Fascinating India!

Took me quite a while to update since I came back from India. But well, here it is anyway. Better late than never. Hurhurhur.

To the peeps who think I will smell like an Indian after I came back, you're friggin' racist can?! Hahaha. Yeah, if I were an Indian, I would be very pissed to hear that. But I don't think I smell funny lah *smells my armpit*. My conclusion is that only southern Indians might smell funny because of the coconut oil they put, but the places I went to are located in northern India (Mumbai and New Delhi). Ok, shall stop discussing about this lest ISD people come catch me for disrupting social harmony. Hehe.

So it was fascinating India all right. Quite a change from the tall buildings and the gleaming skyscrapers you associate with modern cities. There are just a few of those around, and mainly littered shanty towns and slums; some made out of cardboxes and zinc sheets. One can see both the rich and poor live side by side, with scant recognition of the other while going about their daily lives. Street vendors will peddle their wares whenever your car stops before the traffic junction. Sometimes, the odd beggar women with her child in tow will knock on your car window asking for some spare cash. So it is important that you keep your car doors locked in India at all times, partly also to prevent robbery.

The streets are almost never empty, and the roads are bumpy and full of potholes. Driving on the streets of mumbai and delhi is quite a challenge indeed. More so when people there use the bloody horn like nobody's business. Interesting also is that some vehicles (mainly buses) have the sign painted on the back asking them to "Please horn OK".

Oh, there are also plenty of motorcycles there. Mainly models you most probably won't find anywhere else, only exclusive to the Indian market. Honda has quite a presence with its range of Unicorn, Legend and Hero models, and the rest is made up of Yamahas, the cool looking Bajajs and a few of the Royal Enfield classics. But however cool my bike is, I won't even consider riding there, not unless I insure myself with all the insurance companies I can find there. Hahaha.

But among the chaos is the beauty of it all. Being messy still looks good in a sort of way. It was an eye opener and when I describe India as fascinating, I mean it in every sense of the word. There are quite a number of historic landmarks and monuments left behind by ancient dynasties in India, as well as by its colonial masters - the british. I believe there are plenty more which I haven't seen, particularly mother nature in India, which I'm sure can rival any place in the world. The Himalayas being one of them.

I would recommend people going to India at least once in their lifetime, however bad an impression you might have of India being that hot and sweaty place swarming with bad smelling people. It is not that bad actually, not even anything close to your preconceived ideas of India. The weather in Delhi was actually quite cooling with a constant breeze blowing in your hair.

For sure, I will be back again.