Travelling in India is one of the best things ever. In most situations/places travelling overnight to save on accommodation costs results in a night of little sleep, and a day of grumpy sightseeing. This isn't the case in India. I have only travelled a couple times as yet, but the cross-country journey was fabulous. I met lovely local people on the first trip, and on the second it was a tourist mini-United Nations. We shared stories and food, and each time I got about 10 hours of really good sleep. This could be due to the fact that my minor super power is sleep, or it could be that they are just that good.
There are some logistical difficulties--sometimes figuring out your platform or when your stop will come is a little difficult, but people seem willing to help.
About the only thing I didn't like about my train trip, was--after explaining what job I used to do in the real world--a nice Indian man proceeded to quiz me on how to build websites. After badgering me into talking about this (despite me repeatedly telling him, that it didn't really work that way, and that I wasn't a programmer), he took notes, and invited me over to his family's for post-Holi feast food, and to teach him more how to build a website. Patricia would be proud of the example wireframe I sketched for him.
He wanted to build this website about spirituality/divinity and Varanasi. He also wanted to make it like Facebook or Twitter, so that it was a community, and he wondered if National Geographic would want to fund it. Suffice to say, despite really really wanting to go to that dinner--if only to taste homemade Indian food--I proceeded to accidentally lose that phone number.
There are some logistical difficulties--sometimes figuring out your platform or when your stop will come is a little difficult, but people seem willing to help.
About the only thing I didn't like about my train trip, was--after explaining what job I used to do in the real world--a nice Indian man proceeded to quiz me on how to build websites. After badgering me into talking about this (despite me repeatedly telling him, that it didn't really work that way, and that I wasn't a programmer), he took notes, and invited me over to his family's for post-Holi feast food, and to teach him more how to build a website. Patricia would be proud of the example wireframe I sketched for him.
He wanted to build this website about spirituality/divinity and Varanasi. He also wanted to make it like Facebook or Twitter, so that it was a community, and he wondered if National Geographic would want to fund it. Suffice to say, despite really really wanting to go to that dinner--if only to taste homemade Indian food--I proceeded to accidentally lose that phone number.
ah yes. This is the worst part about travelling: convincing people that you can't help them do what they need. I had all sorts of variations on this, usually sponsoring people's children in the US, getting them Visas, buying them computers, writing president Obama for help... I'd do the things I could and just have to not do the things I couldn't. I do find that Americans (at least, may you New Zealanders, too) are so indirect in the ways we say no, that I actually think that sometimes people don't take us seriously. "oh, I can't really do that" is much more ambiguous than saying "no, I can't". For us it's a politeness thing, but for people I interacted with, they thought it meant I wasn't serious. Doesn't make it any easier, but it's the explanation I came up with.
ReplyDeleteLoving your posts!
ReplyDeleteHey Leslie,
ReplyDeleteYeah, it is hard being so rich, relatively, yet not in the way that they think? If that makes sense.
Oh, and New Zealanders are the best at the indirect/subtle response. I'm not actually the perfect example of this, but I'm sure I have enough of it to confuse others.
Hope you're doing great!
M