crazy Bhandrej village with the terrible heritage hotel). So many temples and forts, and very little else. So much Indian food, but none of it even remotely spicy, despite my pleas. And everywhere, I received slightly worse service than everyone else (which I am chalking up to disapproval of my haircut, because I can think of no other reason why every waiter and airport worker in north India hates me so much). Like I said, not connecting.

But, I'm in the south now, with a much smaller group and a much lamer tour leader. Before I begin blogging about the south so far (Chennai and Pondicherry), I'll wrap up the north with Mumbai, more on the horrible people in the north tour (shocking stuff) and the crazy things that happened on the way to the airport.