The Longest Blog Entry Ever

After three months without leaving Karnataka, I was beginning to think that India’s village life and pristine natural settings were only a myth. Seizing the opportunity of a free train ride north for AIFs midpoint retreat in Mumbai, I planned a trip to Rajasthan with a few friends. If I were not to take the time and space to describe many of the small details of my travels I could not do this action-packed trip justice-- so bare with me and enjoy my travel log.

Phase I: Mumbai
I began by heading to Mumbai two days in advance of midpoint so that I would have a chance to see some of the city. Diana, Sumit, Vanitha, Nafessa, and I rendezvoused in Mumbai’s airport (which I hesitated leaving because it reminded me so much of America), had a nice dinner at a very European-feeling Café near our hotel, and headed out for a Saturday night on the town. We didn’t quite have the typical clubbing experience that is often associated with Mumbai, but we did run into a famous Hindi soap opera star and got to see many landmarks through the windows of various cars/taxis. Early the next morning (and this is where the trend of little to no sleep that would become prevalent over the course of my travels began) we grabbed breakfast and strolled over to the Gateway of India. On our walk there we spotted a production company filming what seemed to be a commercial and a group setting up for a runway fashion show. In general Mumbai’s cultural and arts scene was vibrant, which is a big part of what I liked about the city.

The Gateway of India is a huge arch built on the Arabian Sea in 1911 to welcome King George V. Its beauty is only slightly diminished by the hoards of sales people ready to pounce on the nearest tourist. From the Gateway, we grabbed a boat over to Elephanta Island. Located about 10 km off the cost of Mumbai, this is the site of some 9th century Hindu temples that were built into caves. The grand statues of Hinduism’s most prominent gods are tucked away into the mountains and look off onto beautiful sea vistas. This World Heritage Site is truly amazing, and I’m sure I’ll be watching national geographic (or nat. geo. as they call it in India) and see the caves and temples of Elephanta Island and feel shocked and lucky that I’ve had the chance to see them in person.

A great plus about traveling here with Diana is being able to take advantage of her photography expertise. While in the dark caves, she gave me a quick lesson on how to capture the minimal light available to increase the quality of photos. Check out this before and after. Thanks Diana!

After the caves, we headed straight out to dinner and had some delicious Thai food. Which brings me to another highlight of Mumbai—FOOD. You see, unlike the rest of India, Mumbai actually has restaurants that serve international cuisine that tastes like it is supposed to, rather than different variations of Indian food. I stuffed myself to the brim, and then met up with some other fellows and grabbed a few drinks at a Hawaiian themed bar.

The next morning we woke up early for more site seeing. This time we stopped at Haji Ali Mosque. The Mosque was built in the 1800’s, and contains the tomb of a Muslim saint Haji Ali. It has a beautiful whitewashed exterior, and sits a few hundred meters into the Arabian Sea. You take a pathway to get there, which is overcome by water during high tide.

Afterwards, Sumit, Nafessa and I bought a souvenir to remember the trip by. They are small capsules that are filled with Muslim prayers and worn around the neck. You are supposed to wear them until they fall off in order to have good luck.

Once we wrapped up our shopping, we only had a few hours before midpoint started, so we made the most of it and visited Dhobi Ghats. This is essentially a massive outdoor Laundromat. For as far as the eye can see there are basins filled with soapy water and surfaces to smack, scrub, and rub dirty laundry until it is clean. Part of me was thinking that someone should invest in a few dozen washing machines to make everyone’s life easier, but then again that would instantly take away jobs from hundreds of people. We walked around for a bit and then stopped by Chowpatty Beach to dip our feet in the sea. Hopefully I didn’t have any open wounds, because the sea was more like dark sludge than salt water.
Phase II: AIFMidpoint, located in Navi (New) Mumbai
Do you remember the song that goes “Reunited and it Feels So Good?” Any of my friends from college I’m sure can recall Cat and Risa “singing” it at all hours of the day. Anyway, that line certainly held true for this reunion of fellows. Despite only knowing each other for two weeks when we first arrived in India, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when we came together at our hostel in Navi Mumbai. Finally we had a forum to share stories about all of the fun we’ve had, all of the frustrations we’ve faced, and all of the work we’ve done.

Without going into too much detail, it was really amazing to see how therapeutic just sharing our experiences could be. There were similarities in things I would have never expected, and so many inspirational stories of people overcoming challenges. We took a lot of time to reflect on common themes experienced by all, and had a chance to give AIF feedback on the program as well. Particularly interesting was the discussion about issues that women face in India. It opened my eyes to challenges that I couldn’t have known, which I am really grateful for. I feel like I can be a more supportive friend and better prepare my sister and friends for when they come to visit.

On our second night we held a holiday gift exchange that I had organized in advance. The rule was that everyone had to bring a hilarious/strange/unique gift that cost less than Rs.50 ($1.25). With Christmas carols playing in the background, we all had a blast opening each other’s presents. I ended up with a scented deer testicle…no, I’m not joking.

Overall midpoint was a much needed energy boost. I left feeling recharged and optimistic about what I will accomplish over the next six months.

Phase III: Jaipur
When our flight landed in Jaipur, I had only had about 2 or 3 hours of sleep, but felt awake and ready to begin the more adventurous part of my trip. Jaipur is located in Rajasthan, a state in the North West of India that is mostly desert. We stepped off the plane and were shocked by how cold it was (probably about 45 degrees). At this point I was traveling with Sumit, Jeena, Nafessa, Vani, Menal, Ja, and Lindsey. We headed to Lauri’s (one of the fellows placed in Jaipur) apartment and dropped our stuff off before heading to do some site seeing. Our first stop was Hawa Mahal. This palace is famous for its pink exterior, covered with intricately decorated windows. It was originally used for royal women to be able to look out onto the street without being seen.

We next headed to City Palace. This palace was built in the late 1800s and occupies a massive area within the walled portion of the city. It contains a series of intricately decorated building, connected by open-courtyards and gardens. Within the courtyards there are lots of typical “Indian tourist attractions” like snake charmers and puppet shows.

Although the palaces were beautiful, the highlight of Jaipur was going to Katy and Vivek’s wedding. Katy is one of the other fellows who had been planning her marriage in Jaipur before coming on the fellowship. We were lucky enough to be invited once we all made friends during our orientation. The wedding was everything you could hope for out of a traditional Indian ceremony. It was held at Sisodia Rani Palace and Garden which was built over 300 years ago for one of the queens of the Maharaja (king). The groom was marched in on top of a decorated elephant, as his friends and family danced to traditional Rajasthani music played by a brass band. Once inside we were all in awe of how gorgeous the palace was. There were 3 or 4 tiers of gardens that were vibrantly lighted and filled with fountains. On the top tier there was an hour-long show put on by traditional Rajasthan dancers. The food was DELICIOUS, and as the night began to get cold we settled around the Indian version of an alter for the marriage ceremony. Unfortunately we had to duck out early to catch our train to Jodhpur, but I left feeling lucky to have experienced a personal friend’s Indian wedding in such a picturesque location.

Part IV: Jodhpur

Now is when the sleep schedule really starts to get crazy. One can only last on 3 hours of sleep for so long with out pooping out. That however, was not an option for my fellow travelers. We were scheduled to take at 2:30 am train, but after arriving at the train station realized that the tickets were accidentally booked for the wrong day. With much scrambling, a few breakdowns, and lots of running around, we finally were able to get on a train at about 4:30. Of course, we only had 4 hours to sleep before getting to Jodhpur, and even that was interrupted by an uptight conductor, loud snores, etc.

No matter how beautiful a city is, its impossible to feel energized on that little sleep—or so I thought. Jodhpur is truly breath taking. Its quiet, small town feel was refreshing. Its picturesque blue-washed buildings were hard to take your eyes off of. And the main attraction, Mehrangarh Fort was too irresistible to spend time resting instead of visiting. The fort was built in the late 1400s and is perched on top of a hill looking over the entire city. The view of the city and the thousands of buildings painted blue was breath taking. I was told the blue paint is to keep the homes cool and repel insects. Aside from the view, a major highlight of the fort was an incredible audio-guided tour that explained all about its history. We learned about the Maharaja’s life and how he used the fort to entertain guests, fight off enemies, and impress the ladies.

Later that evening we had a glass of wine on the rooftop of Ja and Menal’s hotel, before grabbing a bite to eat near Jodhpur’s clock tower. Since the views in Jodhpur are so amazing nearly every restaurant has rooftop seating. We spent our meal admiring the lights and colors of the city despite the frigid winter air. Of course we couldn’t relax too much, because we had a 12:30 train to catch.

Part V: Jaisalemer

Would you be surprised to hear that our supposedly confirmed train tickets turned out not to be confirmed? A little more prepared for how to navigate this situation we were able to get on the right train, but did not have enough seats. So this time, our four hours of sleep was interrupted not only by irritating conductors, loud snores and freezing cold temperatures, but also by having to share “beds” that are about 1.5 x 5 feet.

Physical exhaustion was really setting in now. I mean delusional, painful, can’t keep your eyes open exhaustion. Good thing we were picked up at the train station and taken directly to the desert to begin our two day camel trek!

I felt like I needed toothpicks to keep my eyes open, and was thrilled that the trek started out with our guides preparing coffee and breakfast for us. They made breakfast like all of the other meals—over small and simple fires. The coffee was so delicious (made with cardamom, ginger, sugar, milk, and Nescafe). We also had hard-boiled eggs and toast. All of the food that the guides prepared was simple, but delicious. I was so impressed and envious of their total self-sufficiency. Within less than an hour they were able to pull together spicy, nutritious and extremely warming four course meals, including freshly made bread. Their clean-up technique was also really neat. They actually used the sand and dirt to clean our plates. It is so dry that it absorbs all of the grease and food and just wipes off of all of the metal cookware. I like to think of it as nature’s Brillo.

After breakfast we were introduced to our camels. I was given the largest, which was also the leader of the pack. He was 9 years old, very tall, and had terrible gas. I named him Rahul. By around 10 o’clock we embarked, without a lesson on basic steering techniques or commands. Fortunately our camels were pretty well behaved.

As we set off on our journey it became apparent that this desert was not going to see the sun or heat that we were expecting. With 5 layers of clothing, I still felt chilled to the bone. The rain and lack of sleep only made it feel colder. I was determined to stay optimistic and stay focused on the fact that I probably would never have another chance to be riding on the back of a camel through the desert.

Early into the trip we were surprised by the un-desert like qualities of this desert. It looked more like farmland with sand instead of dirt. No cactus with thorns or typical desert animals. At lunch Vanni even joked that they should rename the tour a jungle safari.

We continued the trek until dinnertime, where we came to our resting place at the base of a small sand dune. This was much more like the desert we had been expecting. As we arrived, we even saw a peacock walking at the top of the dune. The peacock is India’s national bird, so I couldn’t help but feel like the whole experience was a little magical.

Nighttime began to fall and we were getting a bit concerned about having to sleep outside, without tents, in the cold and rain. Our guides suggested we check and see if some villagers not far away would allow us to stay in one of their huts. So, off we trekked through the desert in the dark to a village, which were really just three huts that belonged to about 10 people. Even though we woke them from their sleep, they agreed to let us stay, and quickly cleared out some room in the hut used to store grain and animal feed. The hut was made of mud and dung, and covered with straw. We had sleeping bags sprawled out on the floor, and fell asleep within seconds of putting our heads down. It was the best nights sleep I have ever had in my life.

The next morning we were awoken by our guides coughing and making noise to try to wake us up. Our hut did not face the sun (unlike the other villagers) so we were the last to wake up. It was quite hysterical walking out of the grain storage hut, to all of the villagers staring at us and trying to figure out how a bunch of Americans ended up spending the night with them. They were so kind and generous, and we all left the village wishing we could offer them something.

Day two of the trek (which was also Christmas eve) was sunny and hot, and we were all thrilled. We spent some time warming ourselves and running around in the sand dunes, took pictures of our shadows in the sand, and began to brace ourselves to part with our beloved camels and guides. The trip ended kind of quickly. Our guides realized we were running late for our meet up time, so the last half hour was spent with our camels running in a full sprint. That feels about as comfortable on your ass as you would imagine. Then, out of nowhere, jeeps came and hauled us back to the town so we could catch our 4 pm train ride back to Jaipur.

Again, you wont be surprised to know that we had to share two tiny beds among 4 people. I think I slept a little better though, knowing that my next night would be in an actual bed. We arrived in Jaipur and grabbed a hotel to rest in for a few more hours, then grabbed a Christmas brunch, did some tourist shopping, and headed to the airport to fly back to Bangalore.

Once home in my apartment my roommate surprised me and decorated with lights and other Christmas decorations. It was fantastic. We listened to Christmas music, opened presents, and ate Chinese food. He even managed to find an Italian deli that sold imported meats and cheeses, so it really felt a lot like home. He also surprised me with an awesome present—a new water heater for my shower. Finally, after 4 months, I had my first hot shower at home.

This 10 day journey was truly an adventure that I’ll never forget (especially now that I have transcribed the entire thing for my blog readers to suffer through).