I’ve never been jolted by culture shock until I landed in Calcutta. My first 48 hours were rough. Natalie and I experienced the scariest taxi ride from the airport, which ended in us convincing the driver to take us back to the airport…and I literally ran back in to the terminal as Natalie gave him money because she didn’t want him to lash out at us. We waited for daybreak to take on the city again. I considered getting on a plane back to BKK- it was bad. I would like to see Calcutta again because I would hope to think that we had a bad experience. Our second night wasn’t too much better. We took the Doon Express to Varanasi to meet up with Christina and Kristen. Let me just say that a second-class, air-con sleeper car is not in any way luxurious. As soon as our tickets were checked we closed our curtain and stared at each other for the next 13 hours. At times men would walk by and just open the curtain to peek in- prompting us to put the curtain behind our backs to block any curiosity.
Varanasi was beautiful from what I saw. Food poisoning kept me confined to our hostel room for 3 days, stirring a deep love/hate relationship with the squatty toilet. Thankfully by the time we moved on to Agra I had more control over my body. Our driver Bharat met us in Agra- Kristen thought it would be easier for us to rent a car/driver rather than dealing with trains (very good choice, even if he was a bit quirky). Bharat gave us each Indian names; Sita, Gita, Puja, and Dipa (Kristen, Christina, Natalie, and me), and baptized us as his sisters. He alone could be a long posting.
The Taj Mahal was beautiful, one of those moments that seem surreal. The funny part was that so many people wanted to take pictures with us. We were a bit confused, especially since one of the most wonderful structures in the world was there to be photographed. I guess for India people it's a two for one special, see the Taj and get a picture with a foreigner. From Agra we drove to Jaipur and stayed for two nights. Enough time to get in some shopping and take in a Bollywood film at the “fanciest” movie theater in India. Going to the movies was probably one of my fondest memories of India. The movie was all in Hindi with random English phrases, such as “damn, you look good.” There were some fabulous dance and musical sequences- Hollywood should definitely take notes.
After Jaipur we drove the long hall to Udaipur, my favorite city on the trip. Each place had its own feel and tourist scene. Udaipur seemed to cater to older tourist rather than young hippy backpackers, which was a nice change. Also the streets were a bit cleaner, not as many cows (and what they leave behind) and the shopkeepers were tamer. They still liked to catcall, the best in Udaipur was, “Excuse me, what country suffers without you?” Who wouldn’t fall for that one?
Somewhere between Udaipur and Pushkar, Bharat lost his temper and drove like a maniac- we miraculously survived over ten close call head on collisions. I’m talking inches away from huge trucks. I just put my head down in the way back, praying we would make it in one piece. I had seen the ambulances and knew they would not make it very far. I also had noted that hospitals had a “casualty” drop off, as opposed to an emergency room. Hmmm. Nevertheless we made it, losing only our friendship with Bharat.
Pushkar was hippy central. I mean some of the people looked like they moved there in the 60’s and had never left the small town. Unique in its own way, but we were glad to only stay one night- paying $1.50 each for our room. You can imagine them- equipped with sinks that emptied out onto the floor. The next morning Bharat picked us up in his uniform and was strictly business the whole way to Delhi. On the road I spotted a large dead animal in the road, could it be a holy cow? Oh no, it was a camel, dead in the middle of the highway. No one bothered to move it, but there were orange cones places around the body. Maybe there is a special camel clean up crew. Oh India.
Delhi was delightfully cleaner and more organized than I had expected (compared to Calcutta). We stayed on the backpackers street, which was really fun. Our “hotel” was full of Israelis, who tend to travel through India after they complete their military service. After dinner one night we met a guy who had lived in Tyler, TX and new were Waco was- what are the chances. The last night, Natalie, Kristen and I decided to end in class, so we decided to have dinner at the Sheraton. We tried our very best to clean up and put on our nicest backpacker gear, we still looked rough. The dinner was glamorous. I was quite tempted to commit the greatest sin- ordering beef in India, but I decided to take the high road and ordered chicken. Regardless of the punches India threw my way I felt best to stay a pacifist. After we paid our way too expensive bill we walked out of the hotel, past the Rolls Royce’s and to the street to get a taxi. The girls were too embarrassed to ask the hotel to call us one, considering our destination was Shadesville. I ended up going up to the hotel’s taxi both to ask if they could take us, they laughed and talked amongst themselves in Hindi and then took us on our way.
India was interesting. I have never been in a place where spotting another woman in a crowd is like searching for Waldo. The first few days were rough; it’s just scary being one woman in a million, especially one that stands out. I did enjoy the rest of the trip and was able to laugh at the ridiculous of most things. If asked if I would go back, I would answer with an Indian head wobble- maybe, maybe not.
Here is a link to pictures:
http://baylor.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2135509&l=6c090&id=9223449
http://baylor.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2135515&l=458c4&id=9223449
