India

Where to start with India?
India is the most extreme culture I have experienced. Everything is
extreme. The people are extremely religious whether that religion be
Hindu, Muslim, Christian, or Jewish you cannot drive down a street in
Cochin without seeing one temple, mosque, church, or synagogue. Every
taxi has a mark of the religion of the driver, the clothes people wear
almost instantly indicates the religion they follow. The food is
extreme, you can get really spicy, super spicy, or my mouth is on fire
and my nose is running spicy. If spice isn't your thing, you can get
super sweet dishes and there is always rice to mellow out each taste.
The driving is extreme, I'm still not sure if they drive on the left or
right side of the road here because honestly it is a free for all. If
someone in front of you is moving slow and there is a slight chance you
can make it around them before you collide with the huge bus coming at
you, you're going around that slow person blazing the horn the whole
way. I can't tell you how many times I covered my eyes and cringed
expecting to get run off the road or run over but the drivers know what
they are doing and are good at what they do. To be real, they take goats
and dogs as casualties a lot of the time with their crazy driving and
after rush hour there are always a few scattered in the streets. Not
pretty. The work ethic is extreme, all over the schools I visited are
quotes relaying the message of working hard to get things in life and
the students take studying very seriously. Almost every student I
talked to wanted to go on with schooling to be astrophysicists,
professors, or doctors. If culture is what you are looking for, come to
India and culture is what you will get. It is amazing.
Day One: When we arrived in India we were all up early hoping to clear
immigration as fast as possible and begin our adventures. Unfortunately,
since India is currently at odds with places like Pakistan and China
security was very tight and we ended up not getting off the ship until
almost ten thirty. As soon as we were finally off the ship we hopped in
a taxi and were ready to start exploring. I was with Lindsay and three
girls who are actually from New Hampshire as well and go to UNH, Becca,
Turner, and Colleen. We asked our driver to bring us to some markets
because we all needed appropriate Indian clothes. It is not okay to show
knees or shoulders in India which is a bit inconvenient since it has
been averaging about ninety degrees and humid. We found out pretty early
that our taxi driver had his own agenda however since he kept bringing
us to super expensive high end antique shops and fabric shops where it
was air conditioned and they served saffron tea as we browsed. After
about two stops of this sort we were determined to make it to some
affordable places so we stopped and talked to some fellow SASers who had
found the type of markets we were looking for. We got a business card
from them and finally convinced our taxi driver to bring us after he
attempted to pretend we asked for the Chinese Fish Market and proceeded
to drive us there while we repeatedly said, NO FISH MARKET. He was a
determined guy, I will give him that. So we got some things we needed
and some things we didn't need and talked to some locals and basically
began to get oriented with the area so we could make the most out of the
rest of our time. Around lunch time we asked the driver to bring us to
his favorite restaurant which ended up being this small vegetarian
place. We walked in and it was instantly apparent that nobody spoke
English, after we were seated in the correct 'women and family only
section' our waiter got pretty frustrated with the language barrier. He
decided to get work done and set up huge trays for us with a little bit
of everything. I had no idea what I was eating and we had to eat with
our hands since they don't use utensils but it was delicious! It was a
great lunch with so much food. The bill came and for the feast we had
just had the bill was only one hundred and nintey rupees, so basically
only about $4. Score. That afternoon we drove around the city a little
more and stopped in a few places, it was really fun just walking around
and taking in everything that was going on. Around two we headed back to
the ship to meet up with Kelli and Sahana and planned to go elephant
riding. I have come to realize that flexibility is the key to being a
happy traveler because elephant riding just wasn't in the cards for us.
We asked the taxi driver how long it would take to get to the elephant
training place and he said only forty five minutes. This was perfect
because a few of us needed to be back for other planned trips at 5:30.
We decided to take rickshaws because they look really cool and were more
breezy. We piled in (note: four people in the back of a rickshaw is not
comfortable or a good idea). So we drove, and drove, and drove and after
about fifty minutes we asked how much longer the ride would be. The taxi
driver responded saying not to worry because it was only about another
hour away. We were like WHAT?! So we had to make the decision to turn
around and drive all the way back to the ship in order to make the other
trips people had already paid for. Even though we didn't get to the
destination we had hoped for, sight seeing out of the rickshaw was a
cool experience. There is so much to see in India, it is so alive with
people and bright colors.
Once we got back to the ship we grabbed a quick dinner and I went to my
cabin to shower and pack for the home stay I had planned. My friend Cibi
who is a student on the ship lives and is from India so he set up a trip
for his friends on the ship to travel to his state and town to meet his
family and see where he grew up. We hopped on a bus at about ten pm and
drove all night until we finally arrived in Erode at 5:45 in the
morning. It was a looooong ride and since I can't sleep on the bus I was
awake to witness us get lost somewhere in Kerala and dodge more that a
few head on collisions. It was interesting for sure. It was so cool to
see all the passing towns and landscapes all night, I wasn't too upset
that I didn't sleep because looking out the window was actually pretty
awesome. When we finally arrived, we pulled up to this huge house that
had perfectly manicured lawns and ideal palm trees swaying in the front
yard. As we got off the bus we were greeted by Cibi's dad and a
welcoming ceremony with fire and prayer. It was very cool. It turns out
that Cibi's dad is friends with the guy who owned this place which was a
therapeutic spa so inside there were two pools in a courtyard sort of
deal, and five nice rooms. We were served breakfast as soon as we put
our stuff down and then we immediately headed off to a nearby school.
When we got to the school all of the children were positioned in a neat
line formation, boys separated from girls. They did prayer and sang a
few songs and then raised the flag, a daily tradition we were told. Once
the morning ritual was over we were able to explore the school and go
into the classrooms and interact with the kids. Just about all of them
spoke really good English so communicating with them was easy. As I said
before it was interesting to talk to them and compare them to the kids
in the states because these kids had such a passion for learning and did
not take education for granted. Every person I talked to which the ages
ranged from about eight to seventeen planned on going to university once
they graduated. After the school we left and visited another school.
This school was different because it was a less privileged school and
was also a school for the mentally retarded. The levels of mental
handicapped ranged so intensely that it was sort of sad to see all of
them grouped together receiving the same treatment. We didn't stay for
very long but in the time we were there we learned how the teachers
track the progression of the students. They showed us files with charts
for each year the child had been in the school and every single kid had
made a lot of progress. The teacher told us about one student who came
to them when she was six and could not walk or talk and now she is doing
both as well as reading and doing simple math. The school was also an
orphanage so some of the kids lived there permanently.
After the school we hopped back on the bus and drove to Cibi's family
farm. They had tamarind crops which is considered the 'Indian date'.
Cibi wanted us all to swim in this like forty foot deep well thing that
he said he learned to swim in when he was a kid but we had been
seriously advised to not swim in stagnant water so we politely declined.
Plus none of us had bathing suits and women can't show knees or
shoulders so I don't know how that was going to work out.
We were so exhausted when we got back to the home stay place that most
people went and passed out. They were offering extremely cheap massages
because it was a holistic spa treatment place normally so just about all
of us signed up for one. We had no idea what we were in for. It was
probably the most uncomfortable experience of my life. So basically we
got in there and there were three Indian women standing around us and
they told us to remove all of our clothes and gave us these little
cotton panties. We were like uhh, no we just want a foot massage. They
were having none of that and insisted we get naked so we were like well,
okay. So to make a long story short basically it turned into a forty
five minute boob massage and I had two ladies massaging me for some
reason and I was horrified. I was covered in the oil and they had like
slicked my hair down in oil and whenever they wanted me to move down or
something on the table they grabbed me by an arm and a leg and basically
just slid me on the table. At one point I could not handle it and I
burst out laughing, but did that stop them? Nope. They just laughed with
me and continued on. So finally it was over and they sent me to the
sweat box which was like literally this little steam box that has a neck
whole to stick your head out. I got in and they cranked up the heat and
it totally would have been fine had the woman not been literally four
inches from my face watching intently for sweat droplets to wipe away
immediately. I awkwardly attempted to make conversation as she was
staring at me and from what I said which was something like "how long do
I sit in here" she got that I was about to pass out. She immediately
goes, "You tired?" and now I thought she was trying to make conversation
so I was like "yeah, I am pretty tired." and so she began to stress out
and called in the other massage co workers and they all stood around me
for five minutes as I tried to convince them that I wasn't going to pass
out. Finally they calmed down but then all of a sudden the power went
out. Bad timing, very bad timing. I was sitting there in the box and all
the ladies crowded into my room and just stared at me. So I was
like,"the lights going to come back on?" and this got them all riled up
again so they made me get out of the box. Now at this point I was still
naked but they brought me to the shower and tried to get it to turn on
so I could rinse off and get dressed but it wouldn't work because there
was no electricity. So I was told to sit on this bucket that was in the
shower and one of the ladies sat on another one directly across from me
with a lantern just awkwardly staring at me for literally fifteen
minutes. Top awkward moment of my life for sure but once the lights came
on I was able to scramble out of there very fast. So if you are ever
offered an Indian massage, I strongly recommend declining. After the
massage, we had a great night. They made us a buffet style authentic
Indian dinner that we were able to eat outside at tables under the
stars. It was a lot of fun. We all sat around talking for a while but
around midnight we all took off to bed.
We had to get up at 5:45 the next morning. There were four of us to a
full sized bed so it was a little tight but luckily we were all so tired
it didn't really matter. The next morning we packed up and got on the
bus to go to Cibi's actual house for breakfast. His mom and grandma made
us all breakfast which was delicious and we ate off leaf plates. It was
so funny because as we were waiting to eat we turned on the TV and what
was on but Dude Where's My Car? So random. After breakfast we got on the
bus for a long five hour stretch through the countryside of India. We
drove up this mountain which was really stressful because as we began to
ascend there was a sign on the side of the road that had a picture of a
bus and truck with big red X's through them. Let's just say this driver
had not proven himself to be too skilled either. We had more than a few
close run ins. So the entire time we were all either sleeping to avoid
being stressed out or on the edge of our seats. There were numerous hair
pin turns that the driver had to do like four point turns to get around
as he held up traffic. The drop offs were huge and there were no
guardrails. Still, the view was beautiful. We saw a bunch of monkeys on
our way up and we stopped at one point to get out and take pictures of
them. We finally reached the top safely where a little town was
bustling. We split up and explored for a while, some people went
shopping but I went to lunch with a few people. The food was really
good, I have a serious love for Indian food especially because most of
it is vegetarian and mysterious meat freaks me out. After lunch we went
into a tea store and stocked up. Around 2 we met up and headed to the
train station. We hopped on a little train and took a two and a half
hour ride down the mountain, the views were beautiful. At the bottom
the bus met us again and we got back on and headed for the ship, another
eight hours away. We must have gone out of our way to get to the
mountain but for the most part we had no idea what was going on only
Cibi knew the itinerary but it ended up being a great time. On the way
home we stopped for dinner which was once again delicious. Around 3 am
we finally made it back to the ship and believe me when I tell you I
fell asleep faster than I ever have in my life. I was exhausted.
The next morning Lindsay and I met up and went out to explore Cochin. We
did some shopping and went to the Chinese Fish Market. When we got to
the fish market we were just walking around and ended up talking to some
fishermen who let us help to pull up the nets which was really cool. As
we were pulling up the nets this French guy named Augustine walked up
and asked us where we were from and what we were doing traveling. We
told him about SAS and he was really intrigued so we decided to all go
get lunch together and chat. He was a really interesting guy, he is
currently traveling around the world independently and has been for ten
months. He told us all about the places he had been like Chile, Peru,
and all through South America as well as China, Japan, Burma and a lot
of Asia. It was exciting hearing his stories and sharing ours. We split
up after lunch but actually ran into him the next day as well which was
pretty funny, he sat down and had lunch with us again. That afternoon
Lindsay and I went to a temple and a beautiful church and just sort of
wandered around. There was so much to just watch that it was hard to get
bored. Eventually we made our way back to the ship, showered and left
again to go to a cultural show we had heard about. That was interesting.
It was people performing all of the historic dances of Cochin. There
dancing was so precise it was actually really scary. They had intense
face makeup and facial and eye movements are a huge part of the
performance so the entire time their faces were all distorted and their
eyes were rolling around. It must take so long to perfect learning the
dances, it was literally crazy every intricate movement they had
incorporated into the dancing.
The next morning my really good friend Sahana who is Indian showed a
group of us all around Cochin. She knew some of the hidden gems so that
was very cool. We ended up walking by this Muslim Orphanage so we went
in to see if the people who ran it would let us visit the kids. They
were more than happy to let us in so we spent a couple hours talking to
these Muslim girls who were around our age. It's so strange how
different yet similar we all are. The orphanage was actually a boys
orphanage but within the orphanage was a Muslim girls college, I'm still
a little confused about the whole situation but regardless it was very
cool to hang out there. The girls asked us to sing so we tried to sing
some Adele and current stuff that we all knew but they specially
requested Justin Beiber songs. Once we were done signing, they sang for
us. We all joked around and I finally found out why the kids in each
country laugh at me when I talk! Apparently I used my hands a lot when I
talk and other cultures aren't like that so every time I made a hand
gesture when I was speaking they repeated it and laughed. It was funny
because I didn't realize how much I rely on that especially when there's
a little bit of a language barrier. I'm sure my accent has something to
do with it as well. Another thing that was weird was that none of them
wanted to have their picture taken which was so different from the
African countries where the kids dove in front of the cameras. The girls
were very friendly but eventually had to get to class so we left.
Since it was the night before my birthday a bunch of us went out to
dinner at this really cool restaurant where each table had their own
little tiki hut sort of deal and ate delicious food. After, we went to
this hotel that had a sort of club/ dance party deal going on and
basically just had a really fun night. Every nightlife place in Southern
India closes by 12 at the latest so we were not out very late at all but
it was an awesome way to ring in my twentieth.
On the last day I had two FDP's. I went to a Ghazal concert on the ship
for my music class which was nice. The woman had a beautiful voice. That
afternoon I went to the SOS Children's Village. The village is an
orphanage for over 250 kids. The kids are split up into houses of about
9-12 children and one house mom. The houses were actually very nice. The
house moms were woman who were abandoned by their families as well and
needed a place to stay and live. The mothers get paid for what they do
and the organization is funded by local and foreign institutions not the
government. What I thought was cool was that each house had a
distinctive religion. Those that were Hindu had Hindu gods hanging
everywhere and the Christian houses had Jesus all over. Each house had a
prayer room. There were fifteen houses in all and a center lodge for
communal events. This orphanage was definitely better off than any I had
previously visited. The kids all seemed very happy and each had a sense
of family from living in the houses, they called each of the kids they
lived with their brothers and sisters.
India was amazing and so full of culture. Although I love what I spent
my time there doing, there is so much more I would like to see. Mumbai,
Agra, Varanasi, etc. The taste I got of the country is definitely
motivation to come back one day and visit all the places I wasn't able
to this time.