Crazy, Wonderful India

India. How in the world am I ever going to describe this place? We spent 5 days there and we still are trying to make sense of everything we saw! But I'm going to try to tell you all about our wonderful, shocking, and sometimes very sad stay in India. The first morning when we pulled in, we could literally smell Chennai before we even docked. Our windows obviously don't open, and the smell of smoke and spices woke us up- it was that prevalent. We pulled into the dock, which was very industrial (much like Namibia and Casablanca were), and we headed to the diplomatic briefing held in the union. We've had 3 of these briefings before, but never like this. As soon as we sat down they started talking about the dangers of traveling to India. I sat next to Victoria, and there were times when she'd grab my hand and we'd both look at each other like, 'Holy Crap, I really hope that doesn't happen'. We were all very weary about spending 5 days in India without each other, having gotten so close lately and spending every waking moment with the twins and Pat since leaving South Africa. During the briefing, they talked about the high terrorism threat (India had the most terrorism attacks outside of Iraq in 2008), the traffic accidents, violent crimes, petty theft, and pretty much anything else scary that they could come up with…when it was over, we seriously considered staying on the ship. But, alas, we had to get going for our trip. The ship was cleared at about 9:30, and we had to leave for the airport no later than 11, so we went to finish packing and get our shore passes (instead of taking our passports off the ship, we just had to carry around a piece of paper that was our ‘shore pass’ and a customs card). We said a sad goodbye to Vicky and Stephanie and quickly packed 5 days worth of clothes, shoes, and pepto bismol into our backpacks. We walked down the gangway and immediately boarded a bus, complete with curtains, along with the 89 other students who signed up for this trip through facebook. After the Namibia safari fiasco (it was fun for us but basically a booze safari for everyone else), we were weary about doing another facebook indy trip. But it was too late to join SAS trips and I really didn’t want to walk around India just the two of us, so we went. It ended up turning out really well, but there were definitely times I was embarrassed to be an American with this group, and I’ll tell you about those throughout the blog. Anyway, I digress. So we got on the bus and drove the hour and ½ to the airport. As soon as we left the port, India hit us square in the face. We saw people everywhere…in every corner or open space there were people standing, selling things, and begging, and I felt as if I were watching a movie instead of actually looking out the window at India. We passed through the slums of Chennai and it was the first time we had seen this degree of poverty. Even the townships in South Africa were upscale compared to these. The “houses” were made out of sticks or hay placed against a wall or other shack, and everything was muddy and smelled like nothing I’ve ever smelled before- a mixture of human sweat, feces, spices, animals, and smoke. This was the first time on this trip that my heart broke…and it wouldn’t be the last.

When we finally reached the airport, we checked in and went through security. It was pretty easy and quick, except that the ladies who were patting us down got mad at us for wearing money belts because they didn’t understand what they were for. But after getting through all of that, we sat down in the airport and basically talked, half-slept, and people watched for an hour. We walked outside when our flight was called and boarded a small plane that SAS basically took over. Let me tell you- this flight was the best I have ever been on! The seats were big and comfortable, and they fed us the most delicious meal of chicken curry, rice, vegetables, rice pudding, and tea! It was awesome! After taking a quick nap, we landed in Delhi. Walking outside, we felt like celebrities. Everyone wanted to stare at us, take our pictures, or shout things at us, and I felt very uncomfortable and just wanted to get on the bus. Quick side note about the busses- at the diplomatic briefing, they told us that western tourists were targeted in terrorist attacks and to not hang out at “western” establishments or draw too much attention to ourselves. Well, guess what our bus had in big white letters across the front….TOURIST! We were all laughing, but with three tourist busses driving down the street, we were a tad scared. Anyway, we drove through downtown Delhi to our hotels, and Delhi looked a lot like Chennai with a little more of a “business” look to it…high rises and nice hotels downtown. We ended up splitting up into three different hotels, and without having a cell phone, it was hard to know what everyone was doing and where to find them, so Kate and I ended up walking around looking for people, and finally had dinner with a few other people on the rooftop of our hotel. We had chicken soup, which was basically noodles and fried chicken, without broth. It was good and cheap (the rupee right now is pegged to the US dollar at 50, which means for every 50 rupees we spent, it only cost us a dollar! For dinner and drinks for two people, I think we spent about $5). The hotel was nice, and we had a third roommate, Chelsea, who stayed with us. Kate and I were exhausted so we went to the room and watched Indian music videos (which are awesome by the way), American Idol, and Cops. haha. This is the first of those stories I’ll tell you about where people were stupid on our trip. Apparently that night, a few people went out, drunk, and crashed an Indian wedding. Yeah, that’s right, they went to an Indian wedding, danced, rode an elephant, and got thrown out. Now, this is a very cool story to tell and I’m sure it was fun for them, but that is so disrespectful to the Indian culture, especially because this culture does not condone drinking. So these people came back, along with about half the trip who had gone out to drink all night, at about 5 in the morning, and we left at 7. Needless to say, we had a lot of hungover people that day, which became a trend on the trip.
That morning, we started driving to Agra, and we stopped at a giant Hindu Temple where we walked around barefoot to see all the gods and people praying. We even got kum-kum put on our foreheads to give us luck in our love lives. Cool, huh? We also stopped at an old fort that surrounded the ruins of the oldest temple in India, and the India Gate, which was gorgeous! Everywhere we went people tried to sell us things- flying helicopter toys, chips, postcards, etc. It got old very quickly, trying to tell them no, and it was only the first day! We got back on the bus for the long drive to Agra, which was about 5 hours in all. Kate and I listened to our iPods/slept the whole time, and we saw so much of the Indian countryside. We saw shacks, factories, schools (lots of colleges everywhere), cows, gas stations, markets, kids, traffic, and so much more. When we finally reached Agra, we finally got to go to an ATM and get out money, and then we went to dinner. We got to our hotel, which was literally in the middle of nowhere (apparently we were about ½ km away from the Taj Mahal), and paid $1 for almost an hour of internet. It was great- we checked our mail, our bank accounts, and caught up on world news. It was fantastic to be able to just be online, since on the ship we can’t check anything else except our ship-mail. Surprisingly, we did not check facebook. Anyone who knows me probably just gasped because I was definitely a bona fide facebook stalker this past quarter, but after so long without it, I’m kind of over it and don’t really miss it. Shocking, I know. Anyway, we played P’s and A’s with Chris and Sylvie until we finally went to sleep at about 1.
The next morning we woke up at 5 and went outside to meet everyone to go to the Taj. When we got outside we saw about 20 horse-drawn carriages waiting for us, and after everyone finally got there (we waited for some people for 45 minutes), we all rode 15 minutes until we almost got there. You can’t go past a certain point with any car or carriage, you have to walk the rest of the way because of pollution, so we walked until we reached the entrance, where we waited in line for another 45 minutes. ***Anna, don’t read this part.*** They searched our bags and wouldn’t let us take Afras in for some reason, and they took him away and we never saw him again. We’re sooo sorry!!! It was so sad and no one would tell us where he is because a lot of people didn’t speak English and we couldn’t find him. I guess it’s a cool story to tell that we lost him at the Taj, but he is gone. RIP Afras!
So now let me tell you about the Taj Mahal. When you enter, you have to walk through a building that’s sort of a gate, and the first view we got was framed by this magnificent building and the heads of about a thousand tourists, all bathed in warm light from the sunrise. It was absolutely gorgeous! It was very surreal standing there in front of one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and even when we were right there, it looked like a movie screen or a backdrop picture…not the real thing. It was too beautiful. The marble literally sparkles as you stand there watching it, and the grounds are literally immaculate- so colorful and lovely. We stood there for about 5 minutes, just staring and trying to capture it all on our cameras. And then the coolest thing happened. I talked before about how we were having separation anxiety from being away from Vicky and Stephanie, and on the walk there, we said, “I wonder if we’ll see them there since they’re on a trip that’s going to be there”. And while we’re standing there, Kate says that we should look out for Pat, since he’s the tallest, and literally 10 seconds after she says that, we see them! They were walking back from the Taj along the walkway, and we just dropped everything and started running. And they saw us and started running, and it was a very cheesy, movie kind of moment! We were just so overwhelmed with the shock of it all, and we were all exhausted, and we just stood there and hugged for 2 or 3 minutes. They told us how their trip was not going well at all, and we only had about 5 minutes to talk to them before they had to leave, so we were all very sad. I just wanted to stay with them! But after they left, we had more time to look around, and we walked up to the Taj, put on shoe-covers, and went inside. It is a lot more magnificent outside than it is inside, but it was still cool to see the “tombs” in the big center room, and the architecture (Dad, I can’t wait to show you pictures…the architecture was so well-done and intricate!). We walked around to the back where we saw the huge river that runs behind it, and across the river, there was a huge dirt field, and we saw kids playing cricket there. Isn’t that cool? I bet they said, “Hey, I’ll meet you behind the Taj at 10. Nah…we went there yesterday…” haha. It was cool to be standing on top of this awe-inspiring monument and be watching the daily life of India be going on like it’s nothing. We walked back around to the front, saw the two temples that flank the Taj on both sides (gorgeous as well), and walked through the gardens for 15 minutes talking to Erin and Dalia and taking it all in. There is a platform halfway between the Taj and the entrance, and it’s a prime picture-taking spot, so we went to stand on it and snap about 50 pictures. We were trying to get a jumping picture, and while the four of us went up to jump, there was an Indian woman walking behind us, and we kicked her and almost knocked her off! It was crazy and we felt so bad! Everyone stared at us with their hands clapped over their mouths, and it was SILENT until at last, the woman laughed and said it was okay. We eventually got our jumping picture, but we were really embarrassed for a while there. We got a few more great pictures (including me in a “throw what you know” picture!! Love you guys!) We stayed there for almost 2 hours, and then it was time to leave. That was a weird feeling, like, “Yeah, we went to the Taj, let’s go have lunch”, ya know? On the way back to the hotel, the beggars and sellers were the worst they’d been yet. They were literally everywhere- pushing you, touching and tugging at you, and yelling in your ear. We felt so claustrophobic and just wanted to get back on the bus. It was insane, and we were really overwhelmed. And then we saw the saddest thing ever. Out of the crowd, we saw a man on the ground. When we looked closer we saw that his legs were twisted around his body and he was pulling himself along with his hands. I didn’t have any money to give him, so I just stepped around him as he pulled at my legs. As soon as I got on the bus, I started crying because I couldn’t make sense of everything going on, and I couldn’t help everyone…which I really wanted to. Everyone was so emotionally exhausted.
After making it back to the hotel, we barely had time for some toast before we headed out again. We checked out of our hotel and drove to the Agra Fort. It was really cool, but by this point, we were all so tired and it was about 97 degrees out, so we all were kinda out of it. We stayed there for about an hour and then went to lunch. We had another delicious lunch of chicken, naan, soup, and ice cream, and got on the bus for another long drive to Jaipur. We slept a lot and then had a 2 hour long conversation about Jodi Picoult books, old Nickelodeon shows, and what kinds of food are we most looking forward to when we get back (we said Kathy’s tacos and our mom’s chocolate logs!!) We stopped again for dinner, and of course, people used this as an opportunity to drink. But this time, they went crazy. By the time we got to the hotel in Jaipur, people were literally wasted. Some kids didn’t even know where they were, and apparently a few of them threw up on the bus all over others. Yeah…what a great way to spend your time in India!
So anyway, the next morning we got up and met at 7, and when we got on the busses, we were told that about 15 people wouldn’t be joining us because they couldn’t get out of bed they were so hungover. And they missed out on a lot because this was the most fun day yet! We went to a palace on top of a mountain, and it had a wall that we called “The Great Wall of India” because that’s exactly what it looked like. It was a long way up the wall to the top, and they provided us with elephants to ride! Kate and I rode one together, and ours was called “Chumpa”. He was huge, and he was the slowest one of all- it took us twice as long as anyone else to get to the top! But it was so much fun and something I’ve always wanted to do! We made it to the top and took a tour with the coolest tour guide ever- his name was Vikram. There were so many rooms and secret doorways…we got lost once or twice. But it was a blast, and afterwards we drove to the city palace in the center of old Jaipur. It was gorgeous, and we looked around for a while before buying a couple scarves at the store. I think we got 3 silk scarves each for about $10!
After leaving the palace, we went to a textile and carpet place where the man in charge showed us how they make carpets (by hand), clean them, and sell them. Then he gave us free sodas while he explained to us all about the export industry in India and all about his different carpets. After he was done, he took us to the textile part of the complex where he showed us how they do imprinting with wood stamps and ink, and then the storeroom where you can buy saris, scarves, and even dresses. A few girls had dresses made, and then we went back to the hotel. When we arrived, they put a show on for us! A little boy danced while his father and another man played instruments, and then they even gave us a puppet show! It was fantastic!!
After the show, we all wanted to go to Pizza Hut. That’s right, Pizza Hut in India! We wanted to take a rickshaw, so we found one that looked good and climbed in- there were 6 of us! If you’ve never seen a rickshaw before, it’s basically a seat for two people on wheels with a plastic roof. And we fit SIX people in it. We thought…oh, okay, it’ll only be 10 or 15 minutes- not too bad, right? WRONG! It took our driver 48 minutes to make it to the Pizza Hut because he didn’t speak any English and didn’t know where he was going. We found out that it was partially our fault because Kate had asked our guide what street it was on and he said what she thought was “Emay Rd” So that’s what we told our driver. After driving up and down Emay Rd, stopping every 20 ft to ask someone where the Pizza Hut, and our driver stopping to re-negotiate the price, we finally found someone who spoke English to tell us that there was no Pizza Hut on Emay Rd., but there was one on M.I. Rd. And they sound the exact same with an Indian accent, so Kate thought it was Emay instead of M.I. Funny tourist story, huh? Well, it wasn’t very funny at the time, and we both still have bruises from that ride, but we finally found the Pizza Hut and it was amazing! There was also a little girl there that we ended up playing with (kids just attach themselves to us, I guess), and we had some chocolate cake to finish with. On the way back, we all piled again into a rickshaw, although it was a bigger one with more room, so we made it back to the hotel without incident. A perfect ending to a great trip! Then we all went straight to sleep because we had to wake up early to catch our flight back to Chennai.
Our wake up call was 4 am, since we had to leave the hotel by 5. The drive to the airport didn’t take long, and we waited for check-in, trying not to fall asleep. When we were called to board the plane, we walked directly onto the tarmac to get on the plane. Like out onto the runway. There was a plane taking off not more than 100 feet away from us. It was pretty crazy. The flight was soooooo long. We went to 2 different airports (Ahemabad and Mumbai) before finally making it to Chennai. We took a bus back to the ship and basically cried when we saw it, we were so happy to be home again!
So, that’s what happened in India. The cut and dry. But let me tell you about the feeling of being there, the craziness of it all. One analogy I thought of while I was there was…imagine if you lived in the country of central Kansas your entire life. You’d never been to another town and were very comfortable in your surroundings and culture. Then imagine you take a trip to New York City. And you stand in the middle of Times Square on your first day there, and are forced to stay there, in the crazy traffic and throngs of people you don’t know, who have a completely different culture than you do, for 5 days. This is basically what it felt like to be in India…only times a thousand! The whole time we were there, I just felt mentally and emotionally incapable of taking it all in and processing it. There were so many things we saw that we never had before and probably never will again. For example, we were driving down the road in Agra and saw people using the bathroom. Right there, along the side of the road. And it wasn’t just a few. We must’ve seen someone going to the bathroom every 50 ft or so…just wherever there was room. Just imagine the smell when we got off the bus. Something else I noticed while we were there was that things were being constantly put into perspective for me, and for everyone else. When we’d get back on the bus, we’d start complaining, as young people like to do, about something stupid such as “it’s too hot” or “I’m tired”, or something like that. Then we’d look out the window or step off the bus and see all these people- with nothing. Literally nothing. Not even food or shoes. And we would immediately shut up. We had an air conditioned bus, food, clothes on our back, and the promise of going back to a 4-star hotel to sleep in a nice, warm bed. It made me really sad to think about everything we take for granted, and I have, on more than one occasion, caught myself before I complained about the ship food or the amount of homework I have, and thought about India. Another thing we saw a lot were the children. Children were everywhere- begging for food or money. They would wave at us or come up and hold our hands and it made me so sad. All of these smiling faces that didn’t seem to match up with the sick-looking bodies…so hungry and no food to give them. I wrote a poem the night we came back about the children we saw and it’s called “The Children Were Everywhere”:
The children were everywhere.
From the bus I see them smiling,
Waving and chasing us.
Seeing the world come to their town. Wanting more.

The children were everywhere.
In the streets and the slums.
Walking barefoot, dodging traffic.
Begging for the food they’re not sure they’ll get,
The food I don’t have to give them.

The children were everywhere.
Comfortable in their culture.
The sights, sounds, and smells that are so foreign to us.
If you look closely,
You can see all of India in their eyes.

The children were everywhere.
Everywhere I look, I see the Indian children.
And yet, everyone walks by them without a second glance.
And they are nowhere at all.


That’s about all I have right now. There is SO much more to tell you all about India, but it would take way too long, and I’m sure you’ll hear all about it when we return. We arrive in Thailand tomorrow, and Kate and I are going to the Pattaya Orphanage, which should be really great. Then I think we’re going to take a train to Bangkok and get a hostel and just explore it on Tuesday. We are so excited to see this beautiful country!!

We hope everyone’s doing well back home. Since we were in India and couldn’t post it: Happy Birthday, Kristina!!! We love you and hope it was wonderful!

We miss you and love you all!!

Sarah and Kate