A Mexican in India – 5 – First travels in India

October 6th, 2010 by Dariela Escobar

A very important part of my internship in India is my experience in this country. I’ve had the opportunity to travel a lot during the weekends. My perspective on traveling has changed since I came to India, everything here is so far! It takes twice the time to get to places than it would in other countries due to bad highways, so almost everything worth seeing is one night train or bus away. It can be tiring sometimes to spend so many hours traveling but it’s absolutely worth it!

CHENNAI

After my fancy plane trip to Goa, the first time I traveled in India was to Chennai. A Mexican friend, Ivette, is also doing an AIESEC internship in this city, she came to India 2 weeks after me, so I went to visit her. I got advice from people in my office to go to RedBus.in and book an A/C seater bus, it was very easy, I went online, booked my ticket and I was ready to travel! It was an 8 hour night bus, something I would have never taken in Mexico.

I went to Majestic to take my bus, and I imagined I would go to a bus station… but instead I was in the middle of a street full of small shops, all of them with big posters saying  “buses to all destinations”. It took me a really long time to find the right shop, the street was completely crowded and there were buses everywhere! I had my printed ticket so I went to each shop asking if I was in the right place, finally in one shop they said “wait here, the bus will stop right here!”.

I’d heard stories about people missing buses in India before so I arrived there very early and I had a lot of time before the bus came. While I was waiting, a very friendly guy tried to make conversation with me, he asked me lots of questions, and  because I was alone and scared I tried not to answer too much, I just said yes to everything he asked, so he ended up believing I was from Chennai, and that I was going there to visit my family because I was living alone in Bangalore, he also said he hoped my little brothers and sisters (which I don’t have of course) would follow my steps and move to a different city to work when they grew up!

At first i thought he was Indian, but when I heard his accent, and when he continued to believe I was really Indian after listening to mine, I realized he wasn’t. He told me he was from Nigeria and he asked for my number “just so he could hear my voice sometimes”! Of course I said no! and he left!

It was finally time for my bus to leave, so just in case I asked again, and they told me I was in the wrong place! Luckily the right place was just next to me, and although I had to run after the bus, everything worked out OK and 8 hours later I was in Chennai. I had an amazing weekend there with Ivette and Juhi, a girl from AIESEC Chennai that was hosting her there, as well as with Juhi’s family and friends! They are all some of the most amazing and kind Indian people I’ve met so far!

I was amazed to find that there are no cows in the streets in Chennai, it’s a city bigger than Bangalore and in a way it seems more organized and clean. The weather is very hot and humid, unlike Bangalore which is a lot colder than I expected!

On the bus back to Bangalore they changed my seat for an individual sleeper, there are some buses here with beds, and they can be double or single. I thought it would be horrible and dirty, but it was quite nice and I managed to sleep throughout the whole trip.

MADURAI

The first time I took a train was when I went to Madurai. All the AIESEC interns had planned this trip before I came to India so they all bought tickets before they knew me. The same day they were taking the train one of the girls canceled so they asked me to join in her place!

Madurai has an amazing temple, it’s very big and beautiful! Here was the first time I saw an Indian elephant, and I got my first elephant blessing! You give the elephant a coin, which he takes with his trunk, and you stand in front of him for him to put his trunk on top of your head! It was a very strange feeling but it was amazing!

There’s not much more to do in Madurai other than visiting the temple, so the next day we went to Kodaikanal. There are lots of shops that sell homemade chocolate here and there’s a place called Coaker’s Walk, it’s a path next to the edge of the mountains that is supposed to have an amazing view of the area. Unfortunately this day was completely foggy so we didn’t see much, but at least we got to eat a lot of chocolate!!

Now I learned that it’s better, cheaper, and easier to travel by train, but the problem is you have to book in advanced to find tickets. And when I travel by bus I usually choose non A/C sleeper because they are comfortable and not so expensive, or KSRTC seater buses, which are very cheap and these ones do leave from bus stations because they’re government buses, the rest are private buses, which is why they depart from random shops anywhere in the city.

Do you want to watch my pics?? Click here!!

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Hello, I’m CumGetSum :)

September 23rd, 2010 by Krshna

We bring to you, our latest employee, Cumgetsum!
OK, To tell you the truth, Cumgetsum is a wacky facebook application that we’re coming up with in a bit. I know, it’s not Anita The Psychic reader, and no, he doesn’t come with crystal balls)
But we like to think he’s from Ancient China.
Are we cool or what?
Leave [...]

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A Mexican in India – 4 – Cows in India

September 6th, 2010 by Dariela Escobar

I had always heard about cows being sacred in India. Before coming here, I was prepared to find them on the streets and I knew I wouldn’t eat beef for some time, but here are some things I’ve learned about cows in the past few months.

One of my first days in India, I was waiting [...]

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A Mexican in India – Before coming to India!

July 28th, 2010 by Dariela Escobar

August, the dream begins…
“Try to say YES to every opportunity that comes along” I thought. Then my friend Rod called me and said “Do you want to come with me to the Panamerican University to hear a talk about an exchange program?? It’s about something called AIESEC“. And so we went. [...]

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