BrittaAbroad: October 2010

On October 3, our long awaited, much anticipated two-week travel break began. Cathy, Ben and Cameron and I hopped on an overnight train and set off for 14 days of adventure, mishaps and delicious eats.

Our first stop was Delhi, for the Commonwealth Games. They’re basically like the Olympics, but only including the 50-some nations of the British Commonwealth and featuring the gentlemanly kinds of sports you’d expect under Her Majesty’s rule. It’s sort of a bizarre concept, actually - let’s take the Brits and everyone they’ve screwed over throughout history, and make them play each other in sports. It was a jolly good time for us, though - we saw netball, badminton, squash and boxing. England creamed Barbados in netball, Malaysia narrowly beat North Ireland in a close round of badminton. I won a bet with Cathy about a badminton match (Singapore beat Jamaica, obviously) and now get to slap her as hard as I can at a time of my choosing. Squash was really interesting to watch, and boxing was exciting. And despite what we’d been hearing ever since we arrived in India - that Delhi was completely unprepared for the Games, that they’d be disorganized and choatic - everything was pretty nice. Between buses and subway passes, we easily got around the city for three days. The buildings built for the Games were beautiful and eco-friendly.

Next, we flew to the southern city of Chennai to spend three days on beach playing ultimate frisbee. We joined the Delhi team, who welcomed us amongst them and taught me a lot about frisbee (who knew that strategy was involved?). The tournament was a lot of fun - our team did pretty well, and jumping right into the ocean after a game felt glorious. We spent our free time wandering the beach area, eating delicious fish curry and hanging out with the frisbee team. One of the days we rented a car with a driver and went to Pondicherry, a city built by the French. We wandered through neighborhoods that seemed like they should be in Europe, not India, and had a lovely swim in the ocean. On the way, we stopped in Mahabalipuram, where we saw huge stone-cut Hindu temples.

We left Chennai by train, splitting up into twos as we’d only been able to get two tickets in the air-conditioned class and two tickets in sleeper car. I rode sleeper car, which was quite the India experience. The car was packed to the brim: every bench filled, passengers dangling from the upper bunks and filling the floors. A breeze kept things cool when we were moving, but the car became sweltering on our frequent stops. The man sitting next to us mostly wanted to discuss his hatred for Muslims. Needless to say, after 22 hours Ben and I were very ready get off the train in Orissa.

Orissa is a state on the eastern coast of India. Its mountains and beaches draw Indian tourists, but not many foreigners go there. We hadn’t planned out this part of the trip, but ended up hearing about some hot springs in a mountain village called Taptapani. We arrived late at night to a funny little resort called the Panthanivas, in Taptapani, and were amazed the next morning by the view the darkness had hidden: lush, green, rolling mountains. We spent three days hiking through the hills, swimming in creeks, bathing in the hot springs, reading, playing cards and annoying the restaurant manager by our mere presence. One day we walked up to a small village, where we got a lot of stares (I’m sure white people have rarely, if ever, been there), played with a super cute baby and ate a wonderful meal.

And then it was time to go home. In Bhubaneswar, Orissa, we celebrated Cam’s 20th birthday with cake, movies watched in an AC hotel room and a great meal at a dingy little bar we came to love. The next morning we got on a train (thankfully, I rode AC car this time) and arrived back in good old Varanasi.