The reason for this trip was to visit my grandparents in Burma and India. Both of my parents were born in Burma, in the Chin state. My parents immigrated to Canada in August of 2003, seven months after my sister was born in New Delhi. My dad had not seen his own dad for 27 years at that time so this was a very special moment. The trip was a very exhausting one. It was my first airplane ride, therefore a lot of motion sickness was involved. INDIA : We stayed in New Delhi for a few days to catch up with family friends. My sister begged for us to go see the Lotus Temple, which I was not aware of at the time and so we did go. Since it is a house of worship, to stay clean, we had to take off our shoes. Mind you, this was in India so the burning heat scorched my feet every time I set them on the ground. On the commute home, we passed by the Red Fort. My parents had lived in New Delhi when they first got married so we went to see their old home. Unfortunately, it had been closed for reconstruction so we didn't have the chance to see inside. Our flight to Mizoram had gotten delayed for 3 days so we had to stay in a hotel in Kolkata. It was a bustling city how I saw it but at the same time there were animals like cows wandering through the streets. We finally got on our plane to find out it was also cancelled and it would take us to Silchar, which by the way, had a very small airport! I had a moment of panic when a group of men, who looked shady, started approaching us and shouting at us in Hindi. Turns out they wanted to drive us to our destination so they could make some money. I felt unsafe getting into a car with a total stranger but I'm alive now, I guess. (My grandparents on my mom's side had moved to northeast India, in the Mizoram state.) We finally made it to my grandparent's house in India and we stayed there for a good 3 weeks. My siblings and I didn't speak the language so it was hard for us to communicate with the locals. My grandparents grew up in Chin state also, therefore we were able to speak to one another. (Although my siblings and I grew up in Canada, we learned the Chin language through our parents speaking it to us at home.) Their culture and mannerism was very different compared to westerners. On Sundays, all the stores were to be closed because the people in Aizawl are devoted Christians. I remember when we were at the airport and bought a scoop of ice cream which was $5! Even worse was that I dropped it on the airport floor. :(( BURMA : We made it to Burma with the help of a very kind man who offered us a boat ride across the border. My dad's family was thrilled to see us for the first time and so were we! I could tell my dad was getting a wee bit emotional. I mean, who wouldn't be? The trip was full of firsts : eating a bull, riding a motorcycle, petting a chicken (which you should not do), using a hole as a toilet and visiting a graveyard. My dad's mom passed away back in 2002 so we went to go visit her. I felt more comfortable in Burma because I actually knew the language. It felt like the village was this one, big, caring family. The kids and teens were very interested in our English-speaking ability. They kept asking us to teach them words. I wish I could go visit them again soon. We only got to stay in town for 1 week before heading back home to Vancouver. It was very strange having unfamiliar faces stare at us foreigners!
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