Semester at Sea – Spring 2007 (Alex Song) On a ship, traveling around the world, at 20 miles an hour

India was by far the most amazing port yet. I mean, they’ve all been amazing one way or another, but India takes away everything you think you’ve known and completely stomps on it.

The main part of my stay in India, was of course, the trip to Delhi, Agra, and the Taj Mahal (CHE15 Group B to anyone dying to know). Our first day was a definite eye-opener, giving us a preview of what to expect for the next few days. We started off by taking an Indian Airlines flight to Delhi, which was unique for two reasons: they served a full meal for our little 2 hour journey, and the view outside the window at our cruising altitude. We all knew that much of India was polluted, but we had no idea at the intensity and scale of it until we saw a thick, smoky layer between our plane and the ground. It was surreal. One thing I noticed during the first day in Chennai was that the sky was definitely not visible due to all of the smog, but the sun’s rays were still getting through. Our plane ride above this layer revealed the blue sky above which both relieved and concerned me.

Upon our arrival in Delhi, we went to lunch at some hotel and departed for the train station, and this is where it began. The beggars and vendors started coming upto me, asking for money to feed their children or to buy their products. I suppose it’s no suprise that they were attracted to me first – on the previous day I saw a lot of Indians wearing brightly colored clothing, so today I had attempted to blend in by wearing a bright yellow South African soccer jersey. Unfortunately, the beggars and vendors did not wear bright colors, making my ensemble a total reverse-camoflague. The $1000 camera hanging around my neck probably didn’t help my situation either.

We finally boarded 2-3 hours later (our train was only slightly delayed, said our guide) and the harrassment/capitalism/desperate pleas followed us in. All any of us wanted was to take a nap after the day’s events. That was not an option, due to the throngs of beggars and vendors moving through the train cars and yelling in our ears about coffee or chai or tugging at our clothes and making the “I’m a starving child, give me food or money” motion. We could not go for 3 minutes without being approached by someone.

We finally arrived at the Hotel Mansingh and the vendors in the hotel mall pounced on us immediately – one of them enticed us in by displaying a custom t-shirt with a picture of the Taj Mahal on the front, and with the text “Welcome Semester at Sea” on the back. After dinner, my new friend Katie and I hit up the hotel bar and got pulled into buying full Indian outfits to wear to the Taj the following morning.

The next day consisted of the Taj Mahal at dawn, Fatehpur Sikri palaces, Agra Fort, and the Taj Mahal again. Not much to mention about those except that vendors and beggars were everywhere and it seemed they got more aggressive and persistant as the day went on. Following our last visit to the Taj, Katie and I were nearly held hostage by rickshaw drivers as we walked back to the bus.

Dinner was at the Pizza Hut adjacent to our hotel. We all received personal pizzas (chicken for the non-vegs, and cheese for the vegs) and a soft drink. Entertainment was provided by the Pizza Hut employees themselves, who performed a dance routine for us in the middle of the floor. I wasn’t very hungry to begin with, but I forced my pizza down knowing full well that I wouldn’t be able to hold onto it once we got to the train station.

Our train back to Delhi was much nicer – actual seats (opposed to shared bench seating), air conditioning, lighting, meal service (including ice cream), armed guards, and no vendors or beggars. And as if that wasn’t enough, our accomodations at the Hotel Ashok in Delhi were amazing. The Ashok is a luxury hotel that had it’s own nightclub, some restaurants (including a Korean restaurant), several hotel dining rooms, and just a lot of space to move around in. It was also our first taste of the internet in India…amazing stuff. Most of us hit up the club and got our drink on, knowing that we wouldn’t have to wake up until a normal waking up hour of 0800, and it was quite a relief. This hotel was the only place in India where I felt completely stress-free.

The next day saw us taking an extremely uninteresting city tour of Delhi followed by an extremely short visit to the Ghandi museum. And then it was off to the airport, where after another delayed flight (and one without air conditioning), we finally arrived back to the ship.

My last day in port, much like everyone else’s, was spent shopping. I did 4 hours at Spencers Plaza (billed as the largest mall in all of India….it was definiely the most westernized place I’ve seen here), an hour or two at another place, and we went back to Spencers for another few hours (where I finally found a shop that sold Canon digital cameras and hi-speed memory cards, but opted out of the camera as my AmEx didn’t extend their buyer protection to purchases outside of the US) before finally departing. Our autorickshaw driver annoyed the hell out of us – not sure if it was because he was inherently annoying or if because it was desperation. We started off okay as he said he’d be happy with whatever we paid him at the end, but then he made us go out of our way to visit 3 stores to “help him get a gift” (rickshaw drivers make commission from the tourists they bring to these stores) for his family. Then on our way back to the ship, while driving in crazy Indian traffic, he kept turning to us every 10 seconds asking us to donate whatever we had for his daughter (toys, pens, gum, etc). It pissed us off immensely – how was this idiot supposed to drive safely if he kept turning around to ask for money?

He stopped the autorickshaw across the street from the port area, once again asked us to give him something for his daughter, then quoted a high price for the ride (a big change from “I’ll be happy with whatever you give me.”) We gave him the standard fare, brushed him off as he tried to chase us down for more, and somehow managed to cross the street without dying (a common tactic was for rickshaw drivers to drop you off across the street and then charge you extra to bring you to the other side – my first driver pulled that on me until I gave him a firm no…he dropped us off on the other side anyways and got no tip from me). We all know he was probably desperate to feed his family (or to take advantage of the rich American tourists), but his actions enraged us immensely, and for that we left India with a bitter taste in our mouths for Indian rickshaw drivers.

India was a wild ride. I got a glimpse of widespread poverty, left with beautiful Indian-made products, made a wonderful new friend, learned how to deal with asshole taxi drivers (I have never taken a cab before SAS), and obtained a much deeper appreciation for our everyday conveniences in the US such as traffic laws, air conditioning, clean drinking water, pollution laws, pest control products, and those groups that pick up trash along the highways.

However, India is still kinda smelly.

(Note: This post was written on our first day in port 3/25)

“What’s that weird smell?” was the question I asked myself when I woke this morning. They were right, the Chennai funk was noticable, and it had invaded my cabin.

Our hour long bus ride to the rural farm and village revealed little new information to me. Yes, the cities look exactly like how they are depicted in movies, or at your local international district. Trash is everywhere, including parks and beaches. I witnessed two men urinating by the side of the road, in the open (but with their backs turned for some sense of privacy). Many of the areas we were at had the noticable odor of urine, fecal matter (from animals, I hope), and other elements I’m not familiar with. There were public urinals, but these were nothing but 4 walls that were chest-high, with a hole leading into the ground and no running water.

The farm and village visit itself was pretty cool. Our guide had been running this trip for SAS for 13 years, and was a very knowledgable guy who spoke fluent english. Our lunch consisted of some yummy homemade cuisine with two types of rice, eggplant, potatos, boiled eggs, chutney, some type of flatbread, and some other items I can’t recall. After touring the farm area (and witnessing a dog fight that I found pretty wicked – this stray, malnourished little doggy jumped our guide’s well-fed, healthy, much larger german shepherd).

After touring the farm, we rode on a cart pulled by oxen (or buffalo, or whatever they were). After it took us through the village, we turned onto the main road with the rickshaws, buses, and motorcycles. Something to note here is that pedestrians do NOT have right of way. It was like playing a real-life game of Frogger.

Along the route, the local children would run upto the cart, giving us the opportunity to pass out our goodies (pencils, stickers, books, etc). It was pretty cool. Adult villagers also came out to just look at us like we were an exhibit – it was a little weird having a small mob of people gather and look at you without interacting, but I guess whiteys don’t really come around that often.

I never realized how much I had missed the ship until we stepped back in that night – the air conditioning, lack of the Chennai funk, and clean drinking water was amazing. I could probably sleep like a baby, but I leave for the Delhi/Agra/Taj Mahal trip in a few hours. This is going to be awesome.