Sensible traveler Destinations Where they went Get in gear
India, minus the group
By Diane Daniel, Globe Correspondent, 01/19/03
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Sensible traveler Destinations Where they went Get in gear
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McNerney, 46, who recently sold his software company, and another person from the group decided to strike out on their own to the northwestern state of Rajasthan. "People were talking about that area so much. They said it's the closest place to old India and the least disturbed, and that it's extremely interesting because of the Islamic and Moghul influences. There's very little development in the area, and the castles and palaces are in their original state."
Meanwhile, India was warning Americans last summer to avoid travel to all border areas between India and Pakistan, including Rajasthan. McNerney kept going. Locals told him, "We don't know why your country's making such a big deal of it now. It's been going on for 50 years," he said, referring to the countries' long animosity, particularly over the northern Kashmir region.
From Delhi, the pair took a train about six hours south to Jaipur. "You walk into Jaipur and it has like a central old palace with a big wall around it and all these stalls are on the outside of the wall. Hundreds and hundreds of them, selling spices, food, clothing, saris, textiles. The smell is amazing. We saw maybe four other non-Indians," McNerney said, which meant that the many vendors who target international tourists didn't have a lot of customers, so they converged on the Americans. Also, at 6 feet 5, "I was the tallest guy in India and would attract attention wherever I went," McNerney said.
When he went shopping for "Maharishi slippers," size 13, it was quite the adventure. He did find some to fit — for $13, which he haggled down to $12. "My friends said even if you bargain for 50 cents, just get into the act." The slippers, "leather with curled up toes, are the funniest things. I look like Ali Baba. I think they're more for tourists."
McNerney made a point not to eat street food and instead dined at hotels. "There were terrific curries, and the spices on things were remarkable."
He saw all forms of transportation, including something similar to a rickshaw. Cows were everywhere. And once, in the countryside, "we had to wait for an elephant to pass by."
From Jaipur, the two took several day trips, including to Amber Palace, a summer palace in the hills overlooking the plains, the geography of which is mostly desert scrubland and rocks, he said. "It was very, very hot. Over 100."
For transportation, "We hired a driver. For $10 for the day he would take us wherever we wanted."
During one ride, they asked the driver to let them out in a small village so they could walk to the other side. "All these people would come out of their houses. Kids especially would come out and the thing they asked us for were pens. We didn't know, or we would have brought some." Cows and camels roamed the streets. "Everyone was incredibly clean. I don't know how they kept everything clean considering how dusty it was."
They observed villagers collecting cow dung for fires. "They have little circular thatched haystacks, with mounds of dung, shaped into flat patties and stacked up for heating and cooking."
They next took a train southwest to Udaipur, a city built around several lakes. A day trip was to the white marble Jain temple in Ranakpur, one of the five holy places of the Jains, a sect of Hindus known for their asceticism and nonviolence.
"There were amazing stone carvings out of marble," he said. "When we got there, there was a whole troop of monkeys with long black tails running around in the temple and all over the tourist buses."
After coming home in August, he said, "I thought, there's got to be something that I can do there." He enrolled in a master's program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and plans to work on educational issues in developing countries.
Send suggestions to ddaniel@globe.com.