Okay so India, here we go.
(If you didn’t see my Myanmar post, click HERE)
Day 1: Cochin
Sooooo 6 ports later and we found ourselves in INDIA!!!!
But hold up, 12 hours before we were supposed to port in Cochin (a city in the way south), India and Pakistani military got into a little tousle (shooting each other’s planes down & pilots gone missing). We had an emergency meeting to deem if it was still safe to travel as they were closing airports…exactly what you want to hear right? BUT obviously, since you’re reading this we got the go ahead!!!!
Can you guess what the first thing I’m going to say about India is? IT WAS RIDICULOUSLY HOT (and it was only 8am, holy cow)… like 95 and humid kind of hot, but better than the negative Minnesota winter weather….
Okay so let’s talk bout these tuk tuk drivers and how they swarm you. They legit FOUGHT for our service, it was wild, felt like a zoo!! We couldn’t move more than 2 feet without another one getting a little too close and shoving a map in our face (nooootttt a fun experience)!!
Eeeeevvveeeeennnntttuuaalllly, we found a way to get to the beach where we could find food and shop (again with the shopping…)!!!
Our tuk tuk driver, Sanjuana, (AKA the best tuk tuk ever) found us because “we looked like SASers and took a chance.” Guys he even had a SAS shirt on, it was meant to be!!!
But where I was going with that is that he brought us everywhere we needed to go from 11am to 10pm, seriously this guy ROCKED (don’t worry we got him a new t-shirt for our semester too)!!!
We ended up a place to freshen up the wardrobe… full outfits or just a scarf, we had it all. See Kyle:
Then a quick pit stop for henna before we finished our shopping tour…
We made it back in time to get 2 hours of sleep before we headed to the airport for our 3am flight… because what’s being in port if you don’t fly in the middle of the night?
Day 2: Varanasi
After what felt like an eternity of travel (traveling in the middle of the night is like a different world, it’s no joke) we made it to Varanasi!!!
On our hour commute to the hostel we were welcomed with much of what India had to offer… and boy was there a lot.
Over stimulation is an understatement with India. We saw people going to the bathroom in the street, people riding horses and donkeys in the street, cows stoping traffic and walking into stores, and so much more…
The first thing to note besides the fact that India is indeed crowded, are the fact that cows are like pets, they’re more common than dogs (from what we saw)!!!!
Holy cow is right….
(Cows are holy because the hairs on the cow each represent the body of someone reincarnated)
We had a little tour of Varanasi and saw: the Ganges river, a flower market, people on people on people, some pups, and LOTS of monkeys and cows!!!!
But the real reason we were in Varanasi was for the cremation ceremonies. Basically in the Hindu religion, being cremated and then put into the Ganges is the highest honor you can have. This is how they believe you reach Nirvana.
According to our guide, the cremations happen 24/7, 365 days a year, and about 10 happen at the same time (different fires). Around 300-400 per day. People from all over India and the world to get cremated in Varanasi.
We didn’t take pictures close up, it’s very disrespectful, but our guide brought us up close. It was an incredibly hard thing to see and smell… seeing someone’s body get put into a fire is something I never thought I’d see. But to the people there it’s normal and honorable.
We all kind of struggled to see it and our guide was confused why we were all shaken up. But who wouldn’t be after seeing bodies being burned?
After we saw the cremations up close, we were on a boat tour and saw it from across the river. All the fires you see are a different person. It’s the really dark clump of buildings with smoke rising…
There was a Hindu music festival on the water so we were able to see that from our boat…
After an almost 24 hour day, we finally got back to our hostel, all ready to pass out!!! But SIKE I’m pretty sure a group of dogs started a dog gang and decided to kill one of their own that night, so sleep was just a myth.
Day 3: New Delhi
New day, new flight, but this time: DELHI.
After no sleep, 2 flights in 36 hours, and empty tummies, we were greeted by the best person alive: Lucky. AND HE BROUGHT US LEIS!!!
First stop: Amber fort (which fun fact it’s not Indian, it’s Islamic).
The real question is, how many people does it take to get the picture right? The record is 4…
I know, we all look rough, but isn’t that the point?
FINALLY (we had a 4 hour bus ride), we made it to our hotel… which Lucky was ballin and got us a 5 star hotel. THEN he brought a henna artist to the hotel for us, gosh he rocked.
Oh here, Corey was excited because he got lei-ed twice that day….
Okay, gotta go, gotta get the India pt. 2 post ready for you…. it’s a good one I have to say!!!
Ta ta for now!
Katelyn
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