I scanned the line to board the bus that brings us to our plane. I see another American. At least by the little bit of his passport I saw it seemed to be. Could of have been wrong.
I get on to the plane to my chosen seat 9A. The first possible window seat that wasn't expensive. I chose this seat for both to and from Dehrudun. A woman asks me 'sir? Do you mind switching seats with me? I have a window seat as well' I'm confused. Don't people want a different type of seat when they ask to switch? I then realized she had a group of girls already seated, all looking at her. They were all together. I asked 'are you with them?' As I glanced to one of the girls who was sitting next to me. She replies 'yes.' I said no problem I can switch. I make my way back down to my now 14A seat. I take my time getting situated in this small plane, rest my head for finally an easy way to sleep without feeling too vulnerable. (I tried sleeping in airport but couldn't. I was so wound up from the past few hours..)
Before I knew it I woke up from a huge bump which I thought was just a bit I turbulence. I see a road under the wheels of the plane. We've landed already. I could have sworn I only fell asleep for about 20 minutes. The flight was supposed to take around 50. I have no clue where my sense of time went, but it definitely wasn't with me.
I got off the plane, walked down the small steps leading to the soil of the Himalayan range. I look around me and I see mountains. Beautiful.
I walk in to the baggage claim. As we wait for our luggage to come in, I see the one who I thought to be an American, standing in front of a map of Uttarakhand. (Where Rishikesh and Dehrudun are located in India).
I walk up and begin to look at the roads.
'Where are you headed?'.. I reply with a turn and say 'right outside Rishikesh, you?' .. 'Dehrudun. I was going to suggest we share a taxi but that wouldn't work.'
This is my first conversation with someone here that makes me feel feel so relieved. We exchange what our purpose of our trips were. He is teaching a class for a couple days, and I'm just exploring. I mention that I'm also going to be teaching, but in Thailand soon. He raises his eyes and says 'oh really? Where about?' I said I'm not sure yet I have to get placed still from my program. He says that he lives in Bangkok and was only coming here for a few days. We exchanged Facebook accounts and said we will try to meet up later in the journey.
We separate and I approach the prepaid taxi counter. I tell them Rishikesh, and give the address. They tell me 700 rupees to travel to the bridge, or 1200 all the way. He said it's about a 10 min walk to my hotel from the bridge. I said no all the way. I don't know where I am yet. I don't know direction. (Even if it's one turn away, which it's really only two away haha, I don't want to take that risk just yet.) I tell them 1200 for all the way. These you don't bargain for. At least I don't think. Either way I was glad to get in a taxi with a destination.
My ride begins to feel so familiar.
I want to say 'boda boda' for motorcycles. I want to say 'mutatu' for van like vehicles. I want to say 'mzungu' for white people/foreigners. It is all wrong. This isn't Eastern Africa. I'm not in Uganda, but the smell, the crumbling buildings, the wild animals.. All resemble my experiences in the past all too well.
We begin taking roads that are passing through sharp turns and cliff sides, over streams and valleys. I reassure with the driver we are going the right way by showing him the address. He assures we are, as we pass the sign that says 'this way to Rishikesh'. The sign pointed straight, we went right, but then we turned left. Hm. Maybe a more direct route to my place? We reach a bridge, that gave a great view of some of the mountains over the river. Feels so crazy to be here in person. We went further up the road and made a left into a small gated road. Some form of official comes out of his den and the driver states 60 rupees. I ask why? He says only 60 rupees. I turn to the official/officer, as ask what for? He states 'tree tax'. It must be for keeping the area nice? Weird considering there is trash everywhere.
I asked the driver why this was not included in the price of the original fare? Why was I not made aware? What if I had not had it? He states it does say it on the ticket. It's not in English. I stated well I should have been told by the taxi booth. He says 'just driver'. I stated I understood, but I would like to know these things first, no funny business, straight to the Green Hotel. Direct route. No stopping. I clarified that there are no more taxed roads before we keep going. For all I know we were going to go through 40 of them. Then I thought, well... Rishikesh only has a couple roads that lead to it so it could be me being paranoid.
We continue up the hills, the bends and cliff sides. We reach the first of many streams of water that break apart the road and make it very muddy, right along the cliff side.you can see all the tire marks of past vehicles sinking in about 8 inches deep. The driver carefully maneuvers the car through the mud, swerves a bit, but in the direction id want to swerve in, out of the two. We have a few more of these but not as bad.
We begin going down the road with walls surrounding us. I see the top of a temple in the distance. It gets buried by more walls. I ask the driver if we are here. He turns down a road and points directly to the hotel. He drops me off, and I check in. I'm relieved. I can finally get rested.
I make my way to my room. I connect to my much wanted wifi to communicate, and I plop. I then go to the bathroom and the floor is soppin wet of puddles, no toilet paper, and looks a little grimy. If that's the most of my worries for this place then I'm okay with that.
I sleep for about an hour and a half.
Woke up, and looked out my window.
I'm exhausted and don't feel like going anywhere. I end up face timing with Kat. Kat challenges my thoughts. Analyzes them. Helps me think as to why I am here. At Apple we often used .'why' as the starting point, for obvious reasons. But take it further. WHY am I here? Am I here to get what I expected? Or to get more out of it?
This is a huge idea that I begin to grasp a hold of.
What did I make this trip for? I know why I did but WHY, truly? I originally started thinking about it because it was an interestif culture from afar. My friends have been there. It sounded great. I know I wanted to go see a tiny portion of the foothills of the Himalayan Range, the mother Teresa house in Kolkata, and the Taj in Agra.
But is this really WHY I wanted to come?
Is it really worth this all for a couple things...? I doubted myself a lot.
I begin realizing that this is nothing like my past experience at all besides riding in a similar vehicle and holding on for dear life in cars. The reason I did this was yes for those three listed attractions, but what I really like doing..... Is diving in.
From the past 24 hours I'm so overwhelmed. I lost sight. All I could think about was that I couldn't go anywhere I'll either spend too much money, get stranded, get lost, or won't be able to communicate.
Everyone reaching out (publicly and not publicly) has helped me surpass these frustrations and fears. Kat helped change this with a specific moment. The next morning for me, we were face timing. We were talking about things I wanted to do. Or what I wasn't going to do/but she still encouraged me (safe suggestions of course). We finally were hitting a moment where she should sleep and I should get up. She knew I hadn't eatin from the night before because I slept through it. She told me to go get breakfast. I denied. She said that I needed to. So I listened.
Then that glimpse of sun became more than a glimpse.
I met a very nice Italian woman, then two, then three. They kept adding to their breakfast table. I jokingly said 'you got any more coming??' Haha. They laughed and said no just us three. They asked if I was with anyone, I said no. They asked if I had a driver, I said no. I'm still quite nervous and beginning to recover from culture shock. I've never experienced culture shock like this before. We chat about their time in India and what it was that they did. They had a driver that was part of a tour package. I thought about doing something like that but it's way too expensive for my budget. We talked about our travels before India as well. We all agreed we were stressed/overwhelmed with everything. They are ready to go home. They've been here for 20 days. I'm on day 2. They were all so nice and headed on their way home. I'm glad I met them too, definitely made me more likely to venture out. They have me bug spray!!!! SO Nice!!! We all hugged and wished each other luck.
I finished my toast and jam, with potato stuffed parantha, went back up immediately to tell Kat how much that helped me. Its a new day.
I showered, got an India SIM card for 1gb data no text and talk, popped it in my phone and had service! This was shady. I asked the man at the desk where I could get a SIM card from, he said I could get one from them. Then he asked for my passport and information. I felt a little weir about this and said, 'anyway I can do it without that?' He said 'it's fine'. He asked for my phone for which size sim I needed. He was attempting to give the phone to a worker, to go get a card. I said, 'no I am staying with my phone, or coming with.' He stated, 'it's okay don't worry phone is safe'. I simply said 'look, I understand that you may do this a lot but I don't know you, I can't automatically trust everything will be okay.' I popped out the simcard tray, and gave them that to go get the right size. I waited 10 minutes and I was set. I had a new SIM card for a whopping 250 rupees. Then another 250 for a gig of data. I can pay 4$ per gig of data. Awsome.
Nathan, the guy I met at the airport was attempting to come to Rishikesh and I was about to go see if I could meet up with him. I left the hotel, and started to venture out.
Next post: Walking in Rishikesh, taking tuk tuks, and the bridges over the Ganges River. All of which are in the Himalayan Range.
Followed by the journey back to New Delhi, and an Indian Wedding.
Current mood: Definitely still adjusting. Can't wait to see things, but still can't wait to leave. All at the same time. Very weird feeling.
Venturing out!
No comments:
Post a Comment