Chai for Christmas

Our first morning in India! It looks a little more like “India” in the daylight. After last night, breakfast came quite early. It was worth it, though. We had fresh fruit, chicken sausage, and a breakfast bread called pani (I think…). No coffee, but they did have tea (so I’ll take what I can get). North India is apparently more of a “tea” area, while south India prefers coffee. I’m getting the feeling I’ll get along better in south India. We’ll see.

After breakfast, several of us collected money and exchanged dollars for rupees. That was an interesting experience - he took copies of our passports and gave us receipts out of a carbon copy book. Not the most advanced method of banking…

Next up was a visit to the mall. It wasn’t at all what I expected it would be. It was big, and modern, and clean with all sorts of nice stores - very much like the malls we have at home. I think that is what surprised me. The drive there was most definitely not “home” but then, out of nowhere, there’s this building that looks like it jumped out of suburban America.


One major difference greeted us right at the entrance - security check. We couldn’t go in without having our bags checked and letting them wave a wand up and down us. The really big surprise? The man who opened the door for me motioned me forward towards what looked like a changing room behind him. A lady security guard walked out and waved me in. SHE then checked me. Apparently, the men don’t check the women and vice versa. I guess, looking back, I should have expected that, but it still felt a little odd. I mean, back home, a security check is a security check (well, unless you’re getting patted down, but this was just a wand). Different mindset, I guess.

A huge Christmas tree greeted us in the lobby. That was kinda nice - a reminder of home. Only the bottom half was fully decorated, though. The top was a bit sparse, as if they couldn’t reach up that far. Our first stop was Reliance - a clothing store. Reliance is the company that was depicted in Guru, one of the movies we watched in class. We were a bit early, but one of the workers, sensing (correctly) that we would spend money, let us in anyway. The shop was set up very similarly to those we have in the states - different sections were focused on different “genres” of clothes and there were several mannequins dotting the store displaying some of the outfits. We did notice that the women’s’ section was about 80% traditional Indian style, 20% Western while the men’s section was the opposite - mostly Western. There was also an area where you could select fabrics and have things custom made (we should have that option back home!) After browsing for a bit, I found a beautiful kurta set. It’s a rose colored fabric with a sheer overlay woven with gold thread and some really pretty embellishments across the top. It came with green pants and a scarf. I’m not sure yet where I’ll wear it, but I LOVE it. AND it was on sale!

Big Bazaar (kinda like an Indian version of Walmart) was our next stop. We needed to pick up a few provisions for the trip - toilet paper, snacks, shampoo, a hair dryer (you know, the important stuff). We walked into the men’s clothing section, and at first glance, it looked a LOT like a Walmart, even the shelving was similar. The similarities kinda ended there. The women’s clothes were, like at Reliance, mostly traditional style. Past the clothing section was a series of seemingly mismatched clusters of things - dishes, electronics, chocolate, plastic boxes. There wasn’t any particular order to the sections, they just seemed to be stuck in at random, making it difficult to figure out where to find things we needed.

We finally found the toiletries and began our search for the list of things we needed. FYI, shopping is trickier when the prices aren’t stuck on the shelf under the product (the prices are normally listed ON the product itself). I’m apparently much more reliant on prices to help me choose than I thought I was. I really had a hard time picking out things when I didn’t know which cost what. Snacks were even harder to shop for. The food section seemed all jumbled, and there were a LOT of cookies. And chips. Granola bars, not so much. We finally found those in the international section.

There were still a few things we couldn’t find, but the salespeople were very attentive (and everywhere!), so they helped us. Turns out, hair dryers are stored with the computer mice. Make sense, right? Also, Big Bazaar does NOT carry umbrellas…hmmm…

After shopping, we all met back at the huge tree. And by all, I mean most. We had a few stragglers. I’m not a fan of people not being punctual, so I’m hoping this does not become a trend.

The rest of the day was a really, really long drive. We left Delhi for Agra after we finished up at the mall. It didn’t take us long to find the traffic that didn’t seem to exist late last night. There were SO MANY PEOPLE! There’s really no way to describe exactly what we drove through in words, so I’ve included a handy diagram: (which I'll add tomorrow cause I'm super tired right now)

Also, you can’t get the full experience without a background soundtrack of incessant honking. They keep telling us we’ll get used to it…

As you can see from the diagram, traffic is INSANE. It’s as if lines are painted on the road for decorative purposes only and the concept of “your side of the road” is totally lost on everyone. There are “vehicles” (I hesistate to use even that word to describe the types of objects we saw amidst all this traffic) of every shape, size, color…breed. You’ve got trucks (painted up like parade floats), auto rickshaws (the Indian version of a taxi, but with only three wheels), cars, tractors, horse drawn carts, motorcycles, bicycles…cows (no, not with riders, just kinda hanging out). Part of me was very entertained by the circus happening on the road, the other part was terrified. I was torn between keeping my eyes open so that I didn’t miss anything and covering my face so that I didn’t see us run over one of the meandering cows.

The traffic wasn’t the only eye opening part of the drive. I started noticing little settlements dotted all over. It’s apparently common practice to set up a tent (or several tents) just about anywhere. I asked Dr. Anand about it and he said that people accept the practice here and that it has resulted in crime not being directly correlated with poverty or slums. That makes sense seeing as it would cut down on resentment or resorting to rule breaking in order to survive. It was sometimes heartbreaking to see, however.

We stopped for lunch at this little roadside restaurant. We got to sit outside, which was lovely, and there was even some “entertainment” (snake charmers that I stayed far away from). Lunch was great, but, from what we’ve heard, a bit overpriced. I don’t think any of us minded - the food was good and it was a sunny break from the bus.

The rest of the ride is a bit of a blur. I slipped in and out of sleep once it got dusky, so I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to what was happening outside. We did stop and see our first monument of the trip - Akbar’s tomb. That was neat ‘cause our group did a presentation on the Mughal Empire, so I totally knew who he was!

A little bit later we made it to the hotel - the really, really nice hotel. We checked in and rested up for just a bit, then a small group of us went for dinner at Only Restaurant (a cute little place just down the street). We were all pretty up for it until we got there, sat down, and were still, then the tired set in. We ate, had coffee, and walked back. That was a semi-nerve-wracking walk - I’m pretty sure I almost got hit several times. Once back at the hotel, Honey was watching some Indian soap operas. Interestingly, these shows (which were on several channels) all seem to revolve around an event rather than people. You know how in the States, people follow soaps for the characters? Well, all of these episodes, on each channel we tried, centered on an engagement ceremony, leading us to wonder whether it was the characters or the concept that people follow these shows for. I didn’t watch for long - it’s been a long day and a shower was required, followed now by bed. Taj Mahal tomorrow!