First post!

Well, seeing as I am in what appears to be the only intenet cafe in India that has a full set of working keys on the computer keyboard, I had better make best use of it and post the first installment of what looks to be a very intermittent blog...

Culture:

Well, as you can imagine, Indian culture is a little different from ours back in blighty - along side the lack of rubbish bins, the very public toilets, and the common practice of gobbing in the street every two minutes, India is a superb place to learn about totally different ways of doing things (and no, I don't mean the hole in the ground toilet thing, either!).
Rules and regulations are not quite as strict here - and are certainly paid almost no attention to by either the general populace or even those paid to enforce them... An example of this is on the roads - a two lane road in Delhi can actually take 4-5 vehicles, two cows, and even have room for a few stalls selling fruit. Incredible. The general rule, if there is a rule, is that the biggest vehicle has priority in most situations. That said, the only rule that supercedes this is the vehicle with the loudest horn and most daring driver has priority over all other road farers except cows, elephants and camels.
Now, this may seem bizarre, I'll grant you, but I can honestly say that this does work. I have not yet seen a traffic jam - which for a country with over 1 billion people is pretty impressive.

The sense of community over here is also totally different - generally people are as friendly as you can get, and if you get past the people who are trying to make money out of you (of which there are plenty), the kindness of all others makes life so much better. Despite being in a very strange country, this kindness has certainly helped us find our feet very quickly. An example of this was in the Golden Temple in Amritsar - Seikhism's holiest shrine - and the community kitchen where free food (well we are unemployed!) is given to weary travellers. Lou and I were sat cross legged on straw mats in one of the long rows of hungry people (actually the only westerners in the whole temple, and attracting loads of attention), when the food was handed out - chapatis and dal (lentils). The lack of rudimentary cutlary was a little off putting, as the dal was of a sloppy nature. I was just about to hail the chap with the bucket of dal over, to let him know that they had forgotten our knives and forks (and to ask for a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc), when I noticed that the general trend was to use the provided chapati to mop up the dal. This is alot harder than it seems, and after a couple of failed attempts, and a dobhi-wallah required to clean the t-shirts, a tall seikh opposite (who had been staring at us the entire time - another common practice for most Indians) caught our eye and slowly showed us the practice of folding the bread into a scoop, and scooping up enough dal to make for a good mouthful. The meal was superb, and the connection with the man who did not speak english more than made up for the lack of Sauvignon Blanc.

Anyway - I have been in this internet cafe for long enough (It is really too hot here at the moment, so I have to get a little 'fresh' air before I pass out!). I will post again shortly, as I have lots more to tell, but for now, it is goodbye from Jodphur!!!