Settlement!

Great news! A few weeks ago I wrote a summary of my complaints to the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA). Intrepid is a member of this organization. ASTA's mission is "to facilitate the business of selling travel through effective representation, shared knowledge and the enhancement of professionalism." An important service of this mission is the mediation between consumers with complaints and members of ASTA.

Intrepid quickly responded to my written complaint to ASTA. They did not wait for mediation. They offered a cash settlement of acceptable terms.

This outcome resolves most of my personal issues with Intrepid. It is too bad that so much leverage had to be used to achieve this adjustment. If Intrepid had simply apologized, acknowledged their mistakes and offered a discount on a future trip, I would have been satisfied with much less, and would have remained a loyal customer.

Pictures are now online for our India Adventure

Since finishing our trip to India, we have been home in Portland for 6 weeks. Here it is winter, sometimes cold, grey, and as soggy as the Pacific Northwest gets in order to maintain it's image. No longer do we wear shorts and enjoy cold showers on hot days as we did so often in India. Now we wear multiple layers to stay warm outside, and inside where we keep the house 60-65 degrees (15 - 18 C). Some days, like today, are cold, dry, and sometimes sunny - very nice. Great for a walk or bike ride.

It has taken all these weeks to get my photos organized, then sorted down to a manageable amount for online viewing. During this time I had a computer failure that added to the mess. Finally, they are ready to share.

You can view them at this site: http://picasaweb.google.com/indiaadventure2007

The web page sorts the albums chronologically with the oldest last, at the bottom of the page. In order to view the albums in proper order, go to the bottom and head up.

The most interesting albums are Delhi, Pushkar, Agra, and Pondicherry, but perhaps you might enjoy looking at a few pictures from each.

--
Michael & Susan Kuhn
Pictures: picasaweb.google.com/indiaadventure2007
Trip blog: www.indiaadventure2007.blogspot.com

The Previously Unmentioned Mis-Adventure

This blog has been discretely avoiding mention of an issue that plagued the second half of the trip in northern India. An issue arose where our touring company, Intrepid Travel, demanded we pay an additional fee of about $200 each to cover the Pushkar Camel Fair costs. We refused to do so for several reasons. 1-We had not budgeted for it. 2-Intrepid never disclosed this cost in any way prior to departure. 3-Intrepid used strong arm tactics to attempt to collect this fee. They threatened to abandon us mid-tour in rural India if we did not pay it. It seemed the only thing that kept them from doing so was my thwarted attempt to file a criminal complaint with the local police.

I have posted the entire story on a separate blog you can view here: www.intrepidhell.blogspot.com.

Wrap it up to go, please

We are SO DONE with India! Leaving tomorrow is not soon enough. Delhi SUCKS. The air today is not so bad as 2 weeks ago, but the traffic and noise are unbelievable. Traffic here is as close to chaos as it could possibly be. I cannot imagine anywhere could be any worse. Red lights, lanes, right of way, even driving on the proper side of a major street or freeway are all merest suggestions. Driving across a major intersection against a red light, through heavy cross traffic, dodging pedestrians and bikes, without so much as a glance left or right, all with a friendly cop looking on is business as usual. I have had a handful of personal harrowing driving experiences during my entire driving career. One hour on the road here produces more horrors than I have had in my entire life! Amazingly there is not even any evidence of road rage. The drivers just complacently carry on from one moment to the next. I read in the paper today that one of the local bus lines in Delhi just killed its 109th victim of the year. A young woman got off a local bus after her classes at college. A couple guys on a motor bike buzzed her, doing what they call eveteasing. She fell into the path of another bus and was run over. She lie in the crowded urban street crushed for over an hour before anyone bothered to call for help. Life is very, very cheap here. I cannot express how appalling it is to witness this attitude first hand in countless ways. So was it a good trip to India? Yes, it was. Way back I read someone saying it was the closest one could get to visiting another planet. One month and I am convinced that is no exaggeration.

 

We had a strange lunchtime diversion here in Delhi this afternoon. We ate at McDonald's. We NEVER eat at McDonald's, but curiosity about how they translated Big Mac to Hindi had to be satisfied. A sign in the lobby proudly proclaimed "This restaurant does NOT serve beef or any beef products." There are burgers on the menu, Veggie Macs, or something like that. There are also curries and other Indian fast food staples compressed into easy to cook and serve portions. We had a veggie Mac and a Salsa Paneer, as well as some of the best coffee we have had in a month. The burger patty was basically mushed up potato and vegetable patty deep fried. It was bland and not so good. Paneer is a pervasive fresh cheese served in many Indian dishes. McD deep fried it, of course, and put it into a chapati (tortilla) with some salad greens and salsa. It was actually quite spicy, hot and tasty, much more to my liking than expected.

 

On the way to this internet shop we found a rare liquor store. Liquor is surprisingly uncommon in India. We bought a small bottle of local rum to entertain us when we return to the hotel to while away a few last hours. As mentioned before, we have had it as tourists. After we get back to the hotel we might go out again for some dinner, but maybe not. It is just too damn insane here and unpleasant as hell to be out and about. Booze and music TV in Hindi are our final aspirations for India.


Michael & Susan Kuhn
Trip email: indiaadventure2007@gmail.com
Trip blog: www.indiaadventure2007.blogspot.com

Hi from Delhi

It seems like it has been quite a while since I have last written to everyone. It is not that I haven't been thinking of you all, just have not had the time, and sometimes when I have had the time, I have just been too tired!!

I am in a rather dark Internet cafe without my glasses, and I can hardly see what I am typing.

We arrived by in Delhi this morning, after an overnight train from Pushkar, where the camel fair was. That was a lot of fun, and riding the camel was a lot of fun too. Much more fun then the elephant riding was. Getting up and down on the camel was quite scary, but after doing it once it was fine. It was (is) a long way up there. We rode out into the desert, and through the fair, and had some great Masala Chai, my new favorite tea. We are going to bring some home.

Delhi is as awful as we left it. I really dislike it here in Delhi. It is so polluted, and the traffic is so bad. There must be some good things about this place, but I have yet to find them. This evening we will have a beer, and bed early.

We went to McDonald's for lunch! We just had to taste their vegi burgers. They were OK, and the coffee was good. Mike was taking pictures, and they told him not to. He did anyway. Can't figure out why they did not want us to. Won't go in there again, but just had to try it.

I am very glad to be coming home now. I am ready, and so is Mike.

This has been an experience I will not soon forget. I am glad that I got the chance to come and see where (and to some degree how) 1.2 billion people live. I could never live here. I have not felt reallycleansince being here, and can't wait to feel so again. At least my hair is not falling out!

I have tons of mozzie bites, so glad that I am taking anti malarial drugs.

I really want a warm shower, not out of a bucket. I know all these things will come soon.

We traveled with a nice group of people. I wish I could say the same for our guide. What a looser she was. After our great guide in the South, it was really a disappointment.

Even tucked away in this tiny dark room with a few computers I can here the horns. All the time, and loud. The sidewalks are not for walking on, so we walk in the streets like everyone else, and at times I fear for our lives. There have been over 100 people killed so far, this year, by one bus line. I know that bus line! They are big and scary. I think there is a lot of scary stuff here, like this little cafe for instance. I just saw a couple of roaches playing in a corner. Yikes.

Seeing the multitude of beggars is so sad. Some of them have been mutilated on purpose. Their legs and arms bent. And so many little kids, holding babies, filthy kids, pointing to their mouths for food.

It is really hard to be here at times. There is nothing we can do. We have been warned over and over, not to give anything to them, and so we don't, (mostly). Coming in to the hotel this morning, the sidewalk for blocks, and blocks were covered with sleeping bodies. So this is India.

I think this will be the last post from me, from India. We may go to the airport early tomorrow, to hang out, as we have to be out of our room by 12.

Ok then, hope everyone is well.... see some of you soon...

Susan




 

Pushkar Ketchup

We are on our last tour day in India, in Pushkar where the camel festival reigns. The fragrance of dust, diesel, incense, patchouli, and dung. The sounds of Indian pop music, finger cymbals, motorbikes, horns, drums, and touts selling every kind of ware not needed by anyone in their proper senses. Paisley, henna tattoos, tie die t-shirts, sandals, batik, and even bell bottom jeans. Pushkar is northern India hippie paradise. Almost the entire route around the lake, about 2 miles, is packed with sights, sounds, and scents of the Haight Ashbury of old in a very third world manifestation.

Last night was a celebration of something unknown to me. The entire lake was circled with tiny oil lamps. Musicians and drummers competed in every nearby street. The crowds swirled and surged in time to the beat. The puja touts push flowers into any open hand expecting payment for the derived blessings. The henna touts stamp brown inked designs on bare skin the demand payment for their services. Beggars with warped and abbreviated limbs slither on bellies, balanced on caster boards, shaking metal bowls of coins with a tiny hope for two more - one for them and one for the beggar master who rules the lane. The air pounded with aerial explosions. Fireworks burst into the night sky with a fantastic display of amazing duration. A supreme finale.

 

Tonight we board the overnight sleeper train for Delhi. We don't look forward to 36 hours of thick brown smog. Only one more night there, then a day to catchup any last minute items before the 5 hour in advance trip to the airport.

 

This may be my last email from India to all of you. There will be one more in a week or two or three with pictures. Until then, Namaste!

--
Michael & Susan Kuhn
Trip email: indiaadventure2007@gmail.com
Trip blog: www.indiaadventure2007.blogspot.com

Pushkar

Very briefly... We are at one recently rare internet shop and the group is having tea. I cannot keep them too long.

 

We had a traveler's nightmare with our travel guide/agency a few days ago. We were subjected to what was virtually extortion where several hundred dollars were demanded or we would be abandoned in a very remote village. After contacting the US State department we were advised to call the local police and report the extortion attempt. Upon informing the  guide, her manager, and the corporate offices of this very large well known tour company that police action and possible detention of their guide for questioning, they relented. We have now been delivered all that we contracted and paid for without paying any more money. The tour company is one of the  world's largest of its type.  They have not heard the last of this. I will be reporting all the details to whatever agencies concerned after our safe return home.  Needless to say we did not expect "adventure travel" to take such an ugly turn!

 

Today we are in Pushkar at the time of one of India's largest fairs, the Camel Festival! It is one heck of a sight! It is a bit like being in the middle of the Lawrence of Arabia set. It is primeval. It is absolutely fascinating. Thousands of camels, horses, cattle. Every kind of animal pulled transportation. Hundreds of stalls selling the worldly goods needed by a camel trader. Sadhus, snake charmers, beggars, jewelers, dancing horses, acrobats, tea wallas, camel taxis, and more. Our "deluxe" camp that we were to pay the premium for is a few steps above the miserable camps of the beggars, but well below even the most rudimentary hotel room. Its assets are comfortable cots and inside toilets. The city surrounds a small and beautiful lake that is India's main worship site for the god Brahma. Several of the group went down the steps to the water where priests gave them blessings. They were then subjected to high pressure to pay huge sums of money. Amazingly, a couple of our group did so and immediately regretted it.

 

We have one more night in camp and another day to wander Pushkar and the fair. Tomorrow night we travel by sleeper train back to Delhi for our final 36 hours in India. All in all it has been a very interesting trip, but not one I would repeat or even recommend. No matter, we have no regrets. It has just been a bit more and different "adventure" than we expected or wanted.

--
Michael & Susan Kuhn
Trip email: indiaadventure2007@gmail.com
Trip blog: www.indiaadventure2007.blogspot.com