Spice Garden and Cooking

Today I went to a spice garden. I got to ride the lifeboat again to the pier and then we were off for the garden. When we got there, we were guided through the garden (much like a botanical garden) and learned about the many different herbs and spices they use there in Malaysia. Our guide was pretty funny and was wearing a portable speaker on his fanny pack. He tricked us into trying the leaf from this plant called the King of Bitter – you can guess how it tasted. After that, we went to this building where there were cooking stations for each of us. Then, this famous chef lady walked us through two traditional Malaysian dishes. It was the best cooking experience I’d had so far. Their dishes are very colorful (the second dish had yellow, green, pink – from the ginger flower, purple, brown and white all in one dish – too many flavors for me). I mostly liked the dishes, but there were certainly some things I didn’t like/didn’t think fit. The first dish was a mixture of veggies, chicken and mushrooms – could have done without the mushrooms :P The second dish was this mostly sweet rice dish with mint and coconut mixed with saffron and onions. It was ruined, in my opinion, when we added the fish powder – salty, fishy fish taste just doesn’t go with sweet to me at all. We were one of her best groups because we did exactly what she told us to do, even though we were a bit slow at it. She told us how she’s taught many prominent chefs, but they don’t wait for her instructions before guessing what to do and don’t follow the instructions well when they do wait. Needless to say, she was quite pleased with us. If you were wondering, yes we got to eat what we cooked. After, I went with some friends to go around the city to do some last minute shopping before going back to the ship. We happened upon little India, which had an atmosphere very much like that of India. Overall, I really liked Malaysia – it’s a diamond in the rough. I would say it is my second favorite port as of now.

Kuala Lumpur

            Today we went around Kuala Lumpur. It is famous for its Petronas Twin Towers, which had been the tallest towers in the world a while ago, until we had built our Twin Towers. They are very tall and have this really cool bridge between them, which slides back and forth since the towers sway. We wanted to go up to the bridge, but it’s hard to do because you have to sign up for a very specific time months ahead of time. Then, if you miss your slot, too bad. So, we just got to take pictures outside it. Then, we went to a museum to see some of the history of Malaysia. The coolest part were the shadow puppets, mostly because the drama class had made their own shadow puppet performance on the ship at pre-port. We didn’t have much time to spend there, so we left quickly. We headed to the second cave, which was this Hindu temple built into the cave. There was a 100ft statue of Shiva outside of this cave, next to a steep staircase composed of 260 steps. We only had 40 minutes to explore the whole thing, so we’re all trying to rush up these steps while avoiding the monkeys and other people visiting the temple. Amazingly, there are dedicated Hindus who climb that on a regular basis. At the top, the cave opened up to a large cavern with an open ceiling letting light and some water come in. Farther in, there was another part of the cave elevated where the shrine for Shiva was located. Overall, it was quite cool to see how this temple incorporated the natural environment of the cave for its purposes, especially since I’ve been learning about these things in my architecture class. When I was leaving, these monkeys were fighting and one ran behind me to avoid getting killed by the other two monkeys. I was flipping out because I didn’t want to get bitten by a monkey. Fortunately, they ran off somewhere else. Apparently, monkeys had attacked quite a few other people on the stairs that day while we were there but I didn’t see any of that.

            After the temple, we went to this very expensive shop where they make patterns on cloth with design presses or a few were handmade. That place was much too expensive, especially for the quality of the products, so we left. Then we headed to China Town for lunch. It was pretty good, we had coconut rice and other dishes. Then we walked around a bit to do some last minute shopping while it started raining again. Then, we left for George Town, where our port is. When we got there, we had to ride one of the lifeboats to the ship because the port is so busy, we couldn’t stay docked like we have at all of the other ports. It was pretty fun because I’d never been in the lifeboat before – it’s quite large.

Where in the world is…Malaysia?

I must admit, Malaysia was one of the countries I was most looking forward to because I knew absolutely nothing about it. Turns out, it is one of the fastest growing economies in South East Asia and is quite a success story. It’s official religion is Islam, though they give their people freedom of religion. It is kind of like Singapore in the sense that it has some very strict laws, although Singapore certainly takes the cake there. One of Malaysia’s laws is that possession of illegal drugs is punishable by death. Pretty harsh consequence but I suppose it’s a great deterrent. Malaysia is mostly composed of Malays, but has significant populations of Chinese and Indians.

We almost always have to go through customs when we enter a country and today was certainly the worst-planned customs process. Usually, the customs officers board the ship and we’re called up to this large room in small waves to give them our passport, which they stamp and then we move on (this is when face-to-face inspections). Malaysia being super strict decided they wanted our fingerprints, meaning we had to go to their facility to use their cool fingerprint scanning machines. As I had an overnight trip, we were supposed to be called first. We were, but we couldn’t leave because our trip leader had already been called down off the ship (which you couldn’t get back on until the ship was cleared because o Malaysia’s policy) so we left late. Trying to get the whole ship cleared so we could all leave the port, they called all the rest of the students off the ship, meaning that all these people got in front of us in the line. Imagine several hundred people standing in the massive, snaking line inside a large warehouse-like building with little air circulation in the tropics. It was not pleasant. Once you made it through the passport checkpoint and received your passport, there were two lines for the different machines. One line had only one customs officer dealing with people at a time while the other had 3 officers. It took FOREVER! We left an hour later than we were supposed to leave (and we had been out there 20 minutes early).

So finally, I embarked on a cave exploration overnight and visit to one of the larger cities in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. As it is a five-hour journey to Kuala Lumpur, we stopped on the way at our first cave. As Malaysia is a tropical nation now in the rainy season, there will just be downpours at different parts of the day that unexpectedly come and go. Well, it was raining when we got to the cave so we had to run inside. As we entered, there seemed to be many other people inside as well. Turns out, they’re filming a movie in the cave, Vikingdom (=Viking Kingdom). Haha, they had pretty sweet Viking outfits on, but I still can’t figure out the connection between Vikings and caves in Asia. The cave was quite large and had some really cool stalagmites and stalactites. We followed the tour guide to the wind tunnel. It was a long, oval tunnel in the side of the cave. I thought it would have been windy there, but I guess it must have just been formed by wind. Unfortunately, there was some sort of miscommunication or something because our tour ended there and we didn’t get to see the second half of what we were supposed to see (according to the description on the itinerary). We were kind of upset about that but the tour guide insisted that it ended there and didn’t seem to know about the other features we wanted to see. Oh well.

Back on our way to Kuala Lumpur, we made a pit stop at a small shopping mall area. They had so much angry bird stuff and original power rangers, batman, etc. It was a good thing I hadn’t gotten any Malaysian money yet because they were really cool. Eventually, we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, and since we were now an hour and 40 minutes late, we decided to drive around and see some of the sights rather than go straight to the hotel. We stopped outside the King’s palace (they have a King who they elect, he is kind of basically ceremonial like Queen Elizabeth). We could only see it through the gate, though. Then we went and saw the outside of a cool Mosque, shaped like the underside of a diamond. Then we headed for the restaurant for dinner and the cultural show. The traffic is absolutely horrible in Kuala Lumpur, even at 8pm. It took us 45 minutes to go three blocks. It was bad.

Eventually we made it to the restaurant, which was quite upscale (they had told us to bring nice clothes, but we hadn’t been able to change so we were a bit underdressed). It was a buffet of Malaysian food with a stage so we could watch the performance late on. The dancers performed a few traditional Malaysian dances, then a Chinese dance and Indian dance. They finished off with their Malaysian theme song: Malaysia, truly Asia. As one friend put it, it had elements of Mario Cart in it. It was a pretty ridiculous song. Then we went to the hotel, which was also very nice, not as nice as the Royal Palace in India, but it was still very gorgeous.

Cooking Demo

            I went to my second cooking demo today. This one was set up kind of like Rachel Ray, where she has her cooking station up front and just goes through the process while you watch. This would have been fine except for the fact that I didn’t get much sleep at all the night before. So I had extreme difficulty paying attention, which wasn’t helped by the fact that she had given us all the recipes. I felt bad because she is actually a famous chef in India with her own cooking show on tv, but I just couldn’t focus. We got to try the food at the end and I really only liked two of the dishes, mostly because of the spice factor. After that, we went back to the ship and I did not want to go through customs again so I stayed on the ship. Good bye India, for now I suppose.

Wanna buy a…sundial?

Yes I realize that is from Hercules and thus ancient Greece, but I can’t remember what the vender says at the beginning of Aladdin. Anyways, I went to a black market today, but you’ll have to keep reading to get to that:

So we finally got to sleep in some, which was very nice. After breakfast, we went to the mausoleum of Shah Jahan’s grandfather, the precursor to the Taj Mahal (some of the differences observed in the Taj originated with this building). It was pretty cool and much less crowded than the Taj. It was made out of some reddish material, I can’t remember what. After that, we went to the place where Ghandi was assassinated, as there is a shrine in his memorial. It’s in the center of this grand garden, with grass all around the shrine and then a plaque signifying where he was shot. They keep a fire burning and water present as part of the Hindu belief. After that, we went back to the hotel for lunch and to decide what we wanted to do in the afternoon. The itinerary gave us two options: shopping or temples. One of the kids on my trip had found some black market and had asked our guide if we could go there. He told us that it was a good market, the first black one in India, but that we would have to walk there if we wanted to go. Well, most of the group, including my trip leaders decided to go check this out. When else would I be in India and be able to go to a black market?

            So we started walking and had to pass by a long row of markets. After stopping many times there, we finally pressed on to the location that google had told us. The only problem was that we were looking at a field. Well, that’s because it was underground, via some really cool, massive spiral staircases. Once through security, we started walking around. Now, at first glance, I thought I was basically looking at markets that I passed on the streets. It wasn’t until later that I remembered some of the Indians on board the ship telling us that blue jeans were the ‘must-have’ item. There were several blue jeans stores, watch stores, toy stores, etc. It was actually pretty cool. The venders here didn’t hassle you as much because they knew their items were in demand. We only had so much time there, so we had to leave and go back to the hotel. Then we went to a restaurant for dinner (the same one we’d gone to the first day we were in New Dehli) before heading to the airport. We just barely got on our flight (like 15 minutes to spare) and then took off for Chennai. They had a full dinner of things that I don’t remember – I didn’t eat much because I was trying to avoid getting airsick. This pilot had a worse landing than the other. Then, we took a bus back to the port gate, where we had to go back through security, and then go through another round of security before arriving at the ship. Then, as is protocol for the ship, we went through more security and bag checks before actually stepping foot on the ship. I didn’t get to bed until 1am. It was a long day and waaay too many security checks.

The Taj Mahal

            We took another bus to the train station, and rode the train to Agra. This time it was only a two hour train ride. We arrived in Agra and went to a fancy hotel for lunch. After lunch, we went to the vendors who make Indian marble to see how they make it. Indian marble is infused with diamonds, making it the strongest type of marble. It was breathtaking to see the intricacies of the items they were selling there, so many different detailed patterns. After that, we finally went to the Taj Mahal. When we arrived, we had to get on little golf cart shuttles, as they prevent cars from going nearby to keep from polluting the area around it. While I was sitting on the back of the cart, I saw an old man going through the trash to take out the used plastic bottles. SAS told us that India is notorious for re-used water bottles and I guess I witnessed that happening.

            Well, we arrived at the Taj, entering through the outer gate. Security made me get rid of my rape whistle because you can’t have any ‘noise makers’ inside the Taj. Oh well, I got it for free from UVA. Once inside the gate, you find yourself inside a large open courtyard with the official gate to the Taj’s courtyard to the right. As we walked over there, it came into view. For some reason, I had imagined it to be some massively enormous structure. Don’t get me wrong, it is quite large, but I expected it to be twice its size. This is some unfounded notion I got from somewhere, but I was taken aback and a bit disappointed at first. I also couldn’t believe it was real just because I’d seen it so many times in so many other places. It’s at the end of a four-part garden with reflecting pools dividing the squares. It’s made of the Indian marble, which is why it has lasted so long with very little damage to it. Now, as everyone knows, its dedicated to the wife of Shah Jahan when she died in labor, trying to deliver her 14^th child. While this is true, her grave is at the center of the mausoleum, we read a recent argument arguing otherwise in my architecture class. Essentially, it explained how the unusual aspects of the mausoleum, such as the apocalyptic Koranic quotes inscribed on its walls, its divergent set-up (at the end of a garden rather than the center) and other nuances like that, together, point to a different purpose. This means that the Taj was really built as the Throne of God for when he would judge the earth and Shah Jahan wanted to be his right-hand man, recording the names of those who made it into heaven, if this argument is true. It certainly has much circumstantial evidence that points to this, but nothing conclusive on its own. We read it to see what we thought. I think there may be some truth to this, but you cannot ignore the fact that she is buried in the middle. Anyways, if you are interested in the argument, I can better explain it to you in person. J

            We stayed for the sunset, but it was not behind the Taj so it wasn’t as epic as we were expecting it to be. When we left, we had to wait for another shuttle to get us. This took a while for some reason, meaning that vendors surrounded us. I was looking for post cards and my guide had told me how much I should pay for them. Once I got my price, I got them. This, of course, meant that they all started asking me to buy their stuff. These were mostly young boys and one of them shoved a bag of globes into my hands and retracted his. This is a tactic some of them try to make you buy the product as they won’t take it back, only cash. Well, I didn’t want them and after trying to get him to take them back, I got fed up. I held them precariously and told him that if he didn’t take them back right that second, I was going to drop them. He snatched them from me quickly and moved on. I’m never that mean, but it was pretty funny. This other kid tried to get me to buy his pens by telling me that if I didn’t, his ‘heart would be broke.’ Oh what funny little kids will do to sell their items. Oh yeah, the tourist police drove by once while they were trying to sell to us and they were gone in half a second, like when cockroaches scatter when the light is turned on (not that they’re cockroaches, but it looked just like that). It was pretty funny, mostly because I’ve never really seen a large group of people flee from the police like that before.

Once we finally got on the bus, we rode back to the hotel to get dinner. Some of the other students really wanted McDonalds and had been asking the whole ride back (because they saw one near the Taj). So, he eventually gave in and took them to McDonalds. The rest of us ate the box lunches provided by the hotel. We had to eat it there because it was too dangerous to eat it at the train station. This is because former students used to give the extra to the beggars, but now the beggars just snatch the boxes from their hands. So we had to eat it at the hotel so as not to create a huge scene when we were at the train station. After dinner, we went to the train station for our final train ride. We got there a bit early because the trains are very punctual. Well, the train was late, so we stood around for about an hour waiting. This was so uncomfortable because so many poor people came over to ask for money. This lady came over to me, motioning for food and money while holding her half-clothed, crying baby. She stood there for a half hour, trying to tell me one rupee, please. I was seriously considering pulling out the banana chips from my bag, but they were deep in there and I couldn’t get to it easily. I was also afraid of attracting more beggars once I gave to one, just like the vendors. When she left, her two children came up, a boy and a girl. They asked for money, with hands held out expectantly and motioning for food. After a while, the guide noticed they kept asking me, so he came over. He asked them both in Hindi if they were hungry, to which both said no, they were already full. This made me kind of mad, as they were playing with my emotions to give them money, but for something other than the food that they would need. I had heard about gangs that use children to bring them back money, hardly giving them much to eat. So I wasn’t sure what to do and decided to try to ignore them, like everyone else seemed to be doing so effortlessly. I didn’t want to give them something if it was going to perpetuate their current state, by rewarding them for begging instead of trying to improve themselves. So many of these people have resigned themselves to their castes because of their belief in reincarnation, hoping that the next life will put them higher up. Then, maybe they will try to make their lives better. This is certainly something I noticed that differentiated India and Ghana, even though both had much poor. Ghana is extremely hopeful, so much so that it is bursting at the seams. I just didn’t get that vibe at all in India, maybe some from the venders, but it was more pleading than confidence. Anyways, I still don’t know if that was a divine appointment, an opportunity for me to help the poor, staring me in the face or if I made the right choice. They were right when they said India would be unsettling.

We rode the train back to New Dehli, got into yet another bus and rode to our hotel. Holy crap, they booked us a hotel. Passing groups of people sleeping on blankets in the streets, we pull up to a 20 story building with gaudy blue Christmas lights strung throughout the palm trees, bordering the “Royal Palace” hotel. Literally, it is a tall, flashy and bright building amidst the modest, sometimes shabby homes of the neighborhood and street poor. After going through airport-like security, we enter the hotel. One friend accurately described it as a church decorated by Michel Angelo. Everything was marble, everything – floor, wall, columns. The ceilings were covered in angelic paintings, there were sculptures all over the place and things were trimmed with gold (or something that looked like gold). This felt more like Vegas, or what I imagine Vegas to be. Of course, I had my own room again, which meant a very large bed with a flat screen tv and a mini bar. There was even a telephone in the bathroom, just in case you’re so lazy or indisposed that you can’t get to the phone. This hotel certainly did not belong where it was located. Talk about immediate proximity of the poor and the rich. This was really unnecessary, we could have stayed in something like a Comfort Inn or even Motel 8 – we are in India so this kind of completely shelters you from the ‘real’ India.

The Hunt for Sheer Khan

            We woke up early to go tiger spotting in the expansive national park. This place used to be the private hunting grounds of the Maharajas for tigers, but now it is their sanctuary. Unfortunately there are very few tigers left in the world, wild ones that is. So we left early in the morning to catch them at the end of their nightly hunting. The night before, our guides told us that this is only the beginning of tiger season and that they hadn’t seen one in a while, so there was a very slim chance we would see one. This was extremely upsetting because it was the reason we all chose this particular trip over the other trips (i.e. cheaper one straight to the Taj or ones that went to Veranase to see the Ganges).  So this morning I was quite hopeful because I really wanted to see a tiger (they are my favorite animal). We drove a little ways to the entrance, where we stopped as we got clearance (the officials had to check our passports again). While we were sitting there, vendors came up to the truck to sell Ranthambore hats, vests, etc with the tiger on them. “Excuse me” and “good price” are definitely the English words that Indians seem to have down. Anyways, we went into the park eagerly looking for a tiger. The park also has other big cats (leopards, caricau (sp?)– I saw these in S. Africa, and jungle cats – domestic cats that are wild), crocodiles and lots of deer, monkeys and peacocks. They don’t regulate anything other than moving tigers to other parks if they start to cross each other’s territories, as they will kill each other. We drove around for a long time and were beginning to lose hope. Then, we happened to be coming up behind this truck full of British people and there one was, a tiger. The tiger was walking on the road, right next to their car! Right next to it! It didn’t even care that there was food inside. Then it turned, walked off to the edge of the jungle, sat down for a minute, then disappeared into the bush. It was pretty cool. We went out again later that day, but that was the only tiger we saw.

Our guide was telling us about tigers, how they are very solitary animals, to the point that they end up dying of starvation because their offspring moved on and don’t bring them food, as would happen in a lion pride. That’s really sad. He also told us about their oldest female, age 19, which is really old for tigers when they normally only last 15-16 years. She has had several large litters and has lost 3 of her 4 incisors. So now she paws her prey to death. That’s right, she slaps them with her large, heavy paws. That’s pretty awesome.

We also went to a women’s craft market. They had very intricately ornate crafts there: rugs, tapestries, outfits, you name it. I must say, it is quite amazing to see how talented so many people are in the world. How many of us can make something like a silk rug from hand? They don’t know English and may not be literate, but their parents teach them this. It’s pretty cool. There was also this excellent artist finishing a painting there. It was so realistic. It was fascinating to watch him put all the finishing touches on this image of a tiger. It was so good one of the lifelong learners bought it from him as soon as he had finished it.

In the evening, I went to see how they make the absolutely delicious naan. The cook has this oven shaped like a large, vertical, curved cylinder that is incredibly hot. He takes the naan dough, flattens it out, throws it back and forth like a pizza pie, then slaps it to the side of this oven. It just sticks there. He keeps doing that and then about 5 minutes later, he’ll take the first one off. Another guy will knock the burnt part off (which isn’t much to begin with), slap some melted butter on it and serve it hot. It’s nice and thick, with a crispy outside and slightly doughy inside. As much of Indian food is spicey, I lived off this while I was there. It was the best thing ever. The guy who distributed it knew I wanted it and would just bring it over. He brought so much, one of the older ladies had to tell I could only handle so much. I tried to tell him I couldn’t eat any more but he was so excited he wanted to give me more. It was really funny.

After dinner, there was a performance by some of the village musicians. It was cool because I had learned about the instruments in class. They had a mirdingham (type of double-ended drum, with the ends as two different sizes), a harmonium (portable piano much like an accordion, brought over by the British missionaries), and a flute. They also had a dancer. He was not professional, but he tried to get us to dance with him. It was pretty funny because he would bring people up to dance with him, but he would switch moves so often he was very hard to follow. It was still a lot of fun though. Then, the drummer got up and did some fire breathing. That was also very exciting. I would certainly not do that. This was our last night in the ‘small’ village, according to our guide, of Ranthambore, population 500,000. Haha, I guess that’s true for India.