Week 25 - India

Our footprints

Any guesses? No, not Mir space station!

Yes, another monkey!

Hamayun's tomb (Delhi)

Does my face seem like I'm ready for Argentina :D


Namaste and farewell from wild and crazy India!

Before we arrived in India we were thinking traveling here would be somewhat easy as people speak English..hmmmm! Ironically, it has been the most difficult and stressful!

As this is our last day in India, I kind of feel like I need a tattoo or something - possibly: I spent 6 weeks in India and SURVIVED!!! :D

You know what the main problem is, its not that there is a risk of being murdered, maybe robbed, but the problem is that there are so many con-artists in India. If I said tens of millions, it would be an understatement. I can write a book from all the first hand stories and personal experiences of the past 6 weeks! I gave you an example about 5 weeks ago when we went to the Andaman Islands. We have seen 1000's of attempts for trickery and this is not BS! Unfortunately this makes it tough to trust anyone in India. This along with poor hygiene causing tourists to become ill are the main reasons why people HATE their time in India - we have met many of these people! LUCKILY, our experience has been positive, however arduous. I don't think anything can prepare you for India, but for us maybe Nepal did a bit. Both Marina and I are thrilled we chose to come to India, however, we are more than thrilled we are leaving. India can infuriate you more than you can imagine, but equally it will surprise you in many fantastic ways!

Let me tell you about a typical day in India;
You leave your hotel and try to get an auto-rickshaw (tuk-tuk) to go sight-seeing. Firstly, you have to ask the price. Expecting a driver to use his meter (By the way, this is a legal requirement) is almost like expecting a politician to be honest! Anyhow, if he did use his meter he would drive you in circles so a fixed fee is best. So you ask, 4 times the price; you say "too expensive" and he drives off. Can you believe it, these guys would rather lose the business if they can't REALLY rip you off! Next guy we ask, 3 times the price, then a local (who has nothing to do with the driver) says, that is a good price, its 10km (6 miles) - which is a complete lie. So not only do you have to fight against the rickshaw drivers, you need to fight against the locals who have it out for you being a foreigner! Then on your 3rd try you find one that will take you for double the correct price! Happy days, off we go!
As we are driving, he veers right and seems to be heading in the wrong direction, I object (but can't be 100% sure as I don't exactly know the way) and he argues. After a bit i see exactly where we are and say, its to the left, TURN. He argues again, and after a few minutes (15 total) he pulls in front of a travel agent. Keeping in mind we are going to the Red Fort, Delhi's biggest tourist attraction. Then he asks this guy outside, I immediately recognize the scam - as he asks to look at my guidebook, I say, "YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE THE RED FORT IS"??? He says yes I do, confirming my belief that he is a trickster. Their object is to lure you into this travel agent to scam you; sometimes its shops instead. I yelled at him, we didn't pay anything and left. A bit annoyed, but as this often happens, we walk down the street, getting away from all the fraudsters, we look for more auto-rickshaws. Ten minutes later, after arguing with numerous drivers about the price - again 3-4 times the correct rate; we have one that agrees for about double the price. As he starts, he tries to turn in the wrong direction - We yell and he goes the way we tell him to. After about 5-10 minutes, and we are following the route on the map and with a compass; he tries again to go the wrong way (which would have been to a shop, tourist agent, etc). We yell at him, said we warned him, get out, don't pay and walk for about 15 min. Then we see a few cycle-rickshaws, we are only about 1km away now, we negotiate with about 10 of them who all want to ask for 4-5 times the price, we finally get a reasonable price and go. Just to summarize, this place was only 5km (3 miles) away from our hotel and its taken an hour! This is India! Now we get to the mosque we want to see; its now 10 minutes to prayer time (when they close the doors) so we have to hurry. Trying to get in, we are physically barred by tour-guides, they don't work for the mosque, but want to sell tours so its in their interest to tell us to come back at 2pm. We try to push past them and they would not let us through; it would have been a fight! Muslim people around us are apologizing (the phony tour guides are not Muslims). We abandoned the idea of seeing India's biggest mosque because of these scammers. They were also trying to tell us about fake admission fees; how do I know its fake (besides that there is always a scam) they didn't have a ticket to support this). We start walking to the next destination, then we get hassled by about 25-30 other people in the next 15 minutes on the way to the Red Fort. We are told, don't go this way, its the wrong way, or people standing in front of you to block your way (they think you will buy something if they do this), or a lady tells her children to go and pester the tourists asking for money (and these were not homeless people). Now, you want to buy your ticket, you stand in line like a normal person; then you see Indians cutting the line walking to the front or they go in front of tourists (I just figured out why they do this to tourists, because we don't hug the person in front of us. Indians do this so people don't jump in front of them). This is the typical day and I've only described the first hour!

Now you see why people don't always like India.

Its crazy, even if you pay 3 or 4 times the price, they still don't take you to the destination. You must use a map & compass, and scream and yell at them the whole time to get to the right place. If you pay too much, they think your a sucker, then your really in for a scam!

Its the only place in the world I've been (other than Nepal), where you have to yell and scream at people to be treated fairly; otherwise they take advantage of you!

The daily interactions with locals test your resolve to believe there is good in the local people.

Why is India like this, one reason, because tourists allow it to happen by not standing up for themselves.
When brought to a shop (as in a taxi driver scam), they shop.
When people threaten them (as in a scam), they give money away.
When charged 4 times the price, they pay it.
When told elaborate stories(lies), people allow themselves to believe it.
If robbed, they let the person run away.

RESULT - India is the biggest hassle of any country you can visit in your life!
Should you go? YES!!! India has fantastic food, incredible history and architecture, a fascinating culture, nature wonders, and very interesting people.

While watching TV the other night, the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels came on. Marina asked me to turn off the TV as it reminded her of all the local scammers. She went to use the internet and I continued to watch it, smiling by the irony of watching this movie in India.

Now that I have you super excited about visiting India, let me tell you where we have been this week!
Delhi > Agra > Fatipur Sikri > Delhi

Sunday - Taj Mahal: Sunday was a tough day. After being sick on the day before, we caught our 6:15am train to Agra. As we arrived (I'll not talk about the major scam we encountered setting us back an hour) we started at the famous site. The Taj is indeed one of the top 10 buildings of the world. It was simply amazing. Besides the building you have seen pictures of, there is the tomb of Mumtaz and after that we were on our way to the Red Fort. The Red Fort (there is one in Delhi too) is phenomenal - absolutely huge - not a fort, but a castle! We had enough time so we hired a taxi to take us 40km away to Fatipur Sikri to see the famous ancient city! Such a great time, but we didn't make it back to Delhi until 3:30AM! We were going to stay in Agra, but the hotel we booked was the scam so we just decided to leave Agra the same day.

Monday to Thursday: Delhi is a tough city to be in and for the first time on this trip, I wanted to spend time in our hotel. We have gone out to see bits and pieces of Delhi and have seen all the major sites. One notable thing, we watched Slumdog Millionaire last night. Not sure if you have seen this, but I can tell you, it does not show the true underbelly of India. In our opinions, this was a very soft image of India and excludes the true problems. I can give you examples, but I've probably been too negative and Marina will start editing :D

What's next; We have 3 days in London to celebrate New Years Eve with our friends, after this we are off to sunny Argentina! We land in Buenos Aires on January 3rd.

Happy New Years!

Week 24 - India

Just monkeying around at Ranakpur

A view of Udaipur from the lake

Cheeky cow stealing a nibble - the cook doesn't mind sharing

Sikh temple in Pushkar

A typical Indian family outing

Rajasthan - once the land of royalty!

Namaste! and I should say Merry Christmas!! (Sorry, not sure how to say it in Hindi)

Rajasthan was absolutely one of the best places in India we have visited! When the British left India Rajasthan was one of the poorest areas of India. It seems the Rajput clans kept all the money to themselves. Although, looking around it does kind of still seem to be the case. I hate to say it, but it seems at least 1/3 of India's people are homeless barely surviving and 1/3 live in poverty, and let me tell you the other 1/3 is NOT rich (only a very small <1%) Maybe to give you an analogy, possibly half of India's people live worst than your cat or dog. They do not have regular food, clean water, or shelter. Many parts of the major cities, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata (the three biggest) have what look like refuge camps all over; along with the rural areas on the sides of roads and especially along train stations. I can tell you from seeing this hundreds of times, it looks like the commercials showing poor Africa asking for donations. Sorry to dampen your Christmas spirit - I should have started this blog much more positive as Marina tells me from time to time :) - does the smile help?

One funny thing about India possibly relates to the duality of man theory; or should I say the duality of countries.
Hear me out;
India - People never tan and extensively use whitening creams, its advertised on all TV commercial breaks
America/England - Most people tan or at least want to be a bit darker skinned.
India - Being overweight is almost a kind of status symbol as the poor homeless are very thin; I think I mentioned this a few blogs ago
America/England - People spend a lot of money in gyms and diet programs to be thin.
India - As adults, people are encouraged to live with their parents even when they are married.
America/England - This is considered a bit strange and we are encouraged to move out
India - Traditions are ahead of progress
America/England - Progress is ahead of tradition

I'll stop philosophizing for a minute and get back to the funny stuff. Some advice if traveling in India - be VERY careful when you wash your clothes. If I told you that clothes/bed sheets/towels are often washed in rivers or lakes you might not think too much of it picturing the Colorado river or Mark Twain Lake. In many rivers in India the river is so heavily polluted in areas that the water is actually septic - no oxygen exists. I'm not sure if I mentioned in an earlier post, the way people dispose of the dead in India is not by burial, its by burning the body on a funeral pyre by the river and pushing the ashes and remaining parts in the water. Many families do not have the money to do this and just push the body in the water for animals to eat. Along with massive amounts of raw sewage being pumped in rivers and lakes; the Ganges for example, is filthier than any natural disaster the west has seen. I would much rather bath in the oil spill in Alaska or the Caribbean than the Ganges. So back to the point, if you do laundry, its often washed in this water. We met a few English travelers who had their clothes washed in Varinassi (a holy city on the Ganges) and after getting the clothes back had to throw them away... So you may ask, how do we do our laundry; well, remember the story about the bucket in the bathroom...

So what have we been doing during this festive holiday week;
Udaipur > Pushkar > Ajmer > Delhi

Sunday - Udaipur's Sunset: We arrived in Udaipur and met a few friends from Nepal (Dennis & Pilar) and went to see the big palace. That night we enjoyed a few beers, watching one of the best sunsets in India over the gorgeous old town of Udaipur which surrounds Lake Pichola.

Monday - Kumbalgargh fort and Ranakpur Jain Temple: Possibly two highlights of our trip, one because they were almost diserted, but also because they are utterly amazing. We hired a taxi to drive us about two hours to a rural area where Kumbalgargh fort is hidden away. It has dozens of kilometers of walls protecting the palace it was in great condition and remarkable to see. Our next stop was Ranakpur; an intricately carved white marble temple. This Jain temple has 1444 marble pillars all carved differently. The place is amazing. Both sites are however under threat. The local monkeys own the territory and demand food as you drive by, sometimes jumping on the cars. Possibly dangerous, but they are very cute! :D

Tuesday - Pichola Lake Cruise: On Tuesday we met up with our friends from Varkela, Kerala; Anthony and Cara. We had a great cruise over to Jagmandir island and endulged in a few drinks just on the water with the city of Udaipur as our view! Again we enjoyed the gorgeous sunset on a rooftop restaurant.

Wednesday - Pushkar the Brahman city; in Pushkar there is no meat, eggs or alcohol, hmm you may ask, what do you do in Pushkar, well to answer it perfectly, not much.... We expected Pushkar to be this fantastically beautiful place as it sits on a lake like Udaipur. As its a Braham (type of holy city) there are about 10 times more cows on the street than anywhere else in India - let me tell you that's a lot! And what happens where there are lots of cows, there are lots of cow pies, and what happens where there are lots of cow pies, lots of flys.... We didn't stay long :(

Thursday - Climbing to Targagh Fort: We spent today in Ajmer which had quite a few excellent sites. However it wasn't the easiest city to see. Around the Sufi Mosque it was pretty crazy. Lots of people pushing/pulling/selling - it was not the easiest place to visit. As we climbed up the small mountain to Targagh Fort - only about 90 minutes to get up; we must have had 200+ people hassle us. From people stepping in front of your deliberately, to getting grabbed, to pretend beggars to even a kid swinging a hammer at me, but I keep telling myself, this is India, be patient! We nearly ran down to avoid the problems, but given you don't walk too much in India, we really enjoyed the exercise.

Friday - Relaxation: Simply after the draining day before, we just relaxed. We had our train to Delhi at 3:50pm on which I unfortunately became a bit ill - not Delhi Belly, but more like flu symptoms. I hung in there and we made it to our hotel in Delhi before midnight (Christmas)!

Saturday - Christmas: We had planned to go to a Catholic Church, but I couldn't get out of bed. We did manage to get out and have some Italian food for dinner and then rushed back home - the good news is Marina was fine and I am doing well now.

So whats next: Agra, Fatipur Sikri and back to Delhi. Then London for New Years Eve!!

More news to be heard very soon,

Namaste,

Daniel and Marina

Week 23 - India

Our view in Goa - you see why we just chilled for 3 days.... :D

Clean your clothes in Mumbai...

Having an excellent Indian meal with a few Kingfisher beers

The Taj Mahal Hotel to the left, and the Gateway of India to the right

I only said hello... they mobbed me!! Sorry Marina

A family of the 100 million+ poor which live on the streets

Namaste!

I'm writing this post from the thrilling city of Bollywood, I mean Bombay, I mean Mumbai. I know it was never Bollywood, but things in India have a strange habit of changing names so you never can be sure. Most of the streets are changing their names; I suppose to get away from the English names.

Speaking of English, and speaking English, are the Indians! I've told Marina that we should really enjoy this ability to speak clearly with all local people rich and poor. In India there are 29 states, that for the most part all have their own language, Punjab - Punjabi, Gujarat - Gujarati, Tamil Nadu - Tamil, and when India was fused together and made one country in 1947 the official language was proclaimed Hindi. Many of these states are very proud of their language and do not even speak Hindi - I mean well educated people; therefore the common language has seemingly become English instead of Hindi - watch, in 20 years this will be the first language! As the English have been gone for more then 60 years, they are slowly creeping back in, so to speak..

I'm writing you from the comfortable abode of the reasonably posh Regency Hotel in Mumbai, 50 meters from the world famous Taj Mahal Hotel which was attacked by Pakistani terrorists just two years ago. The reason we have somewhat splurged on this nicer hotel than our backpacking budget provides is due to a very very invisible small problem. This problem is not noticed as you check into your hotel and its very common in India; so common as we have faced the problem in about half of the hotels we have stayed, mid-range and budget. The cause, as little as they are, visit in the middle of the night and bite all over. India has many diseases and dangers, but the one that plagues many travelers along with us is bedbugs. So as you sleep sound tonight be thankful they haven't come to visit you...

I mentioned I would write about the trains, however we have not stayed in the cattle class area which looks like something out of Shindler's List, we have tried a few different parts. As long as Indian trains are; seemingly 1 kilometer long (3,100 feet) - maybe not that long, but they go forever. Its all very organised, many times you even have your name on the car. The service is phenomenal - the Europe could learn a thing or two and the food and coffee is excellent - coffees are $0.10. There are even electrical outlets everywhere which is not common in the UK. Now this is not exactly a pleasure cruise though, as mentioned above you will find these little invisible "friends" in the blankets for overnight trains and also the little black roaches everyone loves come to say Namaste at the most inopportune time - possibly when your reading and he says hello next to your face... :D The trains in our experience have been very efficient, on time and a great way to travel, but I think the trains may not have been modernised or improved since the British left - windows are tough to see out of and all high class seats have the brown leather seats you saw in old European trains. One thing I recommend when travelling in India, especially in December and January, buy your tickets very very early - even a month if possible. There are a billion people and lots of tourists so they sell out quick.. Thatbeingsaid, to truly travel India, you must take a local commuter train. This is an experience on its own. Firstly, on all trains in India, the doors are never closed (hmm dangerous)? When we took a commuter train on Saturday, we just arrived at the station and were travelling maybe 7mph (10kph) and a guy jumped out knocking down about 3 people in the large crowd eager to board. Then another, followed by another. People were now jumping on - it was still going atleast 5mph!! It was utter chaos; and this was noon - not rush hour!!!! They didn't let people get off and shoved their way on - very roughly! I was especially concerned for Marina's safety at this point. So going back to my American football days, I rammed about 5 guys, almost to the floor and then people let us and the other passengers through. I'm still in awe - and when we got back to Mumbai - the same thing occurred!

Here is our past week; Baga(Goa) > Mumbai

Monday to Wednesday - The wild and fun beaches of Goa: Ladies if your bad packers and you have forgotten your bikini on a trip to India, don't worry, you can do as the locals do; swim in all your clothes! Well, unless you're of the male gender. Yes, I'm serious, in India most women swim in their street clothes - which is typically a Sari. That being said, in Goa, Indians do wear bathing suits, elsewhere its quite riskay or controversial to do so in this conservative country.
In Goa, we just chilled. Our hotel was 50 meters from the beach in Baga and every restaurant on the beach provides wooden relining chairs to lounge on and sell you food and drinks. For three days we repeated this routine.
If the cold war reappears and the US wants to invade Russia, I recommend they start with Baga, Goa (Little Moscow as I call it)! AS you're trying to relax on the calm golden sand beaches, that is fighting off pushy Indian sales people, you see comrades in arms, along with Indian men holding hands while hearing Niet, Niet, Niet as the Russians fight off buying hippy jewelery, dirty peanuts, dodgy pedicures, ear cleaning services and the opportunity to be massaged by a big hairy Indian man!
So why did we leave Kerala for Goa, well, Goa has a GREAT nightlife! Which was why we usually just lounged. Goa was a main trading centre for the Portuguese, and did they leave something great behind; the ability to make Port Wine - not as good as the real stuff, but with a whole bottle for 300 rupees in a posh bar; we drank lots of it!

Thursday - Dabba-Wallahs: I heard lots of travelers who missed Mumbai intentionally or unintentionally; boy did they miss something special. If you are a fan of gorgeous architecture - buy a ticket now for some of the best in India. From what we have seen of India so far, this is by far the best city! What is a Dabba-Wallah you may ask. We heard about this before we left and I was itching to see one, which we did on Thursday. Many Indian men who go off to their work in offices have food made by their wives, and rather than bringing it, its delivered (probably still hot) by Dabbah-Wallahs. In Mumbai 200,000 meals/day reach their intended owner. They ride bicycles and most are illiterate using a coding system. When we met one, I say are you a dabbah-wallah and he very proudly said "yes" and let us take a photo. One other amazing activity we saw in Mumbai this day was at the Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, Mumbai's biggest laundromat. Now, you're probably saying, wow - you are really "living it up"; well you have to see it! They beat the clothes to death making a huge amount of noise and fields of clothes are drying on dirty roof tops - whites with whites and colours with colours.

Friday - Partying Mumbai style: As you would expect within all this stunning architecture is a lively party scene. After our boat trip to Elephant Island we started the night at the Taj Mahal Hotel, enjoying the Posh confines which seem to have healed from the 2008 attrocities. We also had one of our best meals that night; just when you think Indian curry can't get any better - there is Kyber restaurant! We had a few drinks with some young Indian businessmen and learned more about arranged marriages. When you ask, some will say, no India doesn't have arranged marriages any more; or its not arranged, you meet the girl, then choose yourself. There is a Super Human push to show how modern India is. Despite the older chap (29 years old) telling me how its not like that anymore and he got to chose his wife. He decided to marry her within 40 minutes of the introduction by parents. So even in high society, this is occuring regulary. From middle to poor, my understanding is this is very frequent. Marina was in need of dancing so we hit Polly Esthers the end off the night!

Saturday - Kaneri Caves: Yesterday was a bit rough with all the partying, but we picked ourselves out of bed and took the train to Ghandi National Park - just outside Mumbai. You would have read above about our crazy train ride. The Keneri caves were amazing. These were built in the 1st century and have elaborate Buddha carvings everywhere. Thankfully we didn't' eat the whole samosa bought from a street vendor. We have not experienced any troubles with Indian food so far as most people get whats called Delhi Belly - food poisoning from the poor conditions. Marina felt the samosa, but was fine by daytime. However, I think the 5 months in Asia has helped build our stomachs to be pretty tough!

Whats happening next on our agenda - which you probably have noticed has slowed a bit. Well we are getting back in gear after acquiring a decent sun tan. On Sunday the 19th we fly to Udaipur, Rajistan. We will then see Pushkar and Ajmer before heading to New Delhi.

My next post will be a festive one which despite my purchase of a Santa hat, lacks all the great Christmas spirit I'm used to.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!!

Dan and Marina

Week 22 - India

The beach at Varkala

Great waves

Cooking

Tandoori Fish

Classified ads: Find a spouse by your caste level!

Namaste! Hello from the remarkable region of Kerala!

The past week has been more of a holiday (vacation) than arduous backpacker style travel. We have stayed in comfortable hotels, ate 5 star quality meals, and swam in 5 star quality waves, but before I get too carried away, let me tell you something that I've finally just come to grips with....

In India people are not equal, by any means; with 20 people, there are probably 20 different levels. This is referred to as the "Caste System". With my American ideals, I believe people are all equal regardless of race, religion, wealth, etc, UNLESS, you are a Manchester United fan, then you are the scum of the earth! I'll do my best to explain this phenomena known as the caste system. If your father is a rickshaw driver or a fisherman then this will be the level of your caste, regardless of your education, job, or intelligence. There are thousands of castes and its a way of probably aristocrats thousands of years ago, creating a hierarchy within society and then the people following it to a tee all the way down. People almost always marry within their caste. In fact we have read the classfied ads in newspapers detailing ones caste; looking for not a girl/boy friend, but a spouse. I know this happens a bit in many counties, but in India its a serious problem, in my opinion. The reason: The people of India don't progress - hence the mass scale poverty! As the believe in reincarnation, they are seemingly told just don't rock the boat and you will be reborn in a higher caste. From what I've read, the first Buddha tried to change this in India in the 500's, but Buddhism wasn't accepted and Hinduism prevailed.

I was going to tell you about what its like to ride the train in India, but this morning I realised that we hadn't ridden in a lower class carriage yet, so we will do so to give the full story.

In the mean time, let me tell you about the bucket. In all hotels, no matter of the level, (well, we haven't stayed at the Taj Mahal Hotel yet), they have a big bucket with a scoop. At first, we weren't sure if it was left by the cleaner or if it was for laundry or what. Then we noticed homeless people using this on the street to bath. Somehow its worked its way into hotels as well. What is a bit frustrating is many of the showers do not have hot water, but the lower taps to fill the bucket do; so when in Rome, we have been using the bucket and its hot water to bath :D

Our past week in the Indian state of Kerala: Varkala > Ernakulam

Monday to Friday - The chilled beach town of Varkala: This cliff side beach town (if that makes sense), is very hard to leave. Such a splendid and charming small bastion of relaxation in chaotic India. Let me tell you about a few highlights of our stay here. We had a cooking course one day, learning to make Chicken Tikka Masala, Palak Paneer, Parata, and Prawn Biriyani - well, Marina had the lesson and and watched, well just wrote down the ingredients, eager to steal their secrets! I'm sure Marina's mother Ludmilla will be happy she has now cooked for me on this trip. This was the only time we had curry during the 5 days; the reason, SEAFOOD. Not just seafood, but the best seafood of my life!!! I can tell you for sure, this has beat the Seychelles and is the number one destination for seafood I've been to! Let me describe the normal dinner for us EVERY night; 4-6 Tiger Prawns (jumbo shrimp) each about 3 huge bites for me, several good sized calamari. Both the prawns and calamari would be grilled with butter, garlic and lemon. Then for the main dish, we would have a tandoori fish, HUGE Red Snapper, tuna, barracuda, or my favourite Butterfish -you can only imagine what that tastes like! Along with sides of salad and grilled veggies! :D And all of this would be about $15 total for both of us. YES! Then lunch was a huge steak of Mahi Mahi, or the above with sides for $4/each.
Another great thing about Varkala are the beaches, which is tough to say about India as they are usually dirty. Not in Varkala - its BLACK sand beaches are fantastic! Also, the waves, maybe we were lucky, but we had 10 foot (3 meter) waves, every day! So fun! In the restaurants all night we would hear the waves crashing!
Lastly the fun people, we had a good time partying, well kind of partying, they can covertly sell you beer as its not fully legal, so its pretty open, but the bottles need to stay on the floor.. Varkala -what a great place! Its our best food place of this entire trip so far and one of our favourites as well!

Saturday - Fort Cochin: We have come for our last night in Kerala to Ernakulam and spent yesterday at its island area of Fort Cochin. This was an island occupied by Europeans for trading purposes hundreds of years ago and as a result its full of churches, trees, parks, and its clean! Seemingly its run by Muslims, Christians, and Jews, its a phenomenal atmosphere to stroll the streets without hassle, looking at the beautiful colonial buildings, watching the fisherman hauling in their catches (although I was unhappy to see the two baby hammerhead sharks). We also visited St Francis Church, founded by the Portuguese in the 1500's is where Vasco De Gama was buried!
I just wish we could stay longer here! Seemingly, I've been saying that about most places in India!

Well time to get going, I'm ready for a delicious curry! So whats next, today is Sunday and we are taking a long train journey to Goa for a few days and then up to Mumbai and Bollywood!

Until next time,

Dan and Marina

Week 21 - India

Beautiful Neil Island's Pier

Out for a ride

India safety practices at Port Blair's Cellular Prison

Ramakrishna Mutt temple

St Thomas

Valluvar Kottam

Party time kingfisher style!!!

Namaste! or excuse me, I should say - Vanakkam as we are in Tamil Nadu (India's southwest state and not a big fan of the Hindi language)!

It was a shame to leave the islands and especially to Chennai (formerly Madras) which all travelers seem to avoid due to the guidebooks and people who say Chennai is boring. Well, let me tell you, yes, we hated leaving the beautiful Andaman islands, but Chennai has been a great surprise. Yes the rickshaw drivers are the scum of the earth, but besides that there are loads of great sites and fun nightlife!

Just a few tidbits on India before I tell you too much of what we have been doing;

If any of you want to fine tune your negotiation skills - come to India... if you are a sucker you will pay triple the price, which usually isn't that much, but they laugh at you after - which is a bit infuriating to say the least. And you can hear them say.. 150 rupees hahaha to their mates they past as you drive. So in India its all about negotiation - remember my comments about Nepal and they act as if you are taking food out of the mouths of their children; well it hasn't been quite that bad here, but I'm expecting it could be.

Next - Eating... So the Chinese use chopsticks, Europeans use knives and forks, what do Indians use; hmm, let me give you a hint, its neither of these; you normally get 10 utensils, but only use 5... still thinking... You can take them everywhere with you and have to take them.. ok, if you still don't know get on a plane to come see... You wouldn't believe it, in a nice hotel restaurant, knives, forks on the table, people sit and eat with their fingers... I don't mean tapas, I'm talking wet curry and rice - its dripping all over the place... seriously funny...

What is with the bobble heads... If your not north american you will not get the term - see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSRnU8rV3ig&feature=fvst
When you ask an Indian something, his head just bobbles, so you will not know if it means yes or know; its very strange and very funny. I'm not sure if they know this....

Poverty... Its very sad to see and I mentioned it in my last post, but Chennai, like Kolkata has a serious issue of poverty, probably 1 million+ homeless. The really sad part is these people seem to work very hard and they just get paid so little. I know its been this way for decades and probably centuries, but if India is going to move to this world super power that it has aspirations to be, it really needs to improve the poverty problem.

On a more positive note.... Where have we been - Havelock Island > Neil Island > Port Blair > Chennai

Monday: Queasy two hour boat ride and Marina's first wreck dive - These two were our last dives of the Andamans and were pretty good ones. We took a narrow fishing boat out to the dive sites which putted along rocking side by side until most people were sick. We were the only ones who didn't take pills for this (part of my phobia of no putting unnecessary medicine into my body and we survived. Nice dives, we saw lobsters, crabs, baby shrimps, small squid, lionfish, and lots of other reef fish - unfortunately no sharks :D

Tuesday: Neil Island - We left Havelock Island on Tuesday for the small sleepy island of Neil where they barely have any vehicles on the road - not as quiet as La Digue in the Seychelles, but pretty nice nonetheless. However the island is very over-populated, not by people like in the mainland, but by crabs. Everywhere you look you will see hermit crabs and coconut crabs roaming around. So on Neil island if you hear something at night lurking in the bushes, BEWARE, they do have claws and it could case a nasty ouchie for a few seconds...

Wednesday: Biking Neil - Marina's second time on a bicycle was a success other than the patience needed due to the poor bikes they have on Neil Island - she managed to stay on without any serious incidents. The bikes are so bad (despite being almost brand new), my brakes fell off within 5 minutes... Yes, fell off! For the first time in India we saw rain - I thought it was a myth, but it did come and it did rain cats and dogs - luckily it was just one of these tropical showers that comes and quickly leaves. So by afternoon we were chilling on the deserted golden sand beaches!

Thursday: Port Blair - This is the main island of the Andamans and I can see why people quickly leave, there is not much to do. However, later that night, still rocking from the 2 hour ferry from Neil Island to Port Blair, we found a decent hotel bar which as it happens was decorated like the inside of a ship - so the rocking seemed to increase. Also, due to the fact that they were out of Kingfisher premium and we had to drink the 8% bottle. Yes, 8% - if your Chinese and used to the water beer of China, beware in India! :D

Friday: Cellular Jail and an Indian Hen (Bachlorette) party - Cellular Jail was quite an interesting experience, the Andaman islands during colonial days housed Indian Political prisoners, kind of like a Guantanamo bay. If you were Indian during the rule of the British and were outspoken with followers, you could be sent here. The inmates were forced to do hard labor and spent their time in solitary confinement. Very interesting to see. So after our flight to Chennai, we started to learn that this city certainly does have something to offer; partying. We hit a few places and then settled on 10 Downing Street - despite the name, it wasn't a haven for expats. Inside were about 100-200 Indian girls all dressed in modern western clothes having a good time. But as 10pm came, dozens of husbands also showed up to ensure their wives were not up to any mischief - and it just almost seemed like the west.. :D I'll tell you later about all the conservative stuff we have been seeing, its pretty amazing.

Saturday: St Thomas' Grave and the workman's restaurant - Its not every day you get to see the tomb of one of Jesus' 12 apostles! India is seemly a major stop for Catholics, with Mother Teresa's in Kolkata to St Thomas in Chennai. He was here until 72AD converting people until he was martyred. There are only two other places in the world a church contains the body of an apostle - St Peter's in Rome (obvious who) and St James in Valencia, Spain. All I can say is wow - it was VERY special! Later that day we went to a local basic workmen's restaurant or thats what they call it. There, you were given a banana leaf for a plate, served rice, and then some types of veggie curry on this. As mentioned above, we used our Indian utensils to eat... and it was ok, it kind of made me feel like being a kid and was looking over my shoulder for mom to say, stop playing with your food and eat it! Playing with the food is actually one of the reason people like using their fingers, so I'm told.. :D

Sunday: Rain - well the rain has followed us indeed and after a late night out at a club called Dublin - yeah I was surprised, should have been called Tantra or Pasha, we are taking it easy today. We have a night train that takes us to Kerala and luckily I was able to get some good AC sleeper seats. As there are over a billion people in India, tickets sell fast. So leaving Chennai, I am very happy we have come here, the sites are very impressive, not just the Christian ones, but the British East India Company fort, the Hindu temples, and the bars!

So our next week is really dedicated to Kerala's beaches, backwaters, and possibly national parks. Stay tuned for next week to find out all the scary details...

poyittu varukiren!

Dan and Marina

Week 20 - India

Flower salesmen in Kolkata

Having a Shisha at Shisha bar in Kolkata

The Victoria Memorial

Having a nice romantic ride

Havelock Island

The tropical feeling

Namaste!

Intriguing, Interesting, and Invigorating India! For all my life I could only image what this crazy country would be like; mostly basing my expectations on a Londoner's viewpoint (my buddy Raj).

India is an ancient and traditional country still practicing traditional values along with maintaining an sometimes ancient activities. Just to tell you a story, in Kolkata we were at a young man's internet cafe and his mother came into bless it with their Kali statue ensuring he would be protected; from viruses, maybe as we were cleaning viruses off our USB sticks containing our pictures. You have to be careful what you can pick up in these places...

Let me tell you my favourite part about India; THE FOOD! Oh man, this place is a curry-hound's dream! I could eat these Indian curries for Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner; well I kind of tried this and now I've realised, its not exactly low calorie food. I had lost about 7 kilos (15lbs) on the trip so far, and then we came to India... Marina is a dream wife as she somehow just maintains her weight. I on the other hand just realised that I can't eat curry every meal if I want to keep my SUPER athletic figure... :D haha, I won't comment on who is skinny and who is not in this country, but I'll leave you with this on the subject, Marina picked up a Cosmopoliton magazine and Cosmo was recommending diets that had women eating full dinner meals at 930pm and some other bizarre stuff.

So where have we been jumping around;

Kolkata > Andaman Islands (Havelock Island)

Tuesday: Crossing the Indian Boarder - You heard about our great experience leaving Bangladesh. In Kolkata they had exactly what we needed after two weeks in Bangladesh; a nice cold BEER!!! Wow, It had been over two weeks without a beer and we were loving the first one. People in the bar must have thought we had been trapped on a deserted island for 3 years! That was really our highlight of the day, or month, that one cold tasty Kingfisher beer!

Wednesday: Mother Teresa's Mission - Wow, going to Mother Teresa's mission was overwhelming. Probably one of the top 3 humanitarians of the 20th century we had goosebumps going in. The nuns were as you expect in the blue and white saris. I can see why she settled in Kolkata. We really liked Kolkata as it was a gorgeous aging colonial city. Littered with lovely buildings, great bars and restaurants, incredible sites, and on the downside, the people there are very poor. It was heart-wrenching to see whole families on the sidewalk sleeping on a blanket, or under a roofed shop. We saw a lot of homeless in Bangladesh, but in Kolkata, there must be several million homeless people - it was pretty tough to see. This is why Mother Teresa settled here, its a place they can make a world of a difference.

Thursday: Victoria Memorial - Lonely planet has a great quote, and I hate stealing from the guidebook, but this was excellent; "Had it been built for a beautiful Indian princess rather than a dead colonial queen, it would surely rate as one of India's greatest buildings". We haven't seen much of India yet, but the white marble gigantic Victoria Memorial building is impressive and certainly warrants a trip to Kolkata just for this. This day was thanksgiving and those of you who have been at my place for my annual feast, I hate to say we didn't repeat this in India. Despite calling many of the 5 star hotels, I couldn't find anyone cooking a turkey - so we settled on delicious Indian food.

Friday: Fighting Con-artists - This day we flew from Kolkata to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. You may have to google map the Andamans; they are roughly 1000 km east of Sri Lanka and west of Thailand in the middle of no where. Before I tell you about this tropical paradise, let me tell you what happened at the harbor as we were trying to get the last ferry of the day which left in 45 minutes. The ticket counter was closed and showed this so a man told us just to give our money to the guard and he would get us tickets; for a small fee. I was not too bothered as they were not asking too much extra (about $5 for our 3 tickets - we had another person with us). For traveling on the Andemans you need a permit which is almost as important as your passport (its an official paper with our personal details on it); so he took these papers, our money and after about 5 minutes we noticed them acting fishy. Marina picked up on this first and she went past the gate that the security guard had blocked off and Marina asked some people who said she could buy tickets there. I saw one of the guys walking away from the scene suspiciously. I jogged after him and he started running; so I knew they were thieves, so I chased him down, he was surprisingly slow and just as I was about to tackle him he stopped an began to cooperate. Its not the money, but if we lose the permits, we were not getting to the tropical paradise that day. Marina grabbed the phony guard by the shoulders - he was about 10kgs smaller than Marina and very scared. They quickly gave our money and permits back and fled the scene. Hilarious!

Saturday: Diving - Firstly let me tell you more about the Andamans - Spectacular; not much to do, but the place is very nice! I wouldn't rank it with the Seychelles, but its an excellent destination to forget about the world. Being India, they have great food. On this Saturday we went diving. Now it used to have the reputation as one of the world's premier dive sites, its good, and has a great aquatic life, but the coral has been destroyed from the Sunami. On top of this the underwater visibility wasn't the best, but diving in 28degree water (78F) without a wetsuit is what I like!

Sunday: Scootering around Havelock - Our casual day, we rented a scooter and drove around the island seeing the gorgeous #7 beach. We spent most of the day here until our night dive. It was Marina's first so she was scared. Let me explain what a night dive is if you haven't hear do this; you go scuba diving at night. Yes pretty easy to figure out, but when its pitch black, in the ocean, it can be a bit scary; even if you have done it a few times. What was great about this dive and the others is you see so many critters, crabs, lobsters, loads of sleeping fish - yes they just float there sleeping and you wake them up with a torch (flashlight) - its pretty funny. Along with the illuminescent plankton which lights up the water, making a night dive is a very tranquil experience.

So what are we up to next; Neil Island, Port Blair, and then over to Chennai (Madras)

Thanks for reading,

Night,

Dan and Marina