India…was such an experience, an experience that I am so grateful for being able to have had. After having come from Mauritius, where it was all fun all the time, India was going to put everything back into perspective again, which of course it did. In fact, that was my only assumption about India that came true…the others (being more other people’s assumptions that were told to me, rather than actually being my own) were, in my opinion, exaggerated or untrue.
Getting off of the ship in India was a challenge. This was the first port where we needed not only our passports, but also a piece of paper stating which electronics we had brought into the country. It was a little hard remembering to keep track of those two things just because there was so much to see and do that our minds were preoccupied by other things. The other challenge was the line that we had to wait in to get past security and out into the city because it was long…very long.
Finally free of the line, Collin, Joann, and I tried our hand at negotiating with an auto rickshaw driver, and we hitched a ride to a random street, and went looking for food. Driving in a rickshaw is an experience everyone must have in their life…it is thrilling, crazy, and downright terrifying, but most of all it is amazingly fun. A rickshaw is a small three wheeled go-cart-like vehicle with a roof that weaves in and out of traffic at high speeds and beeps constantly…it was amazing. Anyway, the three of us got dosas, drank from coconuts on the side of the road, and a bunch of other things we were told not to do by the medical team…my attitude was that I wasn’t not going to enjoy India because I was scared that I was going to get sick, which I hadn’t so far in the trip, so I didn’t worry about it. The place that we went for lunch served dosas, which was exciting for me because I went to Hampton Chutney Co. in SoHo, NYC before I left where I had a dosa for the first time…and there is no comparison. While the dosa I had in NYC was mostly cold, soggy, and hard to eat, the dosa I had in India was crisp, hot, delicious, and easy to pick up and enjoy. It was awesome!
After lunch we wanted to go shopping so we hopped on another rickshaw and asked the driver to take us to the market…and he promptly took us to the mall, the very expensive, very Americanized mall…so we went in and explored a little, seeing nothing we wanted and left, and hopped on another rickshaw and asked to go to the market once again. This time the driver told us that the market was closed and took us to other very expensive stores until it opened. This went on for some time until finally he brought us to Pondi Bazaar, a big market lined up and down the streets. We soon realized that those shops paid drivers to take tourists to their stores instead of the markets. There was no way the bazaar closed in the middle of the day, it was huge and packed…we were definitely duped. Thankfully though, a rickshaw ride is usually a dollar, so we didn’t feel that bad about it.
We walked around, bought a few things (I only got a set of glass bracelets for my best friend Alexandria because they were teal and gold, the colors she painted her dresser, so they reminded me of her), and by that time we were hungry so we went out for dinner. We ended up at this nice restaurant and had the best meal of my entire time in India. Curry chicken, chicken pakodas, bread (something similar to naan, but not) chicken tikka masala, and prawn masala, fresh lime juice, and Indian ice cream. Ah, it was so good! We had also gone grocery shopping beforehand, so after that we hopped into another rickshaw and headed back to the ship for the night.
The next morning I was up and ready to go for my Art of Living trip, which was a three day yoga and meditation class taught by an Indian Guru. There were 32 of us, and we got together, got on the bus and took off. We made a few stops along the way to a few temples and the butterball, a huge sphere made of solid stone sitting on a rock slope for hundreds of years, never moving. We weren’t able to appreciate the sights as much as we wanted to do to the massive amounts of people trying to sell you things. And by things I mean marble carvings, bracelets, charms, and so many other things…it was insane. Anyway, I bought a few things for a good price, especially when like the rest of the countries I’ve been to bargaining is the name of the game.
When we finally got the village we were staying at, we had lunch, had some free time, and at 4:30 our yoga sessions began. Over the course of the next three days (Actually we had 12 hours the first day, 24 the second, and 12 the third) we had about twenty hours of yoga and meditation. We had some time to shop in the craft market, go on a tour, and we had amazing food. But there was a lot of meditation, and in the end while I’m glad I did it…I’m not sure I would do twenty hours of it in forty-eight hours again. It was amazing experience however, especially a two hour meditation session that was truly an out of body experience…unreal. One moment I was just lying there, the next I was in a deep trance, and the next I was sitting up…in what felt like the time span of a minute. It might sound like I was asleep, but I know that I wasn’t, it was something much more than that though, and unlike anything I had ever experienced before.
When we left it was odd, it was like everything sped back up again…because when we arrived it all seemed to slow down. I’m glad I went. When we arrived back on the ship it was time for a shower, and then I went out with Joann again for some pretty undelicious (Joann’s word) expensive food. That was a disappointment, but also fun because I was back in the city and able to go out and explore again. After going out for the night, we headed back to the ship for some sleep…I was exhausted!
The next day, I had my Indian Cooking demonstration SAS trip. It was not what I thought it would be…less interactive and less enjoyable than I had hoped, but like everything even if it wasn’t that fun it was still an experience that I was glad that I had. The woman who was cooking was the Indian equivalent of Rachel Ray, and with a little counter stove and microwave made a few Indian dishes, and then we ate the food that was made for lunch. Afterwards, we got back to the ship where I hooked up with my friend Mindy, who I met on the Art of Living and my other friend Amanda. We went out to the mall, went to a spa, and went grocery shopping before getting dinner and heading back to the ship. I got ready to go out again with Julia. We were looking for places to go out, but everywhere was closed. We ran into our friends Elizabeth and Liz who were hanging out with a few locals that they knew and we all went back to one of their houses to hang out before heading back to the ship for the night.
The next (and last) day I went out with Julia and Joann and Collin for the day and we went back the spa for the appointment we had made. We went out shopping a little, and then got some food before we went back to the ship to make it back before on ship time. India was great…I had heard so many negative things about it beforehand, I was worried to be honest, but once I got there I really didn’t see the truth in any of them. My favorite memory was in a rickshaw one day when a beggar woman came up to the side of us and started asking for money by putting her hand out. She then proceeded to shut her left eye and cover it with part of her clothing, trying to insinuate that she didn’t have an eye…except for the fact that I had seen it before she tried to cover it. I pointed to my eye, and then to hers…and then she smiled, uncovered and opened her eye and smiled, still asking for money…it was hysterical.
India was an amazing time; I would love to go back to a different part and see more of it. I enjoyed the Art of Living, the food, the cheap shopping…I enjoyed it all, even the traffic. The people we nice, the reality of the real world that you get confronted by is awful to realize, but a necessity to see. India was real, it was raw, and it was amazing.
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