Epilogue--Day 16—Back in the USA

Well, what I thought was just a bout with Kathmandu smog turned out to be the beginnings of a cold. Flying from Kathmandu to New Delhi to Zurich to New York to Raleigh over 36 hours hacking and coughing is not recommended. Nevertheless, I *did* make it home and have been sleeping for most of the past 24 hours. Now I just have to go through 1,109 pictures.

Now that I'm back home, I thought I'd summarize things. I believe that of all the trips I have been on, this has been the most interesting, at least in terms of "Holy shit, I can't believe I'm here and doing this" moments. The sights (Taj Mahal, Mt. Everst, Khajuraho, etc.) were spectacular, but the cultural differences and general living conditions were even more so. This is not a trip that I would recommend to everyone, and I definitely would not recommend to anyone who has not been to a third-world country. But if it were possible, I would add a trip to India to my "compulsory trips" list that all Americans should be required to take (a trip to the Holocaust Museum in Washington is the other trip on that list).

Many of you have asked me what my favorite and least favorite things on the trip were. Actually, nobody has asked me, but I wanted to do a list anyway. So here they are:

TOP 10 FAVORITE THINGS
  1. The temples at Khajuraho. Not only were these spectacularly beautiful, but they were constructed in the 10th century! Also, this is one of the few places in India where you can be in a large, park-like area, free from people trying to hassle you.

  2. The drive between Jaipur and Agra. This was my first exposture to driving on an Indian road, where a car going 50 miles an hour tries to weave between trucks, motocycles, motorized rickshaws, bicycles, pedestrians, cows, pigs, goats, and camels. Once I was able to suspend any rational concerns about "American Tourist Killed in Car/Camel Wreck on Indian Highway" headlines, it was like being on a roller coaster, although I have never been on a roller coaster, because I am afraid to go on one. Even more interesting was the opportunity to view daily life in rural India, and it's not a pretty sight.

  3. Flying over the Himalayas. Boy, those things are big, and there are a lot of them.

  4. Wandering the streets of Kathmandu. One of the big differences between Kathmandu and the cities in India was that in Kathmandu, I was able to just walk out of my hotel and walk all over town. In India, I couldn't do this, either due to the location of the hotel or the fact that trying to walk in an Indian city without breaking your ankle in a pothole, stepping in cow dung, having someone throw cow dung on your shoes, or getting completely lost due to the lack of streetlights was impossible.

  5. Temples in Kathmandu, Patan, and Bahktapur (all in Nepal). Spectacular architecture, and all over the place.

  6. The Taj Mahal. Would have been higher on the list, but I already knew what it looked like, so it wasn't as much of a surprise as Khajuraho was.

  7. The old market area in Agra. I have never had so many of my senses under constant assault. Crowded, cacophonial (is that a word?), colorful, and extremely foreign.

  8. Boat ride on the lake in Udaipur. Best "sunset cruise" I have ever had.

  9. Pink City of Jaipur--in the right sunlight, it's spectacular.

  10. Airlines in India--once you got out of the airport and on to the plane, the service on Indian planes, especially Jet Airways, blows U.S. airline service away (not that it's terribly difficult to do). Meal service and cold towels, even on 45 minutes flight, and the planes are amazingly clean, which is more than can be said for the airports.



6 LEAST FAVORITE THINGS
  1. "Sir? Sir? Excuse me sir, where you from? You need a guide? You want to see my carpets? I give you very good price! You need taxi? Maybe later?" Repeat ad infinitum.

  2. The squalor and disrepair of India. The monuments and the markets are interesting, and the markets are fascinating, but the whole place is plain dirty. Rubble and garbage is everywhere, along with streets full of cow, pig, dog, goat, buffalo, and camel dung. Surprisingly, it didn't smell all that bad (they burn a lot of insence), but it just gets disgusting to look at. It's even more appaling when you compare it to Nepal, which is an even poorer country, but the streets are immacculate (relatively).

  3. The air pollution in Kathmandu. You can literally feel your lungs burn when you breathe.

  4. Indian toilets. 'nuff said.

  5. Airport security in India. It was interesting at first, but I think I had my bags and body searched more on my 5 flights in India than I have in all the rest of the flights I have taken in my life.

  6. Tour guides who are required to take you to "special shops" where you can watch them make crafts and buy carpets for $1,000.

  7. The Indian telecommunications structure. I have never seen a country that had so many Internet shops that couldn't connect you to the Internet. Of the few that could, you were lucky to get a 24k dialup connection, and even if you got that, it would go down on most cases. Kathmandu had just as many internet places, but they all seemed to have high-speed connections that worked.



TIPS FOR THOSE TRAVELING TO INDIA AND NEPAL (OR ANY PLACE LIKE THEM)
  1. Do *not* leave your hotel room without a roll of toilet paper in your pocket/purse. If you're lucky, you'll get a western style toilet with no toilet paper. If you're not lucky.......

  2. Learn the rules of cricket before you go. It's about the only thing on TV in English, and it's actually interesting to watch if you have the vaguest notion of what is going on.

  3. Take a compass with you. If you are trying to walk around an Indian city (where the streets have no discernable pattern), you will definitely need one.

  4. Suspend disbelief.

Well, that's all I can think of. You've been a great audience. Good night and Namaste!

Can't get enough? A gallery of over 200 additional pictures can be viewed by clicking here.