A Journey Through India Part 1

As a kid, I was fortunate enough to get to go on several trips.  My dad was an avid scuba diver.  Our dive group took several trips out to Mexico and the Caribbean. From a young age, I was hooked.  As a teenager, we took a big trip out to New Zealand.  I knew after that trip, I wanted to see the world.  A journey though India might be a little out of the norm, but it was an incredible experience.

I followed the straight and narrow path, got good grades, went to college and graduated with my degree.  For graduation, I wanted to buy myself my first big international trip as an adult.  So what does a young twenty something decide on? India… out of the usual, absolutely.  Scary, most definitely.  Life changing, you bet cha.

What brought me to India

                When deciding on an epic destination, India was around the top of the list.  I wanted to see the Taj Mahal.  The chance to see a tiger, in the wild, was a big pull.  More than that, I wanted to make this a trip for the books.  India offered a new culture, new beliefs and a wildly new experience to dive into. 

Having never been to Asia before, my mom convinced me to book a tour.  She also decided to come along for the trip.  At the time, I was against having a travel companion.  I wanted to be independent and travel solo.  However, that saying, “mother knows best”, was all too true.  So we booked a two week trip with GAdventures.  I booked out flights and we were all set.

Arriving in India

                Traveling form the US, I took a few days layover in Paris, France.  Paris was fantastic, don’t get me wrong.  However, I remember being at the airport thinking that I couldn’t wait to get away from the dirty streets.  Looking back, I had no idea what I was in for.

                We took an overnight flight to India, arriving in New Delhi the next morning.  My mom and I got off the plane and immediately noticed the smog.  Even in the airport, you could see a haze above us.  I knew I was going to a third world country.  However, I had not wrapped my head around what that would mean. 

We met our guide, Raghu, at the airport and he set us up with a driver to get us to our hotel.   With our tour, the group was scheduled to meet up for an overview of what to expect of our tour and cultural differences to anticipate.  Also, to meet our tour mates before heading out to get a traditional Indian dinner.

A Journey Through India:

Culture Shock

                Our journey through India got off to a rough start. I’ll be the first to admit, I didn’t think that culture shock was a real thing.  We are all people but I was not prepared for our short drive to the hotel.  I am an animal lover at heart.  In India, dogs are not typically pets.  Which I quickly learned on our short ride over to the hotel.  There were dogs on the side of the road, some healthy others not so much. 

I had prepared myself to see homeless people.  I knew the poverty level was high.  However, I wasn’t prepared to feel so helpless.  I was hurt and scared.  The worst part was, I had willing signed up for this. 

I held it together long enough to get into our hotel room.  Attributing this next emotional outburst to lack of sleep would seem appropriate, but I’m not sure that I even believe that.  I sat on my bed a cried.  Just not able to hold myself together.  This was all new to me.  I was scared of all the new elements I was surrounded by.  More than that, so may people and animals needed help and I didn’t know how to help. 

At this point, without my mom I might have turned around, gone back to the states and not embraced this experience.  We had the full intention of going out to explore the area.  My mom and I quickly decided to shower, take a nap and meet with the group later.

A Journey Through India:

Namaste

                There is nothing quite like a warm shower to relax the nerves.  Well, those were few and far between.  In the 14 days we were in India, I might have had two showers that were not cold.

  Just when it seemed like things just kept getting worse, we met up with our group.  I cannot tell you how much fun we had with our group and our guide.  We have kept in touch and although we all lived in different countries we have visited each other throughout the years. 

After our introductions, our group went out to eat at a traditional restraunt.  We had to have our menus translate but it was sitting with all of my new friends, all out of our element, that I finally started to relax.

A Journey Through India: New Delhi

                Our first official day of our tour started the next morning.  I was still feeling nervous and unsettled.  Our first big outing was to a Sikh temple.  Now keep in mind, I heard “sick” temple and immediately thought we were going to help the sick. 

I personally don’t do well in hospitals and was terrified I was going to catch something while abroad.  Upon further explanation, I learned that it was a religion and that we would be helping make food for the masses.  There are a few main religions in India but if anyone is hungry and comes to a Sikh temple, the leaders will ensure that the person is fed.  We sat with the ladies to help for a while and did our part to help for the day. 

Salaam Baalak Trust

                While in New Delhi, our journey through India led us to the Salaam Baalak Trust.  There is a wide spread problem with abandoned children in India.  It is not unheard of for a child to get lost in the hustle and bustle at the train stations and for the rest of the family to carry on without them.  The Salaam Baalak Trust is a school for boys who do not have a family to take care of them.  The boys there learned English and we taught the ins and outs of the tourism industry.  As a result, when the boys graduate out at 18 they have the tools they need to get a sustainable job.

                As our group walked into their main room, we were greeted with a joyous “NAMASTE!”  We spread out in the room to sit and play with the children.  I ended up in a very eager group of young boys who loved playing clapping games. 

Lucky for me, one of the boys spoke English wonderfully and made a great translator!  Another boy, around 10, was eager to play along and to introduce himself he showed me his tattoo.  The other boy explained that he did not know how to speak so they tattooed his name on his arm.   What a different world I had gotten myself into.

                This was one heck of an introduction to India.  However, I finally felt like I was helping.  This first day was what I needed to remind me of the good that was in the world.

A Journey Through India:

A Train Ride

                Just when I started to feel a sense of purpose and belonging in our journey through India, we had a train ride across India.  We took the remaining toilet paper from our hotel room and headed to the train station in New Delhi.  

Our guide, Raghu left us in our group to go get our tickets.  Before he returned, a group of Indian men came over and started pulling out bags away from us.  As panic stared to set in, Raghu ran over explaining that they were porters and he had hired them to carry our bags. 

These men had a wrap around their head, hence giving then a flat top to balance several suitcases on. Raghu was given a certain amount of funding to help support the people of India. As a result, he hired help for us to support the locals.

                We had a 13 hour ride on a sleeper train on our journey through India.  Let me paint you a picture.  I thought we would be taking the Hogwarts Express… not even close.  We had cabins that we were assigned to.  Each cabin had a bottom bunk that doubled as a seat.  The middle bunk doubled as the back rest until it was pulled up.  There was a third top bunk well above our head sitting down.  Each cabin had a small table and a curtain.  There were bathrooms at each end of the train sections.  However, I use the term bathroom lightly, as it was a hole in the floor that emptied onto the train tracks.  Needless to say, we did not get much sleep that night. 

New Years

                This train ride in particular was over New Years Eve overnight to New Years Day.  Several of us stayed up playing cards, talking and celebrating New Years for each of our countries.  By the time we settled down to go to sleep the locals on the train had passed the word along that there were several English speaking people in our cabin.  Throughout the night, people would walk by our cabin and pull back the curtain to check out the tourist.  It was certainly a New Years to remember.  We finally made it across India to head out to Bandhavgarh National Park.  We were still a two hour car ride from our lodge but we made it safely.

A Journey Through India:

In the Bush

                My time out in the National Parks were my absolute favorite parts of India.  We spent a few days out in a beautiful lodge, completely secluded from the outside world.  Our lodge was stunning and the people were a joy.  Our meals were all at the lodge and we would head out on safaris in between meals.  We would sit at a campfire at night and enjoy each other’s company.  It was peaceful and completely in my element.  This was what I pictured India to be.

                A small side note: for each Safari, our seats were predetermined.  When we would load into the safari vehicles we had to sit in our assigned seats and turn our passports in before we could begin.  Turning your passport over in a foreign country can be unsettling.  Learning why… didn’t help.  Why you ask?  In case one of us were to turn up “missing”, then there would be proper documentation. 

A Safari for the Books

                It was our last day in Bandhavgarh and we still had not seen a tiger.  I was getting desperate.  We took a different route that morning in hopes of finding the illusive tiger.  To get to this location, we passed through a village of very excited children.   The small children ran after our vehicles to wave.   We saw many of the older children on the journey over to school.  It was well over a mile to and from school that they had to walk.

                Once we passed through the village we encountered a gate.  The vehicle that my mom and I were in had to go get a key.  However, they said they could not get the key with the tourist in the vehicle.  So we shuffled out of the vehicle and waited in the middle of the jungle. 

Before the safari crew left I interjected, “so what happens if a tiger shows up?”  Without missing a beat one man said, “Tiger full.  He ate farmer last week.”  I’m guessing the looks from our tour crew did not look satisfied with that answer so he conclude with, “stay in big group, you’ll be safe.”  Then they drove off to get the key.              

Monkey Bamboozle

                As it turns out, we were safe.  Unfortunately, we did not see a tiger.  Plenty of deer, a jungle cat and beautiful birds but no tigers.  While we were slightly disappointed we went back to the lodge to find a troop of monkeys had rebelled against the lodge.  The monkeys took over the roof of the building and as a result, shorted out the power So that nice shower we were all looking forward to did not happen before departing for the train station.

Having said that, some of my favorite memories of our came from Bandhavgarh National Park and the first part of my journey though India.  Check back soon for part two of my journey.  Covering my stay in the Tordi Sangra Palace with the Prince and Princess, Ranthambore National Park and the Taj Mahal.