Northern India
November 2011
November 2011
Ganges Sounds
Worship Sounds
Kolkata Sounds
Good surprises:
1. Street food.
1. Street food.
2. Many city trees.
3. Painting from the last 3 centuries.
4. Diversity of activity in Hindu temples.
5. Train doors can be opened while moving.
6. 2nd largest Muslim population in the world.
7. Women slapped men for riding in the women's-only train car.
8. Easy to avoid touts and beggars with reflective sunglasses.
9. "Towers of silence" (the Parsis leave their dead here for vultures; you can't see these in Mumbai but they exist).
10. Animal diversity everywhere (otters, water snakes, big roaches, yellow dragonflies, elephants, cows in train stations, egrets, monkeys, gazelles, mudfish, big snails, walking sticks).
11. During a 4-hour walking tour of Dharavi, one of the largest slums in Asia, the resident guide said the slum's annual turnover is USD 700M.
Bad surprises:
1. Car horns.
2. Musuems aren't didactic.
4. Diversity of activity in Hindu temples.
5. Train doors can be opened while moving.
6. 2nd largest Muslim population in the world.
7. Women slapped men for riding in the women's-only train car.
8. Easy to avoid touts and beggars with reflective sunglasses.
9. "Towers of silence" (the Parsis leave their dead here for vultures; you can't see these in Mumbai but they exist).
10. Animal diversity everywhere (otters, water snakes, big roaches, yellow dragonflies, elephants, cows in train stations, egrets, monkeys, gazelles, mudfish, big snails, walking sticks).
11. During a 4-hour walking tour of Dharavi, one of the largest slums in Asia, the resident guide said the slum's annual turnover is USD 700M.
Bad surprises:
1. Car horns.
2. Musuems aren't didactic.
3. Illiteracy of cab and rickshaw drivers.
4. No pics allowed in Jain and Hindu shrines.
5. 1st class train compartment loaded with roaches.
6. Public burping, farting, nose-snorting and phlegm hacking.
7. No one reading books in parks, trains, planes, waiting rooms.
Itinerary: Mumbai - Behror - Delhi - Varanasi - Kolkata. Business trip and then travelling with Van.
4. No pics allowed in Jain and Hindu shrines.
5. 1st class train compartment loaded with roaches.
6. Public burping, farting, nose-snorting and phlegm hacking.
7. No one reading books in parks, trains, planes, waiting rooms.
Itinerary: Mumbai - Behror - Delhi - Varanasi - Kolkata. Business trip and then travelling with Van.