I would be lying if I didn't say here that for the first time I sure can see the appeal of being an insulated American traveling in style in the Third World. But I think it comes with a kind of attention I simply I don't really like. I mean I wouldn't mind the attentiveness of the handsome turbanned Mercedes van driver, it's so romantic, but I imagine that I don't like being placed that way in relation to the local people. I say that I imagine it, because at this point, I think maybe I no longer care! Of course just being Anglo has an effect, but I have had my principles after all ; ) I have always really wanted to be Inside the places I visit, not just Outside, which is why I don't like being a Tourist and don't like hanging out at Tourist attractions. But maybe I want to be an Outsider here! I fear I am turning into The Accidental Tourist.
The more I am here, the more I long for the relative simplicity, cleanliness (NYC is a hospital compared to it here), orderliness and complicity of life at Home. I have no sense of "we're all in this together" here, although natives may have it with eachother, but they play things quite close to the vest. It didn’t occur to me that it really is Asia here, people are a bit inscrutable, and generally more communicative than other Asiatic groups. But no one touches eachother in public here, except for children and oddly, boys and men (up to late 30's I'd say), who routinely hold hands and have their arms around eachother, as a male bonding thing, so they say in my India Culture Guidebook, as homosexuality is completely taboo, but this way they can hide in plain sight! Click the highlighted bit for a hilarious blog by an Indian guy on this subject.
Feeling totally up to my eyeballs in Delhi, I decided to escape for a "vacation" for a few days and chose to go to Rajastan, based solely on the fact that I had visited the Indian Trade Fair, which is a World's Fair kind of thing, mostly for regions in India, extolling the virtues, accomplishments and charms of each state. I loved The Stuff from Rajastan, so I thought I could just go there. I had thought of Northern India (which is everyone's most restful and sparkling choice as it turns out), but I got side tracked and forgot all about Shimla. So I flew to Jodhpur. The Guidebook said that it is oft overlooked in itself and simply used as a stopover to Euro Fave Jaisalmer, and that with it's Anglo past it is also neglected, and I thought I could use a bit of Anglo influence, I sure love London!
I decided to treat myself and fly there for around the price of flying to SF from LA, and also stay in a nice place, this was my Vacation after all. The provincial airport was just as I had imagined, let's say a more arid and less Streamline Deco version of the Long Beach Airport (did I mention that Rajastan is a desert? I forgot that too when I decided to go there!). The streets were at first empty and rathe bleak near the airport, but got just as choked and congested as I am used to as we got into town, with even worse air since the Tuk Tuks still use diesel instead of natral gas like in Delhi. The ride culminated in the bumpiest imaginable route through the teeming closed market instead of around it!
I checked into a nice room in my quiet courtyard hotel that almost didn't even seem like a real business, just a place where people stay, the laissez faire attitude of the people who worked there (except for the young man who hoisted my huge suitcase onto his shoulder and walked up 4 flights!) was so pervasive. Oddly, there are two, really three, hotels with part of the same name, two are owned by brothers in the same courtyard building, but one is fancy and one is not. I thought I had booked into the fancy one, but I hadn't and it turns out to have been a good thing. The fancy people were the snobbish version of laissez faire, which is much more annoying than being merely casual.
My mint green room with cool stone floors (all stone in India comes from Rajastan) faced The Fort, not a street in sight, and I lay down for a little nap before I went out, after the heat of the day, around 5. I hung a Louie out of the hotel, away from the impossibly busy market and tourist area, and FINALLY it happened, I experienced the charms of otherworldliness! Wandering down a nameless street (they are all nameless, I mean they have names but there's no way of knowing what they are) I entered a world that hasn't ever changed. Pierre and I like eating Indian, Thai, Korean and other ethnic foods that seem the way they always have been, like we are eating food at its origins. That's how it was in the back streets of Jodhpur, and I hear it is just so in many smaller towns all over India (1,000,000 is a Small Town here).
It's very dense, with people in little connected stalls down both sides of the street (just like you see in movies that take place in places like Jakarta, even the ones parodied by Indiana Jones), puntuated by houses, doing what they do, like soldering jewelry in the waning daylight sparked by the light of the torch, or selling candies or vegetables, and a zillion other things I don't even recognize, each stall specializing in something, selling only to locals, or making dinner or washing their kid's hair in a bowl with the door open. I was the only stranger here, and lots of kids acknowledged me by saying hello, sometimes they put out their hand, as if to shake yours, but they don't really want to, just the gesture. Shaking hands is a totally Anglo thing, Indians only do it because they know it's our regular practice, and to "do business" it's necessary. All you get is the limpest of hands grasped inside yours, totally inert and vague. Sometimes the kids run after you in groups, calling hello hello, something you see in those black and white Italian movies too, kids running after people who look so different, and it's sort of cute, but it can be sort of menacing too.
I walked and walked and walked, knowing I was almost lost, but not too far afield. For part of the way a girl led me on her bike until we got to her area, and I encountered one beggar, really the neighborhood simpleton asking for something, it's so hard to have small change here unless you are really living within their economy, where one rupee is actually worth something (there are about 50 rupees to a dollar). I bought a couple of pairs of shoes from a couple who was making them right there, having to take off MY shoes and be barefoot in their messy shop (that's what I got the tetanus shot for), and hanging out with them for a while. They spoke about ten words of english related to their metier to facilitate the deal, which culminated in my minor bargaining by writing amounts in pen on the palm of his hand. I just can't bargain to save my life! It's not fun for me, it's kind of like having an argument with a stranger, which I really hate. With a friend it's different ; )
I was so happy today to be able to experience the timelessness of being in the back streets, it could have been a hundred years ago (ignoring the motorbikes and tuk tuks = auto rickshaws) and I was largely ignored, or simply acknowledged, no one wanted anything from me, I wasn't made to feel welcome or unwelcome, I was just taking a walk in a strange place. And strange it is -- camels sleeping behind broken gates, or chewing or pissing in the street, oodles of roaming cows, sleeping ownerless dogs, and tethered goats, ancient edifices, all different, from crude adobe affairs to intricately latticed ones, all dilapidated. Some are painted the special blue of the city, giving way to greens and occasional pinks, both exteriors and interiors, as you can look straight into people's houses. Life is very public here, I doubt there is any of the sense we have of "privacy," so many things take place in public, even haircuts! I learned from the Isreali guy that the blue buildings are Hindus and the green doors Muslims, there tons of temples, but the most noticeable souds are from the Muslim ones. I love hearing the Hindu chanting, which is similar to the Buddhist's, but I couldn't find my way into any of the temples, they're kind of walled off.
I was so happy wandering and wandering, it got dark and I was exhilerated by feeling safe, after 10 days of not being able to wander in my Delhi neighborhood at dusk. As a result I got into a little bit of a sticky situation, walking down a very dark street with a big wall on one side and closing shops on the other, and a camel and some cows lurking there in the dark, of course they aren't dangerous, just large objects in the way, and a large gang of kids started following me, grabbing and yelling, and I didn't like how it felt. None of the adults around were intervening, as often they do when their young ones are harassing you, and I really hated it. Then the street emptied out onto another one, and I realized I wasn't at all where I thought I was. Luckily there was a landmark clocktower in the main market near my hotel, so I asked some friendly auto drivers, who didn't try to pester me into riding with them, and got redirected, way way far away, back down the same dark street, this time with no children in sight. Is this becoming a boring story? Sorry! Anyway, it was fun and tiring and I felt I was really on an adventure for the first time since I'd left home, and that traveling was, indeed, worth it.
Your post does seem naive... and all too Western...perhaps we too feel the same when we visit the West?
And about the concept of cleanliness, it is just different in some parts of the world... I cant really agree that West is cleaner! Poorer people in any part of the world have less access to hygeine and you chose to visit such a place... then what is the 'aha' point on that?
Posted by: Charulata Iyer | November 30, 2008 at 06:02 PM
Yes, I am naive, and I am Western, that's what these posts are all about, my surprise at just how immutable I'm finding parts of myself to be.
I didn't think I'd react like this, but I do. This is mainly a blog for friends to find out what my experience is while I'm traveling, and I am aware that it is politically incorrect, but I am as unapolagetic about it as people here are about their place and views. This is just how we are, and I did't expect this, nor did I expect my reaction.
Posted by: Qwendy | November 30, 2008 at 07:26 PM