Indian Summer

Looking back it struck me that I really failed to write anything of substance regarding our trip to India - which considering what a big trip it was, is a rather monumental failing on my part.

I did a quick photo blog of Lav's wedding, which does nicely sum everything up - it was absurdly delightful and I am now the owner of not one, but two saris. So let me please just insert a plea here to all my Indian friends, please have a large traditional Indian wedding and please invite me - just so I can say I wore them twice.

Underestimating what a toll a week-long Indian wedding takes on a person, a few other friends and I opted to stay on in India for another 10 days. Wedding festivities completed we flew north to Delhi - the home of our friend Ankit, whose outrageous hospitality and help is unlikely to ever be superseded (even by my own mother) and I am I still trying to figure out how to best thank him.

Settling in nicely to Ankit's beautiful home (hand-carved marble staircase from Rajasthan, you know, normal stuff) we took to the sites of Delhi. Ankit lives in Greater Kailash II, so for anyone who has read The White Tiger, you'll have a pretty good picture of what it's like - if you haven't read it, read it and find out for yourself - it's a terrific read.

I digress. We spent some time in Delhi, including a sunset trip to the Lotus Temple, the Red Fort and a rickshaw ride around Chandni Chowk (a large market in old Delhi). Now I've seen a lot of markets - I have market fatigue the way people get church and castle fatigue in Europe. But even Chandi Chowk did not fail to impress, it is dirty (filthy really), beautiful and positively bursting at the seams.

I'm also fairly certain that given the right opportunities our rickshaw driver could have been an Olympic athlete. I imagine he was probably younger than he actually looked (he could have been anywhere between 40-70), but he was 100% muscle and sinew and hauled two of us around (probably weighing in at a solid 250lbs between us) like it was all part of a normal days work (which of course it was).

Now, this would have been impressive just based on the presence of 250lbs of white girls in his rickshaw. Add to that: narrowed, busy, cramped, and wildly uneven dirt paths and roads and 90+ degree heat. It was truly phenomenal, and mercifully spared myself the indignity of joining the general bustle and having to dodge sewers, dog faeces, live electrical wires and other life-threatening obstacles. We did take a few major potholes (ravines might be a more accurate description) at some speed and I was congratulating myself on the purchase of a better than usual travel insurance policy. We survived, and paid him what Ankit assured us was an exorbitant sum, but still less than any of you earned per hour in your lowest-paying job ever.

Delhi is a big city, as of 2011, the 8th largest in the world with a population approaching 17 million (22 for the metro area). So secure in that knowledge, the sheer mass of humanity that you encounter at every turn is utterly unsurprising, so it wasn't until we set off for the countryside that India's massive population really made an impression on me.

After chickening out on a trip to Srinigar, the summer capital of India-occupied Kashmir (I'll get there eventually) we settled on an ambitious tour of the 'Golden Triangle'. The Golden Triangle takes in Agra (ie the Taj Mahal, Agra is otherwise a verifiable dump) and Jaipur, perhaps the crown jewel of Mogul India. And more on all that in the next (belated) Indian installment.