To all six of this blog’s avid followers I apologize for the large gap between entries. The last two weeks have been full of travel, intense academia, and little to no internet. Luckily I got a cozy fever last night, so my last day in Delhi will be spent recuperating (and writing this entry) instead of going on a holy grail search through Delhi for a sparkly cookie monster vest I’ve seen on a few auto drivers and desperately want to own.
Two weeks ago while nearly the entire program went to go see some over sentimental monument called the Taj Mahal, Bianca, Melanie, and I went to the yogacity: Rishikesh. We had all previously seen the Taj (which is truly stunning) and wanted to spend the weekend exploring a different part of India. Friday after class we hopped on an overnight bus to the foothills of the Himalayas. Rishikesh is a small city built around the holy Ganges (pronounced ganga) River. It’s where the Beatles found their guru and wrote a lot of The White Album. It’s also where a lot of white people go to get enlightened. We met a lot of people from Portland. Everyone there is big on positive vibes and conversation, it’s a nice community of spiritual tourists. Many stay for months at a time. Mega chillers. Also there are a lot of cows. I stepped in cow poop eight times.
We arrived at six in the morning. Found a room with a bed that would fit the 3 of us. Slept for three hours, had some breakfast, and upon the suggestion of Portland dude number one we went to an ashram to hear a guru talk to us about the importance of being ourselves. Over a hundred people were there to listen to this guy. The guru spoke in Portuguese and very slowly. There was a translator. I still fell asleep. We decided to leave a bit early and explore the city. We spent the rest of the day going on exploring. We climbed to the top of some big temples, hung out with some monkeys, and attempted to do a pilgrimage hike before deciding half way through we probably wouldn’t make it all the way before dark. Our hostel was on the east bank of the river, not far from the Laksham Jhula, a bridge which hosts a large gang of monkeys that will steal food from you given the opportunity. They’re adorable but ruthless. I saw one rip a bag loose from an old lady and walk away with 5 oranges. No manners. Back at the hostel I found an old copy of The Da Vinci Code, kind of a funny find considering how far from the mainstream the Rishikeshians seem to be. I’ve since finished it and am now convinced everything I see is a code, riddle, or clue. That night Bianca and I went to the sunset festival by a giant Shiva statue on the river. It was serene. Later we met a wonky old Italian man who had been traveling by himself through India for the last five months and had some interesting insights on the country. We had dinner with him and an Indian man on vacation which was kinda weird, mostly because the Italian refused to understand what I was saying, though he always understood Bianca clearly.
The second day we woke up early to hike up to neera falls, hitched a ride back to town, and got back in time for rafting in the Ganges! We were given helmets, life vests, and a quick quasi-english tutorial on how to handle ourselves in the rapids. We rode with two friends on vacation from Uttar Pradesh, one couldn’t swim, they were all laughs. We all got to do some swimming in the holiest river in the world and Melanie and I even jumped off a big rock into the river. Afterwards Melanie and I opted for some laxing and reading on the beach while Bianca went off to explore a bit more. We met up for dinner, went for our last walk around the river, collected some holy water to bring home, and then bounced for the train. The train station was packed, it seemed as if there were a thousand people just living there. Everytime an announcement was made three tones would play, which sounded exactly like the beginning of the “jizz in my pants” lonely island video, so I kept cracking up. Our train finally showed up and everybody starting running. We freaked and started running too, only to run the entire length of the train and realize our car wasn’t on the train. We ran the length of the train again, yep our car doesn’t exist. We tried just hopping on a random car and were promptly ushered out. We were sure we were going to have a Bill Murray Darjeeling Limited moment, until finally someone told us that they still had to attach some cars, and we just had to wait. Finally settled we stopped running, waited, and watched as the hooked up four more cars to the train (there’s a guy whose job it is to stand between the cars and connect them as they get rammed into each other, I was sure he was getting to get squished). Anway, we got on, had a giant slumber party, and arrived in Delhi at seven. We had to get to Gurgaon to meet up with the class so we took the most crowded metro of life. One hour later and covered in the sweat of thirty other people we made it. A successful trip.
jumping
Fruit stealing monkeys
sunset
Bianca's Weird Legs
The Italian
Train
That lion is so bummed Shiva is sitting on him
Six in the morning
Note the pants
Miss Melanie
I finally understand cricket. It’s kind of a boring game, but impossible to stop watching. I even got to play it myself a few times. A couple of kids about my age working at the USI, where we stayed for the last two weeks in Delhi, took me out to play. They took some pity on me and gave me a few slow bowls, I actually got a few fours, but ultimately hit their only ball into a sewage pit and that was that.
Thursday night at Urban Pind in Hauz Khas is free entrance for all ex-pats and free drinks for girls until midnight. I went with seven girls and we danced and drank on the house to our heart’s content. It was a pretty funny place, among the crowd was a group of international high school students, a seven foot tall gogo dancer, and a fifty year old man with the best blonde dreadlocked mullet I’ve ever seen. There were American hits on the roof and more housey stuff on the bottom two floors. Clubs are way more fun when they’re free.
Had two papers due last week that required some late night revisions, ugh. This weekend we had our case study. I was in the housing group, we spent two days observing, researching, and interviewing locals about housing in Gurgaon followed by another two days analyzing our findings and preparing our presentation. It was non-stop work (except for a few games of pool) for four days, my group really got along and we were really happy with our final project. Gurgaon is an interesting place to study, with a very weak municipal and state government, the city is really a developer’s paradise (in fact one company, DLF, owns 70% of the booming city). We discussed the history, realities, and implications of this neo-liberal bastion on housing. We presented our work for a few faculty and students at the Sushant School of Architecture. It was neat.
We also got to party with some of the Sushant students. Our facilitator/translator for the case study was a fourth year design student named Mohak. The party was at his flat, which had no furniture besides a few crash pads on the floor, the quintessential college apartment. He introduced us to Kingfisher Strong, the Steel Reserve of India. Silliness ensued.
Went to a mall to watch a movie. They weren’t playing anything I wanted to see so Wadzi, Skylar, Claire, and I walked around while Bianca went on to brave Black Swan by herself. The four of us found a place called golfworks. They claimed they had eighteen holes inside. We didn’t believe them so we went in and found out they were a virtual golf place. We played a round at Pebbly Beach accompanied by some tasty mojitos. We used actual clubs to whack balls at screen that calculated our shot based on where and at what speed our balls hit the screen. We had a caddy with us the whole time. Our caddy, Ravi, found our lack of skill funny, though I think he grew frustrated with our inability to golf over the hour. We only finished six holes before we ran out of time. I won with a 23 over par.
We had our farewell dinner last night. Mike and I bought Champak some flowers and a card. The card had two elephants holding up a tiny teddy bear that said #1 friend. I told Champak she was the bear because she was the smallest. She told me I was the bear because I had the mental age of a child. I’ll miss her dearly. Hopefully I’ll get to see her in the US when she goes to visit her daughters.
Delhi has been amazing. I can’t believe we’re leaving already. I’ll miss this city that I now feel very comfortable in. I’ve learned so much since I’ve been here and I know I have just scratched the surface. I guess I’ll have to come back.
Off to Dakar. Peace India.
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