Top Ten Things I Miss About India:
- Delicious Indian chai - anywhere, anytime
- Being surrounded by women in elegant rainbow colored saris and salwar kamiz
- Indian hospitality and of course my wonderful friends over there!
- Indian food (especially samosas, parathas, dal, malai kofta, Sathi lassi, and a Gujarati Thali!)
- Colorfully painted trucks and buses with funny words on the back and mini neon shrines inside
- Rickshaw rides with Indian drivers on Indian roads
- Random parades of people/kids/marching bands/floats/animals/lights etc
- Cute Indian children saying hello, excited to practice their English and encouraged to shake my hand
- The prices! Lodging and meals and books and clothes for under $3!
- Last, but definitely not least, the Indian head wobble :)
Top Ten Things I Do NOT Miss About India:
- The smell of urine randomly throughout town
- Dodging blobs of chunky multicolored spittle
- Neglected, begging children
- Wasting so much plastic because you can't drink tap water
- Incessant honking/jingling/beeping/blasting
- My perpetually dirty feet
- No toilet paper, squat toilets and bucket showers
- "Hello!" Being shouted at me every other minute/Being aggressively pestered in the marketplaces
- Being given wrong directions/information/time, usually in an effort to help, but often with an opposite effect
- Last and definitely most annoying, throwing of garbage on the ground
Top Ten Things That I Have Enjoyed About Being Back In America:
- Reuniting with so many marvelous friends
- Spending time with my family
- Being in a "home" that is somewhat mine
- Meat, cheese and spiked hot cocoa :)
- Going for jogs and starting to get back into shape
- My extra soft bed with it's electric blanket
- Feeling 100% clean
- Getting out of a backpack
- Change of clothes, especially my favorite hoody!
- Driving!
Top Ten Places That I Went In India:
- Leh, Ladakh
- McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh
- Manali, Himachal Pradesh
- Amritsar, Punjab
- Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh
- Pushkar, Rajasthan
- Bundi, Rajasthan
- Orcha, Madhya Pradesh
- Mumbai, Maharashtra
- Hampi, Karnataka
Top Ten Experiences While In India:
- Indian festivals (I couldn't narrow them down) Diwali, Uttarayan, Holi etc.
- Participating in an Indian wedding
- Riding camels in the Rajasthan
- Cross-country train rides
- The Pakistan border guard ceremony at Atari
- Attending a reading by the Dalai Lama and a Tibetan-in-exile protest
- Riding bikes down from the world's highest motorable pass (Khardung La, 5359m)
- Yatra season in Haridwar, Uttarakhand
- Being in a Bollywood Movie
- Participating in Rakhi, being interviewed, filmed, and on the 9 o'clock news
Phew! I've got lists galore, but I'll stop there for now :) I want to say a big THANKS to Caroline for visiting last week and Laura for having us over! I had so much fun with you two girls and look forward to our next reunion - PWoo! I am incredibly thrilled to be heading to Utah this week to see even MORE of my favorite people in the world. What a lucky girl I am!
3 comments:
Awesome top 10! Surprising, funny, a little grose but all very interesting. Thanks for posting
WOW, never a dull moment! I am so looking forward to seeing you, it has been WAY too long!!!
I had to read this while you were away since I like it better when it feels like I'm spying on you (; I enjoyed reading your top tens... what is Yatra season? I remember when I visited you in Guatemala they had an impromptu parade there; they had several of those there, didn't they? Electric blankets. What luxury! And space like such as a closet and like such as full beds to throw clothes on and like such as bathroom counters. SUCH luxury to you after living out of a bag for months on end. But back to electric blankets - we haven't used ours for two winters in a row now. And that was just now brought to my attention. I love them, I must remember to drag it out come Fall!
PS You better get working on those meats and cheeses that you are storing here in the fridge (;
PPS I would like to inquire more about spiked hot cocoa
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