A Drink With a Billion Souls

As I promised in my post about the drinking culture in Ireland, here is a post about the drinking culture in India.

I was shocked to find out that there actually was a drinking culture here. I was expecting most people to not drink at all, seeing as that is the stereotype that I have come to know about Indians. Like most, this stereotype does have some grounding, but it does not encompass the true culture. Drinking culture is divided into the north and the south of India. In the north, they drink, in the south, they don't. Simple as that. Thankfully I am living in the north, so I am able to imbibe on occasion. I have gone to some bars and many restaurants and I have had my fair share of booze while here.

There are some stark differences I noticed while enjoying my ice-cold beer (which came as a true godsend in this awful heat). I will start with something that shocked me, the drinking age here is 25. Yes, you read that right; the US does not have the highest drinking age. The enforcement of this law leaves something to be desired though. I have never once been asked for my ID or asked how old I was for that matter. As a matter of fact, I didn't find out about the drinking age till about two weeks ago.

I have been invited to some "parties" while here. While I have always had a good time, the parties are always 100% male. There was once that a guy's girlfriend joined us, but she did not drink at all. It is highly unusual for me. At these parties, they call drinks "pegs" and they rarely use mixers when they are having liquor. They will use water or soda water or ice (if any survived) to dilute the alcohol. They were blown away when I made a mixed drink like we have back home. When they do get drunk, they do not call it "being drunk", they call it "being high". So you can imagine my confusion when I first heard someone say they were "so high". My first reaction was "Where did you get it?"

In an effort to decrease the amount of reading you would have to do, I am going to just list a couple other things I have noticed while drinking here.

The drink of choice here is beer or whisk(e)y, which I have little problem with. 

When not at a restaurant, they drink to get drunk. I saw someone down three drinks in the time it took me to enjoy one. 

The hangovers are hell here no matter what kind of booze you drink. I think it is because of how dehydrated you are all the time. All I know is that some of my worst hangovers have taken place here in India.

Liquor stores (wine shops) close at midnight. But if you are in Gurgaon or Delhi (where I am) and it is after midnight and you are still thirsty, all you have to do is knock on the window and tell them what you want and they will get it for you for an extra charge of 40-80rs ($0.80-$1.60) depending on the booze. 

Their beer comes in 12 oz bottles or 23oz bottles. Weird, I know. Also you buy them individually. No 6 or 12 packs... just single bottles. 

I do believe that is all that has surprised me. I figured I would post something before I have a revolt on my hands over lack of posts. I should have my pictures from Agra (Taj Mahal) and Jaipur in the coming day or two, and I will be sure to get a post or two up about that journey. 

Dull week before Chaos

Not much has been going in the past week. The only exciting update that I can give you is that I spoke far to soon when I said "Worry you not, even after many more street food vendors in Old Delhi, I can happily report that I have not experienced 'Delhi Belly'".

The Fourth went off without a hitch. I enjoyed some delicious American made Jim Beam Bourbon with some Coca-Cola. I was going to have a cigar but it was just too damn hot out to sit outside comfortably. I had (sadly) a big Indian dinner and called it an early night after pestering Christina Thomas online for a little bit. 

The following day is when things took a turn for the worst. I am aware that some of my pain was my hangover. But I will say that I took my Ibuprofen and had quite a bit of water. By noon my head ache was gone, but my stomach was wrenching like no other. I finally got home around 6pm, I had no dinner and even more water. I went to bed at 7 because I knew I had to take a tour of a Ferno distributor the next day. The tour was not till 1pm... I slept till 11am. I felt much better when I woke up. The tour went great, and I felt fine the whole time... until I got back to my flat that evening. Thankfully the weekend was here and I could sleep. Anjali Rai (daughter of the YPO member at the university) was kind enough to send over some medication to help me feel better. It helped so much. Sunday rolled around and I was almost 100% back to normal.

So that was my exciting past week. Much of it was spent in bed or in the bathroom... Thankfully, the next 2 weeks are exciting.

This Friday I am flying to Goa with Daniela to have a little weekend get-a-way. Goa is like a big beach city with a couple tourist attractions. I plan on being 1 of 3 places at any given time this weekend... the beach, the spa, or my bed. I know, sounds rough, but someone has to do it. So I should have a post up on Goa come Monday or Tuesday, but no promises. 

Next weekend is the weekend I am looking forward to more than any other... On Saturday the 21st Mari will be flying in to spend a week with me. I am giddy with excitement. I have already booked the hotels and all the activities we will be doing while she is here. So that is a post you should be looking forward to. 

Until then, please take time to enjoy some of the music I have had to endure while here.

Old Delhi Tour

This past weekend, Daniela and I finished the second half of the tour that was mentioned in this previous post. We did change it up a little bit by booking with a different company called "When In India". They were quite a bit more expensive, but as it turned out, worth every penny.

We began our tour meeting outside of the Red Fort at 5:30pm. Thankfully the rickshaws were easy to spot because this intersection was a nightmare.

We met our tour guide who thankfully spoke english very well. We then loaded up into the rickshaws and prepared for this three and a half hour adventure.

The tour began at a huge Muslim mosque called Jama Masjid. We were supposed to be able to go inside and have a look around, but as it turned out, the head master muslim priest of all muslims in India was in town, so they had to follow all the rules at the mosque. That meant that no non muslims were allowed inside. Oh well, I don't think I missed much, it seemed to just be a huge walled in area with a podium at the front.

After the disappointment at the mosque we made our way down some of the narrowest and most crowded passageways I have ever seen. Our first stop was at this corner restaurant shop.

And they served these miniature elephant ear looking things. They are very good and considered a desert here. They were super gooey and sticky but crazy delicious. As it turned out, they were also my first "street food" experience in India. Worry you not, even after many more street food vendors in Old Delhi, I can happily report that I have not experienced "Delhi Belly".

We continued down the streets to our next street food experience but were quickly slowed by a huge traffic jam... and by traffic jam, I mean no one was moving and everyone was honking. I feel as though their governing transportation body is run by children who all think they should be first in line. It is terribly aggravating and time consuming.

Once we made our way though the traffic jam we visited a jewelry market, spice market, and wedding market. Sadly, I did not get any pictures of these areas, but Daniela did, so once I get the pictures from her I will update this post. I got some great spice mixes at the spice market, found some nice bangles for Mari at the jewelry market, and thankfully bought nothing at the wedding market. 

Our second to last stop was at this chain restaurant that serves some delicious food. I have no idea what I ate, but I do know that it was all delicious.

And for desert we had something called stic kulfi. I believe it was frozen milk curd with saffron and other spices in it. Again, it was delicious regardless of what was in it.

To finish off the tour, we headed back to the Red Fort to watch the Light & Sound show. Which as it turned out, was more of a Sound & Story show. The lights were unimpressive, but the story associated with the show was extremely informative. It told the story of the throne located at the Red Fort. I will give you the short version with just the highlights.

The Red Fort was built by the same guy who built the Taj Mahal. He also built two other forts and a couple other places, he is known as the Architect of India. When he was older, he got super sick and his three sons started killing each other in an attempt to claim the throne. The son that won imprisoned his father and basically ran the kingdom into the ground. After he destroyed the kingdom, there were a couple uneventful leaders that came after him, until finally the British came in and dethroned a drunk leader and claimed India as their own.

Fun fact about the throne (known as the Peacock Throne), it once held the largest diamond on earth. Originally the diamond was 186 1/16th carats and valued at over $128 million in todays money, but it has since been cut to 105.6 carats to increase its brilliance. The throne was looted in 1739 and the diamond then ended up in the hands of the British and ultimately the Queen of England's crown, which is where it now resides. Below is a drawing of the throne in it heyday.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I hope the massive number of pictures makes up for it! Enjoy, I will update again soon.

A Little Mid-Week Update

While I would love to tell you I have visited another amazing Indian city, I sadly can not.

I have spent the past week preparing for the students to show up. Most of my time at the office has been spent wandering around reading posters and asking random people about the university. Today is the first day that students have been on campus. The first years arrived this morning and are currently going through orientation. I was present for a little bit, but I was bored to tears by the first speaker, so I took a break to do a little update.

This past weekend I met up with a family friend named Jai. We went out for a nice dinner and had a really nice Cuban cigar after dinner. Jai is like my Indian twin. Like me, he is a huge fan of cars. And what do you know, he loves cigars. Before I came here I thought I would have to live on the few cigars I brought. But alas, I was lucky enough to run into one of the few people that smoke cigars. One of the other wonderful things about hanging out with Jai is that we usually go somewhere we can get meat. My diet has been entirely vegetarian since I have been here, but anytime I go out with Jai, I am able to get some kind of meat. It is a huge relief to know that I have someone I can go to that will take me to get some delicious meat. I will say though, I have chosen not to eat any beef while I am here. So it has been quite a challenge for me. Regardless, the meal from Leela Palace Hotel was amazing

Past that, I went over to my friend Dinesh's flat and had a few beers with him and his flat mates. I was then told to get in the car to go for a quick run to the liquor store. As it turned out, Dinesh and his friends decided that at 1 in the morning we were going to drive to McDonalds in Delhi (a 30 minute drive). It was not all that bad, they only had a couple options on the menu. There was a veggie burger, chicken burger, fish filet, and spicy chicken. I opted for the chicken burger and some shake shake fries... which turned out to just be fries.

Well there is a little update for you to wet your whistle to. I hope to be able to update you with some meaningful information soon. Enjoy! 

Day Trip to Delhi

Last Sunday I was invited to Delhi by Daniela (the other intern). She is working at the Lodhi campus in Delhi and she thought I would enjoy coming to Delhi and do a little sight seeing. Obviously I was excited, so I caught a cab to Delhi (a 45 minute drive). Believe it or not, it only cost me about $6 for the cab.

Any ways, back to the important stuff. Daniela had booked this day long trip for us. It was on this air conditioned bus that was meant to go to all these different forts and temples and other Delhi tourist staples. On paper, it was going to be a fantastic day of sight seeing with plenty of pictures. In all honesty it began that way. We made our way to the first location, the Laxmi Narayan Temple. It was stunningly beautiful. There was gold plating everywhere, statues, white marble, and red sand stone. It was a sight to behold. Sadly I was only able to take pictures outside since no cameras, cell phones, or shoes were allowed inside. So this is the best I can do to show you the beauty of this place.

After this beautiful building is when things went south. As it turned out, Sunday was the hottest day in Delhi in the past couple weeks. We saw peeks of over 112 degrees and there was plenty of wind to blow the sand and dust that covers every surface in this country. Alas, we continued on. The next location was the Qutub Minar. Built at the end of the 12th century, it stands 238 feet tall and is surrounded by ruins. Again, it was a great place to visit and witness (even though they charge non-indian customers 5x as much as natives). At this point in time Daniela was not feeling well and had to sit down. It turned out that she was very very dehydrated. I then had to RUN out of this "park" area to a street vendor to get cold, sealed, bottled water. I return sweating worse than a fat kid trying to save his team from being eliminated in dodgeball. Thankfully Daniela felt better after a liter of water (as did I) and we caught up with the tour group.

Upon getting back on the bus I realized something... this bus was not airconditioned. They had vents above all the seats, but it was just blowing out air that was slightly cooler than steam. I proceeded to hold my water bottle to my neck in the hopes of bringing my internal temperature below boiling. I was mildly successful as we continued the bus tour. We drove past the Indian Parlament House and most of the Embassies. I would have gotten a picture of the US embassy, but I was unable to because our tour guide was speaking some sort of Hindi/English gibberish though a muffled microphone.

The next location was my favorite. It is called the Bahai Temple, or more commonly known as, "The Lotus Temple". Again, it was staggeringly beautiful. It was constructed in the late 80s and is made from a whole bunch of white marble slabs. It is a temple meant for all religions, and is more of a place for silent prayer. You have to walk to it barefoot, and as you can imagine in 112 degree weather, the ground was scalding hot. Once we got up the stairs and entered the temple, I realized that when you go in, it is almost completely silent. Close to 200 people inside this thing and all you can hear is people's feet shuffling around. Truly unreal.

After the Lotus Temple, we went to another location that was not on the schedule. It was a really cool place, with a cool story. The guy who built it had 200 wives and countless kids. He built it as a place for he and his family to be buried. Well after he died, one of his sons was supposed to take his position as ruler or something. Well one of them went around and killed all of his brothers! He was a sneaky and conniving a**hole.

The last place Daniela and I visited before we decided we had sweated enough was the place of Gandhi's murder. It was at this old hotel that he always stayed at when he came to Delhi. They had raised concrete where his last footsteps were, and kept his room just as he had it, and had a whole tour going though the grounds. It really was a cool thing to see and listen to the story behind what happened. But at this point in time Daniela and I were so tired that Gandhi himself could have come back from the dead and told us to be better people, and we would have just told him to piss off unless he had cold water and air conditioning. It really was a cool exhibit though, and it had so much information in it. I wish I was not so uncomfortable and the tour guide was not so rushed, because I would have like to read all the posters and documents about the location. But I guess I will have to save it for another day.

After we told our tour guide we were physically unable to continue, we made our way to a local market and indulged in some fine American cuisine... Subway. It was the first non-vegetarian meal I had in the country and it tasted so good. I bought a couple shirts and called it a day in Delhi. Later that night I caught a cab back to my flat and happily crawled into bed under my blasting air conditioner.

Daniela and I plan to finish that tour one day, and when we do, I will be sure to tell you all about it. For now though, that is all.

India: The Land of Mystery

I made it to India at 4:00am. I somehow dragged myself off the plane and made my way towards customs with my passport and visa in hand. I hurriedly filled out the customs intake form while in line to go though the customs line. I passed through customs with no problems and was then off to collect my bag. So far, there was nothing different about this place.. but that ended the second I grabbed my bag and made for the exit.

Outside the terminal, there were a few hundred people just waiting, some waving signs, some staring blankly at you, and some actually doing something productive at 4:30 in the morning. Upon not finding my driver in the first wave of people, I proceeded to the second way and was relieved to see a tall Indian man's eyes light up when I looked at him. He eagerly waved a sign that read CHRIS BOURGRAF       OHIO, USA.

What a relief.... I shook his hand and he introduced himself as Dinesh, and then informed me that my scheduled driver decided to call in sick, so he and his roommate made the trip to Delhi to pick me up. At this point I was a little lucid from the lack of sleep and the drastic change of climate, location, and people that now surrounded me. So for the 45 minute drive from the airport to my flat my eyes began flickering at 1000 mph. You know like in the movies when someone is reading something that becomes progressively more important as they continue reading. As it turned out, neither Dinesh or his roommate knew where my flat was, so we drove in circles for a solid 10-15 minutes asking random people on the side of the road.

Upon finding my flat... Wow...
First off, It is called UniWorld Spa. And it is pretty close to that description. I am on the 8th floor out of 18 or so and it is quite a flat.

And to top it all off, this is the view I have from my seat at breakfast every morning. 



After finishing breakfast, doing a little unpacking, and taking a nap. I was then picked up and taken to the school where I would be working. Mind you, this was around 10 am and I had only taken a 1 hour nap.

I think I met close to 50 people that morning and had to hang around the office till 5:30 that evening. To say the least... I was exhausted. I got back to my flat and the care taker asked me (in broken Hindi/English) when I wanted dinner. I was unable to articulate "as soon as possible" to him, so I settled for 7pm. I don't remember eating, or getting ready for bed, or anything else. I just remember barely being able to function. Thankfully my flat has air conditioning in each room, so I turned that bad boy on and fell asleep in seconds.

And thus concludes my first day in India.

I promise not to do day by day updates, but the first day was pretty staggering. I will be sure to update you soon on what I have been getting into. Until then!