Call me naive, or this statement cliche, but I honestly don't think about or dwell on skin color. For the past four months I lived as the resident whitey in a town full of Indian people, yet I felt like everyone else. Only when we go to touristy areas am I reminded that I stick out like a sore thumb here (most of the tourists are traveling Indians.) I might be able to sneak under the radar with a head of dark hair, but the blonde/pale combo gives me away right off the bat. At first when people asked to take my photograph, I didn't mind, they were just curious and I put on a smile and posed with their babies. I even signed an autograph. But sometimes it gets to be a little much.
The view from our room at the Beach Rd YMCA
Nina and I have begun the backpacking portion of our stay in India, starting with the east coast beach town of Visakhapatnam. Literally the only white people in the entire city, I wasn't surprised when we were asked for photos, but when we hit the beach things got weird. Visakhapatnam is very different from it's west coast sister Goa. Goa was filled with bikini baring travellers from all over, while here there is no way you can get away with showing even your lower legs without attracting stares. We headed to Rushikonda beach and walked far past everyone there so we could hide out and swim in peace. I could already be considered risque -- when the wind blew the bottoms of my knee caps peeked out from under my dress. I'm sorry, but it was hot. We dove right into the Indian Ocean (via Bay of Bengal) and were peacefully enjoying the salty water until 4 boys showed up and decided to loiter around and harass us. At first it was fine, we played a little catch with them (remaining submerged to the neck of course, but still shocking them by being girls who could both catch and throw) but after an hour and a half or so we were tired and ready to get out but the boys wouldn't leave. Normally I would just get out of the water, but I wasn't in the mood to risk being stoned to death (just kidding.) Anyway, after what felt like forever and the boys trying to lure us out by acting like they were going to steal our belongings, I had to come out of the water and literally chase them away, bikini and all. And boy did they run. One thing is certain -- Indian men are not used to a woman with a strong personality, that's for sure.
Rushikonda Beach, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
Now normally, we can gauge how interesting what we are doing is by the amount of other fair skinned folks surrounding us. In general, the fewer white people around, the cooler the thing we are seeing, the further off the beaten path we have gotten. But sometimes you have to go there, I mean who travels around India and doesn't see the Taj Mahal? So upon reaching Delhi we felt we blended in a bit more, the people here have become somewhat jaded to the appearance of westerners. But contrary to what we may have thought, the opposite was true when we headed into Agra to see the Taj. Upon our arrival we realized that the bus we thought we booked just to go to Agra was actually a tour which we had no intention of taking part in. Annoyed and realizing we'd have to shell out more rupees to get back without spending a whole day in a bunch of forts being severely overcharged due to our foreign appearance, we were off on the wrong foot as we headed through the gates of the palace. Surprisingly we were the only white people there and were bombarded. Not only were people taking our pictures, many without asking, just shoving a camera in our face, but people would just turn and gawk at us, some smirking or laughing. We tried our best to keep our cool, but I think the heat had gotten to us and we started refusing photos and ignoring hecklers who wouldn't leave us alone. Unfortunately it put a bit of a damper on the whole Taj Mahal experience, but part of me is glad that it's over and we can go back to some more backwoods type of traveling.
The Taj Mahal
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