Monday, March 29, 2010
I should have a blog up about the horrible farm I'm at but the 2 and 1/2 hours of work I just did were deleted by this stupid India computer. I will not have internet access again until I get to Greece which, thank god, is in less than a week. Even then I am not sure when I will have a computer again so, sorry. I really tried. Just another reason why I can't wait to leave India!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The Taj Mahal
The next day we went to the Taj Mahal. We wanted to get their for sunrise and Mimi was told that it was a nice place to spend the day and read so I brought my kindle. Once we got our tickets and waited in line I got to security and they told me that electronic reading devices were not allowed. I then had to walk about a mile to the "locker room" and pay to keep my kindle there. By the time I got back the sun had risen. The Taj Mahal was still beautiful and it was early enough that there weren't that many people there and we got some good pictures. We dressed in our "saris" that day and wore colorful bindis and looked very festive. Throughout the day I think more people took pictures of us than the Taj Mahal and we got many comments on how nice my sari was. It was especially nice to hear it from the older Indian women because I find them the most judgmental and it seemed to validate what I was wearing. We left for 10 minutes for lunch and decided to buy playing cards. Security almost didn't let us in, but finally told us we could bring them in if we didn't open them. We got away with playing cards on a bench for about an hour until 2 men told us it was not allowed. I asked them why and they just pointed at the Taj Mahal. Apparently because its a mausoleum you are not allowed to do anything fun there. It was nice to watch the light change on the building which, from a distance seemed small and far away, but with the feeling that it would be huge when you got up closer. It was very big, but once inside it seemed like it should have been even bigger. The inside of the building was intricately designed, with semi precious stones, but not nearly as impressive as the exterior view. We ended up spending 6 hours there which seemed to fly by. If I don't see anything else in India, my trip here was worth it for that.
Sandipani Muni School
On our 4th day we went to the Sandipani Muni School. They title this school "For the Poorest of the Poor." They started in 2002 and now have over 1000 kids. The school goes from preschool to 9th grade and the facilities are amazing. Many of the more promising children who are more likely to stay in school are sponsored by people around the world. Some sponsors pay more money when sponsoring girls to ensure that they stay in school through the age of 18th to prevent child marriage, and at the age of 18 they are giving a pension. Some girls enter marriage at age 12 and get pregnant immediately which makes them very sick, as they are children and don't get any medical care. The school has a computer room, library, classrooms, a play ground, a tennis court, basketball court and 3 ping pong tables. Kids get free breakfast and lunch everyday. The chef has been working there/serving food to the poor for 18 years, cooking 2000 meals every day. The children are overly friendly and affectionate, but all seem fairly well behaved. The head of the sponsor program was telling us how the children come to school knowing krishna is god, but not knowing the earth is round. When she said this, for a moment I thought that his might be a bit more secular than any of the other teachings in the city, but I soon realized that all the teachers, Indian or ex-pats were krishna devotees and the main goal of the students was for them to become practicing devotee themselves. They still teach manners, math, basic facts, and low level education, but mostly religion. She said its hard too keep a lot of the kids in school because the parents put them in, but then take them out after they have been given their uniforms, just so they could get the free clothes. She also told us that most of the kids come into the school with blond hair due to malnutrition, but leave with dark black hair.
The next day we went back and spent the whole day at the school. In the morning we played with the pre-schoolers who were ages 5-9. We played head, shoulders, knees and toes with them, and the hokey pokey as well as with some of the toys that were in the play room. Most of the toys had a ton of gekko poop in the bottom of the bins, which came with a really foul smell. Teaching is a lot of work. By our third and last group of children my energy level was at a 3. The kids don't really know how to share and they hit each other a lot which is not reprimanded by the teachers. It was hard to communicate with them since they don't really speak any english. They all called us Matadee (which i'm sure i'm spoelling wrong) which means "Mother."
After lunch we played sports with them. The day before we had decided to buy Gopi sets, which look just like saris but are comprised of a skirt and a scarf, making it much easier to wear and, wouldn't you know it, being specific to krishna devotees and vrindavan, which we found out after our purchase. So we had to play sports in these get ups, which made everything more difficult. I felt like an Indian version of Laura Ingles Wilder running in 115 degree heat with a basketball being chased by 10 fourteen year old boys. They know what a basketball is, but they don't know how to play it as an organized sport and they don't care to learn, so it was very difficult to keep a game going. If there was one aggressive child, the game was over, because he was the only one who was allowed to touch the basketball. I tried my best to make things fair, but that didn't really fly with the children and the smaller ones got pushed away.
That night we helped give out food to poor children and widows in the multipurpose room of the lower school. We were planning on going to Agra the next day and found out that some of the kids from the school, as well as the school directors were going and we could join them on the bus.
On the bus, which was a school bus, we each sat in a seat with about 4-5 children. Most of them had never been out of Vrindavan before and were very excited about looking out the window. They were very well behaved on the bus which surprised me. We found out that their field trip was to a hotel where the owner lets them use the multipurpose room for games and dancing and them provides lunch in the dining room. Because we came with the school we were given a discount on the hotel. We played with the children all day, learning how to dance with them, picking them up and spinning them around. During lunch we tried to teach them about napkins and forks and not to dip your hands in the water. By the end of the day we were exhausted and smelled very badly, but were sad to see the kids go.
The next day we went back and spent the whole day at the school. In the morning we played with the pre-schoolers who were ages 5-9. We played head, shoulders, knees and toes with them, and the hokey pokey as well as with some of the toys that were in the play room. Most of the toys had a ton of gekko poop in the bottom of the bins, which came with a really foul smell. Teaching is a lot of work. By our third and last group of children my energy level was at a 3. The kids don't really know how to share and they hit each other a lot which is not reprimanded by the teachers. It was hard to communicate with them since they don't really speak any english. They all called us Matadee (which i'm sure i'm spoelling wrong) which means "Mother."
After lunch we played sports with them. The day before we had decided to buy Gopi sets, which look just like saris but are comprised of a skirt and a scarf, making it much easier to wear and, wouldn't you know it, being specific to krishna devotees and vrindavan, which we found out after our purchase. So we had to play sports in these get ups, which made everything more difficult. I felt like an Indian version of Laura Ingles Wilder running in 115 degree heat with a basketball being chased by 10 fourteen year old boys. They know what a basketball is, but they don't know how to play it as an organized sport and they don't care to learn, so it was very difficult to keep a game going. If there was one aggressive child, the game was over, because he was the only one who was allowed to touch the basketball. I tried my best to make things fair, but that didn't really fly with the children and the smaller ones got pushed away.
That night we helped give out food to poor children and widows in the multipurpose room of the lower school. We were planning on going to Agra the next day and found out that some of the kids from the school, as well as the school directors were going and we could join them on the bus.
On the bus, which was a school bus, we each sat in a seat with about 4-5 children. Most of them had never been out of Vrindavan before and were very excited about looking out the window. They were very well behaved on the bus which surprised me. We found out that their field trip was to a hotel where the owner lets them use the multipurpose room for games and dancing and them provides lunch in the dining room. Because we came with the school we were given a discount on the hotel. We played with the children all day, learning how to dance with them, picking them up and spinning them around. During lunch we tried to teach them about napkins and forks and not to dip your hands in the water. By the end of the day we were exhausted and smelled very badly, but were sad to see the kids go.
March 18th: day 3 at the ashram
Day 3 at the ashram. Today we went to Chandi's farm and....cleaned up trash!!! Chandi lives in a huge red sandstone house with lots of guard dogs and more construction workers than furniture. In the one furnished room we saw, was a monkey in a carrier who had just had his arm amputated after sticking his finger in an electrical socket at the ashram and getting electrocuted. All the walls of the house are glass. We were quickly hurried out of the house and riven to the farm, without getting the opportunity to meet Chandi. We asked when we got there if we could help with the harvest and they said firmly, no, and just to pick up trash, so we did that, even though there wasn't much trash to be collected. We had been told the farm was next to a bird sanctuary, and while we were there we saw 5 egrets, so I guess that's what they were talking about. Around noon, it got too hot so we came back to the ashram. Later that night we went to a "concert" in a temple. The concert consisted of lots of people, women on one side, men on the other, sitting cross-legged around 3 men singing and playing instruments. They sang about 7 renditions of the "hare krishna" chant while we were there. The melodies changed each time, but the words stayed the same. Everyone sang and clapped and prayed to the deities that were on display. The deities looked like the means for a puppet show. A red velvet curtain would open to a stage which gets lit up and everyone runs over towards the deities to pray. I really expected music to start and the deities dolls to jump up and start telling a story.
After the concert we went to a restaurant that served western food. Most of the hare krishna devotees are westerners who make their pilgrimage to Vrindavan. It actually became more interesting to me once I learned more about Vridnavan, and it being the place where the religion started and where krishna was born. One woman we met compared it to people making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It made me a little more understanding of how intense everyone's devotion was, as this really was the mecca of krishna, rather than just being a cult town.
After the concert we went to a restaurant that served western food. Most of the hare krishna devotees are westerners who make their pilgrimage to Vrindavan. It actually became more interesting to me once I learned more about Vridnavan, and it being the place where the religion started and where krishna was born. One woman we met compared it to people making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It made me a little more understanding of how intense everyone's devotion was, as this really was the mecca of krishna, rather than just being a cult town.
March 17th: first day of work
"We do selfless work for a higher power. We ask for NOTHING in return, not even gratitude or thanks. It's purely selfless."
We went to the Yamuna river to clean up the trash. On arrival we learned that everyone from this town who dies is cremated on the beach where we were cleaning and their ashes sent out into the water. So during our clean up we had to pick up dead peoples clothing, some still covered in ash, human hair, an occasional human bone. There are cows littering the beach, which in India are sacred so no one picks up their crap. There are also a lot of cow skeletons on the beach. I'm not exactly sure what happened to those, but probably a mixture of heat exhaustion and being attacked by a dog makes the most sense. Most of the trash is buried under cow shit which is all covered in flies. A lot of the garbage is torn up into little pieces and some of it even looks as if it made its way all the way through the cow. At one point children approached and instead of helping, threw garbage at us and yelled at us, which really was very comforting and made our charitable work that much more rewarding. Another group of children approached up and threw dirt at us using a big stick. The dirt came with a girl of a snake, and so I excused myself out of the landfill and went back towards the water. As the sun rose higher in the sky the heat became almost unbearable. I picked up a floating bag and out rushed what I could only identify as blood and I did my best not to faint. For the 3 hours we picked up garbage a man and woman in the distance sang, in turn "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishan, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare." over and over and over again. I know these words very well as I sang them in the musical "Hair" my junior year of high school, but these devotees did not continue their song with "Love, love love love love love love love drop out drop out drop out drop out be in be in be in be in" or "beads love freedom happiness" or any of the lyrics about getting high. It was simply those phrases sung over and over and over again, continuing on until after we left. On our walk back I commented to Rada Govinda, one of the devotees staying at the ashram, that the people singing the songs must have a lot of patience to sing the same thing over and over. She smiled and replied "Its an honor to sing the name of god. They are lucky they get to do it all day long. It will bring them closer to god." Personally I think the only thing it could possibly bring on is insanity. On the way back to the ashram I saw 2 monkeys have sex. It was the raunchiest thing in the world and I am traumatized. I saw the male monkey lick his palm to lubricate his member, bend the female monkey over, and have his way with her from behind. It was almost as if he was mocking the guru. Later that day taking a shower never felt so good, even though I did have to squat under a faucet next to a ground toilet that didn't flush. Being clean felt like a privilege.
We went to the Yamuna river to clean up the trash. On arrival we learned that everyone from this town who dies is cremated on the beach where we were cleaning and their ashes sent out into the water. So during our clean up we had to pick up dead peoples clothing, some still covered in ash, human hair, an occasional human bone. There are cows littering the beach, which in India are sacred so no one picks up their crap. There are also a lot of cow skeletons on the beach. I'm not exactly sure what happened to those, but probably a mixture of heat exhaustion and being attacked by a dog makes the most sense. Most of the trash is buried under cow shit which is all covered in flies. A lot of the garbage is torn up into little pieces and some of it even looks as if it made its way all the way through the cow. At one point children approached and instead of helping, threw garbage at us and yelled at us, which really was very comforting and made our charitable work that much more rewarding. Another group of children approached up and threw dirt at us using a big stick. The dirt came with a girl of a snake, and so I excused myself out of the landfill and went back towards the water. As the sun rose higher in the sky the heat became almost unbearable. I picked up a floating bag and out rushed what I could only identify as blood and I did my best not to faint. For the 3 hours we picked up garbage a man and woman in the distance sang, in turn "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishan, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare." over and over and over again. I know these words very well as I sang them in the musical "Hair" my junior year of high school, but these devotees did not continue their song with "Love, love love love love love love love drop out drop out drop out drop out be in be in be in be in" or "beads love freedom happiness" or any of the lyrics about getting high. It was simply those phrases sung over and over and over again, continuing on until after we left. On our walk back I commented to Rada Govinda, one of the devotees staying at the ashram, that the people singing the songs must have a lot of patience to sing the same thing over and over. She smiled and replied "Its an honor to sing the name of god. They are lucky they get to do it all day long. It will bring them closer to god." Personally I think the only thing it could possibly bring on is insanity. On the way back to the ashram I saw 2 monkeys have sex. It was the raunchiest thing in the world and I am traumatized. I saw the male monkey lick his palm to lubricate his member, bend the female monkey over, and have his way with her from behind. It was almost as if he was mocking the guru. Later that day taking a shower never felt so good, even though I did have to squat under a faucet next to a ground toilet that didn't flush. Being clean felt like a privilege.
March 17th: morning meeting
We woke up at 6:30 AM, and I quickly washed out my wounds in the communal port-a-potty they call a bathroom. We went downstairs where the "guru" was waiting for us and surprised we weren't up at 5 am for yoga, which he never mentioned to us. He then asked us what we knew about the Hare Krishna and when we said nothing he led us upstairs and had us sit down on the roof. Soon we were surrounded by about 16-20 devotees, all wearing headphones and I realized that one man was translating the guru's talk into spanish so everyone else could understand him. (most of the devotees living at the ashram were found in South America and "led" to India by the guru). The guru assumed, because we happened to be volunteering at the ashram, that unlike your typical westerners, we were living a life of purity and searching for meaning through a higher power. He did not know how wrong he was about us. He talked about wealth and beauty and plastic surgery as evils and purely materialistic and in his words therefore "horrible sins." He looked right as me when he said it as if he knew something, but them smiled and I realized that only one of his eyes was looking at me and I wasn't sure if it was the working one. His eyes were never looking the same direction. He talked about sex, aside form procreation, as an evil and drinking as well. He talked about love as something stupid that your soul in your temporary body might seek out in another temporary body, but that it wasn't really love because the only love you could feel was for god. I don't believe in God. He doesn't believe in Darwin. I figured we were even and dismissed any feeling of discomfort that his lecture had made me feel.
There are two little girls living here with their mother. One is 3 and the other is 6. They are originally from Australia. They each have nose rings, a side one and a bull ring. They have no manners and are rude and obnoxious. They know how to dance and preach to us about Krishna and what we should do to please him, but they don't know how to count. The guru talks about secular education as a downfall, but who is teaching these children? All they know is a cult religion. He talks about money as if it doesn't exist in India, and that westerners are ruining everything for them (He is German, everyone else is South American), but I had been in India for one week by that point and already I had noticed a caste system that still exists and has everything to do with money. The men working at the hotel we stayed at in New Delhi are treated like slaves by the managers there and the people across the street from the hotel were living in lean-to's made out of garbage. He also talked about disease as punishment for one's past lives and a lesson that has to be taught. I'm not sure if its a coping method, or if he has never been sick or known anyone sick, but I thought that was crazy. He thinks that everyone who doesn't believe in god is closed minded, but he seemed more closed minded than anyone I had ever met.
There are two little girls living here with their mother. One is 3 and the other is 6. They are originally from Australia. They each have nose rings, a side one and a bull ring. They have no manners and are rude and obnoxious. They know how to dance and preach to us about Krishna and what we should do to please him, but they don't know how to count. The guru talks about secular education as a downfall, but who is teaching these children? All they know is a cult religion. He talks about money as if it doesn't exist in India, and that westerners are ruining everything for them (He is German, everyone else is South American), but I had been in India for one week by that point and already I had noticed a caste system that still exists and has everything to do with money. The men working at the hotel we stayed at in New Delhi are treated like slaves by the managers there and the people across the street from the hotel were living in lean-to's made out of garbage. He also talked about disease as punishment for one's past lives and a lesson that has to be taught. I'm not sure if its a coping method, or if he has never been sick or known anyone sick, but I thought that was crazy. He thinks that everyone who doesn't believe in god is closed minded, but he seemed more closed minded than anyone I had ever met.
Vrindivan/ the "Eco Village" aka ashram/ hare krishna ashram
We took a train from New Delhi to Vrindavan, where the Eco Village we were going to stay at was. The train was dirty and crowded and lots of beggars came through with missing limbs or eyes, waiting for you to give them money and screaming at you in multiple languages. Ignoring them did not work you had to scream at them in return to get them to leave. It was only a 2 hour train ride and once we got off we were bombarded by tuktuk drivers. We finally found a van cab to take us and our huge bags to Vrindavan which was 40 minutes from the station. Once we arrived at the Eco Village we realized it wasn't an eco village at all...it was an ashram. And on top of that it was a hare krishna ashram called the Vrindavan Institute for Vaishnava Culture and Studies. Straight off the bat it was 100% cultish. The guru, Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti, started telling us his views which included "secular teachings are ruining the world and giving out poor eductation," "vegetariansism is the only way to live and if you dont you are a murderer," and " you must believe in a god or else your life is meaningless and serves no purpose." He told us that the next day we were required to attend a class at 7 am, led by himself, and that we had the honor of going to the Yamuna river and "collecting" garbage. It felt more like convict roadside community service especially since many of the men in the hare krishna wear orange. The beds in our rooms were essentially small wooden tables with a cushion on them and had there not been so many bugs, I might have been more comfortable sleeping on the ground.
Vrindavan has more monkeys than people and they will steal your glasses, sunglasses, cameras in order to get food. Sometimes when they give you food they give your items back, sometimes they throw them, and sometimes they break them. Its really a toss up. They are apparently vicious too, biting people and taking large chunks of skin with them. As much as I was already feeling threatened and uncomfortable by the aggressiveness of the Indian people, now I had to fear the animals, too. India is by far the hardest place I have been in my life.
Vrindavan has more monkeys than people and they will steal your glasses, sunglasses, cameras in order to get food. Sometimes when they give you food they give your items back, sometimes they throw them, and sometimes they break them. Its really a toss up. They are apparently vicious too, biting people and taking large chunks of skin with them. As much as I was already feeling threatened and uncomfortable by the aggressiveness of the Indian people, now I had to fear the animals, too. India is by far the hardest place I have been in my life.
India - New Delhi
We flew into New Delhi from Bangkok, and were picked up by someone from our hotel, which was a nice surprise. New Delhi is one very large construction site. They are hosting some sort of games there and the construction has to be done by November, so literally every street is dug up. Aside from some women's clothing, it was not as colorful as I had imagined. It was very hot and we had to cover up as to not be rude. Aside from covering up though, indian people do not have good manners. They spit all the time, burp, and smell. They also throw up whenever they want to, usually when walking down the street. They are extremely pushy and yell a lot, even if they aren't angry. The smells in India are wonderful and terrible. Most of the time I try to breathe out of my mouth, but every once in a while you smell something really really good and take a deep breath but by the time you're done breathing in the smell had changed to something putrid and it stays with you for 5-10 minutes.
We walked around a market close to our hotel where there were a ton of people selling things on the street and in stores. Many of the stores had people dressed as clowns outside trying to lure people in. As if that was going to make me go anywhere near that store, haha. We decided to buy some colorful tunics at the market which made us feel very festive. All of the women's sari's were beautiful and looked very nice on their dark skin.
The food was instantly great, as indian flavors are nothing like any other country we had been to. In my whole life indian food is probably the food I have eaten the least of, so I was very curious about their flavors and adventurous in my ordering. Eating with my right hand is not easy and I always forget. Luckily most of the restaurants we went to in New Delhi had silverwear so it was as huge a faux pas as when you have to eat directly with your hand.
Our 2nd day in New Delhi we went on a tour of New and Old Delhi. We saw Gandhi's last house and where he was assassinated, Indira Gandhi's house, the first Indian Woman Prime Minister, the President's house, and the Lotus Temple, all in New Delhi. Our "tour guide" turned out to just be a driver with an opinion about where we should go. At the lotus temple, there were many people whose jobs were just to tell other people to be quiet and escort them out if they were not being quiet. It looked like the worst job in the world and you could tell they agreed because everyone doing it was in a terrible mood. Our driver kept making up excuses for not taking us to old Delhi but we finally convinced him to. We went to Jama Masjid, a very large mosque in old delhi. Because we were white and not muslim, they made us put on these over-sized pink and white spotted clown, moo moo robes. All the indian people laughed at us and took pictures of us in a mocking way. It was the least flattering thing I've ever had to wear in public, maybe in private too. Before we entered we were told to take off our shoes and place them on the side. When we left a man was standing next to our shoes and made us pay him the equivalent of 50 cents to get them back. I don't think he worked there and I pictured my dad doing the same thing to tourists so I was ok with it. Besides, I had come to realize that everything in India is a scam in one way or another and everyone is going to do their best to rip you off and even when you think you're not getting ripped off, you still are. Old Delhi is much more crowded and dirty than New Delhi. It is pigeon heaven also, so if any pigeons are sick of New York City, they should make the pilgrimage. There is so much traffic, and just like south east asia, very few traffic laws that I could see and it was really a miracle that everyone doesn't get extremely injured when they get into a car or attempt to cross the street. In vietnam there was a lot of traffic, but people walked across the street slowly and calmly, knowing traffic would go around them. In india, everyone runs across the street, knowing if they are a step too slow, its over. One day we took the subway, which wasn't as dirty as I imagined, but just as smelly and crowded. You have to wait on a very long line to buy a token. Then you have to wait on a very long line to go through security. They you have to wait on a very long line to go through the turnstile. Then you have to wait for your train. Then you have to push as hard as you possibly can to get on. They you feel like you're getting molested by everyone on the train. Then you have to push your hardest to get off the train. Then you have to wait on a very long line to get out through the turnstile. By the time we got off and walked to the restaurant we were going to I was mentally and physically exhausted.
We went to a Revolving Restaurant on the 24th floor of a building in Connaught place called Parikrama. One full revolution takes an hour and a half and there are signs that you arrive at inside the restaurant telling you what you are looking out at. The food was good, but a bit expensive, and its obvious you're paying for the experience more than the meal. The next day we took the subway to the Red Fort, in Old Delhi, which again was just too overwhelming for me. We met up with DJ, a boy who Ashley had been emailing with about us maybe staying at his parents house up north, which she had found through work away. He informed us on our meeting that they could not host us, and then could not tell us anything about the red fort, except that once he lived there when he was a kid, which I don't believe for a second. We only had a little bit of time to walk around because we were going to an expat reggae party that night who we had heard about from a friend of a friend of Mimi and Ashley's. The party was fun and the music was good. It was nice to be around people who spoke english and it kind of felt like a safe haven in India, and if the music hadn't been so loud I would have liked to ask everyone there what they were doing in New Delhi. We finally got in contact with an Eco Village and decided to take the trip and stay there for a week, getting ourselves out of Delhi.
We walked around a market close to our hotel where there were a ton of people selling things on the street and in stores. Many of the stores had people dressed as clowns outside trying to lure people in. As if that was going to make me go anywhere near that store, haha. We decided to buy some colorful tunics at the market which made us feel very festive. All of the women's sari's were beautiful and looked very nice on their dark skin.
The food was instantly great, as indian flavors are nothing like any other country we had been to. In my whole life indian food is probably the food I have eaten the least of, so I was very curious about their flavors and adventurous in my ordering. Eating with my right hand is not easy and I always forget. Luckily most of the restaurants we went to in New Delhi had silverwear so it was as huge a faux pas as when you have to eat directly with your hand.
Our 2nd day in New Delhi we went on a tour of New and Old Delhi. We saw Gandhi's last house and where he was assassinated, Indira Gandhi's house, the first Indian Woman Prime Minister, the President's house, and the Lotus Temple, all in New Delhi. Our "tour guide" turned out to just be a driver with an opinion about where we should go. At the lotus temple, there were many people whose jobs were just to tell other people to be quiet and escort them out if they were not being quiet. It looked like the worst job in the world and you could tell they agreed because everyone doing it was in a terrible mood. Our driver kept making up excuses for not taking us to old Delhi but we finally convinced him to. We went to Jama Masjid, a very large mosque in old delhi. Because we were white and not muslim, they made us put on these over-sized pink and white spotted clown, moo moo robes. All the indian people laughed at us and took pictures of us in a mocking way. It was the least flattering thing I've ever had to wear in public, maybe in private too. Before we entered we were told to take off our shoes and place them on the side. When we left a man was standing next to our shoes and made us pay him the equivalent of 50 cents to get them back. I don't think he worked there and I pictured my dad doing the same thing to tourists so I was ok with it. Besides, I had come to realize that everything in India is a scam in one way or another and everyone is going to do their best to rip you off and even when you think you're not getting ripped off, you still are. Old Delhi is much more crowded and dirty than New Delhi. It is pigeon heaven also, so if any pigeons are sick of New York City, they should make the pilgrimage. There is so much traffic, and just like south east asia, very few traffic laws that I could see and it was really a miracle that everyone doesn't get extremely injured when they get into a car or attempt to cross the street. In vietnam there was a lot of traffic, but people walked across the street slowly and calmly, knowing traffic would go around them. In india, everyone runs across the street, knowing if they are a step too slow, its over. One day we took the subway, which wasn't as dirty as I imagined, but just as smelly and crowded. You have to wait on a very long line to buy a token. Then you have to wait on a very long line to go through security. They you have to wait on a very long line to go through the turnstile. Then you have to wait for your train. Then you have to push as hard as you possibly can to get on. They you feel like you're getting molested by everyone on the train. Then you have to push your hardest to get off the train. Then you have to wait on a very long line to get out through the turnstile. By the time we got off and walked to the restaurant we were going to I was mentally and physically exhausted.
We went to a Revolving Restaurant on the 24th floor of a building in Connaught place called Parikrama. One full revolution takes an hour and a half and there are signs that you arrive at inside the restaurant telling you what you are looking out at. The food was good, but a bit expensive, and its obvious you're paying for the experience more than the meal. The next day we took the subway to the Red Fort, in Old Delhi, which again was just too overwhelming for me. We met up with DJ, a boy who Ashley had been emailing with about us maybe staying at his parents house up north, which she had found through work away. He informed us on our meeting that they could not host us, and then could not tell us anything about the red fort, except that once he lived there when he was a kid, which I don't believe for a second. We only had a little bit of time to walk around because we were going to an expat reggae party that night who we had heard about from a friend of a friend of Mimi and Ashley's. The party was fun and the music was good. It was nice to be around people who spoke english and it kind of felt like a safe haven in India, and if the music hadn't been so loud I would have liked to ask everyone there what they were doing in New Delhi. We finally got in contact with an Eco Village and decided to take the trip and stay there for a week, getting ourselves out of Delhi.
Thailand
Mimi and I flew into Bangkok and needed a few days to recover from Cambodia. Our taxi driver from the airport couldn't find out hotel and started yelling at us, which wasn't exactly the warm welcome we wanted, but having been to Thailand, and Bangkok specifically before, I wasn't surprised. We finally arrived at our hotel 2 hours later, but our room was very nice, especially for the price, so we were happy. (By the way, if anyone ever needs a hotel we've been using Agoda.com which has great rates and the hotels are always as nice as they say.) We decided to go to a mall for the day, surprisingly that is what my mom and I did last time we were in Bangkok, but this mall was much nicer than the one I'd been to 3 years ago. We saw the movie, Valentine's Day, which was fairly awful, and I was appalled that they called it the American version of Love, Actually. I did find an amazing dress though, so please inform me if you're getting married or there is a party I should attend once I get home because I'm going to need somewhere to wear it.
The next day we took a sleeper train up north to Chiang Mai. I had never been in a sleeper car before and it was much more comfortable than I imagined. They came in and made our beds for us and gave us blankets, etc. We did make the mistake of ordering breakfast though and were woken up at 5 am and forced out of our room. When we were allowed back in our beds were gone and our breakfast didn't arrive for a half hour after that. All in all though it was a painless process and we were happy that we had the whole day ahead of us once we got to Chiang Mai. Our first night there we met two Australian girls and went with them to Mui Thai, a Thai Boxing match. It was a lot of fun to watch, not violent at all, and we started putting down bets with the people sitting behind us. After the match we were walking around looking for somewhere to go and decided to jump on some motorbikes who took us to the rasta area. We went to one bar where a cover band was playing. I begged the lead singer to let me sing on stage and when he finally agreed and played 'Sex on Fire' I obviously forgot all of the words. My energy level was up though so it wasn't a complete failure and everyone was self involved enough not to throw things at me. The next day we went on the "Flight of the Gibbons," where you zip line from tree to tree, flying through the air like a Gibbon might. You dont actually see any gibbons on the trip, but it was a great experience, flying from platform to platform. Each group had 9 people in it and although we had been told it was a lot of waiting in line, it seemed to go pretty quickly. It also felt very safe which I liked, as I'm not the best with heights and risky activities.
The next day we took a bus back to Bangkok to apply for our India visas and then flew to Koh Samui. After our flight we took a ferry to Koh Phangan, where the famous full moon party was. It wasn't for a few days but every night leading up to it was a huge beach party. The day of the actual Full Moon Party Ashley met up with us again. By that time we had met a lot of people at our hotel and so we all went togther, but quickly lost each other once we got to the beach. Having been there for days in advance the Full Moon Party seemed overwhelmed with people and completely claustrophobic. I felt as though I could be trampled at any minute. The next day was our last on Koh Pangang and so we decided to go out, one last time. Every night we were there there were fire activities on the beach; fire jump rope, fire high jump, fire limbo, fire twirling, etc. I had always avoided the fire, knowing no good could come of it, but saw other people doing it every night and coming out really without a scratch. So, on our last night, when there were fewer people on the beach than we'd ever seen before, I decided to give the fire high-jump a try. I figured I was a great high jumper in 4th grade and probably nothing had changed, right? WRONG. Aside from gravity deciding it was no longer my friend, many other things went wrong. As I was running toward the high jump they raised it and re lit it, causing me to misread the height and the heat, and run into it rather than over it, very badly burning both of my legs and ruining the rest of my time in Thailand.
The next day, bandaged up and barely able to walk, we took a ferry boat to Koh Tao. It was very very beautiful there, but by the doctors orders I couldn't go near the sand, water or sun, so I enjoyed the view from my hotel balcony and got some reading in. As much as I dont LOVE snorkeling, I was very jealous of anyone who could do water activities. A few days later we went back to Bangkok to pick up our visas. We saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D, which I think distracted me from the movie itself, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. As I was still in pain and recovering I decided to go to the hospital in Bangkok, and aside from some mandatory errands I had to run, spent the rest of my time resting and recovering before India.
The moral of this story is, don't play with fire.
The next day we took a sleeper train up north to Chiang Mai. I had never been in a sleeper car before and it was much more comfortable than I imagined. They came in and made our beds for us and gave us blankets, etc. We did make the mistake of ordering breakfast though and were woken up at 5 am and forced out of our room. When we were allowed back in our beds were gone and our breakfast didn't arrive for a half hour after that. All in all though it was a painless process and we were happy that we had the whole day ahead of us once we got to Chiang Mai. Our first night there we met two Australian girls and went with them to Mui Thai, a Thai Boxing match. It was a lot of fun to watch, not violent at all, and we started putting down bets with the people sitting behind us. After the match we were walking around looking for somewhere to go and decided to jump on some motorbikes who took us to the rasta area. We went to one bar where a cover band was playing. I begged the lead singer to let me sing on stage and when he finally agreed and played 'Sex on Fire' I obviously forgot all of the words. My energy level was up though so it wasn't a complete failure and everyone was self involved enough not to throw things at me. The next day we went on the "Flight of the Gibbons," where you zip line from tree to tree, flying through the air like a Gibbon might. You dont actually see any gibbons on the trip, but it was a great experience, flying from platform to platform. Each group had 9 people in it and although we had been told it was a lot of waiting in line, it seemed to go pretty quickly. It also felt very safe which I liked, as I'm not the best with heights and risky activities.
The next day we took a bus back to Bangkok to apply for our India visas and then flew to Koh Samui. After our flight we took a ferry to Koh Phangan, where the famous full moon party was. It wasn't for a few days but every night leading up to it was a huge beach party. The day of the actual Full Moon Party Ashley met up with us again. By that time we had met a lot of people at our hotel and so we all went togther, but quickly lost each other once we got to the beach. Having been there for days in advance the Full Moon Party seemed overwhelmed with people and completely claustrophobic. I felt as though I could be trampled at any minute. The next day was our last on Koh Pangang and so we decided to go out, one last time. Every night we were there there were fire activities on the beach; fire jump rope, fire high jump, fire limbo, fire twirling, etc. I had always avoided the fire, knowing no good could come of it, but saw other people doing it every night and coming out really without a scratch. So, on our last night, when there were fewer people on the beach than we'd ever seen before, I decided to give the fire high-jump a try. I figured I was a great high jumper in 4th grade and probably nothing had changed, right? WRONG. Aside from gravity deciding it was no longer my friend, many other things went wrong. As I was running toward the high jump they raised it and re lit it, causing me to misread the height and the heat, and run into it rather than over it, very badly burning both of my legs and ruining the rest of my time in Thailand.
The next day, bandaged up and barely able to walk, we took a ferry boat to Koh Tao. It was very very beautiful there, but by the doctors orders I couldn't go near the sand, water or sun, so I enjoyed the view from my hotel balcony and got some reading in. As much as I dont LOVE snorkeling, I was very jealous of anyone who could do water activities. A few days later we went back to Bangkok to pick up our visas. We saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D, which I think distracted me from the movie itself, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. As I was still in pain and recovering I decided to go to the hospital in Bangkok, and aside from some mandatory errands I had to run, spent the rest of my time resting and recovering before India.
The moral of this story is, don't play with fire.
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Traveling with someone who is not on a budget and is generous is wonderful. Instead of taking an excruciatingly long bus ride to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh, Lance and I flew on a painless 40 minute flight. When we got off the plane we didnt have a hotel but told our cab driver our budget and he said he would make some good suggestions and wait until we found one we liked that could take us. I forgot about cab driver commissions and scams until the 5th hotel we were shown. We finally asked our driver to take us to the FCC, a hotel that we had seen in a guide of Siem Reap and we wanted to see. Our driver told us it was a very bad hotel in a very dangerous area and that young cambodian children got drunk around the corner and then came and robbed you. Finally we asked him to call the hotel and ask about availability. He called them and spoke in english saying, "oh! you have NO availability? You only have 20 rooms? Ok thank you." It didn't make sense that he would call them and speak in english so we had him take us there anyway. Not only did they have room for us, but it was a beautiful hotel, right around the corner from all the other hotels we had seen. Our driver seemed fairly embarrassed and probably angry that we didn't decide to stay in one of the hotels he got commission from. As a belated birthday present Lance bought us a 3 day package from the hotel which included breakfast, a 3 day pass to Angkor Wat, a tour guide, driver to take us to watch the sunrise there, dinner and lunch, as well as a 15 minutes foot massage.
Our day trip to the Angkor Wat temples was very nice. Our tour guide was perfect in that he gave us lot of information, but wasn't constantly talking. As I often become very ADD around tour guides and would rather just wander, it was nice to only learn the essential information. Of course if either Lance and I asked any questions we was always ready with a perfect answer as well. We saw three temples that day, Bayon, the temple where Lara Croft Tomb Raider was filmed and Angkor Wat. Of all of them the Tomb Raider temple was the most impressive. It is being held up by tree roots and if they were to deteriorate the entire temple would collapse. Another amazing thing that happened there was that I ran into the Bildners, who had been on my mom and my Backroads trip to Napa. It was a very funny coincidence and I talked about it for the rest of the day which I'm sure irritated Lance a lot. Bayon and Angkor Wat, beautiful as they were, were both under very heavy construction, which took away some of their beauty. Even though they were being reconstructed with original stones it felt very artificial. Angkor Wat is really beautiful from a distance and I definitely appreciated it as we approached it, but once we got up close, yet again we were surrounded by roped off areas of construction and refurbishing. One thing that was lucky was that the 3rd floor of Angkor Wat that had been closed for the past 5 years due to reconstruction, of course, had reopened 5 days earlier. The views from the 3rd floor were incredible, but it smelled as if for the past 5 years the construction workers were using it as their very own personal port-a-potty, which made me feel very sad considering the original purpose of Angkor Wat and its timeless beauty. A few days later Lance left to go back home and Ashley left to go to Northern Thailand and work at a school. They both left on the 14th, Valentines day, which for the first time I was happy no one was celebrating. To my surprise though, the night before Lance left I came back to the hotel to find a dozen roses on the bed. It was sweet and corny and after he left I carried them around for two days and everyone looked at me like I was nuts.
One evening Mimi, Katie, Laura and I went to the Floating Village for sunset. It was beautiful and sad at the same time, completely filled with poverty, but set out on a beautiful body of water and as I watched the sun set I thought if anything they could feel lucky once a day that they got to witness something so beautiful. At the place where we stopped to watch the sunset there was a little room in the deck below filled with crocodiles which gave me the idea for our dinner. That night we went to a Cambodian bbq restaurant and ordered Crocodile, Snake, Ostrich, Kangaroo, and Frogs Legs. The snake was not good, but the Kangaroo was probably the best tasting meat I've ever tried in my whole life. We all had a lot of fun trying the different meats and it was definitely one of my favorite food experiences on the entire trip. That night, mostly by pure chance, we ran into Allie and Haley, from Skidmore. We had known that they were spending a little less than a month traveling S E Asia, but thought at that point that if we hadn't heard from them yet it was not going to happen, so we were not only surprised but so happy at this crazy coincidence. We went out with them for a few nights on Pub Street which is filled with bars and clubs. It was really nice to see them and took away and pangs of homesickness I might have been feeling. After Siem Reap we all went out seperate ways. Allie and Haley went to Laos, Laura went to Ho Chi Minh, Katie went to Hanoi, and Mimi and I went to Bangkok. It was a bittersweet goodbye, but we were definitely ready to move on from Cambodia.
Our day trip to the Angkor Wat temples was very nice. Our tour guide was perfect in that he gave us lot of information, but wasn't constantly talking. As I often become very ADD around tour guides and would rather just wander, it was nice to only learn the essential information. Of course if either Lance and I asked any questions we was always ready with a perfect answer as well. We saw three temples that day, Bayon, the temple where Lara Croft Tomb Raider was filmed and Angkor Wat. Of all of them the Tomb Raider temple was the most impressive. It is being held up by tree roots and if they were to deteriorate the entire temple would collapse. Another amazing thing that happened there was that I ran into the Bildners, who had been on my mom and my Backroads trip to Napa. It was a very funny coincidence and I talked about it for the rest of the day which I'm sure irritated Lance a lot. Bayon and Angkor Wat, beautiful as they were, were both under very heavy construction, which took away some of their beauty. Even though they were being reconstructed with original stones it felt very artificial. Angkor Wat is really beautiful from a distance and I definitely appreciated it as we approached it, but once we got up close, yet again we were surrounded by roped off areas of construction and refurbishing. One thing that was lucky was that the 3rd floor of Angkor Wat that had been closed for the past 5 years due to reconstruction, of course, had reopened 5 days earlier. The views from the 3rd floor were incredible, but it smelled as if for the past 5 years the construction workers were using it as their very own personal port-a-potty, which made me feel very sad considering the original purpose of Angkor Wat and its timeless beauty. A few days later Lance left to go back home and Ashley left to go to Northern Thailand and work at a school. They both left on the 14th, Valentines day, which for the first time I was happy no one was celebrating. To my surprise though, the night before Lance left I came back to the hotel to find a dozen roses on the bed. It was sweet and corny and after he left I carried them around for two days and everyone looked at me like I was nuts.
One evening Mimi, Katie, Laura and I went to the Floating Village for sunset. It was beautiful and sad at the same time, completely filled with poverty, but set out on a beautiful body of water and as I watched the sun set I thought if anything they could feel lucky once a day that they got to witness something so beautiful. At the place where we stopped to watch the sunset there was a little room in the deck below filled with crocodiles which gave me the idea for our dinner. That night we went to a Cambodian bbq restaurant and ordered Crocodile, Snake, Ostrich, Kangaroo, and Frogs Legs. The snake was not good, but the Kangaroo was probably the best tasting meat I've ever tried in my whole life. We all had a lot of fun trying the different meats and it was definitely one of my favorite food experiences on the entire trip. That night, mostly by pure chance, we ran into Allie and Haley, from Skidmore. We had known that they were spending a little less than a month traveling S E Asia, but thought at that point that if we hadn't heard from them yet it was not going to happen, so we were not only surprised but so happy at this crazy coincidence. We went out with them for a few nights on Pub Street which is filled with bars and clubs. It was really nice to see them and took away and pangs of homesickness I might have been feeling. After Siem Reap we all went out seperate ways. Allie and Haley went to Laos, Laura went to Ho Chi Minh, Katie went to Hanoi, and Mimi and I went to Bangkok. It was a bittersweet goodbye, but we were definitely ready to move on from Cambodia.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
After The Killing Fields and S-21 and the area in which our hotel was located we were feeling pretty down about Phnom Penh. Once we started walking around though we realized that it had much more to offer than just depression and motorcycle/tire shops. The road by the water was littered with restaurants of all types. There were traditional Khmer restaurants as well as, new american, italian, mexican, you name it. Although crowded, it was a nice place to walk as well. I loved the juxtaposition of an air conditioned international restaurant and a woman outside of it with her cart of cockroaches, which locals bought as snacks. One day we visited the Royal Palace, which was beautiful, but after having been to the royal palace in Bangkok, Thailand it did not measure up. As always the buildings open for public viewing were beautiful, but most of them were places of worship and pictures were forbidden. The part of the Royal Palace that looked most appealing of course was the part which we were not allowed to enter such as the Royal Gardens. They were listed and numbered on the map so Lance was convinced there was a way to get to them, but all the guards with their guns suggested otherwise. One night Lance took me out to a very nice French restaurant where almost everything on the menu included Fois Gras, caviar, or lobster, and I think all the staff was laughing at me when I was literally drooling at the menu. The next day we walked around Phnom Penh where there were more dentist offices than Starbucks in New York. We walked into one shop where they had to unlock the door, and followed us from floor to floor. I guessed they probably had 4 people on average in the store every day. It was an odd mix of 80s prom dresses and clothes that looked like they'd been lifted out of the back room at Lohmann's. We quickly excused ourselves and the doors were promptly locked behind us.
We had visited the Apocalypse Now bar in Vietnam, and in Phnom Penh they had a Heart of Darkness Club. It was the same idea, filled with prostitutes and lady boys and older white men who were willing to take their chances. They was a stage we we quickly found ourselves dancing on and the best part was that because of where we were we didnt even attract that much attention to ourselves. A few days later, being who is his, Lance found a casino. One of the perks of a casino apparently is good restaurants, and we decided to go to a Korean bbq. It was fun because I knew what everything was on the menu and exactly what to order. It was as good if not better than the Korean bbq I had in korea, probably because I wasn't on such a tight budget (because Lance was paying). After dinner I played blackjack for the first time with Lance's help and as much as I thought I understood about the game going into it I lost by the time I left the table. Luckily I did not lose any money, even if it was borrowed.
We had visited the Apocalypse Now bar in Vietnam, and in Phnom Penh they had a Heart of Darkness Club. It was the same idea, filled with prostitutes and lady boys and older white men who were willing to take their chances. They was a stage we we quickly found ourselves dancing on and the best part was that because of where we were we didnt even attract that much attention to ourselves. A few days later, being who is his, Lance found a casino. One of the perks of a casino apparently is good restaurants, and we decided to go to a Korean bbq. It was fun because I knew what everything was on the menu and exactly what to order. It was as good if not better than the Korean bbq I had in korea, probably because I wasn't on such a tight budget (because Lance was paying). After dinner I played blackjack for the first time with Lance's help and as much as I thought I understood about the game going into it I lost by the time I left the table. Luckily I did not lose any money, even if it was borrowed.
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