Travel Comparison

Jim's 2008 Trips: (I know I'm missing some)

Jan:
San Jose, CA
Wash. D.C.
Feb:
Phoenix, AZ
Seoul, S. Korea
Mar:
NJ
Rochester, NY
Apr:
Wash. D.C.
May:
San Jose, CA
England
June:
Taipai, Taiwan
Rochester, NY
Singapore
July:
Bozeman, MT
Aug:
San Diego, CA
Sept:
Paris, France
Oct:
Rochester, NY
Nov:
England
Mexico
Dec:
India
Boston


compared to ...

Margy's 2008 Trips:

back and forth to work in Tucson, AZ

Nov:
day trip to Phoenix, AZ to buy an accent table

Still no travel this year

Test blog post via iPhone.

Previous Trips

Pictures (without commentary) from my previous travels are located on my website:

travel.chaoscanyon.net

This site contains picture slideshows, gps logs and google earth links for my trips past present and future.

Incredible India

Some of you may have seen the recent ad campaign called "Incredible India" that attempts to get people to visit India. I first visited India in Dec 2005. After that trip the person I traveled with and myself vowed never to return. However due to some inexplicable mental relapse we returned in Dec 2007. I will share how "incredible" India is by describing this most recent trip as well as events from the 2005 trip. I think India is a place where you either love it or hate it.

Final Trip Summary:
Incredible India alright: Incredibly dirty, disgusting, polluted, disorganized, dysfunctional, depressing.
Rating: If I give China a 10 then India would be a 2. Apparently they did not learn anything from the British.
Likeliness to return: NO WAY! We are not even sure why we went back a second time. Sure there are beautiful things to see in India but it is not worth the struggle to get to them and the exposure to a US lifetime of pollution.
Highlights: Did see one-horned rhinos and in 2005 Taj Mahal, Gandhi's memorial, India Gate, Agra fort, various temples, stuck my hand in the polluted Ganges (used hand sanitizer shortly after), picked up some very nice Jaipur, Rajasthan paintings and rode on an elephant.

Remembering 2005:

Packing for the trip included packing some food. The 2005 trip also included the Steripen a device to UV sterilize our water. In 2005 at a conference in Dehradun we were disgusted by what we had observed. Food was being served on plates/bowls then the used plates/bowls were gathered up dipped in a tub of grayish black water and wiped down with a dirty brown (but originally white) towel and food was served to the next person using this "sanitized" plate/bowl. We were very careful about what and where we ate but still got a little sick with my friend getting extremely sick. Good thing we brought along the antibiotic Cipro.

The "squat" toilets and even the men's urinals were disgusting, in fact the guys I was with even found one men's bathroom was so dirty and smelly they would not use it. I did take toilet paper along knowing that in many third world countries toilet paper is not used, besides it is always good to bring some along. For this trip the antibiotic changed because the bugs in India were now resistant to Cipro. So until the next resistant bugs come along pack Azithromycin.

2007 Trip:

After packing the essentials: antibiotic, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, steripen and FOOD, we were off to India again for another conference. Unfortunately TSA took my small jar of peanut butter but we did have our tuna, trail mix, breakfast bars, and snacks.

This time we flew to Delhi, onto Guwahati and then road travel to Tezpur. As soon as you walk out of the Delhi airport the air pollution is so bad your throat immediately becomes irritated. This certainly did not get any better from the 2005 trip. I originally thought the pollution in China was bad but China seems clean compared to India. Imagine a mildly foggy day except it is pollution instead of fog. We'll probably have black spots on our lungs from the pollution. I found this sign in Guwahati. Some nice refreshing clean oxygen would have been nice.

After arriving in Guwahti we were to be picked up and driven to Tezpur. We didn't know that this meant that our transportation would be a dilapidated bus. The bus had minimal leg room and no luggage storage so our suitcases had to go where our legs should go and our carry on had to sit on our lap. This wasn't for a short ride, it was for 6.5 hours on Indian streets bouncing up and down and swerving from side to side. Particularly comfortable after flying from Tucson to Chicago to Delhi then to Guwahati.

We dare not to drink anything to avoid having to go to the bathroom which apparently would mean stopping the bus so you could piss on the side of the road (we were the only non Indians and so this behaviour seems to be entirely acceptable even considering the others on the bus were Indian College Professors also going to the conference).

I was unable to capture a picture of the man peeing in a creek running in front of the Assam State Department of Water Quality!

After about 4 hours they stopped the bus to eat (except us since this was a roadside hut that also fixed tires).

Finally there might be a place for me to go to the bathroom. Good thing I had my toilet paper with me. I don't know what they do but as a woman I don't drip dry or shake it off. Unfortunately I didn't have any cleanroom booties to protect my shoes from the unsanitary floor.

We did make it to Tezpur and were offered "conference" food which we declined in favor of a tuna pouch later that night in our room. It turns out we had to stay in a more secure location than the other guests because we were the only Americans and there had been recent problems in the area. This was a good thing because I would hate to see what the other place looked like (I believe it would have been in a dorm). Instead we stayed in a VIP house in Tezpur inside a guarded compound. If the president were to stay in Tezpur this would be the place.

The bed was hard, the room was a little smelly but not too bad. In 2005 our room smelled like a mold factory and if you looked behind the curtain the wall and curtain backside was covered in mold so this was an improvement. I brought along a LED UV flashlight but I did not use it on this trip - I just didn't want to know. We did have a nice purple western toilet with bright pink toilet paper. There was not a shower stall or bath tub but a shower sprayer which meant getting everything else in the bathroom wet including our pink TP. I liked how the product stickers were never taken off of the toilet or sink.

The place had the advantage of having our own cook and dining room so we could get food prepared that we could safely eat.

Kaziranga National Park:

They did let us escape to go to the park to see the Indian one-horned rhino. This was the highpoint of the entire trip. These animals are HUGE.

The women's bathroom at the park seemed nice. All stalls but one were squat toilets, however there must have been a higher demand for squat toilets because someone had peed on the floor of the stall with the western toilet.

Conference:

The conference was disorganized and the paper presentations were as horrible as expected. They didn't have any schedules preplanned and "due to security reasons" they held us captive. My friend had to chair a session for 2 hours being told so 2 mins before and then was forced to attend another meeting. We left Tezpur a day early since they would not let us do anything (although we did get to go to a park to see the rhinos, we were uncertain they would let us do that).

Guwahati:

If you would like to get "Delhi Belly" try some fresh squeezed cane sugar juice from a street cart.

If you are a Cotton College Professor in Guwahati this is where you get to live.

But remember don't bribe the officers...


New Delhi:
What would Delhi be without the Rhesus monkeys...

We went to a craft fair and I saw this cool sign for a neat idea. Making paper gift products out of elephant poo. I would like the job of sorting out the unusable fiber! (Link)

Airports:

The airport staff are dysfunctional. One bag screener didn't know what a camera lens was. You get the wonderful body pat down treatment and before the flight to the US they made you take off your shoes then they fondled your feet yet didn't check your shoes. To even get into the airport you have to show your ticket so we had to argue with the guard at the door to let us in because we did not have paper tickets and he didn't know what an electronic ticket was.

For our flight within India they bussed us out to the tarmac then we stood around inhaling the fumes and jet fuel from the many jets with running engines surrounding us.

Just before the American counter we had to answer security questions yet the woman was an idiot and was making me irritable after an already irritable trip. Besides the usual questions such as "is it your bag, did you pack it yourself and has it been in your possession all the time" she wanted to know how long I have owned any electronic devices I had. Since I was carrying many I said "for years". This was not good enough she wanted to know the exact time for every electronic item. I said "It could be 1 to 5 years" this still was not good enough for her. "I then said do you want me to produce the original receipts" of course this made her snotty and she repeated that she needed to know exactly how long I have owned everything. So I replied "look I'm just trying to get out of your disgusting country as soon as possible so fine. I have owned everything for exactly 2 years". Ironically this seems to satisfy her which is probably good otherwise I might have gotten in real trouble arguing more with her regardless of how stupid she was. Since we had plenty of time my next step would have been to thoughtfully determine the exact purchase date and time of ownership for every item I owned.

Whew...Finally on the plane to fly to Chicago. It tells something when the flight attendants have to announce to the passengers that they should not make a mess in the bathroom, they should use the toilet and flush it and the the sink is only to be used as a sink. Thankfully we weren't in coach.

Proof of Location: