Notes about life on the Salazmeyer Indian Roadshow

Stanley here. We're in Pondicherry now after a 42 hour train ride (wherein we learned that all 2AC train cars are not created equal) and it's a relaxing place to be although not as pleasantly cool as Darjeeling. The food is excellent so far and our accommodations are funky in the best possible way.

So far this has been a fantastic trip. I keep looking out the window of the cab or out over the darkened city from my hotel balcony and saying something along the lines of,"Damn. I love this." I find this funny because a couple of people in Dubai told us it would be awful. One of them told us that it's a very difficult place to travel but we'd love it if we went with the right attitude and the other told us we should pick someplace else to go. Everyone else just told us our itinerary was too aggressive and we should scale it back. As it turns out, it's not all that difficult to get around (except in Delhi) and it's far from awful. However, I must admit that when I look back over the blog I realize that we've offered a slightly sanitized version of the wonders of India. The truth is, it's a developing nation that's very densely populated and so it doesn't always smell good and it's not always clean and there's a lot of poverty. I assume our readership already knew that, but I figured I should mention it in the spirit of full disclosure. Still, it was the perfect destination for us this summer. It's huge and strange and diverse and different from anyplace I've ever been before. We keep saying things like, "This reminds me of Latin America." or "This reminds me of China" but it's only vaguely like those places and really it's not like anything besides India.

Ten things I've figured out thus far:
1) Call ahead for accommodations about 24 hours in advance.
2) If there's a mosquito net, use it.
3) Incense chases bugs away.
4) Walk in the street, not on the sidewalk. (Strange but true.)
5) Always have an idea how much things should cost.
5a) If you don't know, always say the first price is "crazy".
6) Western levels of bathroom cleanliness are a bourgeois affectation.
7) Wherever you go, people are generally helpful and generous.
7a) except in Delhi.
8) Trust your instincts. If you think you're getting hustled, you probably are.
9) The food from man who works for himself and runs onto the train at the platform is better than the food from the man who works serving food for the railroad.
10) The world is a rich freaking tapestry.