Trip to India - Entry 6 - Up too early

This morning our phone went off at 2am. I have since showered (because somehow I managed to continue sweating even after coming inside and even after my shower last night), put on my SPF 30 foundation to cover up the purple smudges surrounding my eyes that make me look very much like I got into a fight, and inspected the state of my swollen ankles. In general, I don’t have a problem flying – I am comforted by statistics, and statistics tell me it’s the safest way to travel. I also rarely have problems sleeping on the plane, and the food is (generally) satisfactory as long as I don’t think about it too deeply. What I hate about flying, however, is that my ankles always swell to twice their size for a good 24 hours after touchdown, both directions. You know all those articles about how unattractive cankles are? These are like the Godzilla of cankles, except that I’m also still hot, so they’re now like enormous, pink fleshy cankles. For this reason – and this reason primarily – I dislike flying.

There are a couple of items that I forgot that would have been good not to forget. These items are sunscreen, deodorant, and my pashmina scarves. Thankfully, I have tiny travel items for the second, my roommate has the first, and India is full of pashminas. But still… I knew I would forget something.

After arriving at the bus at the airport, we started loading our bags into the back. A pushy man tried to grab my bag and said, “You give me paper money!” Madhu told us he was hoping to get American dollars from us. Good for me, I had used almost all of my American dollars, and my stash of cash is actually euros. I don’t think the guy ever got a tip for lugging all of our heavy suitcases into the back of that van.

The ride to the hotel has got to be one of the most surreal experiences I have ever had. We drove on a “special” lane for the first part of it because Delhi is building a metro to the airport for the 2010 Commonwealth games (hear that Seattle?? Delhi, India almost beat you to Light Rail!). As I looked out the window, I saw pedestrians, auto rickshaws (those who have visited Thailand know them as tuk-tuks), people riding bicycles, people riding sidesaddle on said bicycles, hand-drawn carts, bicycle-drawn carts, bicycle-drawn carts with people pushing – and yet, I saw only one car on the side of the road, and it appeared to have had a flat, and not an accident. This is, I am convinced, a miracle, and I don’t know how they do it. I have seen similar visions of mayhem elsewhere in SE Asia, especially Myanmar, but typically pedestrians and mayhem don’t go well together, so I think that’s what really set this scene apart – there are a LOT of people just ambling along on the highway into Delhi.

I must say I am quite pleased with the hotel. Cool hardwood floors, a “marble” bath and “marble” accent items throughout the room (it looks like marble, but it can’t be – these rooms aren’t *that* nice), and a giant wide screen TV. The blow dryer actually managed to dry my hair in under a half an hour, and my new adapter has successfully charged my computer in spite of being only two prongs.

So far… a successful beginning to our trip. Today, we see the Taj Mahal, and I have to admit – even though it’s the first full day in India – this was the main reason I wanted to go on this study tour aside from my professional reasons for wanting to go on a study tour. The Taj Mahal is, quite simply, COOL.