Yes. India was really incredible!
Especially since INDIAN FOOD IS AWESOME!!!! If you’ve ever had Indian food before you would know how good it is!! It just has SO MANY different tastes and so it makes it SOOOOO flavourful! Most of the time the spices that are put in Indian food are grown from a garden just outside of the restaurant in the owners backyards!! I think though that there is also a downside to India. Like the fact that Max got sick three days into our stay. Yup. Three days is all it took! He was puking just after we did our first cooking class (I think all of us over-ate!) which actually wasn’t so good because we didn’t get to cook! We did go to another one in Pushkar though. it was MUCH better because we actually got to COOK! Not just watch. I made dhal and naan bread! Max really loves the rice kheer here! It’s a dessert with like 3 teaspoons of sugar so no wonder he likes it!
For sure the funniest moment in India (for Max and me) was when we all wanted to go to the main bazaar/market in Delhi (the capital of India) which has a population of 19 MILLION PEOPLE (re:CROWDED!! - Like half the size of Canada!) and twice as many motorcycles and tuk-tuks!! AND HORNS ARE EVERYWHERE! Just before we got into a tuk-tuk (all of the tuk-tuks in India are yellow on top and green on the bottom/middle) to go to the bazaar, we were talking to each other. Someone overheard us talking about going to the bazaar. The driver started to drive us to the bazaar and the other person yelled to us as we took off that the bazaar was closed!!! But the driver was trying to rip us off by taking us. So immediately the wheels in Jay’s head started turning and we were driving past a smaller market when Jay asked the driver to stop. When the driver made up some excuse and said the bazaar was open Jay said a little louder this time “Stop here please!” and when he refused again Jay said a little LOUDER “STOP!!” and when he refused AGAIN Jay YELLED “STOP THE TUK-TUK!!!” It was the first time I’ve ever seen Jay lose his cool at any local. It was also funny because the driver STILL kept making excuses and only stopped when Jay offered him 20 Indian Rupees (40 cents). Then he closed his mouth RIGHT AWAY.
India might’ve been stressful for Jay but for me it was paradise! Everyone was DOING something! It was the OPPOSITE of Laos (which is very relaxing!) and people there were probably never bored which I HATE being!
The Taj Mahal is really great but personally I think the Angkor Wat is better. There is MUCH more space at the Angkor Wat than the Taj Mahal so it didn’t feel as crowded as the Taj Mahal. For those of you who didn’t know the Taj Mahal is a mausoleum. A very overgrown mausoleum at that but it is a mausoleum. One of India’s many kings built it as a monument to his wife when she died. He must’ve really loved her. We should do something like that for Mommy!
One last thing before I sign off. Camels. Max and I had never seen them before and so the first time we saw them was on the side of a rode driving up to Jaipur (nicknamed 'The Pink City’ because of the limestone used to build most of the buildings) and Jay pointed them out on the side of the road. Our heads were deep in our books (him Harry Potter and me Life Of Pi) but we managed to see them. Little did we know that in Pushkar (which is a holy city) we would go camel riding! Pushkar is a really great city and if you go there, you’ll learn that meat is not allowed!! And neither are plastic bags! You will also see the reason that plastic bags are banned there. Just look at the streets and you’ll see why. There is garbage everywhere as in most of India that we’ve seen. Anyways… the camel riding was AWESOME (once you got over your fear of falling off!) but the whole time I had a line from a book called The Alchemist that I read on Bondi Beach, Australia: “Take a horse to the Egyptian Pyramids (the alchemist is talking to the shepherd boy) boy, because camels are traitorous animals. They’ll walk 5 days straight showing no signs of faltering and on the sixth day they’ll fall down dead leaving you to die a stranger in the desert.” but of course I wasn’t worried about the being stranded part! I was more worried about the FALLING DOWN part!! Thankfully the camels didn’t fall down and we made it through alright!
We got to the airport and now we’re waiting for our flight from Varanasi to New Delhi! And I don’t want to write about Varanasi…it was just plain crazy!!
Kalum and Owen keep building up your Nerf arsenal! We be comin’!
Sullivan
P.S. The Philippines are next!