friends, temples and tigers

We had a wonderful few days in Delhi, getting to know the city, working a bit, and connecting with a classmate from Brown. Highlights include seeing Bill Clinton and Sonia Gandhi speak at the launch of a new pediatric AIDS treatment initiative, wandering the markets in the old city (especially the large machinery one and the food market, where the air itself burns your throat with spices), and escaping somewhat from 'real India.' We ate Thai food, saw the new Bond movie, and relaxed.

Khajuraho has been fun and funny - it's draw is a set of ancient (1000 years old) temples, intricately carved with deities, including some erotic carvings - think kama sutra drawings in 3D. The city depends on tourism, and thus is rife with touts - we've been offered everything from tissues and keychains to helicopter rides. Culturally, it feels like a huge invasion of privacy to have ten people following you, talking, yelling, sometimes laughing at you - but to them, it's not really seen that way. So it's been a challenge to balance keeping our sanity while feeling free enough to talk to the people we want to talk to. Our second day was a bit better, either because people knew we were bad consumers or because it was a Sunday and there appeared to be fewer people around.

There is a huge sense of service providers wanting to get your business no matter what, which means they'll offer a taxi ride even when they need fuel on the way, which is a minor burp compared to some of the things we've seen. I've had a cycle-rickshaw driver offer to take me 10 km up and over a mountain to see a fort, and this morning, we took a tour to (hopefully) see tigers, but no cooperation from them. We drove around the bush for a few hours, stopping often, but no avail.

On to Varanasai tomorrow!