India colors

       During my time in India I decided to travel with an SAS program. We went to Delhi, Japer, and Agra. Our bus would be riding next to camels, and large elephants. They would use the road just like the cars. I think the highlight of that trip was the Taj Mahal. Even though I had seen many pictures, it was still an unreal site to see, and its one hell of a love story. It was a fun atmosphere to be around, all the women had bright colorful sari´s on and anytime we stopped to take a picture the people wanted to take pictures with us. I felt like I was posing forever!

        Another highlight was being able to bathe and paint elephants. There was a large hose and the elephants would walk up and fill their entire trunk with water then fling it over their head and shoulders. If you were standing next to them you would be receiving a bath also. There were three or four elephants and they all loved playing in the water. I was then given a brush and we washed them just like we wash cars. We scrubbed their long rough trunks and their massive wrinkled legs. When they were clean we painted them. Sounds counter productive I know, but it was a lot of fun. The paint was more like a chalk. When it dried on your hands it felt chalky. Over all I did not get to see the rural parts of India because our trip sheltered us from that which was unfortunate. There were some funky smells and some interesting sights and I really got to see that the last two days I was in India. 

       The last two days I traveled with a few friends. We ventured out to the beach one of the days and it was an experience of its own since we had to be covered. We went swimming in our clothes anyways and it was a blast. We Talked with a local fisherman and admired his net full of sea life, and we drove around in Tuk-tuks (three wheeled vehicle that are very small!) The back seat fit two people comfortably, but we always but four in the back and one up front with the driver. If you sat up front you had to hold on tight because there wasn´t enough room for two people and the driver usually did not know how to share a seat. The time I sat up front I was actually able to drive! No worries, it was at night when there were no other cars around. It was a lot of fun. At night we decided to go to a club and it ended up being the best idea ever. Women do not usually go out at night, they stay at home, so in the club there were mostly men, but the few women that were there were a blast. There were people of all ages dancing like crazy. It was nothing like American dances where not everyone dances. Here everyone was on the dance floor and were not embarrassed to dance like crazy people.

If I were to go back to India I would do it completely different. I would want to see the side that was hidden from me. I would want to see more of their unique way of life.