Coming back to the future is honestly exactly how I feel after coming back to Seoul from 17 days in India. The trip truly made me realize the privileged, easy, no hassle life I live here in Seoul. There’s always something you can find to complain about but damn...I’m a spoiled brat. So then let’s begin with it shall we? Once again, my companion and friend in traveling and living abroad (Mr. Joel Nalley) started our journey to the Incheon International Airport at 6:00 am on February 11th during a torrential snow storm..at least so it seemed. Our plane was an hour and a half late because they had to de ice our plane before we could take off. Being “the sleeper” that I am, that didn’t bother me one bit as I probably slept on 70% of the flights to New Delhi. We flew Korean Air which has to be one of the best airlines there are and once in Hong Kong transferred to Air India which has to be one of the worst airlines there are (accept for Spice Jet). As soon as we got on our plane, I swear I could smell the curry. Although large, the plane was super old and didn’t even have air vents! Are you kidding me? However, after a few compliments from the Korean man sitting next to us that Joel and I were very handsome and to me that I looked like a celebrity (uh huh that’s right), more than a few Gin and Tonics and a really entertaining Bollywood film..Air India is allllright. We got into Delhi around 11:30ish and got into a taxi at around 12:30 a.m. We wanted to spend absolutely no time in Delhi and wanted to take the first train to Agra. After finding out that the first flight to Agra departs at 6:30 a.m. we decided to go to the train station, get the tickets taken care of and chill at the station until our train left. Little did we know that you couldn’t buy tickets by the time we got there and that the Delhi train station isn’t where most people spend the night in India, unless you’re homeless or just like the smell of burning plastic.
All the guidebooks say “Once arriving into India for the first time, get a midrange hotel and ease your way into it.” Screw that, we did the exact opposite and rucked up with the local peeps and slept on benches at the train station with poor folks. Not the most comfortable night of “sleep” I’ve had but it makes for a great story.
After a record breaking amount of misleading offers from random sketchy dudes to rent a driver and drive all over Rajasthan (Northeast India), we finally managed to get all of our train tickets planned out and paid for about $70 USD each, which is crazy cheap. We left for Agra at about 11:30 that afternoon and slept most of the way to Agra. Upon arriving I really had my first glimpse of what is “really” India. Just before reaching Agra station there are walls in between the train tracks and small houses. In between the two there are stockpiles of trash. I swear I saw more trash on the ground then dirt, sand or grass. Once we arrived I also was unfortunately given the opportunity to witness a man with elephantitis feet (lymphatic filariasis).
, it looked fake...like something out of a comic book. I found out later in the trip that this condition is quite common throughout India. Sorry, no pics. Moving on, after once again getting hassled and bombarded by approximately 20 different cab drivers we decided on the least sketchiest looking one (the one that talked the least) and made our way to the city center near the Taj Mahal. On our way to where most of the hotels and hostels are we ended up bumping into two guys, American and British, who ended up being pretty cool chaps. The hostel was pretty nice too and had a sweet rooftop and awesome view of the Taj.
We decided to stay at the hostel that they were posted up at and around sunset went and saw the Taj Mahal from across the Yamuna River. From a distance it was pretty impressive and serene, especially compared with the next day when we saw it in the morning in what seemed to be the foggiest mornings in the History of India.
Aside from going to Agra Fort (Although impressive, there are so many forts in Agra that it’s easy to take them for granted), visiting the manic markets and drinking beers on our rooftop with our new buddies our stop in Agra was ending and a new train ride was beginning. Our train was as expected in India, two hours late so we rucked up on the train station floor again with our peeps once again. At this point Joel ended up falling asleep first and I was to wake him up when the plane arrived. Of course I ended up falling asleep as well and Joel ended up waking my disillusioned self up. It was pretty funny too because I was so disillusioned when he said let’s move further down the patio that I told him “wait I have to get my friend Joel.” Bad decision by Joel as he should know I’m the sleeper. After enough convincing on his part and the train arriving in 15 minutes after we were on our way.
Our next stop was to Jaipur “the pink city” and capital of the state of Rajasthan. We arrived super late and asked our rickshaw driver to take us to the closest midrange hotel. At this point it was around 1:30 a.m. and the Hotel didn’t have rooms ready. No problem though, we ended up sleeping in the Hotel’s restaurant on some small but pretty comfortable seating areas.
I gotta say it was one of my better nights of sleep. We woke the next morning realizing that we were in a pretty nice hotel where there was a continental breakfast and pretty plush rooms. (Also only $30/night) Although many people said it’s a just a bigger Agra (dirty, manic, cows everywhere) it actually was pretty cool. We visited the Hawa Mahal which is where Royal ladies back in the day were allowed to view the local markets. Quite a privilege I assume since the Lords and Rulers of Rajasthan didn’t allow them to even view other men.
We also went to city palace which was pretty cool and also outside the city to what’s called Monkey Temple. Yes, there were a ton of monkeys (and lots of cows of course) up there and some pretty awesome views of the city. We only spent the day in Jaipur and by nightfall were on our way to Jaisalmer, which is relatively close to the border of Pakistan.
After a 12 hour train ride, we arrived in Jaisalmer around 1:00 p.m. We got a hotel recommendation from our buddies we met in Jaipur and also knew right away that we wanted to do a desert trip. After arriving to our hotel we booked our desert trip that same day and by 4:30 p.m. were mounting our camels and heading into the dunes.
OH, I almost forgot...I’m not quite sure for how long this was taking place but Joel managed to grow a quite impressive mustache for our India trip. When I say impressive this is not just coming from me but also from the numerous compliments he got from everyone in Rajasthan. On top of his mustache we both got turbans and at that point were fully on Indians.
You might think, as I did, that riding a camel in the desert is so cool..which it is. But man am I happy that we only did it for one day because by the end of the desert trip I had some major chaffing going on and a sore ars. But I’m glad I can scratch a camel trip in the desert off the list. The trip was super fun though, took tons of awesome jumping pictures, met a really fun and random crew of travelers, ate a really delicious meal under an incredibly bright sunny sky and had some beers.
Great times.
We headed back to Jaisalmer at 9:00 a.m. the next morning, ate a delicious Nut Cake at a German Bakery, I got suckered into buying a bed mattress which I lost later that day (don’t ask), walked the streets of Jaisalmer and had an amazing dinner that night with our friends from the camel trip. The next day came quickly, our train rides had come to an end and we took our first bus ride that next morning (which was also an hour late) and headed to Jodhpur, “the blue city.”
I knew more about Jodhpur beforehand than any of the other cities that we traveled to. A friend of ours, Jorn who had been and is still visiting us in Seoul talked highly about it. Even with all the buildup, Jodhpur held its own and was really impressive.
Our first day in we decided to stick around our hostel and relax, since we really hadn’t done that the entire trip. Later in the night we went to one of the nicer restaurants in the city and drank what had to been the best Gin and Tonic that I’ve ever drank. Blue Falcon I believe was the name of the Gin and damn it was tasty. The night didn’t last long due to everything shutting down at 11ish and the seemingly lack of bars anywhere and everywhere in Rajasthan. The next morning we visited the Megrangarh fort which I thought was even more impressive than the Taj Mahal.
It just really captured the majestic image of Indian royalty and luxury. It almost seemed more like a palace then a fort and also had a really entertaining audio guide. After getting our full we headed outside the main area, had a delicious spicy lunch and hit some of the local manic markets. At this point, the constant site of cows was really overwhelming. It seemed like there were more cows in Jodhpur then the rest of the places we had visited combined. We made friends with another traveler at the hostel, purchased another delicious bottle of Blue Falcon Gin and talked late into the night (11:30 p.m.). Pathetic but whatever, we opened the bottle at 6:00 p.m. and never looked back. Our time in Jodpur was coming to an end and the next afternoon we were at the airport on our way to visit our friends in Chennai (Madras) via Spice Jet, also known as the worst airline ever.
Our Iowan friends Brad and Sarah who we met while living in Colombia work at Chennai International School and are one of the coolest couples I have met. We couldn’t have asked for a better greeting at the airport as their driver waited for us with a poster of the Colombian flag with our names painted with golden sparkles. Chennai is in Southern India and is really a completely different country. The language is Tamil not Hindi, the people are generally mid-night black in complexion, there weren’t nearly as many cows on the streets and it’s boiling hot. Luckily we weren’t there during the super hot season. Anyway...at this point of our journey we were now officially on vacation. Brad and Sarah stocked their fridge with American style food and liquor, we went to a beach resort on the Bay of Bengal, ate at an amazing all you can eat brunch buffet at one of the most luxurious hotels in Chennai.
was awesome...unlimited top shelf liquor, sushi, Thai food, Steak, Lobster..and our champagne glasses were never empty. And for only $40 USD! Amazing. We did one cultural thing which was crushing the Shore Temple UNESCO Heritage site and visiting the caves that are quite close. And of course, amazing jumping pictures were involved. Sadly our time in Chennai was coming to a close and we had to depart from our ridiculously hospitable friends and hosts. We were now onto our last stop, Bombay.
We fly into Bombay on the morning of Tuesday, February 23rd. Yes, it’s also known as Mumbai but we were told that only tourists call it Mumbai. Anyways..Bombay was a major change from any of the cities that we had visited before. I could count with my hands the number of cows we saw, people were sophistically dressed, main streets were relatively clean (compared with anywhere else we had been in India) and prices were much higher. We saw the local sights near the Fort area but at this point we were both pretty much over seeing “the sights.” Joel had a friend in Bombay, Adele, who was he had met in Colombia. Adele and her friends showed us around, took us to Elephant Island where we saw some really spectacular caves and the last night in India Adele had a small get together at her place.Before we knew it our trip was over and we were on our 24 hour return to Seoul but not before eating a delicious Goan lunch from Adele’s mom. India was definitely like no other place I’ve been to. The staggering poverty, the chaotic but somehow harmonious comings and goings, the manic markets, the smells, the sites, the cows...it was definitely a trip to remember.
And now I’m back in Seoul and to be quite honest, I’m very content here and think I will stay for another year. For that I’m determined to better my Korean and quite honestly start bettering myself by step number, cut back on drinking. We’ll see how it goes with the immense pressure in Korea to go out. I’m up for the test anyway. I’m back at school this week and its feels like a brand new school to me. My Korean mom is now one of my co-teachers, I’ll only be teaching 5th grade with my previous co-teacher and I’ll be working with another brand new co-teacher that will be new to the school. But more than any of this, the overall attitude of everyone at school seems to be brightened and the stress level has gone down. Plus spring is on the way, soccer season has started, people are coming out of their shells and the days are getting longer. Life’s good.
Movie of the Month: Wannted, 2009
Book of the Month: The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao –Junot Diaz
Music of the Month: The xx
Quote of the Month: It’s never the changes we want that change everything. –Junot Diaz,
