Monday, January 22, 2007

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.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

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