Shipping souvenirs home and some shopping in India

Since I only have 2 generally small backpacks, if I'm going to have any souvenirs from this trip I have to start sending things home. I can usually carry a few extra things in my backpacks before they get too full, but I've already sent 3 boxes home in the 2 months I've been gone.

The first 2 I sent from Brazil, and they didn't actually have too many things in it since I didn't go so big on the shopping. Fortunately I found a post office in the international airport, so it was easy to just stop there once when I arrived (to send everything from Peru and Bolivia) and once before I went to India (to send everything from Brazil and Argentina). Those boxes made it home in under 2 weeks with the cheapest shipping option, I figure they drove it up to Texas through Central America maybe? Shipping things in Brazil was a familiar experience, not at all like India.

In India, sending a box home was done like I would have never expected. Once I got all my souvenirs together, my friend Jaclyn and I went over to the post office. First you have to go to the packer dude. He takes all your stuff and packs it so it's ready for shipping. We expected he would pack it a box...this was not the case. He took my stuff, organized it a little more, and then put it back in the plastic bag I gave it to him in. Then he wrapped it tight in string how you would wrap a gift. Once he did that he took some white cloth he had handy and started to sew a little bag. Once sewn enough he put my plastic bag in it and finished sewing it shut. Now it was pretty much just my stuff in a white bag, and he wrote "To" and "Sender" on the cloth. It was then that I realized there was going to be no box.

I asked about boxes, but this guy was very noncommunative the entire time, so he continued to be of little help. He managed to say "market" though while shaking his head when we asked about boxes. Oh well! I wrote the info and then he told me I needed a customs slip. I never needed a customs slip in Brazil, but this is India. I filled out a few of the things that I remembered to put in the box and gave it to him. He folded up my customs slip and sewed a little piece of string to the cloth that he slipped the paper under. It looked like it could fall out any moment haha. We pretty much stood there in awe the entire time. Oh I almost forgot. After sewing the cloth, he lit a candle and then took a stick of wax and made stamped seals all along the seams of the package. I guess this would make sure it was tamper proof, still it was quite the process. It almost seemed like an ancient ritual with the burning wax and everything.

Here's what mine looked like when it was done.

So now we have our packages and we manage to get him to tell us where to go next, which is window 4 or 5 right behind us where the lines are. We practiced balancing our packages on our head while waiting in line, but it was much harder than all the Indians made it look!

Behind us then came another guy with a white cloth package. He stood behind us for a few seconds, and then proceeded to walk behind the post office desk (!?) and put it down next to the teller behind the window, and then walk back to us. As he was doing that, we were thinking maybe packages can be done different from regular mail or maybe there was a different line for foreigners, so Jaclyn went to ask. He told her to go behind the desk and talk to the teller directly. So she essentially just cut the line and had the teller do her entire transaction behind the desk. Wtf? Anyway, once she started paying I left my spot in line and followed suit. Again essentially cutting the line and paying for my package while all the Indians in line stood there with unsurprised looks on their faces behind the glass window. Never in the US would they let anyone step foot behind the desk haha.

I sent my package by SAL mail, which I think means by boat, so we'll see how long it really takes as a cargo ship goes 20 knots (maybe not even?) across the Atlantic ocean. I hear 3 months or so. Hah I'll practically be done with my trip by then! But it was only 1300 rupees which comes out to about 28 USD. For 4 kg(about 9 lbs) I say that's a bargain! It cost me $30-45 to send both of my Brazil boxes and they were significantly lighter. India was cheap so I could get flip flops, pants, shirts, and other random things for all $5 or less each. Maybe $6-10 if the vendor was really stubborn.

Of course you have to bargain hard to get those prices. They still start at prices that aren't that bad if you convert them to USD, but still a rip off compared to what they're worth. They all want higher margins. (Prices in rupees 50 rupees = 1 USD) They would start out at 900 and I'd bring them down to 250. If I really showed that I didn't want them I could get 150 or 200 from something that started at 600-1000. Sometimes they would even start at 1200 or so for something you could get for 200, it was ridiculous. After spending a few hours shopping I really got the hang of the bargaining thing. I could talk them down real quickly. I was with Jaclyn at the markets, and there was one store we had the most epic bargaining session ever. The vendor started out at 1450 and she retaliated with 650 (for multiple items here). They argued with each other for minutes, only moving by 50 at a time until it ended up at 900 where they both agreed haha. It was quite the scene.

 

 

Transportation in India. Trains, planes, buses, and cars!

I've heard great things about the Indian Railway service, and it is a fully functional service that connects many places in India, but my experience shows that there is much to be improved! I'm still not sure how they do the bookings, but I hear that the available tickets are divided up and given out to different agencies, so if one agency says that train is full, it may not actually be full. Since I've been mostly booking fairly last minute trains, all the agencies/websites I asked said it was full. Then people told me that there are general admission cars on the train, which I think means that people can get in it as long as they can fit, kind of like a subway or local metro. There's also another kind of ticket, called Tatkal, which you can only get 24 hours before departure. It's pretty much all the leftover tickets that weren't sold at all the different agencies, so if they're out of tatkal tickets then it's actually full, but it can be quite frustrating.

Booking agencies can book for you, but as I said they might be full for their quota.

There's also tons of different kind of classes. I don't understand them, I just took second class ac the few times I took the train.

The bathroom in the train was literally a squat hole to the ground underneath the train. So the train track is essentially a bathroom, that'll keep people from walking on the tracks haha.

The meal was tasty!

Buses were much more fun and easy to use. Of course the bus stops aren't marked and the buses sometimes don't stop moving haha. Maybe I'll write more of my story later.

India is cheap! Sometimes.

When I went to Bolivia I thought it was cheap, but then I got to india. 50 rupees is 1 dollar here. Most countries I've been to the prices are maybe a little cheaper while still being equivalent to what I would spend back home. It's different here. I can get a little sandwich on the street for less than 10 rupees. I can get a package of cookies for less than 10 rupees. I can get a taxi ride a kilometer for about 20 rupees. That's pocket change in America.

Since things are so ridiculously cheap compared to what I'm used to, the vendors, taxi drivers, and the like catch on to this and start charging prices that I'm used to. A taxi ride that could easily be 20 rupees will cost 100 rupees once he sees the color of my skin and hears my accent. Even if I know the going rate I sometimes can't reach it since they know I have more than that as a budget. The only time I consistently get a fair price is for street food in less touristy areas. Usually 15 rupees or less for something pretty tasty, it's hard to resist.

Of course when you're buying from people on the street, it's usually a lower class business. Everyone on the street nearly without fail takes my money and then gives me my food with the same hand. The first time it happened I was surprised, but I was also hungry! And now it just happens regularly and what can I do? Also, to save money they usually wrap it in newspaper or magazine paper. Kind of gross considering I know what happens to my fingers after I read a newspaper for a while...they turn black from all the ink rubbing off on them. But that's just the norm here! Mmm a little newspaper ink with lunch.

Now even though there are things that are cheap, there's also a higher class in India that can afford prices like I'm used to, and there are establishments that cater to these people. They usually have a much nicer atmosphere at these places, and the people there are more likely to speak english and there definitely won't be anyone begging. At these places you could have an entree that's almost 10 USD or more, but sometimes it's worth it to get some high quality food and sanitary measures.

 

Incredible India

After traveling through South America for over a month, I started to see a lot of the same in the general culture of all the South American countries. This led to believe that India might just be another foreign country to me, but boy was I wrong. As many people say, the first thing I noticed when I came out of the Mumbai airport was the smell. Quite interesting, a mix of auto fumes and sewage...not something you'd want to smell.

On the taxi ride to my friend's house the different India became even more apparent. We passed by some places (usually near water) where the smell was almost unbearable and I was trying to hold my breath. Traffic was also the worst I've ever seen. There are practically no rules, and everyone honks all the time. I mean all the time. Never in my life have I heard this much honking, and if you're a pedestrian it's right in your face. The traffic lights are sometimes followed, but sometimes people just go, honk a few times, and the other people have to stop anyway to avoid an accident. On turns everyone is cutting everyone off so it's not even a big deal.

Oh yeah, and they drive on the left side of the road. I have to remember to look the other way or I'll get run over. After being here a few weeks I think I've gotten it down, but it really threw me off for the first few days. Even as a pedestrian I can actually walk across the street whenever I want. People may honk at me but they'll stop nontheless, usually drivers are more on the lookout for this kind of stuff. Of course I don't try to do that, although I've been in a hurry a few times and it works like a charm. There are also very few sidewalks, and if they're there it's usually so crowded many people are walking on the street anyway.

I've come to dread being on the street in any form. Walking is stressful and loud, sitting in a taxi is also stressful and loud if I'm looking at the road because I see all the near misses as they swerve through traffic. The only way to avoid it is to close my eyes or get distracted with conversation.

Another problem with the street, at least in more popular tourist areas, are all of the beggers. They look old and frail or young and helpless, sticking out their hands and begging for food or money. They have followed me down the street continuously asking me for money like I'm going to change my mind, it can be quite hard to shake them once they see you come out of a nice car or looking at a nice smartphone.

Pollution here is also the worst I've ever seen. When you're in a big city like Mumbai or Delhi you can't see the blue sky unless you drive out of town. Yes it's that bad. It looks like there's constantly a light haze over the entire city. You can also see it from a distance, it's freaky.

There's also such different clothes for everyone! Especially the women who are usually dressed up in what I think of as a costume when it's really just regular clothes here. In America the only time people wear that is during halloween or a Bollywood performance.

Everybody here loves Cricket! They have big parks (which they don't actually call parks, parks are only for small grassy areas) where everyone just plays this sport.

And here you can get a taste of the poverty. There are people sleeping on the street everywhere.

And even on stairwells...

By the time of this writing I've already been in India a few weeks, and I have a few other posts to add as well, but internet is a little harder to come by here in India. Not many public places or hotels/hostels offer wifi, even though India is now a huge software engineering hub.