Haridwar and the Commonwealth Games

I know you've all been glued to your computers waiting for my next post. So, here it is, a mere day and a half after the last one. (You should all try visualizing someone whose face is literally glued to their computer screen... It made me laugh... Twice.)

Anyway, last Saturday we went to the city of Haridwar, which is on the Ganges River and has an important Hindu temple, along with a huge Shiva statue. Shiva is said to be the destroyer god, but he also brings about rebirth, and the Ganges is supposed to flow down his hair. (River... rebirth... and all that). The Ganges was not as nasty as I expected it to be, but I'm told it gets worse at more important holy sites like Varanasi. We saw people swimming, drinking the water, washing their clothes, and there were idols in it too, among other things. There was no sign of the alleged red skin eating sludge though. In any case, I opted not to get in the water. The temple was high up in the mountains, and we took a gondola up there. It was like getting in a Ferris Wheel at Frontier City. We wandered around, looked at all the gods, and then made our way back out. Before you can leave, you have to walk by all the vendors that sell everything from tiny idols, to jewelry with scriptures on it, to Hannah Montana toys. Not to mention "Famous American Corn". The lines to the exit are long and narrow. They have to be narrow otherwise there would be no such thing as a "line," it would be a huge number of people all crowding their way on to gondolas. At one point, we saw the "emergency exit". It was a door that opened off the side of a cliff. I guess the idea is to gauge the emergency and decide if there's a chance you might survive, or if you should just leap off and die faster. Mercifully, we did not have to make such a decision.

Yesterday, we went to the Commonwealth Games. It's kind of like the Olympics for former members of the British Commonwealth. There was a choice between Badminton and Squash. I chose Badminton because I could not imagine anyone taking that game seriously. So, my friend and I set out. We walked quite some distance before we found a baby taxi to take us the rest of the way. Or so we thought... Our driver took us exactly 3 blocks, before arriving the athletes entrance to the game. Obviously, this was not where we wanted to be and we tried everything to convince our driver of that fact, but he would not believe us. He even brought over others to confirm his wrong opinion. Finally, out of options, we got out and continued on foot. What should have been a 5 minute ride, took us an hour and twenty minutes to walk. Then we went though security. The policewoman patted me down and then for some unknown reason took my hand and put it behind my back. Just one hand. She proceeded to move my hand from place to place on my back and twist me around, all the while speaking to me in Hindi, clearly expecting me to do what she said. It was really frustrating. My thought process went something like this:

Do you see me? White skin, blond hair, REALLY confused expression? Obviously, I don't understand and I have nothing remotely dangerous with me.

Finally, she let go of my hand. I don't know if we were done or not. I was still confused, so I just left. Eventually, we made it to venue and since we had just walked forever we brought drinks. After entering the stadium and walking up to our seats, we were told there was no food or drinks allowed and had to go back out. After chugging our drinks, we re-entered the stadium, and finally got to watch some Badminton. All I can say is, I'm sure it's much harder than it looks. We watched India beat Malaysia and England beat Canada in the quarter finals. The audience was really into the India game. It was actually fun. Afterward, exhausted, we took the first baby taxi we saw, and paid him way too much. We were just grateful we made it all the way home in a vehicle. Bring on the unique experiences!

Overload

My mind is melting. I have so many things to blog about, I don't know what to blog about. This week I've been exploring. I went to a Hindu temple and a Baha'i temple. The Baha'i temple was called the Lotus Temple and really was shaped like a huge flower. Baha'i is a religion that combines everything basically.  All religions lead to the same place and if we can unite them all, then we'll reach perfection or something like that. Honestly, I've never understood that philosophy. Religions are all so different, how could they lead to the same end?

 This week was all about using public transportation. I think I've got baby taxis down. Below is a picture of one, which I found on Google. You can fit 3 people in there, and it zooms around like a go-kart, and it's fairly cheap.

 

I also rode the train and the metro. I rode the metro Friday, I think. (I don't have cell phone, so I struggle to remember the date, day, or time...) Anyway, my friends and I were leaving the Lotus Temple and we couldn't get a baby taxi take us home for a good price. So, finally we saw a metro station and decided to try that. The first metro was really nice. It wasn't crowded, it had A/C and several helpful announcements. For example, "Please do not sit in seats reserved for the handicapped, senior citizens, and ladies" and "Please watch for unattended bags, briefcases, toys, and transistors, as they may contain bombs." Good to know. Then we changed lines. This time it was so crowded that it didn't matter we had nothing to hold on to. But then, maybe 2 people moved and all of the sudden, my friend and I were stumbling back and forth across the car. Indian metros definitely don't glide to a gentle stop. Comparatively, the D.C. metro does. Of course we were on a car with all men. They tried so hard to help us. There is a car reserved for ladies, but we would've had to get off the train, run to the front, and then push our way back on again. Plus, we had a guy with us and didn't want to leave him. Next,a guy said, "These seats are reserved for ladies. You can make someone move." But, walking up (or squeezing our way through hundreds of people) to some random men and demanding they move for us is not part of our natures. Not to mention, it would make it even harder to reach the doors on the opposite side of the car when we needed to get off. Finally, the guy found a bar for us to hold on to. The metro ended up being a lot cheaper than a baby taxi, but it took us an hour to get home, as opposed to 15 minutes.

People here are really helpful. When you've just arrived in Delhi and the only Hindi word you know is the name of your destination, taxi drivers will stop and ask directions, a shop keeper offered me a chair when he noticed a I was waiting on my friends and a policeman got a taxi for us (which helps keep the price down).

There's more to this adventure, but maybe I'll save it for another blog. Oooh, a cliffhanger. I bet that drives you crazy doesn't it?

Arrival

Ah, the sweet smell of sweat and pollution! Yes, ladies and gentlemen I have officially arrived in India, with all my luggage PTL. There was some question because the luggage belt stopped for a good 5 minutes and I didn't have any of my suitcases. Apparently, some of the containers were taken to the wrong place.

My journey began at 2:10 Monday afternoon, when I left OKC for Dallas. Then from Dallas I flew to London, where I went through  security all over again, walked about 5 miles (slight exaggeration) across the airport, and made it to my gate as the plane was boarding. Btw, for those interested, each of my long flights was about 8 1/2 hours. On the Dallas/London flight, I was seated by a man who apparently had opted not to bathe before entering a tiny space filled with recycled air. He had however, put on cologne in an unsuccessful attempt to hide his BO. It didn't help. On the London/Delhi flight I was seated next to two friendly Spanish women who did not speak any English. They repeatedly crawled over me to talk to their other friends, all the while insisting that I not move. So, I pushed myself as far back into the seat as possible and turned my head to the side in order to avoid someone's rear brushing my face. I know they were trying to be polite, but after a while I really just wanted to get up and let them out.

I'm really starting to like the OKC airport. Twenty-ish gates in 2 hallways and everything is close by. Dallas isn't that bad. At Heathrow, I left the plane and boarded a bus that drove me way far away to the arrival area. Several minutes and a ridiculous amount of escalators later I made it to security, went through that whole process,  walked a long long way across terminal A, used yet more escalators, boarded a train to terminal D and went to the far end of that. It took me about an hour to get off the plane and to my next gate.

Baggage claim in Dehli is really far away from the arrival area too.

I got the the guest house at about 3:30 Wednesday morning. The first thing I did was take a shower. I have yet to figure out how to operate the water heater, but the water isn't exactly cold. After standing around in heat and humidity it felt great. The truly important thing was that I got to feel clean again!

I woke up at nine and went shopping for clothes. It is not as crowded as I expected, but I'm told that a lot of people have left the city because they heard the Commonwealth Games would make traffic beyond ridiculous. I bought one shirt, but that's it. Orientation starts tomorrow. Hoping to go to bed early tonight!