Colleen's trip to India March 2009 Week 1

My trip began very early in the morning on March 7, 2009, when I left my Copenhagen apartment in the middle of the night to catch a 6:00am flight to Delhi, via Amsterdam. I arrived in Delhi the same day, also in the middle of the night. I had booked an airport transfer and so was looking for someone with a sign with mine or the tour company’s name, but the driver actually identified me first (there weren’t too many western looking tourists arriving at that time). After checking into the hotel, I had until 6:00pm the next day free until I started the tour. I decided to attempt to venture outside and walk around the neighbourhood surrounding the hotel, but found that was not as easy as it may sound. There aren’t really sidewalks and the streets are multi use for cars, motor cycles, auto rick shaws (which are also called tuk tuks), bicycle rickshaws, and pedestrians. There are no lanes and no traffic lights, making crossing the street a challenge. I decided, since it was just my first day, I’d just stick to the side of the street I was on and make a series right turns. The traffic aside, it actually did seem quite safe. There were lots of people wanting to sell you stuff, have you eat in their restaurant, etc but not aggressively and generally accepted a polite decline.

Later that evening I met my tour leader and group. Our leader was from India who had spent a lot of time studying yoga, and the others were a very international mix. As I knew when I signed up this, it was not a luxury coach tour. We would be travelling primarily on public transport to enhance the authenticity of our experience. The group was small (tour max is 12) and very international (from north America, UK, Norway and Japan). We had a debriefing about responsible travel, such as: dress appropriately both out of respect at holy sites and also to avoid unwanted attention/ harassment, and “Say no to plastic bags”. We were also advised that tipping expected and makes up a substantial part of the service industry wages. in fact, we were told that the origin of the concept and the word tip started by the English in India and TIPS stands for To Insure Prompt Service. We were also advised that in the cities where there are very holy sites, there is no alcohol or meat served, including the first five days of the trip where we would on or near the Ganges River. (I actually was a vegetarian throughout the whole two weeks).

The first official day of the tour, we are going to spend in Delhi, which is a very big, very busy and very crowded city. We started by taking a local bus to Old Delhi. The bus was very crowded but I got a seat in the “Ladies only section”. These seats are not designated to segregate men and women, it is to make it more comfortable and easier for women to travel and work. In Old Delhi, we went to three types of religious places of worship, which were right beside each other: Hindu Temple, Mosque and Sikh temple. At the mosque there was a tower you could climb to see views of Delhi, however women could not climb up unaccompanied by a man. At the Sikh temple every day they offer lunch for whoever shows up. You sit in rows on the floor and have as much Dal and rice as you want. The idea is that everyone is equal, so regardless of who you are you still sit in in the same row on the floor. Dal is made of lentils and is a staple in the Indian vegetarian diet. Following a vegetarian diet, I had many variations of this dish throughout the two weeks. At the Hindu temple there was a lot going on. As I understand the purpose is to have external stimuli to occupy the senses so that the mind can focus on meditation and prayer: (bells to hear, pictures to see, incense to smell, rice to taste and beads to touch.). Later we went to the old Delhi wholesale market. In particular, it is a good place to buy books. I bought a book about yoga and one about religion. As an alternative to the local bus, we took the metro back to the hotel. It is very modern, with airport level security including baggage screening and metal detectors (separate lines for men and women).

As an accountant, I am quite interested in comparing what things cost in different places and India is very cheap, (not just compared to Copenhagen but also compared to North America and pretty much any where else I've been. Some sample prices in dollar and cents equivalent include:

- metro ride 16 cents (I can’t find a cents symbol on my computer because I don’t think anything in Denmark costs under a dollar),
- 20 minutes rick shaw ride - $2 split between 3 people
- paneer butter masala with butter nan $2 (paneer is a type of cheese and this is the vegetarian version of butter chicken the popular staple at Indian buffets in Canada (the general price of meals out in a nice quality restaurant is $2-3, although there are much cheaper alternatives, but which come at more risk of getting sick,
- the books I bought in the Delhi wholesale market (under $1 each),
- one litre water (20 – 80 cents, depending how touristy the area)
- one litre Kingfisher beer (strangely for a country where many places don’t serve alcohol at all, when it is available, the national beer is only served in quantities of one litre bottles.
- necklace of semi precious gems ($3) – at this price you can afford to buy jewellery just because you like the name of the gem (which is pretty much the sole reason I bought a necklace made of “smoky topaz”.

- Silk scarf - $4
- Average quality cotton trousers $4 – I would recommend anyone coming to India to bring as little as possible, then buy stuff which is appropriate both for the climate and the cultural exposure norms,(although I believe the sari’s are actually more revealing that the western clothes I would normally wear);
- High quality cotton top which they sew specifically for you and courier to your hotel later that same day at no extra charge - $8

After spending, the day in Delhi we embarked on our first, but not last experience on an overnight train. Even though we had reserved seats, getting on was still very chaotic, having to get through the queues waiting to get into the non reserved coach seats. The so called "first class air conditioned sleeper cars "are not separate little rooms and compartments but rows of triple bunk beds. In our car, there was also an extended family of about forty people. One of the mothers was around my age and very friendly and was interested in talking to me. She didn’t really speak English but her son did and translated. The children, especially, were very interested in talking to foreigners. For some reason they really liked my name. When one of them asked me my name, and I replied “Colleen” the group of children responded with a round of applause and exclamations of “cool name!”, “cool name!”. The kids also get pretty excited if you say a few words in Hindu, one “Namaste” and you are their best friend. And, the little girls were quite interested in touching my hair (but were polite and asked first).

After the train ride we embarked on our boat ride “Slowly down the Ganges”. The whole Ganges River is considered to be very holy in India, so there is no alcohol or meat allowed and we were expected to wear long sleeves. (which was ok for me, because it also prevents sunburn). We were on small sailboats which were very peaceful and relaxing. The River looked cleaner than I expected and we actually saw dolphins swimming and jumping about in the river. And, the boats were a good vantage point to view villagers going up their daily lives. In the evening, we camped in tents on a sand bar island which was also very peaceful. We arrived at the island early enough to play a game of cricket with the boat crew. I have discovered that I have actually have a natural aptitude for cricket. When it was my turn to pitch, I struck out three batters in a row. ( Note I am using the baseball equivalent terms here because I do not know the correct Cricket terminology.)

We were on the Ganges during the Holi (pronounced like Holly) festival. I am actually not exactly sure of what is being celebrated but the main activity is to spray colourful paint on one another. We were told that they usually try to keep the tour groups out of the big cities during Holi as it can get quite intense with people firing off high pressure water guns filled with paint. We were allowed to participate in a light version with the boat crew using organic vegetable based paint, which washed out very easily.

The boat trip finished when we arrived in Varanasi which is one of the most holy cities in India. We started off with a walk through the Ghats (which are stairs) along the Ganges. This is where the funerals (Called aarti’s – not sure about the spelling) are held before they put the ashes in the Ganges. In the evening we saw the Ghats from the water side in a boat. It was very beautiful and quite spectacular as there was dancers and music accompanying the funerals and many flowers with candles floating in the water.

The traffic situation in Varanasi is also very chaotic. Like Delhi there is the usual, cars, motorcycles, small trucks, rickshaws, and bikes, except the streets are narrower and there are more animals, including donkey carts, as well as many cows. The cows are not part of the transportation system but are in the streets because they are allowed to roam about at will. In general I am finding Varanasi and the places I’ve been so far in India to be very authentic and not commercial touristy at all. During the day we went to a place called Sarnath which is known for where Buddha made his enlightenment speech. The auto rick shaw ride back was an interesting experience. First we stopped for petrol, then stopped again so the driver could buy same kind of tobacco like product wrapped in a leaf, then he stopped a third time where he acquired a coke bottle (which I thought was for him to drink), except that he poured the contents of the bottle into the rickshaw engine. In the evening we visited an Ashram. These are places where people go in India to study yoga and meditation. (the purpose of learning yoga is so that your body can sit still in positions for long times in order to meditate) It was also a very nice experience seeing the place and sitting on the floor in the meditation room. You have to site cross legged because it is rude to point you feet towards a picture of a deity.

After our stay in Varanasi, it is now time to board another overnight train to Agra. Getting on the train in Agra is actually more chaotic and frantic than the one in Delhi. We had reserved places on car B1. So we got on the car B1, locked up our luggage under the seats and got settled in. However the designation of "B1" is not the permanent name of that train car, it was merely written on the side in chalk, and subsequent to us getting on, the B1 was erased and changed to B2. As a result, people subsequently getting on claimed that we were in their seats and we had to uproot and move to another car. By that time it was quite late and we attempted to get some sleep amid the chatting , cell phones and people getting on and off in the middle of the night. I had just gotten to sleep when around midnight the train police came around to read us the train rules and then have us sign off to confirm that they had read the rules to us in English. Some of the rules included: don't talk to strangers, don't tell anyone your name, don't tell anyone where you live, and don't accept food from people you don't know. I breached most of these on the first train ride. (I thought it was ok to have a cookie offered to me from the woman who was giving her own children cookies from the same box. )

We arrived in Agra in the morning about 1 1/2 hours late (which I believe is standard for trains in India). After getting into the hotel in Agra, we went up to the rooftop restaurant for coffee where I got my first glimpse of...

...to be continued...