What does McDonalds India serve? Nothing with pork or beef. I had a McMaharaja and Danielle had the McSpicy. Mine was the chicken curry equiviant of the BigMac and Danielles was a spicy chicken wrap. It was good... but not that good. I look forward to a real BigMac when I get home.
The silly short-sighted person I was would have wondered what the heck these things were a few years ago. Since we have been on a few trips, we realized these were local fruits right away. Its always interesting to try something new, especially something that you cant find at home. I have no idea what these are called. The spiky fruits tasted like a cucumber and the large round one was the most sour fruit I have ever tasted.
India is crowded. I was expecting some degree of crowdedness because we have been to a few places (Bangkok, Beijing, Seoul, Rome, Istanbul) that I would think were really crowded. This place takes the cake. Its not just the crowdedness, its the lack of basic human services like sewer and clean drinking water that really make it more crowded. The streets are covered with lakes of muddy urine water, mainly because it rainy season but also due in large part to government corruption siphoning funds away from government works projects.
So... What do I think about India? Not much. We have quickly learned that the price for a local is not what we pay for anything. Its sad really. You have to bargain for everything. A bottle of water that the locals buy for 10Rupees for us might cost 100R. The first few times I just paid but now I dont pay anything. Another kinda smart move we use when getting into a Tuktuk is asking a well dressed Indian guy on the street to hail it for us. Twice, this worked out well. The taxi thinks its a local and then we hop in and only pay the price the Indian guy agreed on. Another annoying aspect is the staring. I asked Danielle when we got here to cover herself up and for the most part she has done a great job, but the creepy Indian guys still stare and still come up and try to pick her up. A common question we get is... "Sister or Wife". Its almost like she is for sale if she is my sister. I think this because we read some personal ads in the local newspaper. Things like... "Family looking to make business arrangement and marriage for beautiful daughter". Its a really foreign concept to us. The other thing is the filth. It is filthy here. Its just like Nepal where everyone just throws their trash in the street. Wanna take a pee? Pee right where you are standing. Finished with that bowl of curry? Throw it right here. Stranger yet is all the locals wear sandals. They walk through the piss and rainwater mud mixed with garbage and dont flinch. Where me and Danielle tippy toe through everything. Its also not uncommon to see people sitting in the garbage filled mud. Mostly injured stray dogs are also a common part of life. I dont know... Its hard to explain what its like without seeing it and smelling it.
Agra fort was an interesting British relic that was left when the British left sometime earlier this century. The halls and courtyards are actually kept maintained. Read more about it here. The only annoyance for travelers... "One Photo". I wonder how many slaves were used to build something like this, and I wonder where I can acquire that many slaves. I think I deserve a castle.
Right down the street from our Hotel, there is a culture program in a small community center. Boys from the village come to perform old dances from Nepalese history. They were sword fighting dances with a lot of choreography. The boys all had sticks and would dance around doing mock fights with each other all in unison. I thought it was pretty impressive.
Near Chitwan park is a great little hotel called Tiger Camp. It would be highly recommended to anyone who wants to stay near the park. The staff is great and speaks good English. They can help you book any adventure you want to go on. This is the view from right outside our room on the river looking into the park.
What do you do with garbage in Nepal? Take it to the local repository? No. You dump it in the river. Countless times on this trip we have seen people throwing bags of trash in the holy rivers on Nepal. Most of these rivers are said to the residing places for the Buddhist and Hindu deities. However, little respect is paid when it comes to taking out the trash. Its sad really to see such an amazing landscape littered with trash. (Pictured: a pile of burning garbage on the banks of the river)
The World Peace Stupa was interesting but I do not recommend hiking up to it. The sign at the bottom of the mountain claims it is 2.5km up the mountain. I guess if they are talking vertical feet then I believe them. The trail we took went around the mountain several times and took us about 45min on a motorcycle. On the way down we saw some suckers hoofing it up the mountain. If you want to know more about the Peace Pagodas read here or if you want to know about this Peace Pagoda in Nepal read here. There are 80 of these Pagodas constructed all over the world. There are even some in the good old USA.
When we were in Pohkara, we decided instead of paying for a touristy arrianged tour we would rent a motorcycle and drive around and see what we could see. The motorcycle rental was cheap, about $15USD. We decided on going up to the top of some mountain to see one of the 100 World Peace Pagodas. The ride was rough but we made it to the top. The Pagoda was not as spectacular as the tour guides touted but it had an amazing view. We accidentally drove up the wrong road the first time and turned around to see this amazing view of the Pagoda.
Armenia is a poor country and there are more "Armenians" in Los Angelos than in Armenia. It is a proud, corrupt and sad country. It is a country that has been beaten up by every other country that has conquered them. They have been conquered by both Turkey and the Soviet Union in just the last 100 years. Armenia is a country without hope. Many of our Peace Corps friends told us that they are depressed going to work everyday because it seems like no one is doing anything. The people are sad because there is no opportunity - or more likely - they do not seize opportunities that come to them. Armenia has a run-down infrastructure. Everything that is running in this country is from the Soviet Union or earlier. This makes for tough going when it comes to buying a car... it must be imported at great expense (mostly because Armenia is landlocked and broke its ties with Turkey, its greatest trading partner, over the rights to Mt. Ararat). There are 8 oligarchs who run the country and are amazingly wealthy but most of that wealth is built on the backs of people who work for little or no money. 
There was a contingent of Hungarian soccer hooligans staying at our hostel for a few days. They invited us to the Armenia vs. Hungary soccer game that was on Friday. We went but we did not sit with them. They were shirtless and wasted. As you can see from the picture, the stadium was empty. Thankfully for us, the game was free. There were probably 6 Hungarian guys who went to the game but I think they were cheering louder than the 200 Armenian fans. A line of police seperated the two groups of spectators for safety reason, I guess. Hungary won 2-0.
One day, we went to the Ararat Cognac Distillery. It was a fun trip, mostly because it was so cheap and we got to sample some "Cognac". I say Cognac in quotes because it is not considered Cognac by the rest of the world. Cognac must be made in the Cognac region of France. If you buy this product in the US it will be labeled brandy. Other than that, it was tasty. I would recommend the tour to anyone. It only cost 3500 dram for each of us to visit the distillery and have a generous tasting.
