Amazing Race 13, episode 6: Delhi, India is hard work

by Jamie Rhein on

After a few lovely shots of Bayon Temple the teams were off in The Amazing Race 13, episode 6 to Delhi, India–my old stomping ground.

Although all teams scored the same flight from Siem Reap, Cambodia, the setting of episode 5, once they hit the airport in Delhi, the order in which each team left the temple was irrelevant. Ah, yes, as they dashed through the airport, there were the familar rows of uncomfortable chairs just outside customs in the main waiting area of the building.

Nick’s predictions of “heat, confusion, and crowds” was exactly right. Delhi is that and more. Nick could have thrown in cows, cows and more cows for a more accurate picture. I was looking for an elephant, and later on in the episode–bingo.

Travel Tips:

  • Use the Internet at the airport to help you locate where you need to go at your destination.
  • Have a taxi driver wait for you when you are making a stop. It can save time later.
  • Ditch the taxi driver for another one if you continue to get lost, no matter if your driver is a nice person.
  • Use terms of endearment with your traveling partner like “Babe” to help diffuse tense situations.
  • If you’re female, don’t wear shorts and spaghetti strap tank tops in India. They’re culturally insensitive.

Cultural highlights and recap: First stop was the Moonlight Motors, a drive into downtown Delhi that made the Andrew & Dan team notice that, compared to India, “Cambodia was child’s play.” As the traffic choked the streets, hands flapped to create a breeze in the stifling heat.

The massive amounts of vehicles, cows and people that barely streaming forward gave Tina the idea that they had landed in Delhi at the wrong time for easy-going travel. How true.

Although traffic in Delhi can be overwhelming, there are hours when it’s not that bad. However, with their rush hour arrival time, I bet they were settled into their taxis by 5:30 or 6:00 p.m., one of the worst hours for going anywhere.

Getting to Moonlight Motors wasn’t easy for Terrence & Sarah, Kelly & Christy or Tina & Ken. Due to no fault of theirs, their taxi drivers had no idea where to go. Tina & Ken were still going in circles while Nick, Andrew & Dan, and Dallas & Toni were finishing their first task–painting the bottom half of auto-rickshaw taxis green.

There’s a movement in India to convert auto-rickshaw taxis’ engines so that they will run on CNG (compressed natural gas), a fuel that is more environmentally friendly. Taxis that have been switched are painted green at the bottom like the one in the photo taken by Avinash Meetoo. The top half remains yellow. The effort is working and air quality is gradually improving.

While the first three teams arrived at the taxi park when it was still daylight, the last three arrived after dark, an indication of just how long they were lost.

Painting the auto-rickshaw involved covering the parts not to be painted with newspaper, donning a paint mask and using a spray can to evenly spray on the paint–all arduous tasks that are exacerbated under pressure. If there are any indications that one should NOT direct the actions of the person who is your traveling companion, this segment was it.

The more Terrence and Tina cajoled and directed Sarah and Ken to paint faster and do the task a certain way, the more the two painters became frustrated. Ken stayed silent, but Sarah told Terrence several times to, in essence, “back off Babe.” The term of endearment kept her from going off her rocker, I imagine.

Andrew finished first, much to this team’s glee, but their lead was lost when they couldn’t find a taxi right away. That’s Delhi for you. Taxis, although plentiful at times, can be evasive when most needed.

Tina & Ken did the smart thing and told their driver to stay, however, their driver had no better sense of direction after Ken finished painting his taxi then he did before. Hopelessly lost, they finally ditched him for another driver.

Once the taxis were converted to green, the teams headed to the colonial style Ambassador Hotel to find the guard in the garden who held their clues with the choice of their Roadblock tasks, two more indications of how labor intensive India is. Pick a job, any job, and you’ll find someone doing it by hand.

The Roadblock four of the teams chose, Launder Clothes where the teams headed by taxi to dhobi ghat, a communal area where laundry workers called dhobis wash, dry and iron clothing in order to make a living. The irons are the old fashioned kind filled with hot coals.

As a cultural note, in India it is very common for people to hire a dhobi to do laundry, even people with a modest income. When we lived in Delhi, our dhobi did our laundry twice a week, although there was a regular laundry room with washers and dryers where we lived. Hiring people to do household tasks is one way to keep the Indian economy flowing.

Each team had to iron 20 articles of clothing that ranged from shirts to pants. Once all items passed inspection by the real female dhobis who supervised their work, the teams were handed their clues that led them to the Pit Stop.

The dhobi section was where the contrast between Western dress and traditional Indian dress for women was most apparent. The Indian women looked elegant and stately, even though they were traditional laborers. This photo by Meanest Woman is typical. The American women, except for Toni who consistently wears a T-shirt, are dressed totally inappropriately for Indian sensibilities of what is considered decent attire.

I kept thinking, Starr, Starr, Starr, I don’t care if you’re hot, put your shirt back on. Christy and Kelly have long ago lost a sense of where they are in the world and are wearing shorts. Even Andrew & Dan commented on their cultural gaffe. I’m not saying that these are decent women, they are clueless though when it comes to appropriate dress.

The other Roadblock, “Launder Money” lead to a fairly accurate excursion into an Indian wedding and the difficulty of finding correct change. The teams who picked this one had a complicated task of acquiring the right number of rupee notes in the right denominations in order to make a traditional groom’s necklace. The next step was to find a groom to give the necklace to.

The elephant in this episode was outside the wedding hall. It’s common for a groom to come riding to a wedding on an elephant. Horses are also used. Also present were horn playing and throngs of dancing people. The noise can be overwhelming, but the weddings I’ve been to are not this crowded. I bet this was a setting designed specifically for The Amazing Race. The elements were there though, including the dais where the bride and groom sits and what they wore.

What was missing from the Amazing Race scene were the tables laden with wonderful food.

Unlike traditional, typical American weddings, in a traditional Indian wedding, the bride and groom don’t get down on the dance floor with the guests, but sit at the edge overseeing the festivities. Both team Sarah & Terrence and Ken and Tina had a hard time locating the groom because the kept looking in the center of the crowd. Finally they found him.

(In this photo by Dahon, the groom is wearing a flower garland. He is waiting for the bride to show up. When she does, she’ll sit where the child is.)

While these two teams were searching for their groom, poor Andrew & Dan’s life as frat boys were haunting them. They had a heck of a time ironing. The dhobi wallah overseeing their efforts shook her head, almost woefully, but would not let up until their pile was perfect. A gust of wind blew half their clothes to the ground which didn’t help. Oh, I felt bad.

As the end came near with Ken & Tina, yet having another problem finding a taxi and getting chased by dogs, and Andrew & Dan finally finishing their last shirt, the suspense built as Phil waited for them at the Pit Stop at the Baha’i House the world headquarters of the Baha’i faith. Andrew & Dan came dashing in 5th place leaving Tina & Ken to pull up the rear.

Who won this round? Nick and Starr–again. Their lack of bickering and focus helps. Plus, I think they are used to winning. They’re wired to win. I still don’t want them to win. They are not underdogs enough for me.

What did they win? An electric car each. As Phil off-handedly pointed out, Delhi is certainly an indication that the world needs clean air.

Who was eliminated? NO ONE!

After how hard Andrew & Dan ironed, but not all that well, and how many times Tina & Don got lost because of their bum luck with taxi drivers, I would have been so sad if one of these teams was eliminated. This ending was one to tug at heartstrings.

Andrew & Dan were over the top, whooping it up joyous, and Ken was tearful, making the connection between the need for a comeback to win the Amazing Race, and a need for a boost to save his and Tina’s marriage. As he sat tearful, struggling to talk Tina gave him a tender rub on his cheek.

For the life of me, I can’t quite figure how why the two of them don’t seem to think they get along. Have they paid much attention to other married couples who are traveling together?

For their last place standing, they face a Speed Bump next week, a task only Tina & Ken have to do before catching up with the other teams.

I wondered why there wasn’t a shot of the Baha’i Temple. It’s shaped like a lotus flower and quite lovely.

U.S. State Department travel warnings. Useful or useless?

by Jamie Rhein on

How useful are those U.S. State Department travel warnings? If you read too many, you might become scared off of travel all together.

As Carol Pucci points out in a recent Seattle Times article, politics and economics might play into U.S. State Department travel warnings and recommendations. This doesn’t mean that, if there is a travel warning for a particular country, you should poo poo it as nonsense, and not proceed with caution when making plans. Perhaps, though, the travel warning isn’t totally warranted. Pucci suggests checking other government’s travel warning venues, such as Canada’s, Australia’s and the United Kingdom’s.

Sometimes, even when a warning might be a good idea, the country does not make the travel warning list. Pucci cited India as an example. Consider this:

Just recently, less than a month ago, there was a bombing at Connaught Place in New Delhi, a part of the city that boasts United Coffee House, my favorite restaurant for samosas and drip coffee.

It is a gem of a place that dates back to the early 1930s. The colonial architecture with an Art Deco twist is superb. Connaught Place is popular with tourists, but is also part of the finance industry and is near government offices.

When I lived in New Delhi, two terrorist attempts were thwarted close by where I frequented. Our response, as well as everyone I knew, was to toodle around like normal.

Pucci makes the observation that despite the 140 people who have been killed in India since May due to troublesome unrest, India isn’t on the warning list.

Click on the link for the countries that are on the list. Israel is one of them–so is Nepal. A friend of mine who recently returned from Israel recently emailed me about the great time he had. Other friends of ours moved to Nepal a year and a half ago and haven’t had any problems that I’ve heard of.

The best advice I have–if you want to visit a country that is on the list, is find out which part of that country is a safety concern and avoid those areas. When we went to Sri Lanka, for example we flew into Colombo, but left for other towns and had an absolutely safe, marvelous time. Perhaps, Colombo would have been perfectly fine, but the sites we wanted to see were elsewhere anyway.

If you can swing it, go to United Coffee house. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye out.

A Circle of Peace: A 9/11 story the year after

by Jamie Rhein on

There are moments in life that ververberate like the sound after a Tibetan singing bowl is struck with a mallet. The sound moves outward and outward and outward–hopefully evoking good and centering force in the universe.

Sometimes in travel, there are those experiences where you notice how diverse the crowd is and how well folks are getting along. This is where Louis Amstrong’s song “It’s a Wonderful World” would play if life really was a musical.

Those moments can feel like healing for those times when people don’t get along. At least that’s how it is with me.

There is a room of New Delhi called the Hall of Peace where middle schoolers gather once a week for the school assembly. Dozens of nationalities are represented, and these are kids who will eventually move on in the world with visions of the world’s people in the make up of their skin.

On September 11, 2002, this is what happened there. The result was as if someone struck a singing bowl. This day each year, I can hear its sound.

[Continue reading for the reason why.]

Art of Diversity forms a Circle of Peace

At 3:35 on that Wednesday afternoon, the time students generally rush out the doors, middle schoolers at the American Embassy School in New Delhi needed to be reminded it was time to leave. They were gathered in the Hall of Peace, the school’s main meeting place where flags of many of the nearly 60 students’ nationalities hang.

On this particular Wednesday, a year from the day that students wondered if it was still safe to go to school, these adolescents transformed the H.O.P. with art. On September 11, 2002, nothing was said about the horrific occurrence of planes crashing, buildings falling and people dying.

Nothing was said about worries and fears. Not a word about what would happen if India and Pakistan do not resolve their differences, or if Israel and Palestine do not resolve theirs, or what will happen if the US does follow through with its threats to attack Iraq.

Terrorists had no place in the Hall of Peace on this day. But, children, their teachers, their support staff, and their principal did. At 3:35, gathered in a circle that no one told them to form, they were looking at doves. Not just a few doves, but more than 100. These were large, flat, wooden cutouts that each student, along with a partner, had just finished painting minutes earlier.

This school in New Delhi exists mainly for the expatriate community’s children whose parents, from various countries and for various reasons, work in India. The people who go there to teach and learn recognize that its population looks like a miniature UN. On a few occasions, the power and wonder of this mix connect together.

On September 11, 2002, through this middle school-wide project, art teacher Anja Palombo brought nations together. It only took the use of the school cafeteria, a dozen teachers, support staff, 210 students and an open-minded principal, all armed with acrylic paint, brushes and pre-cut , flat wooden doves to create a world vision where only peace has a chance.

Symbols like olive branches, Om and peace signs and hearts echoed the words that other students chose. “Heal Thy Environment,” “Harmony,” and “Peace is Hope” were written in English. Other messages were written in languages such as Hindi, Chinese and Danish.

With their bursts of blended colours from pastels to almost neon, and small glued-on mirrors, symbols and words, the doves took on personalities as varied as the students who painted them. Students like Kina, Prashant, Masetle, Fatimah, Soo Young, Beth and Tamas Pataky, worked with heads bent together in a buzz of festive activity.

Creating peace is not particularly quiet. Sometimes it involves moving about a spacious room filled with tables, choosing paint carefully and discussing ideas. It means making space at a table for any Buddhist, Christian, Jew, Hindu or Muslim to join in. It also involves allowing for participation of those with varied abilities, even those who take longer to come up with an idea. But, eventually, the ideas do come, and the collective whole becomes more than just any one person’s vision.

When students stood in the Hall of Peace looking at the doves they carried from the cafeteria on that recent Wednesday, the excitement was not just at seeing their dove amongst the others. It was in seeing the diversity. No two doves looked alike, not even if they were made from the same shaped cutout.

Peace as a collective contains many versions. The doves, now mounted on H.O.P.’s walls, seem as if they are soaring and dancing with each other under the nations’ flags. When people come to this gathering place, they do not find the danger of terrorism. Instead, what they find is a circle of peace.

[The original article was submitted to The Times of India who printed it. I adjusted the paragraphing to make it easier to read here and adjusted some wording.

Many of the students who were in this room are now in their first years of college.]

Olympics inspired gift idea. Children’s art is a big hit

by Jamie Rhein on

When Meredith Vieria from the Today Show was given a tour of the Olympic Village, specifically the housing of the Americans, trap shooter bronze medalist Corey Cogdell showed Vieria a painting in her room that was created by a child in China.

A framed picture of a child’s artwork was given to each Olympic athlete as a room decoration. It’s theirs to keep whether they medal or not.

Vieira was quite moved by the gesture of a child-produced gift. I thought about the excitement that the children must have felt when they were making their paintings knowing their creations would be going to athletes from around the world and how they were contributing to their country’s mega, unforgetable, international event.

It can make a heart feel warm and fuzzy for sure.

Seeing the painting reminded me of the items to buy when traveling that offer more meaning than a production piece souvenir. Any work made by a child has been favorably received whenever I have given them as gifts.

I once bought three drawings by children that were sold in a fundraiser art show for a refugee center that houses families in India who were displaced by strife. I have forgotten the specifics of who received the funding, but I I can see the art clearly. I was touched by its hope and sweetness. The show was at the India International Center in New Delhi, a place that hosts high quality events, mostly centered on the arts. This is where I saw the writer Pico Iyer at a symposium of Indian authors who write in English.

Granted, framed paintings are cumbersome. Another option is handmade greeting cards that can be framed once you get home. Often these cards are used to make money for organizations that are searching for dollars.

Keep your eyes open. Thailand, Vietnam and India are wonderful places to look for such items. I still have cards I bought to give away. Even if the cards aren’t made by kids, or go to charity. handmade cards are helping to support someone.

New Delhi runway turns into a zoo

by Jamie Rhein on

The mix of animals, traffic and people in New Delhi is fascinating any day of the week. When I lived there, pulling up alongside an elephant at a traffic light did happen. Avoiding hitting the cows that meandered at the sides of the roads was a daily venture.

Once, our car grazed a cow just as it twitched its hind end towards traffic. When the side-view mirror was snapped off, my husband quipped, “It must have been in a reflective mood.”

There was one section where fruit bats the size of dogs hung upside down from trees, and another part where monkeys gathered in large groups. Camels also meandered through the neighborhood. Hiring one for a kid’s birthday party was standard.

Recently, New Delhi has become more zoo-like with the heavy rains. As animals are getting flooded out of their natural habitat homes, they’ve looked for higher ground and have found it at the New Delhi airport on the runways. Lizards, jackals and birds have shown up in large enough numbers that they’ve been removed to a wildlife sanctuary.

Just another reason for a flight delay. “Monitor lizard in the way. Please be patient; we’ll be taking off shortly.”

According to the article, this three to four-foot-long creature can create some significant damage to an airplane. I’ll say.