India

Day 1: Chennai, Working Women’s Forum.
       When we got to India, you could smell it in the boat. We ate breakfast and hung out until we absolutely had to leave, everyone was much more hesitant in this port than the others to get off the boat. I left for an FDP for my women’s studies class where we visited an NGO, the Working Women’s Forum, in Chennai. It’s a really big organization with over a million members in 14 branches throughout India. I got the impression that they mainly help women set up bank accounts in their own name and they give loans to them as well. It was interesting, but not as interesting as I had hoped. I stayed on the boat the rest of the evening, packing for the Taj and just hanging out.
Day 2: Travelling
       I woke up around 5:30, and was in the Union around 6 to leave for the Taj. Our bus was infested with nats and mosquitoes, but we made it to the airport okay. The flight to Delhi wasn’t bad; I slept most of the way. After our flight we went and had lunch, saw Ghandi’s eternal flame, and headed to the train station to go to Agra. It was supposed to be a 2 or 3 hour-long train ride in air-conditioned cars. I think the AC was broken, there were cockroaches and bugs everywhere, the seats were broken, there was even a broken window (but not so broken that air came through)…and it was twice as long as expected due to “delays”(we were stopped more than we were moving)…it was awful! An adventure, but awful. No one wanted to sleep for fear of bugs crawling on them. Eventually we got to the hotel, had dinner, and went to bed. The hotel was nice, they were very friendly and accommodating. They even had shirts with the Taj on the front and “Welcome Semester at Sea”on the back.
Day 3: Taj
       The next morning we woke up really early to be at the Taj for sunrise. We missed the sunrise, but it was nice that it was quiet and there weren’t a lot of people there. It was surprising how dirty and uncontrolled the entrance leading to the Taj Mahal is. There are people (mostly children) trying to sell you things, and it’s really dirty. There are tons of bugs outside- but oddly almost none when you’re near the Taj. They have two separate lines to go through security before you enter, one for men one for women…it didn’t seem to secure, I don’t think the metal detectors actually did anything. The Taj was amazing; it’s just so weird to see in person and up close. We stayed there for a bit and then headed back for breakfast, then out to an abandoned city- it was really cool; I have lots of great pictures. We had lunch and went to the Agra Fort (also really pretty, lots of pictures). And then back to the Taj for sunset. Everyone was”Taj-ed out”at this point and we were all exhausted. But we kept going- to a place where the descendants of those who worked on the Taj made things out of marble, and to a government run market. Then to the train station, where we were on a NICE train for only TWO hours. Thank goodness! We arrived in Delhi and went to an AMAZING hotel. It’s the nicest hotel I’ve ever seen. Flat screen TVs, rain shower, down comforters…I had the best nights sleep ever.
Day 4: Traveling
       Slept in! The hotel had an amazing breakfast, and then we went on a bus tour of Delhi. Everyone was still exhausted, and most of us slept on and off throughout the tour. We stopped and got out at the Gateway monument. We had lunch and met up with a few other SAS Taj groups, and all headed over to the airport…there were so many of us, we took up almost the whole plane! We made it back to the boat, and I waited in line for an hour at gangway security because everyone had to get their bags checked. Then we waited an hour for pizza at the Piano Lounge because no one had eaten dinner yet- it was crazy up there! We played cards and had pizza, caught up on what everyone did over the past few days, and made plans for the next day.
Day 5: Chennai
       SHOPPING!! We woke up fairly early, but when we went to leave it was POURING out. It’s monsoon season! It finally stopped and we took a taxi to an outdoor market, it was an interesting experience. The streets were really dirty because of the rain, the puddles were sometimes so deep you couldn’t walk over them or through them- but locals did. I got a lot of great things at the market- but when we went to leave we had to wait for a bit and we got cornered by a begger and her baby who almost threw up on us. We left shortly after. We went to an indoor mall, which was a mix of tourist shops that all sold the same thing, and regular stores. Once we were almost out of money, we took a taxi back to the port. Once in the port, it’s still a long walk to the boat so we got a rickshaw- a little cart that a bike pulls, it was an experience! It was just me and Bill, and all of our souvenirs but that had to be like…400 pounds, pulled by this little man on a BIKE (some of them have motors…ours didn’t). Originally he had said, 50 rupies…okay, fine. We get in, the cover is down, and it starts POURING, he gets out, puts the cover up, and runs away. A few minutes later he comes back and starts peddling, it stopped raining…we’re going…so….slow. Other bikes are passing us, and the driver said “No motor yet, only 35 rupies.”Bill was like, we’ll still give him 50 rupies, and whatever we have nothing else to buy. We FINALLY get to the boat, and he wanted 200 rupies! We left the 50 on his bike and left. Back on the boat, everyone sorted through their souvenirs and washed India off of them, and took NAPS. We were all so exhausted.

I think India was the least Americanized place we’ve been so far, and it was a good experience for a lot of people- I hope. Even though Brazil was a really poor country it was still pretty clean and easy to get around. There was no way to get around Chennai; there are NO traffic laws- you just push your way through. There seem to be no regulations period. Now off to Malaysia! It’s going to get really crazy, and there are only 4 laundry days left in the entire trip- yikes! There’s very little time to plan between each country now, and even less time to do school work. I’m definitely looking forward to Malaysia/Vietnam/China/Japan though!