India

Hi Everyone! Sorry for the delay in updating our blog! We spent 6 days total on the ship from the end of March through April. But I still wanted to write about all the places we stopped!

After Mauritius we visited India, probably the most eye opening experience of the trip. There is no way to describe what it’s like to be in India. The poverty and pollution there is so emmense its hard to imagine anyone can live there. I know it made me feel very fortunate to be an American. The streets there are littered with trash and beggars and there is a constant smell of burning garbage in the air. The crew on our ship spent hours laying down cardboard and tarps all over the ship which I thought was a little over the top until I came back from my first afternoon in Chennai and my clothes and shoes were covered in black soot. Not only does it smell bad, but it’s hot as hell too! It felt like what I imagine standing right on the equator at the hottest part of the day is like. This description probably doesn’t make India sound too appealing but there were some fascinating and beautiful things there. The Taj Mahal is one of the most amazing buildings I have seen in person, no picture does it justice. It was incredible. We also visited Varanasi – the most holy site for Hindu’s. We were lucky enough to go on two boat rides down the Ganges while we were there. One at night and one at sunrise. At night there were tons of people chanting and it was all lit up, it looked like a festival was going on but that happens there every night. People come from all over India to put their feet, hands, or entire bodies in the holy river. I can tell you first hand it doesn’t look so holy – its murky and FILLED with trash. Tons of people bathe and wash their clothes in all of the trash every day. It’s also the place where they burn dead bodies and send their ashes down the river. We saw the crematories where they burn the bodies, it was very intense and somber. No one talked while we floated past that spot. Overall I decided I won’t be going back to India anytime soon but I am so glad I got to experience it and I will never forget it. It was both powerful and eye opening.