Incredible India!

Fun fact: It is absolutely impossible to experience India in six days. We all felt a little bit short changed in our adventures for time, but we definitely had a wonderful time.

Day One:
        I ran into Veronica, Ali, Sarah, and Nick and we all decided to go out shopping and exploring Chennai a bit. We found Steven and John, two auto rickshaw drivers. We hopped in and began the ridiculous adventure that is driving through India. The traffic doesn’t make sense, but it has this weird, seemingly perfect rhythm to it. For example, if you’re coming up quickly behind someone, all you have to do is honk your horn and they’ll move over, making room for you. We heard a lot of honking, and it took a bit of getting used to to remember it wasn’t because the drivers were pissed off about something. We asked the drivers to take us somewhere that the locals eat for lunch. At first they took us to a clearly Westernized tourist trap, so we told them it wasn’t what we were looking for, and they took us to a totally authentic Indian place. In the words of Nick, “You can tell it’s good because there’s no other white people here”. We all ordered different things, and our food was presented to us and it all looked delicious. We ate off of banana leaves with our hands, which was actually way more fun than eating with a fork. Unfortunately, spicy food and I DO NOT work well together, so the food was too spicy for me. I ate a lot of garlic naan and I gave my food to everyone else. I was pretty satisfied with just eating bread and rice. After that, we all tried our hand at using the stand and squat toilets, which was a fun test against balance and gravity. We spent the remainder of the time together shopping at various indoor markets and outdoor stores, buying lots of cloths and sarees and scarves. Everything made in India is beautiful and so well crafted.
        We headed back to the ship, where I was meant to meet with Emilia, Ryan, and Dave to head to the airport WAY early for our flight (which was leaving at 7 AM the next day... we were going to get a hotel there). Ryan informed me that the plans had changed, because hotels near the airport cost like $200 which is about $150 more than we were willing to pay. He told us that we were all meeting up at 6:30 to get dinner at a place that Prem, the Indian interport student, had suggested. We got ready for dinner and did a lot of waiting around because the seven of us headed out. We got to the restaurant which was beautiful. It was a buffet-style place, but way better. For their buffet, you were given a little stove on your table and endless kebabs of cheeses and meats... for the first course. After you felt like you had a sufficient amount of kebabs, you moved onto the main course, which consisted of different types of noodles and other Indian food. Then when you were truly stuffed beyond acceptance... it was dessert time! We had amazing vanilla ice cream and mango cakes and other things. It was absolutely phenomenal and so beyond filling. We then headed back to the ship to get rest for the busy day we were going to have.

Day Two:
        We met up at Timitz Square at 2:30 AM to make our way to the airport. We were told to get there at least two hours before our flights, and we were told it was about an hour car ride to the airport, and we wanted to leave buffer time because we knew that transportation in India tends to be slightly less than reliable. We grabbed a taxi and got to the airport in about 30 minutes. It was a neat care ride, because even though a light would be red, people would be going through because there was no traffic coming from other directions. I thought that was pretty cool, because in America if it’s 3 AM and there’s a red light you run because there’s NO ONE around, you can still get in trouble for it. Also fun thing about India, the traffic lights all have countdowns... so you know how long the light will be green or red. I really enjoyed that. Anywho, we got to the airport and checked in which took up all of ten minutes, so we had about 2 hours to kill. We journaled, listened to music, napped, and found ways to pass the time. It was our turn to go through security, because at that airport you were only allowed through security one hour before your flight (SUPER efficient, by the way. America should think about it). We cleared security in about five minutes, and we then ate cookies and brownies while waiting for our flight. The flight to Delhi was about three hours, but well all completely passed out because we had gotten less than two hours of sleep each.
        We got off the plane in Delhi and grabbed a prepaid taxi to the hotel we had booked, which took a while and a lot of searching for. We got there and found out that our hotel reservation had been cancelled (It’s right around Diwali and rooms are high in demand, so they sold it for more than we had paid) We went to a travel agency to look into other hotel options. He asked what we wanted to do, and we told him we were going to head to the train station to get a train to Agra. He kind of laughed at us and told us that trains to Agra are high in demand and that we should have booked a few days in advance. We called the train station and found out that it was absolutely true... they were totally sold out. We wound up hiring a taxi to take us up to Agra for the night, stay at a hotel, see the Taj Mahal, and take us back to Delhi the next day to catch our flight, for around $70 per person. We got a quick lunch at dominoes (because nothing els was open and we were all insanely hungry) and began the five hour car ride. I slept for almost the entire ride, we pretty much all did. Along the way we saw a lot of cool looking markets and had a few beggars asking us for money and made really small conversation. We got to Agra around 6:30 PM and put down our stuff at the hotel before heading out. Our driver took us to a marble factory, where we were shown how the marble at the Taj Mahal is constructed, and I got to use the hand wheel to shape a few small pieces of stone which was really cool. They gave us a really awesome demonstration, and I ALMOST bought a marble table ($250 for the table and to have it shipped to USA), but I realized it wouldn’t really fit at my house and my dad would probably just make fun of me for spending that much money on a table (right, family?) We left there and bought two bottles of alcohol to have with our dinner, and we headed back to the hotel. We had dinner on the rooftop at ran into Dip and Aaron, two other SAS kids. Our drivers friend brought over some chicken that he had made, which was a bit too spicy for me. We ordered a bunch of food and I mostly ate rice and naan (It’s kind of a pattern). We went to bed around 10:30-11 because we were all exhausted and we knew we had to be up early the next day.

Day Three:
        We woke up at 5:00 to get to the Taj in time for sunrise. We got there and ran into a whole bunch of SAS kids who were either traveling independently or through the program. Walking in and seeing the Taj Mahal in real life was totally surreal... I’ve seen it in pictures my entire life and having it be this real THING was just weird... like when you talk to someone on facebook for a while and then actually meet them (Which happened with this trip), it’s just a strange feeling that makes the world feel really small. Other than that, I didn’t really feel any huge revelation or spiritual connection or anything... but I did think it was pretty awesome that this dude built this amazing structure to bury his wife. We walked around and took a bunch of pictures and walked through the building. We were there for about an hour before we left, and on the way back to the car we saw a bunch of monkeys, one of which was awesome because it was on a motorcycle looking like it was riding it (JUMANJI). We headed back to the hotel and packed our belongings and enjoyed our free breakfast of toast and eggs (and mixed fruit jam which I’m now obsessed with). We then began our journey back to Delhi, which I fell asleep for a bit of. I was awake for longer than the previous time, and I had a fucking blast hanging out with Ryan and talking about rude bushes, Emilia’s new CD, “Sleeping in Detroit”, and people being late to the horn shop. SIDENOTE: Horns in India are rarely normal horns. They vary in pitch and the sound that comes out of them... most of them sound like the ringtones that come on your phone when you first get it. I’m relatively in love with the whole thing, some of them made me laugh for extended periods of time.
        Sadly, we weren’t able to get back to Delhi in time to see anything, we got there just in time to catch our flight (the original departure time, not including the one hour delay it had). We got some snacks and headed to our terminal. I started reading “White Tiger”, a book that Ryan had picked up, which was really, really good (I finished reading it by the time we were heading back to Chennai). We got to Chandigarh and met up with Jesse’s driver who took us to a government guest house, which was where Jesse had arranged for us to be staying.
        Sidenote: Jesse is Bruce’s business associate. Bruce is my dads friend.
        We settled into our hotel and decided to head to sector 26, which was apparently where all the food was. The city was very well organized, everything was split into different sectors and different sectors had a different purpose. We walked around for a while before choosing a place to eat, a small Southern Indian restaurant where I got a sampler platter of this pancake-type food (I think it’s called oomptham but I could easily be wrong) They were awesome and not spicy at all which was super exciting for me. We headed back to the hotel after dinner and I fell asleep watching “The Hollywood Channel”, which appears to only show B-rated films.

Day Four:
        We woke up and contacted Jesse, who sent a driver to come get us and take us to his house. His cousin, who’s an animator in India, came to pick us up and gave us some information about Chandigarh as we drove past things. We got to Jesse’s house which was absolutely beautiful, my favorite thing being a spiral staircase. Meeting Jesse and his family was awesome, they were so warm and inviting. His wife made us breakfast while we talked with Jesse and his son, Gary. Gary just got drafted into India’s football league which is pretty badass. We had omelets, hash browns, chicken sausage, and toast with the mixed fruit jam I love so much. We then headed to the bus station to hop on the bus to Amritsar, which took 5 hours. We thought it was only going to take 3.5 hours, so we were all a bit frustrated by the time we got there. We met with Sukh and his business associate (who’s name I wish I could remember). Sukh took us to the Golden Temple immediately because he wanted us to be able to see it at sundown. He gave us advice about pickpockets and things to do around India for when we all decide to come back (He could tell that we all wanted to come back pretty immediately).
        The Golden Temple is a place of prayer for those of the Sikh faith. The main principles of the Sikh faith, as Sukh taught us, are the equality of humankind and the concept of universal brotherhood. We got to the golden temple, where we bought bandanas to wrap up our heads and took off our shoes. When you walk in, you walk through a flowing moat-type thing to cleanse your feet, and then you walk in. The temple was BEAUTIFUL. It was sparkling in the dimming sunlight and reflecting in the holy water which surrounded it. We walked around the entire plaza, which consisted of several other temples and the most amazing sense of community I think I’ve ever felt. There was a cafeteria type place, which is 100% free to anyone who needs food. It is run entirely off of donations and volunteers. We were given a tour and shown how they made the bread, some by hand and some by machine, and we were able to speak a bit to the volunteers who are just amazing people. We saw an entire community of several hundred people sitting and eating together, and when the finished they would either go into prayer or wash off their bowl and then take their place in the cafeteria, whether it was cooking or cleaning or handing out food.
        We then were able to go into the temple and walk around the interior. One thing was truly amazing was that I didn’t feel pressure to take place in prayer, as I often do in churches in America. Everyone was so accepting of everyone, and although I was clearly not of Indian decent, I was welcomed with open arms. The interior of the temple was absolutely pristine. There was so much beautiful marble carvings and amazing paintings with such vibrant colors. when we walked out, we were offered the holy sweet, which tasted like a brown sugar/cinnamon dough. It was a really interesting texture and flavor, but I kind of liked it.
        We left the temple and Sukh asked us where we wanted to go to eat, and we told him to take us wherever he liked. We went to a super nice restaurant and Sukh asked what foods we liked and disliked, and he ordered for us based on that. The food was SO good, and he was able to find me lots of non spicy foods which was lovely. We then went to Baskin Robbins for dessert before saying a very sad goodbye. We took a taxi ride back and got in around 3:30

Day Five:
        We headed out around 9 AM, hoping to see all there is to see in Chandigarh before our flight left. We sped through a really cool and beautiful lake, then rushed over to the rock garden which was really amazing, I wish we could have had a few more hours there. We ran into a man who used to work for the UN, and he was very friendly to us. Everyone we met up there stopped us and asked us about our lives and told us about theirs, particularly about their families. We then jetted over to the craft mela, a big craft fair that had handmade stuff from all over the country. It was AWESOME. We only had 40 minutes so I didn’t buy a whole lot, but I could have spent four or five hours looking at everything. We rushed over to the airport to catch our 12:30 flight back to Chennai via Mumbai.
        I spent the whole first flight reading and sleeping. I woke up pretty much as we were pulling into Mumbai. I felt really saddened by the look of Mumbai from the sky, skyscrapers and modern buildings surrounded by hundreds of slums, some with shacks stacked on top of one another. We didn’t wind up getting into Chennai until about 9:30, so I spent the rest of the night hanging out with Farrah and Jimmy and then Kevin when he got back.

Day Six:
        I went to Spencers mall with Jimmy and Farrah and did some last minute shopping as well as getting my nose pierced. WIN. We couldn’t stay very long, because we all were going to an orphanage at 1 PM. We rushed back to the ship and hoped on the bus after a quick lunch.
        I have really, really mixed feelings about the orphanage visit. Clearly it was awesome because we got to spend time with these kids who don’t have homes and who were so happy to be spending time with us. But at the same time, they had a show prepared for us and we were only there for a few hours... I felt like they were on display. I felt like we didn’t really make a difference at all. I let several kids take pictures with my camera and one girl in particular really enjoyed filming with it, and it was nice to see smiles on their faces... but smiles only last so long and the money we donated will only go so far. It actually made me more depressed than anything.


I plan on coming back to India at some point in my life to really experience it. I love Semester at Sea, but I wish there was a way to get more than just an appetizer sampling of every country that we’re going to.

Also, you people should start emailing me more often, let me know I’ve got readers, because if I don’t I’ll probably worry less about updating this damn thing.

Also also, the next few countries have VERY little time in between them, so I’ll try to keep this thing as updated as possible, but things are probably going to start getting out of order. I still haven’t told you guys about all of the adventures that IS sea olympics which happened well over a week ago... things to look forward to :)