Back from the Motherland
I guess I should come out of hibernation now… I’ve already been in Canada for over two weeks but I can’t say I’ve had any reason to have culture shock cause I’ve hardly been outside! Some jetlag and stomach issues later (damn Delhi belly!!) as well as a recent visit from sinusitis and pneumonia (feeling much better after a couple of days on antibiotics) I have emerged and thought I’d send out my last update on the Bangladesh-India extravaganza.
I don’t really know how to put into words what this experience has meant to me. Right now I guess cause I just got back, I feel like it never happened or like it was all a dream cause really… it went by so fast! Bits and pieces of my six months in Bangladesh pop into my head every once in awhile and I have to stop for a moment and really concentrate to visualize it all. Sometimes when I’m in my bed I close my eyes and try to pretend that I’m still in my room in Chittagong enclosed in a mosquito net but as hard as I try, the sounds are not there, and the often sweltering heat is not there. I can say that’s a good thing especially now that it’s been warming up.
Do I miss Chittagong? Not yet. I think of it fondly but I don’t think it’s quite hit me yet that I’ll most likely never be returning there… or that being in Canada is not part of my traveling fun and that I’ll be heading back “home” to Chitters (say that with a British accent) in a couple of days. In Kolkata (which was really nice and had so much character) I really missed Bangladesh cause of course I had just left and the people seemed so strange just across the border…. I longed for the sweet nature of the Bangladeshis but I was in the tough industrialized India… you could tell the moment you crossed the border that you were in a different world. The placed reeked of westernization, it was simultaneously shocking and relieving.
The part of my journey that’s most vivid to me now is most definitely India, although even that’s starting to feel like ages ago. It was truly a whirlwind adventure complete with a rollercoaster ride devoted entirely to my stomach. Would I try to cram the entire west coast of India into a 3 and a half week trip again? Probably not but I’m glad I did it because now I know what I’d like to explore in-depth. We visited Kolkata, Kerala (Thiruvanathapuram, Kovalam, Varkala and Kochi), Goa!! (Margao, Panaji, Calangute Beach, Anjuna Beach, Vagator Beach), Gujarat (Ahmedabad), Rajasthan (Udaipur, Jaipur), Delhi, Agra, Amritsar.
Kinda takes my breath away to say that we visited that many places in so little time… we spent like a couple of days max in each of those cities tried to take the best out of them which I think we did. My favourite places were Kerala which is in the complete south of India and it was amazing, so advanced, so liberal, so enlightened… a whole different country from the north. The beaches were beautiful, there’s 100% literacy, everyone spoke English, what a break after Bangladesh!!
We had to do the typical Goa thing… we vegged on beautiful Vagator Beach, met a really cool local band that sang alternative (in English) and went clubbing with them at Calangute Beach which is famous for partying… we didn’t do any raving which Goa is notorious for but we watched five minutes of one.. it was let’s say, interesting. Goa is so different from the rest of India you hardly realize where you are… it’s packed to the brim with tourists and has a beautiful Portuguese vibe. Try to go in the off-season…
Ahhh Gujarat… this is where I wanted to go and I do plan to return someday so that I can visit Bhuj and Khatiavar cause why go there unless you can see the real homeland!? We unfortunately didn’t have enough time to go into the interior but Sehr and I visited Ahmedabad and saw Gandhi’s Ashram, participated in a heritage walking tour through the old city which was amazing (and everything was written in Gujarati! I felt useful for once!), and went to the best restaurant, called Vishalla where they’ve recreated a Gujarati village. You sit on the floor and it’s all you can eat so the food is constantly being piled on this big leaf and it’s all yummy Gujarati vegetarian food with lots of buttermilk. It’s all outdoors, there’s music, a puppet show, it has it all!
Rajasthan is exactly how it sounds… land of kings. It is THE exotic place that you imagine when you imagine India. Palaces and forts, dancing, bright fabrics, sooo much silver jewelry. Udaipur was so quaint and felt somewhat European as everything is on the water and every hotel has a rooftop restaurant where you can admire the view and the fireworks like every night. In Jaipur we hired an autorickshaw driver for the two days we were there and we had a blast. We got into all the tourist sights at Indian prices cause we asked for our tickets in Hindi and looked the part! We visited Amber Fort on top of a hill and got up there atop an elephant.
Delhi was our final stop and our most stable resting place. We took in the sights…. So many tombs!!! Qutb Minar, the new Swaminarayan Mandir which is exquisite but sadly photos were not allowed… India Gate, etc etc etc… But Delhi was tough… as much as we’d been in the Subcontinent for the last six and a half months by then, Delhi was extremely overcrowded, didn’t exactly smell great and we were exhausted by then. We shopped a lot which exhausted us further and even stressed us out given the choice out there! Luckily we had some getaways… we took a day trip to Agra to visit the majestic Taj Mahal which I have to say, after having seen a million pictures, is even more phenomenal when it’s actually in front of you. Sadly I was REALLY sick that day and had just lost my breakfast in the parking lot bathroom… but it was still breathtaking. We tried to get in there at the Indian price (20 rupees!) but were caught when they asked us who the Chief Minister of Delhi was (outrageous!) so we had to go in at the foreigner price (750 rupees!!!). By the way, that’s like 20 bucks and after being in BD for so long, we learned to be really cheap!
Shelina and I decided to take a train and visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab so we did just that and saw it in all its glory. It was really grand and beautiful and very calming. Since we were in Punjab we hired an autorickshaw to drive us to the Pakistan border where we witness a daily miracle: soldiers from the India and Pakistan armies shake hands and the two flags are brought together in harmony. Crowds of people come to witness this and it’s a huge party. Ironically, Sehr who was born in Pakistan had a hell of a time getting her passport to get into India.
What a trip!!! We literally lived out of our backpacks, from hotel to hotel, restaurant to restaurant… at some point (somewhere after Goa) it stopped being a vacation and became work in a way. We would get off a sleeper train and go on a morning 4 hour bus tour right away. At some point in Udaipur I got really sick and I honestly think it was just my body telling me to quit for a while and just sleep. So I slept away a whole day (now that’s a waste if you’re spending two days in a place) but I felt much better thank goodness. We took really good care of ourselves otherwise, trying to be vegetarian, no raw vegetables, no water, etc.
Enter McDonalds.
Now, I’m not a big fast food junkie but after six and a half months without it… when I saw those golden arches floating over me in the middle of a busy Delhi square I couldn’t resist. I had a McChicken. Big mistake! I think the chicken itself was harmless… but the lettuce! Oh the lettuce that’s been washed in God knows what.. and the mayo!! I paid for that mistake until like a week and a half after I was back in Canada, no jokes. I paid for it on a 17 hour flight from Hong Kong to Toronto. It was not pretty. But I have learned.
As much as we complained about the bland food they gave us in Bangladesh... it kept us safe.
Now about life lessons learned while abroad… I think it’s pretty obvious for all those of you who have traveled or caught a glimpse of what’s outside our bubble. We are so lucky. And to all those Canadian passport holders out there, say a prayer to thank God that you have one and guard it with your life. Half the population wants to immigrate; everyone wants to escape the insecurity. Chittagong was bombed while I was there and Varanasi was bombed while I was next door in Delhi. The odds of that happening are not slim, this is everyday stuff and it’s scary as hell!
Nothing hit me more or stayed with me more than how genuine the people were that we met along the way. I can’t even emphasize this enough. There’s such a hunger here for more no matter how much we manage to accumulate.. there’s no satisfaction! We’re constantly looking to our neighbours and saying why can’t we have as much. But look at the class disparity in developing countries! It’s absolutely devastating, people are sleeping on the sidewalk huddled around their meager possessions and two blocks away you see sprawling mansions and manicured lawns. It kills to see this. And yet the poorest people we met seemed like the most satisfied. You always see people laughing, joking, everyone smiles at you, people sing as they labour away. There’s no tension, there’s no rush to be number one. And everyone has time for a tea break. You can say that this is the reason why they’re still underdeveloped but I think this is the reason why they’re survivors.
Now… CIDA debriefing taught me that culture shock might hit after a couple months… I feel like I’ve been adjusting pretty well so far. However I have no concept of the value of the dollar as I’ve been in taka and rupee land for so long but I do think everything is ridiculously expensive. What a spoiled nation we are! But it’s wonderful to be back and be surrounded by familiar faces again, and to have such a variety of food! And things to do! Several bottles of gravol, imodium and pepto later I sign off my final mass emailing saying… watch what you eat out there but make sure you pay the Subcontinent a visit at least once in your life.
I don’t really know how to put into words what this experience has meant to me. Right now I guess cause I just got back, I feel like it never happened or like it was all a dream cause really… it went by so fast! Bits and pieces of my six months in Bangladesh pop into my head every once in awhile and I have to stop for a moment and really concentrate to visualize it all. Sometimes when I’m in my bed I close my eyes and try to pretend that I’m still in my room in Chittagong enclosed in a mosquito net but as hard as I try, the sounds are not there, and the often sweltering heat is not there. I can say that’s a good thing especially now that it’s been warming up.
Do I miss Chittagong? Not yet. I think of it fondly but I don’t think it’s quite hit me yet that I’ll most likely never be returning there… or that being in Canada is not part of my traveling fun and that I’ll be heading back “home” to Chitters (say that with a British accent) in a couple of days. In Kolkata (which was really nice and had so much character) I really missed Bangladesh cause of course I had just left and the people seemed so strange just across the border…. I longed for the sweet nature of the Bangladeshis but I was in the tough industrialized India… you could tell the moment you crossed the border that you were in a different world. The placed reeked of westernization, it was simultaneously shocking and relieving.
The part of my journey that’s most vivid to me now is most definitely India, although even that’s starting to feel like ages ago. It was truly a whirlwind adventure complete with a rollercoaster ride devoted entirely to my stomach. Would I try to cram the entire west coast of India into a 3 and a half week trip again? Probably not but I’m glad I did it because now I know what I’d like to explore in-depth. We visited Kolkata, Kerala (Thiruvanathapuram, Kovalam, Varkala and Kochi), Goa!! (Margao, Panaji, Calangute Beach, Anjuna Beach, Vagator Beach), Gujarat (Ahmedabad), Rajasthan (Udaipur, Jaipur), Delhi, Agra, Amritsar.
Kinda takes my breath away to say that we visited that many places in so little time… we spent like a couple of days max in each of those cities tried to take the best out of them which I think we did. My favourite places were Kerala which is in the complete south of India and it was amazing, so advanced, so liberal, so enlightened… a whole different country from the north. The beaches were beautiful, there’s 100% literacy, everyone spoke English, what a break after Bangladesh!!
We had to do the typical Goa thing… we vegged on beautiful Vagator Beach, met a really cool local band that sang alternative (in English) and went clubbing with them at Calangute Beach which is famous for partying… we didn’t do any raving which Goa is notorious for but we watched five minutes of one.. it was let’s say, interesting. Goa is so different from the rest of India you hardly realize where you are… it’s packed to the brim with tourists and has a beautiful Portuguese vibe. Try to go in the off-season…
Ahhh Gujarat… this is where I wanted to go and I do plan to return someday so that I can visit Bhuj and Khatiavar cause why go there unless you can see the real homeland!? We unfortunately didn’t have enough time to go into the interior but Sehr and I visited Ahmedabad and saw Gandhi’s Ashram, participated in a heritage walking tour through the old city which was amazing (and everything was written in Gujarati! I felt useful for once!), and went to the best restaurant, called Vishalla where they’ve recreated a Gujarati village. You sit on the floor and it’s all you can eat so the food is constantly being piled on this big leaf and it’s all yummy Gujarati vegetarian food with lots of buttermilk. It’s all outdoors, there’s music, a puppet show, it has it all!
Rajasthan is exactly how it sounds… land of kings. It is THE exotic place that you imagine when you imagine India. Palaces and forts, dancing, bright fabrics, sooo much silver jewelry. Udaipur was so quaint and felt somewhat European as everything is on the water and every hotel has a rooftop restaurant where you can admire the view and the fireworks like every night. In Jaipur we hired an autorickshaw driver for the two days we were there and we had a blast. We got into all the tourist sights at Indian prices cause we asked for our tickets in Hindi and looked the part! We visited Amber Fort on top of a hill and got up there atop an elephant.
Delhi was our final stop and our most stable resting place. We took in the sights…. So many tombs!!! Qutb Minar, the new Swaminarayan Mandir which is exquisite but sadly photos were not allowed… India Gate, etc etc etc… But Delhi was tough… as much as we’d been in the Subcontinent for the last six and a half months by then, Delhi was extremely overcrowded, didn’t exactly smell great and we were exhausted by then. We shopped a lot which exhausted us further and even stressed us out given the choice out there! Luckily we had some getaways… we took a day trip to Agra to visit the majestic Taj Mahal which I have to say, after having seen a million pictures, is even more phenomenal when it’s actually in front of you. Sadly I was REALLY sick that day and had just lost my breakfast in the parking lot bathroom… but it was still breathtaking. We tried to get in there at the Indian price (20 rupees!) but were caught when they asked us who the Chief Minister of Delhi was (outrageous!) so we had to go in at the foreigner price (750 rupees!!!). By the way, that’s like 20 bucks and after being in BD for so long, we learned to be really cheap!
Shelina and I decided to take a train and visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab so we did just that and saw it in all its glory. It was really grand and beautiful and very calming. Since we were in Punjab we hired an autorickshaw to drive us to the Pakistan border where we witness a daily miracle: soldiers from the India and Pakistan armies shake hands and the two flags are brought together in harmony. Crowds of people come to witness this and it’s a huge party. Ironically, Sehr who was born in Pakistan had a hell of a time getting her passport to get into India.
What a trip!!! We literally lived out of our backpacks, from hotel to hotel, restaurant to restaurant… at some point (somewhere after Goa) it stopped being a vacation and became work in a way. We would get off a sleeper train and go on a morning 4 hour bus tour right away. At some point in Udaipur I got really sick and I honestly think it was just my body telling me to quit for a while and just sleep. So I slept away a whole day (now that’s a waste if you’re spending two days in a place) but I felt much better thank goodness. We took really good care of ourselves otherwise, trying to be vegetarian, no raw vegetables, no water, etc.
Enter McDonalds.
Now, I’m not a big fast food junkie but after six and a half months without it… when I saw those golden arches floating over me in the middle of a busy Delhi square I couldn’t resist. I had a McChicken. Big mistake! I think the chicken itself was harmless… but the lettuce! Oh the lettuce that’s been washed in God knows what.. and the mayo!! I paid for that mistake until like a week and a half after I was back in Canada, no jokes. I paid for it on a 17 hour flight from Hong Kong to Toronto. It was not pretty. But I have learned.
As much as we complained about the bland food they gave us in Bangladesh... it kept us safe.
Now about life lessons learned while abroad… I think it’s pretty obvious for all those of you who have traveled or caught a glimpse of what’s outside our bubble. We are so lucky. And to all those Canadian passport holders out there, say a prayer to thank God that you have one and guard it with your life. Half the population wants to immigrate; everyone wants to escape the insecurity. Chittagong was bombed while I was there and Varanasi was bombed while I was next door in Delhi. The odds of that happening are not slim, this is everyday stuff and it’s scary as hell!
Nothing hit me more or stayed with me more than how genuine the people were that we met along the way. I can’t even emphasize this enough. There’s such a hunger here for more no matter how much we manage to accumulate.. there’s no satisfaction! We’re constantly looking to our neighbours and saying why can’t we have as much. But look at the class disparity in developing countries! It’s absolutely devastating, people are sleeping on the sidewalk huddled around their meager possessions and two blocks away you see sprawling mansions and manicured lawns. It kills to see this. And yet the poorest people we met seemed like the most satisfied. You always see people laughing, joking, everyone smiles at you, people sing as they labour away. There’s no tension, there’s no rush to be number one. And everyone has time for a tea break. You can say that this is the reason why they’re still underdeveloped but I think this is the reason why they’re survivors.
Now… CIDA debriefing taught me that culture shock might hit after a couple months… I feel like I’ve been adjusting pretty well so far. However I have no concept of the value of the dollar as I’ve been in taka and rupee land for so long but I do think everything is ridiculously expensive. What a spoiled nation we are! But it’s wonderful to be back and be surrounded by familiar faces again, and to have such a variety of food! And things to do! Several bottles of gravol, imodium and pepto later I sign off my final mass emailing saying… watch what you eat out there but make sure you pay the Subcontinent a visit at least once in your life.
posted by Salima :) at 1:56 p.m.
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