Spring 2015 - Day 61: India
Our wake up call in the morning was more reasonable than 3am but was still early. When the phone rang at 6 I was not happy. The good news was that we were staying at the hotel another night so we didn't have to be packed.
Our destination for the morning was Amber Fort, which was built in 1595. Kings would go to the fort to dispense justice. They would drink opium from the kings hand during ceremonies and then they would be given a turban of different colors to signify their origins. They then would wear the turbans to certain events. I don't really know what that means but I wrote it down.
We would be riding elephants up to the fort. We unloaded from the buses and then walked the short distance to where we would get on the elephants. Besides us another group had just arrived and so the line for the elephants was very long. While waiting in the line guys would walk down it and try to sell us things. They would put hats right on our heads or put things right in our faces. They were all selling the same things but just kept coming by.
Once you showed even the slightest interest or made eye contact with them they would not leave you alone. They would stand next to you in the line and follow along with you. It was impossible to shake them. It was obnoxious and, actually, it was amazing. Their persistence was amazing. Every other country we had been, if you said no they would leave you alone, but here they just kept pushing you and pushing you. It was overwhelming and made me not want to make eye contact to talk to people. I was tired of being sold things.
We were probably in that line for over half an hour, maybe even close to 45 minutes. The elephants had raised square seats on their backs that you sat on. It could fit two people on one elephant. Jessi and I paired up and loaded onto our elephant.
The little platform that we were on did not feel sturdy at all. It rocked back and forth on top of the elephant so much that I started to feel like we might fall off of it. I started to get really anxious. We were on this elephant on our way up to a fort, which meant that we were going up hill along one of the walls of the fort. The wall was right near my feet and right on the other side of the wall was a really far drop. I could just picture the harness sliding off the elephant and us going tumbling over the wall. I started getting more and more anxious.
I tried to focus on taking pictures and enjoying my time but all I could think about was falling off the elephant.
So, background on the anxiety thing. After my first voyage I developed a fear of small boats because of a combination of the ferry my parents and I took to Robben Island as well as the piranha fishing in a rickety canoe I did in the Amazon. On that ferry I felt like I was going to die, it was the rockiest ride I had ever taken and with ever rock I swore we were going to go over. We piranha fished in a small, rocky canoe that if we tipped over we would be in water with piranhas.
I began getting anxious on other boats for the past year, including Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney World. When I was in Key West on vacation in December I panicked on a jet ski. We had to go through the wakes of a few boats and I thought we were going to be thrown off. Kellie was behind me and she had to calm me down. It was like nothing I had ever experienced. It was raw panic and I couldn't control it. I screamed and cried and felt like I was about to die and the only way I was going to survive was if I got off the jet ski. It was scary and it was embarrassing.
Throughout the voyage I never got as far as panicking but I felt uneasy on a few of our plane flights. Especially our one to Hong Kong when the pilot took us past Hong Kong before turning around to descend. I think the recent string of issues with Asian airlines fuel that anxiousness but I didn't panic.
I did panic on the elephant. It reached that point that it did on the jet ski. I screamed, I cried, I felt like I was about to die and that the only way I was going to survive was to get off the elephant. It was again scary and embarrassing.
I didn't enjoy the elephant ride because of it. The elephants were beautiful, they were painted and they were friendly and the ride was amazing. But I spent the entire time afraid that I was going to fall off and be critically injured or die. Once I was off the elephant and felt ok again I was mad.
I was mad that I had let my anxiety get the best of me. It was also the moment that I decided I really did have some form of anxiety and that I needed to get help. It wasn't getting better, it was actually getting worse and was starting to hinder the way that I wanted to live my life.
I am not the type of person that lives life afraid. I love to take chances and do interesting things. I enjoy boat rides and elephant rides. I think jet skiing sounds like so much fun but my body and brain have decided to be afraid of these types of things. And I hate it.
I hate it so much. I was so angry at myself when I got off that elephant. I watched the other people laughing and having fun on their elephants and I just wished that I could go back and do our ride again, or that my brain wasn't against me and didn't think a mere elephant ride was going to kill me.
I really, really enjoyed the rest of the fort visit. The fort was the most enchanting place that we visited. The architecture and marble work was exquisite. I loved the colors and the patterns. It just really spoke to me. It was my favorite place that we visited, even more than the Taj.
The way down from the fort was almost just as exciting as the way up. And yes, I mean in a negative way.
We walked part of the way down from the fort. We traveled on a road that went out the back, the elephants had come up the front. We were told that, after a short walk, we would get into jeeps in groups of 6 and the jeeps would take up the rest of the way. The jeeps were already paid for and our tour guide would let us know which jeeps belonged to us.
About halfway through our walk we were bombarded by people selling stuff, no surprise. But this time they were selling pictures of us. They stand along the elephant route and take pictures of people on the elephants. Then they print out the pictures and try to sell them to you when you come down. Our tour guide warned us of this and said that since they cant do anything with the pictures once we are gone we could get them for really cheap.
The swarm of people came all at once. We were asked about photos that weren't us and when the guy who had taken photos of Jessi and me found us he never left. He just kept saying prices and Jessi tried to bargain down but he was tough and wouldn't go down very far. The pictures were not even that good and we didn't really want them but he just wouldn't leave us alone. He walked with us and suddenly we were in this huge crowd of people near the jeeps. There were people selling photos, people selling other things, and tour guides trying to organize all of us into the correct jeeps.
It was madness and the entire time we couldn't shake this guy. I finally paid him just to get rid of him. We ended up with two packets of 10 pictures for 500ish rupees. Way too expensive but neither of us cared, we just wanted him gone.
Somehow we ended up in a jeep with two other SASers. The back of the jeep was open and guys kept sticking their heads in to sell us post cards or small bowls. One guy even put bowls into my lap. He would just add one for the same price. One for 300 rupees, 2 for 300 rupees, 3 for 300 rupees, 4 for 300 rupees. I had to take the bowls and shove them back at him for him to go away.
One guy had these small square weaved placemat things. He had a huge stack of them and he just wouldn't go away. He put them right in Jessi's face and just kept saying prices and we just said, "No, please no, your'e wasting you time. No, we don't want them." But he wouldn't leave.
Our jeep started to move and he climbed up onto the jeep, almost inside the jeep, and sat on the edge. We all yelled no and pushed him out. I was angry, he had no right to try and climb in our jeep, it was harassment. It was then that I realized there was a curtain and I pulled it closed over the opening.
We had to physically hold the curtain down because they still kept trying to push their way around it.
My heart was pounding and I was just so full of adrenaline trying to get these guys to leave us alone. I didn't appreciate them harassing us and I was so overwhelmed that they wouldn't accept no.
Our jeep had stopped again because they had to find a place for Evan, the ship photographer, and his wife who was our liaison. She got in the back with us and Evan sat in the front. When he got in he asked if we were all ok. I was, but also wasn't. It was the craziest thing I had ever experienced and not in a good way. I was exhausted by the end.
It was a sensory overload and I still haven't entirely processed how I felt about it. It's not a good feeling, that much I do know. It definitely made the way I view India more negative.
Everyone talks about India having a specific smell and that it is overwhelming and gross. That was something I did not experience, it smelt like any other place except for the random whiffs of animal dung when we passed cows and goats on the street. My sensory overload didn't come from the smell, it came from being constantly bombarded by people wanting to sell me things.
The jeeps dropped us off at a government run store. We had a little extra time so our guide said that we could have thirty minutes in the store. Yay, another place for people to sell me things. The first floor of the store had bracelets and other jewelry. The second floor had tapestries and saris. Everything was actually fixed price this time, government stores always are. I really wanted to buy a tapestry but they just didn't have one that satisfied all of my requirements. I wanted a small one with a circular pattern but all of the ones like that weren't in colors that spoke to me. I ended up buying nothing and was really bummed about it. India just wasn't working out the way I wanted. The store was not as overwhelming because the people didn't push their products on us. It was more like a store I am used to where you can do your own shopping and approach someone for help if you need it. I definitely like that way better.
In the afternoon we went to two different places that were hot and outdoors. The first was the Royal Astronomical Observatory. It was an outdoor courtyard filled with sundials and other astronomical instruments that gave accurate readings. There was the largest sundial in the world. I have no idea if that is true. But it was huge so I kind of believe it. There was also maps of the stars and a map of the sky with the solstice line that the sun will line up with exactly on two days of the year.
There were also some interesting structures that supposedly read the various star signs. I don't know how they worked but it was pretty cool. When we left the observatory we headed right around the corner to The City Palace. The palace was basically a museum. We didn't talk about it very much so I am not really sure why it was there or what we were looking at.
Basically, at that point, we all just wanted to go shopping. We hadn't had any time to go to markets and buy cool things and that was the only thing on any of our minds.
We were taken into this room of the palace where people make their crafts. We were able to sit down and watch the people explain their craft and what they do. We watched this guy do some really intricate painting. It was so small, it was incredible. I would have bought some of them but they were really, really expensive. Most of the things in that shop were really expensive and I didn't want to buy anything or spend that much money on things. Especially after I had spent so much on what I had bought in that store yesterday. I was still thinking about that.
While we were waiting to leave the room our guide said that the plan for the afternoon was to spend some time at a market and then go straight to our dinner and a show. I think some people cheered when they heard we were going to a market.
We got back on the bus and it took us not very far. We had to fit through a very small arch to get to a parking lot where the bus dropped us off. We had an hour at the market. Jessi and I joined up with Bubbie, whose real name is Carol, and Papa Phil, two life long learners. They are awesome people and we moseyed through the little shops with them. The market was on two sides of a fairly busy street. We went down the left side first and the people there were pretty aggressive. Some followed us for almost the entire block to try and get us into their shops. One guy even walked down to where we were and tried to schmooze us into going into his shop once we got to it.
It was something that I was completely done with and so didn't even want to buy anything. Being harassed does not make me want to buy your things.
But the other side of the street was much calmer and I enjoyed it a lot more. We went into a shop that sold bangles and Bubbie struck up a conversation with two girls from Jaipur. One of them had gotten married a little less than six months before and was still wearing the bangles from the wedding. When they get married the grooms family give the bride her outfit and her bangles for the wedding. The bride must wear her wedding bangles for six months straight after her wedding. She can only change them after 6 months pass. They told us all about bangles and the other traditions around wearing them. Usually you get a matching pair of bangles and then wear one on each wrist.
On the way back to the bus Bubbie almost got hit by a bus and I had to pull her back onto the sidewalk. Crossing the street was interesting and the cows made it even more interesting. We saw this lady with a whole bunch of goats and she just wanted us to take pictures of her goats. It was adorable.
I had to yell at people to move to get on the bus again. They were still in our face trying to sell us last minute things. Actually, in that moment I found the one thing I was looking for and managed to buy it. So the day wasn't a complete loss in the end.
We headed from the market straight to our dinner. The place we went for dinner was magical. It was a bunch of tables set up outside. There was a stage on one side and a buffet set up on the other. We got settled in and then they started the show.
There were three performers, one male and two females. The women danced with silver jugs full of water on their heads. They started off with a dance and it was eerily similar to the one I wanted in Cambodia. It was the dance or the music that made it similar. It was the fact that the women seemed to be miserable and the guy seemed to be absolutely loving it.
Once their opening dance ended they each did individual things. One of the girls did a stunt where she balanced a huge jar on her head and then someone kept adding smaller and smaller jars. Eventually she stood on two glasses and then she sat down on the ground and picked up a dollar with her mouth out of a glass. The look on her face was sad. She looked like she hated having to do this stunt and that she wanted to cry. Or maybe it was just that she was concentrating really hard but either way she looked like she felt like a circus animal.
The guy had the same look on his face when he did his stunt. He suctioned a glass full of water to his head and then another glass of water on top of that one and then balanced a jug on top of all of it. He then balanced on swords and on nails that definitely mad me hope he had a tetanus shot.
The best part of the show was when the guy wore a horse costume and ran around between the tables making horse noises. They they grabbed some of us from the tables and had us dance on the stage with them. The guy put Bill in the horse costume and ran around the audience with him. It was a lot of fun to dance with them and they seemed happier then. Like they actually enjoyed that part of the show.
We were able to get food in the middle of the show and everyone rushed away to fill their plates. I stayed for a bit because I was either going to wait in line or I was going to wait at the table and I would rather be respectful and watch the performance.
The food was ok. I ate a lot of white things. White pasta, potatoes, and rice. I couldn't even take a picture of it because the light bounced off the whiteness and washed it out.
After the show they performed the same puppet show for us that they wanted us to watch the night before. It was pretty funny. The guy would make the puppets dance to a noise he would make from a reed he held in his mouth. It was simple and cheesy and just a lot of fun.
Near the end of our evening someone asked about henna and they found some lady who is actually known for her henna to come and do henna for us. The line was long by the time I found out about it so I didn't get any but it was amazing to watch her work. Some of the pieces that people had gotten elsewhere were beautiful but this woman work put the ones I had seen before to shame.
We headed right back to the hotel after that. We had another early wake up call and we hadn't left the place we ate until almost 11 o'clock. I asked again about the wifi when I got back to the hotel and somehow they made it work for me. I spent a while on the internet. Probably longer than I should have. It was past midnight when I went to sleep. Wake up call was 3:30.
