living like elle

Despite the title of this blog, India was an amazing experience. There were tears, and there were headaches, but I learned so much and the good always outweighs the bad. 

If I could describe India in a few words it would be chaos and culture. Where I visited in India was a very chaotic area, yet it was also a very touristy area. I spent my time in Mumbai and on Elephanta island. When we got to India we had no idea what to expect, this was our first port and our second stop on this trip after Dubai. I had never been to India and honestly I didn’t do a lot of research on India. Mumbai was a very chaotic place, no driving laws, and very populated; yet you could always see through the chaos and notice the culture, even if it was just noticing how the locals lived. 

We had all of our plans worked out, hotels booked, everything was set. I spent my first day in India on a field class which is a required day we spend with our class in a specific country. We visited a business graduate school for my class and this was the highlight of my India trip, we were treated with hospitality that was unreal, the students were so beyond kind and so happy to have us visiting, the professors were so smart it was an honor to get to learn from them. The connections and friendships I made at this school are something that I will cherish forever. I had my first authentic Indian meal and learned how to eat it the traditional way; with my hands. Being able to spend the day conversing and learning was something I wish everyone had the opportunity to do because it changed the way I think, and gave me an education that I wish everyone could have.

The next day was amazing as well, we spent the day on Elephanta Island touring around the Elephanta caves. This was such an amazing experience, getting to learn the history of the island and learning how locals of the island lived was so incredible. Our tour guide was very sweet and taught us so much, even though he dropped us off on a random street corner after we declined his offer to visit his house. We figured out how to get home then we had to head to the airport because we had a flight to Agra, and from Agra we had a driver and a tour to the Taj Mahal. 

We got in the Uber to head to the airport and our Uber driver kept getting lost, he added about an hour to our time because he kept driving in circles. I don’t know if this is because he wanted more money or because he was actually lost. When he dropped us off at the airport he also demanded more money which we just gave him because we didn’t want to argue with a local and we were already running late for our flight. We get inside the airport and we find out our plane tickets does not exist. We got scammed. We bought tickets like any other person would and they just didn’t exist even though we had a confirmation number, what plane we were on, our seats, and our gate. So, we did what any other dumb college kids who are traveling the world alone for the first time would do and we bought more plane tickets straight through an app from a company that we saw in an airport. Same thing happened. This is when the panic started, we had hotels, tours, everything booked in Agra where we were supposed to fly. 

Huge thank you to my mom who answers my phone calls at absurd hours because I don’t know what I would have done if she didn’t answer, my panic would have been a hundred times worse. I was balling my eyes out in the airport because we had no idea what to do. Side note, the people in India love to take pictures of white American people because they like to bring the pictures back to their village to “show off” who they met. So I am balling my eyes out in the airport crying and yelling on the phone with my mom and I’m also surrounded by people who are taking my photo; I would pay money to get my hands on one of those photos now. It was an experience to say the least. After many hours of crying and trying to figure everything out, nothing got resolved so we decided to just go home back to our boat which is our safe place during our world travels. 

We were on our way to walk out of the airport and we were stopped by the security men asking us for our boarding pass, we never had a boarding pass because our tickets weren’t real. Apparently in the Mumbai airport in India you need to show your boarding pass in order to enter the airport, yet somehow someone let us in without one. So when we tried to walk out it was a huge ordeal. We were questioned, they grabbed Jesse’s phone and looked through it and they searched our things. Turns out they thought we went into the airport to leave a bomb so we almost got arrested.

We finally got out of the airport and got an Uber home, were both still crying, I am still on the phone with mother. Then our Uber driver crashes into a person on a motorcycle. Buddy goes flying in the air and the motorcycle looks totaled. All the sudden the back windows get rolled down, Jess and I are speechless and have our jaws dropped to the floor. A screaming match breaks out in Hindi so I have no idea what was being said but it didn’t sound good. Then a police officer comes over and just waves our driver on and not a single word about the incident was ever spoken. It was an odd experience to say the least, we got in a car crash in India. Thankfully the guy who got hit on the motorcycle stood up and was able to walk away so I’m hoping there were no serious injuries, and Jess and I were completely safe and okay.

We got back home and my stepdad, mom, and Jesse’s mom all got to work to try and get us as much money back as they could. They were working overtime to try and help us. Overall we got a majority of our money back and we learned many lessons that night that I am glad we learned right off the bat. We may have not been able to see the Taj Mahal but India is a place where I wouldn’t mind going back so I’m sure I’ll make an appearance at the Taj Mahal sometime in my life. Everything happens for a reason and everything ends up working out. 

We get back to Mumbai and we have to decide what we want to do for our next few days. We ended up going to the Taj Mahal palace to eat food which was so amazing and we walked around the market. We ended up getting very lost while walking around and trying to find McDonalds which resulted in us paying way too much for a taxi to take us where we needed to be but that’s fine. We spent a night in the Taj Mahal palace with our friend, it was the most beautiful hotel I have ever stayed in. We had all had a few hard days in India so we decided to walk across the street to the bar to grab a few drinks as college kids do. We got to the bar and got some drinks then a ton of SAS people came to the same bar and it was essentially a huge party, so we kept drinking, and drinking, and drinking. We were having so much fun then all the sudden we woke up in our hotel room. How we got back and what we did on our way back will forever remain a mystery. We woke up with a raging headache and a heart attack from how much money we all spent at the bar. Again you live and you learn, we woke up safe with all of our belongings and in our hotel room which is all that mattered. 

Jess and I spent the next day violently hungover exploring the city of Mumbai on an all day tour, the photos are hilarious, we look like we’re dying. But in retrospect I am so happy we did the tour because we learned so much history about the city. Staying in the city of Mumbai was a blessing in disguise I believe, we ended up having so much fun with all of our friends and we really got to do a deep dive on the culture and history of the city we were staying, whereas when we travel to multiple different cities in a week you only get the surface level education of each of the cities you visit.  

Above all I loved India, things went wrong but we learned. This port prepared us for the worst and I think it made us more well rounded travelers. Looking back it’s something we laugh about now and it’s a memory that we cherish. Even though nothing went how we planned it we got so many other amazing memories even if it didn’t include seeing the Taj Mahal. Everyone I have talked to has mixed reviews on India but I am so happy I got to visit and I do think it’s somewhere where I would visit again in the future. 

If I was to visit India again in the future I would get out of the tourist area and city scene and go to some more rural places. I still want to see the Taj Mahal at some point in my life but I would also love to visit temples and mosques to learn about the religions; learning about different religions has been something I have been very interested in on this trip. It would also be a dream to be able to practice meditation in some of the temples in India. I would 100% without a doubt go back to India if the opportunity arises. There would just be some things that I would do differently. 

A huge thanks to my mom and stepdad for helping out with the situation even though they were a world away and working to get some of our money back, and also a huge thanks to Jess. Jess and I have known each other for awhile but this was one of our first travel experiences together and I think it brought us closer together as individuals. We learned to be flexible, we learned the meaning of everything happens for a reason and we learned that even if shit hits the fan, you can always make the best of the situation and that’s exactly what we did. 

I  loved India, I loved the culture, the people, and the hospitality. It was an amazing experience and it was the start to me becoming a global citizen. I will forever cherish the memories I made in India whether they were good or bad and I will always cherish the friendships and connections I made with the local people. 

All in all India was an amazing experience and I am so thankful I got to visit. I am also so thankful for my family for being such a great support system while I was learning all these hard lessons. This was just a silly little story that I thought would be fun to share, but if you have the opportunity to visit India please do! Even if it’s just to embrace yourself in their culture, it’s a life changing experience and a beautiful place with amazing food and wine 🙂