Mekong Boat Tour - Chau Doc

The Mekong boat tour was about the same as all the other boat tours I've been on so far: 20 people crammed on to a slow, puttering vessel observing the scenery, reading, etc. The first half (the Cambodian side) was pretty standard, then we stopped for lunch and immigration and a quick meal before getting on another boat on the Vietnam side. This boat had a really nice and friendly guide named San. Clint started chatting with her and by the end of the boat trip and arrival in Chau Doc San had invited us out for Karaoke later that night.

We checked into a great, clean, comfortable room that was included in our 'tour package' but otherwise $6/night...probably the best room I'd stayed in during my time in SE Asia up to that point, certainly for $6. We caught a rickshaw driver to take us to a local Pho noodle soup place, where for $1 each we got a big bowl of beef noodle soup(it would turn out to be one of the best I had in Vietnam) plus a Coke. Not too shabby.

After dinner we hooked up with San and a Danish couple also from the boat and we went to the house of two kids that San is tutoring in English and we all practiced English together. From there we headed to Karaoke. We got a private room with our own Karaoke system and San and her brother lead off with Vietnamese song. It took me a while to get up the nerve but I finally decided to give 'Benny and the Jets' a shot...what a mistake. I quickly realized that I knew little more than the chorus and totally butchered the rest, trying to rapidly speak them as they flashed on the screen. At least Clint got some good video of it and I still managed to score an 83! We spent a couple of hours at the karaoke and all really got into it by the end of the night. The Danish girl turned out to have a great voice and I was really surprised at how San and her brother knew the words to many American songs that I had never even heard of. I also noticed that the Vietnamese love the echo effect on the microphone.

The following day we concluded our 'tour' with a visit to a local 'cham minority village' where they weave and sell things, a swing by the local mosque, and a stop at a floating fish farm, and then it was back on the bus to head up to Saigon.

Photos: Chau Doc

Camera

After dinner and the New Years celebration we were walking back to our guest house along the main riverside street and chatting when all of a sudden I felt my camera being pulled from my shoulder. I turned around immediately and started running and yelling after the thief. First I followed him through traffic and to the other side of the street and almost as soon as we'd crossed he dashed back into the traffic and to the first side, again Clint and I followed with little to no look in either direction. Clint and I must have been gaining because suddenly I saw my camera case fly up and hit the ground in front of me and send my camera bouncing along the sidewalk. Luckily, everything was still there and aside from a few new dents and scratches the camera wasn't damaged. The experience certainly got the adrenaline pumping.

We spent the rest of the night cooling down and playing cards and the following morning caught the Mekong boat that we'd meant to take the day before.

Penom Penh Redux

Clint and I got back to Penom Penh and got a room at the 'Okay' guest house, spent the day seeing the inner-city sites, the palace and national museum, both of which were what you might expect. I ended up spending most of the museum time sitting on a bench in the garden observing museum goers and the lotus ponds. The palace was somewhat interesting, with lots of buddha statues that had been taken and buried in the forest during the Khmer Rouge, as well as a 'silver pagoda' whose floor consisted of 3000+ tiles made entirely of silver, each weighing ~1-2kgs.

We had planned to catch a boat down the Mekong River the following day but I woke with a start that morning, just 30mins before departure, with the realization that my Vietnam visa wasn't valid for another day. So instead we stayed another day in Penom Penh mostly lazing about, and had planned to spend all day that way but were convinced by an enterprising young rickshaw driver to go down to the Wat Penom to celebrate the Cambodian New Year. We had been aware that it was 'new year' weekend but had been surprised at how quiet things were, and had decided it was more of a family time.

From the driver's description it sounded like the only people that would be down at the wat were the small group of loners that didn't have any family in town that they could visit, so we were a bit surprised when we arrived and the park was packed with people, young, old and everyone in between. Similar to other Asian and Indian celebrations, for New Years the Cambodians throw baby powder and water on each other as part of the celebrations; needless to say it only took about 5 minutes for Clint and Ito get our first dousing of powder. Our rickshaw driver had come into the park with us to show us around and he quickly had us buy two bottles of powder to join in on the dispensing.

At first I was a bit skittish about getting powdered and doing any powdering but that soon wore off and before long we were both fairly well covered in powder and doing our fair bit of dispensing. Apparently this powdering has been a tradition for a long time but this year the government was trying to discourage it, we never found out why exactly. At one point a police officer came up with a sour look and snatched the bottle of powder out of my hand and threw it in the garbage; it was at this point that our driver decided to tell us that the powdering was 'not allowed' this year.

During our walking around Clint braved to try a friend cricket and I decided to give cockroach a shot, I have to say that it was better than the cricket, more crunchy but not as salty.

Photos: Penom Penh

Angkor Wat

The day after Clint's arrival we caught the 6hr bus up to Siem Reap to see the renowned Angkor Wat temples, spending most of the day in transit. The next day we were up at 4:30am to make it to main temple in time for sunrise, which was anticlimactic thanks to a few rain clouds but worth it none-the-less. As the sky lightened and the rain began to fall we ducked into the and spent a couple of hours wandering the corridors, exploring the various rooms, climbing stairs, and staying dry. Despite the large number of tourists the temple was so large that it was fairly easy to find secluded spots away from the masses.

At such an early hour we hadn't really thought about the possibility of rain and so were without rain jackets when the downpour started. It was a bit prohibitive to our site seeing at first but we were thankful for it later as it kept the heat of the day at bay. Of the 20 or so temples (a number I vaguely remember and could be making up) in the area we managed to squeeze in a good 5 or so. The temples were absolutely amazing with the standouts being the Bayon temple (my favorite), with over 100 giant heads carved into the temple and the 'Tomb Raider' temple (where the movie was filmed apparently)which has been largely been overrun with large trees growing from the walls. We had planned to spend sunrise to sunset temple viewing but by 2pm were fairly well exhausted and headed back into town.

Feeling tired and achy Clint suggested we get a massage, so we found a small place and each threw down $6 for an hour long massage. I have to say that after my massage in India I was a bit disappointed; the massage felt as if hundreds of crabs were clawing at me and all I could think was 'how can people think this is enjoyable? surely no one does'... of course afterward Clint's first words were of how amazingly good that massage felt.

Photos: Angkor Wat

Penom Penh

After heading back from the island to Penom Penh I rendezvoused with my buddy Clint. We hit the ground running and on the first day spent the afternoon sightseeing . First we drove to the 'killing fields', a morbid site but one that I admit I felt fairly desensitized to. At one point our guide showed us a tree where soldiers of the Khmer Rouge would smash babies head's to kill them; it's a strange experience going as a 'tourist' to a place where people were killed en masse, one gets caught between wondering if being there and being aware of what happened is of importance and that I 'should know' by seeing it or if it's commercializing and in so doing trivializing the tragedy.

From the killing fields we stopped at the Stung Treng aka S-21, an old school turned prison that was notorious during the genocide for torture and killings and from which a lot of people were transferred to the killing fields. Another depressing site, mostly of rooms containing old rusted beds where prisoners were held or photographs of what went on there. We tried watching a documentary about the site but heat and fatigue caught up with us, so we called it a day.

Photos: Penom Penh

Cambodian Coast - Bamboo Island

Before Clint showed up I decided I needed to rest up a bit for the flurry of tourist activity that he was going to want to do. To that end I decided to head straight out of Penom Penh the day after my arrival and down to the southern coast and ended up at the small coastal town of Sihounakville. I stayed in my $8 oceanside bungalow for two days but decided that even this wasn't relaxed enough for me and so I caught a boat to Bamboo Island, an hours ride away. Bamboo island turned out to be just what I needed; there are only two sets of 10 bungalows each, one on each side of the island...nice and remote/rustic but still with a great restaurant serving good food.

I was planning on doing nothing but resting in a hammock for a few days but my second day there I was surprised by Vered and Chris who I'd traveled through Laos with but had separated from a few days before when they headed up to Angkor Wat. Our time was pretty simple, for the next few days all we did was lay on the beach, snorkel (I finally got to test out my underwater camera case), chat, and eat. By the time I headed back to Penom Penh to pick up Clint from the airport I was energized and ready for tourism.

Photos: Bamboo Island

Latest books

I have managed to make my way through a few more books, but will confess I'm unmotivated to write any half-hearted reviews, but I will say that they were all entertaining and worth the read. Click the links for more details:

• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• The Quiet American by Graham Greene
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Pakse, the Four Thousand Islands, and in to Cambodia

After five days in Vang Vieng we decided to head south, skipping Vientienne (the capital) and heading straight down to Pakse, a 14+hr bus ride that included a 4hr breakdown in the middle of the night. Pakse wasn't much to speak of, besides hot. When we finally arrived it was boiling and we stopped at the first guest house we came to. Half of the group quickly decided to head out the next morning for the 'Four Thousand Islands' further south. Chris, Vered, and I decided to stick out one full day in Paske and spent the day exploring two nearby waterfalls that were amazing. No one else was there and we hiked and swam the day away.

The day after our waterfall adventure we followed the others down to the 'Four Thousand Islands' which are literally thousands of big and small islands near the Cambodian border in the widest part of the Mekong river. I had been planning to stay in the islands for for several days but the heat was stifling. The first day was spent swimming in the river, which felt like a warm bath, getting fried by the sun and laying in a hammock. Again, the others decided to quickly move on. Not to to be undone Chris and I decided to stay another full day and spent it cruising heavy, vintage bikes around the island and taking a boat ride out to a rock in the middle of the scorching heat in an attempt to catch a sight of the rare fresh water irrawady dolphins that inhabit that part of the Mekong. I can say that we caught glimpses of far off sprays of water but might have been looking at the Loch Ness monster. Despite the oppressive heat we made a full day of it, but early the next day hopped another 14hr bus into Cambodia. After three fun filled weeks of traveling together we split in Penom Penh; Chris heading up to see the magnificent Angkor Wat and I heading down to the coast to spend a few days at the beach before my buddy Clint arrives and he and I hit the Cambodia tourist circuit.

Photos: Pakse, Four Thousand Islands

Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is a fairly small town that resembles a slice of Bangkok's Khoa San Road that was just dropped in the middle of nowhere...things here seem to largely (entirely?) be driven by tourism (mostly drunken tubing down the river) and the eating and drinking that comes with it. The town/vilalge consists of about 2 main roads full of restaurants that play movies or reruns of friends constantly, a couple of internet cafes and tour operators, and of course guest houses...that's about the extent of it.

On our first day there we got a late start (a disadvantage of such a large group; at this point our group had grown to 8 people), but did get our tubes and hit the water close to 2pm, after a stop at a nearby organic farm for a tasty noon-time breakfast. It didn't take us long (about 200 meters) to find a spot along the bank with a huge rope swing, bar/restaurant, volley ball courts, and places to lounge. We stopped here and spent close to 2 hours enjoying all that was on offer.

The day had been a warm if slightly overcast one but soon after we started rolling again the sky quickly (within 10 mins) turned sinister (before and after). The wind picked up, blowing leaves and dust everywhere, and the next thing we knew we were caught in a freezing, heavy downpour. Thunder and lightening quickly made an appearance at which point we decided it might be worth getting out of the water. We scrambled up a small bank and began a long, cold walk along a small road towards what we hoped would be the main road. Out of nowhere came a tuk-tuk who offered to drive us all back for about $1 each, which we hurriedly agreed to. It was only once we had been driving for a few mins that we realized how far from the main road we really were (about 2km) and how fortuitous the tuk-tuk was. We also noticed that the tuk-tuk was leaking something and so had to pile out and push more than once along the way. We were glad to get back to warm showers.

We ended up spending five days in total in Vang Vieng mostly doing nothing. Our second to last day we had a spontaneous fish bbq, which generally being an organized person I admit I was skeptical of its success, but turned out great. We bought fresh fish and other food (including fake oreos) at a local market, found a small spot on the banks of the river, wrapped the fish in banana leaves, grilled and ate them with some homemade salsa and baguettes. We must have been quite an oddity as lots of locals and kids (one, two, three) came by to watch and offer help (a knife and mats to sit on) and we shared our food with them. What a great day.

Photos: Vang Vieng

Luang Prabong

The city of Luang Prabong had a great atmosphere and pace, with wide streets with lots of restaurants, cafes and shops and most things within walking distance, surprisingly even a bowling alley(!); it was not at all what I expected to find in the middle of Laos.

Chris and I made several friends on the second day's slow boat (who we would end up traveling with for about 10 days) and on our first day in Luang Prabong we all caught a tuk-tuk out to town to explore a series of nearby waterfalls; the color of the water reminded me a lot of the waters at the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia. We did some hiking around and rewarded our efforts with a dip in the brisk water and some fun on a rope-swing.

On the way back to town our tuk-tuk blew its front and back driver-side tires and our driver narrowly avoided rolling us over. Luckily because there were so many of us we were traveling in two tuk-tuks each with a spare...unluckily one of the spares was flat, so we ended up waiting an hour or so for a similar make tuk-tuk to come past with a spare they were willing to part with.

We spent half of day two walking the wide streets, enjoying the atmosphere and seeing some of the city's temples, at this point I was getting pretty templed out and so only went to the few that were free. And then it was time to press on to Vang Vieng.

Photos: Luang Prabong

Slow Boat

We made the cross into Laos without event; made the short boat ride across the river, got my visa and stamps, and walked 20mins down to the dock. By 9am I had navigated the circuitous ticket buying process and had a ticket for Chris and I on the boat leaving at 11am. We boarded by 10am just in time to grab a two of the last bench seats at the back, an hour later people were still loading on with each bench holding two people and the aisle packed. Just when we would think 'surely we are full' they would squeeze on more people. Finally close to noon, in the presence of much grumbling, the powers that be decided to use a second boat as well, docked next to ours. The scramble for the new seats became a free for all with lots of people jumping from one boat over to the next...of course I made the jump, and Chris and I snagged two plastic chairs, a significant upgrade from the wooden bench, however our luggage remained on boat 1.

The ride down the Mekong was nice, but would have been gorgeous had the inversion not been so bad. It was a crazy experience being on a long wooden boat as it was navigated through rapids and around sandbars, with a few narrow misses. Overall it was mostly a good time to catch up on some reading and swap travel stories with other travelers.

We pulled into the small town of Pakbeng around 6pm towards the end of daylight, but waited another 30mins for our bags to show up on the other boat. When the other boat did finally show, grabbing out bags was total chaos; we stood on a small ledge of jagged, crumbly rock waiting for a chance to hop over the small plank and onto the boat for a chance to look for our bags while at the same time people from the boat tried to diembark...all in the dark. Chris finally made it on to the boat for a look around and after 30mins or so of looking I discovered that two locals standing near by were wearing our bags and demanding to carry them up the short hill for money. I'm sorry to admit that after the long, hot day cultural insensitivity overwhelmed me and I lost it and started yelling at this guy who at first remained obstinate but finally dropped the bag. On the 5 min hike up the hill I had to say no to illicit drug offers about every 50ft, a record so far.

Day two on the slow boat saw everyone on one large boat. Unfortunately the inversion continued to be bad, at times to the extent that it was hard to see beyond the banks of the river. Evening found us in Luang Prabong.

Photos: Slow Boat

The Chiangs

After a few days of apathy in Bangkok it was time to move on. I decided to catch the overnight train up north to Chiang Mai. The train was considerably smaller than those in India and hot as blazes but still comfortable. About an hour before we reach Chiang Mai I started talking with my neighbor passenger, Chris, who turned out to be from San Diego and had been traveling for the past six months in Fiji, New Zealand and Australia, mostly surfing. We ended up at a cheap guest house, $4/night, but were kicked out 2 days later when we didn't sign up with them for an over priced trek.

Chris and I spent about four days in Chiang Mai getting late, lazy starts, walking around and viewing lots of the Temples throughout the city, and having a few 'Monk Chats' with local monks. We looked at a few multi-day trekking options but couldn't make up our minds and decided to try and find one further north of in Laos.

One day we rented scooters and drove out of town to Doi Sutep, a large temple on a hill. Sunday night we took in the large night market and some local cuisine including crickets, bamboo worms, and ant and bee omelettes, and I finally had my first thai massage...for the $5 it cost for an hour I can't really complain, but it was lacking any real method. When we arrived in Chiang Mai we noticed that there seemed to be a lot of pollution in the air, it turned out to be inversion ('An atmospheric condition in which the air temperature rises with increasing altitude, holding surface air down and preventing dispersion of pollutants') caused by slashing and burning that was going on in Laos. On day four the inversion became bad enough that we decided to head further north in an attempt to get away from it.

We ended up in Chiang Rai, halfway between Chiang Mai and the Laos border. Unfortunately for us the inversion proved even worse in Chiang Rai, and worse still there was nothing to do or see in the more expensive town...to paraphrase the Lonely Planet, 'Chaing Rai is more suited for living than visiting'.

And so we headed out the next day to Chiang Khong and the Laos border. We got a room at the charmingly rustic 'Bamboo Guest House', with what would have been a great view of Laos sans pollution and where much to my surprise I had the best Mexican food I've had on this trip! A day wandering around Chiang Khong and breathing in the increasingly worse inversion was enough to see everything and push us to cross the border into Laos.

Photos: Chiang Mai, Chiang Khong

Into the Wild

Towards the end of my time in Kerala, having run out of reading material, some fellow travelers were nice enough to pass along 'Into the Wild' by Jon Krakauer. The book had come highly recommended from them but based on the short description on the back I didn't have especially high expectations. I ended up being pleasantly surprised; it turned out to be so good that I ended up reading it all on my ferry ride through the backwaters. It's the true story about a man that graduates from college and decides he wants to live more freely and to that end he donates what money, abandons all his possessions save a small backpack, and he spends two years hitch-hiking around the US before ending up in Alaska to go into the wild and live off the land and ultimately ends up not making it out alive. It's a pretty quick read, and I would highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in travel, the outdoors, or looking for a good story.

Getting out in Bangkok

Five days in Bangkok and I finally motivated myself enough to get out and do a little exploring. The day before I had dropped by the American embassy to get a refill on my passport pages and then dropped my passport off at the Vietnam embassy to get my visa taken care of. I figured I'd walk towards the Vietnam embassy and then stop by the 'Siam Center' (a giant shopping center I saw the day before from the taxi) on the way back. I made the mistake of waiting until mid-day to get started, and then rather than consult any map at the onset I figured I could retrace the route the taxi had taken the previous night when it dropped me back from the embassy. As a result I got fairly lost and spent 2 1/2hrs walking around in 100 degree heat, but I did get to see a bit of the city. I did finally make it to the embassy, just in time to pickup my passport before it closed at 4pm, and then caught the skytrain over to the 'Siam Center'...

The 'Siam Center' was an amazing conglomeration of several giant malls all in one place and all linked by large sky-bridges that let you go from one to the next to the next without ever having to go back down to the ground. I spent about 4-5hrs just wandering and wondering around at this place. As a result of my time there I'm going to have to revise one of my previous observations...the young white guys with thai girls are severely overshadowed by the old and entirely unattractive white guys, most of whom seem to be American, with beautiful Thai women on their arms. While at the Siam Center I did manage to stumble into some runway modeling going on for the 'Mango' store, pick out a few Bently's for sale on the top floor, see the tiny new Sony palm-top computer, have some iced-coffee from Starbucks, grab dinner at the 'Lee Cafe', see some crazy cartoon characters decorating the walls of one mall, and cross about 10 different sky bridges without setting foot on the ground. A tiring day...I still hate shopping I realized.

I also had my first close up encounter with a ladyboy who sat down next to me in an internet cafe, reaking of too much cheap makeup, stale cigarettes, and fruit juice, who later tried to grab my arm outside the cafe as I was leaving...I was nice in my rebuff this time, but I won't rule out a freak out if that continue's to happen.

Another observation: compared to those in India, the auto-rickshaws here are like trading in a push-mower for a suped-up limo-length riding mower built by 'tim the toolman', not only can I lay back and stretch out as we fly down the road at 80km/hr...I watched the guy next to us wheely his!

Photos: Bangkok

Bangkok

It's been a few days in Bangkok and I confess I've done pretty much next to nothing. I wake up late in my tiny hotbox of a room, eat some scrambled eggs, wander around the streets, read and write, eat the occassional street food (pad thai, mangoes and sticky rice), surf the web, and sleep. It's been nice. It's so much calmer here and I've enjoyed just relaxing it in a bit. The only excitement to speak of was my first nights battle with bedbugs (surprisingly my first of the entire trip), which resulted in me having to switch hotels in the middle of the night, but was fairly easily resolved thankfully.

I have yet to see a single tourist attraction and so photos have been few. I have been stuck here for a few more days than expected while I got additional passport pages and my Vietnam visa which will be ready today. Then I'm off to the north for a bit.

Hyderabad to Bangkok

The next day when I arrived in Hyderabad Josh's driver Steven (who has an affinity for the 'backstreet boys' or at least playing it while I'm in the car) was there to greet me with his big smile. Josh was kind enough to let me crash at his apartment for one night before my flight to Bangkok, despite being back in the US himself. It was nice to sit in front of the TV watching movies and eating pizza and doing nothing for a night.

Steven took me to the airport at 11am for my 1:30pm flight and I big him farewell and went to check in, only to discover that the flight had been changed a couple of weeks before from 1:30pm to 11:55pm. When I realized that I would be stuck in India for 12 more hours a bit of the frustration I'd managed to hold off finally caught up with me. I wanted to be angry but realized I should have called to double check the time, so I stomped off to kill my day at an Internet cafe instead. On my way I did try to mail two postcards (that were already stamped) and was greeted with additional frustration as such a simple task was turned into 'mission impossible, with me walking from one shop to another and finally being directed to the 'speed post' office, only to have them redirect me to the actual post office. The post office turned out to be at the back of what appeared to be an abandoned building at the end of an obscure, small, non-descript, dirt side road with no signage. Several rickshaws, 2hours, and handfuls of Rupees later I finally got them in the mail.

I did head to the airport again at 9:45pm and it was total chaos, I can't really bring myself to describe it; it leaves me drained just thinking about fighting my way through the orderless entry, security check 1, check in, security check 2, and boarding. The only aspect with a semblance of order was the immigration. Of course once you've gone through immigration you can't go back to where Toilet 1 resides nor can you go through the second security check until called, on the other side of which Toilet 2 resides, so you're stuck in bladder purgatory, waiting and holding. I was almost forced to use my empty coke can which I still held thanks to there being no garbage cans until after security check 2. Fun stuff!

Arriving in Bangkok after an uneventful but tiring flight was a breath of fresh air; I was off the plane, through immigration, had my bag, cash from the ATM, a SIM card for my phone, and had found a place to stay using an Internet kiosk all within 30mins of landing.

My first impressions of Thailand: I haven't seen this many white people in a while; there are a somewhat surprising number of young white guys with Thai girls on their arms; this is going to be a lot easier than India.

Kathakali

Around 6pm I made my way to the 'Kerala Kathakali Centre' to see a Kathakali which some fellow travelers had said was a must see while in Cochin and I have to say it was one of the funnest things I've seen in India. Essentially Kathakali is a dance form of story-telling that re-enacts Hindu epics. We started by watching the characters spend upwards of an hour apply their elaborate makeup, follwed by a brief introduction to what Kathakali is and then a demonstrations of some of the standard actions...'mother take care of your baby' being by far the most interesting. Finally a one hour performance of part of a story, about Lord Shiva testing a warrior, was performed. Apparently there are 112 stories in all and each one is 8-9hrs in length; the first 30mins or so of what we saw was very interesting and engaging but I started to drift after that, and I can't imagine watching it for 8-9hrs...very convoluted after a while.

Photos: Kathakali

Fort Cochin

As soon as I started wandering around Fort Cochin the next afternoon I was immediately accosted by a rickshaw driver, this one offering to take me on a tour for an hour of all the sites for only 50 Rupees. I decided to take him up on it. I have to admit that he did a great job. First we stopped at the Santa Cruz Basilica, a church 500+yrs old built by the Portuguese, followed by a bit of driving and pointing things out, such as an old water tower. I noticed pretty quickly that he had a penchant for pointing out anything over 100+yrs old, no matter how obscure of run down, and then repeating and emphasizing the age. I finally caught on that I was supposed to be impressed by these old buildings, all the more so for the dilapidated ones (such as the big, rusty, tin shack that looked more like a garbage pile to me), and I started to ooh and ahh, which gave him a smile. Eventually we did end up at a small market down by the water where fishermen were still making use of giant 'Chinese fishing nets', although it looked like they were mainly successful in catching garbage and sewage than anything else. I'm still not sure why they are 'Chinese'.

From the fishing nets we went to a big warehouse/factory for ayurvedic medicines and treatments. In the main room there were big burlap sacks with material that looked like it was probably sold over the counter in scoopfuls. We also had a peek into the large store rooms further down the lane past more giant white sacks filled with who knows what. In these rooms were giant piles of everything from tree barks, to wax, to tar, shrubs, spices, sugar, etc...most of which I was told was for export to China for medicinal purposes.

Next we headed to another similar warehouse explicitly for drying, packing, and storing ginger for export. Here we saw massive piles of ginger being sorted by quality and spread out in long rows to dry in the sun and then put in large bags. I was told that 1KG of the best quality ginger there was 'very expensive' at 200Rupees...about $2.50. That wrapped up the 'official tour' but then of course came the 'shopping' which started with a tea and pickle store at the ginger warehouse (where I escaped buying only a little tea), followed by a giant shop where I was prodded toward buying gaudy jewelery and giant bronze scupltures but somehow managed to resist, and then on to a varitable strip-mall of spice and curio shops by which time I realized that all these stops gave my guide a chance to have tea with his buddies...and then we were done.

Photos: Cochin

The Night Rickshaw

After the ferry arrived in Allepey I still needed to get up to Cochin, 65km away, somehow. I hopped a rickshaw to the train station and halfway there the driver offered to drive me all the way to Cochin himself. Realizing I could make it to Cochin before the train even showed to pick me up in Allepey I decided to pay the extra and take the rickshaw all the way...what a ride it was.

We got out of Allepey proper and started to pickup speed. At first we appeared to be behind a drunk driver, at least that's what my driver seemed to think, but I admit that in India I sometimes have a tough time telling the drunk and sober drivers from one another. The 3-wheeled, open-air rickshaw becomes considerably more scary at night, especially when speeds exceed 30km/hr. We cruised on for about 25mins during which we had at least two extremely close, near collisions where I heard profane utterances escape from my mouth, at which my driver caught my eye in the mirror and just laughed.

After 25mins we pulled over at my driver's local tea joint for a couple shots of masala chai and a few laughs, after which I was feeling significantly more optimistic going into round 2. When we did almost find ourselves in the grill of an on-coming bus we both just laughed together. True to his word he got me to Fort Cochin before 9pm and no worse for the wear.

Kerala Backwaters

To get back up to Cochin I caught the early morning train to Kollem where i Boarded the ferry for a ride through the backwaters to Allepey, my consolation prize for not finding someone to do the one night houseboat ride with. I ended up spending most of the 8hr ride reading 'Into the Wild' by Jon Krakauer, but finally did manage to glance up for the last 2+hrs. The ride was nice, but I wasn't super comfortable in my red plastic chair with its weakened back, and at one point (why I'm still not sure) the boat was tipped slightly right so that everytime I adjusted my chair I almost tipped out of it. I think I'll have to do the houseboat at some point to really appreciate the backwaters.

Photos: Backwaters

Four More Books

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai:
The 2006 Booker Prize winner, another great, but of course depressing, look at India during the 80s through the eyes of characters still clinging to the cultural remnants of the British, those forging ahead and those caught in the middle. If you liked 'The God of Small Things' you'll enjoy this one, they are pretty similar in style.

Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides:
One of the best books I've read on this trip and that I would highly recommend, this is both the story of a Greek family and their migration to Detroit, Michigan as well as a girl in that family who finds out that's not quite what she is.

Next by Michael Crichton:
I'd have to rank this as Michael Crichton's worst book to date, or close to it. Several disjointed story lines about genetics, the bio-technology of it, the laws surrounding it, and the social reprecussions of all of the above. The book is confusing at times and laughable at others, and I would recommend staying away from it.

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung:
The harrowing story of a young girl and her family's experience living under the Khmer Rouge during the genocide in Cambodia. While the book was an interesting story, and a decent high-level look at the what happened in Cambodia, I would recommend reading it only if you're interested in a story of survival but not necessarily looking for any real look at what happened in Cambodia.

Varkala

I'm currently passing the time doing as little as possible in Varkala, in the south of Kerala. Varkala is a small community of guest houses that reside on a cliff overlooking small beach; another nice spot to do as little as you like, so again, not a whole lot to share. Tomorrow I will head north to Cochin and fly back to Hyderabad on Thursday morning and be ready to fly to Bangkok and on to the last leg of my trip on Friday morning. I'll admit, I'm a bit travel weary and glad to be entering the fourth quarter and the easiest leg of the trip...

Photos: Varkala

Palolem Beach, Goa

Goa couldn't come quick enough for Josh and I could see the relief and stress release as soon as we arrived. I have to admit that it was a big relief for me too, to finally be in a place where things were a bit easier. We flew to airport in central Goa and headed straight down to the southern most area, a beach town called Palolem, supposedly the most laid back area in Goa. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we did little else besides sit in the sun, eat good food, explore the beach, listen to the surf, read, adn have long meandering conversations about life in general. On Saturday evening Julia, having tired of Mumbai, decided to come hang out in Goa for a couple of days and so joined Josh and I at palolem beach. With Josh having worked for an Indian organization for close to a year now and Julia considering it, we had some interesting chats about business and work in India.

Josh took off Sunday afternoon to head back to Hyderabad and jump back into the fray before packing for a trip to the US Wednesday morning, and left me to flouder on the beach a bit longer. Having spent most of my time doing nothing but reading, Julia cajoled me into a short boat ride on Monday morning up a nearby river, which turned out to be the most active thing I did during my week in Goa. She too took off and headed back up to North Goa to explore some of the remaining Portugese church's and architecture and I was left on my own for a few more days of beach vacation in Goa. I'm happy to say that I didn't do anything worth reporting really during my time in Goa other than read a couple of books and do some journaling and enjoy some tastey fish, but after a week there it was time to press on and head further south to another beach in Kerala known as Varkala.

Photos: Goa

Hyderabad

I flew to Hyderabad from Mumbai to meet up with my good friend Josh (who I had also met up with in Varanasi) who moved to Hyderabad in May of last year to work for the Indian IT organization Satyam, working for them at their School of Leadership. My two days in Hyderabad were pretty low key: hanging out with Josh, catching up with photos, blog, etc, and eating some good, western food. Josh, being the thoughtful person that he is was also incredibly generous in setting up a massage for me at a local spa...it was absolutely heaven and long overdue! After the massage Josh's driver Steven spent the afternoon driving me around and giving me the rough tour of Hyderabad, cruising around in Josh's black 'Ambassador'!

Photos: Hyderabad

Mumbai

I had flipped back and forth about whether to stop in Mumbai or not and then about three weeks in to my time in India I got an email from my friend Julia, a woman I'd met in Croatia, telling me that she would be in Mumbai for a week for a job interview. Coincidentally it happened to be while I was passing through the area so I thought I'd stop and say hello. Deciding to avoid a repeat 'Sleeper bus' experience I opted for the 'super luxury, just like flight' Volvo bus ride and after a comparatively easy 17hrs on the bus I arrived in an overcast, rainy Mumbai. The first order of business, and really my only other reason for coming to Mumbai, was to go and see the 'Leopolds Cafe' that is such a fixture in the book 'Shantaram' that I read while I was in Europe. I have to admit that I'd had high hopes and was pretty disappointed by what I found. I had been expecting a dark, dingy, smoky interior where shady business took place, but instead found a light, cheap feeling interior with unfriendly staff and overpriced food. I admit I was a bit perturbed when my waiter told me there was no way I could get scrambled eggs, only fried eggs, and even worse I couldn't get Masala Chai (a staple of any Indian meal) only Mint Tea! But it was worth it, and I met an Australian couple who were there for similar reasons having just stepped off an 18hr late train ride which had lasted a total of 40+hrs! I spent the rest of the day playing phone and email tag with Julia , due to some cell phone issues with my Indian SIM card, but finally managed to sort out a place to meet up the next day.

I spent the day time walking around and getting lost in the Colaba area of Mumbai, along Marine Drive, and over to Chowpatty beach, another key location in 'Shantaram', before making my way to meet up with Julia at the grand 'Old Taj' hotel near the India Gateway Monument. We finally caught up after some more confusion and did a walking tour of the India Gateway, and some of the surrounding Colaba area where a lot of the old British architecture still remains and had a great meal, with my first chicken in 4 weeks.

I didn't have a chance to see a whole lot of Mumbai and unfortunately due to my short time I didn't get to see the massive outdoor laundry mat (apparently a must see), or make it to Bollywood or be an extra in a film like a lot of other travelers had done. The Colaba area was a nice easy area but it seemed like an oasis, outside of Colaba Mumbai is an incredibly populated, polluted, and very poor city.

Photos: Mumbai

Udaipur

The 'A.C. Sleeper bus' from Pushkar to Udaipur was one of my less pleasant transportation experiences in India. When the bus pulled up close to 1am it slowed down just enough for me to hop onto the bottom step and then we were going again. I made my way to the very back of the bus, all my bags in hand, only to find someone already asleep in my bed. The conductor woke and cajoled the man out and I tossed my bags up and climbed up...they had told me there was no room under the bus for my backpack.

It quickly became apparent that I was in for a long night; with my bags in the bunk with me there was little room and laying straight the bunk was too short for me, and with every bump that we hit, which was pretty much constant, I slid and shuddered around. I was sort of getting used to this about 20mins into the ride and starting to doze off when there was a screech and we hit a speed bump hard and I flew up and slammed into the ceiling, smashing my forehead, and then crashing back to down onto the bunk, leaving me with an immediate headache. This happened many more times during the night, but fortunately to a lesser degree.

Despite being 'A.C' (which I've realized in India seems to mean just 'climate controlled' as opposed to 'cooled'), cold air still managed to leak in through every window and much like my ride to Rishikesh it got very cold. As the night wore on we seemed to pick up speed and the faster we went the more cold air rushed in, the more extreme the bumps became, the louder the screeching, and the more exaggerated the swerving; I kept waiting for the bump/swerve that would either topple us completely or toss me from my bunk and break my neck in the process.

When we would slow down enough to ease my fear or death, air circulation would diminish and a pungent foot odor would take over and being to overwhelm, an odor that might gag the average person but that I, thanks to months of raw sewage smell conditioning in Africa, managed to resist, but only just. Despite the difficulties I did manage to catch a little shut eye and at 8am emerged from the bus in Udaipur suffering only minor fatigue and a sore head and neck.

Udaipur turned out to be a fantastic place. I ended up at a hostel down by the lake with a great view of the floating palace, which is now used as an exclusive hotel, where apparently Mick Jagger was staying around the time I was there. I have to confess that I didn't make much of an attempt at seeing all that Udaipur had to offer, I spent my days lazily wandering the streets and shops, eating good food on rooftop restaurants while looking out at the lake or watching the sunset, and chatting with fellow travelers about past and future destinations. My last day there I wound up in a fairly large group of fellow travelers and we did manage to squeeze in a tour of one of the local palaces, which left me with more palace/monument fatigue, but a few interesting photos.

Photos: Udaipur

Pushkar 2: The Andre Adventure

The next day having breakfast I met Kay and Karen who had just wrapped up a couple of months at a yoga retreat outside of Mumbai and decided to tag along with them to go meet a friend of theirs they had met the day before...Andre. A Canadian in his mid forties that had been to Pushkar off and on for 20 years, but living there for the past 5 year, Andre turned out to be quite the character, with a strong affinity for dancing and need to be the center of attention. We all had lunch together and it was apparently fairly quickly that Andre was one who didn't so much talk with you as talk at you, and had a habit of jumping from one tangent to another and saying a lot without ever really finishing anything. It was mildly entertaining to watch/experience for a while but before long became tiring.

After lunch we followed him around as he led us through back streets to place we wouldn't have otherwise seen, which was nice, but he seemed to pay little heed to the ladies requests for specific stops while at the same time asking what they wanted to do/see. Everwhere we walked he did seem to know quite a lot of locals but I couldn't quite tell if they were actually his friends of if they simply endured him and had fun with him as the 'eccentric foreigner'; there were definitely times where people seemed decidedly annoyed with him (such as when he started dancing in the middle of what appeared to be the female contingent of a wedding party), but he either feigned ignorance or genuinely had no idea of his inappropriate behavior and the resultant negative vibes from the locals around him.

We shuffled between a few temples and after much cajoling, back-and-forthing and side-tracking finally made it down to the lake for sunset, a spot where the tourists flock for the good view. As we approached Andre heard the music playing and used the opportunity to dance with revelry his fairy dance and get a few eyes pinned on him. We sat for a while watching the sun go down and decided to walk back along the water to our hotel. Andre insisted we go a different way and when we refused he danced away with closest passerby and like that he was gone, somewhat thankfully.

After a long day, close to midnight, I made my way to the bus-station to wait for my 'sleeper bus' to Udaipur, something I had been told was quite a comfortable experience, bunk-beds in a bus...unfortunately the reality turned out to be less than fun...

Photos: Pushkar

Pushkar 1

For the most part the bus to Pushkar, being only 4 hours, was a non-event in comparison to my other travels within India...except for one minor detail: about halfway through the ride I got tired of reading and reached into my bag to pull out my iPod only to immediately realize that I had left the iPod on my bed next to my pillow! Needless to say a bit of hyperventilating ensued but I eventually resolved that it was likely gone but just in case I would call the hotel when we got to Pushkar. As soon as we checked in to our rooms at the Paramount Palace I called back to the Paradise Inn in Jaipur and much to my surprise they told me that they did have my iPod and would hold it for me until I arrived to pick it up the next day. I let things go and tried to relax and we passed the night on the rooftop restaurant with a great Indian buffet dinner and listening to a local white Hare Krishna sing several seemingly different sounding songs whose lyrics were all the same.

The next morning I got up early and made it to the bus station just in time to catch the 9am bus to Jaipur. I spent 3 1/2 hours heading back to Jaipur, had the most harrowing rickshaw ride of my life (largely in oncoming traffic) as I hurried to the hotel grabbed my iPod (which was not quite as I'd left it, since someone decided to try and peel off the 'invisible shield' I had on it), and then braved more oncoming traffic back to the bus station, arriving just in time to catch the 1pm bus back to Pushkar. It was a long day and I was glad to have my music back, even if it was a little worse for wear, and then 7 hours on the bus did give me some good time to read most of my book, 'Middlesex'.

The following day I started my Pushkar visit proper. At 5:30am Jeff and Kerri knocked on my door and we rode on rented scooters to a small hill at the edge of town where we watched the sunrise, which too much longer than expected. After breakfast we spent a lot of the day cruising around on the scooters, narrowly avoiding people, cows, and giant, laden trucks headed straight for us. Having spent so much time in the crazy traffic in the back of a rickshaw it was fun to finally have some level of control in the melee; kind of like you always wanted to drive as a kid, with no rules and of course no helmet. We also came upon a monkey man down by one of the ghats; an older man in a big red turban who was feeding the large gray monkeys bananas from his hands, with the occasional monkey making a sudden lunge at the group of us tourists spectating nearby. Kerri and Jeff pressed on to Udaipur that night and I decided to hang on in Pushkar one more day.

Photos: Pushkar

Jaipur

I showed up at the train station a little before 6am to catch my 6am train only to find out that it was delayed for 5 hours (I was of course only told of the delay in 30min increments). While I was waiting I started chatting with a couple from Australia (Kerri and Jeff) who were on a 2-3month tour of Tibet, Nepal, and now India. After hours of waiting and a few more hours on the train we finally rolled into Jaipur in the early afternoon and I tagged along with them to the Paradise Inn, we dropped our bags and headed back out. Jaipur, the 'Pink City', turned out to be much larger and busier than I had expected. As we wandered through the crazy traffic, toward the pink walls of the city, we came across the immediately recognizable golden arches (yes, McDonald's) and all being quite hungry decided to go in to see what the Indian branch had to offer. I settled on the 'McChicken Maharaja Mac', which looked like the BigMac but tasted nothing like it...the chicken patty was spiced and they changed the special sauce! A big disappointment.

After much wandering and misdirection we finally found and made our way into the P'ink City', a pretty amazing area of just street after street of different shops, similar to the Turkish 'grand bazaar' but on a much larger scale, with different areas for different products (jewelery, textiles, housewares, etc). Karri was on the hunt for some silver jewelery so we found that area and she 'put her bargaining hat on' and went to town. She is a great bargainer and it was incredibly entertaining and educational to watch her work. After she cleaned up and secured a couple of pieces we all made our way to the 'Hotel Om Tower' with its rotating, rooftop restaurant and enjoyed some tasty indian food as we gazed down at Jaipur moving around below (hint...it all pretty much looks the same from up there).

I had been planning on staying in Jaipur for a couple of days, but upon seeing how much of a big, busy, polluted city it was I decided to press on to Pushkar with Kerri and Jeff after just one day.

Photos: Jaipur

Agra

The train to Agra was about 3 hours late leaving the station and by the time we arrived in Agra the gap had grown to 6 hours. Fortunately I was in the 2nd AC class for this ride, a much roomier, more comfortable, climate controlled cabin, so the wait was a piece of cake. We finally arrived around noon and I dropped my bag off and was at the Taj Mahal (my only reason for passing through Agra) within an hour.

Everything about the Taj was amazing: the size, the detail, the grounds, the symmetry of everything. It had been suggested that I hire a guide when I got there to make sure I got the full experience, so I did. At first I was learning some interesting things about the Taj being built by the King for his deceased wife, the symmetry of the entire complex (down to a real mosque on the left of the Taj, facing mecca, and an identical 'fake' mosque on the right side just to maintain the symmetry but never used), the time it took for the amazing marble screen on the inside (10 years). After a while, due to a combination of travel weariness and being tired of seeing monuments and buildings, I largely tuned the guide out and finally sent him away while I spent another hour walking around the grounds on my own. Having spent three hours in the complex I was tired and decided to skip the Agra Fort and retired to my dingy hotel room to sit under the ceiling fan and watch loud Bollywood movies...I'm finally starting to appreciate them. Despite being worn out on monuments the Taj was still an amazing site...at least now I can check the box and say I passed through India and I saw the Taj...

Photos: Agra

Varanasi

I made my way to the 'Ajay Guest House' and up to its roof top restaurant overlooking the Ganges and found my buddy Josh, and after such a long, draining journey it was good to see him. Josh had moved to Hyderabad, India last May to work for the Indian IT organization Satyam and had taken a weekend break to come see Varanasi. We chatted for a few minuted before we were joined by a colleague of his, Ibanga, who had just wrapped up an internship at Satyam and wanted to see Varanasi before heading back to the US. Having all spent the day traveling we decided to call it an early night, but not before taking a night stroll along the Ganges. Things were quite eerie down at the water, a fair amount of smoke/mist, strange and intermittent spotlights, near and distance chanting, and half to full naked sadus, ascetics and devotees walking around in pseudo-trances, covered in white powder. One such group sitting at the main ghat (steps into the water) appeared to be eating what looked like literal (cow?) shit...that was enough for night one.

By the light of the next day it was easy to see that Varanasi is probably the filthiest city I have been to, in no small part thanks to the the giant piles of cow-pie everywhere (like green, slimy land-mines), the big piles of garbage that the cows eat, and people relieving themselves in any spot that struck their fancy. Surprisingly the stench isn't as bad as one might expect, or I've become desensitized. I have to admit that in the midst of all of this filth it was tough to peer through and see the religious importance of this area. After breakfast we wandered down to the water again and caught a boat to the other side of the river, which is almost entirely devoid of buildings (aside from small shacks), due to the monsoon washing everything away when it comes. The pollution of the river was astounding...it seemed like we were floating in a river of pure sewage, and yet on both banks people were wading in to wash clothes or themselves, brush their teeth, or relieve themselves, and apparently these people don't get sick, their bodies have adapted to the incredible pollution. At the onset of our trip had thought about taking a dip in the Ganges himself, but later decided against it. When we got to the other side, we had a tough time finding a spot close enough to shore to disembark and so Josh and I (being in sandals) decided to hold tight while Ibanga jumped across and had a look around before we headed back to the populous side.

When night fell we observed a ceremonial puja, an interesting experience of fragrant smoke, fire, flowers, singing, repetitive sound and motion and incessant, loud bell ringing. After an hour of this we decided it was time to go see the burning ghats...

The area where the bodies are burned was very eerily surreal; a filthy place of mud, ash, wood, and constantly busy untouchables working away...it felt like I was walking through a movie set. There were giant piles of wood all around and a dozen fires (bodies) in progress. Despite seeing the forms of bodies, quite apparent, I confess to not feeling much aside from slight sacrilege at being a 'tourist' in such a spot. We had a guide who explained things to us: the burning takes place within 24hrs of death. In the case of a parents death the eldest son has his head shaved, gets a registration number, dresses in white, washes the body in the Ganges and wraps it in preparation for burning. A pyre of wood is prepared by an untouchable and the body is placed on the pyre by the family. The eldest son lights some grass from the 'eternal fire' (apparently kept burning for over three thousand years) and walks around the body 5 times (to symbolize the make-up of the body: wind, water, fire, earth, spirit/ether) after which the pyre is lit. The untouchable then takes control of the fire. It takes a total of 3hrs for the body to burn but after 1 1/2hrs the skull is cracked open by the eldest son, using a bamboo stick, to release the spirit up to nirvana. At three hours all should be burned, however sometimes the chest of men and the hips of women may still remain. If these pieces remain they are removed by the eldest son and thrown into the Ganges. The burning continues 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, usually burning 300-400 bodies per day.

The next day Josh, Ibanga and I tried to catch the sunrise on the Ganges but we met with such heavy mist that we couldn't even tell where the sun was and were only aware of a gradual lightening of the sky. Josh and Ibanga took off that afternoon and I was left to explore Varanasi a bit more on my own.

About a month before I arrived in India I got an email from my friend Mijin, who I first met in Sarajevo, saying that she was also going to be in India in February. The day after Josh and Ibanga took off Mijin arrived in Varanasi and I gave her the 10 cent tour of the things I had seen the days before. I had only planned on overlapping my time with her there by one day, unfortunately due to all the trains to Agra being booked I ended up staying in Varanasi for 3 more days. I passed the time exploring the narrow alleys and trying out different restaurants (one of which had a welcome sign stating 'yes, we are less dirty' a good indicator of how dirty Varanasi is), while Mijin did a lot of shopping. After more time than I'd wanted in Varanasi I was finally able to get on a train to Agra and Mijin headed to Calcutta.

Photos: Varanasi

Rishikesh

I have to admit that when I got to Delhi I was feeling the lack of desire in getting back into constant travel mode, but I finally rallied and made it out of Delhi on an overnight bus up to Rishikesh, about 6hrs north of Delhi. The bus ride was pretty hellacious; luckily I was at the front of the bus so I missed out on a lot of the big bumps, but that was more than compensated for by the draft that came in through the 2inch gap in the window next to me, the air was absolutely freezing continued to get colder and colder all the way up until we arrived in Rishikesh at 6am. I'm positive that if there had been any moisture in the clouds above it would have snowed. Definitely the coldest I've been on this trip, even with all my top layers (6) on I could barely keep from shivering. Rishikesh is in the foothills of the Himalayas which explains the cold air...I was ill prepared.

I met a nice English guy on the bus who had been to Rishikesh a couple of times before and I tagged along with him to the 'swiss chalets' up the hill. He told me that Rishikesh is considered the 'Yoga Capitol of the world' and it showed as I walked around and saw that every person with a shack to their name, no matter how meager, had an attached sign offering yoga classes, lessons, etc. Unfortunately I was only there for a brief 24hrs and so I spent my brief day and a half there wandering around the small town and taking things in, breathing in the fresh air (the last gulps I would get for a while), and having some good food and tea. I was somewhat surprised to see how clean and clear the Ganges was, something that would change in Varanasi.

Around 3pm, about 30hrs after arriving I headed to the nearby town of Haridwar to catch my train to Allahabad. The train was about 45mins late and because it was tough to find info about where it was arriving, I found myself running from one platform to another trying to make sure i didn't miss it. I had been warned that 'sleeper class' was pretty crazy and when I finally loaded everything up I found out exactly what 'sleeper class' was all about; instead of individual 'rooms' as I was accustomed to from the trains in Europe there were just 8 beds setup in repeating rows next to each other for a total of 72 beds per car. A bit cramped maybe, but not bad I thought. It wasn't until we started rolling that additional people piled on and our area set to seat 8 people was now holding almost double that with another 10+ people standing in the aisles. At each stop these 'extra' people would hop on and off and this continued for the next 6 hours or so until it was time to put the bunks down and get some sleep. I got to know my neighbor, Praveen, and at each stop he would pull me off the train and treat me to some great hot tea or food, refusing to let me pay anything. The food often came in small bowls made of dried leaves and the tea in small clay cups, both of which we would just toss from the train window when we were finished. In this time the temperature had also dropped significantly which I feared would lead to another sleepless, shivering night and I was about right. Despite wearing a wool hat I had acquired in Rishikesh as well as all my top layers I was still frigid and got little sleep.

We arrived in a town called Allahabad, where I needed to transfer to a bus, about 2hrs late and I got on a bus to Varanasi. Allahabad was actually hosting a 6 year religious festival called the Kumbamela and was filled with pilgrims, sadus, and other religious/holy hindu men and women. It took us close to 2hours to finally get out of the town and as we crossed the bridge spanning the Ganges I looked out the window and on either side there were tents as far as I could see. Apparently there were close to 10 million people in the town for this festival. The bus, like the train, was also filled to capacity with people standing in the aisles, with the added element of the driver playing chicken with all oncoming vehicles and his hand heavy on the exceedingly loud horn, which sounded like some mutant goat. Finally, about 25hrs after leaving Rishikesh I made it to Varanasi...

Photos: Rishikesh

The Red Fort and Akshardham

I spent the weekend hanging out with and being taken around by my buddy Sarvesh, who I met in CO last year when he came over for some training at Agilent. He and I cruised around Saturday picking up lots of tourist brochures about all of India in an attempt to formulate some plan, had some spicy veg dishes for lunch (I've decided to go all vegetarian only while in India), and then went to check out the Red Fort, a place where the old Mughal kings used to reside before the British came along. He also helped me find a new hotel to stay down by the railway station, where I get a nice quiet room all to myself for under $10/night.

The next day Sarvesh and his wife picked me up and we went to Akshardham, a new temple in Delhi which opened last year. It was very interesting and informative and somewhat like Disney land. We walked through an exhibition (complete with animatronics) about the life of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, took a boat ride (a kin to 'its a small world) explaining 10,000 years of Indian heritage in 10mins, watched a movie about the an 11-year-old child-yogi’s epic 12,000 km pilgrimage of India on foot, watched an incredible musical fountain show, and then wrapped up the night with dinner in the food court. Some fun and educational religious entertainment. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take cameras in, but the detailed carving was amazing, check it out in the 'photo gallery' page. Apparently it took 11,000 artisans 300 million man hours to build everything. If you pass through Delhi, definitely worth a visit!

Photos: Delhi

Mystic India

Arrival in India (Delhi) was relatively uneventful, but I suppose that's in part because the heat is missing. I was briefly worried about my bag but it finally came through on the conveyor and I found myself a taxi to get to the one Hostel I'd managed to look up before arriving. My taxi driver of course tried to scam me and take me to a travel agency that would 'double check my reservation', but I managed to escape relatively painlessly.

Made it to the hostel and found only dorm beds available for about $2/night, so I signed up for 2 nights and went about walking around. I soon found that this hostel was pretty much no where near anything, unlike what the web had led me to believe. So instead of exploring I wrapped up some reading and had an early night (or so I thought). In the room I was the only traveler and the rest were locals. I'd managed to fall asleep around 10 but by 11 was awaken by loud talking and lights being flipped on, which went on for about 30 mins by which time I was wide awake. Somehow a mere 2-5mins after the lights went out everyone in the room, but me, appeared to fall asleep...that's when the snoring began. A medium volumed man started on one side of the room but in no time it seemed to be a competition for who could be the loudest. I quickly broke out my industrial strength earplugs which had been crucial in other hostel situations and had been able to block out almost all sound in all similar instance thus far. Alas we were dealing with a super human set of snorers, even with my plugs firmly in they were coming through loud and clear, I was amazed. The sheer volume also appeared to be vibrating the bed I was laying on. Finally around 1am, having been up for close to 30hrs I slept.

The next day I decided to hop onto a blitz tour of Delhi which covered most of Delhi's sites the names of which I couldn't understand and so can't remember, except for the Lotus Temple. We certainly packed it in and it was a full, tiring day.

Getting ready for bed that night I noticed that all the loud guys had checked out so I was thinking a good night's sleep was in store. I should mention that a fundamental flaw of this dorm room was the fact that the door once closed from the inside can't be opened from the outside. With lights out and door closed I was asleep by 10 but by 1030 my neighbor received a cell phone call which he proceeded to answer and talk for 30mins at full volume after which another guy showed up and the two of them switched on the lights and had a chat filled with extremely loud piercing laughter, but finally settled down around 11:30. Asleep by midnight, but it was not to last. About 12:15 there came a loud banging at the door, since it seemed to wake no one else up I hopped up and opened the door only to be screamed at accusingly for locking this guy out, being half asleep I replied 'yeah whatever' and got back in bed. Apparently after I fell back asleep someone got up and closed the door and I was roused by more pounding close to 1am. Getting up to answer the door I was met by the same irate man from before screaming at me for closing the door...well, having been woken up 3 times already I was no longer in the mood and I lost it. I started yelling back and let a few choice expletives fly, as a result the angry little man finally shut up and went to bed and I got to sleep close to 2am. And so went my introduction to India. I think I'm done with dorm rooms...

Photos: Delhi

Books: More Good Reading

A few more great reads for anyone looking for one...

Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey Of A Desert Nomad by Waris Dirie:
The true story of a Somali girl that runs away from her family and their life in the desert and eventually becomes a super model. Being a ghost written book, it definitely has that feel, and while the story is somewhat interesting the latter half of the book starts to move in the direction of a commentary on the barbaric rituals performed on women in Somalia before 'woman-hood'. I'd skip this one unless you're desperate and can't find anything else.

The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good by William Easterly:
A very interesting book about the failure of Aid to help developing countries (primarily those in Africa). I would highly recommend this to anyone that has an interest in development work, from those that work in it to those that contribute financially to it, and especially those that have read 'The End of Poverty' by Jeff Sachs that I mentioned earlier. Definitely one of my favorite books of the trip. I'd love to discuss it with anyone that does manage to read it.

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barak Obama:
Admittedly I only made it through the first quarter of this book but plan to finish it when I can get a hold of a less bulky edition (I'm thinking pirated copy in India). Liberal of Conservative, this should be read, if not simply to provoke/promote some thinking. Don't worry, it's pretty engaging and moves fairly quickly.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy:
Another book about India that had come highly recommended and was excellent but again rather depressive as most of the India books I've read seem to be. A book about 'two egg twins', things said and not, and anglo influenced India. If you have to choose, I'd go with 'A Fine Balance' first though.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith:
I'd heard a lot of buzz about this book and had seen a few people reading it along the way, so finally picked it up when I passed through England last week. The book turned out to be quite different that I'd expected at the onset, and admit that when I finished I was left feeling a bit disappointed, but it did provoke a lot of thought and the more I think about the book the more I enjoy it. The characters are very relateable and the book moves smoothly as it carries you through a bit of a roller coaster, definitely worth a read.

Back in the UK

After saying goodbye to warm Cape Town I stopped in England for a bit to see Rachel and Rikki again. Having been in nothing but warm weather for 6+ months even the 'mild' winter weather in England was a bit of a shock for me, especially having no real warm clothing. Fortunately Rachel's brother was kind enough to let me borrow a couple of hoodies.

Rachel and Rikki and I caught up for a couple of days, and I tried to lay low and do some reading while they both did work on essays that had to hand in while I was there. Over the weekend we had a great dinner with their friend Greg and Sarah whom I'd met on my pass through in June.

I had to run into London one day to get my Thailand flight squared away and took the opportunity to meet up with Lizzie, who I'd met while I was on Lamu. Lizzie was kind enough to take me around London for the day and we had a quick blitz tour of St Paul's, London Bridge and the Millennium bridge, stopped for coffee at the Tate Modern, and popped in to Harrod's Dept store and saw what it would be like to buy overpriced groceries from a department store. She also informed me that the german movie ('Afrika Mon Amour') that had been filming while we were there was finally complete and had aired.

Before pressing on I got the chance to see the 'Boots Maneuva' (Rikki and Greg's football team) in action which was a lot of fun. Unfortunately they were handily beaten by a far superior team, and I'm glad I wasn't out there running around.

Having a few weeks back in developed countries where things were easy and they worked and prices are fixed was a welcome break from the travel and I got a lot of rest, just hoping that it was enough to be ready for India...

Photos: Oxford, London

Out of Africa

A quick run down of my time in South Africa...

Sian, Trey, Clare and I cooked up some Fan-tastic 'gourmet burgers' for dinner on New Years eve and had a fun laid back evening. New Years day I caught up with Olivia and Zach Kosky who were in town to visit Zach's family for a few days post Christmas. It was really great to see some familiar people from back home, even if it was entirely too brief.

On the second of January a bunch of us (Sian, Clare, Trey, Jan, Kath, Jerry, and I) piled into two car and headed to the Cedarberg mountains for a few days of camping. A nice break away from the city, doing a bit of hiking, people watching, reading and writing. It also gave me a good chance to think back over my time in Africa and the upcoming trip to Asia. I had given Sian a hard time about all of the stuff we seemed to be taking with us, but when we got to the campsite I realized South African's take their camping very seriously, and we seemed to be the most ill equipped on the block; we were easily put to shame. In addition to organizing everything the women also all took care of the food and I have to say that I have never eaten so well while camping out! Being that we were camping, there was some level of digression to primitive man, and Trey and I took a keen interest in fire and would spend about an hour each night setting it up. In an attempt to be somewhat useful we also developed an intricate, height adjustable (by accident), system of rocks for cooking over the fire.

After we got back from camping, Trey and Sian and I did a great, lung busting hike up Skeleton's Gorge to Table Mountain, and found a beach on top. The last couple of days in Cape Town were relatively uneventful but we did wrap the last night up with a tasty, albeit expensive, ethiopian dinner. When I arrived in Cape Town I really wasn't sure what to expect and didn't have much to go on besides mountains and water, shark attacks, and the expectations built up by so many people saying how great it was. I have to say that this is one place that actually lived up to all of the hype; Cape Town is an amazing place, I think in large part because of the people, and a place that I would definitely love to spend a more extended period of time. All of the people from Zimbabwe that I hadn't seen in so long, the Jogi's and the Butcher's, were amazing and went well out of their way to help me have a great time, and it was great to catch up with them.

Thanks Sian for letting me crash at your place and putting up with me despite the fact that I was driving you crazy, and Clare I've been missing your amazing cooking (thinking of that gnocchi now is making my mouth water), those meals were the best eating I've done on this trip!

Photos: Cape Town, Cedarberg Mountains