Swoon for the monsoon

Day 5 in India

My plans for the day were to do some quick shopping and then go see a Bollywood movie.  I should have learned that plans in India don’t mean much.  Especially when they involve the word “quick.”

I ended up in a group of 6 to go shopping.  Not the preferred size group (which is 3-4) but we were going to make it work.  We would need 2 autorickshaws to get there, which can get messy because we didn’t want to lose each other.

We walked off the ship onto the gangway and as we were walking down the stairs, someone said “did you feel a raindrop? Should I get my rainjacket?” and someone else replied “nah, they’re just cleaning the ship.  You won’t need a rainjacket.”  We headed to the first checkpoint with our passports and customs forms (the process for leaving the ship every time) and we felt a few more rain drops.  As we crossed the parking lot to the shuttle to take us to the gate, the sky opened up.  Monsoon season had officially started!  The shuttle driver was not in the shuttle, so we ran into this building nearby and waited there about 10 minutes.  We saw the shuttle driver return and we ran out to the shuttle.  By this point we’re already wet, and we decided we would keep going.

We had REALLY wanted to walk from the gate for a bit before getting a rickshaw because the guys at the gate are complete scammers and mostly very mean.  Your chances of having a good rickshaw experience increase the further you are from the harbor.  But, the literal monsoon outside changed our plans and after checkpoint #2, we got 2 rickshaws right from the shuttle. 

Katie, Dan and Holly hopped into one, and Leah, Tommy and I hopped into another.  We had negotiated a rate of 150 rupees to take us to Spencer’s Plaza, and away we went!  I give the rickshaws credit for their rain covers – it wasn’t as soaking wet on the inside as I thought it would be. We pulled out onto the main road, which was a raging river of water, and our rickshaw started to have difficulty.  It straight up died in the middle of the road.  He tried to restart it but no luck.  At this point, buses, cars, other rickshaws, and motorcycles are all swerving to avoid us at the last second.  Our friends’ rickshaw pulls up and the driver agrees to help us out.  He sticks his foot outside of his rickshaw and moves forward, pushing us along.  Our driver jumpstarts the rickshaw and we’re on our way again.

Until it breaks down 30 seconds later.  Same thing again, and this time our driver waves off our friends’ driver once the rickshaw starts.  Terrible idea.  Because the rickshaw breaks down a 3rd time, although not completely, it’s just sputtering.  Instead of pulling over to the shoulder on our left, heading in the same direction we are (they drive on the left side here), he makes a U turn into oncoming traffic and pulls off to the shoulder on the other side of the road.  He tells us “I just need to fix a wire” and leaves.  I’m still laughing at this point, the whole thing was wild, and so I take out my camera to try and capture the ridiculous rain outside and as I am taking a picture, a large bus drives RIGHT by us and splashes gallons and gallons of water into the rickshaw.  We are doused with water (as is my camera) and Leah and I manage to swallow a good deal of India street water.  We immediately popped some Pepto.  The driver comes back and grabs a rag and some matches and goes back to work.  That was the final straw for us.  We didn’t want to blow up.  So we pile out of the rickshaw and I stuff some money in the driver’s hand and we walk away.  We really showed him – walking away in the extreme rain and unable to pull over a new cab.  He starts his, and we sheepishly returned. 

So now everything seems good.  The rickshaw is driving, we can still get to the Plaza and hopefully find our friends, we should be okay.  We turn down this street filled with autorickshaws and Tommy jokes “I hope we’re not going to the mechanic….”  Well, that’s exactly what we were doing.  We stopped at the mechanic for repairs.  Not any kind of repairs – the kind of repairs that primarily involve a hammer.  We’re still unsure of what happened.  It took awhile and then we were finally on our way to Spencer’s Plaza (which is all of 2 km from the harbor). 

We thought that our unusual circumstances of the ride would bar us from any rickshaw scams.  We were wrong – again!  As we’re leaving mechanic’s row, the driver says “Spencer’s Plaza is closed until4 [it was 2pm], I’ll take you to another shop.”  The three of us, in unison, shout “NO NO NO NO – SPENCER’S PLAZA” and he says not another word and heads toward the plaza.  This is a common scam – telling you something is closed and bringing you to their friends’ shops, where they get a kickback of some kind – petrol, t-shirts, cash.

We FINALLY got to Spencer’s Plaza over an hour after we left the ship.  It’s a huge, run down old mall that has tons of stores still selling lots of fabrics, textiles, random items, anything you want.  There are 3 phases to the mall and we started walking through trying to find our friends.  We found them in the 3rd phase and split up for some shopping. 

It had stopped raining as we entered the mall (typical) but the mall was so run down that the water was pouring through the ceiling and people were trying to mop it up.  Also, the A/C had broken so it was just like outside.  Humid and insanely hot.  It was so uncomfortable being so wet and so hot.  I never really dried off, the humidity prevented it.  Anyway, we shopped around for a bit and then got some samosas at a food stand (they were delicious and about 50 cents total).  There was one store where the guy had made a sign for all MV Explorer people.  We went in for a bit and I ended up buying a bedspread from him.  He’s been hosting homestays for SAS for years, but didn’t this year because his daughter got married.  He showed us video of the wedding.  His daughter lives in Minnesota.  So random. 

It was much later than we had anticipated at this point, so instead of going back to the ship to see a movie with other friends, we ended up going to dinner “down the street” from the mall.  It was supposedly a short walk, but it was not, and we were hot and wet and carrying bags and there was so much traffic and it was dark.  What a miserable walk.  But, we had a delicious dinner of naan and tikka masala and paneer.  The restaurant owner came and took a picture of us.  I’m not sure he’d ever had 8 white people eating in his restaurant. 

So after dinner we grabbed a rickshaw home.  As I said before, it’s so much easier to get a rickshaw elsewhere.  We accepted the guy’s first offer because it was half of what we had paid for less people on the way out there. 

That night we ended up playing a game upstairs in the lounge, and then Holly and I finalized our plans for China.  The deal with China is this: we have 2 days in Hong Kong, then you can either hop on the ship for the 2 day transit to Shanghai, or you can get there yourself.  And then 2 days in Shanghai.  I had been planning on being on the ship for the middle 2 days.  But.  BUT!!!!  Holly and I found cheap(ish) flights from Hong Kong to Beijing, so we booked them.  I’m going to Beijing!!!  I’m so excited, I WILL get to see the Great Wall, and Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Then we’ll take an overnight train from Beijing to Shanghai and get there a few hours after the ship does.  I am so excited! 

I’ll have some final thoughts and stories about India tomorrow; now we have a 3 day sail to Singapore, and we will be heading through the Strait of Malacca, which has heavy pirate activity.  We are moving pretty quickly because of this (we can outrun pirate ships) and I have heard through pretty good sources that our crew do pirate duty at night outside.  It involves carrying hatchets to chop down any ropes and keeping powerful hoses out to spray people away.  It’s half exciting, half anxiety producing.

I’m off to start my day – we are 11 hours ahead of central time now, and we’ll lose an hour tonight and then another hour tomorrow night.