My trip to India, 2010

My first time going abroad was traveling to India. I went to India with my friend in February, 2010. At that time, I had graduated University and was not employed by a company yet.

I went to Deli, the capital city of India, to Jaipur, to see the pink city, to Agra, to see the Taj Mahal and to Varanasi to see and enter the Ganges.

I was most impressed with Varanasi. The Ganges river is a holy river in India. But, it is really muddy because people do their laundry in the river. They also use the river for funerals. When someone dies, they cremate the body, then release the ashes into the river. It is said that if you enter the Ganges river, all your sins will be washed away. So, I entered the Ganges. After I got out, my hair was very smooth. After I got out of the river, I read that 50% of people who enter the Ganges get a fever. I was lucky I didn't get a fever but my friend was unlucky and got an upset stomach.   

Almost all the food in India is curry. I thought I would get tired of eating curry, but it was so delicious that I didn't mind eating it everyday. I also love lassi. It is a sweet yogurt drink. Chai is also a delicious drink in India. It is a spicy sweet milk tea. Chai is sold on the roadside. A small cup of chai is sold at a very reasonable price. Although India is very hot, hot chai is delicious.  

I don't like Indian people because they always tried to cheat me. They are very pushy and tried to bring me to an expensive souvenir shop. The worst one happened in KFC in Deli. A man approached me and my friend. He chatted with us for over thirty minutes. At first, we thought he was just friendly, but then he asked us to go to his souvenir shop.

When our trip started we were very polite and shy because we're Japanese. But in the end, we were aggressively shouting "NO!!" to make people leave us alone. At that time, I wasn't good at English. However, thanks to Indian people, I was able to learn the phrase, "Leave me alone!!"