First Impressions of India

I got back into Singapore from India Monday morning. Wow, what a eye opening experience India was. I think one full week was more time than I ever need to spend in that county. The whole time it seemed like all of senses were completely over stressed. The noise, traffic and constant pressure from population would just wear me down and stress me out. I can't imagine living and working there. I got a really diverse and unique exposure that I think a lot of people don't see since we stayed with a lot of Satya's (my co-worker's) family. I saw a lot of areas most tourists never go to and the old parts of the cities in Agra and Delhi were absolutely unbelievable...so crowded and full of poverty. I could never have imagined how people were living there. I got a lot of looks in those areas and didn't see any other tourists or white people. In fact, all the time in Agra, the only time I saw any white people was at the Taj Mahal and a few other tourist attractions. Satya's family has a lot of connections and we were able to visit one of the glass factories outside of Agra.
I need to organize my pictures and thoughts and then I can post more about the trip and what my experience was like.

India

I'm at the airport in Singapore getting ready to fly to Delhi with my friend Satya. It's going to be good to get out of Singapore for a week and see a new place. Satya's made a lot of arrangements for cars and hotels already since he has a lot of family in Delhi and Agra. Once I get back to Singapore I'll give a report of the trip.

Beer & Wakeboarding

Went to Ski 360 this weekend which was a lot of fun. It’s set up for ether water skiing or wakeboarding with out the boat. Instead you’re pulled by a cable from a thing like a ski lift around a lagoon. It’s fun

Also went to a beer tasting event which hardly no one was at. The brewer of Archipelago Brewery here in Singapore was running tasting it at the NUS campus. I met some other home brewers and I’ve decided to start brewing some beer again here. I think it makes a lot of sense since otherwise beer is very expensive and nothing special… mostly Tiger Beer, different Tahi beers, Carlsberg or Heineken. There’s a brewing club meeting once a month I found out about and I’ll start going to that

Official Business

Today I went to the U.S. Embassy in Singapore which was the first time I’ve ever been to any U.S. Embassy ever. It felt strange getting into a cab and saying “U.S. Embassy” like I was on some type of official business… that feeling what shattered when the driver grunted ‘hhuh!?’
“The United States’ Embassy.”
“Oh, American!”
“Yes… American”
“Can.” … and we were off to the American Embassy.
The embassy here in Singapore is basically designed to look like a fort, very square, crenellation on the walls, built out of big cement blocks, guys out in front with machine guns. It’s a good thing we built such a terrifying structure in a dangerous country like Singapore. The thing was definitely built to intimidate and if I weren’t a citizen I think I would definitely dread going in. Instead I guess I had some idea that I could just walk in as a U.S. citizen, feel comfortable, get my extra visa pages then leave. This was not the case… I was really shocked by the amount of security they had at the building. There were two sets of locking doors I had to pass through while having my belongings sent through x-ray and detained before I could walk through a metal detector and up a hallway to a second metal detector. Finally I got to the lobby where a guard who had been radioed ahead knew exactly the purpose of my visit and directed me to the correct waiting room. I can’t imagine what it would be like if I were a foreign citizen…. Though I did see that were made to wait outside under a tent before being called up to the first security house to start the same process I went though (at least as a citizen you can skip the line and move right to the front).
Anyway, the actual process of getting the extra pages in my passport was pretty fast once I got though security. The short wait while they did the processing was interesting though. Living in Singapore as a white person is strange especially when you see another white person walking down the street. It seems that you should have some connection…like maybe you should talk and maybe you could be friends even though it’s just a random person and you assume they speak English (because everyone in Singapore does) and maybe they’re from your same town... Instead I just continue to walk and feel relieved once we’ve passed each other. Sitting in the waiting room at the embassy is even worse because you know all those people are from the U.S. you feel like you should talk with them. Instead I had no interest in talking with any of them or fining out what they were doing in Singapore. Some of the side chatter was pretty shocking…about how Dick Cheney‘s gotten such a bad rapp with the press for shooting his friend in the face., and how Rove and Cheney allegedly leaking the identity of a CIA operative wasn’t worth investigating. I just wanted to get out of there which I was able to do after only about a 15minute wait.

High Commission of India

Today I spent two hours at the High Commission of India in Singapore, waiting in line to file paperwork for a tourist Visa. First of all, I was surprised that it would take 5 working days for the paperwork to go though and I have a flight booked to fly to Delhi next Saturday…10 days away. After realizing that late this morning I headed straight down there to file my paperwork because my coworker mentioned sometimes it even takes longer than that. I realize that I’ve really been spoiled by being a US citizen. All of the places I’ve traveled before have granted Visas on Arrival but this is not the case for many citizens of other countries. A lot of people here in Singapore have told me how lucky I am that I can travel so easily. I never really understood what they meant… I probably still don’t fully.

So I arrived at the embassy, took a number (number 105), and realized there were over 40 people ahead of me. I arrived just before 11:30am and they stopped giving numbers 11:30am which meant I was going to be one of the very last people served for the day. The time went quicker than I thought would.

Towards the end of the wait I got a lesson in what it means to be White over here: I was about 10 numbers from being called up the window when some blond haired white guy comes in, sits down next to me and asks to borrow my pen. I say ‘no problem,’ so he takes it and then fills in his paper work just then. He finishes then realizes what’s going on with the tickets so he tries to get a number but can’t because the machine stopped issuing numbers at 11:30am and it’s almost 12:30pm. So he sits down, waits for a few minutes until the next window opens up and before they have a chance to change the number he rushed up and says with a smile “I lost my ticket. I was number 23. I’ve been here since 9am this morning. Will you take my application?” as he slides the paperwork though the window. I couldn’t believe it. The Indian girl working kind of smiled and shook her head but then she took it and processed the paperwork. It wasn’t even 10 minutes that the guy was there. A few minutes after he left I got called up and was out the door… just under 2 hours, total time I was there. I’ve heard a lot about this stuff and being able to get away with more but this was really ridiculous…. And I let him use my pen! I’m sure it happens all the time.

Anyway. I don’t care because I’m going to India next Saturday for 9 days. I’m going to Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. I don’t have a plan exactly yet but I’ll be traveling with a coworker from San Diego. I’m really lucky how this worked out since he’ll be able to act like my guide and arrange everything and he has family in both Delhi and Agra. I think India would be very overwhelming the first time otherwise.