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.

Monthiverssary in Mumbai

Alas, I have been in Navi Mumbai for a month, in India for two months and I’m starting to feel a little homesick. Specifically I miss meat and the suburbs. And I’m surprised at both of those. I’m not a huge meat eater by American standards, but I am a HUGE meat eater compared to any vegetarian standards. I realized I usually had meat for at least two meals a day, and I’ve been feeling the effects of going vegetarian. Firstly, I eat and eat but I’m always hungry. It’s like being on a diet but not losing weight. Especially considering my very protein-heavy eating pattern before leaving for India, my body is craving some amino acids. So now I am able to work either chicken or fish into my dinners, and having eggs in the morning has curbed most of my hunger. But I really miss beef. I miss tacos, steaks, and sushi. A lot. Thankfully, my dear Robert has shipped two boxes of beef jerky and tuna and protein shakes so I will get my protein fill for the next couple months. And yes I miss the suburbs. I’m not a huge fan of having to own a car and the need for driving to get anywhere. I’m a huge fan of good public transport, and being completely self-sufficient without a car. I might be eating my words now. We have to go grocery shopping at least twice a week because we can only buy how much we can carry home. And it’s not a lot. Walking home from the grocery store while dodging unpredictable traffic and cows, carrying about 7 pounds for a ½ mile in each hand can get a little heavy. Oh yea, and it’s been getting hotter. May is the hottest month in Mumbai, before we get hit with torrential rain starting in mid-June. I’ve been told that walking around in the monsoon is the equivalent of standing in the shower for a minute with all your clothes on. Not to complain, but I’m guessing grocery shopping will become a little more difficult. So I miss cars and huge supermarkets and Costco where you can stock up on food for a month. A nice air-conditioned ride from Costco with the trunk full of meat and eggs sounds pretty marvelous. I remember putting off running errands because it required so much energy. I really get a workout now getting my food for the next three days.

Other than that rant, I’ve started to settle into work here. Over the weekend I actually got to do some field work, in a tribal area about an hour from where I live. I took some great video of my transportation experience, but for some reason my computer garbled it. I’m actually pretty sad about that, this video was a true once in a lifetime experience. It was the most perilous car ride I have ever experienced. Until now, my experience of dangerous car rides includes throttling down unpaved hills in Mexico with a notoriously daring driver, and circling the Arc de Triomphe in Paris with a cab driver who was in a hurry during rush hour. I love roller coasters and thrilling experiences, but I actually felt fear for my safety with this driver. The road to our destination mainly consisted of a two lane highway. There was pretty heavy traffic, and we later found out there was an accident. You would think that would make us think to be more careful, but not really. Any time there was a break in the oncoming traffic, and I mean even for a second, he would swerve into the opposite lane to hopefully pass one or two cars before swerving back into the correct lane. This would consist of three opportunities for a horrible accident to happen. The first is when the driver pulls into the opposite lane, more than once he did this even if there was a curve or when the next car coming down the lane happened to be about three seconds behind the previous car. On the times it was safe to continue in this lane, he would wait until the absolute last possible fraction of a second to get back in the correct lane. With his hand out the window he would often graze his fingers against the car that we narrowly missed as it sped past us. This also meant that we would need to be able to fit back into the correct lane. This wasn’t always possible so the driver would simply squeeze in so there would be two cars, or possibly a truck and a car side-by-side where there should have only been one car. When I was filming my video, my boss in the seat next to me warned me to be very careful. We arrived safely and I had a great time talking to the volunteers with the organization.