India…..Assault on the Senses

We will miss India. We truly enjoyed the experience of it all. From the lovely temples to the home stays to the incredible food, the imprint of India is burned within our psyche and will forever change us (ok, that was a little over the top but it was definitely memorable). Anyway, as we were leaving India, Ashley thought we should talk about how India is totally overwhelming on all of your senses. The most noticeable is visual, you see both crushing poverty and overwhelming beauty. The Taj Mahal was probably the single most impressive man made structure I have ever seen. It just blew me away. At the same time, seeing families sleeping on the streets in hovels, or sometimes not even hovels just a tarp, imprinted visuals I will never forget. For the audio, the most noticeable was the honking although dog barking is a close second. It was incessant and quite annoying but we got used to it. But at the same time, the Hindi music and the kids giggling, just have to make you smile. Smells were the most overwhelming of all the senses. As you walk down the street, smells intermingle. One moment you will be smelling the most wonderful street food (which we never sampled but smelled awesome) and the next you are reeling from the smell of raw sewage. It was quite intense and I will never forget the two inter-twinning.

For taste, we only have good memories. The memories of some of the best food we have ever had in our life. For Ashley, it was a vegetarian paradise. I ate vegetarian the whole time in India and I have to say it was incredible. You know you are going to have good veggie options when things are labeled – as Veg or Non-Veg. Ok, we don’t really have anything for the sense of touch but we liked this theme for a post (Ashley’s idea!).

We really enjoyed our time in India, but we have moved along to Thailand. While we will miss the intensity of India, we welcome a slightly easier travel experience.

Finally, the gruesome travel day(s) was not as bad as we thought. Besides getting upgraded on the train to first class, we got an earlier flight to Chaing Mei (northern Thailand) which reduced our layover. I am not keen to travel for 40+ hrs anytime soon, but it was not as bad as I imagined.