Well i'm fresh back on the site after returning from my 2 week trip to India... rather than go into my reasons for going to India i'll just share some of my other experiences while i was there and share some pictures that i snapped along the way.
Having been to India on two previous occassions (only one of which i was old enough to remember)p i knew what to expect both getting there and arriving there. Having experienced Amritsar Airport before i was kind of nervous about flying into there and also flying out of there 2 weeks later. Its the worst airport i've ever had the experience of visiting. You can see from the picture below that it is undergoing some pretty major construction work. I didn't take pictures from within the airport grounds for fear of being arrested or worse; shot at by the armed police.
The next picture below was the second picture i took coming out of the airport. One of the workers family cleaning themselves with water from a water pipe. I took this picture because it shows one of India's weaknesses; chronic poverty. Its one of my favourite pictures from the trip because of what it shows. Everywhere we went during the day we were constantly followed by homeless people, neglected people, abused people begging for money and food and in some cases the clothing off our backs. It was heart wrenching and in most cases you had to give in. The reason i say give in is because the majority of these people are professional beggars who are put out on the streets by gang leaders. They dont even see the money they make from the streets.
The next picture is the view toward the back of Talwandi village, looking across the fields owned by the family we were staying with. I took this picture from the roof of the house, the small version doesnt do it justice, it was just such an amazing experience to wake up in the mornings and go up on the roof and watch the haze settle and the sun rise and at night watching the sun set in the other direction and feeling the crisp cool air. Everywhere we went, people we visited, i always went up on their roofs and just stood watching and looking around.
India is one of the most colourful places i've ever visited. Everywhere you look there is a wealth of colours. From the Sari shops to the juice stalls, everywhere is rich with colour. I took the following picture along with the fruit picture to try and get this point across. The food, the streets, the shops and the people are so colourful.
The last time i went travelled to India i was both amazed and shocked at the state of the traffic system and completely perplexed at how bad it was but yet how few car accidents i had witnessed (none in fact). I told my friends all about it but felt my point wasn't being put across or believed without photographic evidence, particularly of the way people seem to be oblivious to the blatent risk of death or , at the very least, serious injury when using various means of transport. I couldn't believe it when i saw scooters with 5 people on board, or children delicately balanced on bicycle handle bars without any form of body protection other than the clothes they were wearing. The children were fearless, the women on the back of motorbikes sitting sideways holding their children as if it was a normal thing to do, at high speeds.
Its amazing how people get by and make a living over there. I saw people carrying huge metal cables which must have weighed an absolute tonne on the backs of their rickshaws to and from building sites. People selling fruit and veg, running juice stalls, repairing bikes as seen below and a whole lot of other random things. Its kinda strange, you have 50% of people busy doing all sorts of random things and then the other 50% are busy doing absolutely nothing but still get by. I reckon the majority of those people were the farming folk as most get up at 4am and work till around 2pm before retiring for the day. I've never felt so stress free as i did for these two weeks when i found myself just wandering around fields and in the villages.
I remember from the last time i visited India the many weird and wonderful animals, especially the wasp, lizards, crickets and mentalist ants. These things below are the most ferocious things i've seen. They fly like little fighter jets and are fairly large that you can see them coming from a good distance away. They are silent too which makes it worse if you disturb them because you dont know where they are coming from. I dont know if they sting or not or how badly but i'm glad i didnt find out. The orange ones look worse and i didnt get close enough to take pictures.
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