One of the most important items I forgot to mention re: being prepared for India is WATER. It’s an entire logistical problem unto itself, both for the traveler and Indian nationals–especially since this year’s monsoon rains were late and sparse, seen as a sign of global warming with possible permanent impacts on India’s rural subsistence farmers.
Rural pawpaw stand and trees, Aurangabad-Pune highway, India
Water is an issue here. As a tourist, one is advised to not only to avoid drinking from taps or opening one’s mouth in the shower, but to be mindful that one hasn’t been rooked into buying bottled water in a refilled bottle sealed with SuperGlue (apparently a big business). Due to rivers, wetlands, and rains, mosquitoes abound, so malaria prevention becomes a mandate. High-volume rainstorms bluster in quickly so raingear and camera bags need to be kept handy–a novelty for those of us from SoCal, where “rain” is just drizzle that makes your car sticky and dusty-looking.
Once one has drinkable water, one has to drink it. Obvious, but it’s easy to get dehydrated in the 90+ degree heat with equally high humidity, especially when sightseeing. I got caught short without enough water when we toured the World Heritage Site temple caves in Aurangabad and paid for it for the next twelve hours. Dehydration is a painful drained feeling that’s hard to describe, a combo of headache, lethargy, and nausea, and it can take a long time to recover even after water is administered.
Our hotels provide two small water bottles for free each day, but we realized after this event we needed to pony up for more. Samuel now nags me several times a day to drink more, especially when we’re running around in the heat.
The monsoon is technically over (though we were rained out of a lovely outdoor dinner the other night) so Indian wedding season has begun and billboards featuring wedding sarees and jewelry are everywhere. Tonight is the mehndi party, the official beginning of the wedding itself, where the women’s hands are painted with ritual designs.
We’re trying to get our act together–it’s a fairly formal evening affair, and Samuel’s new party outfit has gone astray between here and the tailor. We need to retrieve it somehow in the next few hours or Samuel will need to wear his wedding kurta to the mehndi, evidently an Indian party foul.
It’s tough to communicate with our hosts with sim-card craziness and constant schedule shuffling, plus now being into the wedding events proper we don’t want to cause a bother. Will let you know if we solve the Mystery Mehndi Clothing Problem soon!
