Saturday, April 28, 2012

Famous, Frantic, and Furious, part two

Before I finish the story, let me just tell you all, without any regrets, I gave up on India and left a week early. It is simply not meant to be traveled alone by a female. I'm not saying no girl could do it, I'm not even saying I won't go back, I'm just saying its hard as hell and I met one other girl who gave up early and another who's about to, because it's that's how hard it is! Now back to the story...
So by the time Andrew and I had made it to our fourth city in a week, I had completely shut down and barely spoken a word in two and a half days. But our fourth town, Udaipur, was much more welcoming than any other we'd been to (or any other I'd go to, for that matter). The men rarely leered and the four month old guesthouse we'd found was beautiful, clean, and ever so friendly. The first day there, I ran some errands and let Andrew go sight seeing alone. When we met up, he asked if I wanted to go to dinner. I
said sure, and he said, "Ok, but first we're going to talk." Not asking or even suggesting, just telling. Whatever. He asked what my problem was and I told him. I was tired of being so rushed, I was tired of him complaining about the parts of India we couldn't change, I was tired of him, and I was just plain tired. He said he refused to keep traveling with someone who wasn't talking to him, and I said, "That's fine but there's not much we can do since you've already booked the next four trains." He said he'd give me my money back and I said, "Sounds good." So he left the next morning and after 7 frantic and tearful calls to Grandma (I use wi-fi for calls and the Internet kept dropping), I decided to spend the next 5 days in Udaipur and then fly down to Pune to visit my friend Mickey (a young gay Indian I'd met in Bangkok). From there I'd go to the beaches of Goa and then on to Kochi, where my flight back to Bangkok was scheduled.
The first 4 days with Mickey were great fun, even if he was a little anal retentive..."Wipe off the bathroom sink when your done, I don't like to see water on the counter," is just one of many examples. But Mickey hung out in a group of wealthy young partiers. He took me to grand parties at fancy hotels, he had a servant, and his friends took us out to eat at restaurants nicer than I'd ever stepped foot in. On the fifth night, Mickey made it clear that partying was much more important than my happiness or my safety, and when he said, "These are my friends forever, you're just a visitor," we'll, that pretty much summed it up, and I hit the road the next morning at the crack of dawn. I decided to skip Goa and Kochi and just hightail it out of india. Four rickshaws, two cabs, one hired car, one flight to Bangkok, two subway rides, one 12 hour bus, and one tuk-tuk ride later, I have safely made it back to Chiang Mai, Thailand, my favorite town on my trip so far and back to A Little Bird hostel, my home away from home, where I might just sit out my entire 30 day Thai visa. I just arrived a couple hours ago and have already met up with old friends, Charlotte and Jason and had one of Tip's famous smoothies. I am in my happy place and it feels so good. Here are a few more pretty pics of my own private hell (India).

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