McDonald's is all over the world. It's everywhere. Most of the populous or at least every middle class family in every country knows of McDonald's and the joy it brings.
Tyler and I have an aversion for McDonald's at home, but in India, we finally gave in to the lure of standardization and familiarity, where you will get what you are expecting. That's not exactly true though since nowhere in India can you get beef. Cows are sacred and not for eating of course! So how can they have a McDonald's without beef? Well it's easy. McDonald's ingenouity really shows when you visit them in different countries. They know their markets and cater and change their menus to suit each market's tastes (as everyone knows if they've watched Pulp Fiction). So in India, they don't have the Big Mac, they have the McChicken Maharaja Mac. Instead of beef, there's plenty of chicken for substitute. Besides the regular array of grilled or deep fried chicken sandwiches, they also have a mexican chicken wrap with salsa. Since India also has many vegetarians, there's for example the McVeg Burger Surprise, Pizza Pocket, and McAloo Burger (burger with a potato patty). I tried the McChicken Maharaja Mac Meal (try and say that 3 times fast), and it wasn't bad. Not great, but not bad. Just like the Big Mac.
Out of all the differences, there were a couple of dramatic ones that we really liked though. First, it was immaculately clean! The bathroom was definitely cleaner than any McDonald's bathroom back in the states. While we ate, a lady went by us and mopped the floor 3-4 times. Second, the employees are glad to be working there! There was a door man/security guard who cordially greeted us and bid us goodbye. The guy who took our order had on a spiffy tie and a smile on his face to go with it. The lady who kept mopping the floor was happy to be doing her job of mopping. It was such a change, but I guess it helps that the clientele here are mainly well to do or middle class people, not like the bums that are attracted to the McDonald's at home.
But alas, it was McDonald's standardization that strongly beckoned us, so we couldn't resist. The fries always taste the same. The packaging is the same waxed paper wrap or red cardboard fries carton. The buns are made exactly the same way. The soft serve cones and sundaes are done the same. Even the ketchup and mayonnaise are the same. You wouldn't think twice about condiments until you've travelled to places where you can't get decent ketchup. And if you really think about it, if the condiments couldn't be duplicated but everything else was, I don't think I would have gone to eat there because it wouldn't be authentically McDonald's. It's actually such an important part of it. Well, that and the fact the food there was least likely to get us sick. It's really not that bad, the standard of cleanliness for food/kitchens I mean. Ok...actually it is. But at least there are places that's not the norm and provide edible food, for example, McDonald's!
For those of you fond of Indian food or maybe want to try a palatable Indian dish, here's an easy recipe for a popular snack.
MIXED PAKORA - from Mrs. Rita Kapoor's cooking class
2 cups chickpea flour*
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp red chili powder or to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin seed
1/2 tsp garam masala
*Can use mixture of corn flour and regular white flour as substitute.
Mix all above ingredients together with 1 cup water.
1 & 1/2 small red onion (sliced)
1 potato (thinly sliced)
1/4 cauliflower head (about 1 cup coursely chopped)
1 small bunch cilantro or coriander leaves (chopped)
8 oz paneer cheese* (sliced into 1/4 inch slices)
3 small green chilis (cut into halves lengthwise) if desired
*Can also use mozarella cheese, preferably soft mozarella.
Mix above ingredients into the flour mixture. On low heat, heat enough oil for deep frying. Fry balls of mixture until brown. Serve with chutney or ketchup for dipping. Enjoy!
India: The Final Frontier
India is the subject of many a conversation in world traveler circles. At just about every backpacker hostel, guesthouse, or lodge anywhere in the world you can have a discussion about India-sometimes even with people who have actually been there and know what they are talking about. The conversation inevitably starts off something like this: India, eh? I've heard you either love it or loath it. Blah, blah, blah."
(Please note: I apologize for the rambling blog)
The subcontinent is vast. Stretching from the snow capped Himalayan Mountains to the green jungles of Kerala. From the plains of the holy river Ganges in the East to the sands of the Thar desert in the West. India offers incompareable geographic variety. The geographic variety is complimented by the diverse population, over 1 billion strong. Walk the streets of any Indian city and you are likely to rub shoulders with people from many of the world's great faiths (Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains-just to name a few).
The food is marvelous. World renowned for its spices (afterall Columbus was looking for a route to India when he found 'the new world') India is the home to
sweet and spicy cuisine. The many regional specialties combine to make Indian food one of the great diverse cuisines of the world. Thalis, dosas, curries...all Indian food is either sweet or spicy reflecting India herself. Indeed you could describe traveling in India as sweet and spicy. Some days are just amazing. You meet the right people who show you all the ascetic wonders and beauty of India. The tabla drum beats for you and you march to the beat taking it all in: the sights, the sounds, and the smells. That is the sweet tasting experience. Other days are straight out of Dante's Inferno. A living hell. Where misinformation leads you down a back ally to some silk shop or other scam. Where unimagineable poverty grabs hold of your pantleg in the form of starving, dirty, children. You get a bad meal and spend the night vomiting with the trucks. That is the spicy tasting experience.
But, just as the sweet and spicy make Indian food delicious, so these experiences make our travels in India unforgetable and amazing. It is why you hear backpackers say, sitting around the proverbial fire, "you either love it or loath it." The reality is, when you are there in India up to your neck in all of India's juxtapositions, contradictions, paradoxes, and frustrations, you tend to oscilate between loving it and loathing it-sometimes by the minute. Now then, India is actually the ideal place for the budget traveler. First of all the country has excellent infrastructure for travel (one of the blessings of colonialism in India). Second, room and board is dirt cheap. The budget traveler could survive in India on <$200/month. Of course sanitary standards might require
modification to meet this financial goal. For a little more, say $350/month, you won't need to compromise your cleanliness requirements. For $500/month you can live like a modern day raj. All of this combines to make India the backpacker's paradise.
Before I get into the MoWenck India experience I would like to take a moment to describe India's rail system-the world's second largest rail system in terms of
miles of track laid (damn tran-Siberian railroad is long!) but numero uno in
passengers served at over 12 million/day! The India rail system is not perfect:
accidents are not uncommon, delays ought to be scheduled, and ques for tickets can stretch for hours. But, when you consider the number of people and destinations served-through all kinds of terrain-the India rail system becomes somewhat of a marvel. You can get to almost any corner of India via the train. Trains run 24/7-365. There are several classes of ticket available to meet everyone's requirements. The most expensive are the aircon first class sleepers (2 or 3 tier). I have only walked through these cars and found them to be quite over-priced. Besides, who comes to India to sit sealed off from the country behind glass in an aircon car? Then there is 2nd class sleeper, the joy of Indian rail travel. This is the class most people travel-and MoWenck are no exception. 2nd class sleeper is open birth (8 births to a compartment, 12 compartments to a car). The births are cramped, dirty, dusty and noisy. Rarely do you find only 8 in a single compartment and you have to watch your possesions like a hawk as thieves are rampent; but there is no
better way to travel-especially on over night trains. You can meet all kinds of
charactors in 2nd class sleepers (and we have!) and you are pretty close to genuine India. Then there is 2nd class, unreserved. You can go 1000K for ~120 rupees in 2nd class unreserved but you would have to be nuts. The seats are hardwood and first-come, first-serve. The guide books don't rate your chances of getting a seat-although MoWenck has been 3-3 at securing seats (and luggage storage) on unreserved rides-always less than 4 hours. The India rail system is a unique India experience and if you have been to India but failed to ride the rails-well then you have never really been to India.
Mo and I decided to test our India mettle by diving right in, taking a flight from
Kathmandu directly to Varanasi.* India airlines is great. Immigration at Varanasi is a crap shoot. Our plane full of 250 immigrants arrived to find 2 working immigration officials hiding behind a desk at the end of a narrow hall. Everyone was clammoring shoulder to shoulder, no semblance of a line (no demarkation on the floor to 'please wait your turn behind the line'). The immigration officials taking on backshish (bribes) to process people. As Mo and I had no Indian rupees and didn't feel like fighting the mayhem, we waited in line for about a half hour to get officially welcomed to India. After that fiasco, we found our bags waiting to be claimed.
Bright eyed (bleary eyed?) Mo made her way to get some Indian rupees while I
calculated our options to travel the 20 K or so to town. There was a bus for 25
rupees but it left before we had any money and it was the final bus to town for the day. That left us the taxi option and the drivers were none to helpful and mostly interested in ripping us off. At this point MoWenck took on their familiar travel rolls, Amy as good traveler, Tyler as bad traveler. I was becoming frustrated, so I walked away from the indignant taxi drivers. Mo stayed on with a smile bargaining with the jerks. In the end we decided to walk-against the advice of all the taxi drivers. As soon as we got out on the main road a local man approached us and informed us we could walk 2 K to the bus stand and catch a bus to Varanasi for 7 rupees. That agreed with Mo and I. However, before we could make it to the bus stand the taxis started pulling up and offering us rides (many of the same taxis from the airport). Of course, the price of a ride to town was coming down and eventually we agreed to a ride to the train station, saving 200 rupees on the original price. It was a pain in the arse,
we had to walk a few kilometers, I pretended to be pissed (I was only mildly
perturbed) and in the end good traveler/bad traveler got what we wanted. A cheap ride to town.
I mention the travel roll-playing (Mo as good traveler, Wenck as bad traveler) here because it was the first time I noticed the roll playing as it happened. Reflecting on it in the taxi, I realized it was not the first time we had used these tactics to get what we wanted while traveling. I was laughing inwardly and playing my 'hard-ass husband' roll outwardly. The taxi drivers genuinely felt sorry for Amy (at least they appeared that way but maybe they were just playing their rolls?) and that is how we got our cheap ride. It was with one of the airport taxi guys, the very one I swore-in his face-that I would never ride with.
Well, we were on our way to Varanasi town, of course the taxi driver wanted to take us to a hotel he knew of and we politely refused. About fifty times we refused until finally we got dropped off near the train station. At this point it was getting dark and Mo and I are wondering around a new city with our backpacks on without a destination. Finally we called a lodge from our guide book and they agreed to come find us and bring us to their lodge. Problem was, we didn't know where we were. We thought we were one place but it turns out we were in
another. Somehow we found the agreed upon meeting place (actually a very nice gentleman gave us a ride in his rickshaw) and eventually to our guesthouse in the old quarter of the city. We never would have got there without assistance.
Varanasi is an ancient holy city and the old quarter is maze of tiny allyways and
lanes. Indeed, finding our lodge was about as easy as finding your way through the labyrinth at Knossos; only I couldn't tie a string to the door every time we went out. So, over the course of 4 days I got completely lost and completely found every time I left the lodge. The old quarter, despite being a maze, is quite pleasant. The narrow lanes do not allow for vehicles ('cept them pesky motor scooters) so the main obstacles consisted of feces-human, bovine, and canine-and avoiding disgruntled cows. Twice, in narrow allys I had to face a bull with a poor disposition. Both times I proved to be a poor matadore-almost getting the horns each time. I need to work on my veronica.**
Out on the main streets Varanasi becomes what I imagined India to be like. An
endless procession of pedestrians (many pilgrims), cows, bikes, motorbikes, bicycle rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, cars, and trucks. It is loud-horns blaring, tablas beating, cows mooing, people yelling-and dusty...the air is thick with volume and debris. In short, it is wild. You look 360 degrees before crossing a one-way ally. It is colorful beyond belief and the scents you catch are indescribeable (Sorry Bay area hippies, the Haight in SF and Smellagraph Ave in Berkeley don't even come close!).
Then there is what makes Varanasi the Mecca of Hinduism, the holy river
Ganges. Perhaps the holiest river in the world, the river Ganages- Hindus believe- flows from the head of the god Shiva. Shiva must have a funky fro 'cause the river Ganges is about as dirty and polluted as they come.# Despite the obviously polluted waters, pilgrims flock to Varanasi to take abolutions in the holy river. There on the Ghats (stairs to the water) of Varanasi you can witness the pilgrims conducting this religious right of passage. In addition to having 7 holy places of abolution along the holy river, it is also believed that if you die in Varanasi you reach instant enlightenment. Needless to say there are plenty of aged pilgrims who show up in Varanasi just to die. Finally, there are the funeral Ghats where the remains of Hindus are placed on floating funeral pyres and floated on the river. All of this makes walking the Ghats quite an overwhelming experience.
The best visit to the Ghats is to be had at night when the local Brahman (holy
ascetic men) perform a daily prayer involving lots of fire and music. It was awesome to watch these Brahmen perform the religeous rights on the edge of the river with hundreds of on-lookers (Western and local). The music was fantastic and the choregraphed movements of the prayer beautiful.
While in Varanasi we stayed at the Yogi lodge-touted as having the cleanest kitchen in all of India (when I saw the kitchen I thought there was no way it could be the cleanest in all of India but after 2.5 weeks of travel in India, I think it may well be). Our room was dirt cheap (100 rupees/night) and not dirty. We found a good yoga teacher around the corner and generally enjoyed our days in Varanasi-practising yoga, wondering through the old quarter or down to the Ghats. One day we visited the city of Sarnath about 20 K away. Sarnath is not very interesting in and of itself, but there is one thing that attracts visitors: Sarnath is believed to be the place where Guatama Buddha gave his first teaching and where he meditated during the hot summer months. There are remains of many stupas and monastaries (bricks scattered about) but the highlight was to sit in the park under some giant oak trees, feel the breeze and imagine the great Buddha sitting there meditating.
After 4 days in Varanasi it was time to move on-and have our first experience with the India Rail system. We reserved second class sleeper seats on an overnight train to Agra. When we arrived to find our train and our birth we found it full of pilgrims (and there luggage stacked to the ceiling). The car we were in was crowded and cramped with way too many people-even by Indian standards-and we had to fight to claim our own seats. Eventually the TT (ticket collector) came around and started clearing things up. Suddenly people disappeared and space opened up. Of course in our compartment one
whole birth was filled with a family of 5 and another birth had 2 adult males, but I didn't care as long as my birth was occupied by me and me only (well and same for Mo). Before the train left two different Westerners had their bags stolen and recovered-minus cameras. That is the nice thing about traveling as a pair, our baggage is never unattended.
Mo and I settled in and even enjoyed an Indian Railways dinner thali. After 12 hours we found ourselves in Agra. It is an apply named city as Agra is agravating. Agra is the home to the Taj Majal (among other things: a beautiful Friday Mosque, the "Baby Taj" and Agra Fort) and is one of the main tourist destinations in India. That translates to frustration 'cause every tout and their mother is in Agra. Rickshaw drivers are dirt cheap but you have to visit 3-5 places not on your itinerary (gem shops and silk factories) in order to get these fantastic prices. Everyone is in your face trying to make a rupee. However, once you enter the Taj Majal grounds all the agravation melts away.
The Taj Majal is breath taking. Beautiful. Peaceful. The grounds are huge and
designed after the Islamic version of heaven. The actual white marble tomb-what you see in puctures-is awesome. We spent 4 hours watching the sun light play tricks on the wonderful marble. The architecture is fantastic. The whole place was mind blowing. Unfortunately, the price of addmission is astronomical so we only had one afternoon at the Taj. We left Agra as quickly as we arrived, destination Delhi.
This time we made the 4 hour hop to Delhi in 2nd class unreserved. Hardseat, if you can find one. Mo and I were able to secure seats but at opposite ends of the car. We each had great experiences with the locals. I talked with a gentleman who served in the military and was on his way to serve-in Kashmir! I asked him about the military and serving in Kashmir. He sounded just like an American soldier-he didn't want to be in harms way (Kashmir is India's most sensitive spot, militarily speaking) but felt strongly about India's need to protect its claims to Kashmir. He turned out to be a swell guy.
The ancient cities of Delhi, what is there to say? It is madness. We spent 3 days in New Delhi in the area known as the main bazzar. We wondered out to New Delhi proper (Cannought Place) where you can find McDonald's and Western shops selling brand names (Nike, Reebok, etc.) mixed in with traditional Indian dhabas (restaurants) and stalls selling more traditional Indian garb. The whole city is undergoing growing pains as a much needed subway system is being constructed. Of course, this only adds to the confusion and traffic woes of todays Delhi. We wondered out to the old Raj buildings built during British colonialism. The buildings are bohemeths. They look silly, unimagineable.
Very strange. We wondered back to the Main Bazzar as quickly as we could. We did not visit Old Delhi-we are saving that special experience for another time. After a few days we put our sleeping bags in storage and made for Dharamshala via Amritsar.
Amritsar is a rather drab city in Northern Punjab. However, Amritsar is home to the main Sikh temple-the Golden Temple. We spent a day and night here and checked out this fantastic structure and faith. The Sikh faith is amazing-it is a very tolerant faith and the people at the temple welcome all. The Sikhs themselves are very kind and never seem to be the ones trying to rip you off. Inside the temple I spoke with many pilgrims-they were all very interested in me and my travels. It was very cool. The temple itself is pretty darn awesome. The actual temple houses the Sikh faith's holy book. The temple is in the middle of a man made lake-and you guessed it, it is golden. All day long holy men read and sing prayers from the holy book as pilgrims come and pray and make offerings. Mo and I sat in the temple meditating for a good hour or so.
5 times a day the entire temple complex is washed by the pilgrims with water from the lake! Just outside the temple there are places for pilgrims to stay (free) and people of all faiths are welcome. In addition to this, they serve 9000 meals a day all free! It is awesome and a testament to the Sikh faith. Mo and I picked up some literature and every time I read from it, I am more and more intrigued with the Sikhs.
Two significant things took place while we were in Amritsar. I had a meal contaminated with something (I like to believe it was not poison) and became violently ill. The Delhi Belly, Ghandi's revenge, call it what you will. I left my breakfast, lunch, and dinner in a pail in bathroom. Hotel management seemed
indifferent to my complaint about the meal I had in their restaurant. We also arrived in Amritsar on 02Nov04, election day. As most of you are probably aware, Americans re-elected that jackass George Bush.
While America is the world's first democracy, India is the world's largest democracy. Watching the election coverage was great (except for the eventual results)...Indians just couldn't believe how long it might take to have final
results. You see, in India-a third world country-when they vote, the results are
almost instantaneously known. There are no hanging chads. Even in the remote jungle electronic ballots are used. The Indian coverage of the election focused on how silly the American 'democratic' system is: the electoral college makes no sense to them## and the whole counting of votes amazed them.
Despite all of this, my Delhi belly and the intolerable George Bush reelction, my stomache felt well enough the next day and so we jumped on a 2nd class
unreserved train headed for Pathankot...3 hours away. Nothing like hardseat train rides and the trucks. Fortunately we rode with a kind Indian family and a
magniloquent Indian gentleman who befriended everyone on the train. AMy ate with the family, I politely refused not wanting to explode again. I managed to
survive the ride but it was painful.
From Pathankot we had 2 options: 3 hour bus ride to Dharamshala or 3.5 hour train ride to Kangra and half hour bus ride to Dharamshala. Well, the train ride is
supposed to be nice and I was feeling okay, so we opted for the train. Now, the
Kangra Queen, as the train is known, is an old 'toy' train-narrow gauge. Of course, the narrow cars were hard seat, first come first serve. We were able to find seats and even stowed away our luggage. After about an hour the train finally departed. We chugged along slowly through beautiful villages, green jungles, and across dry river beds. Endlessly moving towards the Indian Himalayan Mountain range. The train-certainly not an express train-stopped at every train station and cross road on the way and passengers jumped off and on. Eventually the train was loaded down with people hanging off the sides. Needless to say, the train was about 1.5 hours late into Kangra. From there, in the dark we wondered our way towards the main road where the auto-rickshaw drivers had us...there was no other way to get to the bus stand except to walk, in the dark. Well, we didn't know where we were going and despite feeling ill I was unwilling to be ripped off. An Indian family tried to get us to share the expense with them but I quickly realized that Mo and I would be subsidizing their ride (they were 5 we were 2 but we had to pay 3 times as much!?!).
We opted to walk-again against everyones advice. We had no idea where we were going (actually, the bus stand and Dharamshala-we just didn't know how to get there) and it was dark. We struck off anyway. After less than 2 K a bus picked us up.
Eventually that same bus took us to Dharamshala for a grand cost of 14 rupees/each. From Dharamshala we did not rest, instead we jumped the last bus of the night to Mcloud Ganj-where the Dalai Lama makes his home. Finally at about 10pm we arrived-exhausted and hungry but alive. What a day of travel after a night of illness.
Dharamshala-actually Mcloud Ganj and eventually Upper Daramkot-is nestled in the Indian Himalayan Mountains in a beautiful little valley. It is home to the Tibetann Government in exhile as well as thousands of Western tourists who have showed up looking for a spiritual experience. The area offers everything from yoga to meditation retreats. The ideal setting-in the Himalayans also makes it a popular place to get away from the broiling hot India. Mcloud Ganj may be located inside the boarders of India but it is not India. The number of Tibetan refugees and Western tourists make Mcloud Ganj something un-India. This is where you go when you 'loath' India but don't want to leave.
Our intention in Mcloud Ganj was to study some yoga and do a 10 day meditation retreat. Unfortunately 10 day classes had started a few days before our arrival and if we wanted to take a meditation class, we would have
to wait 15 days. On top of this, most of the yoga places had closed up shop and
headed south for the winter (it gets cold in Mcloud Ganj-it is located at 7000ft).
Unsure what to do MoWenck considered our options and decided we would wait for the next meditation class. In the mean time there was cooking classes and other yoga classes to take and we could kill the time-even remain very busy. What we didn't realize was how cold it would get. In our brilliance we had left our sleeping bags in Delhi-tired of dragging them all over the world. The cooking classes were excellent-the food was delicious and we got to eat our schoolwork. We found a good yoga instructor (Vijay!) and spent our days walking between Mcloud Ganj and Upper Daramkot. Our timing was poor, even the Dalai Lama had left town, eventually the cold got to us. I caught a fever walking home from yoga one night. We decided to abandon our meditation retreat plans and head for warmer weather in Rishikish.
So, we shared a taxi with a lady from spain to get back to Pathankot to catch an overnight train to Rishikish. Rishikish is located in the Himalayan foothills along the river Ganges. The city and the beautiful backdrop, are home to many ashrams and yoga centers, including the Marharishi Mahesh-you know, with whom the Beatles spent some time in 1968. "Dear Prudence won't you come out to play? The sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful and so are you. Dear Prudence." Anyway, Rishikish is home to every new-age philosophy, science, astrology, ashrams, yoga, Indian classical music, etc. It is also a Western Tourist destination (George Harrison continued to visit here well into the '90s) with every hippie, mystic wonderer in India eventually finding his way to Rishikish. The ashrams spread out along the river over 5 separate villages and we eventually settled in the farthest up river of these village Luxman Jhula. We found a good hotel and holed up for 7 days. We spent the time wondering around the villages, practising yoga, shopping, eating and listening to classical Indian music performances. Getting well.
Our visit to Rishikish also coincided with a Hindu holiday, Diwali. Diwali is known as the festival of light-or something to that effect. As far as I could tell it should be called the festival of "BOOM!" It seems in order to properly celebrate Diwali, every Hindu worth his Krishna's weight in gold, has to become a pyrotechnic specialist. This seemed to perticularly apply to children aged 8-17. As a kid growing up in America, I used to think it was wrong that every 4th of July we had to celebrate with Safe and Sane fireworks. I always wanted unsafe and insane...we always were scheming to get black kats or other 'illegal' fireworks. Now that I have been through a Diwali celebration in India I know why there are laws against certain fireworks in America.
Every night the streets came to life with firecrackers and other exploding, flying, sparking fireworks. Most were set off by children and walking the streets became dangerous-as the kids typical way of setting off 1/4 sticks of dynamite was to throw them, lit, randomly in the street. It was annoying and my nerves were frayed after 3 days. Finally things started to calm down and the "BOOMS!" became less frequent but I will never forget that experience.
Finally we decided it was time to be moving on so yesterday we jumped on bus headed back to Delhi. Our plan now is to head out to Rajasthan and Gujurat for the next month or so before we return to Thailand. So, in a couple of hours we will be catching a train out to Bikaner where we plan to do a camel safari in the Thar desert. What a way to spend Thanksgiving! Anyway, more little tidbits and observations:
There are so many Western tourists trying to blend in that they seem to miss the point. They all buy 'traditional' Indian clothing-although most of the clothes are actually modified traditional...very colorful and hippie-esque, and wear them like a badge of spirituality and or cultural awareness. I laugh, 'cause when I look around I noticed that most of the Indian people are trying to look Western in their attire. The Indians that do dress traditional do so tastefully and avoid the "tourist traditional" clothes. In Mcloud Ganj I saw teenaged Tibetan refugees dressed like American want-to-be gangstars. It was so ironic.
People always ask me how things are different from America. I'm always noticing how things are the same. so heres a quick list:
Post offices: they are inefficient every where in the world and we should be amazed that anything gets delivered, ever!
McDonald's: Locations are always prime. How do they do it?
Public transportation: is almost always inadequate, 'cept maybe in Taipei.
Celebrations/Holidays: The poor always seem to spend more than they should on celebrations. Diwali for example: I saw families living hand to mouth blow up $10 worth of fireworks a night.
Notes:
*Of course taking a bus from Kathmandu to the boarder and then hopping on a train to 'wherever' India is much cheaper than flying. However, there are drawbacks: 1) it is a long, restless journey on buses and trains. 2) you never know when the Maoists are going to call a strike. For simplicity and to be 'on our toes' upon arrival in India we decided to spend the $50 and fly.
**Too much Hemmingway leads to the excessive use of bullfighting
terminology. Actually, reading too much Hemmingway leads to a lot of habits-drinking too much wine, bitching and complaining, etc. But, the author has introduced me to the artistry of bullfighting and I am keen to learn more about the sport.
#The general rule I've come to learn is this: The holier the river, the dirtier it
will be.
##Indeed, international election monitors don't even bother with American presidential elections because the electoral college system does not meet international requirements for democratic elections (am I just making this up? Maybe so and maybe not).