Travel-Together Diary

GOA   August 11^th to August 13^th   written by Andree Tarvin-Pyles

I must say that after leaving heavily polluted, loud, traffic heavy Bangalore and going to Goa, the transition felt like vacation. I loved how Goa seemed more like one of those places from the movies that people go to in order to get away from the cliché touristy locations that are often promoted on television.

The first place we went to was our hotel. It was not the Sheraton but I loved every bit of it. It was surrounded by trees, as much of Goa is, it had a lot of hand crafted items, and the few people that I saw there were not tourist but residents. After moving our stuff in I immediately went to go swim for about 20 minutes with Max. After the refreshing dip in the pool we got together to figure something out to eat and then proceeded to the beach.

The beach was absolutely wonderful, relaxing, peaceful, etc. and it was funny how many people followed us; although I am pretty sure they weren’t following us guys but the women who were wearing bikinis and playing in the water! They told us that we could not and should go swimming because the power and size of the waves but someone told the lifeguard that we were actually all somewhat professional swimmers. When we first arrived at the part of the beach that we arrived to, there were only about a dozen people but within an hour there were –without exaggeration—around seventy five people standing and staring, and when I say “people” I mean men. That was awkward because I had never seen such things happen in the states. When at home, even when people are from out of town and one could tell they were foreign, at worst people would simply walk back and forth a couple of times past the people simply acting as if they are just taking another stroll down the shore.

While there we were also greeted by our first sales people. There were a number of people but one in particular stood out. We met an India woman named Lolita. I was very curious about how she had received such a name so preceded to dialogue with her about it. She told me how her grandma was from Spain and moved had visited, loved it, and never left. Through this brief dialogue I noticed she spoke English incredibly well and asked her if she knew any other languages. She said she knew two local languages, Hindi, English, a little Spanish and Russian. I was rather impressed and asked her how long she had gone to school to learn so many languages. She replied with a sweet response of, “I have never been to school.” I was in complete awe. I was so impressed by her English I assumed she must have attended school but come to find out, she nor her parents nor their parents had attended school. Two of three children were in school but she was struggling to afford that. In fact, the only reason two of her children were in school is because of an old British friend --that she had known when she was a child—agreed to fund two of the kids education for a year, hopefully giving her time to save money. Unfortunately because she had no education she would never achieve a job much greater—or better paying—than to sale things on the beach.

We ended up leaving and I told her I would buy stuff from her the following day. I however was unable to show up and because I did not fulfill my word of buying something from her, I did not buy from anyone in that whole area of Goa.

We spent the following day, the day I was unable to go see Lolita, traveling from South Goa to the northern part. We went to an array of beaches and had rather cool experiences. We almost drowned, kidding J but quite a few of us did get extremely wet when trying to cross a shallow looking section of water at this one beach. Strangely, although this one part was fairly deep once crossed, we went out at least 100 or 200 feet and the water was still below our heads. We spent that evening hanging with MF fellows who were also in Goa and spent the later part of our evening with this guy who was trying to make Markus pay 5,000 rupee for a broken mirror and a few scratches.

Jaipur   August 14^th  written by Jie Zhou

It was a day filled with travel. We needed to leave Goa and reach Jaisalmer via Jaipur. Goa was an incredible experience, with the beach and motorbikes, but it was time to move on. We were divided into two groups. One needed to leave at 3:00 in the morning, while the other one left at 10:00. I was in the second group. In the morning, Echo, Andree and me had our last breakfast with Flo, Max and Lisa. After this, we said goodbye to each other. Saying goodbye to these people was heart-breaking for me, but I had to leave wishing I could see them soon.

In about 40 minutes, we arrived at the airport of Goa, which is a delicate and pleasant airport rather than a crowded and modern one. It has two floors. The first floor housed the check-in counters and departure lounge. The second floor served as departure lounge, too, but much emptier. You could actually see the planes taking off from the spacious parking area. Since Goa is a holiday resort, we could see people from different countries in the airport, which was partly unusual in other cities in India. During the waiting time, we were talking about in ZU and DU campus which male fellow was the most “marriable” person. “Marriable” was one word that Echo and I invented in India, which combined “Marry” and “able” together and meant people that was suitable for marriage. From the conversation, I learned that although we treat marriage and relationship in different ways, some criteria of a good husband were universal: being reliable, honest, and trying everything to ensure a wife’s lifelong happiness. People always say cultures are very different from one to another, but I was always surprised and impressed by how similar we are. Later, we encountered KK in the airport, who officially joined the group since then.

Maybe at 2:00 in the afternoon, we arrived at the airport of Mumbai. As the largest city in India, Mumbai has a very modern airport. Honestly, I didn’t like airports in big cities, for they were the same and too standardized, losing the characteristics of culture. We went outside the airport for a while then decided to come back inside the airport for the luggage, since we had only three hours in Mumbai and none of us were familiar with the city. We had lunch in a café and after that we met Katrin. Rohan was with her, but he got blocked by the police at the gate for not having the tickets, so we couldn’t hug him goodbye. We then found a row of chairs and waited there. People in the airport moved fast, with the face-masks to prevent H1N1, giving weird glances to us, who didn’t have one. I slept for some time while the others were talking. Actually, after we started traveling, I always felt somewhat tired. If you carry on reading our diary, you will know that I got sick in Jaipur and Agra. Echo said this trip was out of my comfort zone, which was true with no doubt, but I was glad I got the chance to experience this. Because of China’s one-child policy, my parents always gave me extra attention and made me feel that I was a little girl. After being a member of the foundation, I forced myself to take challenges and expand my comfort zone. Though it was sometimes really miserable and scary, as Andree said, what is life without a story?

In the evening, we arrived in Jaipur. It had a brand new airport, which made me feel like Jaipur was another big and modern city. But we were shocked by poverty when we got to the train station. Many people were sleeping outside the train station. After we met the other group and went into the train station, we saw more poor people sleeping on the ground including poor little kids, dirty and homeless, even without clothes. As we wanted to let more people see this, we took some pictures, even though we really didn’t want to. While waiting for the train, we were sharing our feelings about this. Obviously, it was out of our comfort zone. But like Marcus said, we did respect the honesty and exposure, from where we could see what was real life all about and made the trip more meaningful. 

Jaisalmer  August 15^th to August 16^th  written by Zhou Yu

After a long train ride, we finally arrived in Jaisalmer in the afternoon. The first thing we noticed regarding the change between Goa and Jaisalmer was that the latter was very dry. It is a place that is very different from other places in India, the weather in most of the places we traveled is very dry. We had booked a small and nice hotel, and it had a little restaurant on the roof top. We had a lunch in that restaurant and assigned some deliverable work after the lunch. Then we came to the most exciting part of travelling in Jaisalmer: the camel ride. When we were still on the train to Jaisalmer, Jie was asking about the camel ride. When Marcus announced that we were going to the desert right after the lunch, we were all excited. When he said one camel for each person, Jie cried out. She was so nervous shouting, “I am not going to ride the camel alone”. She even begged everyone to share a camel with her.  

After a two hour car ride, we came to the edge of the desert. You could see sand on the road. It was a kind of view that I had never seen in my whole lifetime. This was the first time in a desert for me, and it is beautiful. As this was only the entrance to the vast dessert, we could still see green plants scattered in the expanse of sand, and it was these green plants that made Jie’s ride, even more ‘dangerous’. The camel group was already waiting for us by the road. It was not a very large group, ten camels and ten camel men. There were a lot of children in the group. Each of us chose a camel, and got on it with help of the camel man. It was a little bumpy when the camel was rising, but after it had risen up, then it was all settled. Actually I never imagined that the camel can be so tall. Riding on it, you feel a little insecure. Although screaming loudly, Jie managed to ride on her camel by herself, and now the journey began. 

When the camel walks, it makes your body lean forward and back a little bit, but it is not hard if you follow the trend. The wind in the desert was very strong, and some of us had scarves over our head. Roman looked like a nice Indian young lady when he had Daniela’s scarf on his head. The camel group was marching in a line, with the camel men walking beside us, so that we did not have to worry about safety. Despite this, we still heard a lot of Jie’s screaming. Gagan said Jie’s screaming served as a warning to him, telling him which part of the road is a bit bumpy. For me, I discovered a secret of the camel. The can poop when they are walking.

My camel had a good name, Rugurt. He was very quiet, but a little lazy. When the camel falls a little bit behind the pace, the camel men made a unique sound to make the camel run a little bit to catch up. The sound is very strange, I tried my best to imitate but I failed. My camel man was only ten years old. He knew some sentences in English. When he learned that I come from China, he was so excited and run to tell his colleagues. I guessed they don’t meet Chinese people very often in Jaisalmer. The child was always smiling; I think he must be very satisfied with his life. But I still hope he can go to school like the other children.  

We had a break after half an hour, and finally got a chance to climb a dune. The dune was not very huge, but still quite magnificent. All of us climbed to the biggest dune, and wondering how we could come down. Dani was the bravest; she rolled down to the dune. It was so cool, it was the kind of thing I always wanted to do, but Roman ruined my dream by pulling me down from the dune. We got sand everywhere. Because of the strong wind, if you try to drink some water, sand ends up in your teeth, and you feel like you are chewing some sand in the end. 

After another half an hour ride, we sat and took some fun pictures together in the dessert. Our plan was to see the sun set in the dessert, but we could not see it clearly because it was too cloudy. 

On the way back, the camel seemed a little hungry after the long walk. They kept stopping to eat the green plants they spotted the dessert. So a lot of the times, one camel was out of the group. Jie’s camel also did this, and she was scared as she could not do anything to make the camel get back. Despite these things, it was brave of her to overcome her fear, by partaking in what she felt was a dangerous journey. Suddenly Jie’s father called me on my cell phone, and I picked up the phone when I was on the camel. It is very exciting to talk to people in Chinese in the Indian dessert. When I told her father that we were having a camel ride, he seemed a little worried about our safety. Jie’s parents are very careful with all the potential danger to their daughter. Jie lives near the sea, but she cannot swim, because her father said it is dangerous to swim. I think this trip was a step out of the comfort zone for Jie, and for me it is a kind of wonderful experience. 

At last we returned to the hotel full of sand in the evening. It was one of happiest days in our journey.

Jaipur   August 16^th   written by Jie Zhou

After leaving Jaisalmer, we went to Jaipur by train. At first it was a pleasant trip for me, but because of the air conditioning working all night, I had a fever in the morning. The feeling was killing me. I was really sorry that my sickness added a lot of inconvenience to the group. I couldn’t take my own luggage, and always needed a person to take care of me. Since I couldn’t continue the trip, the guys tried to find a place for me to relax. We went to the hostel in the train station first, but people there asked us Rs. 1000 per day, which was really expensive. So we decided to give up. Marcus and Matthias went out of the train station asking for the nearest hotel I could stay. When they came back, we separated into two groups, one took me to the hotel, and the other started a trip in Jaipur.

It was raining heavily then. Matthias, Marcus and Roman went out to find autos, and Andree, B-Love, and Echo were in the train station taking care of me. After about 30 minutes, those three came back and we could finally move to the hotel. It was a five minute trip, but they charged us Rs. 40 because of the rain, and the fact that we were foreigners. Ever since we left Bangalore, we experienced more liars than we saw in the South. People always wanted to charge us more. I was not surprised, as I have also seen these things in China. Personally, I don’t blame the people. If people were rich and happy, why would they want to cheat others? On the other hand, the feeling of being cheated was not very nice. Anyway, we arrived in the hotel after a short journey.

Unfortunately, it was a five star hotel, which cost Rs. 6000 per day. However, it had a café with nice couches. Asking for several cups of tea, we could stay there for a day. I finally had a place to sleep. The guys were also very tired, and they stayed there and talked. Hearing their conversation, I fell asleep. By the time I woke up, I felt much better and got the chance to see the hotel. In contrast to the train station, this place was extremely clean and comfortable. Rich parents were playing games with their kids in the pool. Kids with fancy clothes chased each other, laughing really happily. I loved to see that the kids were happy, but this reminded me of the poor kids in the train station, and I felt hurt.

At about ten o’clock, Marcus, Matthias, Echo and Roman left. Andree and B-Love were there staying with me. When I was awake, I talked with them, and then I fell asleep again. Andree went outside for a while to get some gifts for his family. He told me he went to a store and met an interesting man working there. The man asked: “Do you know what is the one problem in India?” Andree replied: “What?” Then the man said: “That there are none.”  Then they proceeded to speak about the educational opportunities and if the man knew anyone who became successful without education. The man told Andree, "Of course but they are absolutely coming from a family that has a lot of money." 

We left the hotel at about 5 o’clock and went back to take the train to Agra. I had fever again after we boarded the train. Getting sick away from home, I was so scared. But the guys really made me feel I was with family. I remembered Echo was always by my side and let me loll my head on her shoulder; I remembered I cried, and Marcus helped me wipe the tears, patted me gently and comforted me like a big brother; I remembered when I couldn’t fall asleep because of the pain, B-Love and Andree sang a song with my name in it; I remembered others kept coming to me asking me how I felt and smiling at me. I just couldn’t forget all these moments. I love you, guys. It is so nice to have all of you in my life.

Agra  August 17^th     written by Roman Gherman

The legend says that Taj Mahal is unbelievably gorgeous in the first sun rays. Some members of our travel group wanted to prove the legend and get up before sunrise. As for me, I know whose idea it was and whose alarm-clock didn't ring early in the morning. The plan remained a dream or maybe the other way round. We met at breakfast, gathering power for the excursion to the one of the seven wonders. The first thing we experienced was a different price for tourists and Indians. We payed 750 Ruppies, which makes approximately 10 Euros per person. I cannot remember the price for Indians but it was less than one Euro. Their ticket was smaller and there was no picture of the Taj Mahal on it. Discrimination? Well, I offered to sell them my picture-ticket for the tourist price minus the price they paid for their Indian ticket. Unfortunately nobody wanted my offer, even with a discount.

Finally we were there, a few more steps through the gate and we would see the Taj Mahal. After passing through the gate all people stop there to take photos with Taj in background. We wanted to do the same, but it wasn't that easy because firstly we were the huge group and secondly there were enough other people, who wanted to take the picture. Our whole travel group agreed that this building is just wonderful. We stayed in front of it and imagined those 20000 people, who had built it, without any cranes any machines. According to the legend all of them have been killed to prevent them from building a similar building somewhere else. The Taj Mahal was built by Emperor Shah Jahan in the memory of his favorite wife. Well, men do everything for their women. The area near the Taj was very clean and it was visible that people take care of their national monument. But as soon as we came out from the area close to the monument there was a lot of rubbish and people were trying to sell us souvenirs, postcards and games. These people, who are the part of each Indian city and town, survive through selling their small goods. We were just tourists, we were supposed to have money, and this is the way of life. Poor children, who are not able to go school, are the part of the life too. They have to help their parents to survive, they have no other choice. This is a good example for a spot, which wasn't reached by Indian innovation and economic growth.

New Delhi   August 18^th to August 19^th   written by Brandon Love

The 18^th of August, what a day. When I say a day, I mean that literally. I only spent a day in Delhi verses my friends who had a little bit more time than I. I start of writing my arrival in Delhi. We arrived the night of the 17^th in a train station that was unlike any other. My friends and I have seen the poverty level increased in the train station unlike any other one we were in. We were also approached by the persistent, yet, harmless individuals asking for food, money, or anything they felt was necessary for self satisfaction. As we awaited all bunch together protecting our luggage as we did at every train station, our head guys of the group went to search for our taxi driver which was complementary from the hotel in which we reserved. While waiting for the others to return along with steadily observing our luggage, one of the fellows witnessed a crazy occurrence. He stated he saw a kid walking fully clothed and as the kid steadily approached the train station that was located down stairs, he was physically taking off his shirt and any other clothing that possibly could blend him in with the others and start asking and/or begging locals, tourist, or whomever for food and money. Once he told me this, I came to the realization that India is one big “hustle.” Although I acknowledge that this is a reality in many cases for the people, but I also have to acknowledge that there are some fakers as well. When the others returned we headed outside to the taxi’s. When we got outside, it was a spate of chaos we feel into. Cars so close to one another that I had to literally turn sideways in order to get through, people so close to me that I had to keep my hands in my pockets just to ensure that I wasn’t in risk to get anything snatched away from me. Also there was so much noise and everything felt so compacted that our 500 yard walk felt like a 3 mile journey. I thought to myself, this was going to be a very intense and ridged experience.  

When we arrived at Clark International which was the name of the hotel, I fell in overjoyed. In my opinion this hotel was one of the best ones we stayed in throughout our journey through India. Not to discredit the other hotels and hostels we stayed in, but Clark International was a luxury. That night was refreshing and made me feel secure in a place that I thought would bring havoc.

The next day we all decided to explore the city of Delhi. Since Delhi is considered one of the most developed states in India, we had the opportunity to ride the Metro. Upon getting on the Metro, we had some problems understanding how we could accomplish such a task. The signs were not in English so we had to go with our instincts and wit in order to get to our destination. This was quite an experience but we persevered. While riding on the Metro we had to be very careful because the train was jammed packed with people and it was a hassle just trying to get on and off the train. We also had to be conscious of when our stop was because we could have easily missed it. Once we made it into the city limits we were faced with scorching heat that made water wanting to drink water.

As we walked through Delhi we attempted to see the Red Fort and the Mass. On our way to the places we were once again approached by individuals and it got to a point that it was so overwhelming, one of the fellows was getting sick and dehydrated. Because of that, our visit to the sites was limited and some of us decided to head back to the hotel. On the way back to the hotel we saw a lot of disheartening things. One example was when we got off the train station, we saw a dead dog just laying there in the middle of the side walk and literally two feet from the dog, we saw a baby who couldn’t be over the age of three just lying on the side walk on the verge on dying. The baby was covered with flies and ants crawling on him. When I saw this made me really think about my life and the lives of others.

Later on that evening Andree and I went shopping as the other two fellows stayed in the hotel and the other two were still out in the city viewing the sites. That one day was quite an experience for me and it really made me value my life and the lives for others in totally new way than before.

Varanasi     August 20^th to August 22^nd   written by Daniela Hinz

In Agra, our travel group split up and while most of us were heading to Delhi, a few adventurous people (KK, Katrin, Roman and Dani) continued their trip to Varanasi. After another long but relaxing train ride we reached Varanasi in the morning. The auto-rickshaw from the train station could not go to the guest-house because the area close to the Ganga river is a restricted traffic area. So with the help of KK, we changed to 2 cycle rickshaws, It must have looked very interesting with all our luggage. However, our hotel was right on the Ganga river in some narrow streets so even the cycle rickshaws could not go there. That is why we had to walk through the narrow and extremely dirty, smelly, crowded streets and Roman`s face clearly showed his worries about our accommodation “What type of hotel did you book?!?” However, once we reached, the hotel itself was very comfortable with a beautiful view over the Ganga river.

The climate in Varanasi also really stroke us. It was extremely humid and hot so all of us felt very lazy. We ended up spending some very relaxed days in Varanasi, enjoying our meals with the Ganga view and watching the life on and around the river.

It was extremely impressive for me to see what is happening on this holy river. Especially when it comes to aspects of health, it is very incredible for Europeans. For example, we observed a scene where one person was dumping garbage into the river. Just one meter away people were taking a bath in the Ganga. Another meter to the other side, there were water buffalos in the water. At the same time, people were washing their clothes just next to it…

Once other thing which was very impressive was the burning ghat. They burn the bodies there after washing them in the Ganga. We could observe the big piles of wood they prepared and see how they actually burned the bodies. We could even smell it. There are special areas for burning people from different castes. Some people as pregnant women and people suffering from leprosy are not being burned after they die but their bodies are tied to a big rock and they are thrown in the middle of the Ganga.

We also went for a boat trip on the Ganga in the early morning. One small school boy was rowing the boat. It was very impressive because he was telling us about the importance of education and that after rowing in the morning – which is a hard job with the Ganga current – he will go to school and study.

Varanasi is also known for its silk schals. We were taken to several shops and presented a wonderful range of schals. It was a very nice and relaxed atmosphere because people offered us tea, talked, had us sit down and then unfolded all their materials on the floor for us to see. So we all found some nice gifts to bring home.

The amount of dirt, smell and cows together with the tiny little streets and the vivid life on and around the Ganga river are the most remarkable memories for me when thinking of Varanasi. The atmosphere as well as the contrast between busy main shopping roads and the spiritual life on and around the Ganga river was very intense. Varanasi was certainly not one of the most beautiful cities we visited but it was one of the most impressive ones for me.

Another fantastic experience was on our way back to the train station. As usual, we were a little late so KK tried to organize and auto-rickshaw on the road. In the end 2 auto drivers were fighting who talked to KK first and who would be allowed to drive us. They were shouting like crazy at each other until KK told them they have 1 minute to solve the issue otherwise we will leave both of them. In the meantime, there had also been other auto drivers come to offer us a ride while the others could not agree…So there was a big crowd of auto drivers and supporters for both sides. In the end of the 1 minute (KK was actually timing them) they finally came to a conclusion and we went. However, by then it was really late. We had an extremely crazy ride through the small streets of Varanasi (we never took the main road) and when we reached the train station we just ran. Luckily the train was still standing there so Katrin became very relaxed and went to buy some water. KK was telling us to hurry up and indeed, the train already started moving. So we finally jumped on the moving train and left Varanasi with a lot of nice memories.