Overwhelming India- HOLY COW!

I will preface this blog entry by saying, it is almost impossible, or at the very least extremely difficult, to put into words my experience in India. It’s one of those things that has to be done first hand or else it won’t make sense or come off in the right way. That being said, here is how my week in India went:

Tuesday, October 14th:We arrived in Chennai on the morning of Tuesday October 14th, excited, nervous and itching to get off the boat to see what the culture and life of India was all about. For most of us, at least for me, India was a mystery. We have all heard of Bollywood and seen people, if not at least pictures, dressed in brightly colored fabric and the busyness and craziness of India. I had an SAS trip scheduled to take me to the north of India where I would see one of the 7th Wonders of the World, the Taj Mahal. Our trip left at noon, and while looking around the room we all met up in, I immediately got a sense of adventure that I would be sharing with the 65 other people in the Union.We got off the boat at 12:30 and loaded into motorcoach buses that would take us to the airport for our flight to Delhi. The two-minute walk from the gangway to the bus was barely enough for us to get a first taste of Chennai. However, the bus ride to the airport (about an hour and a half) provided the sights that we expected to see in India- people everywhere riding in rickshaws (Tuk-Tuks) and on motorcycles. When people on the street saw our bus drive by, they waved frantically. They were probably so taken aback by all the fair-skinned and blonde people that had just infiltrated their city. My first glimpse into India was when I saw a man and his wife ride by on a motorcycle. The woman was dressed in a tradition bright red sari sitting side-saddled behind her man on the motorcycle. This might not seem strange to you all reading this but when our bus passed them a little further, it became apparent that the wife was holding their 9-month old infant on her lap! That would definitely not fly in the US. There were many shocking moments like this and I will try to explain them as best as possible so you can get the idea of what India is really like.Finally, after a long ride, we got to the airport. All of us, naturally, had to go to the bathroom, so we headed straight there and quickly left because toilets in India are very rare- holes in the ground are much more common (shock #2). Not to mention the lack of toilet paper in this country….Our flight went from Chennai to Mumbai and then onto Delhi. Indians do things very differently than how Americans would, and a perfect example of this is switching planes at the airport. So once we arrived in Mumbai, we had to get off the plane and go to another one for our flight to Delhi. We all deplaned with our luggage, got onto buses on the tarmac, and went off to the next plane. However, the new plane was the one right next to our old one. Yet, the bus traveled about a mile away, made a huge u-turn and came back towards our plane. We were all pretty confused on why we couldn’t just walk the 30 feet between the planes…Needless to say, we took a 20 minute, hot and sweaty bus ride to our next plane and finally arrived in Delhi.We were really lucky with the weather situation in India because we were told there would be thunderstorms the entire time we were there. But, we didn’t have any rain, just heat and humidity all the time. We were all big, sweaty messes for 5 days.We arrived in Delhi late at night because of the layover in Mumbai and it was well worth the wait because the Grand Intercontinental Hotel that we stayed at was absolutely amazing and spectacular. The food alone at the Indian buffet was superb. The beds were queen size with huge down comforters. Unfortunately, we only got to spend about 6 hours there because we had a 4:00am wake-up call the next day in order to get to the Taj Mahal. Let me tell you though, that was the best 6 hour “nap” I’ve ever had in a hotel.

Wednesday, October 15th:Wednesday started off bright and early with a wake-up call at 4am. We had tea and coffee at the hotel before we had to say goodbye to Delhi. One of the girls, Victoria, was still in her room when all of us were waiting downstairs to checkout and get on the buses. I decided to run up to her room, key in hand, to see if I could move her along quicker. When I got to her room, she was still all snuggled up in the bed of clouds. I tried everything to wake her up- shouting her name, shaking the bed, shaking her. Finally, Diego, one of her friends, came to the rescue, throwing Victoria over his shoulder and carrying her out of the room, into the elevator, and out into the lobby. After that debacle, we loaded onto busses to go see the much anticipated, Taj Mahal.We had to take a two-hour train ride from Delhi to Agra, the home of the Taj. Even at 5am, there was an enormous amount of traffic on the way to the train station. Our bus came to a point where it literally could not pass because of all the people, rikshaws, and cars that were populating the street. Our guide, Sanjay, decided that we needed to get off the bus in order to make it on the 6:15am train. “Let’s go! We’re getting off!” he shouted. All of us, with our mouths agape, thought he was joking that he would lead 65 kids with luggage through the crowded streets and a half km to the station. But, needless to say, we unloaded onto the street and dodged traffic until we got to the train station. When we got to the station, we realized we were missing 2 boys, Jerry and Dave. It became apparent that we left them at the hotel! They never woke up and never made it to breakfast! Gar, our SAS trip leader had to go all the way back to the hotel to retrieve them. 30 minutes later, Gar, Jerry, and Dave were seen sprinting through the train station and just barely made it onto the train in time.Many people slept on the two-hour journey to Agra, but I decided to stay up and look out the window. I saw the sun rise over the many slums of India, highlighting them in a beautiful way, taking away all the trash and poverty that the slums usually hide behind. I saw children and men playing on the train tracks, people starting to wake up to get started on their daily routines of begging for money, and dogs wandering the fields in search of some sustenance.Finally, at around 9am, we made it to the gates of the Taj Mahal. To get to the Taj, which is at the end of a large piece of land, we had to walk through the gardens of the Taj Mahal. Everything was made of red sandstone, giving the buildings a wonderful rosy pink color. After about 15 minutes of walking, we reached the last pink archway that led us to the Taj Mahal. Through the archway, you could see the Taj in all of its white marble glory. It was more beautiful that I had imagined, much more so than what I had seen in pictures. The reflection pool that leads you there gives it a majestic look and it just takes your breath away. You can believe that the second the Taj came into view, people’s cameras started snapping away like crazy.Sanjay took the group over to the side of the last sandstone archway and told us the story of the Taj Mahal while we admired it from a distance over Sanjay’s shoulder. The story went something like this:“It was during the Mughal period (16th and 17th C) that Agra first gained prominence as a capital city. For many years, travelers from around the world have visited this historical city to gaze upon what many believe is one of the worlds most breathtaking sights – the Taj Mahal. The Mughal Emperor, Shahjahan married Mumtaz Mahal in 1612 when she was 21. It is said that tales are still told of her generosity and wisdom. She bore him 14 children and it was in childbirth that she died when Shahjahan was waging a battle campaign. Grief stricken, he vowed to build her a memorial surpassing in beauty anything the world had ever seen. It was this love that built the splendid Taj Mahal.”After touring inside to see Shahjahan and Mumtaz’s tombs, it was time to leave to go to the Agra Fort, where Shahjahan was held captive for seven years, where he eventually died. He wanted to build a black Taj Mahal for himself, but he died before it ever could be constructed. You can still see the spot that it was supposed to be in across the Yemin River from the Taj Mahal.We pulled up to the Agra Fort a few minutes after leaving the Taj Mahal and walked up this steep incline to the gates of the palace. Agra Fort was the flourishing center of the Mughal dynasty, created by 4 successive emperors. Agra Fort was a perfectly preserved Mughal City at the height of the empire’s splendor. There are many fascinating buildings inside the massive 20-meter thick walls of the fort that stretch for 2 ½kms. It was here that Shahjahan’s son, Oranze, kept him captive for seven years so that he could rule the empire until he died. It was really cool- the architecture was spectacular.We also went to Fatehpur Sikri on our way out of Agra to Jaipur. Fatehpur Sikri is a silent and petrified sandstone city where time has stood still for the last 400 yrs. According to legend, Emperor Akbar was without a male heir and made a pilgrimage to this spot to see the saint Shaikh Salim Chisti. The saint foretold the birth of Akbar’s son. In gratitude, Akbar names his son Salim and transferred his capital to Sikri. He built a new and splendid city, which later was abandoned, probably due to difficulties with the water supply. Its red sandstone palaces are still in a remarkable state of preservation. You can feel the haunting presence of the Mughals. Because busses can’t make it up the steep hill to Fatehpur, we took Tuk-Tuks to get to the top. A young boy, Ashika, helped load 5 of us into this tiny little car. Surprisingly, like most locals in India, he was able to speak French, Spanish, Italian, German, English, and a dialect of Hindi. I spoke Spanish with him all the way up. We got to the abandoned city and just had time to walk around, snap some photos and learn about its history. It houses a mosque and a school for men and women. The red sandstone architecture was, again, amazing.Funny story insert: This girl and I were sitting on a wall enjoying the view that looked out over all of Agra, when we noticed down below next to a green “pool” there was a man whistling and trying to get our attention. The second we looked down at him, he started undressing! We were shocked! Once he was down to his skivvies (thank God he didn’t get entirely naked), he wanted to show us how he could do a back flip into the pool, for 100 Rupees, of course. I was so taken aback by his semi-nudity that I had to walk away before he could jump into the disgusting green muck.On our way back to the bus, Ashika found me again and complimented me and all the girls on how beautiful American girls were. He asked is we had an “American” souvenir to give him and we told him that we would give one to him once we got back to the bus. Well, souvenir soon translated to money, which I didn’t want to give him. Down the dirt path that we had to take to get to the bus, the children started to multiply, following us, in hopes of getting food or money or something. They literally were climbing all over the bus begging for money, some even came on the bus, while others were being shoved and thrown away by a large Indian man begging as well. It was the most terrifying and uncomfortable feeling ever to be sitting there, ignoring starving children, and watching them fight over the bananas we threw from the windows.After that scary incident, we started on our 6-hour bus ride to Jaipur. For the first half of the ride, we all slept. After that early wake-up call, none of us even had the energy to talk to the person we were sitting next to. At the halfway point, we all were able to enjoy the bathroom stop and get a bit of food and drink at the little restaurant attached to the bathrooms. Our leader, Sanjay, got some food and I was sitting with him and another guide at a table and got to sample some pretty spicy fried Indian tasties. It was delicious, but super hot! My mouth was burning for at least 30 minutes after eating the fried chilies. The second half of the bus ride was drastically different than that of the first. We discovered that we had iPod speakers on the bus and so we plugged in the tunes and began to do some karaoke, had ourselves a little dance party that incorporated loud, obnoxious singing. The time flew by and we were in Jaipur in no time. Jaipur is known as the “Pink City” and the capital of Rajasthan state, because of the pink-colored sandstone from which the buildings in its old, walled city are constructed. At night, this isn’t noticeably visible- we had to wait till morning to witness all the pink for ourselves. We checked into Hotel Mansingh which was disappointingly not as nice as the Intercontinental, but had a traditional Indian décor with a Sikh doorman at the front hall welcoming us with a bow and “namaste.” After a hearty dinner of Indian delicacies, we headed to the bar for a nightcap and then upstairs to bed because we had yet another early morning wake-up call.

Thursday, October 16th:Bright and early at 5:30am, we were all up and in the hotel restaurant grabbing a quick bite to eat before we got onto our beloved busses and headed to the….AMBER FORT! I was especially excited about this site because, well, do I really have to explain? And the other reason was because we got to ride elephants up the mountain road to the top of the hill where the fort is situated. We got to Amber Fort at 7:30am, where immediately we stood in line to get our assigned elephants. The Fort was constructed on the top of a hill and looking up the slope at the spectacular “amber-colored” fort was a site that is hard to describe in words. While in line, the hawkers and street vendors fled to our side attempting to sell us all sorts of stuff from turbans to postcards to AA batteries to paintings. After warding off the throng of vendors, Maggie and I made it to the top of the stairs where we gracefully climbed on top of our elephant, Mundi, to make the journey up the hill. It was so much fun! The elephant, despite its size, can actually walk with quite a lot of poise, swaying slightly from side to side. After about 20 minutes, we reached the top of the hill and passed through an archway to the center of the Fort where we had to disembark from our elephant.The story of Amber Fort: Amber was originally built by the Meenas in the town they consecrated to Amba, the Mother Goddess, whom they knew as `Gatta Rani' or `Queen of the Pass'. Built over the remnants of an earlier structure, the palace complex, which stands today, was commenced under the reign of Raja Man Singh, in 1592. The initial structure of the fort was entirely completed by his descendant, Jai Singh. Amber was modified by successive rulers over the next 150 years, until the Kachwahas shifted their capital to Jaipur during the time of Sawai Jai Singh II.We spent about an hour or so at the Fort and got to run through all its secret passageways, getting lost in the never-ending sets of staircases, and even managing to see a snake charmer get bitten by his cobra.Funny/sad story having to do with Amber Fort: about 4 years ago, there were 4 Japanese tourists all sitting atop one elephant going up the hill. Alongside of the cobblestone road up to the Fort there’s a short 4-foot high wall preventing people from falling over it and down the steep grade hill. Well, one of the male elephants decided to get frisky with the one that the tourists were riding. Needless to say, the girl elephant was having none of it so the boy elephant nudged the girl until she went toppling over the wall, killing one tourist, injuring the other three, and unfortunately, killing the elephant. Now, they space out the elephants and make sure that the males are a far distance from the females.At around noon, we left the fort. This day was our big shopping day! Jaipur is known for its great shopping so our Sanjay was going to take us to all the hot spots. Our first stop was a jewelry store where they sold many semi-precious and precious stones. What’s cool about it is that you can pick out what stone you want (ruby, sapphire, emerald, topaz, diamond, etc) and they will literally take the rock and cut it right there in front of your eyes, fit it to a band of your choice in gold, white gold, or silver. It was amazing! We walked inside and were so taken aback by what we saw. It was a complete contrast from the dirty, busy city outside. In the store it was serene, calm, and air-conditioned. There were about 20 or so employees that were there to help us pick out some nice jewelry to take home. After walking about the two story, Tiffany-esque like shop, I decided on a blue sapphire and silver ring. I was so surprised to find that it cost only 4,000 Rupees ($80 U.S. dollars)! What a steal! Most of the girls got silver and semi-precious rings. None of us splurged for the ever-coveted star ruby or sapphire that would put you back about 17,500 Rupees ($350). Once everyone had found nice bling, we headed to our next stop- the textile factory. I was looking forward to this stop because I had been itching to buy some beautiful Indian material, whether it be a sari or in some other form. I ended up spending a lot of money at the textile store. After getting a demonstration on how they make cashmere and wool rugs and seeing how the beautiful block printed fabric is made, we headed upstairs for a “carpet show.” While sipping our delicious chai tea, the men who worked at the store rolled out carpet after carpet while the owner talked about the different materials used and the patterns that were created.I bought a rug. I was suckered into it. Then I bought about 15 silk scarves and some other gifts for people in their store. At one point, I was so overwhelmed by the amount of fabric in the one room that I had to walk out to get a breather. After our exhausting shopping experience, we headed back to Hotel Mansingh for lunch. Again, very delicious. The food never ceased to amaze me in this country.After lunch we headed to the Jantar Mantar Observatory and the Maharaja City Palace. The observatory was designed by the astronomer Prince Maharaja Jai Singh, who founded the city in the 1700s. He was chosen to be a Maharaja by Emperor Oranze (remember him? He was the son of Shahjahan, the guy who built the Taj Mahal) one day when Oranze was asking his people at a public forum what he should do about reuniting the land after a great war. He grabbed Jai Singh by the wrist and asked what he should do and the little boy responded, “You will protect your people just as a bridegroom protects his bride.” Oranze thought this was so clever that he gave the title of Sawai to the boy, meaning that he was very intellectual. Well, it turns out that he was because he invented a ton of sundials that are all housed on the outdoor observatory’s property. They can tell time to the millisecond. It was really interesting to see that it actually worked. We marked where the sun was hitting on the huge sundial and compared it to our watch and it was the exact time! There were even astrological devices that predicted your future accompanied with a sundial specific to your “sign” (mine’s a Leo).After that, we went to the Maharaja’s palace where he actually lives in. Unfortunately we’re not allowed in when he is physically at his residence, so we just got to see the outside of it and the courtyard and the little monkeys that were scrambling and climbing all over the outside of the palace.Our last stop in this area was an indoor market that supports handicap people of Jaipur. It allows those who are physically handicapped to sell their goods at this market. There was a plethora of art, jewelry, and clothing housed in one room. It was overwhelming but I picked up some pretty good stuff.We all decided that we wanted to get a real taste of Indian culture and life so we had Sanjay drop us off at an outdoor bazaar market. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Remember how bad the traffic is in India? Well, busses are not allowed to stop on the main roads so our driver, Ramu, had to pull over and basically just let us out while the bus was still moving. Sanjay led us out of the bus on the side of the street into a crowd of people. We were standing on the edge of the sidewalk and Sanjay yells, “OK! We cross now!” All of us were like, “WHAT??!? CROSS THE STREET? You’re crazy, Sanjay!” But he wasn’t joking. He walked out into the middle of traffic, pulling a Heisman trophy-like move to stop traffic. Surprisingly it worked pretty well and we ran across four lanes of traffic dodging bikes, motorcycles, rickshaws, cows, people, and cars. I swear I almost died like ten times. And we did this six more times to get to the bazaar. The bazaar was CRAZY!!! It was: scary, terrifying, beautiful, crazy, overwhelming, chaotic, wonderful. There was more stuff than I had ever seen in my entire life packed into the smallest areas ever. We were only given 45 minutes to shop, but that was plenty of time because by the end of it we were so overwhelmed by beggars, bangles, fabric and hawkers. We were definitely ready for dinner- another traditional Indian buffet at a gorgeous resort. After dinner, all the girls got henna at the hotel before heading up to bed.

Our guide, Sanjay, had a wealth of knowledge about the Indian culture, being a native from Delhi. I asked him a lot about Indian practices. We were discussing marriage and the idea of arranged marriage. He shared with me that he was betrothed three times before he actually married a woman. It was an arranged marriage. I’m glad that it isn’t popular in the Western culture because he said that he doesn’t love his wife, it’s more for political and social reasons that one marries – a union of two families from the same caste. He is in the Brahmin caste, the highest in the hierarchy and his wife is naturally a Brahmin too. Most of the people on the street however are either sudras (the working class) or the untouchables (the homeless, beggars, and those who work with social “pollution”). It was interesting to hear that the caste system is still very prevalent in their society even though it is centuries old and we are in the 21st, modern century. Sanjay also told me about his friend who has a wife and two girlfriends. Polygamy is illegal in India, but that doesn’t stop the men from having mistresses.All the girls were also extremely obsessed with bindis, the decorative dots that go between the eyebrows. I originally thought that only married women wore them, but SJ told me that it is just a mark of beauty, like make-up. Women who are married put a red line in the part of their hair and wear a large dark red bindi on their forehead. Needless to say, once I heard that it wasn’t a mark of marriage, I bought TONS of bindis and now they are a part of my everyday accessories.

Friday, October 17thOn our last day of our trip, we had to head back to Delhi in order to catch our flight back to Chennai. Our wake-up call was 4:30am and we had a 6-hour bus ride ahead of us. Unlike the fun we had on the bus to Jaipur, we slept the entire way back. It was much needed and well deserved. Thirty minutes after we crossed through the toll booth at the entrance to Delhi, Sanjay woke us up by saying, “Well guys, there’s been an accident on bus #2 and we have to wait a little bit for them to catch up. The driver was hit and knocked unconscious and needed to be taken to the hospital. So, the company had to send another driver.” We were all pretty sleepy and didn’t really understand what was going on. It wasn’t until lunch that we heard the real story, first-hand from those on bus #2.Here it is: Bus #2 pulls up to the tollbooth to pay the 500 rupee fee and he needs a receipt so he can get reimbursed from his company when he gets back there. Well, the receipt printer was broken at the booth the bus went to. When the driver asked for a receipt the security guard at the booth said it was impossible to get one. The driver got out of the bus to see if he could go to another booth and get a receipt. When he did that, the guard and the driver got into a verbal argument. The guard pulled out a broomstick and started whacking the driver in the legs. Then he picked the driver up and body slammed him onto the hood of a car where he slipped and fell and hit his head on the ground, cracking it open, and knocking him unconscious. There was an EMT SAS trip leader on bus #3, right behind bus #2, but they wouldn’t let him get off the bus to help the poor driver. Eventually, an ambulance came and took the driver to the hospital. Luckily, the police arrested the guard who did all this and Sanjay says he will be in jail. So there is some justice.Now back to the blog…When we finally got into the city of Delhi we went and saw two monuments before heading to lunch and heading back to Chennai.The first place we went was Hunaymun’s Tomb. It was a tomb built by a wife for her husband during the Moghul Empire. It looks exactly like the Taj Mahal because the Taj was modeled after this building. However, Hunaymun’s Tomb is made of red sandstone and white marble. It was gorgeous- a mini version of the Taj.The next and final monument was Qutub Minar, a 12th century Muslim minaret that was built for the mosque. It was basically a large area with a ton of cool looking ruins. The minaret is 72.5 meters tall, a pretty spectacular site. It is the oldest monument in India.Then we went to lunch at a large banquet hall and got back on a plane for our three-hour trip to Chennai. Once I saw the ship in the distance from our bus, I was soooo happy! I love going back to the ship. By the end of this trip I was definitely ready to be done with India. It’s a beautiful country but very overwhelming at times and sometimes frightening.Only one more day, Saturday, until we left.

Saturday, October 18th:I went shopping all day on Saturday with my friends Dan and Whit. There is a huge shopping mall in Chennai called Spencer’s where we bought tons of scarves (just what I needed, more scarves…), some jewelry, and CDs of Indian music that local teenage boys helped us pick out. After that we ate lunch at Pizza Hut and tasted all their Indian inspired pizzas- delicious and spicy!We decided we wanted to go to a bazaar market to spend the last of our rupees, so we headed to Pondi Bazaar- a place where local Indians buy their stuff, as well as tourists. It was the most authentic place I had been to in Chennai. I bought gorgeous fabric to make stuff out of. I don’t know what yet, maybe some pillows. After just about all our rupees were spent, we got into a rikshaw that took us back to the ship. The second I got back to the boat, I headed to the 6th deck for some food. A burger. It was the best tasting burger ever. After being in a country that doesn’t eat beef, I was really craving me a burger.And that was my whole India trip in a nutshell….a pretty big nutshell, I might add.