I am finally back at RSO! We got home at 1:00 this morning and we were all so so tired. It was a crazy weekend. We left Friday morning at 3:00 am and drove the 2 hours to the Chennai airport. Our flight left at 7:00 am and it was about 3 hours into Delhi. I was having horrific memories of my time at both airports so I was super excited to be there. Our tour bus picked us up at the Delhi airport, it was giant and bright orange with "Tourist" written across the front. Because a group of 20 white people needs more attention drawn to us. We started with a tour of some of the sites in Delhi, we saw all the embassies of other countries, the president's palace, and some other historical sites. I was expecting Delhi to be a more westernized city but it wasn't all that different from Chennai. It seemed a little wealthier and a little more western but not by much. After our tour we hired bicycle rickshaws to take us around Delhi and it was hilarious. Those things are death traps. We rode around on those for like an hour and we stopped at this ancient temple. it was in some weird back alley so I thought it was a little sketch but we went in anyway, and this guy appointed himself to take us on a tour. We followed him upstairs and he showed us like 3 things in whatever jibberish language he was speaking and then stopped us in the middle of the room and started asking for money. Nothing but class here, it was weird anyway so we left. How we survived the rickshaw ride I will never know. Becca and I were on our rickshaw, and I was filming so I wasn't really paying attention until I realize I am flying out of the rickshaw. Our driver had run into the back of the guy in front of us and we took a nice nosedive. Fortunately, my driver caught me before I hit the ground and there were only 6 million people on the street to witness it and awkwardly stare at me. It was not our best moment. We have a girl in our group who is Baha'i so we went to see the Lotus Temple. It was pretty cool, I know nothing about the Baha'i faith so I couldn't really appreciate it but it was cool none the less. A few of us went to the bathroom so we didn't have time to wait in the line to get in to the temple so we stood outside and in the 15 minutes we were standing there we were launched to stardom. Literally at least 70 Indian people came up and asked for pictures with us. Or just stood there and awkwardly took them. I had men hugging me, women wrapping their shawls around my head, people handing me their children... it was crazy and so so funny. We left the temple and started on our six hour drive to Agra. On our way there we stopped at this nice hotel to get some snacks and go to the bathroom. Let me preface by saying that absolutely nothing in India is without charge. They people here would charge you for breathing if they could. So we pull up to the hotel and there is this nice man there to direct us, I was already impressed. Then a lady standing in the bathroom with napkins to use for toilet paper. I was thrilled, such hospitality! Right. I wash my hands and am walking out when I start getting shouted at in Hindi. There was a basket of cash sitting on the counter, that lousy one ply napkin cost me a buck! I was not pleased. Anyway, we all loaded back onto our bus and drove the rest of the way to Agra. We finally got to our hotel, Jaypee Palace and it was so nice. It's 5 star and supposedly the best in India. It was enormous and the staff was so nice. Best of all it had a real shower, with hot water!! Never been so excited for a normal shower in my life. Sam and Nadya were my roommates so it was fun. We just went to bed and were up at 4:15 to get to the Taj Mahal for sunrise, and to avoid the ridiculous heat. We had an awesome tour guide in Agra, he was telling us he has done tours for Sarah Jessica Parker and the American Congress, and now us. I'm sure our group was the highlight. I am bummed because when we got to the Taj we were running on zero sleep and had just travelled about 11 hours, so by the time we got there I was exhausted and of course it was ridiculously hot so I was kind of over it. But it was awesome to see and our tour guide explained everything and it really is amazing. I'm glad I got to see it. After the Taj we went back to the hotel for our buffet breakfast and it was amazing. They had Indian and American food and it was so so good. After breakfast, we went back to the room and took a much needed nap. That afternoon we went to Agra Fort, where the Indian army base and it was actually pretty cool but just so hot. We went to lunch after that and again, so good. Our tour guide took us shopping after and we went to a rug store where they showed us how to make hand made persian rugs. It was cool for the first little bit until they tricked us into the show room and showed us 5,000 carpets that no one had any intention of buying. When we finally escaped that we went street shopping and it was the best shopping I have seen yet, tons of shoes and bags and jewelry. We went back to the hotel and hung out there, there was a disco dance club that we had to check out but it was just a few creepy men sitting in a corner so we vetoed the disco, so we tried to play pool but we hit the ball once and this worker came over and, you guessed it, asked us for money to play pool. So Eric, Nadya and I took ourselves on a tour of the hotel grounds. There was a playground with a treehouse and see-saw that Eric and I thoroughly enjoyed. We went back to the room and just hung out and talked and then went to bed. Sunday morning we woke up and went back to the buffet breakfast where I ate my weight in hashbrowns and bread. We checked out and loaded back in the van for our 6 hour drive back to Delhi. On our way back we stopped and rode elephants! I was so stoked. There was an elephant and a camel and a monkey that was dressed up and on a leash that you could pay for it to sit on your lap. They couldn't have paid me 7 million dollars to let that thing sit on me, it was disgusting. I took a picture of it, and surprise... there was a fee. The elephant was fun though, the ride was about 2 minutes but that was enough. We finally got back to the Delhi airport for our flight back to Chennai. Dr. Morley, Eric and Stephanie were flying home from Delhi so we had to leave them at the terminal and that was super sad. We all piled into the bathroom and there were like 16 of us in line. Somehow one of us only managed to get every fourth stall. There is absolutely no concept of personal space here, or the concept of a line. It is so frustrating. Same thing with boarding the plane they just push you out of the line and walk right in front of you. I have started to lose my patience with it, I just assume they don't speak English, if they do I might get myself in trouble one of these days. We finally get into Chennai at about 10:00 pm, Nadya was leaving that night so we were trying to find out about a taxi for her and while we were doing that the 5 of us got separated from the group so by the time we got out of the airport our bus was no where to be found. We stood on the street in hot, sticky, dumpy Chennai for like 25 minutes trying to avoid getting hit by the cars driving every which way. Finally we see our bus and pile on for the 2 hour drive to Thottanaval. We were almost home, driving through the local villages and there was some big party going on, I think a wedding but there were people all over the streets, and naturally our bus dies. The people start surrounding us and it won't start again, and it's like 1:00 in the morning. It was slightly terrifying but fortunately the people in the village love Rising Star so it wasn't a big deal. We finally get home a little after one, and we were all dead. This morning we were up bright and early to do anemia screenings on the kids and also to give Tetanus vaccines. It has been a busy few weeks!
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| Becca and I on the rickshaw |
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| The Delhi group in front of the Lotus Temple |
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