A day in India...

Hi all,
We made it out of India. I didn't think we were going to. For some reason I thought our bad karma had caught up with us and we were damned to live out our days there.

A day in the life in India
So to give you an indication of why traveling in India was difficult, here is a typical day. For this day we had 2 things to do: 1) buy train tickets for our onward journey and 2) take a bus to see the important site in the area. First we tried to buy our onward tickets over the Internet; first thing in the morning we go to the net cafe and just as we were about to make the purchase the power shuts down (typical in India). So OK, no problem, we go have breakfast which undoubtedly is an amazing meal because most of our meals in India were. We go back to the internet place and the power has come back on, so we try again. now just as we put in our credit card details and the page looks like it's processing, it fails with no useful message what so ever. Ok, not a big deal, we'll just go down to the train station and buy the tickets.
Before we leave the net cafe we ask the owner about the buses to the site we want to see. He says the buses stop running for about 3 hours and we should probably take a taxi. Warning bells go off in my head and we say thanks and that we'll think about it. He probably has a friend who drives a taxi and the taxi driver will hike up the price so this guy gets a commission. We go to the train station and are are able to buy the tickets but not without having to force ourselves into the line (or lack thereof) and being yelled at unneccesarily by the ticket vendor who couldn't count and couldn't speak English.
Ok so we have our train tickets and now it's time to see our site for the day. We ask around and sure enough the buses don't stop running and they leave every hour. So we haggle with the bike-taxi driver to get us to the bus station and get the price down to a reasonable amount although it's till about 50% above what locals pay. The taxi driver drops us off directly in front of the bus and the bus driver rushes us into the bus. Warning bells go off again as things are moving too fast but the driver seems like an impatient person so I let it go.
We sit on the bus while more people get on and I keep hearing the word "ticket" through the mess of Hindi that's being spoken. Warning bells go off again and finally I ask the bus driver if we need a ticket. He says no but I'm skeptical, I get off the bus and ask around. turns out I do need a ticket. If we leave and I don't have one then the driver can charge whatever he wants. So we dodge that one.
The bus gets going but not without packing people in like sardines. People are just about sitting on our laps and there are people hanging off the side of the bus and as we go we stop and somehow squeeze more people on. We finally get to our destination and go to the sit; which of course is amazing and ancient, and in great condition. we buy our ticket and are assaulted by people wanting to be our guides and who dont take no for an answer. One is so persistant that I have to stop, confront him, and forcibly tell him to go away. He does.
We finish at the site and wait for the bus to bring us back to town. But of course it's not without hassle as taxi drivers bother us the entire 15 minutes we wait for the bus. They're aggressive and don't take no for answer. Even with a forcible "No!" they still wont go away. We finally make it back to the hotel, have a great dinner and exhaustedly go to sleep.


Now while that doesn't sound like much; doing it day after day can be very draining. We have talked to people who love India, have stayed there for 6 months and would go back in a heartbeat. I don't know why, I would like to go back at some point but the thought of going back soon makes me cringe.

Now in Cambodia
So now we're in Cambodia and having a great time. It's a lot different then India and a lot more relaxing. Not as loud or fast paced and people are a lot friendlier. More to come on Cambodia as we de-stress.