Saturday, May 06, 2006

So much for the health office

Well I guess I am not invincible. I've had a case of "Delhi-belly" this week which kept me away from work one day and popping Immodium for the other days. After sleeping for 13 hrs and eating toast with jam for 3 days I think it is finally under control. I'll save you the details because I'm sure nobody wants to hear them. I don't even want to type them

Tommorrow we are heading to the Ajanta Caves so there should be some more photos to post soon.

d

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Our driver "Mario"

Okay, so our driver's name is not actually "Mario" but that is the name Jonathan has given him because he reminds us of Andretti. I should tell you all a little more about the driving here now that I'm starting to see how it "really" works.

First of all they drive on the left side of the road here, most of the time. The traffic is usually so packed that you have only a few inches of space between each car, motorcycle, bicycle, or pedestrian. Most of the roads in the city are 2 lanes, but 3 1/2 lanes of traffic fill it up. If there is a gap ahead of you you fill it. Even if it means you have to cut someone off or take up half a lane.

The traffic lights are interesting because there are some that people pay attention to and others they just ignore all together. From what I can tell the big intersections are the ones where they sort of obey them. What I do like is that there is a counter beside the red light which indicates how long the light will be. What is hilarious is that at about the 5 second mark people start going before the light has turned from red to green! They just start sneeking out there and once one guy goes they ALL go!

So back to Mario. This guy is kind of nutz. He drives like he needs to get back to a hot date who won't wait for him. The roads here are super bumpy but most of the time he does care. He just drives through anything. If a car is in front of him he'll come right up on their ass, blare the horn, and swerve out of the way to pass him. He drives into oncomming traffic. Turns on his high beams when cars approach. Yes that is right, he does it when the traffic is coming at him and not the other way around.

At this point Jonathan and I just laugh at this driving. We figure if we are not dead yet he won't kill us.

Cheers all

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

You can add comments now

I found a setting that will allow you to add comments without signing up to Blogger. Now, comment away!

Mahabaleshwar

Last weekend we went to a place called Mahabaleshwar (trying saying it 5 times fast). It is a very old nature park area about 120 km from Pune. It is high in the mountains and extremely lush and green. There are many temples in this area that we visited and some amazing lookout points. There is even one look out point that has such strong air currents that you can toss a bottle cap over the edge and it will fly back up over your head. With this being said people throw pretty much anything over the edge and there is a lot of garbage :( Here are a few photos from the day.























Some of you are wondering why I have a swastik in my blog. These are everywhere here in India. It also represents a religious Buddhist symbol.

Malarone is fun!

Before I came to India I had to visit the travel health office. They pumped me up full of vaccines and gave me a bunch of drugs so that I don't get sick here. By the time I was done there I felt like a human pin cushion. One of the drugs they gave me which worried me a little was Malarone. It is an anti-malaria drug which is supposed to throw your stomach for a loop when you take it. As it turns out it has a slightly different side effect as well. It is reported that people taking have very vivid dreams.

Luckily I'm one of those people! My dreams lately have been really fun. So far I've dreamt about ET transmorphing into a little 8 yr old girl, me being Super Man flying around, Beverly Hills Cop (because I heard the song at dinner one night), taking an ex-GF out on the town (no it wasn't a dirty dream).

Hopefully I have some more wacky dreams to report because I've been looking forward to my sleeps.