Matthias in India

Mumbai

2012-02-01T23:13:00.000-08:00

Before discussing Mumbai, let me tell you something: I am super happy to come back home. The past week has been sort of a nightmare, since I have been sick for 4 or 5 days. I thought my stomach would go through this trip without any harm, there you go! I have to say it is really difficult when you have to g to the toilets 50 times a day (and night) and those toilets are outside of your room... I could not eat anything but plain rice and drink black tea and water. It obviously took its toll on me and I probably lost 6 kilos in the process! In any case, I feel better now, but the end of this trip has been epic and I am wondering what I did to deserve this bad karma, when I have kept calm, been very nice and kept smiling all the way during this trip! I thought the bad things would come once I am back home, but hopefully this won't be the case since I have had enough for a while in the last two weeks.

As for Mumbai, it is probably the best big city I have visited in India. It is relatively clean, there not many touts harassing you at every corner, I understand the street map, there are no rickshaws so traffic is actually OK... Yes, I like Mumbai. During my two stays, I stayed in Colaba, which is at the tip of the peninsula and the backpacker area. During my first stay, I went for a bit of sightseeing: Elephanta Island, an island with temple-caves a bit like Ajanta and Ellora, but very underwhelming since there are only few caves, a walk through the city's colonial area (looks a lot like Londond), a walk in the city's bazaar, a view of the sea at Chowpatty beach (where the water stinks more than sewers)... Yes Mumbai has a lot to offer. I went to see my second Bollywood movie: a horror movie called Ghost (not a remake of the piece of shit with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze) and it is probably one of the worst horror movie I have seen in my entire life. The scenario does not make sense at all (it builds up and suddenly changes direction for no reason), there are romance/singing/dancing scenes like in any Bollywood movie, except that it does not fit here, the actors are really bad and the film is full of cliches (the best part being the introduction of the hero with a 10 minutes scene where is is riding bikes and sports cars, playing with kids on the side of the road, helping old people, all this with horrible music in the background...). It was ridiculous. I am just wondering how this works...

My second stay has been less active in terms of visits, since I was sick for the most part! So nothing much to say...

Now, let me tell you the reasons that make me want to be back in Europe:

- I am done with the food here: I have had enough Indian food for a long while, I mostly do not like what they make in terms of Western food

- I want to eat a good steak, and a burger (with bacon and cheddar), and a pizza (with ham and mozzarella), and a normal salad (with feta, olives, lettuce, and no peppers, cabbage, or onions), and French cheese, and drink some wine and some draught beer, and have a normal breakfast and a full English with bacon and baked beans, and eat some fried fish (and not something too salty and that always has an extra ingredient that ruins the taste of everything) and some pasta that is not overcooked and/or over oily and/or over salty, and some chocolate (proper one) and drink some proper coffee and...

- I have had enough rice and tea and dahl (lentils soup) and flat bread (chapatti and naan) and chocolate biscuits with no chocolate in them but only sugar

- I will kill the next person that lights sandalwood incense next to me (that smell gives me headache now)

- I will also kill the next person that plays some Hindu mantras/music next to me (that gives me headache too)

- I want to be in a city or on a road where everyone is not using their horns to drive (that also gives me headache)

- I want to take public transports and not be 400 people in a carriage or a bus that was built to take 50... even the London tube at peak time will seem OK now

- I want to take public transports and know that I will not be late by more than 15 minutes from what is announced on schedule (sometimes, shit happens, but not every time...)

- I want to be able to walk a street without being asked something every 10 seconds (where I am from, if I want to take a picture, if I want to buy something, to give money, etc.)

- I want that when I say "no" to someone, it actually means "no" and that there is no point asking again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again... until I yell at them

- I want a place where there aren't consistently hundreds of mosquitoes or flies (not sure which ones I hate most: flies do not bite, but you can't kill them easily) flying around me

- I want a place where there is constant, good internet connection

- I want my TV, and my Playstation, and my computer

- I want to sleep in my own bed, shower with unlimited hot running water (and not with a bucket of cold water), cook my own food and wear clean clothes every day

- I need a haircut, but there is no way I let these guys take care of it (no, I do not want to shave my head again)

- I am not being shocked by anything anymore (begging children, crippled, poverty, dirtiness, all of the above)

- I can't stand seeing the standard Westerner outfit on people that think it is cool to dress like (what they think is) Indian style: Ali Baba pants (who ever said this looked cool), scarves on the head, tika on the forehead, lungi, etc. My message to them: guys you'll never be Indians, and in fact, you don't really want to be Indians, so stop pretending!

- I miss you guys!

All that said this was a great trip where I saw amazing things, met amazing people, did amazing stuffs, learnt a lot about myself and what I can (and cannot) cope with, and which made me step back a bit and helped me think about what I want to do in the future. I will come back soon to visit the very North of the country (I have not had enough of the mountains) and maybe for different things, so if you are interested, let me know!

Now, I am back in Europe, I am mean again (I had become way too soft recently), and full of ideas. So be ready!

See you soon,

Matt

Now, pictures from Mumbai:

Gateway of India

Finsbury Circus? No we are in Mumbai

The University's architecture could rival Cambridge's (don't tell the English...)

The Victoria Terminus... sorry they changed its name to the one of a Maharati hero: Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus, which is easier to pronounce...

The three headed Shiva in Elephanta Island: for real, it is quite impressive

Leopold Cafe, a Mumbaiker institution, but the food is disgusting and also extremely expensive

"No parking in front of this gate, else tyres will be deflated"

This is certainly going to help move the car from the front of the gate thereafter...

Ellora, Ajanta and Omkareshwar

2012-01-30T03:12:00.000-08:00

It would have been too nice if everything till the end of my trip happened smoothly and as expected. I must also say that one and a half month beachside had probably weakened me a little… Of course, my hopes and delusions were quickly brought back to the Indian reality!

I had booked a night sleeper bus ticket to leave Goa and arrive the next morning in Mumbai. ”Sleeper” means that you have a berth were you can lie down and, supposedly, sleep. The berth is usually the size of a shoebox, but is enough to put your luggage in and be relatively comfortable. I was happy with the size of my berth when I got into the bus, and thought I would spend a rather good night… until the conductor told me that I would have to share it with someone else. Now, I know that all the plans for these buses were probably made at least 30 years ago, when Indians were all midgets, and have not been changed since then. But nowadays, there are a lot of Indians thatare actually tall, bulky or fat (or the three combined). Therefore, maybe it is time to revise the way these berth are made since I ended up sharing mine with the biggest Indian guy I have seen through this trip: a 2 meters tall dude that probably pumps iron 5 times a week! Needless to say that our two muscular frames did not fit very well in that berth, and that I was on the verge of getting really claustrophobic during that trip. Anyway, arriving in Mumbai was a big relief and I spent the rest of the day sleeping.

After a few days in Mumbai, which I will cover in a subsequent post, I decided to go for a last tour into “real India”: Direction Ellora, Ajanta and Omkareshwar, about half a day from Mumbai. First, after a train ride that took two more hours than expected in a seater carriage that took five times more passengers than it was built for, I arrived in Aurangabad, a shithole (still 900,000 inhabitants) where there is nothing to do and the guesthouses are disconcertingly dirty. I had booked a taxi to go on a tour to Ellora and Ajanta on the next day: I was tired with public transports and it made me save one day in the process (and at Rs 2,000 for a full day and 300 kilometres, it was not that expensive).

Ellora and Ajanta are two amazing sites: both are groups of 30 temples that were dug and carved within cliffs between 1,000 and 1,500 years ago. Ajanta only has Buddhist temples, with remains of wall paintings all over the place, whilst Ellora has Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples, some of which are beautifully carved and just let you wonder how much time it took the craftsmen to make this happen. These two visits took the best part of the day and my cab was then taking me to Jalgaon, another horrible city where there is nothing to do (400,000 inhabitants) where I was going to spend the night before taking an early train the next morning. Of course, we had to stop on the way to help push a bus that had a battery issue, but the ride went smoothly.

The next day was also OK and I finally arrived in Omkareshwar, one of these holy towns where pilgrims come and bathe in the local river. The place is built on both sides of a river, one half being on an island that is in the shape of the OM symbol (hence the holiness of Omkareshwar)… or rather, that was in the shape of the OM symbol until they decided to build a massive dam nearby, which changed the landscape for ever. It is still nice though. The only thing is that I had not planned that there would be a Hindu festival during my stay. On the first day, this is OK and looks cool, with the Ghats being full of people bathing and the streets being animated at the sound of mantras and songs. The thing is, that after three days of hearing all day long “Om Nama Shiva Ya” and “Are Rama, Are Krishna”, from 5.00 am to midnight (!!), I was becoming totally crazy. Yes there seem to be only two songs in the Hindu religion and the lyrics are not very varied. Omkareshwar is also one of those places where you meet very few western tourists, where no one speaks English, and where, even though you cannot speak Hindi, people keep on trying to have conversations with you and won’t let you go until they have an answer… tiring! I think (not sure though) I got offered to spend some quality time with the cleaning lady (I still wonder what she was cleaning) of my guest house at some point, against money… Imagine a really (really, really) fat ugly Indian woman smiling to me, whilst the guest house’s maintenance guy, also smiling, kept on telling me “Nice lady” and “Enjoy, yes?”, with rolling eyes… brilliant! So it was time for me to leave and go back to Mumbai, which I did.

I first had to stop in Indore for the day between two buses. Indore is possibly the most horrible place I have been to in India: dirty, polluted, overcrowded, nothing to do. I hated it from the first few minutes (plus I was tired because of a very early bus, so I was in no mood of dealing with misunderstanding, being misunderstood, getting lost, etc.). I had booked a night bus to Mumbai and, to spare myself the bad surprise of last time, I decided to go for a seater: at least I knew I had my own space. Of course the unforeseen happened and what I thought would be a standard, reclining bus seat materialised into being a one-person sleeping berth that I had to share with another dude! It makes, of course, a lot of sense: you cannot lie down so you have to seat! This time, I think I really developed some degree of claustrophobia and I spent one of the most uncomfortable nights in my entire life. Thankfully, the guy I was sharing the berth with was rather small and skinny, otherwise, I would have probably killed him (I think I was already about to do it sometimes…).

Finally, I made it to Mumbai and now, I am not moving until my flight home. I will tell you more about the big city and why I think it is time for me to go home in my next post.

Take care,

Matt

And now, few pics:

The caves in Ellora

Ellora, again

Some of them look like cathedrals once inside

Another cave-temple in Ellora

Painting in Ajanta

View of the caves in Ajanta

Still in Ajanta

They are Buddhist caves

View of Omkareshwar

The Ghats in Omkareshwar

Gokarna and Goa, part. 2

2012-01-17T03:41:00.000-08:00

Last time I wrote I had just arrived in Gokarna and was planning to stay there for a while. Well, after spending five week there, it is probably fair to say that the prophecy has been fulfilled! I even got to think that the OM symbol shape of the beach gives the place some sort of power that makes people stay longer than they initially intended…

First, let me describe the place where I stayed: it is called Dolphin Bay Café because there actually are dolphins swimming around in the bay! And yes, I could see some of them… once in a while. The place is a shack in the middle of OM beach, with a restaurant area in the front, and some bamboo and coconut tree huts in the back. When I say huts, I mean it: sandy floor, a bed, a mosquito net and a fan on the ceiling. Obviously, you get to share the space with the local wildlife: the place’s dogs and cats, but also rats, mice, cockroaches, mosquitoes, geckos and, I have heard, the occasional snake (apparently, there are king cobras in the area and Shanka, the owner of the Dolphin Bay Café, has even been bitten by one of them a few years ago… and survived!). For the bathroom, it is bucket shower (with cold water from a tank that is filled twice a day, so be quick…) and squat toilets. Anyway, this is the best you can get for Rs 150 per night… and I must say I enjoyed the experience (damn, I hate this word…) very much, especially falling asleep every night with the sound of the waves, and having breakfast every morning feet in the sand and eyes on the ocean. It seems that I am not the only one as many people seem to stay for a long time (ranging from one to six months).

On my first day there, I decided to walk to the next beach, Kudle beach, about 20 minutes from OM beach. As I was getting a bit lost in the hills separating the two beaches, I came across an Indian guy named Abhilash, who seemed as lost as I was. We decided to walk together and ended up drinking beers on Kudle beach. This is how I found my drinking buddy for the following three weeks… (Abi, if you read this, sorry, but I had to explain how we became friends!). Abi, my friend Sandra, and I even decided to spend Christmas Eve together in Goa, and had one of those crazy nights that cannot be described in writing (let’s just say that it took me a few days to recover). After Christmas, my friends had to leave Gokarna, but I decided to go back and spend a few more weeks there.

The Dolphin Bay Café is also a place where people from a lot of different horizons gather: young and older, from a lot of different countries, some of them with amazing/crazy lives, and all very interesting to talk to. I must say I had lots of good conversations and, above all, lots of fun. Since it would take too much time to describe everyone here, I will just thank those people without whom my stay there would not have been the same: Patrick, John, Sarah, Sandra1, Sandra2, Aad, Marcel, Joost, Sean, Valdis, Lorena, James, Clifton, Roberto, Alyssa, Diego, Peter, David, Erwan, Olivier, Nicole, Beno, Sami, Daniel1, Daniel2, Perry, Shaloo, David, Agnes, Myriam1, Myriam2, Miki, Katia, Ajay, Julien, Manu, Ioanis, Nuria, Jan, Xavier, Ninou, Shanka, Rama, Gyanam… and the ones I forget. Guys, it was fun!

During my stay in Gokarna, on a nearby beach called Paradise Beach, there was also a Rainbow Gathering. I still have not fully understood was this is all about, but it seems that this is some sort of hippie gathering over several days, in communion with nature. I went to the said Paradise Beach to see what this was all about, but it only seemed to be a bunch of people camping on that beach and leaving in some sort of community where you seat all together to eat and sing around a campfire, that for a couple of weeks. Exactly the type of thing I love… not.

New Year’s Eve was also a special day, with hundreds of Indian tourists coming to the normally quiet OM beach, and overcrowding the shacks (even though they did not sleep in the huts, as every place was full…). This ended up in tears, with a girl being groped in the Dolphin Bay Café, a fight starting thereafter between the owner and the aggressor, and the said aggressor being carried out of the café by the kitchen boys to meet his fate… whatever that means. After that, I do not remember everything I said (not that I remember everything I said before either…), but I know it really upset the English girl I was doing so well with until that point, and I ended sleeping by myself instead of having a well-deserved happy ending.

My time spent in OM beach was also the opportunity to do some serious reading of India-related literature. I therefore read two books by Herman Hesse: Siddhartha and Steppenwolf (one of my new favourites in the genre), and one very cool novel called Shantaram: the factional story of an Australian convict who escaped from jail and came to Mumbai in the 1980’s to try to disappear. This is the book equivalent of a very good blockbuster movie, mixing crime, adventure, love, hate, philosophy, fun, etc. and I must say I really enjoyed it. The descriptions of Indian life are very accurate which was a big part of the fun, but also showed me that this country has not really changed over the last 30 years. In any case, I highly recommend it, even though it is 1,000 pages long.

Finally, I managed to leave OM beach and Gokarna. It was really nice, but with less than a month left before going back home, I needed to start heading north. I started this slow journey towards Mumbai with a stop in… Goa. Yes, I have already spent more than a week there before Gokarna, but I had not done many things due to the events of last time. Anyway, this time, I decided I would go and see what’s around. Well, North Goa is definitely the coolest place, where the young people and the best parties are. Central Goa is just spoiled by mass tourism (I thought Anjuna was, but it is nothing compared to Candolim), with fat English and Russians frying in the sun and getting drunk over dozens of kilometres. South Goa is split between high end resorts and nice beaches like Gokarna, but five times more expensive and more crowded: no point. I also met with one of my fellow former Trouville-Deauville-Touques men, who owns restaurants in the area, which gave me the chance to drink my first glass of Calvados in a long time. Finally, I had my first unsolicited encounter with the Indian police: as I was heading back to Anjuna on my rented scooter after spending the afternoon in a nearby town, I was arrested (along with some Russians that were riding their bike in front of me) and asked to provide my driving license, which I did. Then the problems started: my license does not state that I am allowed to drive a scooter (I am wondering which country’s license does since you don’t need a license to drive a scooter… and also how many Indians actually have a license for this!). Therefore, I was breaking the law and had to pay a fine. I tried to argue a little bit (couldn’t help it…), but soon noticed that there was no point and had to pay the Rs 3,500 that they requested (official price of the fine). The beauty of it is that, as good Indian touts that they are, they finally made me a discount of Rs 500 on the baksheesh… sorry “fine”, and they let me go on the scooter I was not supposed to drive (with a smile, of course)! MOTHERFUCKERS!!!! In Hindi, I think it is “Mudachukh” (or something close, and they also have “sister fucker”, but I am not sure of what it is… “Badachukh” maybe), and it took me a lot of mental strength not to tell them what I thought… and probably saved me some quality time in the jail of some Indian police station! In any case, this certainly does not brighten the image of the Indian police (and of the police in general for that matter). I hope they all rot in hell (or whatever they believe in) and if they could also rot a little bit on Earth that would actually be nice… MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!

It is now time for me to head to Mumbai. I have planned to spend a few days there to visit and to go and visit few places that are not too far (which in terms of Indian distance means less than 12 hours by train or bus), but this is for a future post.

Take care,

Matt

And now, few pictures:

View of my hut

Another view of my hut

The "corridor" to the toilets

This is where I had breakfast every morning

A tanker that ran aground in Goa. It seems they thought it was nice to leave it there...

In Candolim, we are in Russian and British territory (look at the flags in the top right corner...)

Yes, when I am not partying, it is easier to take pictures of the party (Shiva Valley, Anjuna)

The flea market in Anjuna

A Banyan tree: branches become roots, which makes the tree look like there are several of them

Goa: Party time

2011-12-21T03:41:00.000-08:00

After Hampi and its “shanti shanti” atmosphere, my friends and I headed to Anjuna, in Goa, for a bit of party! And party there was… We arrived on a Tuesday morning after night spent in the bus (i.e. no sleep), and decided to take a long nap during the day as we had heard that there would be a good beach party at a place called Shiva Valley. But first let me give you an idea of the setting of Anjuna Beach: a beach long of more than 1 mile with white sand, delimited by palm trees on the land side and the ocean on the other side. Or this is probably how it used to look 40 years ago, when the hippies first arrived and discovered the place. Now, it is a slightly different story: few palm trees are still here and the ocean is still pristine, but you can tell that local and foreign people have seen the advantages of tourism in the area and there are countless shacks and restaurants built on the beach, which results in a continued line of places where you can eat, drink, dance and rest. A sort of Indian Riviera, where many foreign tourists come, including a lot of ruthless Russians (usually fat ugly dudes, with one or two young and fit girls (sluts?)). To summarise, this is nothing like the rest of India (but what is?) and you barely see any locals in Goa, apart from the owners of bars, restaurants and guest houses.

Now, Shiva Valley is one of those bars/restaurants/clubs, located at one end of Anjuna beach. We all met there at around 6.00pm for the party. The events of that night could hurt the sensitivity of some of you, so I decided not to give you too much detail or post pictures (there aren’t any… or very few!). Just imagine loud trance music, hundreds of westerners dancing, drinking and being on drugs, a narrow strip of sand (as the tide was coming up) covered with numerous stalls selling food, drinks, cigarettes and flashy souvenirs, and of course, the spoilage made by all that crowd on the beach as everyone throws all their garbage directly in the sand. We were having a great time until the music shut down at midnight, due to a curfew that imposes outdoor places to stop making noise after that time. This did not stop us from continuing the party though: we heard of another place in Vagator (about 4 kilometres away), called Primrose, which was opened till early morning due to the fact that it is indoors and decided to get there. After a few more hours of partying and a stop at the beach to go for a swim, we finally got back to our guesthouse for some well-deserved sleep. This was until Max, one of my friends, decided to go for a bike ride in the morning, fell down and broke his foot… Nothing major but this still necessitated him to be repatriated to France and we all stayed in Anjuna for a few more days than initially expected to wait for him to go and to recover from our emotions…

I met a lot more people there, from Germany, Austria, Australia and England (those Brits are everywhere you can find cheap booze! And in Goa, it is cheaper than anywhere else…). There are very nice places in the area of Anjuna as the area has been adapted for western tourists. Therefore, restaurants, guest houses, etc. are probably among the best ones you can find in India (and also among the most expensive, apart from the beers!). However, all good things should have an end, and after a week in Anjuna, I got bored with hearing loud electronic music throughout the days and nights and decided it was time to move on. The next destination was to be Gokarna, a bit south of Goa, another beach place (I am not leaving the seaside until the end of my trip!). It is a much quieter, beautiful place and probably looks a bit the way Goa looked like in the 1970’s. I am staying on a beach a few kilometres away from the main village: OM Beach. It is called that way as the beach has the shape of an Om symbol and is a bit like paradise. I am staying in a hut on the beach and can hear the waves when I go to bed and when I wake up in the morning. I think I might as well stay here for a while, so I will provide you with more information in the future, maybe when I have other random thoughts to write about.

In the meantime, take care and enjoy the pictures whilst you are all freezing during this tough month of December.

And yes, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Vagator Beach, Goa

Some cows doing a bit of sunbathing

A face carved in the rocks in Vagator

A parasol, like in Deauville... but with a slightly different weather

Anjuna beach

Sunset in OM Beach: that's in front of this that I sip my beer every day!

OM Beach

Some nice scenery around Gokarna

OM Beach again, you can see the shape of the OM here

Hampi: Hippie world

2011-11-27T00:05:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I have blogged, and this is for a simple reason: time has slowed down considerably over the last couple of weeks.

After spending a while in the hills of southern India, my friend Sandra and I decided that it was time to head towards places that are a bit touristier. This is why we decided to travel to Hampi, in Karnataka. The road by bus was going to take about 20 hours, and we had to change buses in Mysore, which allowed us to go and see a sound and light show at the magnificent palace of this city. The show was alright, although it was all in Hindi and with a lot of spoken words. But seeing this palace being lit at night was a sight worth seeing.

Our journey to Hampi was in an overnight bus and we arrived there ore breakfast. Hampi is a town located next to a river, with acres of antique temples around it. More interestingly, the area is covered with massive piles of boulders, brought there by thousands of years of volcanic activity and erosion. This makes the landscape looking like you are in another world…

We first stayed on the Hampi town side of the river, until we noticed in the evening that dozens of people were crossing the river by boat to go and sleep on the other side. Therefore, we decided to do the same on the next day and arrived in a place that is not India anymore. Hundreds of young people, mainly French and Israelis, were staying there. Lots of them were hippies (or trying to be…), not doing much except playing guitar and smoking marijuana. It is funny to think that these people think themselves as free spirits when they pack themselves in places where everything is made for tourism, even though it is not high-end resorts and all that. I was first staying in a guesthouse, sleeping in massive tipi for a few nights as it was the dorm room there, which was funny, but not really quiet… Then, I moved to a proper room to try to get some sleep, and also because I could not stand hearing the three same tunes being played every hour by those hippies.

We met a group of cool guys from France: two brothers traveling by motorbike (Royal Enfield of course), Max and Julien, and another one called Jimmy. We spent a good time altogether, riding mopeds on the local roads, going to a nearby lake to bathe, or to a temple on top a hill to see sunset. A week passed that way and then, we decided to move on to Goa with Max and Julien, in order to get a feel of the party scene and to get a bit further from what is “real India”.

Take care,

Matt

A few pictures for your keen eyes:

The Palace of Mysore

The Palace, again...

View of the landscape in Hampi

Sunset in Hampi

The rocks of Hampi during the day

A small lake surrounded by rocks

Kerala - Boating and trekking

2011-11-17T01:27:00.000-08:00

After my deeply spiritual experience in Tamil Nadu (*sigh*), I decided that I needed more fun and headed towards Kerala, on the West coast of southern India. The place is reputed for its backwaters: a massive network of canals in the middle of rice fields, fish farms and forest, linking most of the state's coastal towns. This is where I headed first as lots of people had recommended that area to me, starting with Kollam. This is also where I came across Sandra a French girl that I had already met back in Darjeeling and we decided to travel together for a bit. Now, OK, I know, I said I'd put a ban on French people in this trip, but I also said I made exceptions for girls... and only idiots do not change their minds... and I don't care about what you guys think...

We went on several cruises in the backwaters, one on a canoe in Kollam, in the middle of small villages, one on a motor boat in Alleppey, to get a better feel of the bigger backwater environment, and finally, a travel between Alleppey and Kotayam, to get to the hills, as it seemed much better than taking the bus (even though it probably took us twice the amount of time...). In Alleppey, we also saw lots of houseboats where people can spend the night and be catered for by a crew including driver, cook and waiter. This seemed very nice as apparently, they fish for you in the canals and cook the fish for you and the houseboats look extremely comfortable. However, we did not do that stuff as it was very expensive and also because it was very expensive.

After Alleppey, we headed to the hills in Central Kerala, to Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. We went on a trek in the natural park, hoping to be able to spot some wildlife. The trek was very good with an overnight stay in the park, in tents and hikes during the day with guides and an armed forest guard. This also included some bamboo rafting on an artificial lake, and my first encounter with leeches, which are simply a pain in the ass and will try to stick on your shoes to climb your leg and suck some of your blood anytime you walk in a wet area (which happened quite bit during the trek...). We also where lucky enough to spot some wildlife including wild elephants (they came very close to our camp during the night but could not get access to it due to a deep moat separating us form them), bysons, turtles, monkeys and wild boars. Obviously, the tigers were nowhere to be seem, but it seems they only appear once in a while (usually, guides tell you "three months ago" to keep your expectations low). This was nevertheless very good and I had a lot of fun with the guides and the other members of the group. Being in Kerala was also the occasion to see some Kathakali, a local and traditional form of theater, where actors have their faces fully painted and only communicated by moving their eyeballs (this part was actually quite gruesome), dancing and making signs with their hands. This was a cool thing to see, even though I did not fully understand the story that was depicted (some sort of mythological story with demons and gods). Finally, I had an Ayurveda massage one of the evenings I spent there. This is a full body massage where they use all sorts of essential oils that are meant to clean your body and make you feel better. Now, I did not realize that full body massage actually meant full body and I almost fell from the table when my masseur (an Indian dude...) offered me a happy ending!

After Periyar, we decided to go the Munnar, a quiet town in the middle of the hills, surrounded by tea fields. You can get some very scenic views just by walking a few minutes out of town. We also went on a bus tour of the region, and whilst it was nice to be able to see the local sights within a day, it was bit rushed up and finally not what we expected. After a short stop in Ooty, another hill station, which allowed us to take a toy train up hill for a 4 hours ride that allowed us to see fantastic landscapes, we decided to head for better climates (the evenings in the hills get really cold and there is nothing much to do outside). New destination: Hampi, in Karnataka, but this is for a future post.

Take care,

Matt

And now, some pics:

View of the backwaters

On a canoe, in the small canals, near Kollam

Yeah, I had to survive for a while in the canals and drink and eat some coconut...

The houseboats in Alleppey

I know, this is just another sunset

The canals in Alleppey

The lake in Periyar

It tried to escape, but we finally caught it after running for a few hours

Bysons: you do not want to get to close, in case they decide to run towards you...

These guys are pretty awesome as well

Tamil Nadu - Temples, temples and temples again...

2011-11-07T09:03:00.000-08:00

After my trip through Rajasthan, I thought I was templed out and decided that I would probably not spend any more time visiting temples during this trip... It was before I went to Tamil Nadu and visited three of the most amazing Hindu places in India.

It was difficult to leave Pondicherry because of the horrific weather conditions, but I finally managed to get a bit of sun to get to the bus stand and jump on a bus to Trichy. After about 10 hours of a trip including the bus breaking down (definitely not easy to travel in India!) and changing buses on the side of the highway with cars driving on the wrong side of the road (they do it on normal roads, so why not on the highway!), I got to the town. Trichy has the second biggest temple site in the world after Angkor in Cambodia and I have to say it is rather amazing with a 136 acres site mixing temple gates and usual Indian city bazaar, passing seven massive gates carved with hundreds of colorful god statues and finally getting to the main temple. I did not take pictures of it as the layout and the site of the site made it extremely difficult to get a good idea of how it looked like...

After less than 24 hours in Trichy, I headed to Tanjore, to see another huge temple: the Breehadishwara temple, which is a Unesco world heritage site and included a 63 meters high tower. Again, the carvings were among the most impressive I have seen and the ochre color of the stone made it amazing.

The next day, I finally traveled to Madurai, which also has a Unesco world heritage site: the Meenakshi temple. This one is probably the most amazing building I have seen in India after the Taj Mahal: a marvelous colorful temple with 50-meter high gates, all covered with thousands of statues representing the Hindu gods. This is also one of the only sites that the Indian seem to be taking care of as they repaint the temple every twelve years. Last time they did it was in 2009, which means that everything looked brand new. I hired a guide for a 2-hour tour of the site and I learnt a lot regarding Hindu religion and the various gods, as well as the way people worship them.

This done, I decided to try to go under clearer skies and headed to Kerala to get a bit of backwaters and natural parks. But I will talk about this later on.

Take care,

Matt

Now, the pictures:

The gate to the Brihadishwara Temple in Tanjore

Brihadishwara Temple in Tanjore

The main tower of the temple

These types of carvings are covering the whole temple

The gate to the Sri Minakshi Temple in Madurai

There are literally thousands of statues carved and painted on the temple

The ceilings are also amazing

A famous type of Hindu painting, with an optical illusion

View on most of the massive temple complex in Madurai

I did not know where to look as there was something interesting everywhere

I knew I was the Anaconda, but this guy is my hero: 6 elephants to hold his penis!!

The tatues are also very detailed: see the veins on this musician's hand

Pondicherry - French Connection?

2011-10-31T06:31:00.000-07:00

My dear English speaking readers, since this post is about Pondicherry, the former French India colony, I am going to write this post in French (Google translate should help to have a feel of what I am talking about). My French speaking readers, enjoy this one, this will be the only one in my mother tongue…

Je vous ai laisses la dernière fois alors que j’arrivais a Pondicherry, fleuron de l’empire colonial français en Inde (ou bastion, sachant que le reste du pays était occupé par les anglais, les portugais, les néerlandais, les danois, …). Apparemment, la France ne ‘est jamais vraiment intéressée a l’Inde, préférant piller les ressources naturelles de l’Afrique et de l’Asie du Sud-Est.

Donc, je suis arrivé à Pondicherry (Pondy pour les intimes) sous la pluie et cela a été a peu près l’histoire de mon séjour pendant les deux premiers jours que j’ai passes sur place. Le Tamil Nadu est en effet en pleine période de mousson (bravo Matthias pour le timing…) et j’ai pu voir ce que c’était : en gros, il pleut de manière extrêmement abondante pendant 12 heures d’affilée, a tel point que je n’ai pas pu sortir de mon hôtel – avec environ 30 cm d’eau dans les rues, ca ne rend pas les promenades très agréables malgré mon K-way et mon pantalon imperméable (les deux meilleurs achats que j’aie fait avant de partir…). Du coup, il est vrai que je me suis emmerde royalement pendant deux jours, profitant de courtes accalmies pour aller manger ou consulter mes emails. Heureusement, le temps du troisième jour s’est avéré bien meilleur, et j’ai pu profiter des lieux.

Pondy, c’est tout d’abord deux villes en une : la partie française, a l’Est et au bord de la mer, et la partie indienne, a l’Ouest, séparées par un canal (ou plutôt un égout ouvert… et qui déborde lorsqu’il pleut trop !). La partie française a effectivement garde des aspects très… français : noms de rues, panneaux, nombreux restaurants a noms et menus francisants, institut, consulat et lycée français, boutiques et touristes français Bobo/ 68ars sur le retour et une architecture coloniale que l’on retrouve dans les DOM TOM. Le front de mer est borde d’une promenade assez sympa, bien que très bétonnées, et surtout sans plage. En effet, s’il y a bien une mince bande de sable marron, elle est séparée de la mer par des récifs, ce qui rend la baignade très dangereuse (d’un autre cote, il ne manquerait plus que des colonies de français se faisant rôtir sur la plage…). Vous l’aurez compris, Pondy est un peu trop française pour moi, du moins pour tout ce que je n’aime pas de la France… et en plus, tout est extrêmement cher !

La partie indienne n’a, elle, rien de particulier : une ville indienne comme une autre : sale, polluée, bruyante, bref, rien de bien intéressant. Bon, je l’admets, le temps plus qu’exécrable a surement flouté mon jugement. J’ai quand même vu quelques choses assez intéressantes. D’abord, les églises : Tamil Nadu a effet une forte population catholique. Les missionnaires français ont bien fait leur boulot et ont même réussi à faire construire des églises énormes et pour le moins colorées… Je ne sais pas s’ils étaient un peu mégalomanes, s’ils voulaient être surs de faire passer le message de la beauté de la chrétienté, ou s’ils ont simplement réalisé qu’en faisant les choses « a l’indienne », ils auraient plus de succès, mais le résultat est assez drôle, avec des églises peintes de toutes les couleurs et décorées des mêmes lumières que nous mettons dans les rues pour Noel !

Le troisieme jour, le temps m’a permis de louer un scooter pour aller explorer les alentours. J’ai donc pu me rendre sur une jolie plage proche, à cote d’un village de pécheurs, et ou les pécheurs en question réparaient leurs filets près de leurs barques peintes de toutes les couleurs : plutôt sympa. J’ai aussi pu aller visiter une communauté spirituelle fondée dans les années 60 appelée Auroville. Cette communauté s’appuie sur les préceptes d’un penseur (gourou ?) indien appelé Sri Aurobindo, et d’une française qui a pris sa suite après sa mort : la Mère (elle-même décédée dans les années 70). 1800 personnes vivent à l’année à Auroville et participent à des projets censés aider la communauté. En gros, c’est un peu une secte (mais ils disent bien qu’ils n’ont pas de religion) qui essaie de faire de l’argent en s’appuyant sur un artisanat new age et veut véhiculer un message de paix et d’amour. Le clou du spectacle est quand même le monument qu’ils appellent le Matrimandir (sans doute en rapport avec la Mère…) : une énorme balle de golf dorée censée représenter le centre de l’univers et qui contient le plus gros crystal taillé du monde. L’endroit est censée très propice a la méditation, le seul problème est que pour y entrer, il faut faire partie de la communauté depuis 2 ans. Il leur a quand même fallu plus de 35 ans pour finir ce « splendide » monument. Une remarque : construire un temple en forme de boule a facette géante paraissait surement une bonne idée pour des mecs (architectes ?) charges au LSD dans les années 70, mais en 2011, un jeudi après-midi et à jeun, ca ne le fait vraiment pas… Enfin, si ca rend des gens heureux ! En tout cas, je m’attendais presque à voir le gourou Skipy sortir du Matrimandir et vendre des médailles protectrices pour €200… En tout cas, ca m’a bien fait rire !

Ceci conclut mon post en français. J’espère que ca vous a plu. Prochaine étape : poursuite de la visite du Tamil Nadu, avec les villes de Trichy, Tanjore et Madurai, abritant des temples, parait-il, incroyables.

A bientôt,

Matt

Et maintenant, les photos (si certaines sont sombres, c'est parce que c'etait le seul moment de la journee ou j'ai pu sortir...):

Les noms de rues du quartier francais: oui, ils ont voulu avoir la French Touch

Le rue de mon hotel

Le front de mer: remarquez la presence des acteurs d'Alerte a Malibu (a gauche, avec les shorts rouges...)

Une eglise toute rose...

La statue au milieu des lumieres de fete foraine est bien celle de la Vierge Marie...

Les egouts a ciel ouvert. Pas sur de qui a eu l'idee: les francais ou les indiens...

La plage avec les barques de pecheurs

Une autre barque

J'ai presque hesite a passer la nuit dans cette paillotte... mais pas sur que ca aurait ete au sec...

La balle de golf parait un peu grosse pour entrer dans le trou (drapeau devant...) - Le Matrimandir

Oui, a Auroville, ils ont meme ose appeler le parc "Jardin d'Eden" - craquage...

Kolkata, Chennai

2011-10-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

Since I have not much to say about these two cities, I will start with some information about the food I have been eating so far (this is dedicated to Seb, who has been asking for this for a while). First of all, I do not really make any difference between what Indians eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It all looks (and tastes) the same: yellow (and sometimes a bit of green). Most of the food is either pan-fried, dip fried or floating in some oily sauce. That said, food is not bad here. Initially, I was being very conservative with food, sticking to the veggie stuff as I was worried about the hygiene standards with regards to meat. In addition, the few meat dishes that I got in restaurants (mainly trying to get my usual chicken tikka or lamb biriyani curries) were not great: the meat was mainly the bad part of the chicken or “mutton” (actually it is goat…) and I would end up having more bones to suck than actual meat.

The basis of Indian food is called thali. It is a plate with various small dishes, giving a good sample of local cuisine: some steamed rice, usually some dal (a soup of lentils, more or less thick depending on where you are in India), usually some paneer (local cheese) with a spinach or tomato sauce, some potatoes masala (masala meaning a mix of spices and being used almost for anything), and some chapatti (sort of pita bread). Some regions, such as Bengal, serve slightly different types of thalis (with a bit of meat or fish), but this is mainly what you find in them. In Darjeeling, being close to Nepal and Tibet, they also serve beef (yes, cows are sacred animals everywhere else and Indians do not eat them) and make all sorts of dumplings and noodles close to what you would find in a Chinese restaurant. In Kolkata, I also had a massive prawn with spicy sauce: it was so massive that it could probably speak lobster (I owe this joke to Lonely Planet). All this is often eaten with your hands (at least in normal Indian food places). The main drink here is tea. In Darjeeling, they drink black tea (to keep the actual flavour of tea), but in the rest of India, it is masala chai (a tea directly brewed in milk and water, and drank with a lot (a lot!) of sugar). As for the deserts, I am simply not a big fan of Indian sweets: they usually are too sweet and not to my taste, so I will simply not describe what these are. The only sweet I actually like is lassi: a kind of curd mixed with ice and fruits (banana, lemon…).

Obviously, due to the large number of western tourists coming to India, most places have adapted and serve various types of western food: veggie pizzas, pastas, sandwiches and burgers. Breakfasts are also westernised and it is easy to find pancakes, toasts and omelettes. I also had a McDonald's back in Varanasi. Interestingly enough, whilst there were no beef bugers (surprising...), the McMaharaja burger tasted exactly like a BigMac... despite the fact that it was chicken! I suppose you don't go McD's for the taste of the meat... Finally, with regards to booze, most places do not have the licence to serve beer or liquor. However, as for everything in India, the rules are not really followed and most places do serve beer (the local Kingfisher, at 4% or 8%).

All in all, I manage to find some good food and I have not been sick so far, but would be ready to pay a lot of money for a good baguette with Camembert and red wine (or a good hamburger with bacon and cheese, or a steak with fries, or… hum). I will probably be riced up by the end of this trip as well…

Done with the food, let’s talk about the latest places I have been to. I left Darjeeling and flew directly (well, after a 3-hour downhill ride in jeep to the airport…) to Kolkata (formerly Calcutta, but it seems India wanted to get rid of some of the English empire legacy by changing the names of the cities). Kolkata is what I expected Delhi to be. It is the former capital of the British Indian Empire and it certainly shows the remains of a former colonial city (old colonial buildings, wide avenues, large park…). As everything in India, it could be much better and more beautiful if they took care of their legacy, but as everything in India, people do not really seem to care… Anyway, some of the buildings would not be out of place in London or in the U.S. Finally, Kolkata has one of the most beautiful buildings in India: the Victoria Memorial (dedicated to queen Victoria of England, which is ironic!). This old colonial architecture contrasts with a lot of modern buildings everywhere throughout the city, and in particular the massive luxury shopping malls which would give Westfield a run for its money. Having been to one of these malls, it was funny to notice that the shop salespeople behaved the same way in a Levi’s or Samsonite store as they do in a street bazaar: they follow you everywhere in the shop and start pulling everything they have out to desperately try to sell you something!

My guest house was not in the backpackers’ area. I could not be asked to spend another night in one of those shit holes full of bedbugs so I opted for a place in a middle class Indian area. Not many tourists there, but still a lot of contrast with poor people and kids sleeping in the street next to the houses of (relatively) well-off ones.

After Kolkata, I decided to take another shortcut and fly to Chennai, in Tamil Nadu. Chennai is another of these former colonial places which have changed of name: it used to be called Madras. Nothing much else to say about that place. I stayed there less than 24 hours as it was not a very interesting place: only a typical big Indian city, except this time, there was not much sightseeing to be done. I took a bus heading South for what I thought would be Mamallapuram: in my book, when the sign on the bus says “Pondy via Mamallapuram”, it means that it goes to Pondy (Puducherry or formerly Pondicherry) but stops in Mamallapuram on the way. Well, in India, it just means that it goes through that place without stopping!And my next question is: who gives a shit, then?

Therefore, I ended up going straight to Pondy (which was on my list, fortunately enough!). I’ll see Mamallapuram another time… I will tell you about the French-Indian colonial empire capital’s splendours next time.

In the meantime, take care.

Matt

Some pictures:

Yellow cabs? Is this NY? No, this is Kolkata

Kolkata street view

Another example of the remains of the colonial architecture

This building seemed to be totally abandoned, which is a shame...

The Victoria Memorial

You cannot see it from here, but the statue of Queen Victoria is covered with bird shit... I suppose the Indians do not like cleaning this symbol of a monarchy they struggled against...

This is it (each time I see one of these golden statues, I cannot help but think of MJ ;-))

The BIG Trek in the Himalaya

2011-10-18T22:31:00.000-07:00

Before telling you the story of how I survived to one of the greatest adventures of mankind, I have an anecdote to tell. So far, I have dodged the French people I came across (except the girls, of course...) because: 1) I am not coming to India to be with a bunch a French people; 2) they tend to move in pack; 3) they tend to be impolite when foreign people are around and still speak French; 4) they are really loud (all this could also apply to the Israelis... this one is for UZ ;-)). Anyway, when you are a lone traveler, you sometimes have no choice (beggars can't be choosers...) and tend to jump on anyone that's around in bars and restaurants (which you would probably not do in Europe) if you don't want to end up being by yourself all the time. Last night I was in that bar in Darjeeling having a beer when I heard these two girls speak in French. I walk to their table and ask politely if they mind if I join them. They both gauge me with a bored look before telling me to fuck off, which never happened to me so far. Now, I can understand if they did not want to be annoyed by my conversation, but they could have been a bit nicer and I would have understood. Well, I suppose this their loss. I ended up spending the evening with a group of American women, one of whom was a roller derby player, which I found pretty cool! In any case, I am definitely continuing to enforce my "no French" policy until further notice...

Now, place to the action: I was picked up at 8.00am, along with two German girls (Kathryn and Steffi) and our guide (Robin), for a 1h30 jeep ride to Manay Bhanjang, I started the trek with 2 km of uphill walk which proved to be rather exhausting, and it is all sweaty that I arrived to the first tea shop of the day. The rest of the day was much easier, except that we were walking in the middle of the clouds, which resulted in either a thick mist making us unable to see more than 10 meters in front of us, or rain making the walk a bit more difficult and annoying. Fortunately enough, I had brought with me my music festival attire, my waterproof trousers and jacket (I knew they would prove useful at some point!), and I was not too wet when we arrived at the lodge we would spend the night in. Along the way, we met a Canadian couple (Sumit and Sarah) and their guide and they pretty much trekked with us for the four days. The lodges we stayed at every night were all comfortable and the food delicious (and most welcome...). The first evening, I heard of a locally brewed "beer" and could not help but ordering one. It was actually millet beer, a sort of 25% alcohol liquor made of fermented millet grains. Not very good but it had to be tested...

The second day was another misty day, with over 20 km of uphill walk, and I started wondering if I would ever see those mountains. We reached our lodge in the evening at the highest point of the trek, Sandakphu at 3,636 meters, where you start feeling the lack of oxygen and the cold. However, all those efforts were not in vain as we woke up early the next morning to see clear skies and sunrise over the Kanchenjunga an the Everest (which I did not realize was that close...). I must say it is amazing. Then the last two days were some downhill walk (actually a much harder effort than going uphill) with a sunny weather and some pretty scenic views. All in all, I really enjoyed that trek and will definitely go for another one (probably a harder one as well as this one was very easy... even though I was knackered by the end of it!).

Tomorrow, I am flying to Kolkata, and will stay there for a couple of days before flying (I can't be asked to train and bus again for long journeys) South to Chennai, Tamil Nadu. This should be very different from what I have seen so far and above all, I am going to be next to the sea.

Take care,

Matt

The usual pics:

The Ingalls family lives in Himalaya now

The millet beer: I loved the glass and the bamboo straw...

We crossed the Nepal border and even spent a night there

A stupa: they contain Buddhist relics and you are supposed to walk on their left. There were many along the road

Mt. Kanchenjunga

Mt. Everest: this is the third one from the right. I promise, next time I get on top!

The King of Himalaya (between his guide and Mt. Everest)

I was half expecting this bridge to break when I was halfway and to have to run to the other side like in Indiana Jones, but that did not happen...

There were waterfalls on the way down

Me before my morning shower

Darjeeling

2011-10-12T23:57:00.000-07:00

In my last days in Varanasi, I made two interesting encounters. First, I met this German guy who really wanted to go and bathe in the Ganges. He was the type of guy totally embracing the local culture, dressing with large pants and locally made colorful shirt, wearing the red pigment dot on the forehead and willing to go for any aspect of the Varanasi "experience". He thought that nothing bad could really happen by bathing in the river (well...). The next day, I saw him again and he was so happy because he had done it! He said he tried to swim and completely went under water, until he was hit by pieces of shit carried by the stream. He also said he could not eat for the rest of the day and took four showers to try to get rid of the smell. Other than that, he seemed fine. I am not sure on what account I need to put that: courage? craziness? being German ;-)?, but I must say I bow to the guy as I would have never been able to do what he did.

Second interesting person I met was Surendar, an Indian guy from Tamil Nadu (South India), filming a documentary about Hindu holy places. On top of being a very cool guy with whom I spent a few evenings chatting and getting drunk, the mot interesting part of his story is that despite being Indian, people from Tamil Nadu do not really speak Hindi (their official language is Tamil and is completely different). As a result, in Northern India, he was being treated as a foreigner and even a tourist, being ripped off on any opportunity. I did not realize the extent of the cultural differences across India, but I suppose it makes sense on such a big country.

My exit out of Varanasi was as difficult as my way in had been: first, my train to Darjeeling was delayed by 15 hours, which meant that I had to spend another night in town. When I got back to the train station, the delay had changed to more than 20 hours. Therefore, I waited another seven hours in the train station before finally leaving. When I finally arrived in New Jailpaguri (the nearest major train station to Darjeeling), it was with a delay of 24 hours from what I had initially scheduled. My journey continued with another 3 hours jeep ride on mountain roads that need serious refurbishment and with tires that should have been changed years ago by the look of their surface... It is with happiness that I found a clean and well maintained guest house to spend the next few days.

Darjeeling is referred to as the "Queen of the Hills". Well, geography experts might disagree, but in my book, when the "Hills" are over 2,100 m high, we call them mountains. The town is located at the foot of the Himalaya and when the sky is clear, you can see the Mt. Kanchenjunga (third highest mountain on Earth after the Everest and K2) overlooking the landscape. The place is nothing like what I have seen so far in India: it is much cleaner and quieter, there are no touts, very few beggars, no underfed mongrels fighting at every corner, no cows (and their shits laying everywhere) and no rickshaws honking every second and clogging the traffic. This is a nice parenthesis from the rest of the country (and a much needed one!). Darjeeling is famous for its tea, and you can see some tea fields all over the hills on the way up. The town is linked to the valley by a "toy train": an old steam-powered train that is still working, but takes eight hours to make the journey (instead of three ours by jeep). I only took it for a short ride to the next town, and could take some nice pictures of it in action. They also have a zoo with lots of the local animals (tigers, snow leopards, black leopards and Himalayan bears) and a mountaineering institute where they train people for the climb of the highest mountains of the nearby Himalaya. A very interesting exhibition shows there the history of the various attempts to climb the Everest. Lots of people here are from Nepalese descent (they are called the Gurkhas and militate strongly for some sort of independence) and there is also a large Tibetan refugee community living in the area. In addition, the dominating religion here is Buddhism, with lots of pagodas and gompas (temples) to visit.

The long travel with that unbearable AC (damn, I really hate this stuff and the man that invented it should be hung with his own bowels...), the lack of sleep and decent food and most of all, the altitude took their toll on me and I was a bit sick for the first few days I spent here. Nothing major though and I am now back on track for new adventures. I am leaving tomorrow on a four-day trek in the region, to try to see this Mt. Kanchenjunga a bit better, as the sky is overcast here and does not allow good views these days. Now, those of you who have known me for a while know that this is not something I would do normally. Well, there not much I would have normally done since the beginning of this trip... and don't worry, this is an easy one (I know I cannot erase years of not doing much exercise and spending too much time boozing in that little time!).

Take care,

Matt

The Queen of the Hills

You can see the Kanchenjunga in between the clouds, in the middle of the picture... my camera is probably not made or that type of picture

Those monkeys are everywhere... and they can be nasty: one tried to attack me in Varanasi

Someone does not seem to trust his vehicle...or the roads!

I probably won't get any closer than this in the nature when I go and try to spot them... 220 kg of muscle, teeth and claws!

A big pagoda

Some young monks playing marbles in a monastery

Old ladies turning the bells in the pagoda

Another young monk, before going to class

The Toy Train from the back, still working with the old machinery

The Toy Train in action

Varanasi

2011-10-06T04:16:00.000-07:00

As Isaac (a Spanish guy I met in Pushkar) said, India is like Liverpool because “You’ll never walk alone”. This is very true as there is always some Indian to come and talk to you whenever you walk in the streets, alleyways and other sights of Indian cities. They often try to sell you something or to make you part with some of your money in one way or another, but they also really like to come and talk to Westerners and us which country we are coming from, how many girlfriends (they all seem to have many European “girlfriends”…) we have and tell us the few words they know in our respective languages. This can be exhausting at times, but I suppose it is also part of what makes Indian people so friendly.

My bus journey from Pushkar to Varanasi was what we can call epic. After being taken from one bus stand to the other and spending a couple of hours trying to find which bus was the one I had booked my seat in (this is always a challenge in India and you have to ask a dozen people who enigmatically bob their head sideways before you actually find where it is), me and my travel mates ended up in a bus towards Agra for what was meant to be a 12 hours overnight journey. This was before something unreal happened: two hours into the trip (at around midnight), as we were cruising through some small town, I heard a huge noise and the bus bumped for a few seconds before stopping completely. Everyone came off to see what had happened: the right hand side rear wheel had come off of its gear and the bus had collapsed on it… We were lucky this did not happen in a mountain road, or this would have been bad news for all the passengers. Then, rather than having another bus come and pick everyone up to finish the journey, the driver decided to repair the bus! A process that took five hours… When we were finally able to move again, we rode for another hour before stopping on a parking lot and changing buses to continue our journey, but making a long hook through Jaipur to reach Agra. We stopped in Agra for a couple of hours, enough time to have a quick shower and dinner, before heading to another bus stand and trying to pursue our journey to Varanasi. We climbed in one of the buses heading in the correct direction (one of the small, local buses, where you are packed up with too many people, where the temperature is over 40 degrees and where you don’t know where to put your legs), before realising five minutes after the bus had left the stand that it was the wrong bus and that we needed to stop and go back very quickly to the stand if we wanted to have a chance to catch the correct one… We ended up making it on time to a big AC bus, which made the 16 remaining hours to Varanasi a lot more comfortable. This was not the end of the adventure though. It took us another couple of hours to find a place to stay as the rickshaw driver that drove us from the bus stand tried to take us to half a dozen guest houses where he could get commissions, before dropping us in the middle of the old city and letting find a place by ourselves. Altogether, this was a 48 hours journey when it should have taken us half that amount of time… but it was a priceless experience!

Varanasi (a.k.a. Benares) is one of these very intense big Indian cities, buzzing with traffic 24/7. The fact that we arrived at the end of a 9-day festival did not help making it quieter as many people came from all across India to celebrate. The city is also the holiest city in the Hindu world: it is built on the shore of the Ganges and many Hindu come here to bath and drink water in the holy river to wash their sins away. This is something that would seem impossible for the vast majority of Westerners since the Ganges is polluted to the extreme: it is meant to contain more thousands of times more faecal bacteria per unit than what is actually safe for a person to bathe in, not to mention drinking it… You can see dead animals (dogs, cows…) and corpses (I did not see any, but some people I met did) floating and the colour of the water is of that greenish brown that can be seen in the toilets after a bad case of diarrhea…

Varanasi is also the place where lots of Hindu people come to die and be cremated on concrete platforms called Ghats, next to the river. When you visit those burning Ghats, you can get a grasp of how Hindu people deal with death. Lots of old people are waiting there for death to come. When this happens, they are wrapped up in colourful fabrics and flowers and carried around the city’s alleyways on bamboo stretches, to finally be taken to the river for one last cleaning. Finally, they are put on massive wooden pyres to be cremated: a process that lasts more than 3 hours. We visited the Ghats, which are ran 24/7 and where between 150 and 200 bodies are burnt every day. We could see corpses in the middle of the pyres, which was both an impressive and emotional sight.

On a lighter note, we went to see a Bollywood movie at a local cinema. It was one of the most enjoyable times I had in a cinema. The film was a B action movie named “Force”, full of clichés and stereotypes (drug cartels led from Afghanistan and supplying the Western tourists in Goa, main character being the local Sylvester Stallone and showing his biceps every five seconds…) and, of course, packed with action (probably one person dying or being beaten the crap out of every 2 minutes). Love scenes are also replaced by dance scenes. Even though we did not understand the dialogues (they are phasing in English words and sentences in order to expand to foreign countries in the future, but most of the film is in Hindi), it was very easy to understand what happened. The Indians that were there kept on answering their phone during the movie, putting it on speaker in order to be able to hear it and that did not seem to bother anyone. They also kept on cheering and screaming when a good scene happened (they particularly seemed to like the slow motion scene of the main character walking towards the bad guy for his last fight…). Finally, everyone left before the end of the film, as soon as the bad guy was killed, not waiting for the conclusion and the end credits. I had a great time and definitely want to see another one before I leave India. There is a big production called Ra-One that is coming up. I have been told it is science fiction movie with the biggest Indian movie star and it should be mental!

As I mentioned before, the past couple of days have been the end of nine days of celebration in Varanasi. This meant that every night, the streets of the city were lighted as much as we do for Christmas in Europe, and various places were transformed in shrines, where colourful statues were displayed and worshiped by Hindu people. This is also the pretext for big parties throughout the city, with Hindi techno music booming all over the place (it is a mix between fast beat techno music and traditional Indian music which is quite cool). We all went to a fun fair that was there and went into a few rides which, had they been in Europe, would have felt very boring (the type of stuff you do when you are under 10 years old and find mildly scary at that age…), but were actually quite thrilling here as the rides are all kind of rusty, there are no security rules and fell like they could break down any second, making thousands of casualties. Needless to say we had a great time!

Finally, I had an initiation to Yoga. I must say that I always thought that Yoga was not for me and that I could never cope with it, but I actually loved it… or at least the sort of satisfaction I felt after doing it the first time for an hour. I just did it as my friends were going for it and was very sceptical about it, but realised I was more flexible than I thought I was (but I am still starting from a very low point). I suppose I felt good because of the hyperventilation stage that you get to as you breathe deeply for a long time, but I still enjoyed it and have been attending a morning class in the last three days. I might even try to continue doing it from time to time whilst I am here (until I get bored of it), as if there is a place in the world to do Yoga, it is probably India.

It is now time for me to move on. In about 24 hours, I am going to part ways with my travel mates of the last couple of weeks. We are all heading North for some Himalayan flavour, but in different places (Darjeeling for me, Nepal and the North West of India for the others). This country is so intense that in a short amount of time, you get to a level of friendship that you would not reach that fast in a normal context, and suddenly, you have to part ways and might never see one another ever again (a bit like when you are in summer camp when you are a kid, as my friend Polly said). I am sure I will meet other cool people though, and that makes it exciting.

Matt

Few pictures, as usual:

Picture of the bus after it broke down (look at the rear wheel)

View of the Ghats in Varanasi (it is forbidden to take pictures of the pyres)

People bathing in the Ganges

Sunrise on the Ganges

Street of Varanasi during the festival

Jaisalmer, Pushkar (Part. II)

2011-10-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

I ended up in Jaisalmer, a city in the desert, with another big fort and my travel mates and I decided to stay in a guest house that has a swimming pool, which seemed quite nice in the first place, except that the pool was not up to Western standards in terms of cleanliness. Jaisalmer resulted nevertheless in being a good place and we ended up going to a two days came safari in the desert, including a night of sleep in the dunes. One of the organisers was such a good salesman that he managed to convince us to sign up for what would an “off the beaten tracks” experience. The desert resulted in being nothing like we imagined it (it seems like it’s a recurring theme in India…) as it was not a sandy desert like the Sahara, but more of a huge empty area, covered by hundreds of wind farms and with a lot trees and bushes. The two days still ended up being great as we were a good group of 10 people and the camel riders showed a very good time. Camel riding is a very painful activity though, as the way they move results in a constant imbalance of the rider…

The night in the Desert was just amazing. We stopped at one of the only sandy areas with few dunes, camped by a fire, and slept under the stars, with the clearest sky I have seen in my life. You could see the Milky Way and lots of shooting stars. I did not sleep much but this was a cool night.

Due to this exhausting experience, Dara, Polly and I needed some rest and decided to go to Pushkar (that chilled out town with a lake I had visited a couple of weeks ago). We rented some bikes and scooter to go and see the country side and I have to say that it is a different experience of India to be able to go around by yourself. I am now heading towards Varanasi, where I should meet again with an English guy named Mark that we’ve met in Jaisalmer.

To be continued…

The Son of the Desert (in the middle...)

Some funny dude in Jaisalmer

You gotta love camels...

The Dunes (picture taken from the correct angle in order to leave the green part out of the frame...)

Udaipur and Jodhpur

2011-09-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

It seems that here, everything happens for a reason and everything falls into place nicely despite the complete chaos. I think i am finally starting to get out of my European mindset of having everything organised. First, I was booking everything way in advance: guest houses, buses, trains... Now, I start to let things go and let a bit more place to improvisation. It is actually nice sometimes...

My train ride from Pushkar to Udaipur was OK. t just seems that I can never seat where I am meant to. Everyone starts moving around the carriage when the train stops, swapping seats, getting out to buy some food or drinks, and also people getting in just to sell stuff. It results in each stop lasting for more than 20 minutes. It really feels like the trains are waiting for everyone to be ready to go, rather than the opposite... I also always end up changing seats as, most of the time, they do not want women to seat next to me. I did not realise how protective Indians can be with women.

Udaipur was meant to be the most romantic city in India. It probably is, if you go there as a couple and stay in one of the nice hotels on the lake (one of them is a palace on an island and looks pretty cool from the shore). But being by myself, I only found it quite nice, with the usual palace, tomb of some Maharaja and temples to visit. I was there for a bit more than 24 hours and took a public bus heading to Jodhpur. The bus ride was 6h30 long journey with epic moments as the roads are in bad shape and the driver overtakes any car, truck and cows (!) anywhere, resulting in the bus spending half of the time on the wrong side of the road. I spent a good chunk of the journey next to a french lady of about 60. She was backpacking through India by herself and did not really speak English. She seemed to be a trooper though, telling all sorts of stories and having done this four months a year for the last four years. She was an inspiring person as she proved that you can still do that type of stuff, even when you get older. After she left, the journey seemed like it would never end (even though the distances are not that long and the drivers are speeding on these roads with impressive reflexes) as I was seating with locals that were nice enough to try to talk to me, but did not really speak English, which soon both limited the conversation and became exhausting. I finally made it to Jodhpur.

Most houses in the old city are painted in blue (which i meant to keep insects away - not sure that works that well looking at the mosquito bites I got...) and there is a massive fortress dominating the whole city. You can certainly imagine how it was leaving there in the Middle Ages. My guest house was one of the blue houses and was owned by the always happy Mr Joshi. This guy was happy to bargain about everything (most Indians are, but I am still not very good at it). I met a bunch of other travellers with whom I could tag along and visit the city. I especially met and Irish dude named Dara, and an English girl named Polly, also travelling alone, and that were heading in the same direction as me. I ended up getting too drunk with the guy (crazy Irish!), which resulted in me missing my train the next morning as I simply did not wake up...

I finally went to Jaisalmer by bus with my two new friends, were we planned to go and ride camels in the desert for a couple of days. More on that later...

Cute kid in Jodhpur

View of Udaipur and the lake by night

Some wall painting in Udaipur

Seems like Banksy was in India (Holy CCTV Watching 24/24)

View of the fort in Jodhpur

The blue city

Agra, Jaipur and Pushkar

2011-09-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

Something I find quite funny here is how animals are hanging around freely in the streets of cities and towns. I had not noticed in Delhi, maybe because of the city being bigger. However, since getting into Agra, I can’t help but laughing when seeing cows, goats, pigs, dogs, donkeys and monkeys enjoying the noise and traffic and being integral part of the crowd strolling in the narrow roads and lanes. They are obviously the source of a lot of honking from drivers!

My first stop after Delhi was Agra, after two hours of train. Agra is the city of the mighty Taj Mahal. It is one of those touristy places you have to see whenever you visit a country, like Big Ben in London or la Tour Eiffel in Paris. The thing is that it costs an Indian citizen Rs20 (the equivalent of €0.30) to visit the Taj Mahal, whereas a foreigner has to pay Rs750 (about €12)… Anyway, it was totally worth it. This monument is unbelievable, as beautiful from afar as when you get closer, unravelling numerous carved details and encrusted gems unnoticeable from a distance. Needless to say I took too many pictures…

After 24 hours in Agra, I travelled to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. It was enjoyable to be in a very big city that felt a bit cleaner and more relax than Delhi. That place is a big shopping hub for local and regional craft and I had the opportunity to refine my bargaining skills (*sigh*). The usual local sightseeing done, it was time to move again, with a stop in Pushkar. Pushkar is a small town built on the shore of a holy lake, in the middle of green hills. Hindu pilgrims go there to bathe in the sacred waters and prey, sometimes overnight. I have had a great time in the three days I spent in that place. Everything was dedicated to relaxing. I found very quickly the bars where they didn’t mind serving booze (which was not that common considering the holiness of the place) and spent nights chilling there with other travellers. I could have stayed a bit longer, but I suppose lots of places are going to feel that way, and it was time to move on.

Below, few more pictures:

The Taj Mahal at sunset

New car prototype

A monkey: they are the cats of Indian cities

View of Pushkar, a relax city on a lake

My next stops will be Udaipur, another city on a lake, Jodhpur, the blue city, and Jaisalmer for a camel ride in the desert.

P.S.: One of the strangest things that happened to me: I got offered to spend 1 hour with a 12 year old ladyboy for Rs500... whilst just strolling in the Old City of Delhi. This is one of those things that make you feel very uncomfortable... especially when you refused and the pimp tries to force you into accepting...

To be continued…

Delhi

2011-09-12T04:28:00.000-07:00

It is with mixed feelings that I spent my first 24 hours in Delhi. After a flight that went smoothly, albeit without much sleep, I was welcomed at the airport by a taxi sent by my guest house to pick me up. The taxi trip was the first shock of the day: traffic is completely chaotic, with cars, buses, rickshaws, bikes and scooters going in every directions without following any road marks and signs... all this with rain pouring down and 30 cm of water on the road (Friday was a rainy day and when it rains here, it is not a small drizzle experienced in London or in Normandy).

My guest house is decent, but the area it is in - Paharganj, or the backpackers district - was a complete shock. This is worn out district, full of hustlers, scammers and bums trying to lure me into spending as much money as possible. This feeling is exacerbated around the train station and in Connaught place, the two spots where governmental travel and tourism offices can be found. People are generally nice but seem to think that I am a walking wallet. Nothing unexpected here, but they just make it extremely difficult for me to get to the places I need to visit for tourist information and bookings. I ended up in various travel shops (including 3 times in front of the same one...) supposed to be the "official" tourism office of India where they tried to sell packaged holidays I-don't-know-where. I guess I am still too nice for this country (and my face saying "where-the-f***-am-I?" probably did not help...), but this drained all my energy as the level of harassment is unbelievable. At least I did not get caught in a scam...

Finally, after wasting hours with various bums insisting to "help" me find my way, I managed to book my train tickets to Rajasthan. This done, this removed a weight from my shoulders and helped me enjoy a bit more of Delhi (that and the fact that I am starting to know where I am and where to go). The last two days have been good, with various visits of monuments and museums (nice when you want some good air conditioning and few hours of quiet...), a lot of catch up of sleep/adjustment to the jet lag, and the discovery of places where I can actually find some cheap food without taking the risk of getting the Delhi belly...

The weather is very hot and humid, comparable to that of Florida in the summer (for those of you that know it, and because it is the only data point I have...). People tell me it is going to get a bit "fresher" in the next few weeks, but I don't really mind as I am sweating so much my clothes are soaking wet after 20 minutes spent outside (I know, classy...).

Few pictures below of some of the most interesting sights the city has to offer:

Ganesh Festival (Elephant God)

India Gate (their Arc de Triomphe)

The Red Fort (former Emperor's residence)

Inside the Red Fort - Emperor's wife house

Jama Masjid (the big Mosque)

The chaos of Old Delhi

Traffic chaos

Next stops: Agra and its famous Taj Mahal, followed by Jaipur and two weeks of train between various cities of Rajasthan.

To be continued...

Before Departure

2011-09-12T02:56:00.000-07:00

12 kg - that is the weight of my backpack. I am now carrying my life on my back. It's funny how you can reduce the number of things you absolutely need to survive when you need to. I have been very cautious in choosing this backpack though: it is a "Biofit" bag, which means that it adapts perfectly to the shape of of my body to spread the weight efficiently and be as comfortable as possible. This might only be marketing and that bag may ruin my back, but one has to take the chance...

I believe that I have restricted myself to the bare minimum, but I have probably taken a bunch of useless stuffs and am certainly missing some essential things. Well, it will have to do, and I suppose I'll be better prepared next time.

All that to say that I am starting my travel blog. I will try to post pictures and comments about what will hopefully be a fantastic experience...