Guess who's baaaaack guys. India. Man. What a place.
Seriously though, like, that was a very particular experience. And I was really just thrown into it off the get go, like you might see in a movie. After arriving in late-evening and navigating my way from the airport to the hostel (turning down many an offer from people wanting roughly 8 times the price it was supposed to be), in my first three minutes on the streets trying to find my hostel I witness a group of about 6 small street-children not even 7 years old approaching a middle aged man, then saw him pick up a brick and them scatter. That kind of thing really reminds you you're not in Burford anymore. Anyway, to say the streets were crowded would be an insane understatement; literally everywhere that there wasn't garbage (which there was a sea of) there were nearly-naked young children, or buskers, or street dogs (so so many dogs) or people driving by on scooters consistently missing you by a thread. It wasn't too long a walk from the metro to the hostel though (oh we gonna talk about the metro soon) and the people in my hostel were insanely amazing and instantly welcoming, so i really lucked out there.
The next day i wanted to head out and see what there is to see. I hit the streets early with an itinerary from someone in the hostel of the places to check out around New Delhi. I hopped on the subway (or, somehow managed to squeeze into the subway) to get to the first place, and found that once i entered the subway (and throughout my entire journey India), i was among many stares. That's something about india; in China, people will stare at you, but then once you catch them they look away quickly. In India, they dont look away - they just keep starring. So imagine standing on the subway with your insanely full touristy-backpack and meeting all these eyes that wont stop looking at you. Then try to imagine seeing signs up and routine reminders over the loudspeakers to please check your seats for abandoned items before sitting down. Basically, every subway i used had multiple reminders to watch out for homemade explosives. Both of these factors led to a maaaarginally unnerving trip. But I got to my destination before long.
On my way to the first temple, i couldnt help but get sidetracked and walk down a street full of markets and things to see. There were so many narrow winding streets with good amounts of small animals (like chickens and lizards and many more dogs). There were also small children who kept following me and holding out their hands; this was insanely common. Multiple times there were kids who would flock to me and those i was travelling with, pointing at their bare feet and begging for some money. I was told many times not to give them anything and that it was a scam, though did give in once; that's not the kind of thing you see in burford and, in canadian dollars, it wasnt a big financial loss. Maybe it helped someone, who knows.
Let me further shatter any illusions you may have right now of me having turned into a travel smart non-naive tourist with this next story. So im walking to someplace that i hear is a nifty temple when two highschool aged Indian boys start walking next to me and chatting. We're talking and i tell them where I'm from and they're asking questions and such when a guy in a motor-rickshaw pulls up beside me and says 'hello! Just ten rupee, you get in!" And im like no thanks, and hes like "ok free, you get in! I take you somewhere nice!" and the two indian boys got in (free ride in their direction) and so i was like, sure, why not. The indian boys get out about 5 minutes later and, of course, afterwards he takes me to a shopping mall, wanting me to buy rugs and things. I leave and am just walking aimlessly down the street when another motor-rickshaw comes up and a guy says "Hello! I take you to a wonderful temple! 10 rupee ride!" And im like no. Thanks quite okay. But then we start chatting and i tell him im canadian and he says "Oh, Canadian! My favourite country! Free, free ride!" And he showed me the temple we'd be going to on the map and after a bit i was like "well...okay. Free ride to a cool temple. Why not" and once i got in he said "Just a quick 15 minute stop first" and took off. Of course, shopping mall number 2, where i was made to stay for a while looking at cheap linens and whatnot. The fact that this happened to me 2 times directly in a row is only slightly embarrassing, but the temple (there honestly was a temple) i went to afterwards was actually quite a neat place, so that's something.
One of the best places I went to was a Sikh temple, where I learned that Sikhism was made from the oppressed members of society who wanted to form a religion where everyone was equal. They had to fight their way to being unoppressed, and so, as war is a part of their religion, open weapon carry is permitted for any practicing Sikh in New Delhi. The best thing about the temple was, as they wanted all people to be cared for, over 60 000 people a day were fed there, with people who had nowhere else to go sleeping there as well. We went and participated in a Sikh meal (with me embarrassing myself by sitting to eat on a step, and then everyone looking at me, as apparently since everyone is equal in this temple we all have to sit on the floor at the same level to represent that. My brother Reuben said "you HAD to offend the religion that permits open-carried weapons", which, yeah, thats my bad). In all honesty that was a really amazing experience, and the food was truly good.
Anyway, yeah. In the remainder of my trip I saw cows laying on the street like dogs do, bulls and horses taking people around, goats tethered to poles and nipping at people, insanely crowded markets and extreme class-inequality (which i was warned about before coming but still nearly drove me to tears on an occasion where i saw a family with totally naked children living on a cement island between two highways). It was a nuts trip. Two more instances worth mentioning though: the first is that when i was meandering the streets with my giant backpack and shorts looking as embarrassingly touristy as humanly possible, i decided to buy some food. There were guys at a stand selling food, and so i asked for some soup. They proceed to make the soup and then put it in a bag and hand it to me. I asked if they had a bowl. Or maybe a spoon. They said no. So i was left in the streets of india holding my bag of soup wondering what the heck to do now. Fortunately i decided to buy some bread to dip in my soup, which worked okay. That shows what kind of problem solving is needed for these trips abroad.
So the other story is that it was on my bucket list to see some monkeys, so i went with this guy who said he knew where some monkeys were and voila, monkeys. A lot of monkeys, just hanging out near a highway. They were on buildings and in trees and all over the ground; there were a bunch around the vendors (who would just throw bananas at them which they would catch with their feet like without even looking then devour in seconds it was amazing) and i was cautioned to be very careful with my food here, and strictly warned not to buy a banana. I got some fried potatoes and kept watch, and sure enough as i ate them some monkeys were moving through the trees towards my location. Some locals were watching me and probably wondering if i was gonna get a nasty surprise but fortunately i finished my potatoes in time. I have a video on my facebook wall of a monkey running up and trying to take someones food (which i caught accidentally) and that was super wild.
Yeah, so, that night i went to a buffet with some folks from my hostel before heading to the airport. I left at like 9:30 and got to the airport at around 11, and since my boarding pass said my flight boarded at 00:05, i thought, oh, that means it leaves at 1:05, i have loads of time (yes. yes. yes. i know.) It was about 5 minutes later that i realized...wait, this is the domestic airport. I need the International airport. I'm at the wrong airport.
After running out in a panic and asking a stranger where the international one was, i found out that it was just over 10km away. At that moment a little part of me died, but the stranger happened to be a motor rickshaw driver and proceeded to take me on one of the scariest drives of my life, where i dont think he slowed down once and went right in between so many large vehicles that i thought that this was how i was going to die. I didn't die fortunately, though he did end up getting a lot more money out of me than was reasonable, but since beggars cant be choosers i forked it over and eventually made it to the airport just after 11:30. There were other problems too, like needing a new boarding pass and whatnot that slowed down the process. But eventually i found my way into the waiting area for my plane at around 12:10am. It wasnt too long after that i had a rush of realization that 00:05 did not, in fact, mean 1:05 (how do i make it anywhere) but actually 12:05. I found out though that my flight had been delayed to 12:40, and so was spared the insane headache of being stuck in india in the middle of the night (but yeah. That was insane).
So yeah. That was my trip to India. I can safely say that 2 days, honestly, is so very much not enough, But I'm glad i was actually able to get a true taste of the culture while being overseas.
And i know i just got back, but here's another surprise...I'm going to Thailand next week! Jeez, these trips honestly do come out of nowhere. But my boss said that he's really going to need me for the next 2 months so prefers any more vacations i want to take i take now, and since ive heard cool things about chiang mai, i decided to go for it. There'll probably be another blog post in a while about that and some other stuff, so staaaaaaaaay tuned.
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