After lunch, which was, of course, a delicious buffet, we got to stop to take pictures in front of the Water Palace, which was a favorite quick get away resort of the royalty. It’s in the middle of a lake, which made it safe, but it’s only accessible by boat and we couldn’t visit it. It was there that we also got to see a bunch of dolled up camels, which made for some great pictures.
Next we headed to a local weaving cooperative. We learned that there are 300 families who are members of the cooperative, which is based in Jaipur and we got to watch some of the weavers at work. I got to tie a few knots on the loom, which made me a little bit nervous because I didn’t want to mess up the rug, but the weaver helped me out.
After we watched the weavers, we also got to see a man working on a block print tablecloth. He basically different blocks with different patterns in ink, then carefully lined them up on the cloth and hit them with the side of his hand. He repeated the pattern until the entire tablecloth was covered, then he’d get a new block with a new pattern, then dip, line it up over the first pattern and hit it to fill in the original pattern. It looked like a TON of work, but we got to see some of the finished products and they were gorgeous.
Inside the shop we were shown a bunch of different rugs. It was most definitely a sales pitch, but we learned a lot, too. There were hundreds of beautiful rugs hand woven by local workers and if I had the money, I would have definitely invested.
After the rug shop we were taken to an ancient observatory where we got to see huge old sundials and towers where they used to observe the stars. One of the enormous sundials could be used to tell the time “to an accuracy of twenty seconds,” which I thought was pretty good for an old school sundial.
There were several snake charmers outside of the observatory, which were fun to watch until Anand had purchased our tickets to get into the Prince’s Palace Museum, which was right next door.
One of the first things we saw at the entrance of the museum was two gangajalis, which were enormous silver jars. I took a picture of the explanation, so I wouldn’t forget what they were, so here it is.
“’Gangajalis’ are the largest silver objects in the world as per the entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. They were made in the Minstri Khana (one of the 36 karkhanas of Jaipur State), the City Palace, Jaipur by two silversmiths, Govind Ram and Madhav. Each Jar was made out of 14,000 Jhar Shahi (Jaipur coins) silver coins, which were issued form the Kapatdwara treasury of Jaipur State in the year 1894. The coins were melted into sheets of silver. A wooden mould was prepared and over that the sheets were beaten and shaped as the Jars. No shouldering was done. The entire process took two years and the Jars were ready by 1896. Each of the Jars weighs around 345 Kg (they’re each 5’3”). Ladders were made for reaching the mouths of the Jars. Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II took these Jars, filled with Gangajal (Ganges water) on his voyage to England to attend the coronation ceremony of Edward VII in 1902.”
There was also a large group of women chanting and doing henna, which we decided to get on our way out. The tour around the Palace itself was pretty cool, but the thought of henna, which we’d been looking for, had all the girls distracted. As soon as our tour was over, we took over the henna area. It was only 50 rupees for a decent amount on one hand, which is a tiny bit more than 1USD. It wasn’t the traditional henna ink, just the faster drying stuff, but everyone got beautiful designs. Mine lasted a little less than two weeks.
After the Museum, we drove back to the hotel for dinner, and then hung out for a while. We had another 4am wake up call, so we didn’t stay out too late.
The next morning we caught an early flight to Cochin in the Indian state of Kerala to catch up with the ship.
That night we took a taxi into town and used the Internet, but didn’t stay out too long because there’s technically a curfew in Cochin.
Final Day in India
On our last day in India, Heather and I were on the same SAS trip to a freshwater section of the Alleppy Backwaters, which was about an hour-long drive away from the ship.
Cochin is in the south and much warmer than Agra and Jaipur, which definitely affected the scenery. Cochin was hot and a little humid, filled with lush greenery and palm trees. The Alleppy Backwaters are a huge tourist destination in India. You can rent beautiful, locally made houseboats and tour the waters for days at a time. Our guide told us that it’s a booming industry and we passed hundreds of these boats on our trip.
After one final beautiful buffet lunch on the waterfront we met our tour boat and started our two hours Backwaters tour. As we motored down the river we passed entire villages comprised of people who depended on the water for everything from cooking, to bathing, to fishing and gathering mussels. We passed women washing clothes and cooking pots on the edge of the water. We passed children rowing small canoes filled with the coconuts that grew on every tree. We passed mothers walking their children home from school, carrying the Spiderman backpacks as their little boys ran on ahead. We even passed a group of young boys playing a pick-up game of cricket and a man clambering up a tall tree to cut down a few coconuts.
The scenery was wonderful and the people were beautiful. Everyone was waving and smiling. On our way out we passed the village’s pride and joy, a long black racing boat that they’d used to win an important boat racing competition last year and were planning to win again this year. It didn’t look that big, but our guide said it could seat 100 men. The village owned the boat together.
After the tour, we drove back to the ship and by that time it was too late to do anything but get back on and turn in our passports before on-ship time.
India is beautiful.
Love,
Molly
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Sitting on the train on the way to the Taj Mahal, I saw an Indian man reading a local paper in English. One of the headlines was, “Go Soft on Mothers who Kill Girl Child.” It was incredible to see the headline firsthand. It made me sad. Despite the fact that dowry is now illegal in India, the practice has not completely dissipated and there are still families who kill their newborn daughters if they have more than two or three girls and no sons.
On a lighter note, we were on our way to the Taj Mahal in Agra, India!
When we got to Agra, the bus took us right to lunch at another gorgeous hotel. We ate a delicious lunch and then found out that there was a rooftop balcony with a great view of the Taj! I didn’t have my camera with me, but wow, just wow. The roof looked out over the back gardens of the hotel and the flowers were in full bloom and there were delicate fountains all around. The Taj Mahal dominated the horizon, its white marble dome gleaming in the sunlight. I was immediately in awe of the Taj and that was before we were even there.
When we finally did get to the Taj, we walked past a bunch of mom and baby monkeys on out way to the gate. I have pictures! The line at the gate was divided into men and women and took a long time to get through because they’re super strict about what you can bring in (basically cameras and water, nothing else).
I don’t have the words to do justice to the Taj Mahal. It was absolutely majestic and awe inspiring. Plus, the story behind the building of the Taj is so beautiful and romantic!
After the Taj, we went to the nearby Agra Fort, which has a much less romanticized history. The Agra Fort is a redish brown colored walled castle within viewing distance of the Taj. It was the home of royal family for a while before the capital was moved. Later, it was where the emperor’s youngest son imprisoned him for the last eight years of his life. The son declared his father unfit to rule, locked him up and overthrew his oldest brother to take power. The emperor’s favorite and most powerful daughter chose to spend eight years in the Agra Fort caring for her ailing father until his death. Despite his imprisonment, the emperor was always within view distance of the Taj where his beloved wife was buried. When he finally died, his body was entombed next to her.
There were even more monkeys running around at the Agra Fort, which always make me smile. After the Fort, we went back to the gorgeous hotel for lunch before embarking on a three-hour bus ride to Jaipur where we checked into our hotel, ate dinner and I crashed instead of going to the dance club upstairs. Note: the pillows and comforter at that hotel were the most wonderful, comfortable, delightful pillows and comforter I have ever experienced.
Day 4
Our wake up call wasn’t until 6am, which everyone was excited about. It was by far the latest call we got on the entire trip! The first part of Jaipur we got to see was the Pink City. It’s only one section of Jaipur, which is huge because it’s the capital of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Every single house and building is painted pink (and by pink, I mean varying shades of pink-ish/orangey). It was cool to drive through because it’s a famous historic district, but we were in a hurry, so we only got to stop for a few minutes to take pictures.
We were in a hurry because we were on our way to the Amber Fort on the outskirts of Jaipur. It’s built on a steep hill and there are two ways to get to the top. One is by jeep, but the cooler way is by ELEPHANT! I’ve made it a goal to ride elephants as much as possible on this trip. Anyways, animal welfare law dictates that each elephant can only make the trek four times per day, so even though there are a ton of elephants, there is also a long line of hopeful tourists every morning. The line was super long when we got there, but we all got to ride the elephants. While we were waiting in line, hawkers tried to sell us everything from t-shirts to little statues. I bought two wooden statues of Ganesh, the god of good luck and remover of obstacles, because I’d been meaning to pick one up and I’m a decent bargainer. I paid 100 rupees for each, which is about 2USD. Not the greatest deal in the world, but it was worth it. On the way back down I also bought a turban from a hawker for a friend back in Madison.
The ride itself was pretty cool because we got to sit with out legs dangling off the elephant’s left side, which gave us a great view of the nearby town, lake and the Beijing-esque wall protecting the fort.
The Amber Fort was yet another gorgeous display of architecture. “It was the ancient citadel of the ruling Kachhawa clan of Amber, before the capital was shifted to present day Jaipur” (this is what Wikipedia has to say). Two of the coolest things about the Amber Fort were the Sheesh Mahal, which is a room pack with intricately decorate mirrors, which I there were used to help light the room. The second most interesting part of the Fort was the carved wooden screen that hid the upstairs rooms from the courtyard. This was where the women were allowed to stand. They could still see what was going on below through the carved gaps, but the men in the courtyard couldn’t see them.
After the Amber Fort, we went to lunch.
To Be Continued
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Know the Secret!
Oh Mauritius! What a hot, beautiful, wonderful place that is filled with even more amazing people. We docked around 8:00 and got off the ship around 11 or so. A couple of us headed into town to a market and it was pretty funny because three of us were bald and the forth had very, very short hair for a girl, so we got some looks. But that was just fine. We found this amazing market where the ground floor was a huge food market and then the loft above it was just stall after stall of clothes, jewelry, henna, spices, sugar, coffee, and teas. My friend Alicia got her whole head hennaed and my friend Rory and I were planning on getting it around our eyes but then the woman charged way too much. The exchange was 30 Mauritian rupees to $1 and the place was actually pretty expensive compared to the countries we had just come from. They also accepted USD most places, so there wasn’t as much guessing about the exchange as usual. A woman did some sega dancing for us and I even put on a skirt and tried it myself. I’m pretty sure my dancing days are over after trying to follow the traditional steps of sega, with all its hand motions and hip swinging! Coral Boral, it is perfect for you. J But check it out on youtube if you can find it, it is just gorgeous with big skirts, flowered hair, and beautiful women who look so strong and graceful.
After a couple hours of wandering around a bit we headed back to the ship and a couple of us went to an SOS Children’s Home for a couple of hours and just played with the kids. SOS is such an amazing operation. It is in over 100 countries around the world, the first being in Austria, and it is a place for children who come from bad homes, such as substance abuse, domestic violence, or sexual abuse, and also orphans. The children are placed in houses on a compound and this is their new family. The kids all have a mother who lives in the house with them and they are brothers and sisters. So instead of being in a big orphanage or foster home, the kids still have the family connectedness and reassurance of each other. Quite a few of the kids came up to me and asked me if I was a girl or a boy, and then when they found out I was of the feminine persuasion they couldn’t understand why I shaved my head….it was pretty funny. I had this one girl, Florina, on my back or shoulders for a solid hour, but any aches I had were smoothed away with the kiss on the cheek she gave me as we were saying goodbye. I wonder where she will be when she is my age? Will she leave Mauritius? What will she do? I asked our guide about working or volunteering at the village, but he said that he didn’t think they let too many foreigners work. But, there are SOS villages all over the world so I will check them out and round up a band of mothers or fathers to go out and give some kids attention with me.
After we got back it was past dinner time and a big ol’ group of us headed to Grand Bae, which was about a 25 minute taxi ride to the north part of the island. The island itself is only about 19 miles long and 8 miles wide, but the small, windy roads mixed with the mountains (it is a volcanic island that really resembles Hawai’i) makes driving take quite a bit longer that you would think by just looking at a map. But the drive was great because we went past so much sugar cane! Pretty much sugar cane in Mauritius is like corn in Illinois; you drive forever and it’s still surrounding you.
We were planning on just finding a beach to sleep on but one of the cab drivers and a couple of the guides throughout the day talked us out of it. So we went to a bar, got a couple of drinks, and just sat and took in the island night. We were the only SASers there for at least an hour, and then slowly but surely the place began to overflow with our fellow adventurers. Around midnight a group of us walked a bit down the road to a park that was on the beach and jumped in. I love my dear late night dips in Sunset Lake, but I gots to say it has nothing on skinny dipping under the moon in the Indian Ocean off of a tropical island’s white sand beach. Yeah, I just said that. J Oh life! What a world what a world, and you all have helped give me this adventure. Thank you so much.
After our dip we heard some familiar voices and found some friends hanging out in a pavilion with some locals. It was great to talk to these guys about their view of foreigners and how they view Mauritius, and to just have the pleasure of being with people who didn’t have any reservations about their home or speaking their minds to us. What a connection a smile can be.
Most people we met knew we were from the ship, but we are some of the only Americans that visit the country. It is a usual holiday spot for Europeans and Scandinavians, but since it is a solid 30 hours of travel from the US it is not well known among we Americans. But, let’s change that! It is amazing and beautiful and such a secret that we need to spread. Let’s get to it. J
Monday, March 22, 2010
Everyone at home: rent or download the movie My Name is Kahn. Right now. It’s absolutely necessary.
Taj Mahal and Jaipur Trip (aka the majority of my India experience)
Day One
We had to meet in the union at 3:30am to drive to the airport. I considered just not going to sleep at all, but the schedule was supposed to be packed and I didn’t want to be trying to catch up on sleep. YAY four hours of sleep! Luckily the crew brought in coffee and a few pastries for us.
Our flight from Chennai to New Delhi left at 7am and we landed at 9:30am. We had to wait around in the airport for a while, but we finally met our guide and got on the bus. He told us to call him Anand, which was his last name; I don’t remember his last name because no one used it. Aside from Anand, we had a driver and an assistant named Amin Kahn, on whom my seat mate Lori and I quickly developed a crush.
The first place we visited even before we checked into our hotel was the Victory Tower in New Delhi. The tower is very, very tall and beautiful. It was never redone for tourists, so the only way to get to the top is by making the trek via the stairs. It would have absolutely been worth the effort, but they haven’t let tourists into the tower since the 1980s because a panic triggered a stampede down the cramped stairs and a bunch of people (students, I think) were trampled to death. Anyways, the tower was built by the Afghani Muslim invaders to symbolize their conquer of the native Indian Hindi people. We also found out that the city of Delhi has an intense history. It was destroyed by invaders and rebuilt eight times on almost the exact same location. Old Delhi is the seventh incarnation of Delhi and New Delhi is the eighth and final city.
After the Victory Tower, we had a wonderful Indian buffet lunch at a gorgeous restaurant. One thing I learned about India is that it is green and there are flowers absolutely everywhere! We spent an hour at lunch, and then were brought to our hotel where we were greeted with a glass of chilled fruit juice and got 30 minutes to wash up and rest. We were all exhausted from getting up so early and traveling so far, but when I washed my face and brushed my teeth I felt a lot better. My roommate was Kathleen, which was nice because we’ve known each other the entire trip. We got a kick out of the hotel room. There was a huge window above the bathtub in the bathroom that looked out into the rest of the room…. I’m not sure why it was there, but you had to draw down the shade to use the bathroom… Random, but hilarious.
The next place Anand took us was a big mausoleum made of sandstone that looked a lot like a smaller Taj Mahal. I can’t find the name in my notebook, but I’ll look it up later. The wife of a deceased prince commissioned the building of the mausoleum to honor her late husband’s memory. He was a studying one night at an ancient library when he slipped and fell down the steps to his death. Tragic. His wife hired 300 of the best Arab architects to design the building.
While our guide was giving us the history of the building a group of Indian women and little girls were giggling and staring at us, which we thought was cute, but Anand didn’t like. Throughout the entire trip he was fierce. If any Indian people stopped to talk to us while he was talking, he would yell at them and sometimes chase them away. As a man, he had the authority to chase the women and kids away from us, but they didn’t go far. As soon as Anand gave us a meeting time and set us free to explore I walked over to the group. The kids flocked around me and were really, really excited to pose for pictures. One of the girls even commandeered my camera to snap picture of her mother and friends. I hung out and talked to them for ten minutes or so before wandering off to explore. I hated to tell the smallest girls that I had no chocolate and no gum.
After the mausoleum, we went to see a Ghandi Memorial at sunset. The memorial is a slab of marble engraved with his last words and sporting an eternal flame. Ghandi isn’t buried there because he was cremated and released into the Ganges River, but it was the spot where they had a makeshift wake for him before he was cremated. When he was assassinated, his body was escorted through the streets of Delhi and the procession ended at the location of the memorial. We had to take our shoes off to get close, but that made it feel even more real. The sunset was magical, as most Indian sunsets seem to be. I quickly realized that the setting sun in India looks more like a fiery ball of gas than it does anywhere else I’ve ever watched a sunset. It just looks so much BIGGER and it’s perfectly round and burning blood red, but not too bright to look at.
We ate dinner back at the hotel that night and I called it a night pretty early.
Day Two
Our wake up call came at 4am, though Kathleen and I ignored it and set alarms for 4:45am. We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and were on the bus by 5:15 to leave for the train station. We had a 6am train from New Delhi to Agra over in Rajasthan.
The train station itself was incredible because of the incredibly overwhelming and obvious poverty. Hundreds of homeless Indian people sleep on the beach and it seems like just as many sleep in the train stations. I’m not sure if it’s technically legal, but no one kicks them out, so entire families were curled up under one blanket in the station. I had to step over people who were so accustomed to the noise and commotion that they just kept on sleeping. It was heartbreaking.
Trains in India are notoriously unpredictable and don’t necessarily stick to their schedules, but we got lucky and ours was on time. I read Small Gods on the train, which was a nice distraction from the butterflies in my stomach. We were on out way to the Taj Mahal!
To Be Continued….
Sunday, March 21, 2010
March 20 was Neptune Day!
Oh my gosh! I am one bald lady. I woke up at 5:45 and headed up to the 7th deck to watch the sunrise. There were a lot more people than usual because sunsets over the equator as supposed to be amazing, and holy wowzars, it was spectacular. It was dark at first, but then slight rays of pale light could be seen streaming from the horizon in between the clouds. As the usual morning crew assembled these streaks from heaven we all were more than ready for the ceremonies to begin. Slowly those who hadn’t already woken up were by part of the night crew, who had dressed up like Vikings and were running up and down the decks blowing whistles, banging on drums, and knocking on all the doors. And you know what? The rest you’ll just have to come and live through for yourself. J I’m loving my baldness and I might even keep it like this for a while.
That night we had a talent show. After every act we all just kept saying how much we love this boat! So much talent are sailing with us! There was swing dancing, break dancing, Irish dancing, modern dancing, salsa dancing, rapping, slam poetry, instrumental, comedy songs, serious songs, jump roping, standup comedy, cross-dressing, and a whole bunch in between. Almost 3 hours we sat and cheered for our friends. What a semester this is. What amazing people I am meeting. What remarkable places I am going. Thank you all so much for helping me to become the person I am, which, as I am learning, is an always changing person. I love you.
Now, I need to go aloe my head because it’s burnt…. J
Thursday, March 18, 2010
More India :)
Day 2!
I woke up at around 6:45 or so and went out to sit on the porch off of our room. I was four stories above this rural town. The sun and most of the people had beaten me to the outdoors. Children were sleepily walking with their mothers, women yelled to each other as they carried baskets on their heads. Men walked down the streets brushing their teeth. A woman on the pavement below us began to put chalk down on the street in symbols that were for the gods and a sign of welcome. Every morning the women of the house was away the previous day’s chalk and reapply the same symbols so as to welcome each day anew.
After our delicious breakfast of rice breadish things, curry, watermelon, and hard boiled eggs we sent out to visit a village for some cultural emersion. When we started to get off the bus we were swarmed by women and men welcoming us. The women would put flowers in our hair and then a bindi in between our eyes for the gods, a yellow smear to cleanse the mind and body, and a red smear for the women. There were at least 4 women doting on each person at all times as we left the bus. During all of this men beat drums to welcome us. They all wore the traditional skirt tied up around their waists. What a reception! After this we walked around town and saw rice paddies, a couple of houses, met a bunch of people, held a baby goat, played soccer with some kids, and went to a children’s center and a government school as well as watching how they make bricks that are used in urban construction. The village worships the Goddess and when a man was done praying all the children, who had previously been running around like crazy, waited patiently their turn for this man to rub ash on their forehead. Then it was back to the craziness of having visitors! A woman started to give me her daughter to hold, but the little girl started sobbing and wouldn’t even look at me let alone let go of her mother. When we went to the children’s center most of the youngest kids just cried and cried when we came near them. Instinctually we all wanted to pick them up and comfort them, but it was us who were scaring them. My RA is Indian and he said that it was probably because they had not seen many white people before and so many big strangers would scare any young child. One boy, who was deaf, had bright blue eyes that were just captivating, especially set in his dark face. They were the brightest blue I have ever seen! The older women said that they call them snake eyes. They were just amazing, and he was one of the few children to smile at us.
After that we went to the government school and hung out with the kids for a little bit. The group of kids I sat down with counted with me and named animals in English, and then I took each of their pictures and showed it to them, which they just thought was the coolest thing ever. When they had to get back to work we went to see the brick making. A couple girls tried it and they had to redo it several times over, and in the end the people working on it redid the ones they did.
As we went back to the bus we were given biscuits and hot tea and then kids out on the porch of the school (the building itself was way too small to house all the kids so at least 20 30 did their work out on the porch) started imitating a couple of us. As we sang songs like the Hokie Pokie and Macerana they sang them along with us and did the motions, and then sang songs back to us for us to follow. It was amazing. So much laughter! When we left they all gathered by the bus and some ran alongside it, waving the whole time. It was magical how we communicated so much just through making faces at each other.
From there we went to a Hindu temple built in devotion to Siva. We prayed with the guru there and were blessed by him. It was amazing to see this place that was over 1,000 years old. Just amazing. And we think going to DC or Philadelphia is a historic experience!
We headed back to the center and had one last amazing lunch and then packed up and headed out. We stopped at a silk store on the way and a couple of girls bought saris and a lot of people bought scarves and shawls and pillow covers and things like that. It was all so beautiful! But, since a lot of it was pure silk, it was an expensive lot! So yeah, I held onto my rupees there. But wow, the colors of the fabric! Gorgeous.
Then it was back to the bus and off to Chennai. We got on the boat at about 6:30 and those of us who were traveling independently to Cochin had to be off at 7:00….so it was a mad dash to our cabins, scarfed some food down, and ran off the gangway! Then we couldn’t get out of the port because customs wouldn’t let us through, so it was back to the boat where they had to do some sweet talking and then we were off.
I had contacted a hotel, but when the taxi driver pulled up we all decided to head out to somewhere else….not in the best part of town! Eventually we found a hotel and then had a late dinner at this amazing place. Oh, mango lassies! So freaking good. And curry and ice cream and rice and the sugar/anis/spice dessert. GHA! Yum Yum.
I’m sorry for the lack of updates! I left my computer on the ship in India because I didn’t want to risk carrying it around with me. I hope this giant update makes up for the wait.
Day One- Chennai
The port in Chennai was pretty ridiculous. We had to wander through about 1/4 mile of filthy construction zone dusk and garbage to get to the customs booth where they checked our forms and we could get into cabs. At first it seemed like there wasn’t even a city, but after a few minutes in a cab the landscape changed dramatically. The local people knew we were coming. The shop owners had “Welcome Semester at Sea” signs hanging in their windows and someone was even selling specially made t-shirts with the Taj Mahal (3 hours away by plane) on the front and a ship with “Semester at Sea 2010” on the back. I didn’t buy one because I hadn’t seen the Taj yet, but a few people thought they were funny and spent the 100 rupees (about $2).
After we cleared customs, Rachel, Tucker and I got a cab and headed into a more densely populated part of town. The first place we visited was Spencer Plaza, which we didn’t know much about, but had heard was a pretty cool place. It ended up being a shopping mall… we wandered around for a while and grabbed a delicious spicy lunch, then left. Instead of wandering, we chose to snag an auto-rickshaw. A sweet older man who had lived in the US and wanted to help out argued with the driver for a minute to make sure he wasn’t ripping us off, then we got in and we were off.
Similarly to China and Vietnam, traffic laws in India don’t seem to exist. If you’re lucky, people drive on the left hand side of the road, but even then, lanes don’t mean much. If there are too many cars, buses, horse drawn carts, mopeds and rickshaws holding up traffic on the correct side of the road, the drivers have to qualms about flipping over onto the right hand side of the street to pass a few dozen other vehicles at a time. It’s common practice. At first I was a little nervous about all the honking (after Vietnam I can’t say I’m afraid of almost getting hit anymore) but I quickly realized that honking in the US and honking in India are two completely different concepts. Yes, the angry honk still exists in India, but 95% the time honking is simply a, “hey, I’m here and passing you two inches to your right!” In fact, most trucks and rickshaws have “please honk” painted on the back. The honking helps with the lack of lane obedience thing, It’s easy to keep track of one person in the lane next to you, but in India, that one person can become five people within seconds. It’s like a mosh pit of cars.
In Chennai (and I’m assuming the majority of the country) rickshaw drivers rule the city. They get some sort of commission for taking people to specific shops and restaurants (some people heard it was petrol and some people heard it was a new work shirt) so once you’ve argued the price down and you’re in the rickshaw, your opinion really doesn’t mean much. They’ll take you where you want to go in terms of landmarks (eventually), but if you have a specific shop or restaurant in mind, you’re out of luck. They’ll insist that they know the best place and refuse to stop until you reach their destination. Also, once you have a rickshaw driver, you have him all day. He waits for you at every stop, bargaining with you and pushing for more money, while also being great company and inviting you over to his house.
We didn’t take our driver up on the offer of meeting his family because we were on a bit of a schedule and didn’t know if it was normal or not. Looking back, I wish we had because I’ve talked to a lot of people who got to see their drivers’ homes and meet their families and they had great experiences.
Our driver was crazy to say the least. I never got his name, but he was probably in his early thirties and he was very smiley. He asked us if we wanted music in the rickshaw and when we said yes, he was very happy to oblige. He was obviously a fan of the Indian music on the radio because he danced in the front seat and yelled “yeehaw!” as he wove through traffic.
After the seemingly unavoidable shops he insisted we visit, he took us to see a snake charmer on the street. We got lucky enough to catch the tail end of another group’s show, so we saw the cobras without having to pay him. I would have definitely coughed up a little bit of money to see it again, but he was asking 2000 rupees each to see the snake charming, then to see the snake fight the mongoose he kept in a cloth bag. The bag was flipping around on the ground, which definitely made me curious, but we passed and asked our driver to take us to a temple our inter-port student, Vikrum (sp?), had mentioned.
The Kachabeswarar Temple (at least I think that’s what it was called), which was beautiful and elaborate. It was located at the end of a crowded street market, which made the atmosphere interesting even though it was closed when we got there. We found out that it would be open again in another two hours, but we wanted to keep exploring, so we chose not to wait. I did, however, take a bunch of pictures of the outside of the temple. Most temples I’d seen up to that point were stone and though they were cool to look at and explore, most were ruins. This temple was a frequently used Hindu temple and there were hundreds, perhaps a thousand, carvings of various gods and symbols on the outside. I wish we could have taken a tour of the inside, but it was definitely a stop I’m glad we made.
After the temple, our guide took us to another shop or two and then over to Saint Thomas Cathedral, which is considered the home base of Christianity in Chennai. It’s called Saint Thomas because two thousand years ago, Jesus’ disciple Thomas came to India and brought all that jazz with him. He was originally buried on site, though eventually the Vatican swooped in and reburied him in Rome. They had a small museum and pictures of Pope John Paul II visiting the site. There were relics of two other saints, but I think they took all of Thomas to Rome, so now it’s just a memorial. We weren’t allowed to wear shoes down there and we couldn’t take pictures. I tossed up a prayer for good measure because if I’m ever going to kneel down and pray, it might as well be at the used-to-be-tomb of doubting Thomas. That last bit sounds bad, but I didn’t mean it sarcastically; it was a cool experience.
The beach (I don’t remember the name) was right next to the church, so we took a quick walk down. It’s the second largest beach in all of Asia, which was a fun fact, though people don’t swim much because the water is so polluted and they don’t hang out in swimsuits because it’s not culturally acceptable. I picked up a few seashells and dipped a toe in the water just to say that I did; it was soooo much warmer than Lake Michigan.
As we were walking up the beach back towards our waiting rickshaw school got out and suddenly there were kids everywhere. They were all ridiculously cute, so of course we stopped to take a bunch of pictures. There we ran into two women waking a group of schoolgirls home; home turned out to be the extremely poor fishing village farther down the beach. The girls were all dressed in matching uniforms with matching pink bows tied in their matching braids. They were excited to see us and were practically crawling over each other to get into the pictures. They got an even bigger kick out of seeing themselves on the screen when I showed them how to review the pictures. What really got to me, however, wasn’t the group of kids, but the two women. They couldn’t have been older than thirty and they tapped me on the arm and motioned for me to take a picture of them, too. They weren’t shoving to get in the picture, but they were also excited to see themselves on the screen. It was obvious that they were good friends.
They were walking the kids home from school, so I asked if I could ask them a question, which they eagerly nodded yes to despite their unusual lack of fluent English. I explained that I was doing a project on education, but as soon as the word education came out of my mouth, they shook their heads. “Fishermen,” one woman offered as an explanation. They had been pulled out of school as very young children, probably as young if not younger than their daughters, to be educated in a different way. I understand that these women technically don’t need a long-term classroom education to be able to sustain a family as a fisherman’s wife, but wow. It was an eye opening experience. It hurt my heart that these women accepted that they were pulled out of school so young simply because they were fishermen. They weren’t resentful or discontent, they simple accepted that as fishermen’s wives, they weren’t going to be educated. It allowed me to understand their lack of fluency in English, which is one of the two national languages of India.
Side note: the two languages are Hindi and English. In the north, Hindi is the native language, so many people don’t speak super fluent English because they don’t need to. The south, however, is home to 15 recognized languages and an incredible number of local dialects, which means that anyone who wants to take a standardized test or get a good job needs to speak English; they don’t know Hindi. These women knew a little English, but their occupations don’t require them to use a language outside of their local dialect.
After the beach experience, we found our driver sprawled out and dozing in the back seat of the rickshaw and he drove us back to the ship. On the way back he asked us not for more money, but for any pens or paper we had on us that he could take home so, “his babies could go to school and learn.” He had previously told us about his son, daughter and the baby (Joseph, Mary and I didn’t catch the baby’s name). It almost made me cry. Luckily I had two pens on me and we also gave him a pair of brand new, clean socks that Rachel happened to have in her bag. If he had been able to drop us off closer to the ship I would have run up and brought back more pens and notebooks, but he dropped us off at the customs desk and we had to walk 1/4 mile through the nasty shipyard back to the Explorer.
I didn’t go back out that night because I had to meet in the union at 3:30am to leave for the Taj Mahal/Jaipur trip. I wish I had though because Rachel went back out later and got to ride horses on the beach for 40 rupees ($1=45 rupees). It would have been worth the even more overwhelming exhaustion. Next time that will be the first thing on my agenda.
This is the end of Chennai, day one; I’ll write about the Taj trip tomorrow. Next time I’m in India, I’m bringing TONS of pens and chocolate (all the kids asked for it).
Love,
Molly
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Ok dad, here are the pictures you wanted... :)
When events were going on at the Amber Fort, the women were required to stay out of site, but this design in the walls of the upper floors allowed them to see what was going on below. This is their view.
A failed attempt to hold the Taj. I have a good one, but it's a bad picture of me, so I'm not posting it here. It will be untagged on facebook haha
The Taj was too magnificent for words. Honestly incredible.
Yes, that is the Taj Mahal in the background.
Group of kids at the Taj Mahal. Everyone there was super excited to see us. They looked like they were having a picnic (minus food) and took a ton of pictures with us. When traveling through India, bring chocolate, gum and pens.
This is Ganesh, then god of good luck who removes obstacles. There's an interesting story behind the fact that he has the head of an elephant. Look it uppp.
This is the Victory Tower in New Delhi. When the Muslims from Afghanistan came into India and conquered the Hindus, they built this tower as a symbol of their triumph (at least that's the story I remember)
This is a memorial to Ghandi in New Delhi (I think). He was eventually cremated and laid to rest in the Ganges, but this was where they kept his body before the cremation. There's an eternal flame and the marble memorial is inscribed with his last words (which I managed to miss).
This little dude was chillin with his mom at the Amber Fort on the outskirts of Jaipur. He grabbed a piece of candy from Pat, then ran away to sit with his mommy and eat it. Super cute!
Waiting for our train from New Delhi to Agra in our Indian clothes! There were tons of people sleeping in the train station. Sometimes we had to step over them and sometime there were entire families all huddled together.
Quick picture from the bus. This is an entire family on a moped in Jaipur... and they were weaving in and out of traffic without a problem.
This is our crazy rickshaw driver from day one in Chennai. He thought it was hilarious that we were afraid of his driving. He also yelled "yeehaw!" a lot and danced in his seat. At the end of the day he asked us for pens so "his babies could learn at school." Gah! I only had two on me, but I gave him both of them.
Oh Life!
Monday, March 15, 2010
A few pictures from India
A snake charmer on the streets of Jaipur. He also had a mongoose in a bag (tied shut and flipping around on the ground next to him) and if you paid him enough, he'd get them to fight. We didn't watch the fight, but apparently the mongoose tends to kill the cobra pretty quickly.
My new haircut in a mirror decorating the walls of the Amber Fort in Jaipur.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Around noon we spotted DOLPHINS playing in our wake!!!!! Everyone on
the 5th, 6th and 7th decks rushed to the back of the ship to watch
them jumping. It was beautiful. Though I've heard multiple reports of
dolphin sightings, all I've seen so far have been albatross and a few
flying fish. Dolphins are much cooler than flying fish.
We arrive in India tomorrow morning!!!
LoveLoveLove,
Molly
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Pictures from Cambodia!
Angkor Wat!
Elephant ride around the Bayon Temple in Angkor Thom!
At the water village
Pictures from Cambodia!
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Saturday, March 6, 2010
Sea Olympics!
refueled. It was crazy to see so many ships and planes. We had to be
escorted by armed navy ships because there was a terrorist threat.
Apparently pirates are or have been trying to seize oil tankers in the
Straight of Malacca, which is right off of Singapore. We've been
traveling through the Straight since yesterday morning and we're
nearly out of it now. The high alert finally ended at 3am. The alert
didn't affect the students in any way, but I'm sure the crew had to go
through the hassle of extra work on top of their already busy
schedules. The pirates wouldn't have come on our ships because there
are too many of us to control and they're looking for oil tankers
(which were all over the place) but it was still exciting, especially
since we didn't end up seeing any pirates...
Sea Olympics Tomorrow!!!
Love,
Molly
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
A Few Pictures from Vietnam
This is where we ate lunch our fist day in Vietnam!
These beautiful flowering trees were everywhere!
A hidden entrance to the Cu Chi tunnels. I wasn't sure if I'd fit...
...but eventually I made it in! I ended up crouching all the way down and closing the lid behind me.
Just chillin'
Jules ahead of me in the tunnels. These were the areas widened for tourists....
A captured American tank from the Vietnam war.