So, I unfortunately have to preface my post with some bad news. On our first morning in Alleppey, our camera spontaneously decided to delete everything on the memory card. So we lost everything from Periyar and Cochin, as well as the vast majority of our photos from Costa Rica. Sad! As if that wasn't bad enough, we just found out that we have apparently also lost the camera cable, so we can't upload any more photos until we get back home and can buy another one. Hopefully our camera doesn't decide to freak out on us again, since we have no way of backing them up now. So anyway, my apologies for the lack of photos. On to the post.
It seems like every time we take a bus somewhere, I am awed by the beauty of the scenery; everywhere we've been so far has been beautiful in its own unique way. Our bus from Cochin to Kumily (the town next to Periyar Tiger Reserve) took two hours longer than expected, for a total of seven hours, but I didn't really mind. We wound our way up hills that were perhaps the most jungle-like that we've seen so far, thickly forested and soaked by the monsoon; water trickled down every patch of bare rock in sheets or gushed out in waterfalls. The area is renowned for growing spices, and every now and then I would be hit by a sudden whiff of cardamom through the window.
By the time we got there, the day was pretty much over, and we allowed ourselves to be guided by a guy who showed us his card and claimed to work for the government (he didn't) to a hotel that we ended up staying in, mostly because it was dirt cheap. After a night there, we knew we had to go somewhere else: the bathroom emitted a powerful, and strange, odor - the closest we could come to placing it was something like moldy onions - the hot water was so limited that there was barely enough for one person, and the sheets were visibly dirty, and when we asked for clean ones, we were told there weren't any. Awesome. So, the next day, we checked into a nice, clean homestay, whose proprietor was very friendly, if unexpectedly giggly. It may have cost us almost twice as much as the last place ($5 each per night!) but it was definitely worth it.
Our first full day, we ventured out into the town, to find that it was practically deserted in the off-season, with most of the restaurants and hotels recommended by our guide book closed for the season. But, undeterred, we settled down for breakfast at a French bakery (where we were informed, unfortunately, that they only have baked goods during the busy season) and then headed on a tour of the area. We visited a tea factory, where we were shown a surprisingly interesting Powerpoint presentation followed by a tour of the facility itself. Tea powder carpeted the floor and the smell of tea was overpowering. Afterwards, he let us taste a couple of different varieties of tea, which were really good, even without sugar. We then headed to a spice garden, and were taken on a very cool tour - although the garden was fairly small, it had a huge variety of plants, and the owner explained what all the plants were and what they were used for, and let us taste everything that was edible. It was really neat to go through the whole tour and have the guide continually pick leaves, flowers or fruits for us to taste or smell. One of my favorite discoveries of the day was that cinnamon leaves taste AMAZING! They taste like cinnamon, but sweet! Also, we discovered a new kind of fruit, called a rose apple, which is a pretty pink fruit that tastes a little like watered down lemonade. It was really refreshing and tasty. At the end of the tour, our guide showed us the carvings he'd made of tree roots, and plied us with a seemingly never-ending supply of small, delicious bananas - I think I ate 5 of them before he relented.
After that, we went to a performance of a traditional Keralan martial art, called Kalarippayat. It was an interesting mix of short, choreographed fight scenes with different combinations of weapons, and gymnastic feats like kicking a ball that hung 8 feet off the ground and jumping through fiery hoops. Afterwards, we went down to take a closer look at the weapons, and they actually let us hold them and pose for pictures. Before we left, the performers wanted to take their picture with us. Only in India could you meet the cast after a performance and they want to take their pictures with you, rather than the other way around!
We then headed to dinner at, basically, the only other restaurant in town that was still open. Shortly after arriving, we were greeted by a sixty-something Italian lady sitting at the table across from us, who recommended the fish. Since she was eating alone, Jordan invited her to join us, which she did. We had a great evening thanks to her; she was hilarious, and kept us entertained all night with an equal mix of interesting conversation and funny anecdotes. After several hours, we reluctantly said goodnight and headed back to our homestay, as it had gotten quite late.
The next day, we went for an elephant ride through the forest. Although Jordan and I have ridden on an elephant once before, it was a different experience this time, as we were sitting directly on its back, rather than in a palanquin on top of it. It was fun, and it's always amazing to be up so close to such huge animals. Although I tried my best not to, I couldn't help feeling sad for them, though; they are such complex, intelligent creatures and their lives were reduced to carrying tourists across the same path many times a day while their handlers prod them with sticks. I tried to content myself with the fact that they seemed to be treated gently, at least much more gently than I have often seen them treated here, but I kept finding myself thinking about that episode of Samurai Jack with the woollies (I expect only Caleb and Jordan to know what I'm talking about here).
The rest of the day was pretty relaxed; we spent a few hours at the internet cafe, and in the evening, Jordan and I headed out to a Kathakali performance. Jill sat that one out, because it was the exact same performance she and Jordan had gone to see in Cochin. I won't go into detail about it, since Jordan already talked about it in his post about Cochin. I really enjoyed it, and took a lot of great pictures and videos (which unfortunately got deleted along with everything else).
On our last full day in Kumily, we went on a guided trek through the park in the afternoon. Before we started, our guide handed us anti-leech socks for us to wear - another tourist we'd met had described them as "christmas stockings," which turned out to be very accurate, as they were just two pieces of fabric, cut out roughly in the shape of a boot and sewn together, and tied at the knee with a drawstring. We laughed at them, but soon we were extremely grateful to have them.
The path diverged almost immediately after we set out on our hike. Our guide counseled us that we could take the open path by the lake, or the path through the forest, but that the forest path would have "little bit more leech problem." Fearing no leeches, Jordan suggested we take the forest path, which Jill and I agreed to. Our guide then began searching around and picking up sticks, handing one to each of us. When I asked what they were for, he told me they were for scraping off leeches. So, with a bit of trepidation, we headed into the forest.
Within a minute, we saw our first leech. The leeches here are small, but they inch along the ground creepily, and when they're not trying to get somewhere, they stretch upward to their full length and wave their little mouths around in the air in a most hideous fashion. We all pointed and laughed, went "Eww!" and went on our way. But soon the horror hit us: we realized the entire path was crawling (or more appropriately, squirming) with leeches. I looked down to inspect my feet, and found about a dozen of them already climbing up onto my shoes, squeezing underneath my toes, and a few of the more adventurous ones were making their way up past my ankles. Jordan and Jill looked down to find themselves in a similar situation, and for a few minutes the three of us hacked savagely at our feet with the leech sticks, trying in vain to remove all of them. After being assured by our guide that they couldn't bite through clothing, and thus were no danger to us unless they managed to creep all the way up our legs, I was able to shrug it off and continue on the hike, more or less unfazed by the squishing I could feel under my feet and occasionally between my toes. Jordan and Jill had a tougher time of it, though, and although they both eventually got over it, I think they may have regretted choosing the forest path.
The hike itself was through beautiful forest, and we did get to see some non-leech species of wildlife, most notably gaurs (Indian bison), wild boars, black langurs, and a bunch of different species of birds that we hadn't seen before, including jungle fowl (wild chickens, which are just as silly as domestic chickens) and white-bellied treepies. The way back was by the side of a lake, which was very serene, and thankfully leech-free. Somewhere in the back of my mind I'd held out some tiny shred of hope for seeing a tiger, but of course, we didn't. Our guide told us in the twenty years he'd spent working in the park, he'd only seen them eleven times.
That night I had yet another encounter with blood-sucking parasites, as we found ourselves swarmed by mosquitoes when we sat down to dinner. I'd been bitten the least over the course of the trip, and I think the mosquitoes decided to even the score that night. No one else really got bitten, but I left the restaurant with (we counted later) almost 40 mosquito bites on my legs. It was just...just the itchiest. Ever. But, I did my best to ignore it and we spent our evening watching silly Indian TV and snacking.
The next day, we slept in unexpectedly late, and found ourselves having to rush from breakfast to the bus station, only to make it just in the nick of time to catch the only bus all day that was going to the right place. It was a particularly hot, cramped, and uncomfortable ride, but I was feeling pretty sick that day, which I'm sure didn't help. But, we made it to Alleppey, and found a hotel to rest in while we made arrangements for a relaxed and enjoyable couple of days on the water. I'll have to write about those later, though, because this post has gotten too long already!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Surrounded by Hill-Folk and Fish
After Wyanad we used our awesome Indian Bus Powers to find our way out to Ooty with no schedule, no plan, and over four different buses like a boss. Ooti is a hill station, one of many in the more mountainous regions of India. The British built them in order to escape from the summer heat of the lowland as well as to grow tea, which grows better at higher altitudes.
We got in to Ooty in the afternoon, found a room, got some food and called the rest of the day a wash. We did schedule a tour for the next day though our hotel though. It was really unclear what we were signing up for, we got the impression that we were seeing some local sights and taking a jeep out of town for a hike; the tour was supposed to last about 8 hours.
The next morning our guide (Rajiv) met us at our hotel with two Swiss girls in tow. They were very odd; I tried a few times to make small talk but they were very closed off, almost hostel. When I introduced us and asked where they were from they said, "you're from the US right." and made a face. Then later when I saw one of them had a tattoo on her neck and asked her about it, she said she didn't want to talk about it (bad idea to get a neck tattoo if you don't want anyone to notice it). And finally when I overheard that one of the girls was in law school and asked her about it she responded in monosyllables. Roxy thought that maybe they thought I was hitting on them because one of them chatted pleasantly with Jill on the buss back to the hotel. I guess I just give off an aura of such raw sexuality that people can't tell if I'm trying to talk them into a quick shag, just trying to make small talk.
Anyway, our guide took us to the bus station and we went about a half hour out of town, we got off the bus and started hiking up a small trail into the hills. As we went up he would stop periodically and point out medicinal and editable plants, and unique local species. He showed us a kind of edible berry and we grazed all the way up to the peek of the mountain, they looked like green blue-berries and tasted a bit like apple.
Delicious.
When we reached the top of the hill it was absolutely breathtaking. We stopped for a stack, took some amazing photos, and chatted with Rajiv about the history of the region. He offered me a beady (a cheap Indian cigarette [Frightfully bohemian {About the shittiest, lowest class tobacco you can get; a hipsters wet dream}]) and when I had some trouble getting my match to catch in the wind, Rajiv showed me the proper way to light them, then suddenly started laughing, "we Indians go to America to learn engineering and get good jobs, you come to India to learn to light a match!"
We started back down the hill after about a half hour and on the way down we saw some lepord droppings and a Giant Squirrel (Seriously, click that link, It's pretty cool, It looks like a huge tree mongoose). We thought that we just heading back down to the bus but we found ourselves entering a clearing with a bunch of laughing kids playing soccer in it.
Rajiv ran out front and picked up a few kids, tossing them around like oversized tee-shirts at a baseball game. He told us that this was his grandmother’s village and that we were surrounded by hill people. Now, in the US, "surrounded by hill people" is a situation always followed by meth fueled, Appellation rape, But here it means tea, homemade food, adorable children, and anthropology lessons. Roxy and I watched some women kniting a shawl which we bought when she finnished and Jill played soccer with Rajiv and the kids.
After the village we went down past a some Gar (wild Indian Bison), over a dam and out to another tribal village. We were invited to a villagers back porch to sit, drink our fourth cup of chai for the day, and meet the entire village. We sat for a while and talked to the adults while the children slowly got over there shyness.
Then, as the sun was beginning to sink, we started back for town. On our way down, Rajiv would flag down passers by and introduced us to them. On man we talked to insisted that we go visit his village, when we told him that we just came from having chai there, he said, "No no, that is not enough. You must come back and my wife will make you all dinner!" Everyone we met was friendly, familial, and full of joy. I think that the tribal people we met that day were some of the nicest folk I have ever met.
I think the next day Roxy and Jill took a horseback ride that they seemed to enjoy, and then we were off on a bus to Cochin!
The main event of Cochin is a island a short 5 cent ferry ride from the mainland called Fort Kochi. Roxy was feeling a bit under the weather when we got in, so Jill and I traipsed off to Kochi, leaving Roxy to wallow in anguish and unintentionally hilarious Indian TV. We walked out the islands point to see one of the most iconic views in South India, Karalla’s Chinese fishing nets.
Then we got some fish curry that was good enough to make up for my horrifying "fish curry" experience in Wyanad. After fooding we when to Kochi's old theater and watched a Katakali dance performance.
We got in a bit early and we were able to watch the actors painstakingly put on their makeup, made from ground rocks and coconut oil then they gave us a bit of a drum performance. Katakali is a play in which the actors don't talk at all, instead, they use a language made up of facial expressions, dance moves, and hand gestures to act out the script. It is its own full language and the performance is a bit like watching a really classy dance-off. A full Katikali performance can take up to 10 hours so we just got a 1 hour chunk of a performance. It was six lines of "dialogue" in which a demon was scoping out heaven for hot chicks to kidnap for her brother, but instead she sees the prince of heaven and falls in love. She shape-shifts into a hottie and tries to seduce him, but he gets annoyed and cuts off her nose, ears, and breasts. THE END!
The next day Roxy was feeling better so we all went back out to Fort Kochi. It was raining pretty hard all day, so we spent most of our day in shops, poking around, and shopping a bit. We tried to go to a martial arts performance later, but were foiled because it was apparently one of those India holidays that we, as westerners, weren't aware of. Instead we wandered back toward the fishing nets where we were drawn into a roadside seafood place by less-than-half price fish meals and a custom made veg dish for roxy. While we were there we met our first Americans of the trip (a couple from Minnesota) and compared adventures with them. They seemed a little overwhelmed by the whole experience. They, like a surprising number of people we have met, were exploring India alone, with no guide, and no help but their Lonely Planet. This always impresses me; Roxy and I had the advantage of a community of other travelers and Viji, our program director, looking out for us on our first time here and I can't imagine trying to figure this place out alone.
The next day we hopped a bus to Periyar National Park. I think that Roxy is going to catch you up from here.
We got in to Ooty in the afternoon, found a room, got some food and called the rest of the day a wash. We did schedule a tour for the next day though our hotel though. It was really unclear what we were signing up for, we got the impression that we were seeing some local sights and taking a jeep out of town for a hike; the tour was supposed to last about 8 hours.
The next morning our guide (Rajiv) met us at our hotel with two Swiss girls in tow. They were very odd; I tried a few times to make small talk but they were very closed off, almost hostel. When I introduced us and asked where they were from they said, "you're from the US right." and made a face. Then later when I saw one of them had a tattoo on her neck and asked her about it, she said she didn't want to talk about it (bad idea to get a neck tattoo if you don't want anyone to notice it). And finally when I overheard that one of the girls was in law school and asked her about it she responded in monosyllables. Roxy thought that maybe they thought I was hitting on them because one of them chatted pleasantly with Jill on the buss back to the hotel. I guess I just give off an aura of such raw sexuality that people can't tell if I'm trying to talk them into a quick shag, just trying to make small talk.
Anyway, our guide took us to the bus station and we went about a half hour out of town, we got off the bus and started hiking up a small trail into the hills. As we went up he would stop periodically and point out medicinal and editable plants, and unique local species. He showed us a kind of edible berry and we grazed all the way up to the peek of the mountain, they looked like green blue-berries and tasted a bit like apple.
Delicious.When we reached the top of the hill it was absolutely breathtaking. We stopped for a stack, took some amazing photos, and chatted with Rajiv about the history of the region. He offered me a beady (a cheap Indian cigarette [Frightfully bohemian {About the shittiest, lowest class tobacco you can get; a hipsters wet dream}]) and when I had some trouble getting my match to catch in the wind, Rajiv showed me the proper way to light them, then suddenly started laughing, "we Indians go to America to learn engineering and get good jobs, you come to India to learn to light a match!"
We started back down the hill after about a half hour and on the way down we saw some lepord droppings and a Giant Squirrel (Seriously, click that link, It's pretty cool, It looks like a huge tree mongoose). We thought that we just heading back down to the bus but we found ourselves entering a clearing with a bunch of laughing kids playing soccer in it.
Rajiv ran out front and picked up a few kids, tossing them around like oversized tee-shirts at a baseball game. He told us that this was his grandmother’s village and that we were surrounded by hill people. Now, in the US, "surrounded by hill people" is a situation always followed by meth fueled, Appellation rape, But here it means tea, homemade food, adorable children, and anthropology lessons. Roxy and I watched some women kniting a shawl which we bought when she finnished and Jill played soccer with Rajiv and the kids.
After the village we went down past a some Gar (wild Indian Bison), over a dam and out to another tribal village. We were invited to a villagers back porch to sit, drink our fourth cup of chai for the day, and meet the entire village. We sat for a while and talked to the adults while the children slowly got over there shyness.
Then, as the sun was beginning to sink, we started back for town. On our way down, Rajiv would flag down passers by and introduced us to them. On man we talked to insisted that we go visit his village, when we told him that we just came from having chai there, he said, "No no, that is not enough. You must come back and my wife will make you all dinner!" Everyone we met was friendly, familial, and full of joy. I think that the tribal people we met that day were some of the nicest folk I have ever met.
I think the next day Roxy and Jill took a horseback ride that they seemed to enjoy, and then we were off on a bus to Cochin!
The main event of Cochin is a island a short 5 cent ferry ride from the mainland called Fort Kochi. Roxy was feeling a bit under the weather when we got in, so Jill and I traipsed off to Kochi, leaving Roxy to wallow in anguish and unintentionally hilarious Indian TV. We walked out the islands point to see one of the most iconic views in South India, Karalla’s Chinese fishing nets.
Then we got some fish curry that was good enough to make up for my horrifying "fish curry" experience in Wyanad. After fooding we when to Kochi's old theater and watched a Katakali dance performance.
We got in a bit early and we were able to watch the actors painstakingly put on their makeup, made from ground rocks and coconut oil then they gave us a bit of a drum performance. Katakali is a play in which the actors don't talk at all, instead, they use a language made up of facial expressions, dance moves, and hand gestures to act out the script. It is its own full language and the performance is a bit like watching a really classy dance-off. A full Katikali performance can take up to 10 hours so we just got a 1 hour chunk of a performance. It was six lines of "dialogue" in which a demon was scoping out heaven for hot chicks to kidnap for her brother, but instead she sees the prince of heaven and falls in love. She shape-shifts into a hottie and tries to seduce him, but he gets annoyed and cuts off her nose, ears, and breasts. THE END!
The next day Roxy was feeling better so we all went back out to Fort Kochi. It was raining pretty hard all day, so we spent most of our day in shops, poking around, and shopping a bit. We tried to go to a martial arts performance later, but were foiled because it was apparently one of those India holidays that we, as westerners, weren't aware of. Instead we wandered back toward the fishing nets where we were drawn into a roadside seafood place by less-than-half price fish meals and a custom made veg dish for roxy. While we were there we met our first Americans of the trip (a couple from Minnesota) and compared adventures with them. They seemed a little overwhelmed by the whole experience. They, like a surprising number of people we have met, were exploring India alone, with no guide, and no help but their Lonely Planet. This always impresses me; Roxy and I had the advantage of a community of other travelers and Viji, our program director, looking out for us on our first time here and I can't imagine trying to figure this place out alone.
The next day we hopped a bus to Periyar National Park. I think that Roxy is going to catch you up from here.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Playing Catch Up
Jesus. So, I haven't been on here for a while and, understandably, I am a bit behind. Rather, you are a bit behind; I know what I've been up to. So to catch you up...
After Bangalore we rocked off to Mysore where we saw a super cool palace (pretty sure Roxy covered that in the last blog), Neet! The next day we were catching a bus out to Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary but because we had a bit of time to kill, we booked an auto to take us to the government sandalwood factory and the government silk factory (both products that Mysore is famous for).
At the sandalwood factory we signed in and a guide led us around the factory floor and told us about the process. Because the sandalwood shipment didn't come in that day, the factory wasn't running, but it was still very cool to see the way they make the oil. The trees that they use to make the oil have to be at least 40 years old, and they prefer at least 80 and two people at the factory told us that they are running out. The oil sells for Rp1500 for 5ml. that works out to about 231 bucks an ounce. Plus, according to our travel guide, the price has more that doubled in the last two years. One of the cooler things about the our tour was that the manager stopped and talked to us for a bit, when he found out that I am a philosophy student, he started talking about his philosophy. As far as I could tell, he was a Buddhist, Empiricist, Evolutionist, Atheist, Environmentalist (hard to label him with western labels). One thing that Roxy pointed out was that back home, people don't talk about there philosophies with each other, especially not with strangers. You avoid politics and religion in polite company, but here, we've had a number of people just start telling us what they think about life, the universe, and everything; I rather like it.
We then moved on to the silk factory. We signed in and followed some arrows to the factory floor. We were expecting to be grabbed by someone to show us around like at the last factory, but instead we got a name tag and were allowed to simply wander. I have been to other factory tours (jelly belly and the like) and you walk on an enclosed catwalk above all the machines so that they don't accidentally rip your arms off and so you don't get in the workers way. Here, we walked right in between the spinning, clattering machines as random workers would flag us down and have us put our arms in the looms and weavers to feel the thread and cloth at different stages. The cloth was absolutely beautiful, pure silk with real gold threads woven in as trims and patterns. One worker told us a sari of that cloth costs about 5 grand. The whole thing was very cool, everyone we met was friendly, and the tours left us with good vibes all around.
After the tours we jumped a bus to Caliputa (I think). It's a small town near the wildlife park we were going to see. Although our time in Caliputa was mostly uneventful there were two things of interest that happened. The second was the wildlife park itself. We went there on our second day in the area and signed on for a jeep tour though the park. It was about an hour and a half long and we got to see a herd of elephants in the distance, a few wild boars, a shit-ton of spotted dear and a lone bull elephant (what they called a "lonely tusker") that was a little too close for comfort; we had to wait until his back was turned and zip past before he decided that we were looking at him wrong and stomped us into a fine red paste.
Ok... Ran out of time here. TO BE CONTINUED.
Next time on Paradeshi:
Ooty, Kochi and more!
After Bangalore we rocked off to Mysore where we saw a super cool palace (pretty sure Roxy covered that in the last blog), Neet! The next day we were catching a bus out to Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary but because we had a bit of time to kill, we booked an auto to take us to the government sandalwood factory and the government silk factory (both products that Mysore is famous for).
At the sandalwood factory we signed in and a guide led us around the factory floor and told us about the process. Because the sandalwood shipment didn't come in that day, the factory wasn't running, but it was still very cool to see the way they make the oil. The trees that they use to make the oil have to be at least 40 years old, and they prefer at least 80 and two people at the factory told us that they are running out. The oil sells for Rp1500 for 5ml. that works out to about 231 bucks an ounce. Plus, according to our travel guide, the price has more that doubled in the last two years. One of the cooler things about the our tour was that the manager stopped and talked to us for a bit, when he found out that I am a philosophy student, he started talking about his philosophy. As far as I could tell, he was a Buddhist, Empiricist, Evolutionist, Atheist, Environmentalist (hard to label him with western labels). One thing that Roxy pointed out was that back home, people don't talk about there philosophies with each other, especially not with strangers. You avoid politics and religion in polite company, but here, we've had a number of people just start telling us what they think about life, the universe, and everything; I rather like it.
We then moved on to the silk factory. We signed in and followed some arrows to the factory floor. We were expecting to be grabbed by someone to show us around like at the last factory, but instead we got a name tag and were allowed to simply wander. I have been to other factory tours (jelly belly and the like) and you walk on an enclosed catwalk above all the machines so that they don't accidentally rip your arms off and so you don't get in the workers way. Here, we walked right in between the spinning, clattering machines as random workers would flag us down and have us put our arms in the looms and weavers to feel the thread and cloth at different stages. The cloth was absolutely beautiful, pure silk with real gold threads woven in as trims and patterns. One worker told us a sari of that cloth costs about 5 grand. The whole thing was very cool, everyone we met was friendly, and the tours left us with good vibes all around.
After the tours we jumped a bus to Caliputa (I think). It's a small town near the wildlife park we were going to see. Although our time in Caliputa was mostly uneventful there were two things of interest that happened. The second was the wildlife park itself. We went there on our second day in the area and signed on for a jeep tour though the park. It was about an hour and a half long and we got to see a herd of elephants in the distance, a few wild boars, a shit-ton of spotted dear and a lone bull elephant (what they called a "lonely tusker") that was a little too close for comfort; we had to wait until his back was turned and zip past before he decided that we were looking at him wrong and stomped us into a fine red paste.
The first thing worth noting was when we first got in we were a bit hungry and skipped out of our hotel for a quick bite to eat. Not being picky, we stopped in at the first place we found. It seemed nice enough so we sat down and grabbed a menu. When we ordered the waiter seemed very confused and gave the impression that he had never heard of the things we were ordering; we had to point the stuff our on the menu and then he was like, "huh, all right I guess. Not sure what that is." When our food arrived it was super crappy; all of it was cold and most of it was not what we ordered. I had gotten the Fish Curry and when it came out it really stole the show. First, it was cold, but not "refrigerated" cold, more like "sitting on the counter for the last 14 hours" cold. The curry was lumpy and when I pulled out some fish I found that it was made by taking regular curry and tossing whole tiny fish in it; bones, scales, tail and all. We wound up eating the rice and flat bread and just leaving most of our food. I think it was the most spectacular failure at food I have ever seen.
Ok... Ran out of time here. TO BE CONTINUED.
Next time on Paradeshi:
Ooty, Kochi and more!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Hampi, Bangalore and Mysore
After several adventurous days in Hampi visiting temples, hiking to waterfalls and riding motorcycles, we decided to indulge in the laid-back vibe of the place and just take it slow for our last few days. We spent our time lounging about on the patio of our hotel and at our favorite restaurant, Mango Tree, while chatting/eating/reading books. It was great.
We then moved on to Bangalore, where we met up with Sheila Mapes (our friend's girlfriend's mom), who hosted us at her house for three nights. And in such luxury! We enjoyed Western delights like banana bread, whole grain pasta and french toast, slept in soft, clean beds, and took hot showers in the morning. We even washed our clothes in a washing machine! During the days, Sheila and her driver Ashok took us out to see the sights of Bangalore: a huge botanical garden, a Nandi (Shiva's bull) temple, and shopping in the most cosmopolitan city in India. At night, Sheila, her husband Leigh and the three of us sat around watching TV together like one big expat family. It was really, really nice, and we are very grateful to Sheila and Leigh for their hospitality and kindness. Sheila even packed us sandwiches for the bus on the day we left!
Sheila hooked us up with two other travellers who she met in Kerala, two Canadian girls about our age who were traveling after spending three months volunteering at an orphanage. We took the bus to Mysore together yesterday, and we were going to find a hotel together, but I think their standards for accommodation were considerably higher than ours, so they ended up heading off on their own to look for a hotel. The three of us ended up finding a decent place within our budget, and spent the evening watching Independence Day on TV while I planned out our route for the next few weeks.
We've changed our itinerary several times on this trip, but for now it goes like this: we leave Mysore tomorrow, headed for Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, where we will spend a day or two before going to the hill station of Ooty. During our stay in Ooty, we will make a day trip out to Mudumalai National Park. After Ooty, we plan to head down to Indira Gandhi National Park for a day, then continue on to another hill station, Kodaikanal. From there, we will take a rather long bus ride to Kanyakumari, a temple town at the very southernmost tip of the subcontinent. Then we head back north to our last wildlife-centric stop, Periyar National Park. After that, we will visit the famous backwaters of Kerala before heading to Kochi and then, most likely, the relaxed beach state of Goa. We only have three weeks left before Jill leaves, so we are going to try to get through as much of it as possible before then, but everything seems to take longer than we think it will. Hopefully we can get through it without having to rush and without Jill missing anything important!
So, back to the present: Mysore. We ventured out this morning, headed for the Mysore Palace, but on the way we ran into a local guy named Aslam who we met the night before when he tried to help us find a hotel. He told us that he could take us to see incense being made, so we decided to postpone our trip to the palace and go with him. He took us to a little shop where we did, indeed, see incense being made. Then the owner of the shop walked us past a huge pile of incense sticks, several feet tall by several feet wide, and took us upstairs to sample a large collection of aromatherapy oils. That was a lot of fun: we sipped chai as he told us about all of the healing properties of each one and how they are to be administered, and demonstrated on me by massaging my forearm and hand with sandalwood oil (supposedly great for joint health). We also got to smell and taste some pure saffron oil, which was pretty awesome. By the end of it, our arms were all covered with many different types of oil, all of which smelled amazing - in fact, my arms still smell great. I ended up getting a small vial of lotus oil, which you use by rubbing a drop into each of your temples for relaxation and to prepare yourself for meditation. Jill got some jacaranda oil (good for the skin) and Jordan got some sandalwood incense.
After that, our friend/guide Aslam took us to a government-run silk shop, where I bought a beautiful orange scarf made from famous Mysore silk, and Jill bought a scarf and one of the most incredible saris I've ever seen. After that, he pointed us in the direction of the palace and took his leave, without asking for or even giving us the opportunity to tip him for his time. It's really nice when people are just cool to us without expecting anything in return.
We decided to stop for lunch before heading to the palace, and found a place that served delicious Andhra-style (referring to Andhra Pradesh, the state Hyderabad is in) vegetarian thalis. You begin with a banana leaf in front of you, and then the waiter comes by and heaps a variety of different stew/curry-type items on it, followed by rice. The way to eat this is just by mushing it all together with your fingers and shoveling it into your mouth. There is absolutely no civilized way to do this, but South India is really big on this way of eating. It's really messy, but delicious and kinda fun.
After some trial and error, we managed to find the way into the palace - it has several entrances, only one of which is open to the public. That was annoying, as was the rule that you aren't allowed to wear shoes inside the palace, as was the rule that you're not allowed to take cameras into the palace, which of course nobody told us until we already got there. But, the guard on duty let us bribe him for cheap in order to keep our cameras on us, and I was able to sneak a few pictures of the inside of the palace as a result. It was incredibly ornate, from its brightly colored, ornamented pillars to its chandeliers to its ceiling murals to its stained glass windows.
Tomorrow morning we are going to visit the government silk and sandalwood factories, to see how Mysore's two most famous products are made. Then, if all goes as planned, we'll be on our way to Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in the afternoon. I'm not sure how regular our internet access will be as we travel through the parks, but I'm sure I'll have lots to write about the next time I get the chance.
We then moved on to Bangalore, where we met up with Sheila Mapes (our friend's girlfriend's mom), who hosted us at her house for three nights. And in such luxury! We enjoyed Western delights like banana bread, whole grain pasta and french toast, slept in soft, clean beds, and took hot showers in the morning. We even washed our clothes in a washing machine! During the days, Sheila and her driver Ashok took us out to see the sights of Bangalore: a huge botanical garden, a Nandi (Shiva's bull) temple, and shopping in the most cosmopolitan city in India. At night, Sheila, her husband Leigh and the three of us sat around watching TV together like one big expat family. It was really, really nice, and we are very grateful to Sheila and Leigh for their hospitality and kindness. Sheila even packed us sandwiches for the bus on the day we left!
Sheila hooked us up with two other travellers who she met in Kerala, two Canadian girls about our age who were traveling after spending three months volunteering at an orphanage. We took the bus to Mysore together yesterday, and we were going to find a hotel together, but I think their standards for accommodation were considerably higher than ours, so they ended up heading off on their own to look for a hotel. The three of us ended up finding a decent place within our budget, and spent the evening watching Independence Day on TV while I planned out our route for the next few weeks.
We've changed our itinerary several times on this trip, but for now it goes like this: we leave Mysore tomorrow, headed for Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, where we will spend a day or two before going to the hill station of Ooty. During our stay in Ooty, we will make a day trip out to Mudumalai National Park. After Ooty, we plan to head down to Indira Gandhi National Park for a day, then continue on to another hill station, Kodaikanal. From there, we will take a rather long bus ride to Kanyakumari, a temple town at the very southernmost tip of the subcontinent. Then we head back north to our last wildlife-centric stop, Periyar National Park. After that, we will visit the famous backwaters of Kerala before heading to Kochi and then, most likely, the relaxed beach state of Goa. We only have three weeks left before Jill leaves, so we are going to try to get through as much of it as possible before then, but everything seems to take longer than we think it will. Hopefully we can get through it without having to rush and without Jill missing anything important!
So, back to the present: Mysore. We ventured out this morning, headed for the Mysore Palace, but on the way we ran into a local guy named Aslam who we met the night before when he tried to help us find a hotel. He told us that he could take us to see incense being made, so we decided to postpone our trip to the palace and go with him. He took us to a little shop where we did, indeed, see incense being made. Then the owner of the shop walked us past a huge pile of incense sticks, several feet tall by several feet wide, and took us upstairs to sample a large collection of aromatherapy oils. That was a lot of fun: we sipped chai as he told us about all of the healing properties of each one and how they are to be administered, and demonstrated on me by massaging my forearm and hand with sandalwood oil (supposedly great for joint health). We also got to smell and taste some pure saffron oil, which was pretty awesome. By the end of it, our arms were all covered with many different types of oil, all of which smelled amazing - in fact, my arms still smell great. I ended up getting a small vial of lotus oil, which you use by rubbing a drop into each of your temples for relaxation and to prepare yourself for meditation. Jill got some jacaranda oil (good for the skin) and Jordan got some sandalwood incense.
After that, our friend/guide Aslam took us to a government-run silk shop, where I bought a beautiful orange scarf made from famous Mysore silk, and Jill bought a scarf and one of the most incredible saris I've ever seen. After that, he pointed us in the direction of the palace and took his leave, without asking for or even giving us the opportunity to tip him for his time. It's really nice when people are just cool to us without expecting anything in return.
We decided to stop for lunch before heading to the palace, and found a place that served delicious Andhra-style (referring to Andhra Pradesh, the state Hyderabad is in) vegetarian thalis. You begin with a banana leaf in front of you, and then the waiter comes by and heaps a variety of different stew/curry-type items on it, followed by rice. The way to eat this is just by mushing it all together with your fingers and shoveling it into your mouth. There is absolutely no civilized way to do this, but South India is really big on this way of eating. It's really messy, but delicious and kinda fun.
After some trial and error, we managed to find the way into the palace - it has several entrances, only one of which is open to the public. That was annoying, as was the rule that you aren't allowed to wear shoes inside the palace, as was the rule that you're not allowed to take cameras into the palace, which of course nobody told us until we already got there. But, the guard on duty let us bribe him for cheap in order to keep our cameras on us, and I was able to sneak a few pictures of the inside of the palace as a result. It was incredibly ornate, from its brightly colored, ornamented pillars to its chandeliers to its ceiling murals to its stained glass windows.
Tomorrow morning we are going to visit the government silk and sandalwood factories, to see how Mysore's two most famous products are made. Then, if all goes as planned, we'll be on our way to Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in the afternoon. I'm not sure how regular our internet access will be as we travel through the parks, but I'm sure I'll have lots to write about the next time I get the chance.
Monday, May 30, 2011
I just want to ride my motor...cy...cle...
There has been a point, everyday for the last three days, where one of us looks at the other two and says, "You know what? Today was a really good day." I take this as an indication that we are winning at travel.
Yesterday we rented a motorcycle (for Roxy and me) and a scooter (for Jill) and toured the area. The bike I got was a 100cc junker that couldn't idle in any gear other than neutral and couldn't make it up the hill out of town with both Roxy and me riding it.
We made a big loop around Hampi, stopping in at ruins and temples and getting rather sunburned.
Because of our sunburns and the fatiguing day we had yesterday we decided to take it easy today, do some laundry, have a relaxed breakfast, shop, and read. It's been good but I'm going to be ready to get back into it tomorrow; there's a temple up on top of a nearby hill (mountain? big earth mound?) that I have been eyeballing for a while now that I think I may make the climb to tomorrow.
Yesterday we rented a motorcycle (for Roxy and me) and a scooter (for Jill) and toured the area. The bike I got was a 100cc junker that couldn't idle in any gear other than neutral and couldn't make it up the hill out of town with both Roxy and me riding it.
We made a big loop around Hampi, stopping in at ruins and temples and getting rather sunburned.
Because of our sunburns and the fatiguing day we had yesterday we decided to take it easy today, do some laundry, have a relaxed breakfast, shop, and read. It's been good but I'm going to be ready to get back into it tomorrow; there's a temple up on top of a nearby hill (mountain? big earth mound?) that I have been eyeballing for a while now that I think I may make the climb to tomorrow.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Hampi pictures
Here are some pictures from our first couple of days in Hampi:
This is the temple in the middle of Hampi's main bazaar.
We found this statue of Ganesh inside one of Hampi's many abandoned temples.
Jordan poking giant millipedes with a stick...
Look how big it is!!
Jordan admiring some of Hampi's amazing rock formations.
Me and Jordan outside the serene Achyutaraya Temple.
Inside the temple.
This used to be the bustling commercial center for a city of 500,000. It's so empty now, it feels almost haunted.
Jordan taking a break as we took a riverside stroll and admired the scenery.
A delicious lunch in a scenic spot. There were birds all around us as we ate underneath a mango tree and looked out over the river. We're definitely going back tomorrow.
Some of the cool rock formations we saw at the waterfalls we hiked to.
As always, there are way more photos on our Flickr feed, and there will be many more to come in the next few days!
This is the temple in the middle of Hampi's main bazaar.
We found this statue of Ganesh inside one of Hampi's many abandoned temples.
Jordan poking giant millipedes with a stick...
Look how big it is!!
Jordan admiring some of Hampi's amazing rock formations.
Me and Jordan outside the serene Achyutaraya Temple.
Inside the temple.
This used to be the bustling commercial center for a city of 500,000. It's so empty now, it feels almost haunted.
Jordan taking a break as we took a riverside stroll and admired the scenery.
A delicious lunch in a scenic spot. There were birds all around us as we ate underneath a mango tree and looked out over the river. We're definitely going back tomorrow.
Some of the cool rock formations we saw at the waterfalls we hiked to.
As always, there are way more photos on our Flickr feed, and there will be many more to come in the next few days!
OMFG!
Quick rundown of the last two days, in no particular order:
Holy elephant, exploring waterfalls, 800 year old projector, yelling contest with children, hiking through ruins, lizard sticks, celebrity status, giant millipedes, and beautiful restaurant views.
We got into Hampi the day before yesterday around noon; we were planning on staying here four days before moving on to Bangalore, but train tickets were sold out and so we wound up having to stay here for another two days, moving the total up to six. At first I was a little worried that we were going to run out of stuff to do and see and would wind up just reading in our room for the last few days, but I am now under the impression that I could happily do two weeks here.
We spent out first half-day here finding a hotel, getting our grub on, and internetting. We got an awesome room overlooking a banana plantation for about $2.50 a night per person. The next day (yesterday) was pretty action packed. After fooding we traipsed down to the giant-ass temple at the end of the main street. The temple had a pet elephant named Lakshmi who would bless you if you gave it a coin. It would take it with its trunk, hand it off to a dude, and then put its trunk on your head. After poking around a bit more we were flagged down buy a guy who asked if we wanted to see the upside-down temple. I was kinda expecting a Caslevania SOTN type situation, but it was actually an old timey, pin-hole projection of the main spire of the temple, through a small hole in the wall and onto the opposite wall. At first I thought it was a painting or a shadow, but then our guide held up a sheet and walked forward and you could see that it wasn't a painting, it was in fact MAGIC. Unfortunately it was nigh-impossible to photograph, so you will just have to believe me when I tell you how rad it was. We then found some stairs up a hillside that was covered in old ruins and explored at our own pace for a while.
The whole time we were exploring the temple and ruins, families of Indian tourists would stop us and ask to get there picture taken with us. It got pretty ridiculous, and we actually had trouble progressing through the temple because we kept getting stopped for photos. At one point, while poking through ruins on the hillside, a family who spoke no English stopped us and had me take their pictures with Roxy and Jill, then they flagged down someone to translate for them and told us to mail them the photos. We told them that we could email them, but they didn't have internet access so we has to decline; they seemed rather upset with us that we wouldn't print them out, and then mail them internationally to them.
After that we skipped down to the other side of town where we started following the "Monolithic Bull" signs. They led to some sort of monolithic bull, which was cool but not altogether unexpected. The coolest thing about that was actually the Attack-Of-The-Giant sized millipedes that we found in cracks around the bull. I poked 'em with a stick until they came out and we played with them a bit before moving on.
We followed the trail up into the hills and when we got to the top we found ourselves looking down at the old city-center of Hampi back when it was a 12th century city of 500,000 (that's about the size of modern day Sacramento). It was amazing to walk through the ruined bazaar and try to imagine it full of noise and vendors. The magic was lessened a bit, however, by a loud-ass group of guys following us around and posting up on the priceless artifacts. We took the long way back into town and stopped at a little restaurant by overlooking the river where we ate while watching kids paddle around in round basket boats while a thunderstorm moved in.
Today we got up late and took a walk the other way out of town to a restaurant that our hotel owner recommended called Mango Tree where we ate awesome foods while watching water buffalo and local fishermen. After, we kept on, heading further out of town toward some waterfalls that we heard about. On the way a small girl tried to sell us a dead lizard on a stick for ten rupees, and later a little boy randomly roared at me and stuck his tongue out. He seemed rather taken aback when I responded in kind, and we wound up walking backward, away from each other yelling and making faces; it was not my proudest moment.
We stumbled though head high grass and banana trees to the river where a dude with a dead eye that I'm pretty sure could see how I die, volunteered to lead us to the waterfalls. We followed him about a mile through more grass and mud, over rocks, and around boulders until we found the falls. They were fairly unimpressive in themselves, but the scenery was spectacular, and what the falls had done to the landscape was breathtaking. After we made it back to the main street I tipped him 50 rupees (enough for a meal at most restaurants) and he looked affronted and said that he always charges 100 rupees per head. I felt as though if he wanted that much he should have talked price before giving us a product that we didn't ask for, and so I left him with the 50.
This is something that happens here; people will force a product or service on you without your invitation (and sometimes in spite of your protests) and then expect you to pay whatever they ask for it; a good business model if you ask me.
Anyway, we are obviously now taking an internet break, and thinking of you good people back home. Jill is uploading photos and Roxy is looking up wedding stuff (because she's a girl). If I mentioned anything at the start of this blog that I forgot to cover, tough luck, this thing is already entirely too long and rambley, I leave it to you to fill in what you think probably happened in the comments.
Holy elephant, exploring waterfalls, 800 year old projector, yelling contest with children, hiking through ruins, lizard sticks, celebrity status, giant millipedes, and beautiful restaurant views.
We got into Hampi the day before yesterday around noon; we were planning on staying here four days before moving on to Bangalore, but train tickets were sold out and so we wound up having to stay here for another two days, moving the total up to six. At first I was a little worried that we were going to run out of stuff to do and see and would wind up just reading in our room for the last few days, but I am now under the impression that I could happily do two weeks here.
We spent out first half-day here finding a hotel, getting our grub on, and internetting. We got an awesome room overlooking a banana plantation for about $2.50 a night per person. The next day (yesterday) was pretty action packed. After fooding we traipsed down to the giant-ass temple at the end of the main street. The temple had a pet elephant named Lakshmi who would bless you if you gave it a coin. It would take it with its trunk, hand it off to a dude, and then put its trunk on your head. After poking around a bit more we were flagged down buy a guy who asked if we wanted to see the upside-down temple. I was kinda expecting a Caslevania SOTN type situation, but it was actually an old timey, pin-hole projection of the main spire of the temple, through a small hole in the wall and onto the opposite wall. At first I thought it was a painting or a shadow, but then our guide held up a sheet and walked forward and you could see that it wasn't a painting, it was in fact MAGIC. Unfortunately it was nigh-impossible to photograph, so you will just have to believe me when I tell you how rad it was. We then found some stairs up a hillside that was covered in old ruins and explored at our own pace for a while.
The whole time we were exploring the temple and ruins, families of Indian tourists would stop us and ask to get there picture taken with us. It got pretty ridiculous, and we actually had trouble progressing through the temple because we kept getting stopped for photos. At one point, while poking through ruins on the hillside, a family who spoke no English stopped us and had me take their pictures with Roxy and Jill, then they flagged down someone to translate for them and told us to mail them the photos. We told them that we could email them, but they didn't have internet access so we has to decline; they seemed rather upset with us that we wouldn't print them out, and then mail them internationally to them.
After that we skipped down to the other side of town where we started following the "Monolithic Bull" signs. They led to some sort of monolithic bull, which was cool but not altogether unexpected. The coolest thing about that was actually the Attack-Of-The-Giant sized millipedes that we found in cracks around the bull. I poked 'em with a stick until they came out and we played with them a bit before moving on.
We followed the trail up into the hills and when we got to the top we found ourselves looking down at the old city-center of Hampi back when it was a 12th century city of 500,000 (that's about the size of modern day Sacramento). It was amazing to walk through the ruined bazaar and try to imagine it full of noise and vendors. The magic was lessened a bit, however, by a loud-ass group of guys following us around and posting up on the priceless artifacts. We took the long way back into town and stopped at a little restaurant by overlooking the river where we ate while watching kids paddle around in round basket boats while a thunderstorm moved in.
Today we got up late and took a walk the other way out of town to a restaurant that our hotel owner recommended called Mango Tree where we ate awesome foods while watching water buffalo and local fishermen. After, we kept on, heading further out of town toward some waterfalls that we heard about. On the way a small girl tried to sell us a dead lizard on a stick for ten rupees, and later a little boy randomly roared at me and stuck his tongue out. He seemed rather taken aback when I responded in kind, and we wound up walking backward, away from each other yelling and making faces; it was not my proudest moment.
We stumbled though head high grass and banana trees to the river where a dude with a dead eye that I'm pretty sure could see how I die, volunteered to lead us to the waterfalls. We followed him about a mile through more grass and mud, over rocks, and around boulders until we found the falls. They were fairly unimpressive in themselves, but the scenery was spectacular, and what the falls had done to the landscape was breathtaking. After we made it back to the main street I tipped him 50 rupees (enough for a meal at most restaurants) and he looked affronted and said that he always charges 100 rupees per head. I felt as though if he wanted that much he should have talked price before giving us a product that we didn't ask for, and so I left him with the 50.
This is something that happens here; people will force a product or service on you without your invitation (and sometimes in spite of your protests) and then expect you to pay whatever they ask for it; a good business model if you ask me.
Anyway, we are obviously now taking an internet break, and thinking of you good people back home. Jill is uploading photos and Roxy is looking up wedding stuff (because she's a girl). If I mentioned anything at the start of this blog that I forgot to cover, tough luck, this thing is already entirely too long and rambley, I leave it to you to fill in what you think probably happened in the comments.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Reflections on culture shock
Since we got here, I've been surprised to find that I'm going through a mini-culture shock experience. It pales in comparison to the total bewilderment and disorientation I felt when we first came to India, but I'm not blending in as smoothly as I expected I would. I've experienced reactions from people that run the gamut from extremely friendly and welcoming to outright hostile, and I'm finding just the amount of attention I get whenever I go anywhere to be a bit overwhelming. I am doing my best to respond with polite friendliness and be firm in refusing to buy whatever people are trying to sell me without being cold, but it is a challenge sometimes, and it can be exhausting. Honestly, it has been a nice break to spend the last couple of days just hanging out in our hotel room. I think all three of us needed it.
Here is a sampling of what I have experienced in the week and a half that we've been here:
The good:
- People have gone out of their way to help us get to where we're going. This is especially true when Jill and I travel alone, and I know we would not have made it to most of our destinations without local help. Without expecting anything in return, people have helped us find the right bus, told us when we got to our stop, and helped us flag down passing buses (which is nearly impossible, it seems).
- A lot of people have been very friendly and welcoming to us. People introduce themselves to us, ask where we're from, and just tell us "Welcome to India!" and let us go on our way. When we go sightseeing, we are swamped with people wanting to take their picture with us, which I think is really cute and flattering, especially when little kids run up to us with a big smile on their faces and ask to take their picture with us. It's adorable.
- People often gave up their seats on crowded buses for me and Jill. One time, a family managed to squish us into some seats in the middle of their group, then offered us some of their snacks. We didn't speak their language and they didn't speak ours, but I was really touched by such a friendly gesture of goodwill to a couple of total strangers. It made me reflect on how we treat foreigners back home, and feel ashamed.
The bad:
- Inability to communicate with people, even people who speak English, can be frustrating. For example, when I was at an internet cafe writing the last blog post, my internet stopped working. When I told the guy about it, he told me to switch to a different computer. I told him I couldn't, because I was working on something, so I needed to get the internet working again on the computer I was on. He told me to turn it off and back on, and again I explained that I couldn't because I was working on something. He then came over and switched off the computer. When I angrily tried to explain that I had just told him not to do that and why, he just started laughing at me.
- When we were at the cave temples in Ajanta, we were pretty appalled by the behavior of the Indian tourists. They traveled in big family groups, usually with several small children, who ran around the caves shrieking. Even the adults often behaved like children: making noises repeatedly just to hear the echoes, running their hands along 1500-year-old, painstakingly restored carvings.
- The first time I slept on the lower berth of a train, a few minutes after I'd closed my eyes to go to sleep, the man sitting across from me started snapping his fingers in my face to wake me up. It turned out that a gust of wind had blown my kurta aside, revealing part of my (fully clothed) outer thigh, and he wanted me to cover myself. Later, a family with a baby and a toddler came and sat in our compartment. The toddler walked over to me and started hitting me with her fists and tugging on my clothes, while I had my eyes closed and was clearly trying to sleep. Her mother sat within arm's reach, watching the whole time, and did nothing to stop her, so this continued for several minutes until the little girl got bored and decided to stop on her own. After that, the woman in the middle berth above me decided she would rather sit on my berth than lie down on her own, so she just sat down and scooted back, pushing my legs out of her way. Unsurprisingly, I only ended up getting about 2 or 3 hours of sleep.
- The second time I was in a lower berth in a train, sitting and reading, a guy in his early 20s came up to me and asked me about my Kindle. That was fine, but he then continued to try to talk to me for the remaining four hours until his stop, asking me generally inappropriate things: he asked if he could borrow my Kindle; he asked my full name so he could add me on Facebook (without telling me his name at any point); after I gave him my name and he added me, he went over my Facebook page out loud, asking me to confirm every piece of information on it; he asked me three times to accept his friend request, which I told him the first time I would but obviously couldn't do it right then because I had no computer or phone; he asked several times for Jill's full name so he could add her (of course I said no); he asked for the name of one of my other friends so he could add them (again, I said no); he asked my date of birth; and when he ran out of things to ask me, he started reading off my Kindle screen. Example:
Him: Chapter two.
Me: Yup.
Him: Chapter one is finish.
Me: ...Yup.
Example 2:
Him: 72% complete.
Me: Yup.
Later...
Him: 74% complete.
Me: ...Yup.
The ugly:
- One time a woman crossed the sidewalk to punch both me and Jill on the arm, hard. She said nothing, and we had done nothing to provoke it.
- I have very nearly been spat on several times. Not intentionally, it's just that people spit all the time here, which is gross. It's something I already knew, but I'm finding it difficult to get used to again. Same with littering and public urination, which people do everywhere.
- Once, when Jill and I were trying to get back to our hotel from the bus station, we had a lot of difficulty getting a fair price from the auto-wallahs. After much arguing, we finally agreed on a price with a driver whom we'd previously walked away from, and then he proceeded to laugh at us and brag to the other drivers that he'd gotten us to agree to that price. While he was driving us back (if you go directly, it takes about 5 minutes), he stopped to get gas. After that, he stopped again to take a piss by the side of the road. When he came back, he wiped his hand on my pants. Then, about 30 seconds after he had started driving again, he slowed way down and demanded twice the fare we'd agreed on, and argued with us for several minutes about this before finally taking us back to our hotel. It was pretty scary actually; Jill and I were readying ourselves to either defend ourselves or jump out of the moving vehicle in case he refused to stop unless we agreed to pay him double. It ended up working out okay, except that for some reason he grabbed my hand when I was giving him the money.
This is just a small sampling of the interactions we've had with locals so far. As you can imagine, it's a bit overwhelming, and has often left me feeling frustrated and irritated. But, although it's a bit difficult, I am trying to embrace the challenge, and will ultimately be better for it.
Here is a sampling of what I have experienced in the week and a half that we've been here:
The good:
- People have gone out of their way to help us get to where we're going. This is especially true when Jill and I travel alone, and I know we would not have made it to most of our destinations without local help. Without expecting anything in return, people have helped us find the right bus, told us when we got to our stop, and helped us flag down passing buses (which is nearly impossible, it seems).
- A lot of people have been very friendly and welcoming to us. People introduce themselves to us, ask where we're from, and just tell us "Welcome to India!" and let us go on our way. When we go sightseeing, we are swamped with people wanting to take their picture with us, which I think is really cute and flattering, especially when little kids run up to us with a big smile on their faces and ask to take their picture with us. It's adorable.
- People often gave up their seats on crowded buses for me and Jill. One time, a family managed to squish us into some seats in the middle of their group, then offered us some of their snacks. We didn't speak their language and they didn't speak ours, but I was really touched by such a friendly gesture of goodwill to a couple of total strangers. It made me reflect on how we treat foreigners back home, and feel ashamed.
The bad:
- Inability to communicate with people, even people who speak English, can be frustrating. For example, when I was at an internet cafe writing the last blog post, my internet stopped working. When I told the guy about it, he told me to switch to a different computer. I told him I couldn't, because I was working on something, so I needed to get the internet working again on the computer I was on. He told me to turn it off and back on, and again I explained that I couldn't because I was working on something. He then came over and switched off the computer. When I angrily tried to explain that I had just told him not to do that and why, he just started laughing at me.
- When we were at the cave temples in Ajanta, we were pretty appalled by the behavior of the Indian tourists. They traveled in big family groups, usually with several small children, who ran around the caves shrieking. Even the adults often behaved like children: making noises repeatedly just to hear the echoes, running their hands along 1500-year-old, painstakingly restored carvings.
- The first time I slept on the lower berth of a train, a few minutes after I'd closed my eyes to go to sleep, the man sitting across from me started snapping his fingers in my face to wake me up. It turned out that a gust of wind had blown my kurta aside, revealing part of my (fully clothed) outer thigh, and he wanted me to cover myself. Later, a family with a baby and a toddler came and sat in our compartment. The toddler walked over to me and started hitting me with her fists and tugging on my clothes, while I had my eyes closed and was clearly trying to sleep. Her mother sat within arm's reach, watching the whole time, and did nothing to stop her, so this continued for several minutes until the little girl got bored and decided to stop on her own. After that, the woman in the middle berth above me decided she would rather sit on my berth than lie down on her own, so she just sat down and scooted back, pushing my legs out of her way. Unsurprisingly, I only ended up getting about 2 or 3 hours of sleep.
- The second time I was in a lower berth in a train, sitting and reading, a guy in his early 20s came up to me and asked me about my Kindle. That was fine, but he then continued to try to talk to me for the remaining four hours until his stop, asking me generally inappropriate things: he asked if he could borrow my Kindle; he asked my full name so he could add me on Facebook (without telling me his name at any point); after I gave him my name and he added me, he went over my Facebook page out loud, asking me to confirm every piece of information on it; he asked me three times to accept his friend request, which I told him the first time I would but obviously couldn't do it right then because I had no computer or phone; he asked several times for Jill's full name so he could add her (of course I said no); he asked for the name of one of my other friends so he could add them (again, I said no); he asked my date of birth; and when he ran out of things to ask me, he started reading off my Kindle screen. Example:
Him: Chapter two.
Me: Yup.
Him: Chapter one is finish.
Me: ...Yup.
Example 2:
Him: 72% complete.
Me: Yup.
Later...
Him: 74% complete.
Me: ...Yup.
The ugly:
- One time a woman crossed the sidewalk to punch both me and Jill on the arm, hard. She said nothing, and we had done nothing to provoke it.
- I have very nearly been spat on several times. Not intentionally, it's just that people spit all the time here, which is gross. It's something I already knew, but I'm finding it difficult to get used to again. Same with littering and public urination, which people do everywhere.
- Once, when Jill and I were trying to get back to our hotel from the bus station, we had a lot of difficulty getting a fair price from the auto-wallahs. After much arguing, we finally agreed on a price with a driver whom we'd previously walked away from, and then he proceeded to laugh at us and brag to the other drivers that he'd gotten us to agree to that price. While he was driving us back (if you go directly, it takes about 5 minutes), he stopped to get gas. After that, he stopped again to take a piss by the side of the road. When he came back, he wiped his hand on my pants. Then, about 30 seconds after he had started driving again, he slowed way down and demanded twice the fare we'd agreed on, and argued with us for several minutes about this before finally taking us back to our hotel. It was pretty scary actually; Jill and I were readying ourselves to either defend ourselves or jump out of the moving vehicle in case he refused to stop unless we agreed to pay him double. It ended up working out okay, except that for some reason he grabbed my hand when I was giving him the money.
This is just a small sampling of the interactions we've had with locals so far. As you can imagine, it's a bit overwhelming, and has often left me feeling frustrated and irritated. But, although it's a bit difficult, I am trying to embrace the challenge, and will ultimately be better for it.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Cave temples galore
Note: this post was delayed several days because the guy at the internet cafe tried to fix my internet by shutting off my computer while I was in the middle of writing this. Thankfully, most of it saved automatically, but I was so frustrated that I didn't come back to it until now.
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As we get ready to leave Aurangabad for Hyderabad tomorrow morning (at 4 AM - ick), it seems to me that now is a good time to write a post about the time we've spent here. Our initial plan was to stay here for less than 48 hours - to get in at 4 AM, find a hotel, buy train tickets and run off to Ellora, then see Ajanta the next day and take a train out that night. But things didn't quite work out that way: we found out (after buying our train tickets) that Ellora was closed that day, and we didn't have time to see Ajanta instead since it's several hours away. This meant that we'd have to choose between the sites, as we only had one day left. The next morning, Jordan woke up feeling too sick to go out, so we decided to change our plans altogether and stay in Aurangabad for two extra days, which gave him time to get better and gave me and Jill time to see the sights. This ended up working out really well for everyone.
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As we get ready to leave Aurangabad for Hyderabad tomorrow morning (at 4 AM - ick), it seems to me that now is a good time to write a post about the time we've spent here. Our initial plan was to stay here for less than 48 hours - to get in at 4 AM, find a hotel, buy train tickets and run off to Ellora, then see Ajanta the next day and take a train out that night. But things didn't quite work out that way: we found out (after buying our train tickets) that Ellora was closed that day, and we didn't have time to see Ajanta instead since it's several hours away. This meant that we'd have to choose between the sites, as we only had one day left. The next morning, Jordan woke up feeling too sick to go out, so we decided to change our plans altogether and stay in Aurangabad for two extra days, which gave him time to get better and gave me and Jill time to see the sights. This ended up working out really well for everyone.
First, some photos from lovely Mumbai and Elephanta Island, since I just got those up:
SO much nicer than Delhi.
The train station in Mumbai. Amazing! It's actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site (as is Elephanta Island).
This is the most famous of the carvings at Elephanta Island: Shiva in his three forms (Creator, Destroyer, Preserver).
The first day, after a lot of scrambling around and trying to figure out how to get to Ajanta in time before finally giving up, we went to see one of the local sights in Aurangabad: the Bibi Ka Maqbara, commonly known as the poor man's Taj Mahal. It's a mausoleum built by a son of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb for his mother, and it does very much look like a cheaper, scaled-down version of the Taj Mahal. Jordan and I struggled against the temptation to compare it to the real thing, and tried to appreciate it for what it was: a very cool building in a serene garden setting. It wasn't swamped with tourists, so we had a rather laid back experience as we wandered the grounds. It was definitely what everyone needed after our hectic morning.
Looks familiar...
The next day, Jordan was feeling too sick to go out, so Jill and I headed to the ruined 13th century Daulatabad Fort, which ended up being a lot more impressive than either of us had expected. The place was huge and designed to be virtually unassailable. The main building of the fort was set atop a high hill, and getting there involved going through a pitch black, bat-infested windy cave, with murder holes in the ceiling for good measure. They haven't lit the cave for tourists, so Jill and I had to fumble our way through with the flashlight that I had thankfully remembered to bring. After that, it was a brutal, seemingly never-ending walk up to the top, but the Indian tourists we encountered on their way down encouraged us on, telling us there was cold water up at the top. When we got there, we were disappointed to find that the cold water we were promised was just a bucket of tap water. But we still felt a sense of triumph, and spent a few minutes sitting on the window sills of the highest building, surveying the territory we had just crossed.
Some photos from that day:
Cannons!
These doors had spikes on them to prevent attack elephants from ramming them.
I forget what this was called - it translated to something like "Spire of Victory".
After we headed down from the fort, we attempted to take the bus back into town. This ultimately proved impossible, but in the meantime we sat and chatted with some locals who tried to help us flag down passing buses. Eventually, they were able to get us into a shared jeep heading back to Aurangabad, which sounds a lot more comfortable than it actually was. They were just barely able to wedge us into the back of the jeep along with 19 other passengers, including two guys who were hanging out of the back of it. I felt like it epitomized the experience of India: sweaty, smelly, and uncomfortable, but a lot of fun if you can just roll with it.
The next day, Jill and I ventured out to the caves at Ajanta. We took the two-hour trip on a local bus, which was surprisingly comfortable and easy to use despite being the cheapest form of transportation. The caves are all clustered in a beautiful (now dried up) river valley; there are 30 of them in all, but most of them are only one room, and several of them were closed. The main draw of Ajanta's cave temples is the paintings lining the walls - some of them are simply decorative designs, but most of them depict important figures and scenes from Buddhist mythology. I wish I'd known the stories so I could understand better what was going on, but I still felt a certain peace while looking at their serene faces (that is, when the temples weren't full of screaming young Indian children, which was usually the case, much to our disappointment). The paintings were remarkably well-preserved for being so old; the oldest temples were dated at 200 BC, the newest at about 600 AD.
I didn't get many photos of Ajanta, because it was dark and my camera ran out of batteries right at the beginning. But the ones I did get are pretty cool:
The pretty scenery around the caves.
Jordan was feeling better the next day, so all three of us took the quick half-hour trip to Ellora to see its famed cave temples. Ellora is interesting because it has a mix of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain temples all right next to each other. Easily the most impressive of these was the magnificent Kailasa Temple, which was absolutely massive, and mind-boggling to imagine that the whole thing had been carved out of a solid mountainside. It took workers 10 generations to finish it. Here are some pictures, but they really don't do it justice:
After we'd fully explored Kailasa Temple, we moved on to the smaller Buddhist and Hindu temples. These were less impressive, but a lot less crowded as well, and exploring them gave us a brief respite from the brutal sun. It was very hot and dry in that area, and the wind would kick up huge dust clouds that would completely cover us in dirt, so that every night when we came back to Aurangabad, I would see a visible layer of dirt covering my face and have dust-and-sweatsicles in my hair. This was made even worse by the fact that while we were in Ellora, a big fire started burning somewhere nearby, adding ash and smoke to the already blinding dust. The heat tired us out pretty fast, and we ended up skipping the Jain caves, since there were only 5 of them and they were a kilometer up the road by themselves, and by the time we'd already been to 29 other caves, we just didn't have it in us to walk all the way up there and back.
More pictures from the other temples:
Buddhist.
Hindu.
Also Hindu.
We took off the next morning for Hyderabad, where we have spent the last two days just relaxing in our (surprisingly nice!) hotel, spending most of our days watching crappy movies on TV. We're all feeling pretty rested today though, so we're going to head out and see the sights: today we're off to see Charminar and the surrounding bazaars of Hyderabad's old city. Then tomorrow night we take off for Hampi!
Please check out our Flickr feed, as there wasn't room to post the vast majority of the pictures we took here! Check the "sets" on the right side to view them organized by location. There are LOTS more photos there!
I didn't get many photos of Ajanta, because it was dark and my camera ran out of batteries right at the beginning. But the ones I did get are pretty cool:
The pretty scenery around the caves.
Jordan was feeling better the next day, so all three of us took the quick half-hour trip to Ellora to see its famed cave temples. Ellora is interesting because it has a mix of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain temples all right next to each other. Easily the most impressive of these was the magnificent Kailasa Temple, which was absolutely massive, and mind-boggling to imagine that the whole thing had been carved out of a solid mountainside. It took workers 10 generations to finish it. Here are some pictures, but they really don't do it justice:
After we'd fully explored Kailasa Temple, we moved on to the smaller Buddhist and Hindu temples. These were less impressive, but a lot less crowded as well, and exploring them gave us a brief respite from the brutal sun. It was very hot and dry in that area, and the wind would kick up huge dust clouds that would completely cover us in dirt, so that every night when we came back to Aurangabad, I would see a visible layer of dirt covering my face and have dust-and-sweatsicles in my hair. This was made even worse by the fact that while we were in Ellora, a big fire started burning somewhere nearby, adding ash and smoke to the already blinding dust. The heat tired us out pretty fast, and we ended up skipping the Jain caves, since there were only 5 of them and they were a kilometer up the road by themselves, and by the time we'd already been to 29 other caves, we just didn't have it in us to walk all the way up there and back.
More pictures from the other temples:
Buddhist.
Hindu.
Also Hindu.
We took off the next morning for Hyderabad, where we have spent the last two days just relaxing in our (surprisingly nice!) hotel, spending most of our days watching crappy movies on TV. We're all feeling pretty rested today though, so we're going to head out and see the sights: today we're off to see Charminar and the surrounding bazaars of Hyderabad's old city. Then tomorrow night we take off for Hampi!
Please check out our Flickr feed, as there wasn't room to post the vast majority of the pictures we took here! Check the "sets" on the right side to view them organized by location. There are LOTS more photos there!
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