We made a mistake on our first day in India. We checked out of our hotel and then didn’t find lodging until later that day. So we were walking with everything we brought on our backs all day long... and we walked a lot... and in circles.
We had a dinky little map in our guide book or “tourist bible” as one of the locals called it. It was actually really reassuring to me to know where I was on a map. Up until then we had been taxied about unwittingly. Having a bearing we set about our sightseeing for the day.
First stop was the Prince of Wales Museum. India artifacts in a British museum in India. It was pretty much a run of the mill Museum complete with stuffed animals, pottery and informational videos. We learned the story of how Ganesh got his Elephant head and saw numerous paintings depicting Hindu religious happenings.
We didn’t have courage to eat food for some time. Our county health professionals had scared us out of eating almost everything. Banned items included: Water, Green Salad, Raw Vegetables, Meat, Drinks with Ice in them and street vendor food. That left vegetarian dishes and bottled water. Our first meals in India were packaged cookies and soda pop.
Outside the museum Sarah stopped to look at a henna stamp. She just wanted a few around her wrist. The lady sat her down and commenced stamping her from wrist to mid bicep. She attracted quite a crowd. People would stop and watch if we ever did anything remotely interesting.
We went over to the David Sasoon Library and went in. We were told not to touch anything because we needed to be members in order to do so. It is a beautiful library and we went out on the balcony and sat down to relax. We promptly got kicked out.
Late that afternoon we finally ate at a restaurant. Leopold Cafe. It was packed with foreigners like us. Well... most of the foreigners we met in India were from Europe. We only met a few from the states. We had an extremely spicy vegetarian dish that made my nose sweat. The waiters had bare feet.
Our next stop was the Gateway of India. It was built to celebrate India’s liberation from British rule. I think. It is always packed. It is a tourist site for everyone foreigners and Indians alike.
We finally got a room at a crappy and creepy little hotel. It was one of the worst that we had stayed in. Sarah really did not like the man in charge and she said, “I know he had a crazy eye, but I still didn’t like the way he looked at us.” A lot of restrooms are basically a shower with a toilet and sink thrown in. This room was absolutely tiny. We were exhausted and we crashed fairly early despite the constant honking outside and the men in the hallway and adjacent bathroom hacking loogies (Sarah calls them ‘Snot Snarfers’) all night long.
Everyone asks us for money. I had a dream the first night where I was waving my hands at children telling them “no, no”. I was half lucid and actually was waving my hands and saying no-no. I woke both of us up. Sarah awoke telling me that she was craving hash browns. Then we commenced our 4 am eating binge. We ate all the food we had with us save a bag of nibs which I hoarded almost the entire trip as licorice is near impossible to find. We eventually fell back asleep and awoke to snot hackers and horns instead of the roosters crow.
Other Highlights of the day:
There are a few men with Orange hair or the most entertaining ones look like they have a calico cat on their head with White, Orange and Black hair.
Crows Gallop.
There were men on the street that had weight scales in front of them and you would pay to have yourself weighed. We couldn’t understand why that would be a viable business practice.
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