So backtracking a bit to the ride up to Darjeeling. I say ride, but it was so much more than that. It was three hours of me hiding gasps of fear as we climbed up windy, seriously bumpy, mountain roads, dodging animals, cars and people, all the while listening to cheesy covers of classic 80s hits like, "Ghostbusters," and "Like a Virgin." It was quite the experience. We were all sick by the time we reached the city, which is built snugly on the side of the mountain, overlooking the Himalayas.
Darjeeling is a quiet town, everything closes down at 8:30. We arrived at 8:15, and thus had 15 minutes to get ourselves to a restaurant or starve. We managed the former and I dined on chicken fried rice and sweet and sour chicken. Let me just say when I ordered sweet and sour chicken I was thinking LeeAnn Chinn's. That is not what I received. Apparently, real sweet and sour chicken is much more sour than sweet, and so not as good as it's American counterpart.
After dinner we went to bed. We got up at 4:15 a.m. the next morning to head to Tiger Hill and catch the sunrise over Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world and part of the Himalayas. In the distance, you could see the tip of Mt. Everest, thought it looked small as it was fairly far away. It was nothing short of amazing to see the sunrise over the Himalayas, illuminating the peaks in soft pinks and oranges. I was tired, considering I'm not sure I've ever awaken at 4:15 a.m. in my life, but it was worth it.
Friday, January 8, 2010
India: Two Weeks of Fame
Hi again from Darjeeling. I know I left off saying I'd discuss the ride up here but I have to mention one other strange thing here first.
Indian tourists love to take pictures with white people. It's fairly odd. I was first approached for a photo op at the Taj Mahal, by a group of sightseeing Indian guys. I was hesitant at their primary request, but finally acquiesced. There were about five of them, and they didn't just want a photo with their group and I, they wanted a photo of me and every individual member of their group. So I posed for about five photos. Laughing, I said goodbye as they thanked me and walked on, thinking perhaps they were a strange anomaly. I was wrong. Not long after, I was approached by another group of Indian guys who requested the same thing. "We are Indian, and you are not," explained one guy upon photo request. I laughed and went along with the whole thing again.
By the time another group of Indian guys approached me yesterday at Tiger Hill, I had figured out that wanting to take pictures with white girls was apparently the norm in this country. And it's not just men that want pictures with you, but girls and young women as well. Shopping on the streets of Darjeeling last night, this young Indian woman approached me giggling, and introduced herself. "You want a photo?" I asked, and she said yes and we posed. Laughing, she tried to explain in broken English why she wanted a photo. "I am black," she said, "and you are white. Thank you." I burst out laughing. So strange. She's not even black she's Indian but I suppose that's beside the point. The point is, in fact, that if you are white and want your 15 minutes of fame, come to India. They will be asking for photo ops like you are Angelina Jolie or something. You just might get your time in the sun, before you have to go back home and go back to being just another face in the crowd.
Indian tourists love to take pictures with white people. It's fairly odd. I was first approached for a photo op at the Taj Mahal, by a group of sightseeing Indian guys. I was hesitant at their primary request, but finally acquiesced. There were about five of them, and they didn't just want a photo with their group and I, they wanted a photo of me and every individual member of their group. So I posed for about five photos. Laughing, I said goodbye as they thanked me and walked on, thinking perhaps they were a strange anomaly. I was wrong. Not long after, I was approached by another group of Indian guys who requested the same thing. "We are Indian, and you are not," explained one guy upon photo request. I laughed and went along with the whole thing again.
By the time another group of Indian guys approached me yesterday at Tiger Hill, I had figured out that wanting to take pictures with white girls was apparently the norm in this country. And it's not just men that want pictures with you, but girls and young women as well. Shopping on the streets of Darjeeling last night, this young Indian woman approached me giggling, and introduced herself. "You want a photo?" I asked, and she said yes and we posed. Laughing, she tried to explain in broken English why she wanted a photo. "I am black," she said, "and you are white. Thank you." I burst out laughing. So strange. She's not even black she's Indian but I suppose that's beside the point. The point is, in fact, that if you are white and want your 15 minutes of fame, come to India. They will be asking for photo ops like you are Angelina Jolie or something. You just might get your time in the sun, before you have to go back home and go back to being just another face in the crowd.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
India: Cows, Chaos and Adventure
Greetings from India! I am currently in Darjeeling -- tea capital of the world. It's the sixth day of the trip however, so I will start from the beginning and end up in Darjeeling on some other post.
We arrived in Delhi on Monday night, exhausted. Delhi is the definition of chaos. I'm pretty sure one more day there and I would have literally gone into the middle of the street and started screaming "STOP DRIVING LIKE CRAZY PEOPLE!" The concept of lanes does not exist there, despite the white lines painted on the roads. When we were there it was "Driving Safety Week," or something. There were tons of people on the side of the roads w/ signs that said "lane driving is safe driving," or "drive safe, drive again." Unfortunately, their signs weren't very effective.
Despite the chaos the city was relatively interesting. Perhaps the most interesting part was riding on a rickshaw -- which is a cart pulled by a biker. The rickshaw drivers pulled you around the skinny market roads where people sold gorgeous, glittering saaris, bangles, food and every other trinket you can imagine. And everything is super cheap. Even a mini pizza at Pizza Hut is like, $2. Yes they have Pizza Hut in India. It only took us one day to get sick of Indian food, which consists of curry. I know people talk about globalization like it's a bad thing. But personally, I don't really mind it. I mean, I can go anywhere in the world and get a little piece of home, whether that piece be a Pizza Hut or brand name or weird Kenny G Christmas music playing in a restaurant in New Delhi. True, I am an American so I get the ultimate advantage of globalization but still...
The second day of our Delhi experience, our driver took us to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Agra is a four hour drive from Delhi, but that does not mean it's 360 miles. Not, it's like half that, but driving in India is not exactly an American freeway experience, as I mentioned above. The car ride to Agra may have been the worst car ride I've ever experienced. It was four hours of dodging people, dogs, trucks, cows, whatever, and almost running into them multiple times. It was four hours of constant honking --- the horn seems to be an Indian driver's best friend. I personally want to destroy all car horns at the moment, but I'm trying to control myself.
Anyway, the trip to the Taj Mahal was well worth it. The monument was incredible. I was actually surprised at how amazing it was. I am proud to announce that this is the third wonder of the world I have seen...only four more to go!
Seeing the Taj took the whole day. The next day, we hopped on a four-hour plane ride to Bagdogra, India, from which we took a three hour car ride up the mountains to Darjeeling. That car ride will be the subject of a following blog. Let me just say it included fear, animals and weird covers of "Billie Jean" and "Ghostbusters." It was great. To be continued...
We arrived in Delhi on Monday night, exhausted. Delhi is the definition of chaos. I'm pretty sure one more day there and I would have literally gone into the middle of the street and started screaming "STOP DRIVING LIKE CRAZY PEOPLE!" The concept of lanes does not exist there, despite the white lines painted on the roads. When we were there it was "Driving Safety Week," or something. There were tons of people on the side of the roads w/ signs that said "lane driving is safe driving," or "drive safe, drive again." Unfortunately, their signs weren't very effective.
Despite the chaos the city was relatively interesting. Perhaps the most interesting part was riding on a rickshaw -- which is a cart pulled by a biker. The rickshaw drivers pulled you around the skinny market roads where people sold gorgeous, glittering saaris, bangles, food and every other trinket you can imagine. And everything is super cheap. Even a mini pizza at Pizza Hut is like, $2. Yes they have Pizza Hut in India. It only took us one day to get sick of Indian food, which consists of curry. I know people talk about globalization like it's a bad thing. But personally, I don't really mind it. I mean, I can go anywhere in the world and get a little piece of home, whether that piece be a Pizza Hut or brand name or weird Kenny G Christmas music playing in a restaurant in New Delhi. True, I am an American so I get the ultimate advantage of globalization but still...
The second day of our Delhi experience, our driver took us to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Agra is a four hour drive from Delhi, but that does not mean it's 360 miles. Not, it's like half that, but driving in India is not exactly an American freeway experience, as I mentioned above. The car ride to Agra may have been the worst car ride I've ever experienced. It was four hours of dodging people, dogs, trucks, cows, whatever, and almost running into them multiple times. It was four hours of constant honking --- the horn seems to be an Indian driver's best friend. I personally want to destroy all car horns at the moment, but I'm trying to control myself.
Anyway, the trip to the Taj Mahal was well worth it. The monument was incredible. I was actually surprised at how amazing it was. I am proud to announce that this is the third wonder of the world I have seen...only four more to go!
Seeing the Taj took the whole day. The next day, we hopped on a four-hour plane ride to Bagdogra, India, from which we took a three hour car ride up the mountains to Darjeeling. That car ride will be the subject of a following blog. Let me just say it included fear, animals and weird covers of "Billie Jean" and "Ghostbusters." It was great. To be continued...
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Unanswered Prayers.
I'm sick. It's been a miserable three days, and I'm still not completely better. I don't think I have ever taken this long to recover from any sickness - besides the ten days I spent in the hospital in 1988, recovering from pneumonia - but that was so long ago it doesn't count.
With so much time on my hands, and the complete lack of ability to do anything with it, I have been thinking a lot. Most recently, my thoughts stumbled upon a song I heard the last time I was driving in the car; Garth Brook's "Unanswered Prayers." In the song, he talks about how he thanks God for unanswered prayers - particularly the prayer he prayed in high school to marry the homecoming queen or whatever.
This got me thinking about how I used to pray to God every night in middle school that he would let me marry Jonathan Taylor Thomas - Home Improvement hottie and pre-teen idol extraordinaire of the mid-90s. I prayed so religiously that I still remember the exact words of my prayer: "Dear God, please let me live a long, long, happy, happy, healthy, healthy life. Please bless mom, dad, Megan and Caitlin, Grandma and Grandpa, everyone else in my family and everyone else in the world who needs help. And please, please, let me marry Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Thank you, Amen."
See, I used to pray "please let me live a happy, healthy, long life," but then I felt that I really needed to emphasize that prayer by saying those three words twice. That's a side note however.
Anyway, I would like to take this time to thank God for not answering my prayer to marry Jonathan Taylor Thomas. For one, he's probably gay at this point or something, and two, he's like 5'4, and three - there are many other reasons. So, thank you God, for unanswered prayers.
Whew, writing that took a lot out of me. I am going to lay down for a bit and try to get the energy to shower for the first time in days. It will probably take an hour nap or so to motivate my will, so here I go. Amen.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Marley and Ollie's Christmas Duet
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Avatar
Last night I somewhat unwillingly acquiesced the request of seeing the new, ultra-hyped movie Avatar. I definitely had my doubts, but all in all, it wasn't too bad. I would say it was a mixture of Ferngully and Dances with Wolves on steroids. The message was essentially a blend of the two. I mean, the indigenous people were dressed as Native Americans. James Cameron wasn't exactly subtle about the similarities.
We went to the 10:00 movie. So by the time 12:30 rolled around and the movie was still going, I'm not going to lie (again!), I was ready to go to sleep. Perhaps, though, I would have felt differently had it been another time. The special effects in Avatar were nothing short of amazing. I still don't know how they did the scenes where the humans and Avatars were holding each other. And, even though I became a bit bored towards the end, no one else with me felt the same. They all loved it.
Apparently it's playing in 3D at select places. Not going to lie, that sounds like motion sickness waiting to happen. Ugh. Though you would have a pretty sweet experience before throwing up so maybe it would be worth it.
So, my uneducated movie review: pretty good. I wouldn't see it again, but I feel like most people would disagree with me.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
What Matters Most
Hello!!! Five more days of school left. That means I am wasting more time online than ever. Perhaps this will benefit others because I am also finding more cool stuff online than ever. Like this ebook I stumbled across. It's cool. It has lots of interesting contributors. It is about answering the question, "What Matters Most."
Back to surfing the net.
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