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Today let's talk transportation. This morning's drive to work was my first real taste of traffic in Delhi. From my observations, if (insert object here) moves, it is allowed a lane on the highway. Here is a brief list of the forms of transportation I saw on the roadway just this morning: people walking, people running, a bike, a motorized bike, a moped, a motorcycle, a bike rickshaw, a motorized rickshaw, a 3 wheel truck, a 4 wheel truck, tractors, buses, vans, people drawn carts, horse drawn carts, ox/cow drawn carts.... hmmm... what am I forgetting... oh yes, there were some cars on the highway also, but they were the minority. Of these, only the horse drawn carts didn't have horns. Seriously, they can locate a horn on whatever transportation mode they are using. Sometimes it is for people to move out of your way, but also it is to let people know you are coming up behind them. The buses, of course, were jammed. They are badly in need of the metro they are building. Women tend to ride the motorcycles side-saddle and without helmets. One women on the back of the motorcycle was hanging on to her husband with one and and her baby in another. Granted, the traffic was slow this morning, but still. The drive to the location was about 45 minutes long. Luckily there was a lot of people watching to do and a lot of entertainment... such as the street vendors who gave us the convenience of buying a car charger while we were sitting in traffic.
For lunch, there was a choice of Pizza Hut, McDonalds, or Subway. Yum - atleast it's different than Hardee's in Dubai!! The lights only went out a couple times today - apparently that is due to "load shedding" electricity. This is "Removal of pre-selected customer demand from a power system, as a result of the occurrence of an abnormal condition, in a effort to maintain the integrity of the system and minimize overall customer outages." Yes, I looked this up online, because I have been lucky enough in life to never have experienced this. (It's not scary, it's just inconvenient).
Ahh... anyways. The hospitality that has been shown to us is unprecedented from any of my previous trips. The location has gone out of their way to make sure we are safe, comfortable, having a good time, and learning about India. This has been fantastic for me. Other people we have met (hotel, touring, etc) also have been so kind, especially when they learn this is our first trip to India.
The way home included a near miss with a ox/cow in the road, Danielle was dissapointed I didn't roll down the window to try and pet him. I wonder if I would have to declare that on my immigration form coming back to the US as "close promiximity with livestock". On Sunday, we are going to ride elephants. Does this count as being in close proximity of livestock? Because I definitely didn't include the camel I rode in Dubai when I came home....
So Danielle and I come home from work and head to their nice gym. If I am going to eat Pizza Hut, I will need the gym. We were advised to eat the Pizza Hut since everything is cooked vs. the Subway where the veggies are fresh. As a frequent member of this hotel chain, I received a complimentary 1 hour massage during my stay. So after the gym, I go to shower and it's brown. So I wait... and wait... and wait... still brown. So throwing caution to the wind, I decide that it is better to take a brown shower than no shower at all. Still trying to determine if that was the right decision. The water stayed brown throughout my shower, and when I got out and was drying off, the towel was turning brown from the water. Very Hygenic. This brings up a good question. Would I exchange a room with clean water and a creepy spider (Russia) with a bug free roomwith dirty water (here)... I think that is a draw... I hate them both equally. Another bonus from the water here is that my hair isn't actually clean when I get out of the shower. I brought my own shampoo, so I know it's not that, but my hair was kind of sticky/greasy after I showered (Danielle confirmed this as well). Perhaps more than when I got in the shower to begin with. This may be the first time in my life where I wash my hair in Evian water.
All kidding aside, Delhi is similar and different to all big cities - the poor are much poorer than anyone in the US that I have seen. There is overcrowding and pollution - it reminds me of Beijing and Sao Paulo. Things such as this make me feel lucky and blessed to live in a country where not only the water is clean, but you can drink it, brush your teeth with it, etc. We talk in the US about the cheap labor over here in India.... but take a minute to imagine the other side. Life with an average income of $0.80 per hour. (Recent statistic, not specific to my company) True, things are much cheaper here, but not enough to compensate for "Average Joe Six Pack" in India. I hope I have made you laugh a little today. I also hope you can look at this and feel lucky to have the small things we take for granted.
Love you, Katie
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