August 2 - India: Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh
Indian Work Ethic
We woke up this morning in Agra - all of us very tired (Jon, myself, and Vinod). I neglected to mention in yesterday's journal that - last night at 7:00 - we made a quick stop at a leather store to see about getting some leather pants (I've been wanting some for the last year). Of course, we could get some. And of course, they're custom-made. Makkesh, the shop-owner, told me that they would be ready at 10:15 that night. Yes, this means that the tailor guys were sewing their hearts out to make my leather pants in 3 hours.
OK. Don't start. This was not at my insistence, and has nothing to do with "high-maintenance New Yorkers". (Geez. I can hear you rolling your eyes!) This is the work ethic here! Their attitude is that they would rather work late and get paid than not work at all. Makkesh told me to come back to the shop at 10:15 and it would be done.
Vinod insisted on driving me, even though I told him I would take a taxi. And Jon also insisted on coming, despite being in the beginning stages of a head cold. The pants weren't quite ready because the leather was apparently stuck in traffic for a half-hour. But I tried on the main part, adjustments were made, and Chaco The Tailor went back to work. Vinod, Jon, Makkesh, and I sat out front in the parking lot sipping Orange Fantas and talking about Pakistan-India-US relations. Makkesh, by the way, made a trench coat for Clinton last year. He has the letter from the Protocol Office framed on the wall. Indians LOVE Bill Clinton, but I'm not going to waste time in my journal for that.
Anyway, little by little my beautiful pants were finished, and we made it back to the hotel by 11:00. The A/C in our room didn't work very well last night. It reduced the heat in the room from a whopping 100° to a cool 85°. So I didn't sleep well last night, and Jon's cold has gotten worse. (I knew that he was sick when he wasn't hungry yesterday!). We were quite an exhausted pair on the way to the train station this morning - Jon especially!
Trains in India
We said good-bye to Vinod - our wonderful, wonderful driver - at the train station, and put our bags down on the platform to wait for our 8:00AM train. Everything you've ever heard about trains in India is true. They are much like cattle-cars, but with people. The regular passenger trains only have open-windows and are packed with people. And "upper class" is sitting on the roof of the car which is not unusual at all.
Our tickets were for air-conditioned cars, which is what the Bourgeoisie Indians and tourists ride in. The cars aren't that nice at all (compared to Egypt, that is) but they are air-conditioned so we're not complaining! Besides, the ride from Agra to Gwalior is only an hour and a half.
We arrived in Gwalior at 9:30, and needed to buy a ticket for tomorrow to Jhansi so we can then get to Orchha. This ordeal took 45 minutes. 30 minutes to find the right ticket booth after standing the the wrong line 3 times, and 15 minutes to buy the ticket. We did anything we could to avoid the touts that circled in on us, but we finally settled on one of them to show us the right way and in return we took his rickshaw to the hotel and gave him a nice tip. He offered to stick around to take us to the Gwalior Fort, but all we wanted to do was check in to the hotel and sleep.
This is where the journal gets boring.
Day of Rest
Jon's cold has drained him of all energy, and he passed out for 2 1/2 hours. I napped and read on-and-off, happy to at least be horizontal for a while. The air in the room was cool, but not cold, and the room kind of smelled. But as long as Jon was getting some sleep, I was fine. He woke up at around 2:00 and we decided to stay in until dinner, and then we would catch the Sound And Light Show at the Gwalior Fort - which is really the only thing to see in Gwalior. So we laid around and played cards until 5:30 when we left for dinner. We stopped by the front desk (we're staying at a placed called "Hotel Regency") and asked to confirm the Light Show time. Well... it turns out that there is no light show during the summer and that the Fort has already closed for the evening.
Just our luck, right? Honestly, we didn't really care. We hopped in a rickshaw and went to dinner at a restaurant called Dawat.
In the back of an auto-rickshaw on the way to dinner
The view from the front of the auto-rickshaw
Random Ruminations on India
Because our day was so uneventful, I'm going to take this opportunity to expound on some India-facts:
We really like the people in this country. They are honest, respectful, intelligent, and warm-hearted people. Granted, there are some scam artists who will fleece you without a second thought but most people we've met have been very kind. Jon made the observation that the women all seem so much happier than those we saw in Egypt - they smile and laugh a lot. And they're beautiful!
All Indian Restaurants here have both Indian food and Chinese food. I suppose that's because of our proximity to China, but what a strange combination! Regardless, we just can't get enough of the food. It's DIVINE!
Cows really do hang out all over the city. In yards, on the sidewalks, in the middle of the roads - they're free to wander wherever they choose. Jon was quite amused by this! We knew that they were considered holy, but cows in the middle of the road? He didn't think anyone would believe him so he took a picture:
We had a long discussion over dinner one night regarding a particular cow that - after finishing his dinner in a garbage pile on the side of the road - walked to the middle of the road and proceeded to walk up the center line. Cars were whizzing by on both sides of him, but he didn't seem to mind. Jon thought this was a stupid cow, and that it should have walked along the side of the road. I thought that the cow was actually very smart - it knew it wouldn't be injured along the center line. We'll let you decide. Regardless, Vinod said that the cows are a real concern for drivers because - if you hit them - it will cause serious car troubles, which the driver has to pay for as well as having to compensate the owner of the cow for their loss.
New York drivers have nothing on the drivers in India. Here, they weave in and out of the smallest of gaps in traffic and really don't care about where roads begin and end. And the horn is used to warn other drivers either that: (1) You're there, (2) You're passing them, or (3) You're going to hit the damn cow/goat/dog in the road. Trucks and buses paint the back of their vehicles with pretty flowers and designs and with the words, "Blow Horn Please OK". This is to get other drivers to honk when they are passing the truck/bus. This is a good thing because most trucks don't have rearview mirrors, but the horn-honking tends to get a little excessive.
