INDIA part 1: not of this world

 

DESTINATION KOLKATA

For my first experience in India it would have been smart to choose a nice quiet, clean, touristy destination. (Wait does that exist?)

We arrived into Kolkata very late in the night, but thankfully found a willing taxi driver quickly.

The pungent smells of India forced their way through the open windows of the cab as we sped at an alarming speed through the streets.

Even though I was exhausted from travel, a mixture of adrenaline, and sheer excitement pumped through my veins and I was ready to take India by the horns!

An hour and a half later, deflating quickly, I just wanted to find this very illusive hostel that we had been looking for, it felt like, for ages.

The initial exhilaration I felt upon entering India dwindled quickly as the realities of this foreign country began to sink in.

I always felt pretty safe while traveling through India. I was lucky to have my husband on one side of me and our friend Tanner who was traveling with us on my other. I wouldn’t go anywhere without one of my body guards by my side.

Kudos to all you solo travelers out there!

The one time I was scared or just maybe extremely out of my comfort zone was the afternoon a group of Calcutta street children surrounded me and started begging for money. They started pulling on my arms and my bag that thankfully I had securely tied to me. 

I started to panic, and they immediately sensed my fear, and unnervingly they seemed to find it hilarious. They became very aggressive, and we had to get out of there in a hurry.

I was pretty frazzled for the remainder of that day.

Out of the ordinary experiences became the norm as our time in India progressed.

For example, In India it’s perfectly normal for a person needing to relieve them self to just drop a squat and do their business right there, wherever there is. 

Of course, we have all seen boys taking a pee on the side of the road. But where talking about #2’s here folks. It’s quite tramatizing!

INDIAN CUSINE

I love Indian Food! The flavor, spice and smell of a rich curry is heaven to me.

Some of the yummiest things we ate were street food. We had these amazing kabobs one day from a little street cart. Simply delicious!

However, unlike Thai food in Thailand or Vietnamese in Vietnam (to die for and somewhat predictable)  Indian cuisine threw me for a loop.

I have a stomach of steel. I rarely eat anything that doesn’t agree with me.

However, even though delicious, Indian food gave me the worst stomach cramps.

An Indian gentleman once explained to me that the spices in India are unique, and that if you haven’t grown up ingesting them you’re in trouble. 

Of course, the pain didn’t stop me from eating, and my stomach was upset quite often throughout our travels in India.

 

A couple days in Calcutta was plenty, and we were eager to see some of the country by train as we made our way to our next destination. 

THE INDIA RAILWAY WHAT CAN I SAY

I was in utter shock as I realized to board the train we were going to have to hurdle our bodies and huge bags, through hundreds of eager travelers.

There is no such thing as a line in India. Literally every single person there tries to get from point A to Point B at exactly the same time.

As a tourist if you don’t force your way through with everyone else, you WILL be left behind.

I’m glad that we bought 3rd class tickets on that first journey, but only because it is a once in a lifetime experience. 

I stared in disbelief as prostitutes wandered up and down the carriages. 

 Snacks and delicious hot chai were available for purchase and the sugary chai was so delicious it was hard to refuse. 

However, I did refuse it as soon as I figured out where I had to go to pee. 

 I would offer a picture here, but it was really quite disgusting, so I’ll be kind and leave it to your imagination. 

The train rides in India were long and exhausting and usually about double the time they were supposed to take. 

With all the noise and movement of the train, sleep was nearly impossible, and we spent long hours looking out the windows at the beautiful country side littered in a sea of garbage. 

One afternoon as I looked out I saw half of a dog on the tracks. It’s headless haunches just laying there, cauterized to the side of the track. 

Another thing we did quite a lot to pass time was play cards. After a while a crowd of curious Indians would gather around us to watch intently. 

VARANASI THE HOLY CITY

Varanasi was easily my favorite place in all of India.

I literally felt like I had arrived on another planet.

The sounds, sites, and smells sucked me in, and I fell in love instantly.

She’s a beautiful little city that dates back to Biblical times, and I honestly don’t think much has changed in hundreds of years.

She sits on the banks of the Ganges and welcomes 1000’s of Hindu pilgrims every year to bathe in her sacred water.

Those sacred waters however are full of dead bodies, and incredibly murky looking. I just couldn’t talk myself into taking a dunk into them no matter how holly.

One day as we were sipping on a cup of Chai, we kept noticing funeral processions pass by.

The deceased person was wrapped like a mummy and held in the air on a gurney held up by two men.

When we had finished our chai, we decided to follow one of them.

We followed the procession, keeping a respectful distance behind, down to the banks of the Ganges and stumbled right upon their burial grounds.

It was a large area full of ashes and burning bodies.

It was a startling sight and took my brain a few minutes to realize what it was seeing. 

We spent a few blissful days exploring the Holy city and hopped back on a train, first class thank you very much, headed towards Deli, Or Heli as we would soon be referring to it. 

DELI

If you know anything about India, chances are you know that scamming is something that they excel at there.

Deli is where we experienced not our first and definitely not our last but with no doubt our biggest and costliest scam.

We bought train tickets for Jodhpur and were supposed to leave the following morning.

We arrived at the train station with plenty of time to spare. We handed our tickets to the ticket officer and were devastated to find out that the train had already left. More than half an hour early!

The officer told us we would have to go by bus. 

He was very helpful and arranged to have us taken to where we needed to go.  

On the drive over one of us checked the train schedule, still in disbelief that it had left so early. 

We discovered that the train had left 5 minutes previous ON TIME!

It all began to make sense. 

That ticket officer was apparently dressed as an official, and we had just been scammed out of our train ride. 

He obviously worked for the outrageously expensive bus and was trying to round up more unsuspecting passengers. 

We were outraged that we had been so gullible. 

Not thinking clearly we had our driver turn around as we started planning our revenge on the dirty little scammer. 

We searched for a  while with no luck.

Defeated, exhausted and disappointed in India and ourselves, at that moment we wanted to be anywhere else in the world other than there. 

We had reservations already made in Jodhpur, so we had a cab take us to the airport and quickly booked a ticket out of Heli. 

India: Not Of This World, part 2

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