The ones who refused to shower vs seeing the world!

Today I woke up at 10am on a train moving north from Mumbai. Where we were going I had no clue but all I knew was that I slept like a baby and I wasn’t alone. Pretty much since we were all stuck on this train for 19hrs (we departed Mumbai the night before at 8:30pm to arrive next day at 4pm) the routine went a little something like this:

- Get up and move to the end of the cart to see what the rest of the group was doing

- Go back to your bunk and talk with people there

- Go have a look outside the door and watch Indian kids wave as you pass by

- Go back to the other end of the cart and see what other people are doing

- Repeat 50x and you get the routine

We finally made it to Dwarka and we had a bus waiting for us to take us into the little town. We only had about 4hrs total here, so the bus took us to a hotel in which they Mark had reserved 3 rooms for people to shower and clean up in.

We asked these guys for a photo and they were all to excited to let us take their photograph

I wanted a shower but I wanted photographs first! With only a small amount of time I didn’t want to waste it sitting in a hotel room. I’d rather be dirty and have a camera full of photos then a washed body and nothing to post to you guys. Lucky for me I wasn’t the only one thinking this. Drew, Steve, Tim, Todd and I decided we’d rather see the town more, so we took off for a walk.

Steve has been a very useful guy to have around, as he’s been to India a lot. He’s been giving everyone in the group useful tips and keeping us entertained with funny stories. Tim is from the US and is a photographer too, living in India. Todd is a world traveler as well and has his own website that he co-created.

The Hindu Temple

Kids trying to get over the fence to get their picture taken

So we set off and just started walking down a street. We were supposed to meet everyone at a temple so we stopped and asked a local man which direction it was. There is a rule in India (and I would say the world for that) that you should never ask if a place is in a direction while pointing in that direction. 9-10 it will always be a “yes” answer, which really means they just agreed with whatever you just said and didn’t answer anything.

We kept walking and decided to take a short cut through a dark alley. One the way kids from second floor windows kept popping out and yelling at us for a picture. We didn’t know that this was only the start of what was about to become the norm. Instantly there was something about this small little town that had a very welcoming feeling. People kept coming up to us, smile and say proudly “Hello sir, how are you?”

We heard the temple before we saw the temple, as there were drums playing. We turned the corner and I saw the mostly beautiful Hindu temple yet in India. It stood about 7-stories tall, people were crowded around it trying to get inside, kids were running around yelling and Holy men were blessing people. The intensity of the place was almost overbearing and deafening.

We didn’t know if we could go inside the temple, so we all just hung back and tried to take it all in. There was a fence on the left side of the entrance that you could see through, to get a peek at the guys playing the drums. Drew and I walked up and started taking photos through it. It was then that the horde of kids rushed the fence all screaming and jumping in front of it to asks us what our names were, where we were from, to take a photo of them. 5 showed up, then it was 15, then 20 and I remember looking at Drew and we both shook our head, as if to say “glad there is a fence between us!”

It was then that a man walked up to the fence and waved at us to which I thought he was saying go away or not to take photographs. So we backed away from the fence some and he kept waving. Then it dawned on me that he wasn’t telling us to go away but that he was inviting us in and was pointing at the end of the fence on the left as an entrance point. By this time, all the guys were around the fence as well and we all looked at each other and nodded why the hell not.

Into the lions den of kids and drummers we went and Tim and I just went crazy with photos. As many as we could take more and more people were coming up to us to take there photos, some kids, some adults. With the intensity of the kids and the drums all at the same time, I almost felt like I was on drugs. I have never experienced anything really like it and was so glad I had skipped the shower for this.

After the drums stopped we decided to try and find something to eat, as we were all starving since the train ride we took didn’t serve any food. We started walking down random, tight alleyways with no real direction. This is where I got some of the best people photographs from the day. Everywhere we walked people we waving at us, smiling and just plain curious to see a group of white guys in their town. Everyone I asked for a photo all said “Ok, no problem, thank you sir!” and thus I was in photographer’s heaven.

We looked at the time and seen we needed to head back to the hotel where everyone else was at, so we started making our way back. Met back up with the now half clean group and we all then loaded onto the bus. We went to find a restaurant but in the end we just parked the bus and Mark said to fend for yourself for food, as none of the sit-down restaurant would open until 8pm, which would be too late for us. Right where we stopped the bus was a huge parade of something. I thought it was a wedding ceremony but was later corrected and told it was not. I guess it was a Hindu religious thing but everyone was signing in the streets and dancing. We started out by just watching but as soon as the group saw us, they started grabbing us and pulling us in to join them. Again, people we knew nothing about and who knew nothing of us just came together and celebrated as one. We hung out on that street for about 30min until we finally we all were so hungry we couldn’t take it anymore. We walked ahead and found some good street food (see ice cream cone photo below).

After that, we all boarded the bus and headed 3hrs to another town to catch our new train at 11:30pm.

I don’t know the name of this ride but I want one!!!

The party in the street that we observed then became apart of

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