One month in India

Over one month has passed quickly in India and it's now finally time to start writing the blog. I will give quick recap what has happened so far. Since we arrived way earlier than my school started we had about one month to see some tourist attractions, get sick and have some vacation etc. At first we spent few weeks at Delhi's “tourist areas”. Beforehand I had heard stories that Delhi would be really chaotic and crowded but so far it has been quite the opposite. The people who try to get you to buy leather whips, sunglasses, jeans with zippers on the knees  and sleeping bags aren't present at every street corner. Also so far the air quality hasn't been that bad either and breathing is quite possible.

After one week of plain vegetarian food (yes its so safe you can't get sick) I managed to get naughty stomach disease along with 39,8C fever. After a few days I self medicated with some antibiotics and meat products and the nuisance passed. Since that stomach matters have been quite ok.

Delhi streets

Tibetan colony after some pesticide

For our “vacation“ we decided to spend one week at Udaipur also my motherinlaw, fatherinlaw and brotherinlaw came to spend the next few weeks with us. Udaipur is about 700 km from Delhi and by train the overnight journey takes 12 hours. We decided to book our tickets from the cheapest train class where you can sleep that being the second class sleeper. In my mind it made great sense that crowded train must be nice and warm and no blankets or warm clothing is  needed.. However it turned out that train without proper windows going ~70km/h when outside temperature dips to 5C makes the whole train pretty chilly. We managed to get some sleep but it was really nice to get to Udaipur where temperatures are a bit higher than on Delhi. Udaipur was really nice with its clean lakes. The atmosphere there was definitely more relaxed than in Delhi. A definite highlight on Udaipur trip was horseback riding on some remotish hills. It was my first time on horseback (or near a horse) but still it was surprisingly relaxing and not a constant fear of the break neck syndrome.

The famous lake palace at Udaipur

Clean waters at Udaipur

Clean waters at Udaipur

Clean waters at Udaipur

Man sitting at the ghats in Udaipur

From Udaipur we came back to Delhi for few days to get furniture for our rental house (more about this later..) and get some things organized. Then with the whole bunch there was one “must see” attraction the Taj Mahal. Its located in the city of Agra. The train journey to Agra takes only 2-3 hours and we decided to spend one night there. Immediately after our arrival we went to see the monument. “The most beautiful building in the world”, “Sublime” etc etc. yes it is nice and great but seeing the thing was for me pretty anticlimactic because the expectations were maybe too high. The place is of course totally packed with tourists whose main focus seems to be just getting them selves photographed in front of the white cube. Also there are some nice touches in the way the ticketing system is handled. You buy your tickets from a ticket office that happens to be 1,5km away from the actual site. Then should you decide to walk back you will be harassed by rickshaw drivers and kids selling post cards etc. for the whole mile. The reason for this spectacle is of course to get you to use the great electric eco friendly golf carts that take tourist from the ticket counter to the actual site. It just would seem a bit silly to do this “eco act” since the “problem” is intentionally made.

Thinking in Agra

The Taj

I didn't find the Taj as great as they did..

Take the shoes off!

After this tourist tournee the school has started and we are settling in to our rental house at the city of Noida in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Overall the life in India has been easier than I expected. From now on I will try to update the blog at least weekly.