Namaste From India Part I

I've only been gone for a little more than a week, and it feels like a lifetime! First of all, hello to everyone and of course Merry Christmas (if that’s a holiday you celebrate). I am in the desert right now, and it’s never seemed less like Christmas. I’m one week into my two and a half week trip to India, and I think I could fill up ten pages about the experiences so far! The sights, smells, tastes…it’s overwhelming at best and insane at its worst. There is so much to tell you I don’t know if it should be grouped by experience or in chronological order….so I’ll just tell it how it happened. I doubt anyone wants a ten page post, so I’ll try to keep it brief…or at least briefer…but definitely set aside a chunk of time if you care to read this. 

Well, my trip started with some bad news. Jess, who was supposed to meet me in Frankfurt for the second part of our trip, was delayed ten hours out of Seattle and clearly would miss her connection in Cincinnati. So that left me traveling the whole way alone. Not a dealbreaker, but a bummer. Or at least until they announced that they had overbooked my flight and were there volunteers? I sprinted to the counter and ended up getting flown to Amsterdam followed by a WORLD BUSINESS CLASS (read: seats that fold into beds!!!) to Mumbai. Let me tell you, as I lay there on my second flight, I thought “If I die now, I’ll be happy”. It was phenomenal. I shouldn’t go on about it since Jess flew Seattle to Cincinnati to Atlanta to New York to Mumbai and got in 20 hours after me…but I can’t help it! It was amazing! 

Arriving to Mumbai was not so amazing. My bag didn’t arrive. I actually arrived earlier than my original flight, so I figured it would arrive with the original flight. It didn’t. So I got into my first “line” in India – and I’m using that term loosely. A line in India consists of a pushing throng of people, all pressed up against one another. It was mayhem. Randomly the girl in front of me turned around and said, “Are you from Rochester? Are you Emily?”. We had gone to high school together. I swear, the world is unbelievably small. So I filled out the lost bag paperwork, and I felt a little nervous. There was no computer to tell where the bag was. Everything was manual. At this point it was 3 am and I prepaid a taxi and went outside. There were hundreds of people there. I found the taxi somehow, and we set off. The car was an “Ambassador”, of which you can find millions in India. It’s definitely reminiscent of a Lada or maybe a Trabant. Which means it has character and is a piece of… Thankfully, I had reserved a room for two nights at the Mumbai Marriott. I got a good discount through my friend. But, my taxi driver couldn’t find the hotel, and I was getting more nervous by the second. Eventually he found it and the security to get into the “compound” was quite high. Armed guards check your trunk, under your hood, under your car… Once I checked in, it was almost 5 am and I had been up for almost 40 hours. I slept late, and went downstairs to have lunch. In a well-meaning (I’m sure) gesture, the waiter brought me a goldfish in a bowl along with a pamphlet called “Conversations with Louis”. 

As if being out at a restaurant alone isn’t bad enough, here’s a fish you can talk to! It was hysterical. 

I spent the day recuperating and finally Jess arrived. Even after her four flights, her bag arrived. Mine was still nowhere to be found. The following morning we ventured into Mumbai. This consisted of us getting a taxi at the front door of the hotel. He drove us out of the compound, and at the bottom of the hill a chain of fellow taxi drivers blocked our way! They exchanged words and told us to change cars. Well, Jess and I were pretty sure we were going to be sold on the black market so we refused. Another driver got in our car and off we went! It took 2 HOURS to drive 25 miles. 

The roads here are like nothing I’ve ever seen before in my life. Roads are for (and I am not kidding): cars, trucks, carts being pulled by humans, animals and tractors, elephants, cows, goats, dogs, auto rickshaws, motorcycles, mopeds, jeeps…you name it, it’s on the streets of India! It was fascinating. Also, most vehicles do not have side mirrors or turn signals (well, they may have turn signals but they don’t use them). The horn is the preferred method of communication here. 

We spent the whole day in Mumbai. We saw the Gateway of India, the Taj Mahal Hotel (we walked in as self-assured as possible so as not to be stopped, and used the bathroom—it was divine!), the street markets, the shops, etc. We had an awesome lunch and dinner downtown – South Indian specialties for lunch and seafood for dinner. Our driver actually waited for us all day – at one point we passed his car and saw him sleeping in the backseat with his legs sticking out. So he took us back to the hotel at night. We had to directly pass through the slums of Mumbai. They estimate that 10,000 people arrive every day to Mumbai in search of work. 18 million are homeless or so impoverished that it’s the same as being homeless. As we passed the wooden boards, tarps and rags that make up the slum houses, I realized, as I always do, how lucky we are in the U.S. 

When we got back to the hotel, my bag still hadn’t arrived, so I decided to take it upon myself and go to the airport. I was terrified that once we left Mumbai we would never get it back. Jess was too tired to come (I was mad for five seconds but then realized how hellish her trip had been – did I mention she had a middle seat from NY to Mumbai?) so I let her off the hook. After a bizarre experience of wandering secret airport halls alone, and coming upon 10 workers sitting in wheelchairs and chatting, and finally finding the airlines office, it was determined that my bag was being delivered. The driver claims the hotel said I wasn’t staying there, but the hotel maintains he never went in the first place. But it finally arrived, so I was happy! 

The next day (Tuesday I believe) we spent half the day in Mumbai and then headed to the airport for our flight to Udaipur. The domestic airport is quite nice and all of the jets on the runway looked nice as well. Then our flight was called. We take a bus out to the ONLY propeller plane on the runway! Oh my god, I was terrified…and it didn’t help that Jess had told me that morning about two girls who died in prop plane crash in Afghanistan recently, who worked with her friend. She tried to modify her story mid-flight about how it was weather related, but I wasn’t buying it. Aside from the power going out as we descended into Udaipur, the flight was ok. They served drinks and a whole meal – how long has it been since they served meals on domestic flights in the U.S.?! 

We walked across the runway and found our prearranged taxi driver our hotel had sent. Our hotel, despite it being a “splurge” at $13 per person, was a piece of shit. We had to shower in the dark the next morning because the power was out. We were concerned about the rest of our hotels (which are cheaper and cheaper as the trip goes on!). But I’m digressing from the story…

Udaipur is a fantastic city in Rajasthan. Its nickname is “City of Sunrise” (not that we ever saw it!) and my book touts it as the city that “reinforces the romantic stereotype of India”. The streets are cobblestoned, the city is on the shores of beautiful Lake Pichola, and the City Palace is a phenomenal sight. Of course, it’s also complete chaos, because as I’m learning, anything that you say about India, the opposite is also true! Cows and donkeys and rickshaws and bazaar sellers crowd the streets. We were almost run over about a million times. And I’m barely exaggerating! But somehow it all works. We haven’t seen anyone killed, although we’ve seen a lot of close calls.

Our first morning (after showering in the dark) we went to find Guddu, a guy who had been my friend’s boyfriend’s guide last year. Thank god we did! Guddu is this cute 21-year old guy who knows everyone in and everything about the city and surrounding areas. Without him, I don’t know what we would have done. He first took us to the Jagdish Mandir temple, from the 17th century. This is where we saw our first monkeys. We had lunch on the rooftop of a hotel, looking out at the city. He sent us to the City Palace and on a boat cruise to Jag Mandir Island. We could see women in their brightly colored saris washing clothes on the lakeshore. 

Once we returned from our lake cruise, we got into the car of Guddu’s cousin brother or perhaps uncle. It’s not clear how they are related. His name was Chiki, and he spoke no English. We drove for 22 very scary km along winding mountain roads to Nagda, a 10th century temple that was destroyed by a Mughal attach. It’s unbelievable to see these intricately carved pillars and parts of the temple that are lying on the ground. On our way out, a little girl offered us a baby goat. I don’t know why, but I did get her picture and tipped her some rupees. After we left Nagda, poor Jess had to use the restroom. Her first public restroom experience was of a bathroom that was a floor. No, there was not a hole, just a floor! She practically flooded it! 

After her interesting bathroom stop, we headed to Eklingji – the most magnificent temple I have ever seen. It’s a Shiva temple, or rather a group of temples. The first was built in 734. The following 107 temples were built in the following 750 years. When you get to the temples here, you have to take off your shoes (and socks too, in this case). We often buy flowers from the women who string them into garlands. We were absolutely blown away. 

Guddu brought us back to Udaipur in time to catch the 7 pm showing of the James Bond movie Octopussy. This was back when Roger Moore was James Bond. Parts of the movie were filmed in Udaipur (as any local will tell you, or perhaps it’s better said as every local will tell you) so we felt like we should see it too. We walked up to the roof of the hotel where the restaurant with the movie showing was. We pictured lots of people eating, drinking, and watching it on a big screen. What we got was Jess and I alone watching it on the roof on a TV! It was hilarious! The setting that is, not the movie. 

The next day in Udaipur was as phenomenal if not more phenomenal than the first. Again, Guddu and Chiki picked us up at 8 am in front of our hotel. Guddu, who is a little high strung, had about 17 activities planned for us. I knew we would never get it all done! But we did get a lot done. First, we drove for a few hours into the countryside. We passed villages, women walking with huge jugs of water or bunches of grass balanced delicately on their head, oxen walking round and round wells to pump water…it’s almost impossible to describe but hopefully the pictures will do it justice.

We finally arrived at Kumbhalgarh Fort. Built in the 15th century, this fort is apparently one of the most impressive sights in Rajasthan. This fort is also on top of a mountain. Seeing as we hadn’t eaten breakfast (we were warned repeatedly not to eat street food so we turned down the delicious offering from a roadside stand from Guddu) it was not easy to climb it, but once we did we were not disappointed. It was unbelievable. 

Next, we went to Ranakpur, another set of Jain temples (similar to Eklingji). There are 1,444 intricately carved pillars, and no two are the same. It was built in 1439. There are 29 halls and 80 domes. Can you even imagine what this looks like?! It was again, unbelievable. Our last stop was a traditional craft village, which was more like a human zoo. Kind of, “Come look! Real traditional people making real crafts! Would you like to buy an oil lamp?” Ok, I’ve been typing for about 40 minutes, so I’ll wrap it up with the story of last night. 

After visiting the fort and then Ranakpur, we went back to Udaipur to eat dinner, wash up, and change into comfortable clothes. Why, you ask? Well, first read the following paragraph from Jess’ guide book: “Unless you are on a serious budget and traveling in India for months, we recommend you avoid all forms of bus travel. Often crammed full of commuters, state-driven buses are driven at blood-curdling speeds along dangerous and punishing roads. Numerous so-called luxury buses, operated by private companies, often ply similarly dangerous roads at night. Be aware that safety is rarely a priority and sleeping is almost impossible thanks to generally uncomfortable seating and noise.” So how did we spend last night? On an overnight bus, of course! 

Before you think I am reckless or stupid, let me say that there are no trains from Udaipur to Jodhpur and the place we bought our tickets assured us it was safe, and even showed us a picture of a bus that looked like a Greyhound. Ha! How different reality was! We waited for the bus at a roadside stand. Suddenly we were herded across a busy street to the bus. The bus was a monstrosity. There were burlap sacks tied to the roof. The whole thing was very rickety looking. When we climbed on we nearly died. The sleeper cabin we had was actually slightly wider than and not as long as a twin bed. It was almost full with our backpacks, let alone when we climbed up. There were no sheets or blankets or pillow. Climbing up was interesting…the latter had three small iron rungs to the side of the sleeper. So once you climbed up then, you had to sort of leap or haul yourself into the sleeper. We were in hysterics, laughing so hard we couldn’t even move, probably because we knew the insanity of the situation. And once we started to calm down, someone on the bus came and motioned for Jess to take off her socks – she had stepped in cow shit earlier in the day and apparently even her socks smelled. We’re still not sure – was there a complaint? Were we the smelliest people on the bus? Meanwhile, the bus was overflowing – with people and bags filling every possible space (seats, aisles, etc.). And we could barely control ourselves. I have to say, Jess’ book is right. Once we stacked the backpacks and stopped laughing and lay down, we felt like we were on a jackhammer. The bus slammed up and down over bumps. The horn was honked every 20 seconds. And periodically we would slow down and let more people on. There was no bathroom and it was a seven hour ride. Need I say more? 

I actually did manage to sleep for about an hour towards the end of the trip. Suddenly I was awakened by Jess who was demanding a Ziploc bag from me. I was like, “I don’t have one! What is your problem?”. She had to pee so bad that she was sweating and hallucinating and had reached the point of being willing to pee in a ZIPLOC BAG in our “cage” that everyone could see into (there wasn’t a curtain – just a wire door. I forced her out of the compartment and she climbed over all the sleeping bodies and out of the bus door.Out of control. 

To cap off the craziest night so far, we arrived to some corner on the bus and were dropped off. You try walking through the aisles of a bus with your backpack, over people and bags of rice – it was a treat. Our hotel had warned me that no rickshaw driver would take us to his hotel (they make commission from certain hotels who employ them, in a sense). His directions to me were “Go to the train station, walk east for three minutes, and turn left when you see two trees”. Pretty exact, don’t you think? So we took our chances and had a rickshaw take us to our hotel. He pulled up to some random place that pretended to be our hotel but only had a sign in Hindi. He told us our rooms were no longer available but he could give us a room in another hotel right away. I was too exhausted to fight but luckily Jess didn’t give up and we forced him to take us to the train station, which incidentally was full of people either lying on the floor or staring at us or both. We followed the directions and walked to our hotel, where we fell into bed. It’s a bargain at $8 a person – very nice and decently clean and we even have hot water! As far as the bus ride, we had all this adventure for only $6! What a bargain! 

Well, I’ve taken 300 pictures so far and still have lots of time and adventures to go. This is exactly the trip I needed to get me far from my normal life! I’m really having an awesome time, and can totally recommend India to anyone who likes adventure and doesn’t mind insanity! I hope everyone is well and I’ll try to keep you posted on the rest of the trip! For tomorrow night's overnight train ride, we're on a waiting list for seats or beds in 3rd class, so we could possibly end up on a 3rd class train where no seats are reserved and people are packed on like sardines, hanging out windows, sitting on the luggage racks, and curled up on the floors. Hopefully we'll get beds, but I'm sure the adventures will continue. If you made it to the end of this post, you’re crazy! XO Emily