Not so cool

A few weeks ago I added this National Geographic Photo of the Day widget (yes, I'm a nerd). See down and to the right...

I thought it was pretty cool, until today. Today's photo is of a buffalo carcass. Yuck!

Missing the bus

The terrace at my office building provides the perfect vantage point for one of my favorite pastimes in Delhi - watching people run to catch the bus.

Our office in the city center is located right above a busy, congested public bus stop. Throughout the day, I'm easily amused by the sight of men running down the street as fast as they can with the hope of being able to jump onto a departing bus. Buses here are generally old, rickety, crowded, reckless and unwilling to come to a complete stop at a bus stop.

Despite all of this, people still need to take the bus, so they stand poised ready to run and hop on, literally. As the bus speeds out of the stop, I always see a couple of men chasing after it. Usually, an unknown hand reaches out of the bus to pull the first man on and he in turns helps the next one, and then he the next one. This usually stops after the third one because the bus is going too fast at this point and the stragglers resign themselves to waiting for the next bus.

old and new buses in Delhi

Delhi buses are truly abysmal, but they are slowly being replaced with brand new, shiny modern buses that you would hope to see in the capital of a country that views itself as the next superpower. Some of these buses have air conditioning (for a higher price) and all of them have...get this...doors! What a concept.

Dinner with Rauhl Gandhi

...well, not really.

But I did have my first Indian celebrity sighting on Friday night. Ani and I had just finished dinner at our favorite restaurant, Smokehouse Grill. As we got up from the table, we noticed Rahul Gandhi sitting just a few tables away. To our surprise, he wasn't surrounded by a massive security detail, like most Indian politicians and celebrities.

The 38-year old Rahul Gandhi is the "heir" to the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty. He's the son of Rajiv (former Prime Minister) and Sonia (current head of the Congress Party) Gandhi, grandson of Indira Gandhi (former Prime Minister), great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru (India's first Prime Minister) and great-great-grandson of Motilal Nehru (leader of the Indian independence movement).

A long and distinguished family history.

An Olympic Outrage

Today there was an uproar in the Indian media about the Indian Olympics team. Apparently the team was to stay in a dingy 2-star hotel upon its return to Delhi. Anyone who follows cricket here knows that the mens' cricket team frequently stays in the top hotels in the city, and the media was quick to point this out this difference in treatment and lack of support for sports (other than cricket).

Now it seems that the Indian Olympic Committee is back tracking and claiming that was never the case. Either way, the team is now staying at the very nice, and 5-star hotel, Claridges...

And the whole country celebrates...

My favorite part is the use of mettle instead of medal. I have to assume this is a mistake, but you never know. I've heard some crazy bastardizations of the English language here.

Our Journey to Darjeeling

Last weekend we headed to Darjeeling for the long weekend with 9 other people. Our group resembled the UN, not only because of the multitude of countries represented, but also because half the people work for the UN (either with UNDP or UNICEF). In all, we came from 8countries: the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Iceland, Ireland, India, and the US. And Armenia was also represented thanks to Armen and Nyree.

On Thursday morning we all met inside the domestic terminal of the Delhi airport (which is much improved and now looks like a real airport) for our flight to Bagdogra in West Bengal. 3 hours later we landed at a civilian/military airport and hopped into the 2 rental cars that would stay with us throughout the weekend. We headed to Siliguri, a nearby town, for lunch and a stop at the liquor store. The following day was Independence Day, which is a dry day across the country, so we had to stock up.

We took the long route to Darjeeling and stopped at a lake in Mirik along the way. The ride was lovely, but cloudy and rainy. We soon learned that we were unprepared rain, except the German and the Japanese. How's that for stereotypes? Fortunately, there are plenty of people willing to sell you umbrellas so we were able to stay relatively dry. We finally arrived at our hotel in Darjeeling around 9pm after a quite scary car ride through the mountains and lots of fog.

The next day we walked 9km to the nearby town of Ghoom. We took the scenic route and through little mountain-side houses and shops. It was pouring down rain when we passed by a small house with a sign in the window saying "Tea & Coffee" and thought it was a good time for a break. We weren't sure if we could all fit inside this house, but we did. All 11 of us. We were served tea through a little window that connected to the kitchen. The house was definitely a bit lopsided and it took some getting used to. After the tea break, we made our way to Ghoom where we visited Ghoom Monastery. Afterwards, we were met by our cars and headed back to Darjeeling for a late lunch.

The following day we took the toy train to Kurseong. It took 3 hours to make the 30 km (~20 mile) journey from Darjeeing. The train is so slow that you could easily run along side it. Half of us actually missed the train in Darjeeling, so we traveled by car to Ghoom and joined the rest of the gang on the train. Finally in Kurseong, we wandered around for a bit before stopping for lunch. Finally, we made our way to Makaibari Tea Plantation for a tour of the factory and grounds and of course, some tea tasting.

Most of the group left the next day so they could make it back for work on Monday, but Armen, Nyree, Ani and I stuck around for one more day. Initially we planned to head to Sikkim, another state in region, but decided against it because of the travel time involved and the cloudy, rainy weather. We spent most of the day and evening hanging out at the hotel, with a little venture into town for lunch.