Audio Transcribe

STE-008.WAV

0:00

AMBIENT NOISE-SILENCE

0:47-1:00

laughing noise

ste-009

dont use

ste-10

0:00-0:33

what made you you want to go backpacking wito indi with your best friend

haha, its such a funny question, im sorry, youre just so funny

0:35-1:13

so my best friend was applying to a grant shes really booksmart, she does well in school, and shes applying to stuff , but um shes applying to a grant to go to asia to research um that she had to pick a project to go on a solo trip and she told me about it two years ago and i said yeah cool, thinking its never going to happen, then one day, last year, around january, she was like i got accepted im gonna go to india.

1:15-1:58

and she, we will always talking about if sahe went i wouolod go no question asked, it was a joking around withher. cant let her go by herself and eventually we ended up to go to a cafe and it was for the summer and she ended up booking tickets for the summer and i was like why am i going to india, it was also really like giving me an adrenaline rush and you know when you plan your like going to chicago, but its india.

2:00-2:13

so yeah it wasnt my choice, i was kind of coerced into it and im the kind of person who is easily persuaded, hey lets jump off this bridge and i would be like ok lets do it.

2:24-2:30

how did being in another country impact your emotions?

2:31- 3:50 (journey)

so when i first arrived to india we were really excited, the flight was super long and we did crazy stuff, not really, we just like watched movies and once we landed we had an air bnb and we landed in new delhi, and first few days in india i was hgysterically crying and i was really scared and i didnt expect it to be overwhelming and me and my best friend were like really scared and we were just like two scared little girls on our own in a different country, it was like really frightening, and our air bnb host was like super intimidating, she was giving a lot of advice and be condescneding and bringing us down. and like we had these great hopes to travel and meet travellers and we were just crushed emotionally and we were really sad and calling our p[arents everyday. it was so hot and you cant like expose your skin because its inappropriate and you cant even wear shorts, thasts not how it works there. i had to be fully clothed, wear pants to my ankles, long shirts, it was really hot there.

3:51- 4:12

it waas gross,and that was a factor why we were really upset. it was su[er dirty, a lot of pollution, cows everywhere, cow shit everywhere, flies everywhere, its disgusting there, and the poverty is just insane and really devastating, its just reall bad.

4:13-4:42

but then we ended up moving out of new dehli and we were traveling around india and we went south, to bernati, its a new city india and more , cant say calmer but its slightly chiller, berenati is surrounded, well , so my bf was researchning the water, how the water impacts um,, their society, because water is holy,

4:50-6:00

um there is this one river called the gangis river in india and its very polluted, like its tozxic water and she was researching that particular river because they consider it holy river and they like bath in the river and take so much rituals in the river and its consideered the holiest river but its toxic water, they poor checmicals in it, they will take a shit in the river, its disgusting water and our hoste;l, we staued in a hostel, it was like te best decision we ewver made because we met so many backpackers and travelers, and it was so inspiring when you meet so many people. trey inspire when you meet so many people and its fun and really cool. we were traveling with them and we felt safer travelling in a paclk because were girls and it was a mix of emotions. we started really devastated and sad and we went off to meeting so many travellers and going on a soulo searching trip and its the most ive done in my life.

6:22-6:32

whaqt were swome of the things you did there that made it a good cultural experience?

6:33-7:22

i mean just being immersed in a different culture, it was a whole new cultural experience from what were usd to in the states. it was like the way people are clothesd, tracked, obviously a major key facter. its funny actually because we went to the mall one day in inida and it was just like a whole different thing there. it was like a mall in america, theyll have a bk and an ac and people are actually dressed apropriately, i mean as in jeans and not like fabric like hanging off their bodies, so we were like "are we in india" this is so weird because once we stepped outof the mall opeople are dying out there.

Ste-011

0:00-0:16

so yeah likke once you stpe out of the mall, its complete choas, and the mall was so civilization and its just like new york, really cant tell the difference. um but then once you step out its like total chaos

0:19-0:32

and there are like tuk tuks, rickshaws, theyre called tuk tuks there too, rickshaws everywhere, and guys are just swatting themselves like cloth the flies and it was really disgusting.

0:42-1:22

the food does play a big role um, we loved eating dinner , thet just had everything. there was this one food called talis, yeah, so it was like a bit of everything and like um its like a huge platter and you get like rice, our main entree, and in the huge platter there are like small sections like little like stuff that goes with the rice like beans, sprouts, and like potatoes and like a lot of tumeric and salad so it was relaly good

1:25-1:29

and just like indian food itself is really good

1:47-1:50

what is one memorable moment from your trip?

1:54-2:23

one memorable moment, i, there were so many small, just a lot of memorable moments, but again our trip wouldnt have the same if we didnt meet the people we met, if it was just traveling it wouldve been absolutely upset the whole trip and not inspired.

2:32 (change)

so vernace and rikesh were my two favorite cities. they were like a little more zenned out, espcially rishkesk, its like the yoga capital of india, a lot of like theres a lot of tourism in theose cities expeicaly in rishkesh because people in the states and europe cpome to get zenned out and we met a lot of europeans and americans and we stayed her the longest and our bhostel ewas right by the river. we had our ruiteine every morning where had had our favorite coffee shop that wed go to, and we had our favorite like plac we go get dinner and we kinda became locals and me and my bf stsarted mocking the tourists and we were there for a week which doesnt seem like a long time but for backpackers it was our longest stay compared to 2 days 3 days.and we stayed there for a week because we loved it so much and we met so many great people we wanted to stauy there longer. we wake we, our friends wake up at the same time we have breakfast at our hostel, hostel as a rooftop, get to eat breakfast and right by the water so we have really good scenery and then we would like walk out, shop around in small little tents, we live in this chaotic , people are  a lot nicer. we werent scared everywhere, it was a lot more zenned out. we practiced yoga, we just met a lot of people.

4:51-4:55

how did you resolve any issues you encountered during your trip?

4:56-5:03

so one major um, problem we had on the trip was um

5:09-8:31 (conflict)

so we finished our stay in verenace and rishkesk and we were going to go to nepal and we wanted to go to the country because we heard so many great things and we thought lets explore this country. um and so our bus got cancelled and it is was like a nice ac conditioned bus and it got cancelled and no one spoke english and we didnt know how to find a different bus, and they were shouting at us to get into this bus, and it was a broken down runned down bus in such terribke condition, bus stank and there was no ac and the windows were opened but it didnt do anything because when the bus was dirving there was just hot air, and just disgusting condition and there were so many people, it was just so packed and it was a 17 hour bus ride and we werent informed and we kept trying to ask but no one spoke english and we asked how long was it to the border of nepal and we needed to get our visas stamped and all that jaz. and we spent 17 hours on this disgustinf bus, and we were mentally runned down and pjhysicaly runned down and it was awful, one of the worst experiences of my life on that bus. and we got to the border and it was like midnight and the city was complttetely dead and there was no one out in the stressts just like the bus driver and a few other passengeres and um we wit was really scary and just shady characters around the neigh borhood and skecthjy people, and they kept coming uop to us and talking to us in a different language and no one spoke enlighs and i found this guy who was sitting next to us and he spoke a little enlighs and i stuck by him because he was like a fatherly figure and didnt look like someone who would hurt us. so i made sure to stick by him and he kind of hgelped us out by crossing the border. we found a little hut with like government officials and it was literally like a hut and we went into the hut and there was a guy wearing like a wife beater, sitting there stamping everyones paper, yeolling at everyone, smoking his cigareet it was really brutal and we finally got our passport stamped and the process was literally just how llong woult your stay in nepal be and we said like 14 days just to be safe and we didnt know because we didnt have an itinerary so he said 14 days ok, stamp, theres like no other show me your id show me this, and i get it its our passport but that was how the process went and it seemed asy to get to this country and the border was closed and it was literally just like one of those toillboth lines like when youre crossing a tollbooth and a stick picks up and we had to crawl under the stick, limbo under and this security guard was sleeping on a hammocj and he got up and asked what are you doing and he seemed really angry and we showed him our passportsd and he a smirk on his face and we didnt know what he was tihnking. and we desperately need a hotel to shower and fix ourselves up. we werent in the right city, we were in sinulu

8:44-11:25

and a loot of shad characters came up to us screaming hotel at us and it was just like really scary and we didnt know who to trust and we needed a hotel but we didnt want to be scammed. we didnt know who to trust, but the guy who was with us was kind of helping us out, he chose a hotel for us and told us to stay there, and we ended up staying ast the hotel, the scary part was that they didnt have ac and we made we asked 20 times before we got a room that they have ac and we were so torn down and we really needed cold air,. and um they were like we have ac we have ac its the only thing we wanted. we got to the room there was no ac, and the rooms disgusting the sheets are gross, theres like dirt on the sheets, the walls are smeared with blood, im pretty sure it was blood, the shower doesnt work, it was in terribel condition but we were desperate and in that hotel me and my bf just pour down crying, we didnt cry all the 17 18 hours, when we got to the small hotel room we were just balling, it was the saddest moment and we just wanted comfort and familiar faces and we wished that we stayed in indiai with our friends because we made so many firends and we m,et so many good people and we just decided to take off and go off again and we felt so stupid and didnt know what we were doing and we were tihnking we were going to die tonight, i as so tired i had gone to sleep and my best friend stayed awake allnight and our hotel door doesnt lock and some guy just openeded the door and looked in while we were sleeping and noticed my friend was awake so he just stand, hearing that story was raelly frightening, whatr couldve happened if we were both asleep, but we called our parents and we were all crying and our parents were really worried and heard we were hysterical and her mom booked flights for us  within to just a different city, it was an hour flight, those little small flights but it was like really expensive because it was for the next morning out, she felt bad for us because we were really crying. thats how we escaped that scenario and we ended up going to a much more beautiful city of pokora, its also this zenned out peacdeful cityand it was just a lot more cooler and chiller and not crazy and just like nature, just a beatiful city