INDIA!

Some of you may know of my obsession with Slumdog Million, rupees, and basically anything to do with India.  Well it turned out India was even more amazing and I loved it even more than I imagined!  Seriously though… hands down my favorite place I’ve been on this trip and in my life.  But because I’m so behind in my blog I’m going to try to give you a condensed, abbreviated version of my adventures in my 2^nd favorite country on earth (God bless America).  The reason I haven’t updated my blog in so long is because out of all the blog posts I’ve had to just skip over India because I knew I would have too much to write about it, but didn’t want to put up the rest of my blog out of order.  Sooooo it took me long enough but finally here it is…

Day 1:

The first day I didn’t have any particular plans.  So my friend Michelle and I decided just to explore Cochin, the city where the ship docked.  When we got off the ship were immediately swarmed by an army of auto-rickshaw drivers.  Completely overwhelmed, we just hopped in the first rickshaw we saw.  When we asked the driver just to drop us off in the center of town, he said he could do that but he would also be happy to drive us around all day and take us to all the major tourist attractions in Cochin for the hefty price of one US dollar… Deal!  He literally drove us around the entire city, for the entire day for only one dollar.  We saw some a few temples, a school, the first church in India, a fishing village, a market where I nearly spent all my money, and a ton more.  We made friends at a tea shop, sipped on a fresh coconut after eating a fresh mango, explored an herb market, and watched a snake charmer from what was probably an excessive distance.  When we said we were hungry for lunch, our driver brought us to this awesome waterfront restaurant that looked out over the harbor.  We popped some tums and blindly ordered about 5 things off Hindi menu.  I’ve never really eaten a lot of Indian food so I had no idea what to expect.  I LOVED it!  We ordered one spicy dish that literally felt like it was burning my stomach, but it was so delicious that even though I was basically crying I couldn’t stop eating it.  Before heading back to the ship we got henna all over our arms.  All in all, it was probably one of the best days of my life.  I actually couldn’t stop smiling the entire day. 

Day 2:

The second day I woke up early to catch a flight to New Dehli.  The drive to the airport was cool because we had to drive down dirt roads through a bunch of little villages.  The night before getting to India there was a showing of a Bollywood movie called Om Shanti Om on the ship (which of course I attended).  Obviously we had never heard of the film or any of the actors, but the main character Om was on just about every billboard we passed on the way to the airport.  When we got to Dehli late that afternoon they took us on a mini bus tour of the city.  All of the government buildings were made of pink sandstone.  There were monkeys EVERYWHERE.  Monkeys in India are like pigeons back in the US.  Dehli, which looked just like any other big city, was surprising developed and well kept.

Day 3:

We woke up at 4:30 to catch a train to Agra.  Although I love India, it is by far the dirtiest place we’ve been too.  On the train we passed a few different slums.  I didn’t think it could be possible but these slums were so much worse than the fevellas of Rio or the townships in Cape Town.  It really was impossible to imagine that people actually live there.  In the rural parts of the train ride we passed villages where people lived in straw huts the size of my bathroom at home.  Despite the size, I would rather live in those huts than in the slums that we passed.  There were animals everywhere.  From cows to pigs to chickens to vultures… we saw it all.  When we got to the train station in Agra, we had our first encounter with those affected by the absolute poverty that can be found all over India.  Small children came up to us begging not for our money, but for our water bottles.  And not to sell, they actually opened them up and chugged them the second we handed over our purified water.  There was a man without legs, dragging himself across the ground on his stomach, a teenager in a wheelchair whose elevated foot was swollen to at least 3 times bigger than his head, tiny children asking for water in English when they didn’t even look old enough to speak their own language yet, men and cows digging through the same trash pile for food, and men peeing EVERYWHERE.  Our guide told us that when the kids begging at the train station are given money they don’t go out and use it to buy food.  This is because they know that they can scrap up food from travelers at the train station.  Instead, he said that the boys take their money and go to “night shows.”  However not for entertainment.  They go so that they can escape the train station for a night and get a good, full, inexpensive night sleep indoors…  He also said that most of these people around the train station live to be 20-25 years old.  I’m almost 22.

            In the morning we went to an old fort that was part of one of the ancient cities outside of Agra.  We had to drive 2 hours through the countryside to get there.  Our guide said that the kids in the rural areas that we were passing don’t really go to school.  Not because they don’t want to, but rather because there are no teachers in the area because no one wants to live in the countryside.  He said that instead most of the children either beg, work in the factories or work in the fields.  This became apparent when we got to the fort around noon on a Wednesday, where swarms of children were waiting outside to try to sell us souvenirs.  I didn’t bring any money with me, but one little boy named Lahit would not stop following me around trying to sell me a set of bangles.  Eventually he realized I was telling him the truth when I said I didn’t have any money but we kept talking anyways.  He said that he just turned 10 years old that that he was the oldest of 3 boys in his family.  He spoke very good English so I asked him where he learned it.  He said he learned English mostly by speaking with tourists and foreigners trying to sell them things.  He said he was best at English but he also spoke Spanish, Italian, and a little German.  At first I wasn’t sure if I believed him but then he went on rambling in Spanish and enven though I don’t know Spanish very well I know enough to understand that he certainly knew more than I do.  Oh yeah and he also talked about how he loves Michael Jackson.  My 3 colorful target bracelets from back home caught his eye and he asked if he could have one of them (ps these are probably the cheapest thing I own).  Considering I have about 50 more on the ship I gave him all three and in return he gave me one of the bangles that he was trying to sell to me earlier.  The fort was cool but personally I had more fun hanging out with my new Michael Jackson loving friend.  When it was time to go he shook my hand, said it was very nice to meet me, called me his friend, and out of the blue promised that he would never sell his 3 new bracelets.

“What is this some hotel or something?” –Slumdog Millionaire

The rest of the afternoon we visted a few more markets, shops, and monuments, but honestly none of that really sticks out in my mind compared to our last activity of the day… the Taj Mahal!  I’m not trying to be dramatic or anything but literally the Taj was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.  I thought it was beautiful before from what I’ve seen in pictures and movies, but I never imagined standing in front of the Taj Mahal would be as breathtaking as it was.  Again not trying to be dramatic or cliché, but when we walked through the archway leading out to our first view of the grand building I literally froze and was left speechless.  Eventually we were able to scoot out of the initial crowd and off to the side.  To preface what happened next I’m gonna back track a little.  My friends on the ship quickly picked up that one of my favorite movies is Slumdog Millionaire and that India was the port that I was most excited about.  Since I had signed up for this particular India trip before I was on the ship no one was on the same trip with any of their good friends.  My friend Michelle, who was also going to celebrate her 21^st birthday the day we were at the Taj, was on a trip with a similar itinerary that we hoped might cross over with mine at some point.  I told her that if I saw her in the train station I was going to scream “JAMAL JAMAL” to her just like in the movie… a little strange I know.  So back to the Taj… As I was standing there just casually looking at one of the 7 wonders of the world I hear “LATIKA!  LATIKA!” coming from behind me.  I turned around and was tackled by Michelle who was literally running towards me.  I don’t know what got into us but with the way we were jumping up and down screaming, you would think we were teenie boppers at a Justin Bieber concert.  I don’t even care if its weird, but I have to say that was probably the happiest/most exciting moment of my life/a dream come true.  Before leaving that night we were able to sit out by the fountain in front and watch the sunset on the Taj Mahal… pretty darn cool.  Afterwards we headed back to Dehli and I met up with Michelle to celebrate her birthday in India.

Day 4:

The next morning we went to the Rajghat, the place where Gandhi was cremated.  After that we caught a flight to Veranasi, one of the holiest cities for the Hindu religion.  It was kind of late in the afternoon when we got there.  We hopped in a rickshaw to head to the Ganges River to watch a Hindu sunset ceremony.  In the beginning of being in India I thought Cochin was the coolest place ever, then I thought Dehli was awesome, then I thought Agra was amazing, but Veranasi just topped them all.  Veranasi was what I pictured when I pictured India.  I don’t even know how to begin to describe it because it was so crowded that I don’t even know what all I was looking at.  I have no idea how we did not get in a 20 vehicle pile up (“vehicle” meaning a bike-car-goat-cow-donkey-motorcycle pile up).  The driver dropped us off about a 10 minute walk from the river.  To get there we had to walk down this CROWDED market street/bazaar.  I ran into about a million people partly because it was so crowded but mainly because I couldn’t stop looking everywhere except where I was walking.  When we got there, there was a massive crowd at the bank of the river and hundreds of people in boats waiting for the ceremony to begin.  I had no idea what was going on, but the ceremony involved a lot of burning candles, red dots on our foreheads, and constant chanting.  Very cool.

Day 5:

            The next morning we woke up bright and early yet again and headed down to the Ganges River for a boat ride at sunrise.  The Ganges is a holy river and a destination for Hindus.  I don’t know a whole lot about it all but from what I gathered in the Hindu religion they believe that if their ashes are sprinkled in the river than they can break the cycle of reincarnation and that bathing themselves in the river cleanses them of their sins.  While it may cleanse one of their sins, the river certainly doesn’t do any cleansing when it comes to hygiene.  Our guide told us that the river is 70% fecal matter… and yes, some did accidently splash on my face.  Dirty or not, riding down the river was such a cool experience.  In the river we saw floating candles, cows swimming, dead animals, people swimming, people bathing, people using the bathroom, people washing their clothes, children drinking the water, a man brushing he teeth, a dead body, and freshly cremated ashes being tossed into the water.  We even drove past the spot where hundreds of bodies are cremated every day and then sprinkled in the river (it was less than 50 feet away from this spot where I saw the man brushing his teeth).  Pretty much all I can think to say was that the whole experience was completely unreal.

            After walking around the town and doing some shopping, when went to the site where Buddha gave his first religious ceremony around 600 BC.  We flew back to Cochin late that night.

Day 6:

            On our last day in India I had a required field trip.  We went to the Chengdalamenga Village and were hosted by an organization that focuses on empowering women in the community.  We were welcome into the village buy a parade of drummers and dancers.  Afterwards, they cooked us a DELICIOUS local meal served on giant leaves and then tried to lead a large group tour of some of the village.  Two of my friends and I ended up separating from the tour portion and were shown around the village by some of the local kids.  We had been carrying around water bottles and when we were finished drinking them the kids asked us if they could have them.  Sure?  We ended up having an epic battle with water bottles as our swords.  

After spending a short week in India I’ve concluded that after visiting Rio, but before moving to Cape Town, I’m just going to have to fit in a year or so in India.  Just kidding but I am completely serious about wanting to go back to India and stay until I’ve seen everything.  When or how… I have not idea, but I know that I will 100% DEFINITELY find myself in India above everywhere else I’ve visited at some point down the road. 

“Be the change you hope to see in the world.” –Gandhi