We're going home!

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Choices for "occupation" on the Indian departure form :)

Doctor
Business
Employed
Media
Lawyer
Government
Sports Person
Other

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Southern india...a different country

The south of india is like a completely different country...the state
we went to was kerala. In kerala, people speak malaolem instead of
hindi, and knowledge of English overall is much better. The streets
are cleaner, there are actual sidewalks and people are just more
relaxed. Its called "god's own country". A trip to india is not
complete without visiting the south. If I had just done the golden
triangle (delhi, jaipur and agra), then I would have been very unhappy
with the trip and I would have had an overall negative impression of
my trip.

We stopped at a lovely little place in Thekkaddy called mundax. The
owner basically hand built the entire house and put it it the middle
of four acres of gorgeous organic plants and spices and a small little
lake. Everything about the house was relaxing ... all the wooden
furniture was hand built and smelled of delicious different
trees...everything was very minimalist....the air was absurdly fresh
and the owner was a certified yoga instructor (wenjun and eugene took
a class).

We went to another ayurvedic massage. This one was so much nicer than
the last one. Everything was totally hygenic and the oil was very
fresh (and heated). It was very relaxing...the funny thing is eugene
and David preferred the first gross massage because it was "more
authentic". Ha...there's no accounting for taste.

Anyway...the stay at mundax was my favorite of the trip. It was
peaceful, relaxing and just beautiful. I would definitely stay there
for a more extended period of time.

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Oh and I Forgot

Coffee to-go cups - they give you a flimsy cold cup with a flimsy lid... ouch :(

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Top 10 Things India Doesn't Have

1. Trash cans - if you ask someone for a place to throw something away
they say "This is India. Throw it in the street."

2. Sidewalks - I need a stunt double to shop at a street market for me

3. Reliable hot water - geyzers and buckets and pails, oh my!

4. Clean bathrooms - just oh my!

5. Change for a 1000 Rupee Note - there seems to be a shortage of small change

6. Reliable Electricity - rolling blackouts or surprise ones

7. Peace and quiet - we have to wear earplugs if we want to sleep past
6 am, and that doesn't really work, either

8. Lanes - you can, and in fact must, drive on the wrong side of the road

9. Street addresses - maps are useless, you just have to ask.

10. 12v DC adapter - David left his on the plane

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Houseboat

Note: this and other posts are being sent with a delay as we have not
had data service on our Blackberries since we have left Cochi.

On Thursday, we didn't finish the hike until well after 6, so it was
already getting dark when we set out on the drive back to Mundax. The
road back is a winding mountain road in pretty poor condition so it
would not be fun under any circumstances. Add to this hoardes of Hindu
pilgrims (most of whom are from Tamil Nadu, where land is all flat, so
they think they can drive at the same speed in the mountains) in
rickety old buses often without working lights, and you get a really
bad situation. However, it turned out that our driver, though quite
young, is an expert at handling these conditions. We got back safe and
sound, though a bit shaken (in both the nervous sense and the carsick
sense).

We left Mundax on Friday morning and drove to Kumarakom, the place
where we boarded the houseboat for our backwaters cruise. The drive
over was uneventful but once we arrived we had trouble finding our
boat. After many calls to the booking office and the boat operator we
realized that we were looking at the wrong jetty.

We finally found the boat and let me just tell you it is *beautiful*.
It is an enormous split-level vessel with an authentic bamboo
exterior. It is a two bedroom boat and the rooms are essentially full
hotel rooms with full bath, ac, and comfortable beds. We also have a
living room area with comfortable couches and satellite TV (Tata Sky).
On the top level there is a dining table and a deck area with lounge
chairs where the breeze keeps us cool.

There is a staff of three waiting on us hand and foot. Shortly after
embarking, we were served a beautiful lunch of traditional Kerala
food. Most of the dishes were a bit spicy, but Ellen and Wenjun were
quite comfortable eating it so everyone is happy. It's just after 5pm
now and they have just served us tea. We will have dinner at 7:30
after watching the sunset. I think this is going to be one of the few
times on the trip that all four of us are perfectly content, and it
will certainly be one of the highlights of the trip.

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Oh India...

Well....I don't even know where to begin. We took an overnight train
in india. This adventure began when we arrived at the goa train
station. There were lots of police casually standing around with fully
automatic weapons...they were just kind of throwing them around and
holding them so that they were pointed at civilians. In order to
escape these obviously undertrained "soldiers" and the nostalgic smell
of urine at a train station, we decided to pay the fifty cents and to
sit in the lounge for people with air conditioned sleeper car tickets.
We were able to lose the urine smell but traded it in for the musty
B.O. odor of the a/c lounge. As we were sitting there, one of those
officers came in and literally started unloading and reloading his
automatic weapon. He just put his weapon in the lounge chair and fed
it bullets one by one ... there was zero regard for the safety of the
civilians in the room.

I thought we were done with the worst of the trip but boy was I wrong.
We got on the train, which arrived an hour late, and I was brutally
shocked. The train was so outdated that it looked like it was built in
the fifties. The beds were actually benches covered in cheap, blue
leather, and the windows, floors, and sheets were just gross. To our
surprise, there were some squatters using wenjun and eugene's beds.
You see, the trains in india have many sections. We were in 2AC, which
was the best one for that train. I shudder to think what the non AC
sitting cars look and smell like. Anyway, these squatters were from
the non AC sitting car and were just looking for a place to sleep. We
had to kick them out and get new gross sheets.

So, I naturally started freaking out. Let me just paint this picture
for you ... Its dark, it smells, and everyone on the train is asleep.
I start with my "what the f..." speech, and
poor david is desperately trying to calm me down and get me into the
top barrack to ensure that I cause minimal trouble. I got up into my
cage and david took one look at me and ¡started laughing maniacally.
It wasn't a normal david laugh ... It was this insane nervous
ridiculous I can't believe this is happening laugh. Eugene and wenjun
took one look at david and also started laughing. So there we
were...me cursing in my upper cage and eugene, wenjun, and david
laughing uncontrollably. We finally calmed down, and wenjun decided
to use the bathroom in the hopes that she could just go to sleep and
not have to use it again for the rest of our sixteen hour trip.
Unfortunately, the conductor was asleep in the washroom....so you
couldn't really come in. The rest of the ride continued in this
manner...eugene found a brillo pad in his food.

Needless to say, we were thrilled to arrive in westernized, quaint
Kochi. We thought...what better way to erase the memory of the train
ride than a nice, relaxing ayurvedic massage (specialty of the kerala
region). Oh boy were we mistaken. We got back to back appointments
(separate for men and women), and I went after wenjun. So, she was in
the washroom when I came in. They made me remove all of my clothes and
placed around my waist what can only be described as cheesecloth
string underwear. The place was totally unsanitary, with seeing walls
and a giant oily wooden table. The two women masseuses made me sit on
an oily wooden box and dumped a vat of smelly oil on my head and
started rubbing it in in strange patting motions. Then, they made me
slip onto the oily wooden table and ladled even smellier oil on my
whole body. At that moment, wenjun was ready to come out of thw
washroom. The only way out was through my "massage" room. I covered
all the relevant parts and she darted out. Then, the "massage"
continued. The two women made grand, simultaneous movements that
covered my ENTIRE body. It is not like massages in america. The
objective was not to sort out tense muscles but instead to create
friction with your skin and produce heat in a synchronous way on both
sides of your body. Anyway it was absolutely disgusting...I felt like
I was sliding around in a nasty vat of oil. This went on for an hour.
They then tried to dit me in what looked like a wooden torture
chamber. This tiny box with smelly steam coming into it was their
herbal steam room. I sat there for a total of three seconds and then
darted (as fast as I could since I was totally oiled) into what i
thought was a shower. Instead, they brought me this bucket of boiling
water and a bucket of cold water. I had to mix the hot and cold water
in another bucket and try to wash the oil of my skin. A wood sander
would have been more useful than the soap I had. My towel
was...surprise...another cheesecloth. Two-ply this time. I washed
myself...kinda. I was still mostly oily but I didn't care...I put my
clothes on, threw money at them, and ran out of there. I was
traumatized for quite some time after that. Oy.

-mayor of negative town

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Kerala Adventures

We spent the day going around Cochi and doing some sightseeing and
shopping. Cochi is a really nice, picturesque, and relatively clean
place. The sightseeing that's here is interesting but most of the
things to see are very quick. So for us it seems the primary
activities here are taking in the laid-back atmosphere, enoying the
warm weather, and doing some shopping.

We did see some interesting things here though. The Chinese fishing
nets here are a traditional way of catching fish. We didn't see them
operating (and in fact they are rarely used these days) but we did see
some people catching shrimp with nets.

Right around the fishing area there was a small flock of goats. We
noticed that they were cute, stopped to take a few pictures and moved
along. They started following us on the path, and we noticed it but
didn't think much of it. But they got closer and started moving faster
until they were outright charging us. Now, okay, goats are not that
intimidating when they ate standing there grazing, but when there are
ten of them charging you it's a little scary. So we ran a few feet out
of their path and fortunately they stopped. I think they were just
being defensive because they had their young with them. But anyway,
this was our second close encounter with livestock on this trip. What
is it about us?

In the afternoon we headed to an area called Jew Town, which has an
old synagogue and a bunch of touristy shops. The synagogue was
interesting but we couldn't take pictures because of security
concerns. Also we couldn't go inside with shorts so we had to rent
pants from a nearby store. No kidding!

In the evening we went for a performance of traditional Kerala dances,
which was interesting. Definitely a unique experience.

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kathakali dance

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Train ride and Kochi

We just got back from a cute, breezy cafe in Fort Kochi. The dessert
and tea/coffee was a welcome relief from the confines of the train.

Our train ride was an interesting and authentic experience. First of
all, as our stop was not the originating station, half the train was
already asleep, with lights out. We whispered and attempted to
manuever our bulky luggage through the narrow, darkly lit aisles,
while trying to locate our berths. This was made even harder by the
fact that there were already people sleeping in our bunks! Apparently,
there are people who buy non-sleeper tickets and then find empty beds
to sleep in until they get kicked out by the legitimate ticket
holders. Luckily, the train staff are prepared for this and supplied
us with clean sheets and pillowcases.

We had originally hoped to switch two of our sleeper berths so that we
would be together, and in checking the reservation chart, we noticed
that those two berths were travelling together. Unfortunately, upon
finding the two travellers, we realized one was a nun who had no
intentions of switching. Oh well.

As noted by David, one of the travellers in the nun's party was a
terrible snorer. I Ellen, very kindly, offered me earplugs which I
used for the first time this trip. I seem to have the gift of being
able to sleep anywhere and through anything, so I was the only one in
our party to sleep through the noises and commotions.

The good news is that although the train was an hour late, we made up
time through the night and arrived in Kochi on time. We were also able
to speak with the retired Army colonel and the Conductor's son who
gave us some helpful tips and advice about Kochi.

Our homestay is very nice, clean, and situated in Fort Kochi. We are
looking forward to our first ayurvedic massage, scheduled for
tonight.

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Almost to Kochi

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On the train to Kerala

It's Dave here; I can't seem to post using my own alias, so I'm sending
this through Ellen's. Last night we had to listen to the symphony of
snoring that is a class 2AC sleeper car on what I imagine is a fairly
typical Indian train. I certainly hope that this train isn't an example of
an extrodinarily nice one.

Throughout the night people were coming and going, and the "beds" were
pretty uncomfortable; it was hard to get much sleep. Eugene, Ellen and I
gave up around 7:30.

I think the others were expecting better accomodations based on their
experiences on overnight trains in China and Europe. I didn't know what to
expect, but feared even worse. I felt very bad for Ellen having to sleep
here, but I was so filled with nervous energy from the situation that I
could help from laughing for the first 30 minutes of the trip.

Eugene has meet an interesting man who is telling him about his experiences
in the Indian Army and managing a hotel in Goa. I probably join him when
Wenjun wakes up.

In the meantime we have 6 or 7 hours to go on the journey. There should be
some beautiful views.

-dave

Waiting at the train station

Our train is late.
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More Goa

We finally got connected to the Internet at our hotel. It's a rather odd setup, they bill by the hour for the Internet but their mechanism for doing that is they physically plug and unplug you room's wire from the router inside the main office. Also, there is no DHCP so the reception guy wrote out the IP address, netmask, etc for me on a piece of paper. On top of all the power goes in and out regularly here so you can never be sure the connection will function at all. But anyway, we're online now, so here are some pictures:

With our Delhi-Agra-Jaipur driver and Mrs. Singh, one of the owners of Girisidan Homestay in Jaipur:



Mmmmm... Goan seafood:


Sunset:


Leaving Colva beach:

Last day in Goa

Today is our last day in Goa. Ellen and David have gone sightseeing, but Eugene and I have decided to take it easy again and hit the beach. All I want to do is return to our beach cabana and nap, tan, read my John Grisham novel, snack, and go for a dip. It's a beautiful life. I could stay here for 2 weeks and not get bored at all - this is a great way to detox from work.

Tonight, we head on our way to Kochi by overnight train. This will be an experience. I, for one, really enjoyed the overnight trains in China, but we traveled in the first class soft seat cabins, so it was really comfortable. In India, the best train available for our trip was the second class sleeper.

Goan paradise?

Well...we've been in goa for two days now. The beach really is
unbelievable. The water is so warm that even david and quack! went
swimming. So yes...it really is idyllic...perfect blue skies, warm
ocean water, and a bunch of indian men in their underwear taking
pictures of you. WHAT? That's right girls...if you're ever planning on
coming to goa, expect to be oggled and photographed by indian young
men in their underwear (instead of swimsuits). They just stand there
and stare...its unbelievably annoying but pretty harmless.

A peculiar nuance of this beach is that the lifeguards don't allow
indian people to swim in the 'non indian ' areas. So the layout of
our beach, which is called colva beach, is that you come onto the
beach and at the entrance there are literally hundreds of indian
people standing on the beach and in the water. To be more clear...no
one is sitting or swimming...everyone is just standing. The women are
fully clothed in the water. There's a bunch of shacks with yummy
seafood and beach chairs a bit to the left of the entrance. These are
basically foreign only areas, and the lifeguards spend all day shooing
away these groups of men in their underwear to the indian section.

Our waiter explained that this is done because these groups of men are
often rowdy and drunk and the lifeguards want to ensure that they are
all kept in the same area. Let's think about this for a moment...you
are in charge of managing several large groups of intoxicated young
men in their underwear. Do you
a. Force them all into a small area
b. Allow them to be separated
I dunno...the answer seems kind of intuitive to me, but perhaps our
russian readers can shed some light on this behavior...

Goa is definitely the most westernized of all of the cities that we've
been to. There seems to be much less poverty and the people coming up
to us and selling us anything from swimming with dolphins to bracelets
made out of fish bone are much less insistent and tend to leave you
alone after the third or fourth no (as opposed to the fifteenth no in
the north).

On another note...last night we were all so friggin tired of indian
food that we drove an hour to goa's little italy. The brick oven pizza
was truly like pizza in italy...yum. The bolognese was also yummy.

-ellen

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New threads

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Goa Reflections

Today is new year's day and our first full day in Goa. This is truly
an amazing place. We were picked up at the airport by our driver here
and off we went to our resort.

We are stayin in a very small place in a secluded area of Goa, near
Colva beach. Our hosts in Jaipur described this beach as a "nice place
for retirees." However, I think this is also the perfect place for
boring 20-somethings such as ourselves. The beach is idyllic and we
found a cute seaside restaurant which provides its customers with
covered beach chairs. All we had to order were some drinks. We also
later inquired about lunch and were presented with two enormous trays
of fresh fish, lobsters and prawns that we could pick from. David and
I ordered a sea bass and Ellen and Wenjun are having a lobster and
prawns. Yum!

The beach itself is as close to perfect as imaginable. It's not at all
crowded, the sand is fine and soft, the water warm and the surf
gentle. We will take a look later at some of the "even nicer" beaches
we have read about in the Lonely Planet, but so far we are perfectly
content.

As we were walking to the beach for the first time yesterday (about a
20 minute walk) I was trying to stay out of the road, and as a result,
got a little close to a standing cow. It was too close for the cow's
comfort and it gently nudged me with its head. As Ellen and I would
say, it "bodaied" me. It was more funny than scary, I don't think the
cow was being aggressive, just letting me know I was invading its
personal space. So the moral of this story is, you have to really
watch out for wild animals while in India! :)

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After Swim Pic

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