India!

India is a very interesting place. You cannot go into India with a closed mind, otherwise you will not enjoy yourself. They told us before we got there to not judge a book by its cover, to look deeper and you will find some amazing things. I can't tell you how true that statement holds in India. India is the biggest democracy in the world when it comes to population, so it is very important to learn about India.

Chennai

I almost did judge a book by its cover in India because I was sick and tired by people trying to rip us off in India. Two different auto-rickshaw drivers tried to rip us off, one wanted us to pay $50 for each person in the rickshaw! We got into a big argument with them for doing that. It seemed like at first everyone just wanted our money. There was also allot of trash everywhere.

But you have to understand that not everyone is like that in India and the majority of the Indian people are very nice and generally want to more about you and the United States. Thats why I did not jump to conclusions in Chennai. Besides the bad experiences with the auto-rickshaw drivers, we did have a fairly good time. We visited a Hindu family, and they were extremely welcoming and taught us much about how the Hindu family lives. We also visited a Shiva temple, which was one of the biggest temples in Chennai. We also saw a newly wedded couple visiting the temple, apparently that is one of the first things you are suppose to do after you get married in the Hindu family. We learned about many of the Hindu gods. Shiva is the destroyer, he is married to Poverty I believe is the name, and they had a son called Ganesh, which is the elephant headed god and he is also the removal of obstacles so many people have him in front of their businesses.

Delhi

After waking up extremely early (3AM!) we headed to Delhi and saw the capital of India. We saw Victory Tower. We saw some of of the embassies and the capital building of India. We then saw Humayun's tomb which was extraordinary! It was very much the same layout of the Taj Mahal. The entire time I was thinking about that if this tomb is not the must see monument in India, then how amazing is the Taj Mahal going to be. Humayun's tomb was built by the queen for her husband, while the Taj Mahal is the opposite. We saw families playing in the park which was really interesting and fun to watch. Monkeys were everywhere just roaming around. Then we went to where Ghandi was cremated.

Agra

We then took a train to Agra, also extremely early in the morning. We were on our way to the Taj Mahal! I figured if I were to every wear an Indian outfit, the Taj Mahal would be the place to do it, so many of us on the trip put on Indian outfits. I realized that Indian guys don't really wear Indian outfits out that much and they only wear it for special occasions, I got allot of strange looks. Some Indians did thank me for trying to fit into their culture.

The Taj Mahal is really as amazing as the pictures I have seen in books. It does not look real when you first get there, it looks like a backdrop in a picture or something. You don't realize its real until you actually go up to it and touch it. All the pictures that we took of it doesn't even look like that we are actually there. I was extremely impressed and just in awe with how big and how white it was, it was all just so surreal to me. It was perfectly symmetrical with two building next to it that looked exactly the same. The story of the Taj Mahal is actually a love story, which surprised me. The king loved his wife so much that he wanted to build a tomb so glorious so it could represent his love for her. He then wanted to build an exact replica of the Taj Mahal, except black, right across the river as a tomb for himself.

After our surreal time in the Taj Mahal, we went and visited Agra fort. This fort was built by the son of the person who built the Taj Mahal and it was used to imprison the person who built the Taj Mahal.

We then started our 6 hour bus ride to Jaipur and on our way we stopped at the deserted city. The deserted city was built by the mobile king who moved the capital to this location to improve his chances of having a son. Little did he know that this location did not have fresh safe drinking water, so he was forced to move the capital back to the original location. Pretty much, the deserted city was one big mistake, you would think water is one of the first things you look for when building a city. Regardless, the palace was still magnificent. It had a huge parcheesi board that actually used human female players. The king would sit in the middle and whoever won got a kiss from the king.

Jaipur

We got to Jaipur (the pink city) fairly late and our hotel had a club attached to it, so we all decided to do a little bit of clubbing that night. It was really interesting to see how Indians dance, it is very different than how we dance. Males and females keep a very far distance from each other because they respect each others space. It ended up being a really fun night.

Next morning we went to Amber fort. We started at the bottom of the hill and got to ride elephants to the top of Amber fort! It was so much fun doing that. The elephant sprayed itself with its trunk when we were riding it and I definitely got some elephant snot on my face. When we entered the fort, people were playing this really upbeat music welcoming to the fort. The fort itself provided an amazing view. It was pretty much a palace, there were ramps to every location so the king would just ride on a wagon to every location of the fort.

We also did a picture stop at the water palace, which is a palace built in the center of the lake. We also saw a very old observatory, which housed the biggest sun dial in the world. We also saw the City Palace. The City Palace had some ladies giving henna tattoos to everyone. Originally I didn't really want one, but a lady grabbed my arm and started drawing henna on my hand, so now I have a henna tattoo. There were also snake charmers everywhere in the city of Jaipur, seeing cobras was really cool.

Cochin

Cochin really changed my perception of the Indian people trying to take our money. We had the nicest auto-rickshaw driver and we hired him for two days. He took us to eat amazing food, simosas is probably one of the best tasting foods out there. He took us to see the chinese fishing nets, which we were there during the sunset so that made for some good pictures. Our driver even bought the girls in our group henna tattoo ink! At the end he didn't try to rip us off like the other rickshaw drivers did, he just wanted us to have a good time. When we asked him how much we owed him, he just told us to give him as much as we think he should get.

I also had the opportunity to play cricket in a park with some local kids. It was so much fun and I actually kinda get how to play now. The kids were really fun to hang out with and cricket is actually a fun sport. It is pretty much baseball with 2 bases and a 360 degree playing field.

We are now on our way to Mauritius and we are going to cross the equator for the first time, so Neptune day is coming up!