Visitors! The Real India Tourist Experience

As mentioned, I decided to go to the hospital partly because my friends were due to visit in a week. There were concerns about getting their Indian visas in time (unfortunately one of them didn't make it) and of course I felt responsible for them. For those who have been to India, you know what I mean. For those who haven't, India is a high-paced, overwhelming, and intimidating place for first-time visitors. And I love my friends dearly but they live comfortable lives and are accustomed to a high level of good customer service and painless travel. This would of course benefit me later, but it contributed to my unease about them traveling alone in India. So two days after getting discharged from the hospital, I was still exhausted and didn't have my strength back but I got on a plane to meet them at the Delhi airport as our flights were arriving within half an hour of each other.

This was no fun. I traveled on a budget airline and arrived at Terminal 1 while they arrived at the nice international Terminal 3. We decided to meet at the Costa Coffee right outside customs. In the back of my mind I knew there would be issues trying to get into the terminal, but like a true Indian I decided I would figure it out and take care of it once I got there. After getting to Terminal 3, I had to find the Costa Coffee. Done. Except I couldn't get into the building. In India, you need a ticket just to get inside the airport. So I walked the entire length of the airport about seven times, as different people told me different ways to get into the airport. I finally found a ticket counter that sold visitors' tickets to the airport. I got one, but was told I couldn't take bags in. Well I had a suitcase and backpack since I was going on a 10-day trip so that prevented me from going in. At this point I'm pretty frustrated because I had lost my cell phone on the way to the airport, and just have no idea how I'm going to get to my friends. I said I was just going to leave my bags outside and they said I couldn't do that either, adding to my frustration. I could see the Costa Coffee through the windows, and decide to ask the carts outside if they could call the Costa Coffee inside to tell my friends to come out. But they didn't have the number, I was foolishly hoping there would be some sort of intercom system. At the height of my frustration, I went to one of the airport staff milling around and shed a few tears to show them how desperate and frustrated I was. He agreed to let me walk up to the door (there's a barricade about 30 feet from the door that prevents people from even approaching). As we were walking up I see my friends through the window! I gesticulate wildly for them to come outside and we were reunited! It was so great to see them, and I was so relieved that the one-hour saga came to a happy end. Then we left for the hotel.

Upon arrival at the hotel we were told it was overbooked so we would be staying at a sister hotel. I asked if it's just as nice and he kind of demurred and said it's not all the same but I was too tired to notice. We got to the sister hotel and it was not nice. My friend pointed out we just got downgraded. Then I got more annoyed. They gave us some water bottles and we went to sleep because we had a train the next morning. In the morning we moved our stuff back to the original hotel. Before letting us leave for the train they wanted us to pay for the water. It was about a dollar. But I had it. I argued with hotel manager that I wasn't going to pay for the water unless he refunded us the difference in rates between the two hotels or upgraded us for the second night. After 10 minutes of being stubborn, they let us catch our train to Agra.

We decided to get a driver for the day in Agra. At first there was no guide in the car, after I insisted there be one all of a sudden we had a new driver and a guide for the same price. We started at Fatehpur Sikri as the sky was filled with smog and smoke and we wouldn't have good views of the Taj. The heavy cloud cover keeps all the pollution trapped overnight and it doesn't start to dissipate until the sun burns away the cloud cover. We had a nice guide who explained the old city and then we went to the Taj. It's pretty awesome. There were a ton of people and we made two laps around it just to get into various lines. But it was really beautiful. This was my second time visiting Agra. The first time was misery because of the heat and humidity. The second time was much, much better and I was able to enjoy the day. I actually had to borrow my friend's hoodie!

We had a long lunch, and got driven to various crafts stores. After driving around Agra Fort, our cab was stuck in gridlock traffic. Our driver had warned one of the other drivers to be more careful. About 15 minutes later, this driver rear-ended our car with some force. Our driver gets out and demands the other driver also get out of the car. I'm not really watching, my friend is, and I hear a SMACK. I turn around to see our driver slap the other driver again across the face. The other driving was rubbing his cheek and looked ashamed. I mean, if someone slapped me I'd be pissed! But this guy just looked embarrassed. The driver gets back in the car like nothing happened. My friends and I were pretty stunned and didn't really know how to react, so we just started laughing. I mean this guy just slaps this other guy across the face and it's all ok? It turned out to be one of the more-talked about points of our trip.

Well our driver continued to drive us to various stores until our train time. My friend bought a carpet and I got some jewelry. Then we got back on the train to head to Delhi. When reaching the hotel it turns out I got an upgraded room and we all got free internet. Because of this we paid for the water when checking out the next morning.

Fatehpur Sikri

The Taj Mahal

The fountains were off!

Then we spent the day in Delhi before our evening flight. I wanted to show them the "real India" so we ate at Karim's in Old Delhi and walked around Chandni Chowk. After about five minutes walking around in the craziness we'd had enough and decided to see Red Fort. Well we were completely lost so we kept walking. We were so lost that the locals milling around saw us, knew we didn't belong, and immediately pointed the direction out of the market. We finally reach a road where we hail an auto. At that point we had about an hour before we had to leave for the airport, and my friend had a "Delhi belly" moment so we decided to go back to the hotel. I'm happy because my friends visited and got to see the authentic frenetic India. Next up: the Maldives.

Old Delhi, "The Real India"and Cricket!

For the past two and a half weeks I have come to know and love New Delhi. There is such a richness of people and personality that can't really be described. However last Saturday and tonight I was able to spend time in Old  Delhi. As the cycle rickshaw drivers will tell you, Old Delhi is the Real India. Saturday began with another visit to Chandni Chowk. We had cycle rickshaws for the day to navigate us through the streets of Chandni Chowk that we got lost in before. We started at the Digambar Jain Lal Temple, and had a brief visit with the jain saadhu before receiving a blessing. From there it was a visit to the spice market and a great view of the market's hustle.  Men with carts carrying 10 heavy sacks of spices would weave among the pedestrians, cycles, autos, and cars to deftly park at the curb by the market. Then other men would carry a large sack on their backs up weaving again through a crush of people to take the spices to market. There were some amazing views from the top of one of the spice market buildings. You could see the rush of people on the street and the buzzing activity of the cars and rickshaws mingling with the people. Walking through the spice market was an exercise in trying to hold in your sneezing and coughing because the spices were so biting and pungent. Seeing the sacks and sacks of spices was a great illustration of how much flavor Indian food has. After the spice market we got back into the cycle rickshaws and had lunch at Karim's, a fifth generation Old Delhi institution. After our delicious lunch, we made a visit to Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India. Inside the courtyard of the mosque was a large pool of water with rivers leading into it. There were 100 men lounging about, and about 3 women. Our Old Delhi ended with our cycle rickshaws back to the Red Fort. Experiencing the crowds of people and the chaos of cars and people on the street is the very picture of the picture of Old Delhi and India. I'm amazed at the amount of people there are and am bracing myself for the larger crowds in Mumbai.

Also based in Old Delhi, we spent an evening on Thursday with Aashray Adhikar Abhiyan, an NGO that has set up homeless shelters and free health clinics across Delhi. AAA does such amazing work. Seeing the most marginalized, forgotten people who are often tossed aside or shunned receive health care and treatment was an eye-opening and touching experience. Two doctors were sitting on two folding chairs while the patients waited in a line on the floor for their turns to speak with the doctors. There is a table set up with all the medicines that are distributed for free to the patients by a pharmacist who also volunteers. The health clinic is open Mondays and Thursdays and helps people with mental illness and chemical dependencies. If patients need in-patient treatment, they receive more care at IHBAS (Institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences.) It's amazing to think that all is needed to set up a homeless health clinic is two folding chairs and folding table. They are able to treat 200 patients a night and have had many success stories of mentally ill homeless people who have received treatment and are now self-sustaining. The homeless shelters are free to women, children, and the elderly while it is 6 RS ($0.13) for men. Before going to the AAA session, I was debating staying at home and resting from an exhausting week. After, I was so glad I went. It was eye-opening to see an NGO on the ground and operating a true grassroots movement. It doesn't take much to provide free health care to the homeless and help make marginalized people make complete u-turns of their lives. I feel so inspired after seeing the changes that this organization is making and the complete generosity by spending their time and resources helping these people. In another vein, it makes all the amenities I "can't live without" seem so superfluous and my complaining a source of shame. Not only does my complaining marginalize these people even more, but the content of my conversations seems so superficial and insignificant.  That may be extreme, but seeing the great work that AAA is truly awesome and inspiring. I'm hoping to use the experience to motivate me during my year of volunteering.

And finally, world cup cricket! Cricket is a HUGE deal in India, almost a religion. The world cup has been going on for a few weeks. Wednesday was a largely publicized semi-final between India and Pakistan. After about 9 hours of game time, we had a great fireworks show on the roof of our hostel. Fireworks were going off all over the city in celebration of the win against Pakistan. With their win, India was set to play Sri Lanka in the final on Saturday. Although the game started at 2:30pm, we knew it wouldn't be over until about 11pm. Close to 11pm, we made it out to India Gate in anticipation of the celebrating that would follow India's win. And what a celebration it was! I've always wanted to experience the absolute joy and pride that people feel when their country wins in the international match of their national sport. Indian cricket fans did not disappoint. The road around India was packed with people and soon packed with cars and motorbikes. I was interviewed by two news channels about cricket and the celebration and the celebrators would follow the cameras to demonstrate their joy by dancing and yelling. People were standing on moving cars, hanging out of windows, and I even saw a driver with the door open hanging out of his car while driving. By the time we left at 1am, the celebration was still going strong and the roads were completely jammed for miles. We had to walk back most of the way before we were able to find an auto that could drive on the roads back to our hostel. I think videos and pictures can better illustrate the craziness and chaos after India won the world cup.

Being interviewed for nnis.

People on cars! People everywhere!

Notice the cop's celebrating too!