Dire warnings about traveling to India

The following emails with warnings about traveling to India came to me from my daughter. I include the email as part of the flow of ideas I'm getting about this tentative plan I have to go to India.

A woman I used to work with is from Wisconsin and married to an Indian. She gave me the impression that India is a distasteful place to visit. She isn't very forthcoming with details, but from what she said there is a stench that hits you from the time you get to the airport. That would kinda lessen one's enjoyment of the place.

I know I hated living across the freeway from the Milpitas dump for 11 years. And the smell of human excrement is worse than the smell of a huge metropolitan land fill operation. I was in a kind of upscale apartment complex with mostly invisible neighbors. And the outside air: Whew, what a stink! Now I roll up my car windows when I drive south through Milpitas along 880. The reek stays with you for about 4 miles. It annoys me that I've seen articles in the Milpitas Post quoting the landfill folks as saying that any odors people may be complaining about could not have anything to do with their operation.

Now for the emails.

----------------------------------

Subject: Re: Query letter for your review
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 19:11:00 GMT
this is part of an email I just got from a friend of mine.

so you're mom and bro are headed to india eh? *sigh* where? i DO hope their
trip is better than mine. we were in mumbai (bombay) and pune (pronounced
poonah). talk about craziness. there is absolutely NO infrastructure over
there. it's kinda complete anarchy, and despite the filth, waste, poverty,
etc. that was what affected me most. that and the fact that almost everyone we
met was openly hostile to us and tried to take us for every penny we had. al
You should research the dangers before you go. You should be informed about what you're getting into.

This is funny. I just sent a preachy email to lib and now one to you.What am I? Some kinda wanna be jewish mom?

---------------------------------

The opinions she quotes from her friend in the email below are not mine. I see a big problem with the logic of the last sentence from the friend too, but I can't help that. I'm a compulsive editor.

   despite all that? i was so happy to be back in the states (even in
    so. cal!) i just wanted to kiss the ground!!!

I would think she/he means "because of all that" instead of "despite all that." Oh well.

-----------------------------------------
Subject: about india
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 19:14:55 GMT

Hey mom,
this is part of an email I just got from a friend of mine.

so you're mom and bro are headed to india eh? *sigh* where? i DO hope their
trip is better than mine. we were in mumbai (bombay) and pune (pronounced
poonah). talk about craziness. there is absolutely NO infrastructure over
there. it's kinda complete anarchy, and despite the filth, waste, poverty,
etc. that was what affected me most. that and the fact that almost everyone we
met was openly hostile to us and tried to take us for every penny we had. all
in all? i did not have a pleasant experience at all. i don't know if i told
you but even after a hellish plane ride back home (on which we had to make an
emergency stop over in canada for 'lack of fuel' or so they said and have a
crew change over), and when we got into the l.a. airport and our terminal was
on fire, despite all that? i was so happy to be back in the states (even in
so. cal!) i just wanted to kiss the ground!!! so yeah. i hope they have a
better experience than me!!!

--------------------------------