India

In preparation for India I felt like a lot of people over exaggerated what we would see. Before arrival I expected unbearable heat, horrible stench, and not being able to eat anything without getting sick. I did not find the heat that bad or any worse then other ports we have been to and the smell at most points was not that bad at all, except maybe a couple times driving through Chennai. Mostly there was just burning smell. I never had Indian food before but I really loved it and I didn’t get sick at all. I heard someone say we should stay away from dairy, but I had the best ice cream ever while I was in India! I also successfully crossed the street and took a few rides in rickshaws and made it back in one piece. I also never had to use a squat toilet which surprised me, I didn’t even see one. So anyway here’s what I did in my 5 days in India…

Day 1: We’re in India!!
I woke up at 6 am to see the sunrise but when I got outside it was cloudy and we could just barely see the lights of the city in the distance. I waited out there for a while but decided to go back to bed. The ship didn’t end up getting cleared until almost 11 and then everyone on the ship had to go up to the faculty lounge to pick up two pieces of paper that you had to have with you at all times when in India. Originally they thought we would have to have out passport to leave the ship, but this got changed at the last minute. I had a trip that left at 12:30 and had planned on exploring Chennai before I had to go but because the clearing of the ship took so long I just stayed and ate lunch on the ship before I had to leave. All we could really sea from the ship are the hundreds of little Hyundai cars that were soon to be shipped to Australia and some buildings in the distance, somehow just not what I was expecting.
The trip I had scheduled was for by managerial finance class and we were going to visit Tata Consulting Services. The parent company Tata is one of the two largest companies in India and they have 98 operating companies in seven business sectors. Tata Motors is releasing a car called the Nano that will only cost $2,500. So anyway… I headed out to the bus area to meet with my trip around 12:15. There was a group of Indians who had gathered outside the ship and they all wanted to take pictures of us. It was interesting to be on the other side of the camera for once. There later ended up being some articles in the newspaper about semester at sea which I am going to try to get a copy of. After standing around for about twenty minutes we got on our bus and headed to TCS which was about 45 minutes away.
On the way there the tour guide talked a little about Chennai and my Finance professor told us about Tata. I just starred out the window the whole time and tried to absorb everything. Traffic is pretty crazy, there are a lot of rickshaws and motorcycles and bicycles. It doesn’t seem like there are really lanes because everyone just weaves in and out and just make sure to stay out of the way of the buses. Apparently people are killed or injured by buses everyday. Another interesting thing is that cow are sacred in India and I was told people would be move devastated if a cow got run over than a person. So I saw a lot of cows on the side of the street. We also passed a lot of temples.
We finally pulled up and our guide from Tata told us we had to leave our cameras in the bus because it’s a big hassle to bring them into the building, so we all got back on the bus and put on cameras away. Next we walked in and everyone got a badge with our name on it. From here we were lead into a back room that looked just like a class room. For the next couple hours we had three different speakers talk to us about what TCS was all about and business in India and stuff like that. We took a couple breaks and the first time we got some fresh juice and I think half of everyone was afraid they would die if they drank anything in India, but I tried it anyway. It was fresh watermelon, which I’m sure would be good if I liked watermelon… so I didn’t finish it. Later we got coffee and cookies which was nice. After all the presentations we just got back on the bus and left and did not get to tour the building or anything, which I thought was kind of disappointing. We got back to the ship around 5:30 and because I had to meet to leave for my trip at 3am the next morning I decided to stay on board. So I just grabbed some dinner, packed, worked out and then watched a movie and went to bed.

Day 2: The longest day ever…but worth it!
My alarm went off at 2:45am, which I normally wouldn’t be too thrilled about, but I was going to the Taj!!! So I jumped out of bed and got dressed and grabbed my backpack and headed to the union. They had juice and pastries out for breakfast which was nice. There were a couple different trips leaving at this time, so I found mine and sat down. We all had to turn in plastic bags with all our liquids in them to the trip leader and one bag with all them in it would get checked because you couldn’t carry on any liquids. Luckily everyone actually made it to the union on time and we headed down to our bus to the airport.
I’m pretty sure I fell asleep on the way to the airport because before I knew it we were there. We piled out of the bus and waited for our trip leaders to get our boarding passes. This was much quicker than in South Africa. Then we put luggage tags on our carry-on because they get stamped after you through security. We went upstairs to go through the security check and there were separate lines for guys and girls. The girl line was significantly longer because of the number of girls from semester at sea. The area were they patted us down was surrounded by a curtain so that nobody could see. By the time we all got through our plane was boarding. The airline was flew was King Fisher which is actually a beer company. There were TVs in the back of every seat which was really surprising. A lot of it was in English and they had TV shows like Friends and Doogie Houser on one channel, and some music videos from the US on another. I checked this out for maybe 10 minutes and then fell back asleep. When ever I fly in the US and I’m sleeping the flight attendants usually just skip over you when bringing food and snacks but on this airline they woke you up with “excuse me excuse me”. They had a hot meal but I was too tired to wake up and eat it so I just went back to sleep and the next thing I knew we were landing in Dehli.
The rest of the day is kind of a blur because we spent about the next 12 hours on a bus, so I will try to remember all the details. We walked through the airport to our bus and my trip was divided into three different buses because there were so many of this. Our guide explained to us that we would first take a bus tour of New and Old Delhi and then get lunch and then have a five hour bus ride to Agra, which was news to us because our itinerary said we had a two hour train ride. The other bad news was we were suppose to get back late the 3rd day but our flight got changed to be back in Chennai at noon, so there was A LOT of complaining which got a little annoying but I didn’t worry about it too much because I was just so excited to be on my way to the Taj. So we drove all around Dehli and we saw a lot of really cool sites but we never got to get out of the bus to look at them and I didn’t have a window seat so I really couldn’t get any good pictures. Most of the people on the bus slept through the whole thing. We had one stop before lunch which was a place that made rugs. It was a really fancy place and they served us tea and biscuits and tea and told us about the process of making the rugs. They were really nice, but they started out around a thousand dollars so none of us could afford anything. They also had more shopping upstairs but it was really expensive. So after about 45 minutes there we left and headed to lunch, hooray!
The place we went to for lunch was really fancy, it kind of reminded me of a wedding reception. We sat down and they served us naan and soup which was really good. The bad thing was we had to pay for drinks, but no big deal. Then we went up to the buffet for about 20 different choices of food. I just got a little bit of everything because I wasn’t sure if I would like any of it, but I loved all of it and went back for more. The food wasn’t spicy at all and I’m guessing that was because they knew we probably couldn’t handle it. They even served us the most amazing ice cream for desert. After we filled up with as much food as possible we got on the bus to head to our hotel in Agra. I slept for most of the first half until we made a rest stop. I went in and bought some cool t-shirts for around $5 which I thought was great but later saw the same ones for about $2! We had about 30 minutes at this place and then we got back on the bus for the final stretch. The rest of the way I had some interesting conversations with the girls sitting around me so it helped the time go by faster. As it got dark the pollution seemed to be getting a lot worse and it smelled a lot like smoke because people were lighting fires. Traffic got pretty bad in Agra but we finally made it to our hotel sometime between 8 and 9 I think.
First thing they gave us the keys to our rooms and we went up and put our stuff in the room. I got on the elevator to go up to the 3rd floor and somehow the girl next to me drops her key in the crack by the elevator door just as it closing and I tried to push the open door button but it didn’t work. Then she tried to pry them open which didn’t seem like a good idea to me. She was freaking out to much that she made everyone think the elevator was stuck there and we were really packed in, but in a minute the doors opened and we were on the third floor… thank goodness! So Keirstyn, my roommate, and I threw our stuff down and headed back downstairs to get dinner, a little hesitant about the elevator, but it was fine. They had all kinds of food and again I tried a little bit of everything and it was all good. We even got ice cream for desert again! After we ate we headed up to our room. There was a big TV so we decided to flip through the channels and ended up watching Bones, which wasn’t a very good show, but we missed the tv shows from back home. After this we went to bed.

Day 3: The Taj
Wake up call was at 5:15 so that we could leave by 6 to see the Taj at sunrise. We got dressed and headed down to the bus which only left about 5 minutes late. The drive only took about 10 to 15 minutes. Our tour guide told us we would not be aloud to bring any bags inside, only our cameras. If I wasn’t told that we were at the site of the Taj Mahal I would have no idea because I couldn’t see it from where we were. We walked down a path until was got to one of the red sandstone gates. Here we had to go through security similar to the airport where we were separated by male and female and patted down. They also gave us little booties to put over our shoes if we wanted to go inside. We walked further inside and still didn’t see anything, but then over one of the walls we saw the top of the Taj sticking out and got really excited. Finally we got to the main entrance right in front of it and just stared in awe of the beauty. We took some pictures but then we had to go meet with our group for group picture that we got as a part of our trip. After we took the picture we had about an hour to explore before we had to meet back.
I ran into Megan and we took some pictures outside and then decided to go see the inside of the Taj. We put on our booties and walked up the stairs and over to the entrance. The inside is only lit by one chandelier and any light coming from inside so it took our eyes a minute to adjust. The inside was a lot smaller than I had imagined. In the center were the tombs of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, but there actual bodies were deeper down in the mausoleum. Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a memorial for his wife who died while giving birth to their 14th child. While I was inside I got this really eerie feeling that is hard to explain. We came back outside and took some more pictures and then headed back to our meeting point. We all walked back to the buses and by this time a lot of the monkeys had come out along the pathway we walked down. There were also a lot of vendors selling Taj Mahal souvenirs and they were very persistent. We got back on the buses and went to the hotel where breakfast was waiting for us.
After we ate we got back on the buses and headed to Fatehpur Sikri which is a deserted city. The ride took about an hour. Once we were there we got to see some really nice red sandstone palaces. After this we went back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch they wanted to take us to a place where marble is made but none of the students wanted to go so we asked to be taken somewhere to shop. So the bus literally takes us across the street and then the guide tells us there are some shops we can go to back on the other side of the street where the hotel was. This didn’t make much sense to me but I guess she was mad that we didn’t go to the marble factory. I didn’t have any money so I found an ATM and got cash and then found a guy to cross the street with us, which is seriously scary! It has been compared to real life frogger. We only had time to look in one shop at this point and I didn’t end up finding anything. We got back on the bus and headed to the Agra Fort. This was also a really cool place to visit and you could actually see the Taj Mahal from it, but it was really foggy so it was hard to get a good picture. When we were done here we headed back to the Taj Mahal for sunset. We didn’t see much of a sunset because it was too overcast, but it was nice to see the beauty of the Taj one last time.
We headed back to the hotel to pick up box dinners because we had to get on a train to Dehli. There was a pizza hut right next to our hotel so a lot of us decided to run in there real quick and get pizza instead of box lunches. Something I noticed is how much bigger portion sizes are in the US than other countries. A medium pizza here was supposed to feed two but it was actually the size of an individual pizza back home. We also picked up our box lunches in case we got hungry later. The bus took us to the train station and as we got out I was carrying the juice from my lunch and I had left the rest because I didn’t plan on eating it. Just as we got of a man with elephantitus in his legs saw that I was carrying the juice and asked if he could have it. I gave it to him without a second thought, forgetting that we were told not to give anything away because we might get swarmed by people. Luckily nobody noticed and I just kept walking to the train station. The poverty here was really evident because we got there pretty late at night and a lot of people were lying down with blankets and you could tell this is pretty much where they lived. Here the people didn’t ask us for money, only for food. It was so hard to ignore the kids as they came up and just wanted something to eat. A few students ended up giving there food to them, and I will never forget this little boy who had to be about 4 and how happy he was when a girl gave him her boxed lunch. About 30 minutes later the train pulled up and we all got on. We each had a seat which was nice and to our surprise they even served us dinner and ice cream for desert! The ride was about 2 and a half hours. We got to Dehli around 10:30 and got on buses to our hotel which was about 20 minutes away.
We pulled up to the Hotel Ashok and I could not believe how nice it was, probably the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at. We walked in and they had a big welcome semester at sea sign. We got our rooms and brought our stuff up. It had the most comfortable bed ever. We went down to the coffee shop to get a snack and hung out with some other SASers. Then we asked if they had internet and they did but we had to pay so I split a half hour with someone and then headed up to the room to go to bed.

Day 4: Back to Chennai
We had another lovely 5 am wakeup call for breakfast at 6 and then we left at 7. A lot of people decided to stay up all night and drink and go to the club that was in the hotel and 4 people from our trip didn’t make it to our bus so we left without them. We headed to the airport and got on our plane and once we boarded we were stuck on the runway for over an hour waiting to take off. Finally we did and I watched some more TV! We landed and then had an hour bus ride back to the ship, and I was never so happy to be back! The ship is like home now. At this point I was so exhausted that I just went to sleep until my friend Amy called because it was my roommate’s birthday and they wanted to decorate the room. After this we went to dinner and decided to go out. So we got dressed and walked to where we could catch a rickshaw and we headed to hotel where we went dancing and ran into some other semester at sea people. At one point it was pouring rain which was a little scary, but we made it out alive. Everything closes down around 11 so we headed back to the ship and when we got there a bunch of trips where getting back, but luckily we cut the line because we didn’t have bags to be searched. I got back and went to bed because I was still really tired.

Day 5:
I ended up sleeping in until lunch time, so I went up and got lunch with Andi and then we wanted to find the post office and do some shopping. We walked off the ship and it was the hottest day we had so far. We eventually found a rickshaw to take us the post office because we couldn’t find it walking. We weren’t sure where to shop so we asked to go to the only place we remembered hearing about which was Spencers Plaza. On the way there our rickshaw got a flat tire which was really scary and luckily we lasted until we were across from Spencers. We had to cross the street but we were getting pretty good at it by this point. I was disappointed that Spencers is actually like a 5 story mall. We walked around and I didn’t find anything, I was hoping to find a better place so we left after about an hour. We got a rickshaw back to the dock where there was a shop and things were overpriced there too so I just bought a cool wall hanging and that was it. I wish I could go back and do more shopping because so many people got great things, I really need to step up my shopping in the next ports. So we got back to the ship and just stayed on for the rest of the time. Since we were back early we got to go through customs without having to wait in any lines which was nice. We didn’t have class the next day so we stayed up and got cheeseburgers after on ship time and hung out for a while before going to bed.

Post India:
Last night was the crew talent show which was amazing!! We get to Penang tomorrow, so I really had rush to type this blog up because I didn’t want to be 2 countries behind, so sorry I am missing a lot of details as it got closer to the end. Also I got 92 on my second global studies test…hooray! My plans for Malaysia are to go to Kuala Lampur (KL) and I can’t wait! We are going to have to tender while in Malaysia so that should be an interesting experience. After we leave we only have 3 days at sea and we’re at Vietnam and then two to China and two to Japan… I’m now beginning to appreciate the long stretches we had at sea before because it is really hard to get anything done. And I haven’t had laundry since Mauritius and may not get it until after Vietnam!! So I had fun washing a bunch of clothes in my sink today and I’m hoping they will dry by the morning. Anyway miss you all and I should have my Malaysia post up in a week or so. Happy Easter if I can’t get online on Sunday!