North Part 2

I'm not really very big into these huge tourist places, maybe because I live in one, so I wasn't absolutely thrilled to go to the Taj Mahal. (Is that terrible?) Looking beyond the gate, it was like another heaven. Slowly the Taj appeared, separating itself from the light blue sky behind. We fought our way through the tourists (mostly Indian, surprisingly) taking pictures of holding the top of the building and on through the garden. It felt like I was walking towards a big postcard, instead of a real, 3-dimensional work of art. Up close the marble was cool on our feet and thankfully not as crowded as I thought it would be. After walking around it on three different levels we went inside. To be honest, the inside isn't anything special. Two tombs, that's it. We were given 2 hours here, which was far too much, so our whole group napped in the shade behind the building. It was pretty cool. 

Next stop was Delhi where we visited the Quitab Minar which was a tall minaret surrounded by a broken-down temple. Next, we visited the Lotus Temple which looked great from the outside, but resembled a conference hall inside with every sound echoing five times. 

Stop #3 was the India Gate which was a monument dedicated to the Indian soldiers fighting with England against Hitler and the Germans in World War II. I had no idea India was involved at all with WWII, so that was an interesting piece of knowledge. 

The Akshar Dham temple was one of the most beautiful monuments we had seen on the trip. Outside it looked just like a big temple with carvings all around the outside and a beautiful, well-manicured lawn. Inside, however, was pretty unique. There was one huge gold statue of... an important man surrounded by the most glittery jewels, glass, and mirrors. There were another 8 statues of gods and goddesses around the inside of the temple which each was like their own prism of light. I had to put my sunglasses on this place was sparkling so brightly! 

Rat Temple

So there we are, 15 people waiting to go into a rat temple in Bikaner at 9pm. First, there was a metal detector for some ungodly reason, then we walk to the gate, which looks dirty but otherwise unremarkable. THEN we walk inside to find rats of all shapes and sizes scurrying around in their gross little furry bodies under our feet and pooping their hauntavirus poops everywhere! To the right we could see nothing but a surging black mass and what looked like a little rat playground. To the left were bowls of water and milk which were set out as offerings to these horrible creatures. Up ahead was the actual worshipping area. There were metal gates on either side of the line of people wishing to offer blessings, which looked like the favorite place of the creeps- they were everywhere! I found out only after standing in this line for 15 minutes of being afraid to move forward should the rats attack, that foreigners aren't allowed to pray here. I thanked the rat gods and literally ran outside where the genius whoever built the place didn't think of a foot-wash to remove the rat waste off my feet. 

Camel Riding!

The desert in Rajasthan looks a lot like Utah, until you hit the camels. Julia and I shared one, and we were both totally freaked out when it stood up. At first we have to lean waaay back, then waaay forward, then finally settle at the general animal-riding position. Unfortunately, the camel driver wouldn't make it run, so it was slow going with a lot of unpleasant rubbing on the lower limbs, but then I reminded myself, "Anna, you are riding a camel in the deserts of India right now," and the pain went away. It was about an hour journey to the small village native to the camel boys where we met their families, may or may not have had some things stolen, and drank tea. The houses here strongly resembled the adobe houses of the Native Americans, or "Red Indians" as they call them here. The tea, however, did not. I didn't really register the quantity of goats and the lack of cows until they gave us goat-milk tea, which was absolutely terrible. It was salty with another unplaceable horrible taste that should never be in tea.  We all choked it down after our tour guide told us they would be really offended if we didn't drink it. On our way back to camp we stopped for about an hour at some small sand dunes where we took pictures and watched the sun go down. Back at camp we saw a traditional Rajasthani dance and then went back to one of our tents to chill for a while before bed. After a while, Julia starts randomly screaming and jumping around. We knew something was wrong but no one predicted that there would be a huge, yellow tarantula probably 3 inches in diameter chilling on the bed with us. We called our tour guide to kill it, but he just scared it under the bed where no one could find it. Thank God we didn't have to sleep in that particular tent, I don't know how those girls did. 

Tour d'North Part I

It all began with a train. Train #00150 from Pune, Maharastra to somewhere in Rajasthan. We were in the 3-tier section where six people squish into a 6x4 compartment for 22 hours. I was with three other exchange students and a large Indian couple who deemed it necessary to invite their entire extended family into our cramped little space. I was compressed into a 1x2 area of space in the dirty corner while our Indian friends and all of their brothers, sisters, children, and grandchildren tried as hard as they could to squeeze in. We quickly realized the problem which appeared when everyone was talking at once, each one convinced that what they had to say was the most important and therefore should be said the loudest- including the little ones.  It was a loud, cramped, and unfortunate way to begin our trip, to say the least. However, once we understood that the fam were only saying goodbye and wouldn't be staying it was easy to see the humorous side of the situation until a few hours later when they started snoring like lawnmowers under our heads.

Our first stop was Ranakpur where we visited one of the most beautiful temples I have ever seen. It was made purely from marble and everything from the floor to the windows and columns to each ceiling was intricately hand carved. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures, but I really thought I was in heaven for a few minutes there.

A full day on the bus later, we reached Jodhpur where we took one of our many fort tours. It was an enormous castle-like dwelling which was situated on the top of a hill and overlooking the city beneath it. On the left most of the houses and rooftops were painted blue, whereas on the right they were all different colors. We could see forever, and it was an amazing view helped by the setting sun. The fort was full of different rooms which each had their own theme and carvings in the walls.

Jaisalmer was our next stop, and while shopping here we encountered the most tourists of the trip so far. Julia and I are the only two white people in Coimbatore, so it was really weird seeing other foreigners. Every time we saw one we would point and say excitedly, "white person!" Sounds like an odd thing for a fellow whitie to be doing, but we were deprived. Our tour guide took us to the "Golden City" fort which was by far my favorite thing we saw on the entire trip. It was one of the few forts in India where people still live, and was comprised mainly of houses, tiny narrow paths, tourist shops, and yucky smells. We had to navigate our ways around the open sewer systems, cow pies, venders saying "madam, I will help you spend your money," goats, and cows. The cows were everywhere! I don't know how they knew how to navigate around the paths they could fit into and random drop-offs, but it was pretty cool to just turn a blind corner and there would be a cow chilling in the middle of the road with an oncoming scooter blaring it's horn. We went to these huge centuries-old family housing next. Apparently it began with one small house, then when their children grew up the parents built another house on either side, then when those children grew up they would build new floors and on and on. It reminded me of a beehive, sort of. Our guide repeated a few times the significance of there not being windows in most of the houses. In the "olden days" the women weren't allowed to participate in functions and celebrations of the village, so they made windows which were mostly covered so the women could see out but people couldn't see into the houses.

Bharatanatyam

When I think of dance I think of being loose and relaxed, moving in natural ways which make me feel one with the music. Bharathanatyam is a special kind of Indian classical dance which I decided early on was "just not dance". The most important thing in this dance is being able to half-sit the entire time, pointing your knees as far out as possible and stamping around. You have to hold your body as stiff as possible and keep a perfect posture. Not exactly dancing to Reggae. However, after a month of trying it out and thinking of it as more of a workout than a dance, I have decided that it is really pretty cool. Although a completely different form of dancing than I have ever even considered, I have really warmed up to it (which is the job of being an exchange student). After watching some of the graduated girls do it, it looks much more like dancing than I ever thought, and makes me want to keep going. Unfortunately, I only have another week in the South before my big month and a half in the North of India, and it takes at least seven years to learn the entire dance.

Mosquito Madness

Yesterday I was out in the colony with my friends and we hear this roaring coming from the "mosquito killer" truck which rolls through my neighborhood every few weeks blowing out thick clouds of some repellant. Last night it was so thick we couldn't even see our hands in front of us. The mosquitoes successfully pass out for a while, but I'm sure that breathing in that stuff can NOT be good for us. Remembering our sweet, clean air in mosquto-free Aspen makes me remember what a crazy, new experience I am having. 

Sickness

All the time I have recently spent under the hot sun and around sick babies has finally caught up with my immune system. Although it is no more serious than a waterfall cascading from my nose, everyone who sees me either has some remedy or some cause that they must tell me. The remedies are generally one of five or six types of pills. Indians set- in my opinion- far too much store in hospitals and doctor-prescribed medication. Where we would just wait out a common cold and drink 10 gallons of tea every day, they find the need to go to the hospital and get some medicine at the first sign of anything even slightly wrong. For high blood pressure it is essential to go on some pill or another, but there is apparently no need to increase the exercise. I have been brought up to believe that going to the doctor is like last-case-scenario, but here it's the first thing anyone does.

The cause of my cold has been diagnosed as dozens of things by dozens of people. They range from taking a shower at night to not wearing a hat in the morning (or in the sun) to not wearing shoes in the house. It's interesting to hear everyone's opinions, though.