Slumdog Indian-air

The majority of blogs that I read before going on Semester at Sea talked about India being one of the most shocking ports where you will feel quite out of your comfort zone. I think it was the combination of being prepared for the worst, traveling only with Semester at Sea programs, and having already gone to many countries that made me feel fine in India. I loved it there, but I was traveling non-stop which made it very tiring.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

-The majority of places I ate at served strawberry ice cream for dessert. I had no idea that was a thing in India

-Many parents put dark eyeliner-like makeup on their babies to make them look "beautiful"

-India is rich in silk, opium and spices, and black pepper was worth more value than gold back in the day

-There are so many cows walking and laying around the streets because they are sacred. There are also monkeys. MONKEYS!

-About 80% of people in India have arranged marriages

-The building of the Taj Mahal started in 1632 and took 22 years to complete

-No free wifi anywhere L

 

DAY 1

I had my International Marketing field lab the first day we got to India, and it was focused on the marketing and globalization of spices. I have the same teacher for this class and Consumer Behavior where I went to a Kobe beef farm in Japan and ate an amazing Kobe beef dinner, so I knew this field lab would be great also. The huge difference between both of these field labs is that one was in freezing cold Japan in the snow, and this one was in sweltering hot India. We took about a 30 minute bus ride through Kochi and arrived in an area with some shops called "Jew town" or "Jew street". Although this place was called that and Jews used to live there, the majority of them (besides like literally 10) have moved to the real Jew land, Israel. I couldn't stop looking out the window on the drive there, because it was nothing like I had pictured India. This city was quite industrialized and looked like any other city, except all the women were wearing Saree's and the men in these white cloth's tied pretty short for "pants" which I don't know the name of. So we walked around Jew Town following our guide who showed us where spices were traditionally stored before they were traded. We then got free time to check out some of the shops and markets, and my Jewish friend Joselyn and I went and found the synagogue and took some very Jew-y pictures. It was great! We shopped around for a bit, I almost bought a menorah but the ship probably would've confiscated it from me before I could get it on, a taxi driver kept following us around and basically fell in love with Joselyn (I swear he was about to propose), then we got back on the bus and drove to Synthite Headquarters.   

The Synthite building was just beautiful and reminded me of the Google building seen in the movie "The Internship". It was pretty cool. A man gave us a presentation and it was really interesting seeing how they sell around the world to other businesses. After hanging out and drinking the best milk tea I have ever had, we left and drove a few minutes away to a building where they store raw spices in. We had to put on shoe covers, masks and hair nets to go inside, then I stepped inside and realized why. We walked into the "red chili pepper" room and you could smell it strongly through the mask. They warned us about it and I stayed in there thinking I could handle it, then I got a tickle in my throat. Some people started coughing and sneezing and I soon joined in. It was annoying, but hilarious at the same time. After going in a couple more rooms of random spices that weren't as strong, we walked outside to a crazy rain and wind storm. It was absolutely POORING, then stopped a few minutes later. It happens. We got on the bus to go NEXT DOOR because it was raining so hard, then toured the place where the spices get processed. We walked into another huge room with red chili peppers and couldn't handle it anymore. I started sneezing like crazy. Now that I think of it, I have had a cold/allergies or whatever that was since then. That was almost a month ago! Those red chili peppers killed!

We left the factory and drove back towards the ship and went to dinner at an amazing hotel right by the ship. We were all starving and one of the chefs talked about the spices used in every single dish and I was just salivating. Dinner was amazing and it was the first of many amazing Indian meals (I swear I gained like 10 lbs). I passed right out when I got back, and slept for about 4 hours.

DAY 2

My field program through SAS called "The Glory of the Ganges" left around 4am. I was oddly pretty awake because I slept for such little time so I was running off of pure adrenaline. Our flight was at 7am and the airport was a big hassle with hundreds of us SAS'ers. We made it onto our 3 hour flight to Dehli where everyone dozed off the majority of it. When we landed, we got straight onto a tour bus and went to this old place called Qutub Minar which is an Indo-Islamic Afghan conical tower. It was cool to see and reminded me a lot of Ephesus, Turkey, but I don't remember much info about it. This trip was non-stop traveling and we learned so much that I feel like the majority of things went in one ear and out the other. But I always have Wikipedia to get/remember info (that's our primary source of information on this ship since that's a free site). ANYWAYS. We had lunch at a restaurant called Lazeez Affaire. A few feet away from the restaurant, there was a snake charmer! I've never seen one before and started freaking out because it finally hit that I was actually in India. There were 2 snakes getting charmed and it was just so cool. So lunch was another amazing meal, then we got back on the bus for a driving tour of "Lyutens" Dehli where we saw the India Gate and Viceroy's House (now known as the Rashtrapati Bhavan-The President Palace).

On this driving tour, I SAW MONKEYS. There were tons just hanging out on the sidewalk and I was so excited. So after our driving tour, we visited Gurdwara Bangla Sahib which is "the most prominent Sikh house of worship in Dehli". We all gathered in a room to take off our shoes and put these orange bandana head coverings on, then we looked around the place. We went inside and a guy was chanting/praying with a lot of people praying on their knees in there. It reminded me a lot of what was going on at the Schwedegon Pagoda in Burma. After this, we finally went and checked in to our Hotel Royal Plaza. It was beautiful and fancy, but the only downfall was that we would have to pay if we wanted wifi (about $7 for 24 hours). I never found free wifi in India, which I found really odd since I even found it in Burma! We got assigned our roommates and I went up to the room with her to discover a huge King bed and a pull-out bed. She immediately claimed the pull-out bed and I couldn't argue with that (thanks Sam!), and as I plopped down, I discovered a huge painting of the Mona Lisa THE SIZE OF THE BED hanging from the ceiling looking down at me. That lady freaks me out and I was scared of waking up in the middle of the night and freaking out (luckily, that did not happen).

I went down to the lobby to see if some friends were down there, but no one was really there and I did not know their room numbers. I tagged along with an awesome group walking to a market that was supposedly a few minutes away, but we ended up never finding it. I then went with them to a shop where I bought a scarf and a saree that I could wear to the Taj! I went back to the hotel, had another amazing dinner, and then went on good ole' Facebook until I passed out.

DAY 3

We woke up early to catch a flight to Varanasi at 9am. After we landed an hour later, we went on a tour bus straight to Sarnath, a major Buddhist center. Now Varanasi was how I had always pictured India. Dirt roads, cows walking around everywhere and laying in the middle of the road, tons of people, lots of traffic, and it was just….India, and I loved it. After the Buddhist center, some people checked out a museum while others checked out the street vendors. One guy followed me around for at least 20 minutes trying to get me to buy another one of something I had already bought. We then had another amazing meal and checked into our Hotel Clarks Varanasi and listened to a lecture about the Ganges River from a professor. After that, we finally got to check it out at dark where we went out on a boat and watched the "Aarti" ceremony. There were men dancing and drumming on a stage by the river with tons of people surrounding them doing this Hindu religious ritual of worship. There were also HUNDREDS of boats out on the river watching it also, and we were one of them. Some people were even jumping around from boat to boat trying to sell stuff because we were all so close together. It was an amazing site.

DAY 4

We woke up insanely early to be on the river for sunrise. There were tons of people bathing in the river to wash their sins away. This river is so sacred and there was a crematorium where a huge ceremony goes on when someone dies and they throw the ashes in the river. I have never seen or heard of anything like this ever before! My guide told me that many people were even eager to die because they get honored so well and also believe they will reincarnate. It was an amazing and holy site that I will always remember for sure. After being on the river for a while, we went back to shore and went up to an Akhara-a traditional Indian Gymnasium for wrestling. It was a quick visit, but it was cool hearing about it and seeing some of them training because the wrestlers live there and train together, and follow strict rules on what they can eat and do in their spare time. Sex, drinking and smoking are all off limits!

After this unreal morning, we had breakfast then went to the airport for yet another flight, this time to Agra. We went to lunch then visited the Agra Fort, a big place that is basically a city within a city, and you could see the Taj Mahal in the distance! This is where Emperor Shah Jahan watched the building of his dream of the Taj Mahal as he was imprisoned by his son. After this, we visited Mother Theresa's Charity Home where orphaned children or anyone who cannot take care of themselves can go to live. I saw many kids and adults, and one girl befriended many of us. She spoke no English (and I later found out that what I thought was Hindi she was speaking was actually no language at all because she had a mental disability) yet she got a group of about 10 of us to come outside with her and play ball while she would stand in the center and tell us what to do. She was so sweet and I really enjoyed my short time there!

We then went straight to a theatre to see the play "Mohabbat-e-Taj" which was a play depicting the love story around the building of the Taj Mahal. Emperor Shah Jahan loved his wife Mumtaz Mahal, and when she died, he wanted to express his undying love for her and started building the Taj. If you didn't already know, the Taj Mahal is Mumtaz Mahal's tomb, and Shah Jahan got buried there as well when he died. The play was very Bollywood and had lots of dancing, singing, fancy outfits, and I personally really enjoyed it although a lot of other people said it was weird and over-the-top. After the play, we went back to the hotel for dinner and went to bed excited to see the Taj the next morning!

DAY 5

We went to the Taj Mahal just after sunrise and it was breathtaking. I've seen so many pictures of it before and it was so surreal that I was actually there. I took a ton of pictures and walked around, amazed that it wasn't all a dream. After the Taj, we went on a 5 hour bus ride back to Dehli. We visited Raj Ghat, drove past the Red Fort, and visited Jama Masjid, the "mosque of Friday". It was only a brief stop here and Mitchi and I got swarmed by groups wanting to take pictures with us. I swear it happens in the randomest places in the randomest countries. After going back to the hotel, I hung out at the bar for a drink then went upstairs to the rooftop bar which was also a hookah bar. It was SUCH a nice hotel!

DAY 6

We got up early again to catch a flight back to Kochi. We got back right when lunch ended, so everyone headed up to the pool bar to get burgers, fries and all that fun fat stuff. I completely crashed after that, and caught a bad cold starting then for a couple of weeks. It was an exhausting trip and I think we did way too much, but I don't know if I will ever be back in India so it was good to see a lot. 4 plane rides and one 5 hour car ride is a lot to do in 5 days!

 

PICTURES

1-The streets of Jew Town with some tuk tuk's, the "Indian taxis"

2-Joselyn and I by a synagogue in Jew Town with a menorah and Star of David in the back

3-Qutub Minar

4-Snake charmer!

5-Ivette, Me, Mitchi and Joselyn at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib which is "the most prominent Sikh house of worship in Dehli"

6-What the Sikh temple looked like

7-The Aarti ceremony on the Ganges

8-The Ganges in the early morning with people "washing their sins away"

9-Mitchi, me and Joselyn at the Agra fort

10-Just a TAD different than America haha

11-Right before entering the Taj, I saw camels for the first time

12-My first picture at the stunning Taj Mahal

13-Mitchi and I excited as could be at the Taj

14-MONKEYS! Right outside the Taj!

15-Guys who ran up and asked me for a picture at Jama Masjid, the "mosque of Friday"

16-Sisters who ran up to me (along with one's husband) after the guys did. They were all so sweet!