Mar 11, 2011 This morning I was awoken by a phone call from Lisa demanding I get my ass out of bed. She came over and literally sat at the end of my bed until I got up. We had no plans for the day- just shopping and maybe an internet café. We ended up getting off the ship and into an auto-rickshaw, which is the scariest most entertaining ride youll ever have. These tiny things weave through traffic and demand the same respect shown to the cars three times their size. At some points I just had to close my eyes because I seriously thought we were gonna die. We went to a couple of shops that we wanted to go back to for items we couldnt live without. I bought two pairs of Aladdin paints- so comfy. Then we asked for our rickshaw driver to take us to lunch. We told him we wanted traditional Indian cuisine, and the first place he took us to was so filled with incense smoke that we couldnt even see each other five feet away. Figuring a hotel would be a good bet, we asked for a nice hotel restaurant. After about 30 minutes of driving he turns down this alley and we were like oh hell no, were not about to be killed in India. Turns out he was taking us the back way to this nice restaurant which turned out to be delicious. He left us in peace to eat only after asking if we would buy his lunch no? We asked the waiter for suggestions and he brought us my favorite thing in the world, tofu Masala, plus some garlic butter naan, which was the most delicious thing Ive ever put in my mouth. Our lunch was awesome and only about 4 dollars each so we were pretty pleased. We went to this huge mall called Spencers Plaza that was the most random assortment of nice shops and little mom and pop places, and we spent way too much money. We ran into Haley and Sarah there and ended up shopping the rest of the day with them and then heading back to the ship. It took me a couple days to process everything I had seen in India, thats why these blog posts are late. I think its obvious by the tone of my writing that India might not have been my favorite port. I dont know if I didnt see the India that people rave about or if it just wasnt my thing. I had a really great talk with Kelly about it, and she said that she thought Africa was my place. She said that when she was with me in Ghana and South Africa she could tell that I was so happy, and she didnt see that in India. I think shes right, but I also dont think that I would let that cloud my appreciation of other cultures. I do appreciate India, and there are many wonderful things about it that I didnt see or do. I am certainly open to experiencing more of the country and the people, I just dont think that it will be a place I put high on my list to return to.
