Petting my elephant!

Taj Mahal

Snake Charmers

Me in front of the Taj Mahal

Chennai, India

I arrived in Chennai, India on Tuesday of this past week. We stepped off the boat sometime after 9am and made our way into town. We walked a couple kilometers (the unit of measure here) and then took an auto rickshaw to the city. An auto rickshaw is a 3-wheeled vehicle with a bench seat in the back for maximum of 3 people (very squished!). There is a bench seat in the front for the driver as well. The rickshaw is half covered, no doors, and has a very small engine. Let me just say that I have never seen traffic like that of India. It is not just that there are a lot of vehicles on the road, like you’d find in the us, but rather, people DO NOT use lanes. There are auto rickshaws, rickshaws (without the motor, pulled by a man on a bicycle), motorcycles, and cars weaving out of each other and close enough that if I stuck only my hand out the window I could touch. No turn signals ever, and stop signs are not recognized. It was chaos. I would have a heart attack if I had to drive there. Not only are there all these types of animals, but during the course of my stay, I saw elephants, camels, dogs, monkeys, donkeys, and cows everywhere. Can you imagine driving down the road and oh look, there’s an elephant 2 feet away from you?

So we made it to the camera shop…not the camera shop that Matt found for me I don’t think, but it did repairs. It was kind of a sketchy area, mostly because it was dirty and dark, but that was true for quite a few places in India. It is very, very hard to explain things to some people in India. Although many speak English, their accents are very thick and difficult to understand. Also they do this head bob thing…like one of those bobble dolls. You can’t tell if it’s a yes or a no…and really it’s neither. It’s their way of not really answering the question. Very confusing. So anyways, I dropped off my camera and tried to explain I needed the gears fixed and also a spot on the sensor or lens cleaned. I left feeling very unsure that they knew what I needed. I was hopeful I would get my camera back at all to be honest but I have learned to try to think the best of people. After that, Kedren (a friend of Savannah’s) and I made our way back because she was on the same overnight trip as me. I hurried to get all my things together, exchange money on the ship, and made a PB&J…as always. They had orange sherbet for the first time that day! I was in a rush so I asked for a really small scoop and ate it while my bread was toasting for my sandwich.

We took a bus to the Chennai airport, with a short layover in Mumbai, and then continued to Delhi. Natasha, Jesse, I were in a row together and played hangman and the dot game which made the flights pass more quickly. We traveled for quite awhile and didn’t arrive to the hotel until about 9pm I think. We met our guide, Davinder Singh, or D, and he was a lot of fun! He showed us pictures of his wife and 2 daughters which was really cool. The hotel we stayed at was 5 star, the Intercontinental, and was the most beautiful hotel I have ever seen. When we arrived, we were given long necklaces made out of what looked like orange marigold flowers. We hadn’t eaten in awhile so dinner was waiting for us when we arrived. I have never seen a food layout like this. The first station had appetizers, like marinated mushrooms and peppers, crackers, all kinds of cheeses…after that we found sushi, large shrimp, fresh roasted turkey and chicken…I can’t even remember everything but I will post pictures of the delicious food. …Even better than the main course was the dessert. There was a long table filled with about 15 different desserts…it was amazing and I am craving it now. They also had all kinds of fruit, including more common ones like kiwi and pineapple, also a strange one that looked like a cross between a kiwi and a watermelon that was pink and white. I will post pictures of those too. After that I took a bubble bath in the nice tub which was really relaxing. I went to bed about 2am that night and had to wake up at 3:45am to leave. We had a light breakfast before we left and then we had to go to the train station to take a train to Agra. It was crazy because it was still dark, people were everywhere, and I was exhausted. We had to sprint across the streets to avoid traffic which was a little scary. After arriving in Agra, we ate breakfast at a local hotel, and then made our way to Agra Fort. Wikipedia has an excellent history of it. We have gotten used to using that site since it is one of the only free sites we have. After that we visited the Taj Mahal! The history of it is that Emperor Shah Jahan’s wife Mumtaz Mahal died during the birth of their fourteenth child. His wife had 2 wishes before she died: 1, for the emperor to not marry again, and 2, for him to build a remembrance of true love. And thus, the Taj Mahal was built, and took 22 years to complete. His wife was buried in the center (the Taj is perfectly symmetrical). The Emperor was later imprisoned by his son in nearby Agra Fort, and when he died, he was buried next to his wife, now making him the only aspect of the Taj Mahal that is not symmetrical. At one time, visitors could visit the actual graves, but now there are fake graves put on top of the real ones to protect them. Taj means crown, and Mahal means palace, and that is exactly what this monument looks like. Shah Jahan’s wife died at 36 years old, after being married since we was 18. There are one million semi-precious stones in the Taj Mahal, and it is over 250 feet tall. Our next stop was to get lunch, and then we began a 6 six hour drive to Jaipur (pronounced Ji –per), the pink city. It is named this because everything is built from sandstone. We then visited Fatehpur Sikri, once built by emperor and mogul Akbar in 1572. He walked over 40 miles to arrive at this place. He did not have any sons, and after moving here he was blessed with two. He also had three wives: Muslim, Hindu, and Christian. Due to heat (115 degrees Fahrenheit in June!) and lack of drinking water, he had to move to Agra Fort.

When we arrived at Hotel Mansingh in Jaipur the next night it was late in the evening. I had dinner and went to bed early to catch up on sleep from the night before. The next morning we woke up very early again, 4:30 or 5, and had breakfast before proceeding to the base of Amber Fort. From here we rode elephants to the top! It was so much fun and little scary because we sat in these boxes that were kind of wobbly as went up the large hill. I was so excited that I got to ride one and got a few pictures. We went to many other places during the day including City Palace, Hawa Mahal, and an Observatory known as Jantar Mantar, which contains elaborate sundial structures. It was built in 1728 and has 12 sundials, including the biggest sundial in India. We also went to a local carpet making place. We got to see the steps as a man was hand-knotting a carpet. There are about 475 knots per square inch! We also saw them singe the back to keep it together after it is finished, and hand cut the top with scissors to get rid of excess material. It was really amazing, and although I did not plan on it, I bought a rug! It is an oriental Indian rug and very beautiful. It took over 2 weeks to make! I will try to post a picture of that too. There are two qualities, single knot and double knot. Double knot is obviously made with two knots, and is the second best quality as it takes less time to make because each knot takes up more room and is not as durable. I bought a single knot which is the best you can get it. I still can’t believe I got it, but I figured it would look nice in my home someday and was handmade in India! One of the guys also threw a carpet across the room, and called it the “flying carpet”like Aladdin, because it flew through the air. It was pretty funny. At night we had dinner at a local Haveli, which seemed like a restaurant to me. It was a guy in our group’s 21st birthday so they had a cake for him and we all celebrated.

The last day of the overnight trip, Friday, was the most interesting I would say. We woke up early to leave for Delhi, another 6 hour drive. We were all exhausted, so we slept pretty much the entire way. However, after arriving on the outskirts of Delhi, we had a very unfortunate incident. Our driver went through the tollbooth and needed a receipt to give to the business he worked for. The tollbooth driver said the printer was not working. They went back and forth a little bit and then the tollbooth driver got aggressive. He began hitting our driver with a broomstick. Somehow our driver and the man ended up outside of our bus and the tollbooth. The tollbooth driver picked up our guide, turned him completely upside down, and dropped him on his face. Our driver was then bleeding profusely all over the road. It was really scary. We had to wait for an ambulance to come, which unlike the US where it only takes 30 seconds, we were waiting 10-15 minutes. I still do not know if our driver is okay, but he was in rough condition when he left. Our guide told us things like this happen every single day, and many die from being dropped like that. While I tell this story and I know it is very scary (and I know my parents are going to be worried after reading this) …India is also an amazing place. Yes there can be a lot of violence, but most people are very friendly. So yes this was the big event of our day, as we were stuck in the middle of the highway waiting for a new driver to come. We were supposed to have a tour of Old and New Delhi as was as visit another fort and a tomb, but we did not have time. Instead we only were able to make a visit to Qutub Minar, built in 1192. We left Delhi in the early afternoon for a direct flight back to Chennai, and again played hangman and 20 questions with Jesse and Alex. We arrived back at about 8pm I would guess, and watched Indian music videos on the bus ride home. When we got back on the ship, I started feeling really sick (stomach, head, very cold and dizzy), perhaps because of some kind of Indian bacteria in me. The food is known to make foreigners ill. So I have been sick since then…I guess not a 24 hour bug. Hopefully it will be gone by the time we reach Malaysia.

The next day, and last day in Chennai, Tori and I headed into town to pick up my camera. When we got there they were closed for lunch, so our rickshaw drivers took us to a shop (where he gets commission from) and we hung out there for awhile and Tori bought a few things. When we came back, it looked like they were just starting to work on my camera…even though I dropped it off on Tuesday. I saw the guy working on it and was kind of nervous, but somehow I think he combined part of my camera with another Nikon Coolpix’s insides. This is just speculation but it works just fine now and I am very excited. Both the gears and whatever was inside the lens causing a spot are fixed. I am going to be very careful in the future because it has been a big pain. After picking it up, we took the same auto rickshaw back as they had been waiting for us. About a mile from port they wanted us to pay them and charged us $30 American dollars. That is very expensive. At least ten times what we should have paid. They would not back down and said that they had to wait for us (they were with us for 4 hours) and had to feed their families. Also we got tricked because there was a driver and a guide for some reason so we had to pay $15 each. Being in another country there is not much we could do, but it shows you have to be careful. They were so friendly before and talking to us about everything, but knew all along they were going to basically screw us. Oh well, it’s expensive in the country, but for the United States I suppose that’s pretty normal. We came back and that’s when my real sickness set in. I did not get up for the rest of the night except to drop off my forms and to eat a PB&J, which was the only thing I ate for 24 hours. It is the next day, and I am beginning to feel a little bit better than yesterday, but still not good. I can’t believe we only have 2 more days after this on the ship and we will be in another country!

So I made notes in a small journal I had, so now I am going to go back through and add random things and facts. We also went to a place called Ghost City built in 1582 and made out of all sandstone. It has been deserted for centuries. This may also be the place built by Akbar but my notes aren’t too clear. The lotus flower is on many buildings and is a symbol of the Hindu religion. The ohm is a symbol of peace. One place we went, built in 1580, was inhabited by Mansingh the first, and he had 12 wives and a floor of concubines. Very strange how cultures vary. Sikh is the religion my guide Davinder is. It is only found in India and is a branch of Hinduism. There are only 20 million in India, which sounds like a lot, but really isn’t much since there is a total population of over a billion. The religion is just over 300 years old, has only one god (God?) and is based on music. A funny story my guide was telling us is when he went to America. He has been twice for 9 months total. He went to New York (which he says is his favorite place in the states) and bought a Yankees hat. Then he went to Maryland and was wearing his Yankees hat and was asked why he was wearing it. He was made to buy an Orioles hat, and was surprised because he didn’t realize people were so passionate about baseball. It was pretty funny how he told it. We also got to see a few snake charmers which were cool. One cobra was pretty big. Cows were parked in between motorcycles which was really weird to see. When we were riding in the bus, we saw at least 10 monkeys on a wall, one with a baby attached under the stomach. Arranged marriages are very popular in India. Families are matched up based on religion, status, etc., rather than love. Interesting concept compared to America, although we pick matches ourselves somewhat based on these things, which we discussed as a topic in my philosophy class. …Even though I saw many poor people in Brazil, and both countries in Africa, it was nothing compared to India. Not only were there people not wearing shoes, but there were people without arms and legs crawling around on the ground. Everyone tried to get us to buy things and kept bargaining with us even when we didn’t want what they were selling. We had to ignore them and not even look at them, which was really hard for me because I would prefer to say no thank you. It was really sad, but strange because a place with the most severe poverty had some of the most friendly people.

Alright well now I am waiting for my psychology class to start. Thanks for all the e-mails sent while I was gone. Miss you all and hope you are all doing well back home!