After visiting the TOMBS, we went to a fort. The fort was inside of a walled city. One would think a walled city would be set apart, self sufficient, different.... but it was not. It was even worse (poverty-wise) than the other area we were at. So dirty and stinky. Goats and chickens and cows and little naked kids everywhere.
The fort is the GOLKONDA FORT. It is pretty massive and was impenetrable, I guess. This time the others were wise enough to walk past and through the crowd of 'honkers' and beggars and 'tour guide wanna-bes'
One little old lady was walking outside the entrance wanting money. She knew we spoke English, but she didn't. She only had about 4 words she said over and over..."BABY-CHOCOLATE-GOODBYE--HELLO".. over and over and over- as she followed behind us. It's sad and as much as you want to help them, you just can't give money to ALL of them there are hundreds and hundreds of them!
One man yelled at us for not letting him is our tour guide. He said "HOW WILL YOU KNOW WHAT ANYTHING IS OR UNDERSTAND IT????"
Ummmm. read all SIGNS written in ENGLISH and read through the guidebook we brought and the pamphlet that was FREE when we got the ticket! (I think the Malaria meds are making me grumpy)
The Restroom inside the fort area wasn’t actually all that bad! It was fairly clean. A man was there and wouldn't let me go in the door that was open, he made me walk around to t a locked door and unlocked it for me- then wanted me to pay him.
WOW- the dragonfly population is just BURSTING HERE!! Hopefully they are eating all the mosquitoes and mosquito larva in all the slimy ponds and ditches!
The air is to THICK and HOT and MUGGY!
About 2/3 the way UP the many many steps to the top of the fort is a long sink attached to a old, dirty metal wall. There are two leaky dirty faucets sticking out of the wall. Above those faucets is a sign that reads:DRINKING WATER
Next to this area are 2 stinky wells, filled with slimy, stagnant, stinky, dirty water with floating trash and debris.
As thirsty as we are, we decide to wait till we go back down and buy cold, bottled, CLEAN water.
We finally arrive at the top. We are out of breath. Esp me, since my inhaler is EMPTY! There’s a breeze. Very weak and hot breeze. We take in the view. Then head back down the many many stairs.
About halfway down we see 2 boys swimming in yet another slimy, stinky, yucky pool of collected water. There are some old stone wall basins (huge, bigger than YMCA swimming pools); I guess used to collect water in the past. The water looked cool and inviting to the boys. They hopped in, in their underwear. In the nasty slime and filth! I bet they got ALL KINDS OF nasty germs in their uncircumcised parts.
As we left the fort area, the same lady followed us. She had added "GOOTCHY-GOO" to her repertoire. We ignored her (there were TOO MANY panhandlers about to even acknowledge anyone- we'd have gotten mugged). She stood next to us, repeating her litany the entire time it took for our driver to get back to us.
*For the record I loved being India! It was great. even though it sounds like I didn't like it. I really did. I was just in a grumpy mood. turns out the malria meds had me very parinoid and depressed. But I was to afraid of getting Malaria to stop them.
India Posts: India Post #1 --- India Post #2 ---India Post #3 ---India Post #4--- India Post #5 --- India #6 ---India #7 --- India #8 --- India #9 --- India #10 --- India #11 --- India #12 --- India post #13))
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