South Asia: Day 1
We made it to our destination! First, early this morning, we landed in a large city before the sun rose and made it through customs. We found our next gate and all the girls freshened up. Let the staring begin! This airport is where we started being stared at because we look different than everyone else. In this country it is not rude or mean to stare, so we are just smiling back. J Finally, we got on our last flight. When we landed at our last flying destination we still had to ride a van to the university we’re staying at. Ha! Unfortunately, the ladies that Lud had been communicating with had not talked to each other, and they seemed to overlook the fact that we were arriving today. So, nobody was there to pick us up. Of course, with the numerous taxi drivers stalking the airport it didn’t take long to find a taxi driver who knew how to get to the area where we were going. We hopped in the van praying that we would get to our destination safely!
This drive was such an eye opener to the hugeness of this country! As I sat there with swollen ankles and exhausted, droopy eyes, I couldn’t help but marvel in what surrounded me. We passed hundreds (I mean it!) of very tall buildings being built. And from what I could tell they were apartment buildings. (Like for the millions of people living in this area who need a place to live!) We also passed what I would say were thousands of greenhouses filled with crops which were manned by little farmers in their round hats shading their faces and a hoe in their hands. Y’all, it was amazing to see how big the operation of feeding these millions of people is. They have to cover almost every square inch of the area with high rises for the people to live in and growing food to feed the people that live there! The only empty ground space was the mountains surrounding the cities or was covered with baby tree saplings. The only reason for the saplings I came up with was oxygen for these millions of people? Also, the highways are surrounded by lush, green foliage and flowering vines.
So, after about an hour and half we see the exit for the city where the university is. Our driver took it and our adventure began! You see, he had no idea where the university was. He stopped to ask 3 different people how to get there. He drove us past the city almost to another city! During this process, he stopped in the middle of a busy street, grabbed his cigarettes, and proceeded to take a smoke break. We had no idea what to do, but sit there. Lud and Kayla had been here before, but didn’t really know how to direct a non-English speaking driver there. Plus, he had turned us around so many times they had no idea where in the city we were! Finally, after a five minute smoke break, he flagged down another taxi driver and asked him to let our van follow him to the university. We had to follow him to drop off his passenger first and then we finally started driving in some familiar territory for Lud and Kayla. Let’s just say we were relieved to get there, and prayed really hard that he would find his way back home!
Here we were, finally at the university, and Lud couldn’t get in touch with the woman we were supposed to be meeting. We stood there getting to know some Thai foreign exchange students, and about 20 minutes later got the keys to our apartment. (The apartment is another post!) We thought we’d be able to take shower to clean up, but our contact wanted to meet up with us right away. So our Thai friends took us to lunch and then walked us to the office of our contact. Notice how I mentioned the mountains before? Well, the university sits on a big hill and the office was on the other side of the hill. After so much heavy breathing, we made it to the office, found out our schedule for our class, and the lady tried to help us get meal passes. (The cafeteria office was closed.) She is a very entertaining lady who loves her country, so Lud loves to mess with her! He asked her how many Olympic medals her country would win this summer, she responded with “A whole lot!”, and Lud responded, “At least one less than America!” She laughed and laughed, but you could tell she didn’t believe him!
After our briefing, we were determined to stay awake in order to get on the right time. So, we ventured to Wal-Mart. Let’s just say Wal-Mart is a little different here than at home! None of the red meat or eggs are refrigerated, there are thousands of spices, big thorny fruits, large fish in aquarium tanks waiting to be bought and eaten, seaweed and hot pot flavored Pringles, hundreds of types of teas, and numerous other products that are not found in America! We bought a few essentials we need for the apartments and head back to campus. By this time we were absolutely exhausted! But, we were still determined not to sleep until nighttime. Lud called up his buddy from previous trips and we met up with him and his fiancé for dinner. Their American names are Nemo and Jerbon, and they really know how to order good food. One of their friends joined us and we feasted on numerous dishes such as duck eggs, tomatoes and eggs, spicy potatoes, spicy beef and peppers, corn and peppers, a whole fish with a red sauce on top, and springs rolls. All of these dishes can be eaten on top of or with white rice and swallowed down with hot tea. (No cold drinks are served at restaurants with your dinner.) We really enjoyed our time with them, but by the time dinner was over we all felt like we might pass out.
After two days of travel, we finally took showers and went to bed.
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