Back from India.

[epicstruggle]

Well just returned from India a day or so ago. Had a fantastic trip.This trip really opened my eyes up to what is happening in that part of the world. The wife and i really enjoyed ourselves ( set a few new records ).

Ive been lurking for the last day on the forums reading/catching up on the news. I actually stayed away from computers/tv for most of my time there(no computer time, a little tv time), after the initial shock of not being connected to the world, its quite liberating. I found that i had so many more hours to do other things.

A few observations (ill add more after the inital post):

-The air is incredibly dusty/smoky/hazy/... After landing and stepping out of the plane, I felt like i was hit by this wave of warm nasty air, didnt think it could get worse, that is until i got out of the airport and it was worse. After 10am its almost impossible to see more than a couple thousand feet, the sky is that hazy.

-The amount of noise pollution is unbelievable. People blow their car horn for everything, they want to change lanes they blow their horns, they want to cut in they blow their horns, .... I had a driver for most of the trip and he blew his horn a couple times a minitue.

-The poverty is dizzying. Ive never seen such poverty, and ive been to some of the great slums of the world (rio, soweto). Even in this crushing poverty i saw them enjoying their lives through religious events/festivities. I tried giving money, but felt hopeless after a few days. It was like trying to bring water to a desert a drop a time. Just too much poverty, and not enough money/food/... to go around to them.

-This was the first time ive ever woken up and just been surrounded by people who look/act like me. That was the greatest thing. Ive always lived in areas where i looked different than those around me, usually lots of whites or blacks (or combination). This time i was surrounded by indians. That was incredible. Seeing poster/billboards, tv ads, music, conversations done by people who are indians.

well ill add more commentary later, ill try to get a few pics up this time around too. 8) Just need a spot to host the pics.

epic

 

[digitalwanderer]

I don't think Indiana is anywhere near as bad as you're saying! :?

 

[Reverend]

Which part of India were you in? Were you still there when the disaster struck?

 

[epicstruggle]

I was not there at the time of the disaster. Thank god, my mom would have worried to death. From what my wife tells me there was some serious damage done to the eastern part of india. My wife and family and friends are mostly in the western part, so they didnt get any direct effects from the quake/tsunamy. However she hasnt heard from a few people we are related to(distandly) who might have been in the area at the time. We are hoping for the best from them, we dont know what to make of it. It seems that good communication lines are in short supply and are hoping that is why we havent heard from them. This tragedy underscores the poor emergency infrastructure many of the developing countries in the area have. There should have been a tsunamy emergency warning in india, at the very least.

epic

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Did you pass through SA by any chance? Last time we spoke you said you would be here in December.

Good to hear you had a great trip.

US

 

[Deepak]

Well just returned from India a day or so ago. Had a fantastic trip.This trip really opened my eyes up to what is happening in that part of the world. The wife and i really enjoyed ourselves ( set a few new records ).

Hi Epic, was it your first trip to India?

-The air is incredibly dusty/smoky/hazy/... After landing and stepping out of the plane, I felt like i was hit by this wave of warm nasty air, didnt think it could get worse, that is until i got out of the airport and it was worse. After 10am its almost impossible to see more than a couple thousand feet, the sky is that hazy.

Where did you land? Delhi? Mumbai? I have never been out of Delhi except thrice I think. But yeah, Delhi is dusty, and also the fact that winter is setting in here has also made things worst. You feel like you're playing Killzone....

The amount of noise pollution is unbelievable. People blow their car horn for everything, they want to change lanes they blow their horns, they want to cut in they blow their horns, .... I had a driver for most of the trip and he blew his horn a couple times a minitue.

That noise pollution is bec'se of no of vehicles per km of road....its incredebly high, I read somewhere that Delhi has 4 million vehicles. And also we also have some bad habits....bonking horn every few seconds...

The poverty is dizzying. Ive never seen such poverty, and ive been to some of the great slums of the world (rio, soweto). Even in this crushing poverty i saw them enjoying their lives through religious events/festivities. I tried giving money, but felt hopeless after a few days. It was like trying to bring water to a desert a drop a time. Just too much poverty, and not enough money/food/... to go around to them.

That is the grim reality here, despite making so much progress in last few decades (India is world's fourth largest economy). Large no of poor people migrate every year to cities like Delhi in search of better life....if only we could improve things in our villages...this will continue, then population is another huge problem.

This was the first time ive ever woken up and just been surrounded by people who look/act like me. That was the greatest thing. Ive always lived in areas where i looked different than those around me, usually lots of whites or blacks (or combination). This time i was surrounded by indians. That was incredible. Seeing poster/billboards, tv ads, music, conversations done by people who are indians.

Wish I could also visit place where people around look like me....

well ill add more commentary later, ill try to get a few pics up this time around too. 8) Just need a spot to host the pics.

epic

Pics??[/url]

 

[Mintmaster]

-The air is incredibly dusty/smoky/hazy/... After landing and stepping out of the plane, I felt like i was hit by this wave of warm nasty air, didnt think it could get worse, that is until i got out of the airport and it was worse. After 10am its almost impossible to see more than a couple thousand feet, the sky is that hazy.

Yeah, my parents told me about that. Never been there myself yet, but they said when they blew there nose, the mucus that came out was black.

 

[Solzhenitsyn]

Theres apparently a somewhat permanent smog cloud of enormous proportions over the ocean to the southwest of India, the leading cause of which is considered to be the widespread burning of animal dung for fuel