Holy Cow, India!

Just after reaching the halfway point of our voyage around the world, we arrived in India. For me, it was definitely the best port we’ve visited…I only wish we could have stayed a few days longer! India is so unique, it might as well be its own planet! With over one billion people, the extremely diverse nation maintains a very rich culture despite the major economic changes occurring there. There really are no words or pictures that do India justice – it is something you absolutely must see, hear, smell (yes, smell!), taste and touch for yourself. For those of you who have traveled to India, you’ll understand…for everyone else, bear with me, as this was a difficult blog post to pull together! Warning, it’s a long one…

What we did

Upon arrival in Chennai, the ship underwent many preparations: cardboard boxes and plastic were put down to protect the carpets from the dirt on our shoes, the pool deck was closed off to protect our lungs from the pollution, and herds of Indian immigration workers filed onto the ship for the duration of our stay. Immigration and visa regulations are very tight in India, probably the strictest of any country we have visited so far. As soon as we could get off the ship, my friends and I were bombarded by auto rickshaw drivers (if you don’t know what an auto rickshaw is, Google it), and squeezed four of us in the back of one to head out and do some exploring! I only had about two hours before I had to be back on the ship to meet my group for our flight…and in those two hours, I managed to get COVERED in dirt and grime! Welcome to India :)

Over the summer, before I knew anyone else on the trip, I found some people on Facebook who were organizing a trip to the Taj Mahal and Varanasi, so I jumped on! Turns out, several of the people that also signed up over the summer became close friends of mine throughout our voyage…we had an absolute blast traveling through India together! Thirty of us flew from Chennai to Delhi, arriving just after sun down. Although we didn’t have much time to explore Delhi, we were able to see the Presidential Palace and the India Gate, a memorial dedicated to the 90,000 Indian soldiers who fought and died for the British in World War I. We had a delicious Indian dinner and stayed the night in Delhi.

We awoke very early to catch a train from Delhi to Agra the next morning. Riding the train was interesting because we were able to see a lot of the countryside from the windows. Although I was tempted to sleep since it was so early in the morning, I forced myself to stay awake and take in all of my surroundings – and boy was there a lot to see! Our first stop in Agra was Fatehpur Sikri, a palace built by the Mughal Emperor Akbar when it was prophesized that he would soon have a son. After lunch, we visited the Red Fort, built by Emperor Shahjahan between 1638 and 1648. From the fort, we had our first view of the Taj Mahal, as well as entertainment from the monkeys running around as if they owned the place! The highlight of our day was visiting the Taj later that afternoon and staying for sunset. Walking through the archway and seeing the magnificent Taj peek through was a breathtaking moment. The Taj itself is incredibly majestic; its magnitude and beauty are indescribable. We waited on line for about 30 minutes to be able to enter the building itself – there were several Indians there who were experiencing their first visit to the Taj, too. I learned two related lessons that day: 1) Indians do not understand the concept of lines or waiting one’s turn, and 2) THEY PUSH. The inside of the Taj Mahal was very dark, as we were quickly approaching sunset by the time we fought our way inside. The Taj serves as a tomb for Shahjahan’s wife, whose two requests upon death were 1) that he would never remarry and 2) that he would build her a beautiful resting place. He certainly succeeded, as the Taj is one of the most stunning buildings in the entire world! Other than her tomb, the inside of the Taj was not nearly as spectacular as its outer façade.

After dinner and a bit of shopping in Agra, we went back to the train station to board the overnight sleeper train to Varanasi. Again, there really are no words to describe this experience – each compartment of our car had 8 beds (each wall have three tiers of beds, and across there were two beds). Although there were 30 of us riding this train, our “seats” were not all in the same place. So we had two Indians sleeping in our compartment with us, too. After we got over the initial shock of the train itself, we had a fine time. When we awoke in the morning, we were served the best tea I have ever tasted! And we saw a lot of interesting things while on board, such as people running holding onto the train and others climbing up to the roof, just like in Slumdog Millionaire. Although not luxury accommodations, it was a very interesting experience to travel as the locals do themselves!

By the time our delayed train finally arrived in Varanasi, it was about lunchtime. After lunch, we drove out to Sarnath, just outside of Varanasi. We visited the museum there, which was full of statues of Buddha and also the original 4-headed lion statue that serves as the emblem of India and can be found on all of their money. All of the artifacts found in the British-built museum were excavated at a nearby site, which we were able to walk through after our museum visit. Sarnath is remembered as the place where Buddha gave his first speech after becoming enlightened. We visited the tree that is said to be a descendant of the tree under which Buddha’s first speech was given, just behind the Mulgandha Kuti Vihar temple. Although Buddhism was born in India, it is not widely practiced there anymore – the overwhelming majority of Indians are Hindu (80%), and there is also a large Muslim population, too.

After our tour of Sarnath, we drove back into the heart of Varanasi, where we rode in pairs on the old-fashioned rickshaws (think of a horse-drawn carriage minus the horse plus a man pedaling a bike) about 30 minutes to the Ganges River. The Ganges River is one of the holiest places in the world for Hindus, and is the place where they cremate many dead bodies. We arrived at the Ganges during sunset, and stayed to watch the spiritual ceremony called Aarti. Seven priests conduct this ritual every evening after the sun goes down.

We paid one more visit to the Ganges River the following morning for a sunrise boat ride up and down the river. Varanasi (also called Benares) is said to be one of the oldest living cities in the world. As Mark Twain once wrote: "Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.” Varanasi is also known as “the city of learning and burning;” learning for the many institutions of higher education found there, and burning since it is the only city in India where cremations are allowed to occur at night as well as during the daytime. We saw thousands of people bathing in the holy water that morning, and the entire scene was so spiritual and different from anything I had ever seen. Varanasi was really a highlight of the trip for me, as it seemed so pure and traditional compared to some of the bigger cities in India.

We were treated to a traditional Indian dance demonstration that afternoon. Although rather informal, our introduction to Kathak was very entertaining. The only style of Indian dance I had ever seen was Bollywood on So You Think You Can Dance, so I thoroughly enjoyed this short performance. We had a bit of free time before lunch, so two friends and I went in search of a post office to buy stamps. We walked by the small post office building at least three times before realizing that just because it was a shack did not mean it wasn’t the post office. The three of us wiped them clean of stamps for the day! After lunch, we went to the Varanasi airport to catch our flight back to Chennai via Delhi. The Varanasi airport was a one-room operation that reminded me more of a Greyhound or local subway station! In comparison, the Delhi international airport could have been found in any major Western city (which was lucky for us as our flight was delayed on top of the layover that we already had there).

On our final day in India, I attended a Semester at Sea field practicum that brought us into one of the slums in Chennai. Unlike the overt poverty that can be seen all through the streets of India, those living in the slums definitely had a bit of a better life. A man who works for the Montfort Community Development Program guided our tour of the slum. They sponsor several initiatives such as empowerment of women through microfinancing, educational opportunities for ex-child laborers, exam preparation for students who dropped out or failed out of secondary education, integrated community programs for people with mental disabilities, and programs for senior citizens. We visited many of these initiatives during our tour. The most touching moment of the day was visiting the community center for mentally challenged kids – we heard one girl’s story (she could not speak, but her teacher relayed the story to us) about her trip to Ireland to participate in the Special Olympics there, and how she won a medal for playing basketball. Although she could not tell us the story in her own words, the smile on her face and the excitement running through her body were extremely visible to us all.

What we ate

Having been introduced to Indian food back home a few years ago, India was a paradise for me! While others complained of the spices and smells, I was very happy eating whatever they put in front of me. I didn’t even have to order, they just brought all of our meals out to us, and everything was scrumptious! The street food smelled unbelievably delicious, but we were warned to stay away from that. There were notably fewer American fast food restaurants even in the cities of India as compared with other countries that we have visited so far. Plus, McDonalds cannot serve hamburgers in India, as the cows are holy animals and it is prohibited to slaughter them (and yes, they do roam freely in the streets, and cars do stop for them to cross).

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India is truly the craziest place I have ever been. Although I absolutely loved my visit, there were many things that made India an uncomfortable place to be. The heat and pollution were at times very oppressive; like many other conservative cultures, it was respectful for women to remain covered – making the 90+ degree weather even hotter! The extreme poverty was very saddening, and the worst part was that there was NOTHING we could do about it. Many of child beggars work for gangs, further validating the portrayal of India in Slumdog Millionaire, so giving them food or money would have only perpetuated the system of begging. Another chilling element in India was the ubiquitous prevalence of swastikas, originally a Hindu symbol dating back thousands of years. The 20th century gave this ancient symbol a very different meaning, so seeing it everywhere took a bit of getting used to.

India has a very densely distributed population of 1.2 billion people, the second largest in the world. As it grows and continues to develop economically, I hope that its immense diversity and rich culture don’t fade. To sum up: Indian food = GOOD, Indian smells = BAD, India overall = uncomfortable yet unbelievably amazing! More from Vietnam…