the biggest culture shock I've experienced so far. Everything there is
SO incredibly different. We docked in Cochin, which is in the South of
India. The first day I had a field trip for my theater class. We went
to a King's temple, a Jewish Synagogue, an Anglican church, a spice
market, and a very interesting and different performance. This actor
dressed as a woman and with crazy make up and costumes (including a
large hoop dress) sat on stage and moved his eyes around in circles to
the beat of a drum. Then he acted out different emotions, just with
his face. It was very different, that's for sure! Afterwards I
explored that part of the city with a few friends. We shopped around
outdoor vendors. I fell in love with everything Indian. There are no
price tags on anything. Bargaining is the way of life in the world of
shopping. As whites we are seen as wealthy and ignorant. Every vendor
I encountered would first ask a price that was twice or 3 times the
amount (even more sometimes) that they would usually sell their item
for. For example, large tapestries with beautiful fabrics and sequins
they would try to charge you about $100 (in America it would probably
be $200-$300) and you could talk them down to $4.00. Yeah. Crazyyy!
They know that we will pay a lot and are ignorant, so they try to way
overcharge us. It gets annoying, but at the same time, who can blame
them? Everyone on this ship is like a millionare compared to most of
the people in India. The poverty is ridiculous there. But I'll get to
that later. So I was in heaven with all the sequins and bright colors
and beautiful designs! (and ridiculously cheap prices!) I bought a few
beautiful long skirts for $6 a piece for my rest of the time in India.
It's polite to cover your shoulders and knees in India. People do not
look highly on people who don't..even if we are tourists and it is not
how we normally dress. We went to a restaurant on the shore and had
some traditional Indian food. I had chicken curry, and asked for it
very mild. It was still too hot for me, but I managed with a bunch of
water. The food in India is all really hot, so I was a little
skeptical of how I would make out since I'm such a wimp when it comes
to hot food. We got around on a vehicle called a Rickshaw. These
things were the coolest taxis I've ever ridden on. It's like a three-
wheeled taxi, where the driver is in the front and there's a love seat
in the back for 2 or 3 people. There's a little roof but the rest is
opened. After eating we went to a couple other shops. In one shop I
was talking with Indian shop owners and one mentioned that another guy
sang. I told him I'd sing if he sang. He started singing a traditional
Indian song. I then sang A Whole New World. Then he told me to sing
backstreet boys and then Titantic, so we sang My heart will go on and
on together. After that shop we rode the rickshaw back to the ship,
and stayed in that night and packed for the 4-day trip up north. The
nightlife at India isn't very common. We didn't go out at all the
whole time. It also isn't a very good idea for women to go out in
India. It was also VERY hot in Cochin. Even at night I was constantly
sweating.
The next morning I left for the North with 31 other students. We flew
to Delhi in the morning. It was funny being in the airport and the
plane, because it felt so much more like the US. We got to Delhi in
the afternoon. It was so funny being in Delhi and seeing all the Delhi
signs. It never got old! Too bad it's not pronounced Del-hi but, Deli.
As soon as we got off the plane we toured around Delhi. Delhi's the
capital of India so we visited monuments and the president's house. It
reminded me of Washington D.C. They were all beautiful, and we saw the
sunset by the president's house. It was a dark orange. Everytime we
saw the sunset or rise it was like I had never seen it before. It was
dark orange and red even one time. SO BEAUTIFUL! I think the sun
appeared that way because of the haze. That day was a tiring one
because we traveled all day and then looked at monuments and buildings
all day. This trip we were on was completely organized for us, so the
next few days were completely mapped out for us. The first day we
really wanted some free time to explore. We weren't used to being able
to do what we please. After the fact we were appreciative of the first
day, because we got a lot of freetime for exploration later on in our
trip. We had dinner at a restaurant that night. We had our first of
many buffets. Once again, the food was really hot to me, but it was
good. I have twin friends that were on the trip with us and they
turned 21 that night. There wasn't really anywhere to go out so we
went to this room in the basement of the hotel we were staying at and
all 32 of us just chilled in the room while the boys tried to drink
like 21 year olds haha. The place ran out of beer so they had to go
out and get more.
The next morning we woke up at 4:30AM-rough! We took a train to Agra.
What an experience, being in that train station. Everywhere you go in
India people look at you like you have 3 heads..but in more of a
fascinated kind of way. People were constantly taking pictures of us
with their phones and not even trying to hide it. My friend Katie and
I walked by Indians in the first airport and there were about 5 people
taking pictures with their phones. All throughout our time in India
guys were asking to take pictures with us. If we agreed they would
have a photoshoot and would insist on having an indiviual picture with
each one of us. It was seriously like being a celebrity! At first we
didn't really like when people were taking pictures of us when we
walked by. We asked our tourguide, why they have such a fascination of
us. There are few white people around, but still-why are we such a
skeptical? He said that they see us in movies and such and to them
white skin is beautiful. In fact they try to make their skin lighter
and the lighter skin Indian women end up with wealthier Indian men.
Every single ad and movie we saw had Indians with extremely light
skin. The weird part is that it was rare to see Indians with such
light skin around. Most had the same skin tone which was much darker.
In airports I saw so many ads for lightening your skin. So strange. So
anyways our guide, said that we are looked at as celebrities or
models, just because of our skin. It was crazy. Back to the train-when
we got there it was still dark, and there were tons of people sleeping
on the ground. They had a thin sheet or blanket over them and just
laid on the bare ground. It was so sad. The train ride was great. I
sat next to an Indian who was helping out with our group. I watched
the sunrise on the train ride. It was once a gain a beautiful deep
orange beaming through the haze, over a field with trees here and
there. So much natural beauty..but then all of a sudden there would be
a "town" of extreme poverty. There were shacks packed closely together
and trash literally everywhere. Every square inch there was trash.
There were a lot of people crouched down squatting in the middle of
the trash next to the train tracks. I don't know what they were doing.
It was so sad. I also saw a lot of people, men and women going to the
bathroom outside-just on the ground, right in the open. Toilets in
India are downright DISGUSTING and hard to come by. They toilets they
do have are mostly Indian toilets-which is literally a whole in the
ground and a place to put your feet. Back to the train-it was so sad
seeing the extreme "towns" of such poverty and trash and filth. These
places were in between such pristine, untouched natural beauty. It was
so strange to see such a change. And seeing an atmosphere of Peace,
beauty, nature, tranquility, fog and then to impoverished towns of
sadness, hopelessness, dirtiness, darkness, dullness and anguish.
We arrived in Agra and our first stop was the Taj Mahal! It was so
incredibly beautiful. The Taj Mahal was built because an emperor's
wife had 3 wishes that would prove his love to her: that he would
never marry again, that he would watch over their 14 children and that
he would build a monument that would be globally recognized. He
fulfilled that wish to her with flying colors! Everything about the
Taj Mahal was perfectly symmetrical. He even built a building on
either side of it. There was so much detail in the Taj. It was made of
beautiful marble and had intricate colorful pieces of marble making up
beautiful flowers and designs. There hasn't been a drop of water
that's touched the marble floor of the Taj, and its been around since
1632. We spent some time looking in awe at the Taj and snapping a fair
amount of pictures. We took some pictures with these girls in
beautiful sarees (the "dresses" made of 6meters of cloth that most
Indians wear). The girls were so excited to take pictures with us. We
probably took pictures for about 15 minutes. After the Taj Mahal we
had a delicious buffet lunch, which to my surprise didn't contain a
lot of hot food! One of the common dishes we had at every single meal
was Naan, which was kind of like a thick tortialla that was sometimes
stuffed with cheese, garlic or plain. We ate that at every meal and
had a whole lot of it. After lunch we went to a Marble place that
created tables, stands, coasters, chess sets and other things out of
marble. They made beautiful and intricate flowers and designs out of
different colored marble. There were incredibly beautiful and insanely
expensive! Some tables took many years to create, when worked on 6
hours a day. Next we proceeded to Agra Fort, which was built to shield
the city, and was also very beautiful and had amazing architecture. We
then headed to the back of the Taj Mahal to watch it during sunset.
There I rode a camel with Andrea! It was a fun, bumpy ride! We went
back to the same restaurant for dinner and had another amazing buffet.
I really stuffed myself! Then we headed to the train station and took
a 2 hour train back to Delhi. There was an older Indian lady on the
other side of the aisle next to Katie and I who sat forward so she
could look at both of us, and stared us for a really long time. It was
really weird. It's one thing that's hard to get used to. We'd look at
her and she still would stare. By this point at night we were
extremely exhausted. We didn't get more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep per
night, and were up at either 4:30, 5, or 5:30 every single morning!
I'm going to stop here for tonight. It's 1:30AM and Singapore is
tomorrow! I'm getting up for the sunrise too, so I need some beauty
sleep! I'm craving more time..things have been so busy, but fun here
on the ship. The first day on the ship back from India we had Sea
Olympics, which I will explain later. It involved a synchronized
swimming routine to "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton, in which I
was the main person and acted out a love story with another guy. It
was so great-more details to come! And last night was a 3 hour talent
show where I performed "Take me or leave me" from Rent with my friend
Bryana! So its been too eventful-which hasn't allowed me to blog! I'm
only halfway through my journey in India! The best is yet to come!
Varanasi was my favorite and most culture-shocking place that I've
been so far! After Singapore tomorrow there are only 2 days until
Vietnam! After Vietnam there is only one day of travel until China,
and then there are only 2 days on the ship between China and Japan.
WHOA! Everything's going to fly even more! That's all for now. I have
a lot more to say about India, and Sea Olympics and the Talent show,
and Singapore is tomorrow! Shout out to Manda McAtee who turns 21
today! Love you and miss you so much girl! Hope you have the best
birthday ever and I wish I could celebrate with you! <3
Lovin and missin you all from Singapore!
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