We are alive and well! After a week of glorious diving and relaxation on the Andaman Islands, (more on that later), we were in Chennai for 36 hours of hellish dust and chaos before departing last night to Singapore, where we have been in glorious air conditioning in an awesome airport for the past 12 hours. We have gotten much of the filth off of us, eaten too much western fast food (BEEF?!!?) and napped on abnormally uncomfortable lobby chairs. We are about to depart for Jakarta, where we hope to then book an immediate flight to Denpasar, on the island of Bali. We are excited for the change of pace, and the new horizons of food that await us! We will give a much more thorough account of our times above and below the Andaman sea shortly (well, that depends on Oli's promptness of blogging) but for now we are off to our flight! Love to all.
Ps- where are the comments people? We left the internets for a little more than a week and it seems that you have all disappeared. Have we been forgotten?! Say hello please.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Poop. Cow poop, goat poop, dog poop, and sometimes man poop.
So our first impressions of Varanasi? Too much poop. It was grotesque, and not exactly what we wanted to wade through as we wandered through tiny slummy alleyways looking for our guesthouse. Of course our rickshaw ripped us off and then dropped us in the wrong part of town, but a friendly local led us through the cremation ghats and copious wood piles to our guesthouse, for a small fee. We breakfasted on the rooftop of the Ganpati Guesthouse while we waited for our room to be ready. We took a wander along the ghats after checking in, avoiding the oppressive touts and attempting to find the peace and serenity that we had heard was found in Varanasi. We found none, and decided to duck in for some lunch at a tiny cafe whose tagline was "Yes, we ARE less dirty". Nice. Awesome cheap food, however, and then we headed back out. Too many beggars grabbing our arms and clothes- we can't help everyone, and sometimes you regret helping the ones you do, but more on that later.
We found our way back to our part of town, where I got a pedicure and I think insulted the ladies when I told them which color to paint my toes- painting is apparently not part of the process here. We headed back to the guesthouse to nap the hottest part of the day away, then had dinner on the rooftop and climbed into bed again.
The following day we planned on going on a sunrise boat tour of the Ganges, but we were hot and tired and in no mood when we woke up. We peeked out the windows and could only see the burning ghats in action, and decided that we were probably not invited to see these cremations and were quite content that we had only seen 1 dead body in India, and that was under a sheet. No need to push our luck, and besides, everything else was pitch black. We went back to sleep, and a few hours later checked out of the hotel, left our bags there, and went in search of grub. We found organic heaven at the Brown Bread Bakery, with yummy baked goods and lots of CHEESE!!!! We were far too discouraged to walk around and be poked and prodded and asked for cash or to see each and every shop along the way, so we lounged and read in the lovely courtyard of our hotel until it was time to head to the train station for our very long journey to Kolkata.
We boarded, and found that a large family without tickets had decided to make our berth home. I clearly could not fit on the 3 person bench with 5 other people, so I climbed up on to the top bunk and slumbered away. Oli was content for the most part with cuddling the locals, until someone decided to lower the middle bunk, leaving him hunched over AND cuddling on the far too narrow bench. He hopped on to the top bunk on his side and relaxed until someone kicked him off. The Indian family was still huddling on Oli's assigned bed/bench, so he curled up in a ball and snapped at every inquiry I had. Finally, 6 hours into the ride when most of the passengers had gone to sleep and Oli was still folded up like origami, I climbed down and had a word with the husband, explaining in hand motions that it was Oli's bunk and they should move so he could sleep. They agreed in Hindi, I think, and had a little family meeting. The family got off at the next stop and left him to stretch out in peace. I cuddled in and slept as well as possible with people grabbing my feet and staring at me, and with the lights being turned on at every stop. Quite possibly the worst journey yet.
We arrived in Kolkata at 7:30 am, and had great difficulty finding a rickshaw who wasn't going to completely and laughably rip us off, so we settled for a shared cab to the Sunflower Guest House. We decided to splurge for the next few days, as Lonely Planet had made the place out to be heaven in India. We were told no rooms would be available for the next 45 minutes, so they ushered us to a waiting room to wait it out. I showered quickly, and when I was putting my things back into my bag, which was resting on the couch, I saw 2 pinky-nail sized bugs. Laughing, I said to Oli "ohhh look, icky bugs, they look like bedbugs! couldn't be though.." But oh yes, they were. And there were plenty more where they came from. Oli and I flicked tons of bugs off the outside of my bag, finding none on the inside, and a few on Oli's bag. And more on Oli's back... and legs... and chest. There was an infestation going on. Was it the train? The trunk of the grotty cab? Or.. the couch?! There were bugs all over the couch, climbing up and down and in and out, and when we lifted the cushions, we saw dead ones, live ones, big ones, and a nest of baby ones. Holy cow, this was bad. We quickly gathered our things, lodged a complaint, and got the heck outta there. We walked to Sudder Street and were harassed again by won't-take-no-for-an-answer touts until we checked out a few places and finally settled on the Times Guesthouse. Nice, and a quarter of the price of the bedbug castle.
We grabbed a lovely large breakfast at Fresh 'n' Juicy, then wandered around the New Market area, once again the subject of more harassment. There was a sad looking woman carrying around a sad looking baby with an empty bottle and she was begging for milk, not money. In a moment of weakness I bough her some instant milk, a large portion and quite expensive comparatively to what you can buy in India. Oli made a funny funny joke about how she didn't want money, she just wanted milk so she could hawk it to some passerby and keep the cash. I scolded him for his negativity, and not 5 minutes later, we passed her hawking the milk to man at a stall. I was livid. First of all, she wouldn't get half the price that I had JUST PAID FOR IT, and her kid looked hungry as hell. Feed the kid! And don't lie and get caught! I shook my head at her and carried on. Ohhhhhhh I think we are ready for our island vacation. We shopped a bit, napped a bit, found a BEER GARDEN - Thanks Whit!! We had a late dinner and then off to bed.
Today we slept in, then went for a lunch of Kati Rolls- quite frankly the best thing, EVER. A specialty of Kolkata, it is a paratha, often with egg coating in one side, and filled with red onion, chili pepper, and your choice of veg, mutton, chicken, or paneer, then rolled up in a bit of paper and taken to go, all for the equivalent of $0.35. Yum yum yum. We ventured through the Maiden park, apparently the rival of Central Park in NYC, and watched the horses eating dead grass, and garbage floating by in the hot wind. Not exactly the equivalent of the Central Park that I remember, but we have been away from home for a long time. We tried to go to the mall, but it was closed. We tried to go to the Indian National museum, it was closed. We passed the same beggar woman who apparently had forgotten us, and came up begging for milk, not money. I told her she was a liar and a bad mother. Probably a bit harsh, but geeze. Sweating profusely and tired, we headed to the cool sanctuary of the internet cafe, and here we are. Tomorrow we depart for a week of heavenly diving in the Andaman Islands, off of Havelock. We will lounge on clean beaches, eat fresh local food, and hike over to the most beautiful beach in Asia according to Time Magazine. We are seriously looking forward to it.
More soon lovelies!
We found our way back to our part of town, where I got a pedicure and I think insulted the ladies when I told them which color to paint my toes- painting is apparently not part of the process here. We headed back to the guesthouse to nap the hottest part of the day away, then had dinner on the rooftop and climbed into bed again.
The following day we planned on going on a sunrise boat tour of the Ganges, but we were hot and tired and in no mood when we woke up. We peeked out the windows and could only see the burning ghats in action, and decided that we were probably not invited to see these cremations and were quite content that we had only seen 1 dead body in India, and that was under a sheet. No need to push our luck, and besides, everything else was pitch black. We went back to sleep, and a few hours later checked out of the hotel, left our bags there, and went in search of grub. We found organic heaven at the Brown Bread Bakery, with yummy baked goods and lots of CHEESE!!!! We were far too discouraged to walk around and be poked and prodded and asked for cash or to see each and every shop along the way, so we lounged and read in the lovely courtyard of our hotel until it was time to head to the train station for our very long journey to Kolkata.
We boarded, and found that a large family without tickets had decided to make our berth home. I clearly could not fit on the 3 person bench with 5 other people, so I climbed up on to the top bunk and slumbered away. Oli was content for the most part with cuddling the locals, until someone decided to lower the middle bunk, leaving him hunched over AND cuddling on the far too narrow bench. He hopped on to the top bunk on his side and relaxed until someone kicked him off. The Indian family was still huddling on Oli's assigned bed/bench, so he curled up in a ball and snapped at every inquiry I had. Finally, 6 hours into the ride when most of the passengers had gone to sleep and Oli was still folded up like origami, I climbed down and had a word with the husband, explaining in hand motions that it was Oli's bunk and they should move so he could sleep. They agreed in Hindi, I think, and had a little family meeting. The family got off at the next stop and left him to stretch out in peace. I cuddled in and slept as well as possible with people grabbing my feet and staring at me, and with the lights being turned on at every stop. Quite possibly the worst journey yet.
We arrived in Kolkata at 7:30 am, and had great difficulty finding a rickshaw who wasn't going to completely and laughably rip us off, so we settled for a shared cab to the Sunflower Guest House. We decided to splurge for the next few days, as Lonely Planet had made the place out to be heaven in India. We were told no rooms would be available for the next 45 minutes, so they ushered us to a waiting room to wait it out. I showered quickly, and when I was putting my things back into my bag, which was resting on the couch, I saw 2 pinky-nail sized bugs. Laughing, I said to Oli "ohhh look, icky bugs, they look like bedbugs! couldn't be though.." But oh yes, they were. And there were plenty more where they came from. Oli and I flicked tons of bugs off the outside of my bag, finding none on the inside, and a few on Oli's bag. And more on Oli's back... and legs... and chest. There was an infestation going on. Was it the train? The trunk of the grotty cab? Or.. the couch?! There were bugs all over the couch, climbing up and down and in and out, and when we lifted the cushions, we saw dead ones, live ones, big ones, and a nest of baby ones. Holy cow, this was bad. We quickly gathered our things, lodged a complaint, and got the heck outta there. We walked to Sudder Street and were harassed again by won't-take-no-for-an-answer touts until we checked out a few places and finally settled on the Times Guesthouse. Nice, and a quarter of the price of the bedbug castle.
We grabbed a lovely large breakfast at Fresh 'n' Juicy, then wandered around the New Market area, once again the subject of more harassment. There was a sad looking woman carrying around a sad looking baby with an empty bottle and she was begging for milk, not money. In a moment of weakness I bough her some instant milk, a large portion and quite expensive comparatively to what you can buy in India. Oli made a funny funny joke about how she didn't want money, she just wanted milk so she could hawk it to some passerby and keep the cash. I scolded him for his negativity, and not 5 minutes later, we passed her hawking the milk to man at a stall. I was livid. First of all, she wouldn't get half the price that I had JUST PAID FOR IT, and her kid looked hungry as hell. Feed the kid! And don't lie and get caught! I shook my head at her and carried on. Ohhhhhhh I think we are ready for our island vacation. We shopped a bit, napped a bit, found a BEER GARDEN - Thanks Whit!! We had a late dinner and then off to bed.
Today we slept in, then went for a lunch of Kati Rolls- quite frankly the best thing, EVER. A specialty of Kolkata, it is a paratha, often with egg coating in one side, and filled with red onion, chili pepper, and your choice of veg, mutton, chicken, or paneer, then rolled up in a bit of paper and taken to go, all for the equivalent of $0.35. Yum yum yum. We ventured through the Maiden park, apparently the rival of Central Park in NYC, and watched the horses eating dead grass, and garbage floating by in the hot wind. Not exactly the equivalent of the Central Park that I remember, but we have been away from home for a long time. We tried to go to the mall, but it was closed. We tried to go to the Indian National museum, it was closed. We passed the same beggar woman who apparently had forgotten us, and came up begging for milk, not money. I told her she was a liar and a bad mother. Probably a bit harsh, but geeze. Sweating profusely and tired, we headed to the cool sanctuary of the internet cafe, and here we are. Tomorrow we depart for a week of heavenly diving in the Andaman Islands, off of Havelock. We will lounge on clean beaches, eat fresh local food, and hike over to the most beautiful beach in Asia according to Time Magazine. We are seriously looking forward to it.
More soon lovelies!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Array of colours.
We have now arrived in Varanasi after a 13hr overnight train.... pleasant. Our autorickshaw then dropped us in the wrong place so we had to wander down the narrow maze of streets around the ghat area until we found help to get us to our guesthouse. The streets are FILTHY! Anyway, we are here too early to check in and they have decent internet so we can finally catch up on some of the photos that we have from the past few weeks.
To start where we left off, here are the remaining pix from our last few days in Hampi:
From Hampi we travelled to Panaji for the night and onto Mumbai:
Afterwhich we went to Udaipur, for which we have LOTS of photos!
Here are the photos from Agra:
As an update from last time, we headed for Delhi after the Taj Mahal and didn't arrive till late that night. We hadn't planned to be in Delhi so we had no problems with having less than 24 hrs there. We slept in and decided to spend the afternoon at the zoo! The zoo was very big but a little sparse animal wise! We did see some subdued tigers and other beasts.
We left Delhi last night and arrived here in Varanasi this morning..... you know the rest!
Enjoy!
To start where we left off, here are the remaining pix from our last few days in Hampi:
From Hampi we travelled to Panaji for the night and onto Mumbai:
Afterwhich we went to Udaipur, for which we have LOTS of photos!
Here are the photos from Agra:
As an update from last time, we headed for Delhi after the Taj Mahal and didn't arrive till late that night. We hadn't planned to be in Delhi so we had no problems with having less than 24 hrs there. We slept in and decided to spend the afternoon at the zoo! The zoo was very big but a little sparse animal wise! We did see some subdued tigers and other beasts.
We left Delhi last night and arrived here in Varanasi this morning..... you know the rest!
Enjoy!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Taj Smaj.
After our tour of Udaipur, Oli and I settled in for a nice long nap during the heat of the day, then went out for a nice meal in town. The following morning we checked our of our hotel and headed over to tour the City Palace. We wandered around the massive museum checking out all of the weapons and paintings. There were entire rooms covered in tiny mirrors and stained glass, and many sitting areas for the maharajahs. We spotted the portable tiger cage AND the crazy monkeys terrorizing tourists in the central garden. It was a treat! After the palace we grabbed some odd veggie burgers at the Sunrise Cafe, then moseyed on over to the Whistling Teal to lounge on their ourdoor couches in the garden and read while smoking hookah. It was lovely to escape the heat! We had dinner at our hotel and then went to a local haveli to watch traditional folk dancing and puppetry. Very interesting! Unfortunately we didn't have our camera, but the sights were pretty cool. One of the elderly ladies piled 9 large water bowls on her head an danced around! Other ladies danced with fire on their heads,and there was a magic puppet ho could juggle his own head. Fantastic!
Firoz took us to the train staion and bid us goodbye. If you know anyone who is going to visit Udaipur and would like a great, honest, reliable guide, let us know and we will send you his contact info.
We piled on to our overnight train to Agra and settled in for 12 hours of sweatiness. We arrived 20 minutes late today, shame shame, and hopped in an overpriced rickshaw to the Yash Cafe, where we had cheap breakfast, a shower, and stored our bags for the day. Then the main event- the Taj Mahal! This is number 5 checked off for us, only 2 wonders to visit after this! The people surrounding the Taj are incredibly forceful touts who scream at you and pull you left and right to go into their shops- we resisted and it is a wonder we made it to the south entrance in one piece.
After paying the extortionate entry fee, we were told that many of our belongings could not accompany us into the Taj- including but not limited to- a broken lighter, a headphone splitter, Oli's iPod, cashews, and a Suduku Book. We locked these up outside the gates and ventured in. You must walk through 2 large red sandstone gates in order to get the full view of the gleaming Taj. It was absolutely breathtaking (though a bit smaller than I had imagined. Oli says my expectations are too high.) There were tons of people swarming around, cutting each other off to get the perfect picture of them holding the Taj "in their hand". Oli and I made a grand escape to the side by the Mosque and I was lucky enough to take repeated photos of Oli's forthcoming "facebook photo". Oh dear.
We headed into the mausoleum and quickly made a lap as it smelled like 10,000 hot and sweaty feet. Ughhh. It was more impressive from the outside anyway! We sat ona bench outside and watched a ferret scurry across the lawn and then decided it was time to move on. We grabbed a rickshaw to the Agra Fort, and were once again molested by people selling gaudy trinkets, and even a large leather whip. I wonder who their main clientele are? We entered and wandered around the cool passageways and checked out multiple views of the Taj, and then agreed to take a rickshaw back. We realized too late that we were to ride on a cycle rickshaw, peddled by a small old man. Soon after we departed we reached a hill, and the old man's brother pulled up in another peddle rickshaw. Oli hopped over to the other one and away we went. I'm not sure what happened but suddenly I turned around and Oli was the one peddling! That man musta been very convincing. They then stopped on the side of the road and said that we needed to go and visit some shops so they could get commission, they were very poor men. We made them drive us back to Yash cafe, paid them generously, and retreated to the safety of the internet cafe. We don't wanna go back out there- its the most stressful place in India so far! Tonight we are off to Delhi, and tomorrow we have a train to Varanasi. We are attempting to upload photos right now, fingers crossed!
Firoz took us to the train staion and bid us goodbye. If you know anyone who is going to visit Udaipur and would like a great, honest, reliable guide, let us know and we will send you his contact info.
We piled on to our overnight train to Agra and settled in for 12 hours of sweatiness. We arrived 20 minutes late today, shame shame, and hopped in an overpriced rickshaw to the Yash Cafe, where we had cheap breakfast, a shower, and stored our bags for the day. Then the main event- the Taj Mahal! This is number 5 checked off for us, only 2 wonders to visit after this! The people surrounding the Taj are incredibly forceful touts who scream at you and pull you left and right to go into their shops- we resisted and it is a wonder we made it to the south entrance in one piece.
After paying the extortionate entry fee, we were told that many of our belongings could not accompany us into the Taj- including but not limited to- a broken lighter, a headphone splitter, Oli's iPod, cashews, and a Suduku Book. We locked these up outside the gates and ventured in. You must walk through 2 large red sandstone gates in order to get the full view of the gleaming Taj. It was absolutely breathtaking (though a bit smaller than I had imagined. Oli says my expectations are too high.) There were tons of people swarming around, cutting each other off to get the perfect picture of them holding the Taj "in their hand". Oli and I made a grand escape to the side by the Mosque and I was lucky enough to take repeated photos of Oli's forthcoming "facebook photo". Oh dear.
We headed into the mausoleum and quickly made a lap as it smelled like 10,000 hot and sweaty feet. Ughhh. It was more impressive from the outside anyway! We sat ona bench outside and watched a ferret scurry across the lawn and then decided it was time to move on. We grabbed a rickshaw to the Agra Fort, and were once again molested by people selling gaudy trinkets, and even a large leather whip. I wonder who their main clientele are? We entered and wandered around the cool passageways and checked out multiple views of the Taj, and then agreed to take a rickshaw back. We realized too late that we were to ride on a cycle rickshaw, peddled by a small old man. Soon after we departed we reached a hill, and the old man's brother pulled up in another peddle rickshaw. Oli hopped over to the other one and away we went. I'm not sure what happened but suddenly I turned around and Oli was the one peddling! That man musta been very convincing. They then stopped on the side of the road and said that we needed to go and visit some shops so they could get commission, they were very poor men. We made them drive us back to Yash cafe, paid them generously, and retreated to the safety of the internet cafe. We don't wanna go back out there- its the most stressful place in India so far! Tonight we are off to Delhi, and tomorrow we have a train to Varanasi. We are attempting to upload photos right now, fingers crossed!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Namaste
Sooooooooo sadly we hugged Ryan goodbye, and off we went. But FIRST,, here is a little update on what we did until he departed!
We spent another day in Goa waiting for a train to Mumbai, and we spent our time wandering and eating Portuguese Indian fusion food. Mmmmm. Oli and Ryan went to a shady little corner bar and came back without any interesting stories.... and then off we rode! Long ass day on an AC train- far too cold, so we napped most of the time. Arrived in Mumbai and stayed at Bentley's Hotel- very nice! We had our own private balcony and a nice big room. We set off to internet for a little bit then crashed out early, tiring day! The following day we bumbled around the area, passing the Taj Mahal Hotel multiple times in disbelief over the whole terrorist attack a few months back. Insane. We passed the Gateway to India, wandered the streets, and ended up at Victoria Terminus. Micky D's for lunch- no beef but the chicken sufficed. Mmm. Back to our room for a bit to let Ryan nap and then Oli and I set off to buy the train tickets for the rest of our time in India, but to no avail. We went to famous Leopold's cafe and had massive personal beer taps (thanks M+D) then wandered back to our place to chat and sleep.
Woke up the next morning and grabbed tickets for the ferry to Elephanta Island- the ferry was far too long and crowded, but the island was cool. The first of the five caves was infinitely better than the rest, and we got some amazing photos of the different carvings and pillars. There were cheeky little monkeys running around everywhere, and we killed some time before we headed back to the mainland. Finally bought our tickets at the Churchgate train station (sorry it took so long Ryan) and then we headed a few doors down to a hip cafe called Mocha's- it was packed with local twentysomethings eating fabulous cheap food and smoking hookahs. It was pretty cool.
The next day we bid our amazing travel buddy adieu, and hopped on our long train to Udaipur. We departed at 1:40, arriving in Ahemdabad at 9:30pm, and then switching to a nice AC 4 berth cabin for the next train to Udaipur. We had the cabin to ourselves, sweet! We slept nicely, and woke up as we arrived the following morning at 7:30. We groggily packed our things and grabbed a rickshaw- and we lucked out! Our driver was a 30ish Indian local named Farez who sometimes gave tours to tourists, so we booked him to take us to the Monsoon Palace that evening for the sunset. After he dropped us off at a better, cheaper hotel than the place we were planning on going (next door!) we relaxed and had some breakfast, then wandered around the city window shopping and taking photos. Udaipur is where they filmed much of the James Bond film Octopussy, and we got to see the different palaces used in the movie, though we don't remember a thing about the movie to begin with!
Farez picked us up at 5pm and drove us towards the Monsoon Palace, warning us that we were entering a national wildlife park and that there are panthers and wildcats, so to be careful. Yikes. We arrived at the top and toured the magnificent but deteriorating abode, then watched the sun creep down over the mountains, turning the sky a deep orange and illuminating the colors of the palace. We headed back down to town in our rickshaw, and Firoz took a little detour and invited us to have tea with him at his brothers place overlooking the lake. He showed us his photo album of his home and his favorite places in the city, and then took us to a secluded secret lookout over the lake of the City and Lake palaces- the view was absolutely insane. He took us back to our hotel and we booked him for a tour of the northern parts of the city for the next morning (today!) at 9am. We then grabbed some DELICIOUS chicken curry and biriyani at the Lotus Cafe and called it a night.
This morning Firoz picked us up and took us out to see the ghats where the poor people bathe and wash their clothes, then out to the Jain temple and then the burial place for all of the royal family. We visited the vintage and classic car museum and then the gardens that the ladies in waiting used to frequent, complete with elephant fountains. My personal favorite aspect of the tour was the walk through the local fruit/veg/spice market- completely off the tourist track, bustling with little old ladies selling out of baskets and larger operations with bags and bags of spices. The colors were phenomenal. We grabbed lunch at one of Firoz's favorite thalis, and then headed back to the hotel.
We have been having a fab time but we miss Ryan's head waggle and cheeky grins! We are off to Agra on overnight train tomorrow. We will keep you posted! Happy Easter and Passover friends.
btw- we booked our flights back to the states for SNWMF- we will be in California from June 5-28 working before we head back to Bangkok for another segment of our journey.
We spent another day in Goa waiting for a train to Mumbai, and we spent our time wandering and eating Portuguese Indian fusion food. Mmmmm. Oli and Ryan went to a shady little corner bar and came back without any interesting stories.... and then off we rode! Long ass day on an AC train- far too cold, so we napped most of the time. Arrived in Mumbai and stayed at Bentley's Hotel- very nice! We had our own private balcony and a nice big room. We set off to internet for a little bit then crashed out early, tiring day! The following day we bumbled around the area, passing the Taj Mahal Hotel multiple times in disbelief over the whole terrorist attack a few months back. Insane. We passed the Gateway to India, wandered the streets, and ended up at Victoria Terminus. Micky D's for lunch- no beef but the chicken sufficed. Mmm. Back to our room for a bit to let Ryan nap and then Oli and I set off to buy the train tickets for the rest of our time in India, but to no avail. We went to famous Leopold's cafe and had massive personal beer taps (thanks M+D) then wandered back to our place to chat and sleep.
Woke up the next morning and grabbed tickets for the ferry to Elephanta Island- the ferry was far too long and crowded, but the island was cool. The first of the five caves was infinitely better than the rest, and we got some amazing photos of the different carvings and pillars. There were cheeky little monkeys running around everywhere, and we killed some time before we headed back to the mainland. Finally bought our tickets at the Churchgate train station (sorry it took so long Ryan) and then we headed a few doors down to a hip cafe called Mocha's- it was packed with local twentysomethings eating fabulous cheap food and smoking hookahs. It was pretty cool.
The next day we bid our amazing travel buddy adieu, and hopped on our long train to Udaipur. We departed at 1:40, arriving in Ahemdabad at 9:30pm, and then switching to a nice AC 4 berth cabin for the next train to Udaipur. We had the cabin to ourselves, sweet! We slept nicely, and woke up as we arrived the following morning at 7:30. We groggily packed our things and grabbed a rickshaw- and we lucked out! Our driver was a 30ish Indian local named Farez who sometimes gave tours to tourists, so we booked him to take us to the Monsoon Palace that evening for the sunset. After he dropped us off at a better, cheaper hotel than the place we were planning on going (next door!) we relaxed and had some breakfast, then wandered around the city window shopping and taking photos. Udaipur is where they filmed much of the James Bond film Octopussy, and we got to see the different palaces used in the movie, though we don't remember a thing about the movie to begin with!
Farez picked us up at 5pm and drove us towards the Monsoon Palace, warning us that we were entering a national wildlife park and that there are panthers and wildcats, so to be careful. Yikes. We arrived at the top and toured the magnificent but deteriorating abode, then watched the sun creep down over the mountains, turning the sky a deep orange and illuminating the colors of the palace. We headed back down to town in our rickshaw, and Firoz took a little detour and invited us to have tea with him at his brothers place overlooking the lake. He showed us his photo album of his home and his favorite places in the city, and then took us to a secluded secret lookout over the lake of the City and Lake palaces- the view was absolutely insane. He took us back to our hotel and we booked him for a tour of the northern parts of the city for the next morning (today!) at 9am. We then grabbed some DELICIOUS chicken curry and biriyani at the Lotus Cafe and called it a night.
This morning Firoz picked us up and took us out to see the ghats where the poor people bathe and wash their clothes, then out to the Jain temple and then the burial place for all of the royal family. We visited the vintage and classic car museum and then the gardens that the ladies in waiting used to frequent, complete with elephant fountains. My personal favorite aspect of the tour was the walk through the local fruit/veg/spice market- completely off the tourist track, bustling with little old ladies selling out of baskets and larger operations with bags and bags of spices. The colors were phenomenal. We grabbed lunch at one of Firoz's favorite thalis, and then headed back to the hotel.
We have been having a fab time but we miss Ryan's head waggle and cheeky grins! We are off to Agra on overnight train tomorrow. We will keep you posted! Happy Easter and Passover friends.
btw- we booked our flights back to the states for SNWMF- we will be in California from June 5-28 working before we head back to Bangkok for another segment of our journey.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Celebrity Shot
This is Ryan, I've been the third wheel on J & O's honeymoon for the last six weeks and these are some of the things that I've learned:
- If you feel something crawl across your feet in the middle of the night, but it weighs less than a pound, it's not worth looking to find out what it was.
- No matter how pissed off Jen might get she's easily calmed by a fat grin and head-waggle.
- Gin is poison. And if a guy who weighs 22 stone tries to get you to keep pace with pints, do not even try. I'm glad I was only around their English friends for two weeks or I might have needed a liver transplant.
- If you think you saw a medium-sized black cat run out in front of you, it wasn't a cat.
- Oli knows how to make your feet feel goooood.
- Your skin can start to smell of curry after only two days of pure Indian cuisine.
- While not showering for two days will get you extra space on the bus in Los Angeles the same is not true in India.
- If you are white man wearing a dhoti (basically a dress folded up like a skirt for men) locals will stare and giggle. If you are a ginger (red hair, freckles) they will ask to have their picture taken with you.
- Squat toilets are reason enough to be thankful for being born in a Western society.
- While it might feel manly to order prawns the size of your hand the ones that are like big fingers have more taste.
- Prawns in England are not prawns but itty bitty teeny frozen shrimp.
- Farting is always funny. Rumblers are funnier.
- The soft flab of skin over the triceps does not bruise when you pinch it.
- Jen thinks that all baby animals are cute. Including flea-infested kittens and mangy puppies.
- There is no need to refer to the travel guide as the "Lonely Planet." While talking to other travelers you can say "I read in the Bible..." and everybody will know what you're talking about.
- McDonalds in India does not serve beef, but you can still get a Big Mac.
- Sitting on the back row of a bus is better than any roller coaster at Magic Mountain.
- Cockroaches make good shower buddies. Sometimes when they fly to the opposite side of the shower it's like they're singing the harmony.
- If someone approaches you on the street and says you've got something in your ear it is not a courtesy. Be prepared to have them stick metal things in your ears, pull out ungodly amounts of wax and charge you 1000 Rs. Oli learned the hard way.
- If you normally only have one Coke per month be prepared, on average, to drink about five a day.
- "Anchorman" quotes are always relevant.
- Watching chickens eat trash on the side of the road makes you think twice about being a vegetarian.
- Packing extra pairs of socks is a bad decision when you wear flip-flops every day. Pack extra skivvies instead.
- Speaking of flip-flops: duct tape is a gift from Mount Olympus.
- Always have plenty of rolls of white gold.
- While being a third wheel the most important piece of equipment you carry are your big-ass noise-canceling headphones.
- United Airlines does not give free booze to economy class on international flights.
- The yoga instructor will always make it look soooo easy.
- If you start to feel alone in the world the thought of a Double Double and animal style fries from In N Out upon return to California will cure any depression.
- Double Double deserves double the bullet points.
- While it might seem like a cool idea at first growing a beard on holiday is probably better suited for cooler climes.
I had a lot of fun traveling with the two of them. I think they expected me to add a degree of crazy but India is not the place to go nuts. For one thing I don't think they expected to have only two nights of beer while I was here (and a reasonable three beers at that.) I'm glad they convinced me not to take a job my heart wasn't into so I could fly half-way across the world at the last minute and see a side of life that is completely different than anything I've ever seen before. So it is with a heavy heart that I take my own way and head back to the United States and once again be insanely jealous at what they've been managing to do for a half-year and still have the guts to keep going for another half.
- If you feel something crawl across your feet in the middle of the night, but it weighs less than a pound, it's not worth looking to find out what it was.
- No matter how pissed off Jen might get she's easily calmed by a fat grin and head-waggle.
- Gin is poison. And if a guy who weighs 22 stone tries to get you to keep pace with pints, do not even try. I'm glad I was only around their English friends for two weeks or I might have needed a liver transplant.
- If you think you saw a medium-sized black cat run out in front of you, it wasn't a cat.
- Oli knows how to make your feet feel goooood.
- Your skin can start to smell of curry after only two days of pure Indian cuisine.
- While not showering for two days will get you extra space on the bus in Los Angeles the same is not true in India.
- If you are white man wearing a dhoti (basically a dress folded up like a skirt for men) locals will stare and giggle. If you are a ginger (red hair, freckles) they will ask to have their picture taken with you.
- Squat toilets are reason enough to be thankful for being born in a Western society.
- While it might feel manly to order prawns the size of your hand the ones that are like big fingers have more taste.
- Prawns in England are not prawns but itty bitty teeny frozen shrimp.
- Farting is always funny. Rumblers are funnier.
- The soft flab of skin over the triceps does not bruise when you pinch it.
- Jen thinks that all baby animals are cute. Including flea-infested kittens and mangy puppies.
- There is no need to refer to the travel guide as the "Lonely Planet." While talking to other travelers you can say "I read in the Bible..." and everybody will know what you're talking about.
- McDonalds in India does not serve beef, but you can still get a Big Mac.
- Sitting on the back row of a bus is better than any roller coaster at Magic Mountain.
- Cockroaches make good shower buddies. Sometimes when they fly to the opposite side of the shower it's like they're singing the harmony.
- If someone approaches you on the street and says you've got something in your ear it is not a courtesy. Be prepared to have them stick metal things in your ears, pull out ungodly amounts of wax and charge you 1000 Rs. Oli learned the hard way.
- If you normally only have one Coke per month be prepared, on average, to drink about five a day.
- "Anchorman" quotes are always relevant.
- Watching chickens eat trash on the side of the road makes you think twice about being a vegetarian.
- Packing extra pairs of socks is a bad decision when you wear flip-flops every day. Pack extra skivvies instead.
- Speaking of flip-flops: duct tape is a gift from Mount Olympus.
- Always have plenty of rolls of white gold.
- While being a third wheel the most important piece of equipment you carry are your big-ass noise-canceling headphones.
- United Airlines does not give free booze to economy class on international flights.
- The yoga instructor will always make it look soooo easy.
- If you start to feel alone in the world the thought of a Double Double and animal style fries from In N Out upon return to California will cure any depression.
- Double Double deserves double the bullet points.
- While it might seem like a cool idea at first growing a beard on holiday is probably better suited for cooler climes.
I had a lot of fun traveling with the two of them. I think they expected me to add a degree of crazy but India is not the place to go nuts. For one thing I don't think they expected to have only two nights of beer while I was here (and a reasonable three beers at that.) I'm glad they convinced me not to take a job my heart wasn't into so I could fly half-way across the world at the last minute and see a side of life that is completely different than anything I've ever seen before. So it is with a heavy heart that I take my own way and head back to the United States and once again be insanely jealous at what they've been managing to do for a half-year and still have the guts to keep going for another half.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Home from home
The last time we left off we were going to spend our 2nd day in Hampi exploring the town. Well it didn’t quite happen like that! We loved it so much that we decided to stay a 3rd night and postpone the sightseeing another day. We lounged, ate, read and generally had a wonderful time relaxing in the beautiful surroundings.
Despite deciding to stay for a 4th night as well, we went out to see the temple complexes the next day. They were very impressive and our auto rickshaw driver took us to all the right places. After an hour and a half we were starting to feel the heat though and headed back to the town. We had decided to have a nice cold drink at The Mango Tree, more or less directly opposite our hut on the other side of the river. After our refreshing drinks we inquired as to how easy it was to traverse the river on our own. Of course the question was met with a quick head wobble and directions for the best route.
There are more pictures to add to this album when we are able to.
We left the safety of the road and wandered down, through the rice paddies, to the banks of the river. It looked deep! There wasn’t really anywhere to go either. We clambered over some rocks (another trouser crotch gone) and through the mud (nearly lost a flip-flop) to no avail. We ended up enlisting the local kids to help, Ryan 1st, Jen 2nd and me, with a bag full of cameras, last. This was interesting! It was very slippery and murky, not an easy crossing, and by the end I had 3 kids trying to take me 3 different routes! We did make it though, a little damp, 30 rupees and a pen down, feeling that our sense of adventure had been satiated – time to get back to the safety of our porch!
Our last full day in Hampi was spent as the others before it, doing nothing and loving it. We lounged and contemplated our early morning and day of travel the next day. We had heard about a temple only 10 mins by tuktuk from Mowgli that was kept by a guy who looked after the local monkeys. The plan was to get there for sunrise and see the monkeys being fed. We agreed a price with a tuktuk driver the night before and met him at 530am yesterday. When we reached the entrance to the temple we realised the extent of the climb ahead. The steps up to the top zig-zagged up the side of the rocky mountain and brought back memories of the Inca Trail, fortunately only for 15 mins rather than 4 days!
We sat at the top of the hill, watching the sunrise and seeing the monkeys roaming around the temple, trying to avoid too much confrontation with the local dogs! The steps were just as tiring on the way down and we were in no position to rest when we got back to the guesthouse. We finished packing and headed out the door for the long day ahead of us.
Three buses, 3 tuktuks and 12 hours later we arrived here in Panji tired, hungry and filthy! We checked into a budget hotel, my turn to sleep on the floor, and went in search of food and cold beer! We found them at a great restaurant that has both Indian and Portuguese roots in keeping with the town itself. After a lovely meal and deliciously cold beers, we got our heads down for the night. Today we had planned to leave for Mumbai but the train is full so we leave tomorrow at 940am and arrive a full 12 hours later. At least we went for the AC class this time.
We have spent the last few days planning the tail end of India and from there onwards. We fly to the Andaman Islands on the 21st from Kolkata for some island life and SCUBA diving, we will be getting our Advanced Open Water certification ready for some wreck and deep diving on the rest of the trip. We return to Chennai on the 27th before flying to Singapore on the 28th, where we head straight to Jakarta, Indonesia, for 3 weeks exploring Java, Bali and Lombok. On the 19th we return to Singapore for the night before flying to Borneo, the Malaysian part, for a week where we will hopefully get to see Brunei as well. After this we should have enough time to explore Kuala Lumpur and a little more of Singapore before we head to CA for SNWMF and family visits.
More updates soon!
Despite deciding to stay for a 4th night as well, we went out to see the temple complexes the next day. They were very impressive and our auto rickshaw driver took us to all the right places. After an hour and a half we were starting to feel the heat though and headed back to the town. We had decided to have a nice cold drink at The Mango Tree, more or less directly opposite our hut on the other side of the river. After our refreshing drinks we inquired as to how easy it was to traverse the river on our own. Of course the question was met with a quick head wobble and directions for the best route.
There are more pictures to add to this album when we are able to.
We left the safety of the road and wandered down, through the rice paddies, to the banks of the river. It looked deep! There wasn’t really anywhere to go either. We clambered over some rocks (another trouser crotch gone) and through the mud (nearly lost a flip-flop) to no avail. We ended up enlisting the local kids to help, Ryan 1st, Jen 2nd and me, with a bag full of cameras, last. This was interesting! It was very slippery and murky, not an easy crossing, and by the end I had 3 kids trying to take me 3 different routes! We did make it though, a little damp, 30 rupees and a pen down, feeling that our sense of adventure had been satiated – time to get back to the safety of our porch!
Our last full day in Hampi was spent as the others before it, doing nothing and loving it. We lounged and contemplated our early morning and day of travel the next day. We had heard about a temple only 10 mins by tuktuk from Mowgli that was kept by a guy who looked after the local monkeys. The plan was to get there for sunrise and see the monkeys being fed. We agreed a price with a tuktuk driver the night before and met him at 530am yesterday. When we reached the entrance to the temple we realised the extent of the climb ahead. The steps up to the top zig-zagged up the side of the rocky mountain and brought back memories of the Inca Trail, fortunately only for 15 mins rather than 4 days!
We sat at the top of the hill, watching the sunrise and seeing the monkeys roaming around the temple, trying to avoid too much confrontation with the local dogs! The steps were just as tiring on the way down and we were in no position to rest when we got back to the guesthouse. We finished packing and headed out the door for the long day ahead of us.
Three buses, 3 tuktuks and 12 hours later we arrived here in Panji tired, hungry and filthy! We checked into a budget hotel, my turn to sleep on the floor, and went in search of food and cold beer! We found them at a great restaurant that has both Indian and Portuguese roots in keeping with the town itself. After a lovely meal and deliciously cold beers, we got our heads down for the night. Today we had planned to leave for Mumbai but the train is full so we leave tomorrow at 940am and arrive a full 12 hours later. At least we went for the AC class this time.
We have spent the last few days planning the tail end of India and from there onwards. We fly to the Andaman Islands on the 21st from Kolkata for some island life and SCUBA diving, we will be getting our Advanced Open Water certification ready for some wreck and deep diving on the rest of the trip. We return to Chennai on the 27th before flying to Singapore on the 28th, where we head straight to Jakarta, Indonesia, for 3 weeks exploring Java, Bali and Lombok. On the 19th we return to Singapore for the night before flying to Borneo, the Malaysian part, for a week where we will hopefully get to see Brunei as well. After this we should have enough time to explore Kuala Lumpur and a little more of Singapore before we head to CA for SNWMF and family visits.
More updates soon!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Stressful overlanding, wonderful relaxing.
Well it is just a brief update as we have the chance, we haven't done too much since the last time.
We left Sulthan Battery a little frustrated that we were not able to visit the wildlife park but we decided to see it as a positive as we are now a day ahead of schedule to get Ryan home. We spent the afternoon on a bus to arrive in Mysore in the early evening. It was time to make a tough decision.... see the palace there or stick out the travel and head overnight for Hampi. We chose the latter and I think all 3 of us are glad with the choice. The palace is supposed to be wonderful but we have made great time and given ourselves a little window of calm.
The overnight train was as expected, nothing luxury by any means. The booths have 9 bunks, 3 on each wall, and they are not overly comfortable! But we were able to catch a few hours kip before waking in time to disembark at our stop, they don't exactly announce the stations and we certainly didn't want to miss it.
The station is about 15mk from Hampi itself and we hopped in the slowest tuktuk in India and pootled on toward the town. We arrived and passed through the town to the river crossing. We are not staying in Hampi proper, but across the river on Hampi Island. It is much quieter here and just what we needed. We wandered down the road and found the Mowgli Guesthouse were we had opted to stay. We snagged ourselves a great little cabana looking over the rice paddies and banana plantations and some of the amazing rock formations. The scenery here is amazing, the rock formations and boulders appear to defy gravity as the river runs between them. We have spent the day lazing around, not doing anything and enjoying every minute of it! The only thing is that there is no meat or alcohol! I guess I will have to deal.
We are planning to stay another couple of nights here as we are enjoying it so much. Tomorrow we plan to do some exploring of the 500 odd temples here and see more of the phenomenal landscape. Hopefully we will also be able to get some more of our pics up too!
We left Sulthan Battery a little frustrated that we were not able to visit the wildlife park but we decided to see it as a positive as we are now a day ahead of schedule to get Ryan home. We spent the afternoon on a bus to arrive in Mysore in the early evening. It was time to make a tough decision.... see the palace there or stick out the travel and head overnight for Hampi. We chose the latter and I think all 3 of us are glad with the choice. The palace is supposed to be wonderful but we have made great time and given ourselves a little window of calm.
The overnight train was as expected, nothing luxury by any means. The booths have 9 bunks, 3 on each wall, and they are not overly comfortable! But we were able to catch a few hours kip before waking in time to disembark at our stop, they don't exactly announce the stations and we certainly didn't want to miss it.
The station is about 15mk from Hampi itself and we hopped in the slowest tuktuk in India and pootled on toward the town. We arrived and passed through the town to the river crossing. We are not staying in Hampi proper, but across the river on Hampi Island. It is much quieter here and just what we needed. We wandered down the road and found the Mowgli Guesthouse were we had opted to stay. We snagged ourselves a great little cabana looking over the rice paddies and banana plantations and some of the amazing rock formations. The scenery here is amazing, the rock formations and boulders appear to defy gravity as the river runs between them. We have spent the day lazing around, not doing anything and enjoying every minute of it! The only thing is that there is no meat or alcohol! I guess I will have to deal.
We are planning to stay another couple of nights here as we are enjoying it so much. Tomorrow we plan to do some exploring of the 500 odd temples here and see more of the phenomenal landscape. Hopefully we will also be able to get some more of our pics up too!
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