Log 24

Namaste from India. First of all, I would like to address the weather in India. It is very hot and it is very humid. I want you to imagine the worst summer you ever experienced and then double it. Just sitting outside on the deck, you start sweating after about ten minutes. Even spending just a few hours out in the town drains you of energy. To make matters worse, in order to be polite the recommended dress code for India is covered knees and shoulders. This means no shorts and no tank tops. I am happy to say, though, that despite the heat and sun, I have avoided getting sunburn.

Another key aspect of India is the food. More accurately how spicy the food is. We went to a little restaurant to grab a snack the one day. My roommate, who speaks Hindi, told the guy in English and Hindi, to not add anything spicy. So our food comes out, and I go to try the curry, that is not supposed to be spicy, and almost choke to death. Then my roommate tasted it and just shrugged, laughing at me. She said there was nothing spicy about it, but my taste buds said otherwise. I think the one thing that would hold me back from ever living in India is the food. I would starve to death.

So, everyone learns at some point in their life that in India, cows are sacred. Well I am not really sure if that is exactly 100% correct or not. I didn’t notice any beef being sold anywhere. There were a lot of vegetarian restaurants. And there were cows just hanging out on the side of the roads. But there was no fuss about them. Not the kind you would expect for something so sacred. However, I am confident when I say I saw more goats, than I did cats, dogs, and cows combined. I asked my one tour guide about the goats and he said almost every household has about four or five. And he also said they are used for milk and sometimes meat. If I hadn’t known better, I would have guessed that goats were more sacred than cows.

Then there is the traffic. It can be busy at times, but I never felt unsafe. Also, everyone honks in India. Not because they are mad, but because they are letting people know that they are there. They are more preventing accidents, instead of honking because they are in one. It can get a little obnoxious at times, but you get used to it.

I think it would be accurate to say that you have to pay more attention to the locals than then to the traffic. The locals are very persistent, not to be mistaken with aggressive. When you are passing their stores or auto-rickshaws, they will follow you pretty far to try to get you to buy their merchandise or service. What really comes in handy here is speaking a language they don’t understand. Hindi and English are the official languages, so those won’t do. But when you are spending the day with someone from Peru, Spanish is a very effective alternative. We would discuss this is Spanish to keep the locals from understanding the conversation. That way, we could talk about whether to buy something, if it is good quality, if it is a good price, and the store owner would have no idea. It does get complicated sometimes, though, when you don’t know all the words that you are trying to say. But it usually worked out to our benefit.

Now, while in port, I usually try to be on the ship for meal times so that I don’t have to pay for food. And while in port, the ship usually serves special meals. So the one day we had homemade ravioli. We also got an ice cream bar. Another time we had tortellini. So there are benefits to eating on the ship. The other reason I tried to stay on the ship is because India was where everyone on the last trip got travelers’ diarrhea. So jokes on them, because I am not getting travelers’ diarrhea. This doesn’t mean I didn’t eat any of the local cuisine. I had lunch out about three times. But again, for someone who doesn’t like spicy food, just eating it was a struggle. But I did, and my tongue hated me for it.