other travelers

While India is a big country, the westerners who come to visit often visit specific locations, such as Varanasi, Jaipur, Mumbai, etc.  So what happens is you sometimes see people you have met earlier in the trip again.  In my case, that was partly because I changed my itinerary based on some ideas from other travelers.  So in Bundi I ran into both Philip and David again (see previous posts).  One evening I went to a show with them and Ana from Hungary and Mia from Belgium.  We stuffed into one tuk tuk and went out of town about 2 kilometers to see various performers.  The crowd was primarily Indian, but they had set up special areas for tourists, right up front.  It felt a little strange!  The show was interesting, although I don't think I need to see another one.  One highlight for me was a young woman who sang, accompanied by a sitar player and two hand drummers -not sure what their actual drums are called.  Anyway, she had an awesome voice, although the amplification was turned up to distortion level.  At one point some african style dancers from another area of India (they migrated from Africa long ago) pulled a couple of tourist girls up on the stage with them.  In the US this would have been no big deal but I can't help thinking it further diminished our standing with the locals.  Not my problem, just seemed a little out of place.  Then at the end they did some fireworks.  Fireworks are big during this time, for Divali.  Most of the time you just hear very loud booms and don't see any pretty fireworks, as I guess the sound is meaningful on it's own.  Let me tell you, it also meaningful when you are lying in bed and a sonic boom goes off outside your window.  Just maybe a different kind of spiritual experience than the Indians intended.

At any rate, while I am loving traveling alone, running into friendly westerners is also a nice respite from the hustle of India.