PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT I AM HAVING SOME TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH uploading the pictures for this blog post... I know I am currently really behind on the blogs, but I am in JAPAN and loving every minute of it aside from the fact that JAPAN IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE COUNTRY EVER.
Hoping to have pictures in here at somepoint... for now please enjoy the writing!
xx CK
Helllooo Helllooo Helllooo--- you are now hearing from a 21 year old! Yes ladies and gentleman, the Caryn Alyse Klein turned the big 2-1 in INDIA. Can’t wait to tell you all about my travels throughout India in the following blog post. I would like to start with a disclaimer however, please note that my blog posts will probably begin to get a bit shorter (which some of you are probably excited about) this is because we are starting to hit the peak of our schedule in which we only have about 2 days between some of these ports so having time to catch up on sleep, continue to socialize, tan, do homework, and blog gets VERY difficult! That being said, I shall begin to tell my tale of the epic journey through India.
Hoping to have pictures in here at somepoint... for now please enjoy the writing!
xx CK
Helllooo Helllooo Helllooo--- you are now hearing from a 21 year old! Yes ladies and gentleman, the Caryn Alyse Klein turned the big 2-1 in INDIA. Can’t wait to tell you all about my travels throughout India in the following blog post. I would like to start with a disclaimer however, please note that my blog posts will probably begin to get a bit shorter (which some of you are probably excited about) this is because we are starting to hit the peak of our schedule in which we only have about 2 days between some of these ports so having time to catch up on sleep, continue to socialize, tan, do homework, and blog gets VERY difficult! That being said, I shall begin to tell my tale of the epic journey through India.
Day 1- Monday March 12:
Our shipped docked in Cochin-- a state in the South part of India. The weather in Cochin is very hot, sticky, and humid this time of year, thus the Jew fro was in full force (at times I do aspire to be just like B-rad circa 2002-2006…for those of you who joined the CK fan club after this time period--- B-rad= my brother who had a huge mound of curls throughout his high school years--- it’s still debatable whether this expression was to portray his individuality or to annoy our mother… please cast your votes!)
Anyways, day 1 of India was filled with a class field trip to a local fisherman’s village. We departed the ship a bit behind schedule because of immigration so instead of shortening our tour we just sped through the various points of interests (which might I add was fine with me because I like to be on the move so mind as well make it snappy!)
Our tour began with a canoe ride to get us to the fisherman’s village! As we boarded the boat we were handed out these wonderful hats that I of course LOVED LOVED LOVED… throughout the pictures of my day please note this great new accessory which I plan to sport once I get back home as well ;)
Once we arrived at the village we had a warm welcome by the community members. As we got off the boat we were given huge coconuts and were instructed to sip away at the coconut juice… I am not a huge fan of coconut juice, but I decided that drinking it was probably a good idea considering it has millions of great nutrients for your body (this is at least what my resident doctor/ roommate Dr. Jenna Binkhorst tells me). After sipping on our coconuts and meeting the village people, we began our journey through the village in which we got to see the products that they produce.
They began by showing us how they collect coconuts from the trees. Now let me interject in here that Andy Klein used to love impressing the fam by climbing up trees in foreign destinations and gathering coconuts… well let me tell you Andy Klein, this villager could do a number on you—the man actually got up and down that tree in I would say hmmm less than 3 minutes!! While climbing the tree he wore this piece of cloth tied around his legs so he would just jump his way up the tree… After descending from the tree we watched as he carefully cracked opened the coconut and we were all offered pieces of coconut to eat.
Our next stop in our tour was to see how the villagers use some of the pieces of the coconut to produce coconut milk. We all gathered around one of the women in the village who graded the coconut into small little pieces… she then added water and I believe some of the coconut juice (although I am going to be 100% honest with you and say that I can’t remember the exact ingredients), but in a matter of minutes a scrumptious coconut juice was produced.
So you are probably thinking alright, they have done enough with the coconut by now, they must just throw the remaining pieces away… Well Toto we are not in Kansas anymore (aka America), thus in India they are RESOURCEFUL and use every last bit of material. I was actually amazed when we went to the next “station” to watch as the women carefully cut off the fur from the coconut in which they used it to create rope…
They make a variety of different sizes of ropes:
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| Thin Rope |
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| Thick Rope |
I am still astonished that all the products produced in this village are made by hand… that means no electronics, no electric machines--- purely teamwork. How amazing is that? I would also like to mention here that the adults who were producing the various products appeared to be of the older working generation… Our tour guide actually made an interesting comment on this idea: “As you can see, all the elders now do these jobs, whereas the younger generation is getting trained in technology field. Many of them are going off to Mumbai to get training in this industry” I like to mention this because throughout my travels this week, I had often questioned whether countries such as India would ever be able to fully develop, but it is signs like these that give me hope that it may not happen within my life time, but these are the steps that are needed to turn a developing country into a developed country!
The final products that we were shown included: seafood, pottery, and hand woven baskets out of leaves! The most notable of all the products was the seafood that they catch and export to both Mauritius and Singapore… look at this mud crab that they caught for us--- it sure makes the good ol’ Maryland Crab look super wimpy! Additionally, they catch these oysters and instead of just throwing away the shells they use them to make cement and paint--- how eco-friendly is that, impressive, right?!
We were guided to this beautiful tented flat area that had a wonderful view of the river to eat our lunch. This place certainly is a bit less rustic than I had originally imaged it was as the toilets were a bit too Westernized for this to be a legit village in the middle of India, I’m not complaining of course, but just trying to note the facts. With all do respect for my Indian food lovers, CK IS NOT A FAN OF INDIAN FOOD--- the spices kill me--- yuck yuck yuck! I ended up eating some plain rice and kindly tried the other foods, but nothing seemed to hit the spot.
After lunch, we were graced by a lovely traditional dance put on by village girls around the age of 14 or 15. The dance is one in which a bride would commonly be given the day before her wedding day by all of her best friends… from the make-up to the costumes to even the music, I could really see the Indian culture coming to life!
At around 3:00 PM it was time for us to continue our field trip and go to another village/ community… this time instead of riding the canoe back to the bus, we instead got to ride in auto-rickshaws. For those of you who don’t know, an auto rickshaw is a cheap alternative to riding in a taxi as they are way easier to come by then taxis… Essentially they are golf-carts, but more enclosed--- they have a back seat (fits about 3 people if you snuggle together) and then just the driver is supposed to sit up front (of course we often squish someone up with the driver), there are no doors so you have to hold on for dear life ;) One uses an auto-rickshaw for shorter distances… Below you will find a picture of an auto-rickshaw:
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| Auto Rickshaw |
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| And here is a Regular Rickshaw |
Once we got back on the bus, it was 20-minute power nap-time for my class as it had been a long day of standing outside in the heat… We arrived at another village, but this one appeared to be more of a community, not nearly as rustic… in all honesty, I am not sure what the connection or rationale was for us to go to this community as it seemed really random in terms of my field trip, but it was certainly an eye-opening experience. One family allowed my class to tour their home and I must admit, it is at times like these when I get hit in the face with how much Americans live by the motto, “Go Big or Go Home.” This home I believe (although can’t be certain because there was a bit of a language barrier) is home to a mother and father and their 2 son’s families (2 kids each) with a grand total of 10 people living in the house. It is common in India for families to all live together including ones extended family (the husband brings his wife to live with his family). The house was all on one floor—it had electricity, but not the way we as Americans would think of electricity (they had a TV, but no air conditioning). Each of the kids shared a room with their sibling and the rooms doubled as family gathering space… the children shared what appeared to be sized in between a double bed and a single bed.
Prior to this trip, I would have reported that this family although they have so little is happy, thus making the generalization that “money doesn’t buy happiness.” I no longer feel justified to make this assumption. In my service learning class, I have been probed to think outside of the box: How can I really know the thoughts/ feelings of these people? Are they really happy living the way that they do? Perhaps they are, perhaps not, but what on earth makes me justified to draw this conclusion for I am merely a tourist visiting their home… That being said, I am now trying hard not to make generalizations about the way in which others feel, which I have to say is a really harder than one would imagine. I challenge each and everyone of you to incorporate this mindset into your daily lives—you can of course say they appeared this way or that way, but try steering clear of making the rather large generalizations.
My FDP concluded with a little bit of shopping time, but I didn’t have my rupees yet (the Indian currency), so I just walked around and embraced what would seem like a never ending game of being attacked by vendors selling products that I actually DIDN’T want to buy. It was nice being truthful to the vendors and saying, “No, No, No I really don’t have money to even consider buying your product!” As you will hear throughout my post about India, after a while the vendors became old and I just wanted to be left alone… it gets tiring appearing to be purely a $$--- perhaps the vendors should take my advice and STOP generalizing all tourists!
Day 2- Tuesday March 13 (Dana’s 21st Birthday!):
On Tuesday, I was off for my SAS trip to Delhi, Agra, and Varanasi, which are all, located in the North. Lucky for my trip, we didn’t leave the ship until 9:30 AM… I make this comment, as there were other trips that left for the airport at 4:30 AM--- oy vey! It was nice to actually get some rest before traveling for 4 days! The trip was jam packed with 75 people (I would say 95% were students and the rest were either life long learners or else faculty/staff). I was really happy with the mix of people on my trip, but must admit that by the end it got tiring to have to constantly count that we had all 75 people with us… that’s one of the things that makes independent travel so much better--- you go on your schedule, never having to wait around for 74 other people to get their act together--- this was by far my biggest complaint about the trip… we spent lots of time waiting for the group to meet back together/ being worried that you were holding the rest of the group up!
Okay, enough about that, now for the details of the trip. We spent a major part of the day on Tuesday traveling… a quick note about the Cochin airport is that it reminded me way more of a train station than an airport terminal… it just had rows and rows of seats, with no defined sitting areas per gate. Furthermore, when going through security in India, the lines are divided between “ladies” and “gents.” This is because of the extreme modest culture of India where it is VERY rare for one to find a woman wearing shorts or having much of their body showing. After walking through the metal detector, all women go into a room in which they are then patted down by a woman security guard. Certainly an interesting cultural detail--- or at least I found it noteworthy ;)
We arrived in Delhi around 4:45 PM and were immediately greeted by our tour guides and split into 2 buses… as we got on the bus, the driver handed each of us a beautiful necklace lay full of beautiful real flowers!!!
Before getting to the hotel we took a brief tour of the city of Delhi by driving around the embassies… it was weird how much this area reminded me of Washington, DC. The actual buildings of all of the embassies are really cool because they all are uniquely designed, many of which resemble the architecture that one would find within the home country of that embassy. Unfortunately, as I look through my pictures, I don’t have any good ones of the actual embassies, but instead here is one of the general area… don’t you feel like you are in DC?
After our embassy tour, we got to get out of the bus and take some pictures at the India Gates. This monument commemorates those who fought for the British in the Indian War.
Here is a picture of my friends and me at the India Gates:
By the time we got to the hotel it was around 6:00 PM. My friends Amanda, Maddy, Hannah, and I decided to do our own thing for dinner and went to Old Delhi. Hannah’s brother worked in Delhi for a year or so and gave us the name of one of his favorite restaurants. We of course wanted to take an auto-rickshaw to dinner, but the hotel advised us against this idea, so we used our best judgment and jumped in the cab. Compared to New Delhi (the area where we were for the day/ where we were staying), Old Delhi was much more run down and seemed a lot more like one would image India to look: cows roaming the streets, grungy markets, busy busy busy-ness…
As we pulled into the hub-bub of Old Delhi, our cab driver randomly stopped the cab and began to speak to a normal rickshaw driver (fyi- normal rickshaw is the same concept as the auto rickshaw except that it’s a bike!!!) Anywho we are all sitting there trying to figure out what on earth they are saying to one another when the driver looks back at all of us and tells us that we are to go along with the rickshaw driver and that he would meet us back at this spot after we were done eating dinner. Mind you we are literally sitting in this cab in the middle of the road at this point so we didn’t really have too much time to figure out what on earth was going on… eventually one of us uncracked the code of the broken English and discovered that the road to the restaurant where we were trying to get to wasn’t accessible by cars, so we had to either walk or take the rickshaw… Boy would that explanation have been useful had they told us from the start! After a minor heart attack (literally I saw cars whizzing by me) we decided to jump on the rickshaw and make our way to the restaurant!
Taking the rickshaw was an incredible experience and probably humorous for all the Old Delhians… come on it was 4 American tourists making this poor rickshaw man peddle us around… we all kept being like, “sorry sir, we know we are fat Americans! Eccckkk” hahah. As we looked from shop to shop, we all seemed to notice one thing in common which was that we saw few women strolling the streets at night. It was probably at this point that my heart began to pick up speed once again and I questioned how good of an idea coming to a random city at night as 4 American girls (not dolls… just girls… get it? American Girl Doll hahahah). To our happiness, after a 10-minute bike ride, we saw the sign for our restaurant Karim! WAHOOOOOOO--- Victory!
Signs for when you are in a foreign country and want to determine if you are eating at a good restaurant:
1. Many locals are eating the food
2. Restaurant is crowded
3. You can see where you food is being prepared aka can tell that you are eating FRESH food
4. Sign hanging in the front of the restaurant with an article from the Times Magazine stating that the restaurant has been rated as one of the best in Asia!
We were seated at a table surrounded by all locals… as I just stated a VERY good sign. Of course, as soon as I was handed the menu I was automatically intimidated, so we left Hannah in charge of ordering our meal... at the same time that Hannah was trying to select what to order 2 more American women were brought up stairs and the host was about to sit them down with us… awkward that they clearly thought we were all together because we were the ONLY Americans in the restaurant! HAHAH the 4 of us however, wanted some fellow American company so invited the 2 to sit with us. It ended up being a great experience as we met 2 fascinating women. They had been traveling for about 8 weeks in both India and Nepal and were at the end of their journey… one of the ladies owns a gardening company in Maine and takes off 2 months to travel around the world each year as her “summer vacation” since those are obviously slow months for a gardener. She said that this is by far her favorite restaurant in all of India and had carefully chosen this to be her last meal in India--- how good did we do!? It was perfect having them sit with us, as we were able to just copy everything they had ordered;)
As I had already stated, I am not a fan of Indian food, however I must say that this food was probably the best I ate while in India. I attempted to pretend it was from one of my favorite restaurants at home (Moby Dicks) and just imagined the thick grilled tomatoes combined with the delicious rice and chicken and somehow managed to finish the meal full. My friends on the other hand were in absolute heaven--- so take our suggestion, if traveling in Old Delhi make it a must pit stop at Karim.
After dinner, our rickshaw driver was waiting for us as promised and decided to take it upon himself to give us a tour of Old Delhi. It was at this time that the 4 of us managed to walk our way into an Indian wedding! The wedding took place in this tented area, but there was no roof… it was carpeted and had chairs set up throughout the room. We got to the wedding before the bride was there which was probably a good thing since I felt like we were stealing the show just a bit… we legit were asked to speak into the camera for the bride and groom! The wedding seemed to be whimsical as the entire atmosphere was full of color--- to an American it would have seemed tacky with bright colors and silver streamers, but once again this is just a mere sign of the culture.
It would be wrong for me to leave off about the wedding without making the following commentary… Country after country I am exposed to this phenomenon that because I am a white American I am able to do whatever I want even though I am a visitor in a foreign country… I find this to be rather uncomfortable and altogether entirely wrong. It would be easy to write off that this simply occurs because they want to invite me into their country with open arms, but we all know that is not the case. It’s one of those things that is really hard to deal with because sometimes it’s unavoidable and also there are those times that you don’t even realize you are being treated like a Queen until it’s too late…
We got back to the hotel around 10:00 PM that night and we decided to take it easy for the night as we had once again another jam-packed day… 4:30 AM wake-up call ;)
Day 3- Wednesday March 14th
Wednesday was a LONG day, but awesome. We woke at 4:30 and had to be down on the bus by 5:00 AM for our short bus ride to the train station… we were off to Agra! How cool is that… got to take a train in India (not to worry though, I opted out of the overnight train trips as the book The Namesake scared me about those trains!) The train ride was about 2 hours which was perfect amount of time for a morning nap… Here is a picture of Amanda and me on the train as we so scholarly read the India newspaper.
Before I continue on about the train ride, I would like to reflect on my first encounter with the severe poverty of India. Many families were camped outside and inside the train station as we were boarding the train. From a young age, the children are taught to come up to train riders and indicate to them that they are hungry and need food. There is no doubt in my mind that these children need food way more than I do, however there are multiple reasons why it is not good for tourists to “feed” into this behavior (no pun intended).
1. If you feed one child, then multiple other children will come running for food as well/ you start a fight amongst the children
2. Some of these children are begging for food, but do not actually get to eat the food for themselves, but instead must bring it back to their parents who will then either eat the food or sell it and not share the profits with their children!
3. You encourage begging as something that is “socially acceptable” and sustainable in that they don’t feel the need to go to school, but instead can beg for food their whole life
The children relentlessly try to get your attention by running to your side and tugging at your clothing… This is actually heart breaking for you know deep down that you are not going to give them anything more than a smile and perhaps a hello.
When we got on the train, I was able to take a deep breath and try to collect myself. However, it didn’t take long for my heart to once again be torn apart. As I peered out the window I saw multiple men and women crouching down to do their “business” (aka poop/pee). I have never before seen such extreme poverty… I can’t exactly put my finger on the difference in the poverty in India, as it is so vastly different to the poverty in Ghana. There is one main difference that I did become aware of… there are way more poverty struck “crippled” people in India compared to those in Ghana. I saw multiple people without an arm or a leg, some in wheel chairs, others just hobbling around on the ground. It is actually so hard to watch… but the worst of all of the “crippled” people was the man who apparently had a disease called Elephantiasis. Most of you probably are like me and have no idea what this disease is so let me explain: this man was sitting in a wheel chair and his foot easily was blown up to the size of a computer screen (probably even bigger). I refused to take a picture of this because this man is a person who has feelings, however feel free to go onto google to find out more information about the disease…
A las we made it to Agra around 10:00 in the morning--- just in time for breakfast at a hotel. I won’t even go into how nice breakfast was at the hotel because honestly it felt so completely wrong… I had just seen the most extreme poverty and now I was supposed to eat from a lavish breakfast buffet that had it been anything but a 10 out of 10 buffet, my fellow peers and I would have been complaining that we didn’t get fed well enough on our expensive Semester at Sea trip. This is only a minor taste of the guilty thoughts and feelings that went through my head throughout the day--- honestly it’s hard not to think like this when you encounter India’s poverty.
By 10:45 AM we were back on our bus and on our way to the abandon city of Fatehpur Sikri. In brief summary this was the capital of India until the city was flooded, thus the capital had to move to Lahore?! I know poor explanation, but at this point the tiredness starts creeping in so the explanations for the sights get all jumbled together… the city was really cool to walk around …here is one of my favorite pictures of us:
After the Abandon City we were off to a marble shop to gain an appreciation for the craftsmanship that took place in constructing the Taj Mahal. As they showed us the time consuming process we were all blown away… just to make a small jewelry box takes a good 3 weeks… now think of the entire Taj Mahal!
We spent around 30 minutes at the marble shop, and then went back to a hotel to eat our lunch. Next stop… THE TAJ MAHAL! Prior to going to the Taj Mahal we spent time at the Red Fort… again, I can’t even offer an explanation of this place, but I do know that it was at this point in my India excursions that I caught my first glimpse of the Taj Mahal;) After about an hour, we boarded the bus for drum roll please--- the TAJ MAHAL! So exciting!
As we drove closer to the Taj, my excitement was building up and up and up… probably none of you know this (including Jill, Andy and B-rad), but I distinctly remember coming home from our Mediterranean cruise in June 2010 and seeing an advertisement in a Canada airport for an airline that flew to India. On the ad that lay before me was a photograph of the MAGNIFICANCE Taj Mahal. I quickly turned to Jilly and pointed to it and said, “Mom--- I want to go to India and see the Taj Mahal for myself.” My mother naturally was not nearly as ecstatic as I was, but allowed me to enjoy my happy place of staring intently at the Taj photo. I mention this story because as I sit here typing this blog post I still am in shock that I actually was at the Taj…
For those of you who are not history buffs, the abbreviated background story on the Taj Mahal is as follows:
Built in 1632, this was a tribute to Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan 3rd wife, Mumtaz Mahal as one of her dying wishes. Today, people visit the Taj in awe as the building was created entirely by hand--- honestly so crazy!
Getting into the Taj was a kinda sad story for poor Pattie my beanie baby ;/ For some reason they don’t want people taking pictures with stuffed animals/ signs at the Taj, so Pattie instead had to entertain the security guards… it’s a bit of a sensitive subject for Pattie as she didn’t get to see the Taj and also thought she was never going to see me again. Not to worry, I have signed her up for group therapy sessions with Mr. Bear Bear (Hannah’s stuffed animal bear) who was also traumatized at the Taj by having to stay with security.
We all walked into the Taj together and although don’t get me wrong, the Taj was magnificent, I am sad to report that it didn’t take my breath away nearly to the extent that I anticipated… I feel this is because of 4 main reasons:
1. I am getting jaded by seeing so much so quickly
2. The places I go/ the things I see are not hitting me right now and I think it will take until I get back home and go through my photos to realize WOW I really saw that?
3. More time was needed at the Taj as I didn’t feel I got enough time just to stare at its beauty and realize holy smokes, this was built all by hand in the 1600s!
4. As we were leaving the Taj, I actually was way more impressed/ in awe of its beauty as I think I liked it more once the sunset.
Side comment: So glad I had my Dormify letters with me so I could snap a pic with them at the TAJ!
Overall, I would say that it would be a shame to go to India without seeing the Taj, but my biggest pieces of advice would be:
1. Allocate enough time to be able to just stare at the Taj
2. If you want to bring a stuffed animal shove it under your clothing (I really Pattie would have made it to the Taj had she been shoved down my shirt or in my waist band)
3. Wear your best outfit because I forgot about this detail and now am going to have multiple photos at the Taj in something I am not crazy about… the Taj is going to “out beauty me looks wise…”--- bummer!
By 6:45 PM we were on the bus and headed back to the station for our train ride back to Delhi… we probably got back to the hotel around 10:30 PM and it was now time to ring in my birthday. My friends did an absolutely amazing job of making my birthday super super super special please note that birthdays give me anxiety as I don’t like having all the spotlight on myself, but they did such a great job of creating a truly unique 21st birthday in INDIA!
When we got back to the hotel, I was 100% exhausted, however my friends forced me to go out with them to ring in my 21st… although I was tired, I felt I had to bite the bullet and am sure glad I did… We quickly changed and then my friends made me come up to their room in the hotel in which they ordered a brownie sundae and flame so I could blow out my candles! We decided to go to a bar at another hotel which was beautiful… side note on my outfit choice: I literally didn't bring anything to wear to go out so I borrowed my Maddy's dress and wore my Teva sandals--- the ones that velro all around you ;) … my Teva’s were worn the entire time I was traveling in India… gotta love the Tevas! After getting into the bar we kept telling everyone that it was my birthday and the next thing I knew there was a cake for me … not only did the cake come out, but also these really cool sparklers!
Day 3- Thursday March 15th CK’S 21ST
For the morning of my birthday, Maddy, Amanda, Hannah and I decided to skip out on the SAS trip. The SAS trip was going to Old Delhi and since we had already gone there the first night it seemed pointless for us to go again… alright, alright the real reason: we needed to get some shopping in ;)
Before leaving the hotel, we spoke to the concierge about a good place for us to go shopping, but we were sadly informed that most stores in India don’t open until 10:00-11:00 AM (at this point it was about 9:00 AM)… this is apparently directly related to the poverty in India, thus when there isn’t that much of a population that can afford going shopping, it isn’t cost affective to keep the stores open for such long hours--- I found this extremely interesting. We decided to still sign-off the SAS trip and just wander around until the markets opened. We began walking around Delhi and somehow stumbled upon this BEAUTIFUL hotel and decided to explore… it was actually so odd going into such a paradise hotel in India… it just seemed so out of place. We ended up ordering coffee and just sitting/ relaxing which let me tell you was certainly needed…
We spent around an hour at the hotel and moved onto the markets. What was I in shopping for is probably what you are thinking… well of course I wanted a tattoo ;) yep, that’s right folks I wanted a permanent tattoo on my foot along with my friend Maddy who wanted one on her hand. It just so happened that we found a man to do them for us in the market so we decided to cut our losses and go for it…
What do you think of it?
Did you hear that gullible isn’t in the dictionary? Teheheh have no fear, CK didn’t change that much from her Semester at Sea experience as I was just fooling all of you ;) It’s only a temporary henna! RELAX ;)
After getting our beautiful hennas, we had to allow them to dry for a long time. Because mine was on my foot I had to hobble around the streets of India… probably one of those “bad idea” moments, but oooo well… desperate times called for desperate measures as my friends and I were in need of McFlurries. Finding a McDonalds was shockingly no easy task as we asked multiple people on the street that looked at us like we were CRAZY and had no idea what McDonalds was… isn’t that funny? Eventually we found a rickshaw driver that understood us so wahoooo we got to go McDonalds alas ;) Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the hotel to meet back up with our trip, eat a quick lunch, and finally say our goodbyes to Delhi as we were moving on to Varanasi!
We got to Varanasi around 5:00 PM and quickly dropped our belongings at the hotel and were off to the sunset viewing of the Holy River Ganges. Now this ladies and gentleman was quite the experience… once again a quick summary of the importance of the River Ganges to the Hindu religion:
Varanasi is considered one of the holiest cities in the world because it is home to the River Ganges. These people believe that the River Ganges possess the spirit of their g-ds. Every day hundreds of people gather at the river for morning and night ceremonies in which I was able to experience both of these rituals. Some of the rituals that take place at the Ganges include: bathing, cleaning clothes, sprinkling loved cremated soul in the water (for those that can afford it, if not then they will gently push the dead body down into the water).
The only religious ceremony that I have seen that was anywhere close to this experience would be when I was in Israel for Shavuot (a Jewish holiday) and I saw hundreds of people waking up at 3:30 AM to make the trek to the Western Wall… I found the River Ganges ritual to be an even more magnificent experience purely because these rituals/ ceremonies occur EVERY day--- it’s mind boggling!
Getting to the river was quite the experience… there were about 35 rickshaws (the biking kind) that all followed one after another until we hit a point where we just weren’t going to be able to get any further because of all the pedestrian traffic… we hopped off the rickshaw and began the final stretch to the river. Literally the streets were filled full of people (no cars) and all of these shops are open in which once again you are seen as purely a $$$ so they are haggling the be-jeepers out of you…
The ceremony takes place all along the rivers and anyone is allowed to go to the ceremony. It is my understanding that the ceremony lasts for about 3 hours (we only stayed for like half of it)… There are no prayer books and everyone is either standing up or sitting to watch as the 7 clergy members perform the service (a combination of reading and singing… but nothing like a service that I have ever been to…way more of a production than what I would think of as a religious ceremony--- many more swift motions not so much involvement from the audience).
Here is a picture of the River Ganges at the night:
After the ceremony we walked once again to meet up with our rickshaw drivers and then made our way back to the hotel for dinner. Finally my birthday was complete with an Indian version of a Bat Mitzvah type set-up back at the hotel. They had a little dance floor for my tour group and then had a buffet dinner... we all decided that Andy and Jill organized the entire thing ahhahah of course they didn't, but it was hilarious! My friend's thoroughly embarrassed me by ordering a cake (thus the entire group of 70 people sang happy birthday) and then I had to have my first dance as a 21 year old... hahah this kid Justin who is an amazing swing dancer asked me for a dance so how could I decline… here is a picture of the dancing CK! This is on film so we shall watch it when I return ;)
After an amazing, but also exhausting birthday I passed out by 11:00 PM. The sad part about my birthday was that I was unable to get in touch with Jilly and Andy ;/ stupid time differences I tried for a while to call them, but for some reason or another it would not go through ;/ ;/ ;/ My first birthday without talking to them! Yikesss!
Day 5: Friday March 16th
I woke up to my alarm at 4:30 AM as it was time for our last day in Varanasi and it began with a sunrise canoe ride where we saw the morning rituals of the Ganges River. I am going to be upfront and honest that I did manage to make it to the canoe ride physically, but question if I mentally was awake!? Hmmm… I was just so tired that there were good chunks of time while we were supposed to be watching the people perform their morning rituals, but I instead crumbled myself into a tight ball and had to take power naps (it was such a struggle to keep my darn eyes open) I am trying to just give myself some slack, as I have to face reality that there will be activities throughout this trip (and really my life) that I will miss out on because I am too tired, and just have to keep along and not dwell on the fact that I missed it!
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| At least mid nap I was able to get a picture of the sunrise |
We got back to the hotel around 8:30 AM and naturally by this point I was awake… grrrrr hahahah. My friends and I decided to sign out from the SAS trip because Hannah was in the market for a sari. Hannah’s brother is getting married to an Indian woman so they are going to have a traditional Indian wedding, thus she needed to get a sari. For those who don’t know, a sari is a traditional outfit worn by women and girls in India. They are made out of either cotton or silk. Women wear these on a daily basis, however there is a major difference between an everyday sari and a fancy sari.
The sari shop owner had us all sit on the ground on a pillow type cushion. He then pulled out beautiful fabrics for Hannah to decide on/ for all of us to give our opinion. I honestly felt like I was playing pretend/ a different version of my good old faithful make believe game of shopping at Sincerely Yours (my mom’s company remember she sells invitations? I know some of my fan club needs a clue here and there) Hannah ended up buying saris for her mom, sister and self because there is nothing quite as special as being able to actually have a sari from India! How do we look in the saris for Hannah’s fam?
By 12:30 PM our amazing trip to Agra and Varanasi was complete and we had to head back to Cochin… One funny story from this day was that for some reason the travel agent thought it would be a good idea to put us on connecting flights in which we went Varanasi to Delhi, Delhi to Cochin… naturally, this wasn’t one of those flights where you just sat as they load/ unload the plane, but instead we had to make your way off the plane and actually switch to an entirely different airport all together--- it was about a 10 minute drive with traffic away and I am actually clueless why some flights go into one versus the other airport. Nonetheless, some genius thought it would be a good idea to give a group of 75 an hour lay over… DING- bad idea. Hannah, Maddy, and I all ended up being the last people through security as we legit heard over the loud speaker “final boarding call for Flight 1142 to Cochin is now doing their final boarding.” We ended up having to do a mad dash sprint with our professor (he was the trip leader so had to stay back until the entire group was through security) of which I ended up getting on the plane sweating like crazy, and with a new realization that I was a bit out of shape ecccck.
We got back to the ship around 11:30 PM and after a shower I went straight to bed.
Day 6- Saturday March 17th (Belle’s or Arielle Berne’s 21st Birthday)
Upon Jenna’s recommendation, on the last day I decided I wanted to spend the morning at yoga school… Jenna had gone on Monday, thus I decided to copy this idea after hearing all of them RAVE about their amazing yoga experience. I ended up sharing the information with a bunch of people, so bright and early on Saturday morning (around 6:45) we all met on the ship and were headed off to our 7:30-10:30 AM class. The class was absolutely incredible…. Because it was a weekend the yoga instructor, Sanji had us do the class outside which was perfect for a yoga class. I actually was able to get into a tri-pod and even a headstand that day… both of which I have not even close to mastered in the states… so incredible. How sweet is this picture?
After the yoga class was finished, Sanji had a traditional breakfast prepared for all of us. Mind you Sanji is actually the cutest and most fit man ever… such a yoga instructor that you would picture out of the movies… complete with the way he signs his emails (please read below):
EMAIL
Dear Blessed Soul Caryn Klein,
You are most welcome to our yoga school, I will be at our yoga school at Saturday. After the class there is a spiritual food also. 7.30 to 9.30 is the class...........if any doubt call me on my Mobile 886786882........see you soon Cosmic Love
Nothing like some COSMIC LOVE…The best part… the class was only $5! How great is that… only in INDIA!
Next we made our way to Jew Town, a great shopping area in Cochin… yes, I kid you not, the name of this area is actually Jew Town. About 60 years ago this area was full of Indian Jews, but after Israel became its own country, many of these people migrated to Israel. Today there are only 9 Jewish people that occupy this town, but to my extreme satisfaction, there is still a synagogue and traces of the Jewish people in this area.
The rest of the day was spent shopping in Jew Town doing what I would refer to as the good ol’ how much junk can Caryn buy with her remaining rupees as she took out FAR too many so better find some cool products! Although it sounds like an easy task, let me caution you that by this point I was 100% exhausted and hot … combine that with being a horrible decision maker and well you most def have a painful day ahead. HAHAHAH but actually! By 4:30 PM I was good and worn out so my friends and I decided it was about time to head back to the ship.
Final remarks on India: I really enjoyed my days in India, but feel that for some reason India was not nearly as much of a culture shock as I had anticipated…
Would I go running back to India?
o Probably not…
Why?
o The biggest reason I feel India didn’t do a number on me is because I have traveled to so many countries at this point that poverty is not nearly as much of an anomaly as it was in my first ports. That being said, I feel that in order for India to truly make an impact on me, I have to wait some time and be in a different stage of my life.
o I also think that by touring India with a group of 75, there really wasn’t much of a feeling of independence which I think enables me to have a much deeper connection with a country
One of the things that I wrestled with as I took both my first and last steps in India was the fact that I am the first of the Klein family to have step foot on India… it’s a really strange feeling to have such a title (of course this is true of most of the ports), but for some reason it really stuck for India… maybe because I saw the Taj?! Who knows…
I couldn’t help but to think of the following as I walked back onto the ship: I highly doubt that Mom, Dad, and Brad will make it to India in their life times. I wonder what I will have to do or say for them to travel here as it is so important for them to come to a country such as India and see how the majority of the world lives each day…if you got an answer for me, I am all ears as honestly, seeing the world is a life changing experience.
That being said, I close this post with some exciting news… Jill and Andy have made it safely to HONG KONG and are now touching ground on China before me. Everyone should actually be really proud of them for that was a pretty darn lengthy flight! Once again, ignore the fact that I still need to write posts on both Singapore and Vietnam/ Cambodia--- I am doing my very best to keep up for all ya’all ;)
I’ll close this post with 2 questions regarding Singapore, although I have already been there, I still want to keep my audience well informed…
1. What is the law in regards to chewing gum in the country of Singapore?
2. How wide is the country of Singapore?
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