The rest of Indiaaaaaa

India Day 2
We woke up around 7am and went walking to look for a place to eat breakfast. We woke up so early that everything was closed. People were sleeping in the streets all over the place, the poverty in India is so sad. So many people live on the streets (in Delhi) it’s sad. There are little shacks set up all over on the sides of the roads. We walked back to the hotel and Kishen Singh was there to pick us up. While we were putting our stuff in the car there was this Indian man walking this cow down the street that was decked out in this crazy outfit. It was all dressed up, it had to have been for a wedding or something. When we got in the car the first place we went was to a Lakshmi (idk how to spell it) temple, it’s a Hindi God. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in it, like almost all Hindi temples, and we also had to take our shoes off, which you have to do everywhere too. It was so pretty inside with tons of colors. After this temple we went to a Baha’i temple. Baha’i is a world religion that’s a combination of Christinanty, Hindi, Muslim, and some others, I think. There’s another really famous Baha’i temple in Chicago. The one in Delhi is sooo pretty, it’s HUGE, surrounded with walkways and gardens, its so pretty and green. It is really big and all white. We went in and we weren’t allowed to talk, the ceiling was so pretty. Since this is a touristy place for Indians, as well as others, we got a decent amount of stares here because there are people from rural India that visit. After we left we went to another temple, that was a form of Hinduism, it was called an Iskcon temple. It’s some sory of international society of Krishna (Hindu God) consciousness. There were people talking in there lecturing to little kids about something, Jacie told us they normally sing, but we weren’t there for that. When we left there were buses of kids in uniforms pulling into the parking lot and gathered outside of the temple. They were all so cute and everyone was so excited to see us walking out to our car and they were all waving. After the temple we went to this textile type market that Kishen took us too, we didn’t want to go at all, but Kishen like made us go because he gets commission if we go. After the maket, where we didn’t even buy anything, we set off on our 4 hour or so drive to Agra (where the Taj is). About an hour or so in we stopped at a local restaurant on the side of the road, it was sooo good. We did the family style type meal with northern Indian food. We ordered a lot of Naan (which is like this type of cooked bread, SO good) and dipped it in different currie sauces. More than halfway to Agra we stopped at this famous Hindu temple in this random village, it is the birthplace of Krishna. Kishen told us a lot of tourists go here, but he didn’t specifiy it was ALL Indian tourists, this was definatley a very cultural experience, it was really amazing though. We were the ONLY white people int the whole temple and the temple was absouletly huge, there were so many different buildings in the temple. When we were going into the temple they patted us down sooo much. We got SO many stares here, so many people were staring and pointing and bowing at us, it’s so funny. I specifically remember standing in line to walk through this temple with people playing a bunch of instruments and there were like 3 older ladies touching me and I could totally feel it so I turned around and they were all just smiling and laughing. We walked thorugh like 3 of the buildings and then we went through like this man mad cave type thing, it was kind of like the pirates of the Caribbean at Disney world and you walked thorugh it and you looked at all these little windows of Hindi Gods. When we left the temple we were bombarded with little kids trying to sell us stuff. We were stuck for a little while trying to get out because a bunch of sheep and their herders were crossing the road. When we got to Agra we went to our hotel which was so cheap, it was right next to the East gate of the Taj Mahal. It was literally like six dollars a night. It was not that nice though. The beds were fine, but the bathroom was gross. The shower was just like a showerhead in the room of the bathroom, just right next to the toilet, so weird. We dropped our stuff off then we went to dinner on this rooftop where you can see the Taj, it was cool, but you couldn’t see the Taj because it was dark out, you could faintly see the outline of it. At dinner we got Tandori chicken and other currie food, it was pretty good. When we were on the rooftop we heard this parade in the distance, and they slowly approached us and there were people dancing everywhere, people were playing instruments, it was just chaos. We then saw there was a bride and groom, it was so cool to see the wedding. It was so long, they passed us for like 10 minutes or so. After dinner we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

India Day 3
We woke up really early to try and see the sunrise at the Taj, but the line was so long to get in there’s no way we were going to see it. We waited in line for probably 30 minutes once they actually opened the gates, maybe more. Walking in through the walkway and actually seeing the Taj Mahal was soooo surreal. It was way cooler than I expected. I thought it was going to be one of those things that’s so talked up and going to be cool, but not that cool. It was totally not like that, it was so gorgeous and so cool. We couldn’t take pictures inside it (even though people were kind of), but the inside wasn’t that cool. I don’t know if you know this, but it’s a tomb for this King’s wife, he was going to build a black Taj across from the white one, but he went to prison or something or he died, I forget exactly, but it was never built, obviously. The inside was pretty small, most of it was blocked off. The flowers engraved in the wall were really pretty, they were like orange and red, it was all marble and every one was hand carved. It took like 20 years to build I think. There were people everywhere trying to give us tours, but you’re not supposed to get them, they’re just a rip off. After the Taj, we went to breakfast at the same rooftop restaurant as the night before, we just got omelets and toast. This time you could actually see the Taj and it was really pretty. After breakfast we met Kishen Singh and we started our drive to Jaipur, which is like a five hour or so drive. The long drives are so funny because you drive through tons of small villages and people in cars next to you stare so much. The rickshaws pack like seriously 20 people in them, it’s so funny, its just filled with Indians hanging all over the rickshaw. About an hour into the drive we stopped at this “ghost town”. It was an old town on top of this hill that this king built for him and his like 300 wives or something, it was abandoned because there was no source of water near it. We happened to run into the actual semester at sea trip when we were there, I saw my friend Emily. The “town” was really cool, but it looked similar to stuff we had already. It was this red brick town that was really open; it kind of reminded me of a prettier and smaller version of the Forbidden City (China). There was this disgusting green like moldy looking water that was below us, we were looking at it from above on a ledge, and this random Indian guy jumped in it for 100 rupees(like 2 bucks), people threw him more though after he jumped in it; I have a video of it, it’s so gross. The vendors at this place were so ridiculous and grabby, they would not stop following us. We were at the city for about an hour and then we made the rest of the drive to Jaipur. Jaipur is a much more of a smaller city, there are no tall buildings or anything. There are definitely a lot of poor people, but it is a really cute city. Jaipur is famous for being “the pink city”, a huge area of Jaipur is like this old salmon looking color, all the buildings are this color, it’s really cool. We drove thorugh it a bunch of times while in Jaipur. Our hotel was SOOOOO freaking cute, for a really good price too. We stayed at this place called the Diggi palace, it used to be a wealthy Indian’s old house a long time ago. There was this gorgeous green courtyard in the middle of it, they had tables on the side of it where people could eat. It was so cool the hotel was totally like an old rich home just renewed. Our room was big and actually really nice, really pretty tiling; the bathroom was big, but it had the same type of shower with the showerhead just coming out of the wall in the room, I think that’s such a random/funny thing to have, I guess it is India. Anyways, after we got our stuff situated we went to dinner at this AMAZING restaurant (Indian) that was pretty cheap. After that we went out to meet up with Tom (Tom is a kid on our ship my friend Angela is like dating, and Tom was with semester at sea on a trip and they were in Jaipur the same 2 nights we were). We went to the hotel they said they would be at, but they weren’t there; it took us a while to figure out where he was, we got in contact with someone on Tom’s trip and we found out they were at the Radisson (lame); we ended finally getting to the Radisson and just staying there because there was ACTAULLY a bar in the hotel (there are no bars/clubs anywhere in India, its hard to find because of their religious practices). We just stayed at the club in the Radisson and then went back to our hotel. It was really weird drinking in India, it felt so weird and like a taboo.

India day 4
The next morning we woke up and got breakfast in the courtyard, the juice was really good. The food was okay, but the fruit was so good. After breakfast we relaxed at the hotel for a little while and then Angela, Anne, and I took a rickshaw to go shopping. It was so ridiculous, our driver was named Raj and he was like our own personal little driver, he loved us, he wasn’t a typical Indian, he was the craziest free spirited Indian ever; he was obsessed with us and he had music and he was singing to it. He took us to this jewelry shop that was like this unknown local place which sold a bunch of really cool silver stuff; after that he took us to some leather place which was nice, but kind of a rip off; after that we went to a cool textile place. The people there loved us and they put saris on us. The saris were SO pretty, all saris are pretty. Raj was loving us all day he was so crazy. He lived right next to our hotel so he always parks by our hotel, he wanted to like go out with us that night, but we just kind of nodded our heads and didn’t plan on it. We got back and relaxed in the court yard for a while and then Kishen picked us up at two and we drove to this Monkey Temple; we later found out from a local there that it was where some Hindi god lived for like 60,000 years until he reached enlightment and when he did the mountain split and water came rushing through, so it is very holy to wash yourself in this water area in the middle of the temple. The monkey temple was kind of on the outskirts of Jaipur and we got A LOT of stares here, we were like the only white people; I think it was a more local place than tourist. There were tons of people bathing in the water. It’s so weird because even when bathing the women still cover their shoulders, even with their breasts exposed, it’s crazy. There were a group of guys that kept making us take pictures of them and they were making all these poses, it was cute. But holy crap, there were monkeys EVERYWHERE and they were so scary, I was so afraid of them. We had peanuts and they knew that we had them so they were greedy, we all ended up just throwing our bags because they were getting scary. The monkeys are mean. The temple was so pretty, it reminded me of something that would be Western theme, it wasn’t really a “temple” it was this area that we just walked up the mountain and it was like this abandoned town. After the monkey temple we picked up Tom at the Radisson and then went back to our hotel. We sat in the courtyard for a while and ate some appetizers and got a drink or two. After that we went to dinner at the same place because it was such good food. After dinner Jacy and John went back to the hotel and the four of us went to the Radisson again. When we got there someone told us about this carnival going on about 4 blocks or so away, he said there was music and a ferris wheel. We tried getting a beer before we went, which took us forever, probably an hour. Then we finally went to the carnival, it was around 11pm, and we happened to get there right when everything was ending. Me and two of the semester at sea guys got trapped in this circle of people immediately, it was mostly children and then it started to turn into men. It was the worst it has ever been, I shook one persons hand and after that like 30 hands just flew at me. People were getting really touchy and we all started getting uncomfortable. We all found each other and we treid to get out as fast as we could. This huge group of men kept following us all the way to the hotel, it’s the most unsafe I’ve felt yet, I was so glad the Radisson was so close. They followed us all the way to the hotel and when we got there with the guards our guy friend was like yeah whats up now, it was really funny, beucase there was nothing the people could do. We made it a calm night after that, no one was at the club this night anways; we just sat at the downstairs beer and got one drink then we took a rickshaw back to our hotel.

India day 5
The next morning we woke up really early to go elephant riding. This was very touristy. There were tons of elephants that were dressed up and painted. We waited in line for a good 20 minutes before we got on; I rode on the elephant with Anne, it was really cool, but I felt bad for the elephants, they just walk up and down this hill all day. They rode us to the top of this old city where we stayed for a while. Angela and Anne got more henna. This was another abandoned city, that looked a lot like other ones that we have already seen. It was this old palace too, we had to pay to get into that part. It was cool to see, there were tons of little pathways to go to different little rooms, except it reeked like pee, Indians are really open about peeing ANYWHERE in public, its so gross and dirty. After the palace we left and made our way back to the hotel. On the way back we stopped on the side of the road to look at this palace that’s in the middle of a lake, its literally just this building just in the middle of a lake, its really cool, but no one can get to it. There was this little kid there who did this little magic show for us (for money, of course), he was so adorable and he was seriously so good, I didn’t know how he was doing his little tricks. We went back to the hotel to grab our bags then we went to this area in the pink city where they have these cute street markets called bizarres. We shopped in them for a while, they are actually really nice and not as grabby as other markets. We also stopped at an internet café for an hour or so. We met Kishen around 330 or 4 and made our drive back to Delhi. We stopped for lunch right on the way out of Jaipur, which was okay, I ended up getting Chow Mein because I needed a break from Indian food, my stomach was getting a little upset from it. When we finally got into Delhi, about 5 hours later or so, we went to this hotel next to the airpot because we (me Angela and Anne) were flying out at 6am to Cochin. The hotel lied to us on the phone and totally ripped us off, it was some King palace hotel or something. The hotel was pretty decent for India, but it wasn’t anything special. We went to bed right when we got there because we had to get up early

India day 6
We got our shuttle at three am (SO tired) to the airport. There ended up being some other SAS kids on our flight. We flew Spicejet this time, and we had to make a stop in Bombay/Mumbai airport to drop people off and pick new people up, we stayed on the plane though. I was so nervous about checking my bag because the ship left later that night and if we didn’t get our bags they were going to be long gone. We landed on time and Thank God we got our bags., of course they were like the last ones. Anne has extended family that lives in Cochin (her moms cousin, I think, married this Indian man, and his family lives in Cochin), so she planned with them to pick us up at the airport and hang out with them for the day until we had to get back to the ship later that day. Cochin is SO MUCH DIFFERENT than the rest of India; it’s very clean, and there’s not much poverty, its very nicely developed. The state Cochin is in is the richest state in India(there are 28 states). They also have the highest literacy rate. Oh, I asked him and most people aren’t Hindu here either, it’s a lot of Christians and some others. Cochin was nothing like the India I saw the whole trip. Anyways, the family names every first born boy in the family Joe, so there were like 4 Joe’s I met that day, anyways, one of the Joe’s picked us up at the airport and took us back to the main big house. Their house was SO pretty, its been in the family since forever, and its right across from the ocean. They own some family business for some weird kind of carpet, they sell it all over the world, they are very rich. Their house was so pretty and antique looking, it was so cool to see. The grandma was so cute, she was so excited to meet us and everyone was so welcoming, I was so thankful. We talked for a little while with the family and they gave us this amazing lemonade. They made us this special occasion lunch, we ate with 4 of the men in their family, and 5 or so of the girls made it all home-made for us and just stood there and watched us and served us, I was so thankful, I appreciated their generosity so much. They made the best homemade food, we had a fish pie (sounds gross, but SO good), garlic bread, these currie potatoes, chicken, and some other stuff I don’t remember. Everything was so amazing, I loved everything. After lunch the Grandma gave us presents, Anne and Angela got these wooden letter holders and I got this really cool wooden box. She was so nice and so warming. We said goodbye to the family and then Joe (the one that picked us up at the airport) and another Joe (who acuatlly went to Purdue, and was only a few years older than us) took us to drive around. We first stopped at this market and I bought some random stuff. The market was right next to the ocean and it was really cute. After the market we went to this fishing thing right next to the market; it used to be a huge place to catch fish, but after the Tsunami or something they don’t really catch anything. Anyways, there were a bunch of them on the pier, and we walked out to one of them and they helped us do it. It was this huge net that you pulled up and down. We caught like a net full of tiny little fish, they looked like really big minnows. Of course, we had to pay them. Anyways, after that we just went to this restaurant right on the water, it’s a known spot for filming smaller local movies. We saw a bunch of SAS kids there too. We just got a beer with some other SAS kids, and then we went back to this ship, which was like a twenty minute drive. I’m so forgetful when I’m overtired, just like in the China airport where I forgot my painting, I forgot a bag full of stuff in the car. It was just a plastic bag with the stuff I bought at the market that day, and the box that their grandma gave me, and a scarf, I felt so bad, I realized it like 5 minutes after I did it, and he was long gone by then. When we got back to the gate, they let Angela and Anne through, but they wouldn’t let me because I didn’t have my passport copy stamped (we were supposed to do that getting into Cochin), so I had to go to the customs office like a few minute drive away. Anne and Angela got on the ship, but they had to get back off and go get it after me. Anyways, after that whole mess, I finally got back on the ship, and we left crazy India that night.