Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 03:25:22 -0700
From: jennifer aitken 
Subject: India ...


Hi all , hope things are ticking nicely in your part of the world
Things here are definitely on the up, ants is making a good recovery
and we're starting to have fun again!
As you may know, before disaster struck we visited calcutta, varanasi
and agra before hitting delhi.  Calcutta was fun, a big city , lots of
old colonial architecture and a nice bridge!  There were some good markets
where they sell everything - one guy even tried to sell ants some live
chickens. 

Varanasi was as beautiful and mysterious as ever, beautiful
old buildings on the banks of the ganges, narrow streets full of cows
and their body wastes behind! All sorts of weirdness and rituals going
on on the banks. As you know we got engaged here so it holds a special
place!  We also had a lot of fun bargaining for silk here, Ants again
showing his superb skills at this.

We;d both been to Agra before but had to go back to see the Taj Mahal
again, definitely worth it (even though they increased the entrance price
x30, scumbags) - indescribably beautiful - so i won't start ...

We're also enjoying the land of cheesy Hindi movies with those excellent
dance scenes.

It's funny to have spent so long in delhi, we planned on about a week
and now it's just over 3! We are almost feeling at home here, a few times
now i have had to give directions to the rickshaw-wallah when he got
lost! Almost a local ...  We have been staying with a friend's (laurens
manning, for those in the know) brother, who is the deputy high commissioner
for nz here, which has been really awesome.  He's got this amazing house
inside the compound , v luxurious with a swimming pool.  It's
also meant that we have had the chance to see delhi from the view of
someone who lives here, which has been quite different to what we would've
seen otherwise.  We've been to some great restaurants, met loads of interesting
people and even been to a few parties (including a pool party at the
Hungarian embassy!) 

 New Delhi is quite elegant really, with lots of
wide leafy avenues and big houses. The parliament buildings are here,
which are also pretty grand.  New Delhi was designed by the brits just
before they got kicked out!  Which lends credibility to the myth that
whoever builds a new city in delhi will lose it (and there's been several)

The history here is amazing and a lot of it is around old delhi, with
its narrow winding streets and bustling markets. What amazes me is that
you just come across these amazing old (eg 15th century) tombs and monuments
where you least expect it,and often they're not even supposed to be the
'important' ones (but if they were in nz they would be the main tourist
attraction of the whole country). There's a massive red mediaeval fort
overlooking the city, v impressive. The spice markets are fascinating,
massive piles of chilli and turmeric, excellent smells too.

 We had to
spend a fair bit of time arranging visas for the rest of our trip, the
pakistan and iran embassies were pretty interesting - more like fortresses
really!

Anyway as you will know by now, our time in delhi was a bit marred by
ants being sick, but we were actually pretty lucky in that, because we
were staying in the nz commission, we got to be treated at the british
high commission hospital, so at least we didn't have to worry about the
standard of care we were getting.  Now i just need to have all the money
re-imbursed on my insurance ...

Anyway to celebrate engagement/jobs/getting well etc we have just treated
ourselves to a couple of days at a fort-palace hotel in Rajasthan. Those
of you who've read my india rants last time will know how i feel about
rajasthan!  It's just the most colourful state in india, v exciting.
 Anyway we stayed in this awesome 15th centruy palace, had a cool monastic
domed and arched room, romantic meals in the courtyard with flaming torches
and rajasthani musicians and dancers (all moustaches , turbans, veils
and jewellery) It was awesome

Ants is now enjoying food again, which is a bonus as there's loads of
very cool stuff here. There's also some great people watching, great
to sit drinking chai (tea spiced with ginger and cardamon) and watch
the world go by. Sadly our hindi is not coming along very rapidly, but
at least i can now buy a tea, discuss the cost and tell them it tastes
good without using english . A small victory anyway ...

There seems to be always something crazy going on here.  A lot of it
we will never understand of course ...
The other day we were standing in the foyer of a quite nice hotel arranging
the bill, while another of the workers was standing on the counter, waving
an incense stick and praying to a picture of shiva above the counter.
 Just one small example!

Tomorrow we are taking a train up north to a hill station called simla,
which should be cool
I will try and write again before we hit pakistan
also i have about 30 personal letters to reply to , so i'm not ignoring
you, i promise to get around to it soon ...
tons of love, jen and ants
ps for those in nz, yes we did watch the bledisloe cup!