India: Old and New Delhi

So I found myself sitting in the Union after a night of no sleep and crazy amounts of drama and frustrations. We waited for everyone to gather up there before we got onto 2 buses to head to the airport. It was about a 40 minute drive to get there. I sat in the back with Pat and some of the boys from my Nha Trang trip in Vietnam. One image that I think really captured India for me was when we drove past a beach and it was almost pitch black out except for a street light that illuminated rectangular shapes on the beach. There were hundreds of them. I looked closer trying to figure out what they were. Then it hit me, they were homeless people camped out wrapped up in sheets on the beach. It was eerie. It was still the middle of the night so everyone was passed out. I took a brief nap before we got there.

We got our tickets and went through security. Much quicker than home, but this airport was wicked small in comparison to home and China. It was quick and easy though. We waited around for a little while for the plane to be ready. We had to take a bus out to the plane. I had heard some things about the planes in India. My “father” Midhun, who’s from India, told us about one time he flew on King Fisher airlines. He said he got onto the plane and the window next to his seat popped out. The stewards just came along and popped it back in. Everything was fine, but that seemed to capture the essence of India.

The plane was relatively nice and like most of those back home. I immediately passed out. I wasn’t even awake for when we pulled out of the terminal. It was a two and a half hour flight and I slept for most of it. When I woke up we were descending and I felt even more tired.

When we landed and got off the plane we had to wait around for our buses and luggage for awhile. We had to check bags full of liquids, because apparently you can’t even bring small travel-size bottles of liquid on these planes or extra batteries. Kind of strange?

We walked outside and it wasn’t nearly as hot or humid as Chennai. We had been told it would be ridiculously hot up in Delhi and Agra. I’d been worried. Especially thinking about how hot it was in Chennai. I was still rocking some spandex capris and a tshirt. While we waited for another 20 minutes for the buses, out of nowhere appeared Tania, Nic, Jason, and Becca.

They made it! They were traveling independently had taken a later flight. It was so good to see them and know that they made it as their plans had sounded a little sketchy when I left them a few hours ago. Plus Nic was with them, meaning she was feeling better. We talked for a little bit until we had to board the buses. We said our goodbyes and parted ways.

At the buses we handed off our big bags and were given necklaces of big, heavy orange flowers. It would remind you of the same idea as a lei, like in Hawai’I, but they were heavier and not quite as pretty.

The bus was “air-conditioned,” but that takes on a different meaning in India. We sat in traffic while our guide told us about the sights we were slowly passing. His name was Ramesh Anad. He was an older man, much older than the rest of our tour guides in all of the other countries, but he was really nice all the same.

We took a tour of the city and saw both Old and New Delhi. We drove past all of the embassies and government buildings. We drove along the ceremonial avenue, Rajpath, the past Indian Gate (the War Memorial), the Parliament House, the Secretariat Buildings, and the official residence of the President of India, Singh. We got the basic tour from the bus, which was nice that we didn’t have to stop and walk around too much. Everyone seemed exhausted. I was struggling the entire time to keep my eyes open.

The first thing we did was go to a religious area that had a bunch of stone structures. There was a massive tower and a few buildings around. It was Qutub Minar, a 71-meter high fluted minaret of the 13^th century. There were tons of columns and overhead structures. It was beautiful. We explored this area and took pictures. The light coming through and casting shadows all over the open-aired buildings was really cool.

After we finished up there we headed to a banquet hall for lunch. The food was so good. I have come to love Indian food. There was the standard Pandoori (I might have spelled this wrong or mixed it with another word) chicken and nann along with the cottage cheese cubes in a spicy sauce. They had the lollipop chicken, too, and some mutton. Also, there was the whitest, beyond white vanilla ice cream. The ice cream was so good. We all got a few helpings of it. While lunch was going on there were two men dressed up in traditional dress playing instruments and singing while a little boy, probably 7 years old, dancing and shaking about dressed in the same clothes. It was cool, but it looked forced for this little boy to be here. In addition to the music, there was a mime. They both kept walking around to the different tables and giving them a show.

After lunch we did some more sightseeing from the bus. We headed to our hotel to check-in and drop off our bags before going out to sightsee some more. Our hotel was beyond nice. It was right next to a Rolls Royce dealership and had some sick cars parked out front. The lobby was huge and marble with giant chandeliers and a pond with flowers. It was pretty. We went to the bar to get our keys and get a welcoming drink. The roommates are random and assigned alphabetically. I was rooming with this girl named Lydia who I’d met earlier in the day. She’s actually roommates with the girl I roomed with in China. She’s from Las Vegas and was nice.

We got our keys and headed up to the room. The room was pretty big, with two good sized beds. They were pushed together, which was a little strange, but at least we had 2. There was free internet and a giant bathroom. The bathroom had a window that looked our into the bedroom. Kind of strange and creepy. That was closed immediately as we didn’t even know each other.

A half hour later we got back onto the buses to see some other places before dinner. Our guide took us to Humayun’s tomb. There was a huge building that looked like a mini Taj Mahal. It was the forerunner of the ornate Mughal style of architecture later perfected in the Taj. It was all constructed for a king and his wives and mistresses and children. There was a big reflection pool leading up to the building. While our guide was giving us all the background information on it I noticed Tania and Nic from afar. I got so excited, yet again, to see them. We talked about our day and our hotels. Unfortunately we weren’t staying at the same hotel, but theirs sounded just as nice, if not nicer. I met their tour guide and the four girls took a picture together. Then I had to be on my way to finish listening to my tour guide.

There were buildings in all directions and it was divided into fours. There’s plenty of religious and artistic significance in this all. The building with tombs was up high and required climbing up the huge stairs. From up above there was a good view of the other buildings and all around. It was beautiful and made me even more excited to see the Taj Mahal the next day. There were big expanses of grass and trees. There were a bunch of younger children playing games in one of the squares. They were playing what looked like Marco Polo on land. They waved to us and posed for pictures. Under a tree there was a young Indian couple snuggling and making out. Weird. We were told that we wouldn’t see anyone showing affection and warned the couples on the ship, namely the married teachers, not to kiss in public.

We got to go inside of the building with the tombs and check out the crazy shadows cast through the patterned holes in the marble walls in the evening sun. We ran into one of the other groups was there and I saw Sam and JD. Apparently we were all staying at the same hotel that night.

We headed back to the buses. This was where we really begin to experience people coming up to us begging for money and following us around trying to sell us stuff. Anything from post cards to Kama Sutra books to fake statues of Ganesh, the half-elephant, half-human, son of Shiva god.

We got back on the bus and headed to our next destination: where Gandi’s ashes were spread. It was a peace memorial, Raj Ghat. It took us a little while to get there. Both Victor and I fell asleep and half listened to our guide continue to talk about where we were going.

We arrived and were exhausted. It was almost sunset. We walked up a hill that overlooked where the memorial is. It has a lit candle and flowers planted all over in his honor. It was beautiful at this time of day with hundreds of Indians walking around paying their respects to Gandi. The colors of the grass and the flowers was only accentuated more by the bright colors that the females’ saris were. There were tons of families. As we walked around we kept getting stopped by people asking to take pictures with us. I’m not totally sure why they wanted pictures with us, but this was a common theme of this trip. They loved posing with people who had blonde or red hair. Everyone was so friendly, it was funny to take pictures with them. They were then willing to let us take pictures of them and with them. Especially the mothers of small children. They ate up the attention when anyone would ask to take a picture of their little kid. They were really cute.

The sunset over the memorial in crazy reds, oranges, and pinks. We got back on the bus and headed back to the hotel for dinner. At the hotel Victor, Bea, and I explored to see where the pool and hot tub were for after dinner. We found them through the spa and outside. The hot tub was closed for repairs and the pool was freezing. So much for that idea. We were hot and sweaty, but that would have made us cold after a minute. We found our way into the restaurant for some food. It was a cross of “Indian and continental,” which they told us meant Western food. They had the typical stuff that I’ve mentioned before: naan, pandoori, cottage cheese, and then some more American food. They cooked up meat and pasta for us as we picked out what we wanted in the buffet. The food was delicious. They had crazy amounts of desserts: chocolate cake, mousse, fruits, ice cream, everything.

We ordered a bottle of Indian wine to share over dinner. We thought it would be pretty cheap, but when we got the check we found there was a 20% alcohol tax. Fails. We sat around for awhile eating and eating more. Eventually it started to get later and everyone was exhausted and went off to bed. I was so excited to get clean and get into bed.

I took a bath in the huge tub. So luxurious in comparison to our 4 by 8 bathroom on the ship. Then I got into bed and passed out. I had been looking forward to going to bed since 0200 that morning. Finally.