To sum up India in a couple of words is impossible. Imagine a place with a ton of people… Men and young boys working all over the streets either cleaning, construction work, or selling, women fashionably dressed with vibrant colors and jewelry, impoverished men, women, and children all around sleeping anywhere they can find, rickshaws (mini-taxis) trying to solicit you to jump and ride with them, and everyone staring because they know you are a tourist. If they are brave enough they will wave, come up and start speaking English, or even as for a picture. Next thing you know there will be a crowd around you. They are very nice people and the kids are adorable.
I really noticed was the diversity of religions. You will see a typical Hindi family standing next to a man with a turban (Sikh) and a Muslim hijabi walking by. The city is full of temples and mosques… but also you can feel tension between different religions. I was at Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur playing next to some Indians playing music, one was playing tabla and the other was playing the Persian santoor. We spoke and everything was so cool and he was playing really well, but after he finished a little performance I said Mashallah, and suddenly his smile went away and he looked at me all weird. Then while we were at the train station waiting, it was prayer time so I found a guy with a Muslim cap and long beard and asked him the direction for namaaz… he was happy that a white looking guy wanted to prayer, he told me the direction with a really sweet smile, shook my hand and told me to pray for him. I kinda wish we could be like that with everyone, not just because someone is Muslim. This happened to me another time in the hotel in New Delhi, the guy who worked there found out I was Muslim as was like my best friend, saying we are brothers… haha. It was a unique experience.
First day 5/28 - Me and Jacky (my travel partner for the tour and long-time school friend) started out our Indian experience by checking into a 5-star hotel, she actually had a ton of points built up on her card which allowed for us to get a room there for free. We were mostly tired from the long airplane ride so we just checked in, had a nice chai downstairs and went to bed.
5/29 - We woke up at 6 AM very refreshed and hit up the gym before setting off into India. Since it was Sunday most places were closed, but we found a really awesome travel tour guide guy (he was a midget but really cool), and after eating some awesome authentic Indian food he took us to a Hindu Temple (Lkshmi Narain Temple), India Gate, and the Presidential Palace. We saw so much during this time, even MONKEYS! We met up with our tour buddies, but left them at night to have dinner with my friend Rohit who I met on the plane. We had a blast with him as he took us out for food, hookah, and cruising the city at night where I saw the Jumma Masjid at night, and saw many many poor people sleeping all over the sidewalks and any area where there is grass. We didn’t get back till 5AM.
5/30 - We got to take the Indian metro… was very busy but a fun experience at the least. We then walked down the oldest road in India to the largest mosque in India, the Jumma Masjid. I got to pray there and see the beautiful architecture. Next we went to the Sikh temple which was very beautiful. They were reciting prayers and cooking food for everyone… we got to help cook the food but didn’t eat anything because it would make our weak western stomachs upset. At night we headed to the train station where we would make an overnight trip to Jodhpur. This was a very unique experience to say the least. There were 6 people per train cubicle, divided into 2 sections, with a triple bunk-bed setup… so each person had 2 feet max above them till you hit the roof. I slept on the top, and I didn’t have room to sit up or I would hit the roof of the train… but since I slept most of the time it wasn’t that bad… sometimes you have to live like the poor… since we stayed at the 5-star hotel this was the opposite extreme side (and really not even that bad since I am not experiencing sleeping outside w/out a shower, bathroom, etc. Regarding bathrooms, they have outdoor bathrooms in which people can basically see you as they are passing by. It’s like a stall without doors, but outside in the public lol.
5/31 - From Jodhpur after we checked in, we left towards Meherangarh fort which was the house of the major rulers. It was very old and beautiful. In addition it was nice to have live music and we went about it. From here we went ToJaswant Thada where all members of the royal family are cremated… so that was pretty cool to see. After coming back to rest I was able to get to the computer story to help me fix my internet in which I paid a lot of money for so I can have internet. Then we all went to the Sadar Bazaar. We were dropped off down the street and as we were walking a Muslim ceremony/parade was passing. Kids on Camels, and other people holding up an embroded cloth… and it seemed like the respected elders walked in front of it. Then a strange thing happened. I saw everyone gathering as an Indian guy put a sharp object into his eyesock, and twisted it and his eye seemed like it was going to popout. Then another Indian guy stole the spotlight as he stuck the sharp object through his neck, then another man got on top of him and did the same thing with the same sharp object. So there were two men on top of each other with a sharp object going through their neck. This was very very fascinating for me and I got a pretty good closeup of everything in which I’m trying to load up onto youtube right now and I will show the link later. I picked up some really good Kashmiri tea w/Saffron from the bazaar and saw a small motocycle acciddent. After having a wonderful dinner we took the rickshaw’s back, driving in India is the most craziest/funnest things to do. Anyways, that’s all I have till now… tomorrow morning we should be heading out towards Ranakpur to visit a Jain Temple.
