And.. without further adieu.. I bring you… INDIA!! (only a month late… gomennasai!)
Yea.. India was a really incredible trip. One of those trips that at the time you are a little exhausted and overwhelmed and thinking about the comforts of home but as soon as you leave and start talking to people about your experience you realized how jaw-dropping amazing and stunning everything was… and you’d do it all again.
India… I’ve been going back and forth about if it is a country of the eyes or the nose. The bright and rich colored saris, the reds and oranges of the spices and dyes, the fabrics, shawls, gold bracelets and earrings seemed like nourishment for my eyes coming from the predominantly grey and black Japanese life. From the small children to old women to rich and poor everyone dressed with more color than I have in my entire wardrobe. But then there were the smells; that made me more aware of my nose than I think I’ve ever been before. Passing the food stalls the spices that floated out overwhelmed even the smells of the trash and sewage that often lined the streets. The flower market was one of the most extraordinary things my nose has encountered as we passed piles and piles of honeysuckle, jasmine, roses, carnations, and others. And there were the bad smells too… but I won’t really get into that….
Logan and I arrived in Chennai on Christmas Eve. We had the day to putz around before we met up with Cristina at the airport that night. It was a day filled with roaming from travel agent to
travel agent in hopes of finding a train for later in the trip. The result; a plane ticket and a lot of stress and money exchanges in possibly not the most legit fashion. By the end of the night we were exhausted and overwhelmed and feeling a bit cheated. So.. we hightailed it to the nearest hotel for some Christmas Eve drinks. Those and an encounter with an Indian Santa put improved our moods so that when we met up with Cristina we were once again energized to take on India. After a cold and sleepless night in the Chennai airport we were a little less energized but still pretty positive.
Christmas day was spent traveling to the Taj Mahal via plane and hired car. We arrived at our hotel in the late afternoon. When we went to our roof we knew that all the traveling was worth it. We had a clear view of the Taj, with its bulbous roof rising out of the trees and slum buildings around it. We had our first real meal in India, looking at the Taj but, of course, thinking about our families at home.The next morning we awoke early to catch the Taj for sun-up. Now, I am not one impressed with buildings. Big, small, old, crazy…my usual adjectives for them. But the Taj.. beautiful, majestic, imposing. As we watched it emerge from the darkness and fog of the morning it, at first, looked like a ghost or mirage. As it grew brighter I literally couldn’t believe my eyes. Part of me had to go touch it because it looked too serene and perfect to be real. We walked around the Taj for a good two hours; took a silly amount of pictures; and even had our picture taken with some random Indian people. We used the rest of the day to eat, shop in the bazaars, nap, and wander around the small streets surrounding the Taj.
The next morning we flew out to Mumbai; a different world from the rest of India. It was tall, cosmopolitan and clean(er) than the rest of the India we had seen thus far. That evening we walked around the bustling market near our hotel. Logan even got himself invited to play soccer with some kids. I, on the other hand, hung out with the smaller kids on the sideline, going immediately into shogakko mode and loving every second of it.
Our 3 days in Mumbai were spent wandering the streets, doing yoga at a yoga institute, visiting the Hindi cave carvings as Elephanta Island, and, of course, shopping. Although I enjoyed Mumbai, I felt as though there was always a bit of seedy-ness underlying everything we did. And as we heard more and more about Goa, I was ready to leave Mumbai when we did.
To Goa on a 12 hour overnight train on New Years Eve. We arrived, threw our stuff down in our hotel, and took off to the beach (a 5 min walk away). We all seemed to breath relief from our previous 4 days of amazing but intense and action filled traveling. We went out that night,
partied on the techno filled beaches, watched fireworks, and encountered a number of mishaps and adventures.New Years Day… recovery… on the beach. Not too bad, huh? We befriended a number of the kids who worked on the beach and other travelers. By the last day our third beach bed was usually occupied by one of the boys working or fellow volleyball player or someone else. We left Goa sunburned and refreshed, boarding a bus the night of our third day in Goa. Yea.. we had no idea what we were in for…
The bus took us on an 18-hour trip to Bangalore. During these 18 hours we stopped.. twice. The first stop lacked any toilet (as did the bus). We were squished together, the hope for an extra seat of space ended as we continued to pick more and more people up off the side of the road. At one point a policeman searched the bus. Another time Cristina swears she saw a woman called up to the front cab of the bus and never return. The men driving often grabbed a bottle of pills out from their bag.… and this was the “luxury bus”.
Bangalore was a nice way to end the trip. Most of the two days were spent wandering (if you can’t tell wandering was a common pastime during this trip), shopping (yep.. another common
pastime.. sorry Logan), and eating (well that just about sums up the trip actually). 
During one of our wanderings, we found a large shelter area with the sides open to the outside. Inside was a collection of snack, toy, dye, spice, jewelry, pots, pans, etc. stalls. After one turn we could look down upon the lower floor. There, was the most massive collection of picked flowers I had ever seen. All piled carefully depending on the colors; people were buying them by the bags then heading to another area of the market to string them into long chains. Walking around, we found that these piles often came up to our thighs and were a couple of yards wide. And the smell… it smelled as though we had walked into a perfume bottle. Compete and total sensory overload.We left to take an 8 our train ride back to Chennai. There we had 3 hours to meditate in and explore a Hindi temple. Then back to the airport and finally arriving in Japan after 12 days of traveling. It was definetly weird coming back to Japan instead of back home. I kinda felt as though I was leaving one adventure only to continue my other adventure… which I was.
picz:
mine http://picasaweb.google.co
cristinas --http://picasaweb.google.com
logans http://picasaweb.google.co
