In Jaipur, meet the humorous uncle
The size of India is not in its territory, but in its unique customs and all-encompassing.
Not to mention the abolition of the caste system, which is still far-reaching, just the habits and customs of Ganges bathing, cremation, yoga, god worship, animal worship, etc., make people curious and want to go to find out.
Habits and customs are formed from history and culture. Ancient India is one of the four ancient civilizations, and its cultural diversity can be called the forefront of the world, perhaps the most in the world. Historically, it has been invaded and conquered many times, so the character of the Indians is complex and sensitive. Of course, the national character of other countries is also complex and sensitive, but India has more than 100 ethnic groups, more than 2,000 languages, 300 million gods, and in terms of cultural diversity, it is very dead.
In New Delhi, challenge the flame haircut
Choosing a backpack to challenge India, I believe there will be many different experiences. Of course, the most realistic thing is that the more unique the place, the more attention, which is usually said to be traffic - you can earn money through self-media.
In order to gain a deeper understanding of India, I volunteered in welfare homes, visited slums, had frequent contact with low-level Indians, and went to places that tourists don't usually go. Frankly speaking, the 30-day rampage has made me gain a lot of insights, meet all kinds of Indians, experience the meaning of the theme of "India is the ultimate challenge for backpackers", have good memories, but more is physically and mentally exhausted, thinking back to the heart.
I remember returning to Guangzhou Customs, and when I saw the staff, I almost went up to hug her. Fortunately, the sound of the broadcast made me stop, otherwise this travelogue would have been written in the bureau. Now that I think of the intimate feeling of meeting my countrymen and my compatriots, my heart is still warm. I don't recognize her as a little sister.
An Indian girl met in New Delhi
The experiences of the trip to India are hard for me to forget, because they have upended my original understanding time and again. Let's start with a few brief aspects.
The disparity between rich and poor is greater than imagined. Such a gap can no longer be described as a chasm, it is simply the Mariana Trench. In most of the cities I went to (except Jaipur and Khajuraho), I would encounter beggars who were besieging and asking for money. Once, wandering around kolkata's Howrah train station and feeling good on the city streets, these neighborhoods are quite normal. Then I stumbled into the slums, the flies flew around, the smell was bad, and it was then that I reacted, and it turned out that the slums did not appear in pieces, but were intermittently and uninterruptedly distributed in the city (later found that many cities in India are like this). I've been looking for opportunities to get out of this precinct, because my sense of sight, smell, and touch is constantly being impacted, and it's really unbearable. The pickled place made me walk on tiptoe unconsciously; all kinds of garbage accumulated, mixed fermentation formed a choking smell; the bite of flies and mosquitoes, from physical attack to chemical attack, made my arms and neck itch. There was a huge highway in front of me, and there were a lot of buildings near the road, and when I thought I was about to turn around, I was disappointed in the blink of an eye - on the way to the road, I had to cross a bridge, and the garbage under the bridge was piled up, the sacred cows were foraging freely, and the Indians were walking freely in it, but I crept and did not fit in.
The sacred cow strolled and took the initiative to avoid it
The Indians' "Path of Peace and Poverty". Hinduism has a saying of reincarnation, which, in simple terms, if one is content with suffering in this life, one will be reincarnated into a high-caste wealthy class in the next life. As everyone knows, the proportion of the brahmin class in India's highest caste does not exceed 5% of the Indian population. Everyone wants to enter this class, isn't it a broken head? What about other people who were toiling masses in their previous lives? Moreover, Indians like to eat sweets, that kind of sweet, sweet to the nose. Desserts are common and inexpensive, which may paralyze the sense of taste and even nerves, and to some extent make people think that they are living a happy life. My first diarrhea in India, not to eat street food, but to drink Indian packaged milk, I felt that all I drank was sugar, almost in the street "a thousand miles", fortunately in time to rush back to the hostel - but I still understand a truth, when the noise of firecracker explosions is really emitted, it is really a spark with lightning, sour and refreshing.
Indians love spices. Kolkata is a relatively clean city, and many of the streets have no taste. This is related to the Fact that Indians like to burn spices, especially sandalwood, to purify the air and calm people's minds.
Hawkers burn spices while operating
Indians are natural optimists and do things very freely. Usually one thing, they are full of promises to you, behind your back. I bought a bottle of cow urine in New Delhi because I promised netizens to make a video of tasting cow urine. When I returned to the hotel, I met a Chinese man who was eating out, so I went out with him and stored the cow urine at the front desk. The front desk said to help me save, I came back and asked the front desk to want. The front desk said that I couldn't stand the temptation of cow urine and helped me drink. I have a little cute sentence on my mouth, and a horse buy batch in my heart. In addition, the Indian "military parade" is simply a big party. In Amritsar, I watched the flag-lowering ceremonies in India and Pakistan, and the whole process was like a skit performance, and there was even a hot DJ. When the soldier steps, the foot should be kicked in the air, the foot should be loud when it hits the ground, and the range of movement should be large. The person with the highest kick gets the louder the cheers. The whole process is really like juggling. Indians simply think it's a pleasure and have set aside observation areas for foreigners.
Met the soccer guys in Jaipur, who said they were super bulls in football
Finally, let's talk about the habits of Indians. Regional and cultural influences, human food, clothing, shelter and transportation are different.
The vast majority of Indians have dressing habits that are similar to those of people in most countries in the world. But in some backward areas of India, a male sari is popular, that is, wrapped in a piece of cloth as pants, the upper body is not worn. Don't ask me if they wear the inside, just answer: I didn't mean to wear the crotch wind, why am I lonely and lead the flash flood. But frankly speaking, indian women wearing sarees are particularly exotic. In particular, Indian girls generally have thick eyebrows and big eyes, one blink, eyebrow flirtation, and then blink, ten thousand styles.
Street food is beautifully priced, and common street food is chabati (crepes), Pari Puri (crispy balls), sprinkles (triangles) and so on. Indians love Masala, and masala is a mixture of spices (the Internet says that masala smells like feces, which should be just a joke, but I did inadvertently buy shit-flavored cookies). They also prefer curry. India is mainly a tropical monsoon climate, hot and humid all year round, and people are prone to no appetite. Curry promotes gastric acid secretion and increases appetite. After consumption, it promotes blood circulation, kills bacteria and resists poison, permeable body, and enhances the opening and hanging force.
In Varanasi, challenge the Ganges to bathe
Indian architecture has a place in the world. The Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, The Temple of Khajuraho and other historical monuments are well-known in the world. There are not many high-rise buildings in India, even in big cities such as New Delhi and Calcutta, there are many slums and shantytowns.
In terms of transportation, other countries have means of transportation, and India naturally has them. It's just that India's tuk-tuks and rickshaws appear to be more, and Indians generally do not obey traffic rules when driving, and can drive normally in the case of retrograde and regardless of left and right lanes, which is a miracle in the history of human transportation (India is driving on the right, but in most areas this regulation is useless). I suspect that Indians have installed anti-touch radar on their own means of transport, just like the tentacles of insects send out accurate signals, can perceive the presence of each other, when the two vehicles are several meters apart, intelligently change direction, reverse and move, like Lingbo microsteps, precise avoidance, safe and sound, unimpeded. I have taken the tuk-tuk (electric tricycle) many times, and the driver's eldest brother often drives the tuk-tuk out of the plane. I was messy, while the driver's brother was calm, as if to say that I had never seen the world. When I turned my head to look at the other tuk-tuks, they all thought of the road as an F1 track... Unconsciously, I tightened my body and grabbed the handlebars.
Horse-drawn carriages, rickshaws, motorized vehicles
Some people on the Internet say that Indians like to use their hands for everything they do, such as wiping PP with their left hand and eating with their right hand. Not really. It is true that most Indians like to clean their butts with their right hands, and the auxiliary tool is water (in Indian hostels, homestays and hotels, small taps next to toilets are standard). Indians believe that the combination of water and hands can be cleaner (this is based on facts, the hemorrhoid rate of Indians is very low); there is also a saying that Indian paper is too expensive, too many people can not afford to buy; and moreover, the Indian tradition is to use the hand, which has lasted for thousands of years. Of course, it is not the rhetoric of some people black Indians - they do this to make a horse for chrysanthemums.
In some parts of India, people do not have toilets in their homes. They believe that the house enshrines Great Gods such as Shiva, which is sacred and unstainable. And if you excrete at home, you are blaspheming the gods, so you have to let the turbidity return directly to nature. So in some areas, don't ask girls to drill groves – they just go into the grove just to boo.
India is an all-encompassing country, you must not glimpse the whole leopard, the individual does not represent the whole, and draw conclusions about India. But the things that Indians have relatively commonalities with, the caste system, Ganges bathing, cremation, yoga, god worship, animal worship, etc., will be discussed in detail in the following travelogue.
Next Issue Preview: Travels of Kolkata (Kolkata is the former capital of India and a buffer for many people to come to India. Stay tuned)