My India... experience

India… WOW! I really wish I could tell you every little detail (sights, sounds, smells, feelings, emotions) about my trip to India but that will not do it justice and I fear no one will be able to understand everything that I felt while in India. In this blog I will tell you more of what we did rather than what I felt because including everything would be way too long and also pointless because I cannot put it into words.
We got to India on Tuesday morning but I left Chennai (southern India) at 1500 hours that same day to fly to Delhi (northern India). Our trip to Delhi started with a bus ride to the airport – this is when the actual culture shock set in. The drive to the airport was 45 minutes so we were able to see some of the sites in Chennai. We drove through a part of town that is very hard to explain to those who weren’t there. People were sleeping on the sides of streets and living in “houses” held up with 4 sticks of bamboo and covered with a tarp. It was my first real experience with this kind of poverty and it did not feel well at all. When we got to the airport we were immediately bombarded with beggars asking for food and money. Of course with our group being the only white people in the area we were looked at like a celebrity. It took a while to get used to everyone staring at us whenever we entered a room. When we got inside the airport it was really interesting to see the overwhelming majority of men – in India the ratio of women to men is 919/1000. This is partially due to the dowry system (which is illegal, however still widely used), as well as infanticides (women getting abortions because of the female sex of the baby) – but that is a whole other story. So we arrived in Delhi and went straight to our hotel. The hotel was amazing! There were also a lot of other SAS trips staying there so it was great to see some friends from the ship. We had dinner and headed off to bed for our 4 hour rest. Our hotel for the first 2 nights was the Ashok Hotel – it was amazing! When we first arrived they gave us lays and the traditional dot on our forehead. It was great! We got up the next morning at 0400 hours and headed to the train station to catch the train to Agra. This was another eye opening experience for everyone. There were people everywhere (I know where there 1.2 billion people come from)! We were still always surrounded by beggars and men trying to sell things to us for a “special price just for me” (where have I heard that before?). Anyways, we arrived in Agra after a 2 hour train ride and were swept away to the bus for our journey to Fatehpur Sikri. This is a deserted city about 25 miles outside the city of Agra. It was built by Emperor Akbar as his capital to honour a Muslim saint who prophesied the birth of an heir. The palaces are made of red sandstone and are in remarkable shape. This is also the place where the game Parcheesi was invented – personally I had never heard of it before but for all of you Parcheesi fans I have a great photo of the 5 story tower that is apparently on the box. We then made our way to the city of Agra where we visited a department store where we saw how cashmere/silk rugs being made. I would have bought one but the price was a little too high for my liking. Later in the day we went to Agra Fort which contains halls and palaces of the Mughals – my professor also got attacked by a monkey there… don’t worry I have it all on video! From the fort we were also able to see the Taj Mahal, our next and most exciting stop! When I first saw the Taj Mahal I was speechless – It totally exceeded my expectations and I was thoroughly impressed. I wish I could expand my vocabulary in order to find words to explain it but it was amazing! After visiting the Taj at dusk we headed to a hotel for dinner and then to the train station to get back to Delhi. The next day (after another 4 hours of sleep) we went for a driving tour through Delhi. The sites included the Burla Temple and a Sikh Gurdwara, the Indian war memorial, parliament house, secretariat buildings and the official residence of the President of India. From there we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Varanasi. After arriving in Varanasi we visited the ruins of the ancient city where the Buddha preached his first sermon - we also went to the Stupa and ruins of an ancient monastery. The Buddhist temple we visited was also saw the tree under which Buddha was enlightened (Now, this wasn’t the actual place he was enlightened but the tree is a sapling of the original tree he was enlightened under – just thought I’d throw that out there). That evening we were scheduled to go to the Ganges River to watch some of the traditional Hindu rituals, however the Prime Minister of India was scheduled to come to Varanasi the next day so the city was “practicing” for his arrival by closing random streets which made it impossible to get to the river that evening. We did have time for a rikshaw drive that turned into a nightmare with getting separated from our group and experiencing the real India at night. Don’t worry, my mom didn’t know about this until long after the whole ordeal. Our driver spoke NO English and I don’t think he really knew where we were supposed to go. After we were stopped in the middle of a busy street for about 10 minutes my friend Zach and I finally found someone with a cell phone and were able to call our guide to find out where to go. We ended where we started with out seeing the Ganges… The next day we got up at 0430 hours and finally made it to the Ganges River. We boarded a small boat and sailed along the river to see all the different religious practices that have remained unchanged over the centuries. We saw many pilgrims come to the Holy water for the ritual immersion and prayer to release their souls from the cycle of rebirth. The walk to and from the river was, like many of my experiences, indescribable. People were everywhere asking for money, wanting us to buy things, wanting food, or simply staring at 60 white kids walking down the street trying not to be killed by all the cars/rickshaws/motorbikes. We then made our way to an Indian art emporium. They hand make 100% silk scarves, shawls, and tie. I might have gone a little crazy with the scarves… maybe! Don’t worry, they are super cute! After lunch and packing we headed back to the airport for our flight to Delhi and then Chennai. Before we flew out though, the Prime Minister flew in so we were able to see him which was really cool. I had a very interesting conversation with a local in the airport about the politics of India and the comparison/contrast to that of the states. Just a little side note – every person I have talked with about politics in the states seems to really like Obama… I just thought that was interesting. By the time we got back to Chennai we were all pretty delirious from our lack of sleep and would start cracking up at the smallest comment. It was good times! The next day I slept in until 1000 hours (that is good on the ship). After lunch my friends when to St. Thomas church and saw the tomb of doubting Thomas. It was not what I was expecting but it was still nice to see one of the three churches in the whole world that are built over the tomb of an apostle of Jesus. We also went around pretty much all of Chennai… our rik-shaw driver would take us everywhere except where we asked – talk about frustrating. We stopped in the middle of a busy part of the city and saw type of juice/smoothie stand and braved the ice/water that they told us NOT to eat multiple times… but hey, ya gotta live a little, right? 3 days later and I’m still not sick!! Well, this is getting to be really lengthy so I best give it a rest. Miss you all! love love love Cherie