India - First impressions in the land of blessings and curses

I arrived in Delhi 10 days ago and have since visited Agra, Jaipur and Udaipur. My first impression was the immediate impact of the endless energy constantly around me due to the sheer amount of people.....In Delhi alone the population is 13 million which you can seriously feel as you attempt to walk down the streets. By far, this place is the most chaotic that I have ever encountered....madness!! Just walking across the street you are met with all or some of the following combinations in mass quantities: hagglers, touts, poverty stricken men women and children, people of all castes adorning strikingly colorful clothing from all walks of life, tractors, horses and buggies, pigs, goats, loads of holy cows, tractors, rickshaws, elephants, dogs.....India is shocking, in your face, loud, drastic and just indescribably different. Traveling here is a great challenge but definitely comes with it's rewards.

Being a traveler here you are both blessed and cursed. In my experience thus far the learning curve is steep and not as easy as the other countries in which I have visited. Everything seems to have a complex process not easily understood by the foreign traveler yet; making perfectly good sense to an Indian native!! For example, buying a train ticket is a huge undertaking and the first time I tried I was running back and forth between different windows, getting sent here and there, being told different directions by various people. Indian time seems to be on a different clock; majority of trains are delayed more than an hour, you feel like you are always rushing to go somewhere to wait again. Some times the train you are on just halts for more than an hour unplanned leaving you to wonder when you will finally actually reach your destination. As a traveler you are cursed in being a tourist which leaves you victim to a spider web of scams and rip offs. This makes you consciously always on your guard and a bit skeptical. Most of the time the things you go to buy cost a fraction of the price you are quoted making bargaining essential!! Sometimes you are looking for a guest house and someone will tell you it burned down or is full just so they can receive commission if you go to their chosen guest house.

On the other hand, traveling in India is a blessing; one of the most rewarding experience in my life thus far. India has so much to offer to those willing to receive it. You learn so much about yourself and about a culture so drastically un western like and different from your own by being submerged in it. It is not an easy task; you are tired, frustrated and seem to always be fighting the process in which you don't understand yet you just go with it. You get past all the people staring at you all the time by understanding they are just as curious about you as you are about them - everywhere I go I feel, no joke, all eyes staring at me....it is such a strange feeling. You build a wall around yourself after the 20th child is following you barefoot down the street begging you for money (tugging at your shirt. You learn how to laugh when once again you are brought somewhere you did not ask to go to.... I have had many bizarre experiences making me chuckle; Indians coming up to me in places like the Taj Mahal and other tourist sites asking for a picture with me. It is so funny that they would like to have a picture with some Western tourist!!

I think this is even the most challenging blog entry I have had to write due to that fact that India is just indescribable. You have to experience it yourself; see it, smell it, feel it all around you in order to understand what it's all about. India is the ultimate challenge with great rewards.....what a colorful country...submerge yourself in India!!....Next stop Pushkar to see a camel festival!!

PS. The food is THE BEST here and no I have not been sick from like many warned me that I would. I also took cooking lessons so I can prepare from home!!