Just a really quick note to let my pen pals know that I am going back home tomorrow, and in a matter of a few days I will have written to all of you. It was an amazing journey and I will tell you more about it in one-to-one emails.
Cheers to everyone from Mumbai.
Sunday, 24 December 2006
Thursday, 21 December 2006
I M P R E S S E D
I can't wait to start writing about Mumbai, so all I'm saying about yesterday's flea market at Anjuna, Goa, is that it was great, very-very-very colourful, and I bought a few little somethings, in prices, though, much higher than those I had found for the same things elsewhere. But, when an old lady tells you that she can't cut 50 rupees, less than a euro, because she woke up at four in the morning to go set up her stall with fishing pants, well, you can't really argue, especially if you are buying a pair of these cute pants for two dollars... By the way, the beach at Anjuna is nice too, but what I am mostly keeping from my visit yesterday to this little coastal village, is the look on most westerners faces, a look that screamed out loud that they had been high for days now, if you know what I mean... Sooooooo, Mumbai, the former Bombay, which, by the way, is hugely still called Bombay by many people I happened to hear pronounce the name of the city. The train arrived at 6am, and... well, I have to say that it was love at second sight... Even before I got off the train, I got approached by some guys called cullies or something like that, people who make a living by carrying passengers' luggage at train stations. Since I am only carrying one little backpack, I said no, and got off the train. There, a new wave of... people-bees waited for me, taxi drivers who jumped on me with loud voices, asking me where I was going, while all I wanted was to get a couple of minutes to wake up properly (I was sleeping until two minutes before the train arrived at the station). Exiting the station building, I avoided another wave of taxi drivers and... this is when I started falling for this city. A few minutes after 6am, almost empty streets, hardly any light in the sky since the sun was still down, and there I was, walking towards the south, knowing which hotel I would like to stay at. The humidity was not any more a problem, unlike the first day I landed at Mumbai, 21 days ago, about the same time, a little after 6am. I guess I have gotten used to it by now... I walked past homeless people lying in the streets, a sight I have, unfortunately, gotten used to as well, saw people washing their teeth on street pavements, saw others washing their cars (many-many of them, actually), and kept walking, enjoying the wide streets, with hardly any cars. After less than half an hour I had reached the Gateway to India, the arch which is Mumbai's emblem, situated right next to the sea. In front of the arch there is a small park, and two dozens of people were practicing yoga, stretching, doing Swedish gymnastics, meditating, images I had seen on TV in documentaries about China, not India. In ten minutes I was at the door of Bentley's Hotel, the place I wanted to stay in Mumbai. After having spent far less to what I expected in this trip, I thought I should allow myself a little luxury and give the 1200 rupees they charge per night, in the hotel which comes with the fame of the most "atmospheric" among the -relatively- low budget ones. The receptionist asked me if I had made a reservation, to get my "paid", as we say in Greece, I don't know if the same expression exists in English, answer. "Actually I sent you two emails a month ago and I never got an answer". A simple "oh" was his reaction... Anyhow, turned out no rooms were available, so, since I couldn't stay there, I chose the cheapest possible place, the Red Shield Hostel. Two things I shall say about it. First, a dorm bed costs 150 rupees per night (breakfast included, we are talking about 3 dollars). Second, in the dormitory, the moment I bended over to tie my shoe laces, I saw a bug walking on the floor, one of those bugs that suck your blood in your sleep. Am I looking forward to spending the night in my bed? Let me help you, the answer has two letters, one vowel and one consonant. BUT, I am not going to bed before midnight, which is when they lock the door, AND, I am waking up at 6 or 6:30 to be at the Gateway of India the moment the sun will start rising, so as to take some nice pictures. So, after locking my stuff in the locker, I went for my first stroll, and the love relationship with the city started growing. The British legacy, architecture-wise, is really breath-taking. Everywhere I turned to look I saw incredible buildings and more incredible buildings and wide streets and, and, and... I was impressed. Bombay, in my mind, as I grew up, was surrounded by a... mystic, could say, aura, the name, the history, the pictures I had seen, so I didn't need too much to fall in love with it... I don't know what people think, but if you ask me, walking for almost ten hours in Mumbai's streets, was highly pleasurable, and didn't feel so suffocating as in Hyderabad, Chennai, or Bangalore... When I got tired, there was a cute juice stall to stop and quench my thirst, and in the corner there would be a CD store, and in another corner there would be a bookstore (my favourite shopping places while travelling), and then there would be more impressive buildings, and more wide avenues, and open spaces, big open spaces, where kids (and not only) would be playing cricket... Wonderful... Really wonderful... By the way, I wanted to finish the day going to the movies, I want to see some Bollywood movie which is BIG at the moment in the country, "Dhoom 2", but my stomach is pulling sneaky tricks since midday, and I don't trust myself sitting in a cinema theatre for almost three hours without needing to go to the toilet, and missing part of the movie. Tomorrow. Oh, almost forgot, as I was walking in the morning towards Bentley's hotel, I saw a movie crew shooting a scene at a place called (don't laugh, oh well, laugh...) "Horniman Circle", a square. Good thing it's "i" and not "y" (giggle :-)).
Twenty one days in India, and earlier I was thinking what my overall impressions are, about the Indians. Hm... I'll keep this one for me... As for the country, at least the part I saw, I have a thousand good things to say, and another thousand not so good, BUT, as I wrote, I think, in one of my very first posts, one of the most appealing things about this country, is that you are NEVER bored. I find it impossible to get bored... Yesterday I was on the bus from Anjuna to Mapusa, on my way back to Panjim to take the train to Mumbai, and as I was watching out of the window admiring the scenery, my bus overlapped an elephant (think about it, right out of the blue you see a huge elephant in half a meter distance on your left...), and a while later we had to stop because a cow was having... fun, sitting in the middle of the road, not giving a dime about the cars/buses/trucks beeping... Then, today, I am in Mumbai, in a city of 16+ million people, being in awe of the buildings the British left behind, the day they left the country... Your eyes are bombarded constantly by images that don't leave you, not a tiny bit, indifferent, and in the end of the day you feel you have seen things you will NEVER forget, even if a brick falls on your head and it gives you an A class amnesia...
Twenty one days in India, and earlier I was thinking what my overall impressions are, about the Indians. Hm... I'll keep this one for me... As for the country, at least the part I saw, I have a thousand good things to say, and another thousand not so good, BUT, as I wrote, I think, in one of my very first posts, one of the most appealing things about this country, is that you are NEVER bored. I find it impossible to get bored... Yesterday I was on the bus from Anjuna to Mapusa, on my way back to Panjim to take the train to Mumbai, and as I was watching out of the window admiring the scenery, my bus overlapped an elephant (think about it, right out of the blue you see a huge elephant in half a meter distance on your left...), and a while later we had to stop because a cow was having... fun, sitting in the middle of the road, not giving a dime about the cars/buses/trucks beeping... Then, today, I am in Mumbai, in a city of 16+ million people, being in awe of the buildings the British left behind, the day they left the country... Your eyes are bombarded constantly by images that don't leave you, not a tiny bit, indifferent, and in the end of the day you feel you have seen things you will NEVER forget, even if a brick falls on your head and it gives you an A class amnesia...
Tuesday, 19 December 2006
My vote goes toooooo Vagator
I think I understand now why Indians have chosen cow as their holy animal... After having taken my tenth short bus ride in this country, yep, I can say I can see why the Indians chose cow, the most, maybe, passive animal on the face of earth... The same look I see on cows' eyes, that... passive, non-moaning, non-getting angry look, the very same look I see on Indians' eyes on buses, on extra-extra-extra crowded buses, in which even the last millimetre of empty(?) space is taken advantage of the ticket guys to staff more people on board... I'm telling you, the bus may be F U L L, it may be damn hot, the driver may be doing some stupid things with the brake (stepping on it the moment someone least expects it), bodies may be falling on each other, standing people may be falling on the laps of those sitting, and still, no one moans, no one says "that's enough, there is no space for more people, hey, driver, you are carrying people and not potatoes". The only somewhat annoyed looks I have seen, came from girls, when "accidentally" a guy would push his body on the girl's... That's all... They just... persevere (is this the right word?), they just accept it, saying nothing, not moaning, not making a single move to show that they are in a uncomfortable position... By the way, I am not, really, I'm not, moaning about the conditions of the bus travel in India, because, if you think about it, it is MY choice to take a 5 rupees crowded bus instead of a 100 rupees auto rickshaw or 200 rupees taxi, so, if you think about it, I really have no right to complain. But on the other hand, I am not obliged to accept the travel conditions without saying something about it... I'm telling you, cows would NEVER make it to be considered holy in Greece...Talking about Greece, we have a saying which in English can be translated in something like... "something good comes from every obstacle" (prospatho na metafraso to "kathe ebodio gia kalo"). This morning I woke up having in mind going to some beaches again, but after yesterday's experience on the buses I just... didn't get thrilled at the idea of spending more time on buses. Taxi drivers asked me for crazy money to take me to Vagator and Chapora, the beaches I wanted to see today, so I decided to rent a bicycle and ride to Old Goa instead, take it easy, spend the day not in some beaches, but riding a bicycle in rather non busy roads around Panjim, the town I am based at. Hm... The only bicycle I found available was one that no matter how hard I tried to get a hold of, I failed, failed big, so I forgot the whole idea, and went back to my original beaches plan. Goooooooood thing, because the day proved to be aaaaamazing. OK, the buses were a pain, again, but Vagator, my dear readers, won my heart. It's actually 2-3 separate beaches, not one long stretch on sand, which I prefer, because the rocky heads on both sides make a beach feel more... homey, if you ask me. Unlike Calangute and the rest of the beaches I saw yesterday, today's beaches had hardly any shacks (something like beach bar/restaurants) and faaaaaaaaar less touts. Instead, they were FULL of locals, 90%, and very few foreigners, which I liked. Kids were playing cricket, cows were strolling (really :-))), families were pick-nicking, young boys and gals were playing with their eyes, and generally it felt... warm, sweet, intimate... The northern beach was almost exclusively occupied by locals, a colourful team of people having fun on the sand and in the sea... More cows strolling, more cricket players, more young boys and girls sitting at some distance, giggling with each other... Nice... Nice-nice... The beer was nice too :-), my masala omelet was great, my Limca (local lemonade) was cool, the prices were great (better than in Calangute and Baga), and to be honest I caught myself thinking that... well, I could, maybe, one day, come to India just to spend two summerish weeks in December... The beaches are SO many that everyone can find the "right" one for him... After Vagator I walked to nearby Chapora, which itself doesn't have a decent beach, BUT, it's in walking distance from Vagator, the party scene of Goa, AND, I saw some really great rooms for only 100 rupees, yep, just two dollars, even though this is high-high season. I asked out of curiosity, just to have an idea how much rooms cost here, in high season, and once again I was left speechless realizing how dirt cheap everything is... Tomorrow morning I am starting early to go see Anjuna's beach as well, and around 10am I want to be at the flea market, which is weekly, every Wednesday, and a visit there is supposed to be one of Goa's musts. Since this will be my last day in Goa, I will, finally, do some souvenir shopping, given that I will be at the... very centre of souvenir buying spot of Goa. Later in the afternoon I am taking the train to Mumbai, where I will arrive early in the morning, the day after tomorrow. The days passed, I am very close to reaching the place where everything started, and I have a feeling of... satisfaction, I'd say, looking back at this trip, at how it went these 19 days. Satisfaction, because I really feel that it was/is a really remarkable trip, one that... may sound "heavy", but it's true, taught me things, made me a little better person, and a much-much better traveller. The trip is anything but over, though, so now is not the time to say in details why I consider this trip a big success. Right now all I'm telling you is that writing this post got me even more hungry, my favourite restaurant at Panjim, "Udupi", is waiting for me, my 35 rupees thali is waiting for me, and after that, my Cafe Coffee Day (Indian chain) coffee, "Cold Sparkle", a coconut flavoured coffee, is waiting for me, as the view from my hotel's veranda, from where I will slowly sip my coffee (and maybe another Kingfisher beer, to which I seem to have gotten addicted :-)). That's it for today, boys and girls... Talk to you from Mumbai in a couple of days, if everything goes according to plan.
Monday, 18 December 2006
Soooo, THIS is Goa...
Hm... I went to some of the most famous Goan beaches alright... Let me put it this way: not my kind of beaches. OK, leaving my totally subjective point of view aside, let me try to describe the experience, as... objectively as possible. First of all, the bus ride from Panaji to Sinquerim, the closest beach to the north, takes almost three quarters of an hour, exactly as the guidebooks say, even though it is a very small distance. Now I know why... The buses stop everywhere, as in... e v e r y w h e r e, THAT often that it felt as if we never made more than 100 meters without stopping. By the way, I got on the bus last, it was already F U L L, and those 45 minutes felt like being in a moving, groaning sauna on wheels... Sooooooo, I got off at Sinquerim, walked to the beach (there is a ship lying pretty close, rotting, a ship that got stuck here a few years ago and offers a weird picture opportunity), and my first impression was... so-so, because I was waiting something like Kovalam, meaning a long beach where palm trees would reach out to the sea. Nope. There are palm trees alright, but they are a hundred metres away from the sea, which of course is not terrible, but kind of... spoilt the dreamy image I had in mind. So, I started walking with my feet on the edge of the water, and in less than ten seconds I started being approached by touts, or should I say by an army of touts, persistent ones, almost grabbing my hand to go sit "for free" at their sun beds. If you want to know, they were not lying, occupying a sun bed was for free indeed, given of course that you bought something to drink, BUT, you paid for the drink the same price as if you didn't occupy the sun bed, so, the sun bed was for free indeed. Subconsciously I fell in the trap to compare things with Greece... Here, in Goa's hottest beaches, you can occupy a sun bed for hours, paying only 30 rupees for a pint of Kingfisher (the biggest local beer). Something more than half a euro. In Greece... oh my-my-my... let's not talk about the prices... I kept walking, walking, walking, I had fun with a bunch of kids who wanted money because they sat and let me take a picture of them, I got bored saying "no, thank you" to touts begging me to go sit at their beds, took pictures, more pictures, dealt with more touts (OK, I say you get the picture), and after hours of slow, lazy walking, I reached Baga, having passed from Candolim and Calangute in between. We are talking about lots of walking, but it felt... wow, despite the non-stop annoyance of the touts (there were also ladies selling clothes, fruits, guys offering me water sport rides, some Rajastani who is on vacation here and was looking for company to have a nice evening..., and then there were more beach shacks' touts who kept complimenting me on my hair and height, obviously trying to pump my ego and make me their client. Almost forgot: other ladies were offering "good massage" as well... Hm...). The beach covers the sea side of three back to back villages, so it is looooong, it is WIDE, and it had a good number of westerners who were enjoying the morning sun. There were some Indians too... The woman would normally hold the camera, a little outside the sea, fully clothed of course, filming the husband and the kids having fun in the water. Only a couple of Indian women I saw "daring" enter the sea, fully clothed, of course... When I got a little tired, I had a beer, kept walking, made another beer break (anything but a beer fan, but since this is Goa and Kingfisher RULES, I thought I should follow the local trend), kept walking (back to Sinquerim), had some snack, another beer (unbelievable, for my standards, three beers in a matter of a few hours), and late in the afternoon, having watched the sun kiss the Arabian Sea, I took the sauna on wheels... eeeehm, the bus I mean, back to Panaji. Walking along the sea, I was thinking whether or not I would do what many Europeans do, buy a package and spend two weeks in Goa, in Christmas time... Is it worth making such a long trip just for the beaches? Yes and no, because right now, in Finland, it's winter-winter, while here the weather is totally summerish. But on the other hand... I don't know... coming to India for two weeks and spending 15 hours a day lying under the sun is something I wouldn't do, even though I can see the point of them who do so. Just for the record, most of the foreigners I saw (and they were TOO many), were Germans and British, while I also saw a good number of Russians, which caught me by surprise, though it shouldn't, given that an ever growing number of Russians can now afford mid winter holiday at summerish Goa... Soooooo, that was my Goan beaches experience, the first one. Tomorrow I am going to two more "hot" beaches, not too much walking will be involved, so most of the time I will just be lazying in some chair, people watching, drinking more Kingfishers... Aaaaaaah, it's a filthy-filthy job, but somebody's got to do it... (devilish grin on my sun burnt face...). As always, thanks everyone for dropping a line or two, and for following my trip. Feels nice having this... virtual company of all you...
PS Last night there was a Ghazal concert here, at Panaji, and apparently the guy (Jagjit Singh) who was performing is damn good, unanimously accepted to be the best Ghazal (type of Indian music) performer alive, so I didn't miss the chance. The ticket was 500 rupees, expensive for the local standards, something less than nine euros, but I thought it was worth it, and it was indeed. Attending this concert in an open theatre full of people was one of the highlights of this trip. Also, before leaving Kochi, I attended a Kathakali (dance) performance, which, to be honest, didn't thrill me. The audience was 99.9% tourists and it felt kind of... fake. The performers did a good job, though, I think, so as an experience it was interesting. Yesterday I saw only a small bunch of westerners, the vast majority of the attendants were locals, so it felt much more "original". And the money went to a good cause, to some organization that helps homeless kids, so the money was extra worth it.
PS Last night there was a Ghazal concert here, at Panaji, and apparently the guy (Jagjit Singh) who was performing is damn good, unanimously accepted to be the best Ghazal (type of Indian music) performer alive, so I didn't miss the chance. The ticket was 500 rupees, expensive for the local standards, something less than nine euros, but I thought it was worth it, and it was indeed. Attending this concert in an open theatre full of people was one of the highlights of this trip. Also, before leaving Kochi, I attended a Kathakali (dance) performance, which, to be honest, didn't thrill me. The audience was 99.9% tourists and it felt kind of... fake. The performers did a good job, though, I think, so as an experience it was interesting. Yesterday I saw only a small bunch of westerners, the vast majority of the attendants were locals, so it felt much more "original". And the money went to a good cause, to some organization that helps homeless kids, so the money was extra worth it.
Sunday, 17 December 2006
Goa, at last
I've mentioned Sarah Macdonald's 'Holy Cow' several times already, but I just have to do so once again... Yesterday I read in her book a line about how impossible it is to define India, because, as she says and I totally agree with her, anything you say about this country, the exactly opposite is true as well, and what makes traveling here even more... let's say... special, is that one great thing is immediately followed by a not so great thing (tactful way to avoid using words like "annoying" or "disgusting"), and this, in turn, is followed quickly by another great thing and so on... Yesterday morning I had a few hours to kill at Kochi before taking the train to Goa, I went for a stroll, a 55+ guy approached me, turned out he is a professor at Mysore's University, he teaches philosophy, one thing led to another, so I accepted his offer for a glass of tea and a talk about Hinduism. We had our tea alright, he paid for it, and then we agreed to continue our discussion in another place he knew, which had air condition and was quite, unlike the first one we went to. Hm... He didn't feel like walking, so he asked me to take an auto-rickshaw. So we did. When we arrived at this restaurant he had in mind, he asked ME to pay for the rickshaw, which looked strange to Greek me, but I thought, well, he paid for the teas, so maybe it is expected from me to pay now for the rickshaw, even though we took it because HE wanted to take it. Anyhow, we go upstairs, and as we talk about Hinduism, he orders a beer and a couple of snacks, AND, he insists I order something as well, even though I insist that I don't feel like drinking anything. The waiter comes five minutes later, and once again, this unbelievable guy asks ME to pay the bill(!!!). I do, because the money is not really that much, and because I don't want to make a scene in front of the waiter, but when the waiter leaves, I start preaching (shame on me, I know, shoot me), this 55+ PROFESSOR, about what hospitality is, good manners, and attitude towards a foreigner who is visiting your country. I tell him that since I am in India, I am OK with doing things the Indian way, so if the Indian way wants the GUEST to pay when he gets invited by a local for a drink, I'll do it, but I "invite" him to visit Greece one day, so as to see what HOSPITALITY is, what "making your guest feel like a king" is... I tell him that if we were in Greece and I, I, had invited HIM for a drink, I would have paid for the taxi, I would have paid for the drink, and most probably I would have even invited my guest to my house, NOT accepting one single euro cent from him. THIS is the Greek way of dealing with foreigners, or at least this is the way my parents have taught me, the way my grandparents taught my parents and so on... After my preaching, I took off, leaving him speechless, I guess, maybe insulted as well. But I didn't care. Did I get pissed? You bet I did, but quickly I reminded myself the motto I... adopted the first day I stepped my feet in India: "stay humorous, no matter what", so I did, and quickly I started smiling with the whole incident, AND, feeling a little cocky bringing in mind how we Greeks treat our guests... A while later, waiting for my train, being a little disappointed, to be honest, from my earlier experience, I met this American-Indian who is the sweetest guy I have met up to now in India, and we talked for well over an hour. Also, on the train, I spent a lot of time talking to a guy who works for the Indian Navy, another great-great lad to talk to... From cold to warm, from frozen to boiling hot... Then, at some point, I did my favourite thing, I sat on the door steps, watching the sun go down on our left. It felt... magic, really, and right then a guy from the proceeding wagon spit and only instinctively I avoided his load coming to my face... Later on, another guy started talking to me about Ramayana, one of the six holy scripts of Hinduism. He sounded so... deep and knowledgeable, until one moment he stopped talking, and as he had me hanging from his lips for more, more info about Ramayana, Veda, Ayurveda and the rest of the holy scripts, he... he... he... burped!!! See what I mean? In this country I have felt a dozen times really sad about things I saw, and every time, in a few minutes, something great drew my attention, making me forget my sadness. Then again, a dozen times I have gotten enthusiastic about something, and that very moment, something happened and the... dream bubble was burst, if you know what I mean... I guess this is one of the things that make travelling around this vast and SO rich, in a hundred ways rich, country, THAT rewarding... Anyhow, early this morning I arrived at Goa, and to be more specific at Karmali train station, where I was welcomed by a... committee of three cows, one of which for some strange reason started running towards me the moment I tried to take a photo of them (I thought I was the only one who acts like a freak when someone tries to take a picture of me...). From there, a slightly, only slightly greedy auto-rickshaw driver drove me to Panaji, the capital city of Goa State. After doing my usual... investigation of the rooms on offer, I was GLAD to find a cheapie (250 rupees, five dollars, less than five euros), in a super picturesque building which looks like it has been shipped from Portugal. Generally, the feeling that I am in a Portuguese little town is very intense, so intense that when I started my first stroll in the town, my mind pushed a certain button in my memory's juke-box and I started singing the hymn of FC Porto, my favourite Portuguese football team... It's only four verses the ones I know, "here they are, the sons of the Dragon (Dragons is the nick name of FC Porto), united (they are) to win, proud (they are) to make this Porto team, champion". The more I sang it the more I grew Portugal-sick, remembering the great-great time I had both times I visited this beauuuuutiful country. Panaji won my heart, and I can easily say that I find it more "pleasant" than Kochi, which, if you remember, I called "the most pleasant place I have been to up to now, in India", in my previous post. Panaji makes me see why Goa is considered to be very different than the rest of the country. It's only one of the 30+ states that make up India, but quite honestly, parts of Panaji make you feel that you are in another country. This is by far the cleanest (or, to be more exact, the least dirty), place I have seen in India, just to mention one important detail... Of course, Goa is not Panaji, Goa is, mainly, the beaches, so, tomorrow morning, early, I am going to the ones right north of Panaji. I already dream of endless walking on the sand, having the Arabian Sea on my left and countless beach shacks on my right, listening to little waves splashing on my left, and touts calling me to go check their souvenir stalls on my right... Aaaaaaah, it must be really something...
Friday, 15 December 2006
Kochi is the place...
Great, I see my previous post published normally, sooooo, moving on to what happened the last two days, let me start with yesterday morning’s “inspiration” I had to get off the train at Kollam. I took the morning train from Trivandrum to Kochi, I sat on the open door’s steps enjoying the view on the left side, on the side of the lakes and the Arabian Sea, so, the moment we arrived at Kollam, I remembered something I had read in my guidebook, something about a boat that takes eight hours to take you from Kollam to Alappuzha, following the route through the famous Keralan Backwaters, so I told myself, “come on Dimitris, be spontaneous, go for it”, and jumped off the train (literally, as I made my mind up the moment the train started moving) and walked towards the starting point of this eight hours boat trip. On the way to the jetty, some kilometer and a half from the train station, it looked strange how few cars there were in the streets. I mean… if you have spent 13 days in India, in “the roads are always full of vehicles” India, the lack of them just… strikes you. Anyhow, the answer to my question came when I arrived at the jetty. How lucky was I?!!! Yesterday there was a pan-Indian strike, and among others, the people working in the mass transit system in Kerala, the State Kollam is, were on strike too. Still, the guy at the tourist office told me that if 15 people gathered by 10:30, asking to take the excursion to Alappuzha, the boat WOULD leave. Hm… We argued in a very civilized way about what kind of strike is this, when you say “I am on strike, but if 15 people come for the boat trip, I will work”, and after realizing that in India “being on strike” has a different meaning than… say… in my own country, Greece, I took my disappointed bones and walked back to the train station to catch the next train to Kochi. I had just missed my one and only, maybe, chance, to make this backwaters trip… What the heck?… Universe is supposed to conspire in favour of those who dare, no?! Oh well… Several hours later I was, finally, at Kochi, or, to be more exact, to Ernakulam, the mainland part of the city. Fought for about an hour to find a room (someone explained me that this is full-full season for Kerala), and after that I went for another loooooooong walk, despite the bubbles on my feet killing me… I didn’t want to miss this unique, really, chance, to see an Indian city’s streets empty, because of the lack of cars. No buses, no taxis, no auto rickshaws, only a handful of private cars, and some two wheelers, who, by the way, had a heck of a day, serving as unofficial taxis. I mean… they would pick up people from the street, and give them a ride to their destination… This is how I myself went from the northern train station to the southern, some two kilometers away. The guy was even kind enough to not ask for any money. He did ask me to go to his place for a couple of brandies though… Come to think of it, maybe I was rude rejecting his offer… I mean, he looked really… OK, so the least I could have done, was to ask him if he is married. I mean… after having dealt with a couple of… weirdos the previous days (read my previous post), I just felt that this one was the same case, but now that I think of it, maybe, just maybe, I misjudged him. Anyhow, around 6pm I felt exhausted. I mean… exhausted, I could hardly keep my eyes open, so, believe it or not, by 6:30 I was already making zzzzzzzs… Earlier I had seen a temperature board saying that it was 39.9 Celsius(!!!). I don’t know if it was right, but if it was, it kind of explains the fact that I sweat too much, lose kilos, and get tired after walking for… I don’t know how many hours… The good thing about falling asleep that early yesterday, was waking up equally early this morning. After a grrrrrreat breakfast at Indian Coffee House, a local chain which I prefer to Café Coffee Day and Barista, the other local chains (at Indian Coffee House the waiters are dressed in turbans, the atmosphere is much more… local, and the prices are ridiculously low), I walked to the jetty from where I caught a boat to Kochi, the peninsular part of the city. Ladies and gentlemen, I can easily say that the Fort Kochi area is the most… pleasant place in India I have been to up to now. No serious noise problem, houses that remind you of Holland, Portugal and England but with an… Indian touch (palm trees ALL over), the sound of the little waves hitting the shore, the sight of the fishermen working their magic to handle those famous Chinese fishing nets… quite alleys to walk… beautiful, just beautiful… It’s 11am, I am staying on this side of the city until late in the afternoon, but having walked already for more than three hours I felt like taking a break, so… there you have me.
Tomorrow early in the afternoon I am taking the train to Goa, where I will be spending four days. To be honest, I am already searching for ways to change my Goa-Mumbai train ticket, so as to spend extra days at Goan beaches and less days at Mumbai. After having been to every single huge city in South India, I just feel like spending extra days in cute, chill-out places/beaches, and less time in Mumbai.
Sending my warmest greetings to all of you!
Tomorrow early in the afternoon I am taking the train to Goa, where I will be spending four days. To be honest, I am already searching for ways to change my Goa-Mumbai train ticket, so as to spend extra days at Goan beaches and less days at Mumbai. After having been to every single huge city in South India, I just feel like spending extra days in cute, chill-out places/beaches, and less time in Mumbai.
Sending my warmest greetings to all of you!
Trivandrum, Kovalam, Kanyakumari
OK, this is a text I wrote two days ago, only when the time came to publish it, it was just impossible, so I am trying again...
"Wednesday, late afternoon, Trivandrum, after a thrilling three hours' bus ride from Kanyakumari... I did one of the things I wanted the most in this trip, went to the southernmost tip of the subcontinent, and when I checked my little... damn, I forget the word, this thing that shows you where the north is, I saw that towards the south there was only sea... That was it, I was at the very end of this country, and call me silly but... it felt special. Another reason I will remember Kanyakumari for, is the meal I had before taking the bus, one of the best, if not THE best, I have had in India. I ordered a so called 'Special south Indian meal', which came with a bunch of extras, like a rice pudding and a little banana, little touches I loved, as much as the food itself. Dipping my fingers in the rice, having poured on it first some of the sauces the meal comes with, looked to me messy the first days, but as the days went by, I started enjoying it more and more, trying to remember that I am not supposed to use my left hand at all... Kanyakumari... Third reason I will remember this day, is the train ride in the morning from Trivandrum to Kanyakumari. It took a little more than two hours, and I spent most of it hanging half out of an open door, something you canNOT do in Europe... It felt... rejuvenating, and I can't wait for my train ride tomorrow morning to Cochin to repeat it, says the kid in me... :-) Yesterday I spent half the day at Kovalam, some 15km from Trivandrum, a place which is said to have the most idyllic little beaches in the whole Keralan coastline. It is indeed a place taken out of some brochure in travel agencies, advertising 'exotic paradises', but I got a little... you can call it sad, noticing that more and more hotels are being built, and more and more palm trees are being chopped. What bothered me more, is that most of the hotels are just... cement boxes, nothing nice, nothing picturesque, nothing like... local Keralan architecture. In... say... Santorini, in Greece, tens of new hotels are being built every year, but at least they follow some specific architectural pattern, so it doesn't look that bad... Anyhow, unlike what my guidebook says, the lighthouse on the edge of the main beach CAN be visited, so I spent two good hours sitting atop, with my feet hanging, people watching from hiiiiiiiiiiigh up, one of the highlights of this trip, I reckon. As for Trivandrum, I have two comments: the locals are some of the friendliest chaps I have met these 13 days in India, and the humidity is really overwhelming. My plane from Bangalore landed a little after 8pm, two days ago, and the moment I exited the aircraft... a wave of humidity swept me away... When I walk around Trivandrum I sweat nonstop, my clothes stick on my body two minutes after I exit my hotel, but after 48 hours here I say I got used to it...
Little littles from these last three days... Yesterday I met in Trivandrum a Russian couple. They are traveling around India for three months. Both of them, a few weeks ago, needed to be hospitalized because of some virus that got into them, and this made me feel (sorry guys), a little better about my lost luggage. I am perfectly healthy, and this is faaaaaaaar more important than losing my luggage... Actually, I have lost weight, I can easily say because my pants are falling these last two days, but I guess it's because I walk a lot and sweat a lot. On the other hand, I eat a lot, truly, but this hasn't helped me maintain my normal weight... Beats me...Guess what! I got "sexually harassed" both yesterday and the day before that. At Bangalore, a 50 something bald guy called me as I was walking towards Brigade Road, the heart of the... westernized, let's say, area of Bangalore, and after telling me that I looked 'smart'(!), he didn't hesitate to ask me if I wanted to go with him to his hotel room nearby(!!). He was Indian, looked very cheerful, but he didn't look equally cheerful when I told him that I would just prefer going on with my solo walking around... Then, yesterday, on the bus to Kovalam, another 50 something Indian guy, one with a funny face and very gentle voice, asked me if I would be interesting in joining him in a lovely evening(!!!). Eeeeeehm, I think it's high time I cut my relatively long hair... I mean... it must be making me look girly, or...? So, tomorrow morning I am taking the train to Cochin, where I will spend two and a half days before taking the train to Goa... This is my 13th day here, I still have 12 to go, and making just one short comment that says nothing but also much at the same time, yes, I would travel to India again. Soon? No. I don't see me being one of those who fall 100% at India's spell, coming back every year, spending here at least a month at a time. If not soon, when? I think in 3-4 years' time, after having been to other places I am dying to visit, like Cuba and South America. But, I feel it in my bones that one day I shall be back here, seeing the north of the country.
A hungry (yep, again, I can almost smell my dinner :-)) hello from humid-humid Trivandrum!"
"Wednesday, late afternoon, Trivandrum, after a thrilling three hours' bus ride from Kanyakumari... I did one of the things I wanted the most in this trip, went to the southernmost tip of the subcontinent, and when I checked my little... damn, I forget the word, this thing that shows you where the north is, I saw that towards the south there was only sea... That was it, I was at the very end of this country, and call me silly but... it felt special. Another reason I will remember Kanyakumari for, is the meal I had before taking the bus, one of the best, if not THE best, I have had in India. I ordered a so called 'Special south Indian meal', which came with a bunch of extras, like a rice pudding and a little banana, little touches I loved, as much as the food itself. Dipping my fingers in the rice, having poured on it first some of the sauces the meal comes with, looked to me messy the first days, but as the days went by, I started enjoying it more and more, trying to remember that I am not supposed to use my left hand at all... Kanyakumari... Third reason I will remember this day, is the train ride in the morning from Trivandrum to Kanyakumari. It took a little more than two hours, and I spent most of it hanging half out of an open door, something you canNOT do in Europe... It felt... rejuvenating, and I can't wait for my train ride tomorrow morning to Cochin to repeat it, says the kid in me... :-) Yesterday I spent half the day at Kovalam, some 15km from Trivandrum, a place which is said to have the most idyllic little beaches in the whole Keralan coastline. It is indeed a place taken out of some brochure in travel agencies, advertising 'exotic paradises', but I got a little... you can call it sad, noticing that more and more hotels are being built, and more and more palm trees are being chopped. What bothered me more, is that most of the hotels are just... cement boxes, nothing nice, nothing picturesque, nothing like... local Keralan architecture. In... say... Santorini, in Greece, tens of new hotels are being built every year, but at least they follow some specific architectural pattern, so it doesn't look that bad... Anyhow, unlike what my guidebook says, the lighthouse on the edge of the main beach CAN be visited, so I spent two good hours sitting atop, with my feet hanging, people watching from hiiiiiiiiiiigh up, one of the highlights of this trip, I reckon. As for Trivandrum, I have two comments: the locals are some of the friendliest chaps I have met these 13 days in India, and the humidity is really overwhelming. My plane from Bangalore landed a little after 8pm, two days ago, and the moment I exited the aircraft... a wave of humidity swept me away... When I walk around Trivandrum I sweat nonstop, my clothes stick on my body two minutes after I exit my hotel, but after 48 hours here I say I got used to it...
Little littles from these last three days... Yesterday I met in Trivandrum a Russian couple. They are traveling around India for three months. Both of them, a few weeks ago, needed to be hospitalized because of some virus that got into them, and this made me feel (sorry guys), a little better about my lost luggage. I am perfectly healthy, and this is faaaaaaaar more important than losing my luggage... Actually, I have lost weight, I can easily say because my pants are falling these last two days, but I guess it's because I walk a lot and sweat a lot. On the other hand, I eat a lot, truly, but this hasn't helped me maintain my normal weight... Beats me...Guess what! I got "sexually harassed" both yesterday and the day before that. At Bangalore, a 50 something bald guy called me as I was walking towards Brigade Road, the heart of the... westernized, let's say, area of Bangalore, and after telling me that I looked 'smart'(!), he didn't hesitate to ask me if I wanted to go with him to his hotel room nearby(!!). He was Indian, looked very cheerful, but he didn't look equally cheerful when I told him that I would just prefer going on with my solo walking around... Then, yesterday, on the bus to Kovalam, another 50 something Indian guy, one with a funny face and very gentle voice, asked me if I would be interesting in joining him in a lovely evening(!!!). Eeeeeehm, I think it's high time I cut my relatively long hair... I mean... it must be making me look girly, or...? So, tomorrow morning I am taking the train to Cochin, where I will spend two and a half days before taking the train to Goa... This is my 13th day here, I still have 12 to go, and making just one short comment that says nothing but also much at the same time, yes, I would travel to India again. Soon? No. I don't see me being one of those who fall 100% at India's spell, coming back every year, spending here at least a month at a time. If not soon, when? I think in 3-4 years' time, after having been to other places I am dying to visit, like Cuba and South America. But, I feel it in my bones that one day I shall be back here, seeing the north of the country.
A hungry (yep, again, I can almost smell my dinner :-)) hello from humid-humid Trivandrum!"
Saturday, 9 December 2006
Dimitris reporting from Bangalore
I'm very-very-very glad I included Bangalore in my itinerary, as I am given the chance to see a whole new India, really... Came to Bangalore this morning, found a decent room, and took a city bus to come to the MG Road area, the centre, in a way, of the city. I had read that Bangalore is the most 'westernized' city of India, the city where girls dress much like in the west, where couples are not afraid to hold hands in the streets, where several malls make you feel that you are in the centre of a western city... All these, and much more, are true, and it's a very-very interesting change for me, after nine days in the country. So, since this is my first day in India's most 'westernized' city, I 'allowed' myself to taste some western food, and when I saw some incredible offer the local Ruby Tuesday (I llllllove it) had, I didn't have to think twice. For about 4.5 euros I had my delicious chicken fajitas, a chicken soup and a 'mocktail' (no alcohol) with the very... tropical name, "Tropical Treasure" (something with water melon and honey). It feels west here, indeed... As for my last two days at Mysore, my main comment is that after spending six days in huge cities like Hyderabad and Chennai, wandering around Mysore's streets was a pleasure, felt like being in a village (be fooled NOT though, as Mysore has almost 800,000 people, which though is far less than the 6+ millions of Hyderabad and Chennai). Well, you already know what I liked about Mysore, that it felt small, that it was easily walkable, that it had some fantastic eateries where I tried a bunch of things for practically nothing (the prices are really too-too low). What I didn't like about Mysore, was that all the locals who approached me, unlike in Hyderabad and Chennai, were after dragging me, eventually, to their store, to buy some incense. Also, I got more than ten proposals to buy marijuana, so, at some point I asked a guy how come so many people offer marijuana to westerners. He said that many-many of those who visit Mysore from the west, ask for marijuana, so... it makes sense... When there is demand, there is also supply, even to those who are not interested... It was funny telling them that I don't even smoke normal cigarettes and that I can't stand the smoke... Mysore... Another reason why I will never forget it... I arrived there early in the morning, after a night spent on the train from Chennai. I didn't get much sleep, I was a little cranky, the auto-rickshaw drivers who jumped on me when I exited the railways building got on my nerves a little, I already knew at which place I wanted to check in, it was about 500 metres from the station, so I didn't mean to hire a rickshaw, but a guy told me "only ten rupees" (keep in mind that one euro is 55+ rupees), so I said... oh well, why not... I cleared out though, to him, that I wanted to go to a hotel called "Gayathri" and not to "The New Gayathri Bhavan" which is right next door. He said sure, no problem sir, he drove me to the door of the hotel, checked in, paid for the first night, went upstairs to my room and only then, only then, I realized that the son of a bitch had taken me to the hotel I had told him NOT to take me... For two seconds I got pissed, but then I smiled, because I saw it as a lesson... I was so tired and non suspicious that I didn't even check the hotel name at the door, I didn't even notice the hotel name on the receipt when I paid for the first night... I only realized what had happened, in the room, when I saw the name of the hotel on the pillow covers... Of course, next day I checked out and went next door. The room the first night cost 400 rupees (some 100 of those went to the pocket of the rickshaw driver of course, his commission), while the room the second night cost me only (are you sitting?), 100 rupees. I kid you not... 100 rupees, less than two euros, for the (I swear) cutest and sweetest room I have stayed up to now in India... Honestly.
A little something from the train ride this morning: first of all, I traveled second class, which I loved, because I saw the simplest possible class of the Indian trains. Boys were passing all the time repeating "coffee-coffee, chai-chai", which was... funny, because they seemed to compete each other who would get more customers... One scene took me out of my clothes, though. A young woman came in, there was no seat available, we were some... half an hour away from Bangalore, I was sitting right next to her while she was standing, so... the knight in me (well, actually I was just embarrassed to be sitting while a woman was standing next to me), got up and gave her my seat, seeing that no Indian thought about doing the same. The woman looked surprised, didn't even say thank you, sat, took her little breakfast on her laps, ate it, and when she got up to put something on the shelf of the luggage atop the seats, a guy pushed me and stole her seat. Just like that. The woman turned around, saw that this guy had taken her seat, and... and.. and... did nothing!!! He looked at her with a stupid numb look, no guilt, she looked at him expression-less, and she just stood there, still, not asking for her seat back... I didn't know what to do... If I was in Greece I know what I would have done, but here... no one said anything to this guy, none of the locals, so... I don't know... I just went with the flow, even though this guy really pissed me off. I don't mean to generalize things, but this little incident gave me a little idea of woman's position in this society. Any Indians reading these lines, feeling like arguing with me, I'm all ears...
Oh, one last thing, from Chennai... The last day I was strolling around Marina Beach, and at some point I saw two tourist buses with westerners. Right next to the buses, I saw, first and last time, cleaners working for the municipality, with those yellow jackets that glow in the dark, 'cleaning' the area right and left of the buses. 'Cleaning' it, meaning they used some brooms to gather the sand (more sand, from the beach, rather than dust), from the cement street, only it was slightly windy, so the moment they pushed the sand to one side, it went back to the place where it was earlier. To make a long story short, no real job could be done, but it was hilarious, ridiculous as well, seeing ONLY there, at the place were tourist buses park, people in 'official' cleaners' outfits, working, supposedly, their butts out to keep the city clean, the moment the rest of the city is an endless dustbin... Aaaah, those Indians...
Last one for today... Feels like something happens on midnight, someone pusses some button and turns everything off... On midnight, cars stop beeping, babies stop crying, cows stop mewing, and generally a strange quite settles in... It has been the same case all my nights in India... Most of the eateries close at 11pm, internet cafes stay open until 11:30 maximum, so... I'm trying to say that it makes sense, seems like everyone is at home just before midnight, but still, it feels strange, as if someone is pulling the plug and everything turns silent (as silent as things can get in India...). As for this morning, I walked to the train station a little after 6, and it was the first time these last nine days I saw the streets empty. U n b e l i e v a b l e... It reminded me of 'Devil's Advocate', when, in one scene, Reeves walks all alone in the middle of a street which normally is packed with cars... Oh, talking about films (this is getting too long, but it just came to me), my first day at Mysore I went for a stroll in the afternoon to St Philomena's cathedral, after having a little afternoon nap. I had read about the cathedral in my travel guide just before falling asleep... Guess which actress I saw in my dream... Sofia Lauren, because SHE played Filumena in some old Italian movie with Marcello Mastoyanni... :-)) Amazing little thing the human mind... :-))
Talk to you soon, maybe with some new photos...
A little something from the train ride this morning: first of all, I traveled second class, which I loved, because I saw the simplest possible class of the Indian trains. Boys were passing all the time repeating "coffee-coffee, chai-chai", which was... funny, because they seemed to compete each other who would get more customers... One scene took me out of my clothes, though. A young woman came in, there was no seat available, we were some... half an hour away from Bangalore, I was sitting right next to her while she was standing, so... the knight in me (well, actually I was just embarrassed to be sitting while a woman was standing next to me), got up and gave her my seat, seeing that no Indian thought about doing the same. The woman looked surprised, didn't even say thank you, sat, took her little breakfast on her laps, ate it, and when she got up to put something on the shelf of the luggage atop the seats, a guy pushed me and stole her seat. Just like that. The woman turned around, saw that this guy had taken her seat, and... and.. and... did nothing!!! He looked at her with a stupid numb look, no guilt, she looked at him expression-less, and she just stood there, still, not asking for her seat back... I didn't know what to do... If I was in Greece I know what I would have done, but here... no one said anything to this guy, none of the locals, so... I don't know... I just went with the flow, even though this guy really pissed me off. I don't mean to generalize things, but this little incident gave me a little idea of woman's position in this society. Any Indians reading these lines, feeling like arguing with me, I'm all ears...
Oh, one last thing, from Chennai... The last day I was strolling around Marina Beach, and at some point I saw two tourist buses with westerners. Right next to the buses, I saw, first and last time, cleaners working for the municipality, with those yellow jackets that glow in the dark, 'cleaning' the area right and left of the buses. 'Cleaning' it, meaning they used some brooms to gather the sand (more sand, from the beach, rather than dust), from the cement street, only it was slightly windy, so the moment they pushed the sand to one side, it went back to the place where it was earlier. To make a long story short, no real job could be done, but it was hilarious, ridiculous as well, seeing ONLY there, at the place were tourist buses park, people in 'official' cleaners' outfits, working, supposedly, their butts out to keep the city clean, the moment the rest of the city is an endless dustbin... Aaaah, those Indians...
Last one for today... Feels like something happens on midnight, someone pusses some button and turns everything off... On midnight, cars stop beeping, babies stop crying, cows stop mewing, and generally a strange quite settles in... It has been the same case all my nights in India... Most of the eateries close at 11pm, internet cafes stay open until 11:30 maximum, so... I'm trying to say that it makes sense, seems like everyone is at home just before midnight, but still, it feels strange, as if someone is pulling the plug and everything turns silent (as silent as things can get in India...). As for this morning, I walked to the train station a little after 6, and it was the first time these last nine days I saw the streets empty. U n b e l i e v a b l e... It reminded me of 'Devil's Advocate', when, in one scene, Reeves walks all alone in the middle of a street which normally is packed with cars... Oh, talking about films (this is getting too long, but it just came to me), my first day at Mysore I went for a stroll in the afternoon to St Philomena's cathedral, after having a little afternoon nap. I had read about the cathedral in my travel guide just before falling asleep... Guess which actress I saw in my dream... Sofia Lauren, because SHE played Filumena in some old Italian movie with Marcello Mastoyanni... :-)) Amazing little thing the human mind... :-))
Talk to you soon, maybe with some new photos...
Friday, 8 December 2006
Photos, at last...
A rather typical photo from Mysore's Devaraja's market. These colourful cones are everywhere...
First time in my life I saw an elephant from such a close distance, so didn't miss the chance to take a photo, even though some guy made me feel like throwing my camera at his head, beating the poor animal all the time with a big stick (which I would love to put deep somewhere in his body, but... anyhow...).
Gosh... This is the first time I see my photos in large scale, and I have to admit that most of them are too poor... This one for example... This is the most famous temple in Chennai, the details on the pyramid-like "dome" are incredible, but sadly you can see nothing here, I know... Hm... I should take up photo lessons once I'm back home...
Marina Beach, Chennai, the lady offered me some fish and made me understand that if I didn't like it I wouldn't pay for it, but shoot me, no matter how much I enjoy tasting local... specialties, this kind of fish is something I couldn't put in my mouth. Of course, the locals laughed at/with me... 
For less than half a euro this guy gave me 15-20 big bananas(!). I had no idea how many I would get with so few money, so I was... pleasantly surprised seeing him fill a big bag...
One of the maaaaaany cows I have seen in Mysore (mainly). Sad thing, most of them are skinny and you can count the bones on their bodies...
Just a monkey, one of the monkeys sitting around, eating, practically at the very centre of Mysore. 
The Marina Beach, at Chennai, another picture that doesn't really does justice to the place, mea culpa.
I'm having a hard time getting a grip of how the pictures are to be sorted, so I'm clarifying that the palace with the reddish domes is Maharaja's Palace in Mysore.
The big white building with the four minarets is Charminar, one of the main reasons why I included Hyderabad in my itinerary. The photo doesn't do it justice, trust me, it is much more impressive and imposing... face to face.
OOOKKK, have never tried before uploading pictures while on the road, so let's see how this works...
First photo, my under one euro yummy south Indian thali, the one I had a couple of hours ago here, at Mysore. To be honest I had no idea how to eat it, the first time I tried it, so I just... spied around, and saw how the locals did it... Piece of cake. Messy, given that you use your fingers, but piece of cake...
Wednesday, 6 December 2006
Bonus post about... nothing in particular and everything
Once again I didn't mean to come to an internet cafe today (therefore I don't have the camera chord with me today either, sorrrry), but after walking from Thirumailar train station all the way to St Thome's cathedral and from there aaaaaall the way up the Marina Beach and from there aaaaaall the way to Spencer Plaza (the vast majority of you have no idea what I am talking about, so take my word for it, this is a llllot of walking), I felt like taking a seat, having a pineapple juice on my right, and talk to my loyal blog readers a little :-).
In a few hours I am leaving Chennai, a city I came... closer, let's say, to, comparing it to Hyderabad, maybe because I started its "exploration" from the moment I stepped my feet here, and not 36 hours later, as in Hyderabad's case... The first day I made several auto rickshaw drivers... happy. Before leaving my -decent- hotel, I asked the receptionist how much specific rides should cost me, having read in Lonely Planet that drivers here never use their meters (which, by the way, is too true). So, every time I asked a driver how much he wanted to take me to... the Marina Beach for example, I knew how greedy he was being, and I always agreed to give 10 rupees more than what the receptionist told me. For a short distance, a 30 rupees distance for example, giving 40 instead if 30, is a relatively big difference, but 10 rupees is less than 20 euro cents, so I found it silly to argue with drivers over 20-30 euro cents... Yesterday though, I turned to the suburban rail network, because I wanted to cover longer distances, go to T Nagar for example (by the way, londonair, I saw the place you suggested :-), and having read something in Sarah Macdonalds' "Holly Cow" about women and jewelery, didn't surprise me that much, seeing SUCH a huge place, exclusively for gold stuff), and also I wanted to experience this... "taking a suburban train in Chennai" thing... I wanted to see those fans on the ceilings on the carriages, I wanted to see how damn crowded they can get (trust me, they sure can...), I wanted to see people hanging from the doors, or... should I say, from the place where doors should(?) be, only there are no doors... I wanted to see all this, and paying 4-5 rupees per ride, this is the definition of "bargain price". Going to the High Court and Parrys Corner, I saw many people living in... something like houses, even more lying on the street, obviously homeless, I saw kids playing practically in the middle of a big road where cars use to speed, and I was thinking that the images didn't shock me that much as my first day here... This got me thinking... This is my sixth day in India, and I think I have... surrendered, in a way, I have... adopted, in the sense that things that shocked or pissed me like hell the first two-three days, no longer have the same effect on me. A car driver beeps his horn like maniac the moment he is passing next to me? So what?... People steal my turn in a line (I'd say people here have no idea what a line is)? So what? Shoot me, but I started doing the same... Who?! I?! The master of being "correct" and NEVER stealing anyone's turn in a line... Guys burp while passing next to me? Big deal... Someone's staring at my PC screen (like now... let's see if he can read English and get the hint...) even though I have politely asked him not to stare? Oh well... (He is unbelievable... He is still staring... I guess he can't read English, but is just fascinated seeing little letters appear on the screen while I click on keyboards some 40 centimetres away from the screen). Every day that passes, everything looks and feels "normal", I guess.
Bottom line, talking about Chennai, I liked it, because I did here everything I want to do when I visit a city. Several people asked me, before coming to India, why I included many cities in my itinerary and hardly any "chill-out" places. The answer is, I love cities, with all their good and bad aspects. That's all. I love getting a grip of how the local transportation system works. I love finding my way around a place which seems (and is) chaotic. I love wandering around side streets, seeing people work, kids play (cricket, in India's case), I love doing all these silly little things, and maybe most of all I love the... full of surprise look on locals' faces, when they see a foreigner walking in front of their house, in a place where no foreigner has a real reason to be, while "sightseeing" in... Chennai, in this case. I love leaving a city and knowing that... this is here, this is there, this other place is next to the first one, and if you take this train you will be there in X minutes, and there you can find a shop whose owner makes great wooden Ganesha sculptures... Are all these important? Well, for me they are, and I know so because when I see a city my way and the time comes to leave, I have this feeling of... "completeness" if there is such a word. I feel I saw the city the way I wanted, and this makes me feel great. Of course, I would be a liar if I didn't admit that I am looking forward to lying under a coconut tree at some Goa beach... :-)
That's it... I think I mumbled enough today...
Hm... :-) I was just about to say again "thanks everyone for keeping me virtual company", but I just remembered a middle aged gentleman I met yesterday. I was standing across Emerald Plaza (which, by the way, disappointed me, it is nothing like Lonely Planet say), and I had to cross the street, only it was damn difficult because the traffic was indescribable. So, the same gentleman who told me that THAT was the building I was looking for, volunteered to help me cross the street with his bike. So he did. I thanked him for helping me out, and he said, "don't say thanks, just pass it to someone else", which gave us the chance to chat for a few minutes. I remembered something similar I read in "Zahir", a recent Paulo Coelho book, he said he didn't know the book but he sure did follow this "pass the favour to someone else" thing, but still, the moment we were to say goodbye, I wanted to thank him, so instead of thank you, I came up with "peace be with you", a line I learned during my short-short time in Australia, attending Sunday morning Catholic masses at some church... "Peace be with you" is a nice wish, and it's not "thank you", so I wasn't "disobeying" his request not to thank him... :-) SOOOO, I am not saying thank you anymore, I will just be there for you when the time comes for YOU to travel and set up a blog I WILL follow. Fair enough, I say... :-)
In a few hours I am leaving Chennai, a city I came... closer, let's say, to, comparing it to Hyderabad, maybe because I started its "exploration" from the moment I stepped my feet here, and not 36 hours later, as in Hyderabad's case... The first day I made several auto rickshaw drivers... happy. Before leaving my -decent- hotel, I asked the receptionist how much specific rides should cost me, having read in Lonely Planet that drivers here never use their meters (which, by the way, is too true). So, every time I asked a driver how much he wanted to take me to... the Marina Beach for example, I knew how greedy he was being, and I always agreed to give 10 rupees more than what the receptionist told me. For a short distance, a 30 rupees distance for example, giving 40 instead if 30, is a relatively big difference, but 10 rupees is less than 20 euro cents, so I found it silly to argue with drivers over 20-30 euro cents... Yesterday though, I turned to the suburban rail network, because I wanted to cover longer distances, go to T Nagar for example (by the way, londonair, I saw the place you suggested :-), and having read something in Sarah Macdonalds' "Holly Cow" about women and jewelery, didn't surprise me that much, seeing SUCH a huge place, exclusively for gold stuff), and also I wanted to experience this... "taking a suburban train in Chennai" thing... I wanted to see those fans on the ceilings on the carriages, I wanted to see how damn crowded they can get (trust me, they sure can...), I wanted to see people hanging from the doors, or... should I say, from the place where doors should(?) be, only there are no doors... I wanted to see all this, and paying 4-5 rupees per ride, this is the definition of "bargain price". Going to the High Court and Parrys Corner, I saw many people living in... something like houses, even more lying on the street, obviously homeless, I saw kids playing practically in the middle of a big road where cars use to speed, and I was thinking that the images didn't shock me that much as my first day here... This got me thinking... This is my sixth day in India, and I think I have... surrendered, in a way, I have... adopted, in the sense that things that shocked or pissed me like hell the first two-three days, no longer have the same effect on me. A car driver beeps his horn like maniac the moment he is passing next to me? So what?... People steal my turn in a line (I'd say people here have no idea what a line is)? So what? Shoot me, but I started doing the same... Who?! I?! The master of being "correct" and NEVER stealing anyone's turn in a line... Guys burp while passing next to me? Big deal... Someone's staring at my PC screen (like now... let's see if he can read English and get the hint...) even though I have politely asked him not to stare? Oh well... (He is unbelievable... He is still staring... I guess he can't read English, but is just fascinated seeing little letters appear on the screen while I click on keyboards some 40 centimetres away from the screen). Every day that passes, everything looks and feels "normal", I guess.
Bottom line, talking about Chennai, I liked it, because I did here everything I want to do when I visit a city. Several people asked me, before coming to India, why I included many cities in my itinerary and hardly any "chill-out" places. The answer is, I love cities, with all their good and bad aspects. That's all. I love getting a grip of how the local transportation system works. I love finding my way around a place which seems (and is) chaotic. I love wandering around side streets, seeing people work, kids play (cricket, in India's case), I love doing all these silly little things, and maybe most of all I love the... full of surprise look on locals' faces, when they see a foreigner walking in front of their house, in a place where no foreigner has a real reason to be, while "sightseeing" in... Chennai, in this case. I love leaving a city and knowing that... this is here, this is there, this other place is next to the first one, and if you take this train you will be there in X minutes, and there you can find a shop whose owner makes great wooden Ganesha sculptures... Are all these important? Well, for me they are, and I know so because when I see a city my way and the time comes to leave, I have this feeling of... "completeness" if there is such a word. I feel I saw the city the way I wanted, and this makes me feel great. Of course, I would be a liar if I didn't admit that I am looking forward to lying under a coconut tree at some Goa beach... :-)
That's it... I think I mumbled enough today...
Hm... :-) I was just about to say again "thanks everyone for keeping me virtual company", but I just remembered a middle aged gentleman I met yesterday. I was standing across Emerald Plaza (which, by the way, disappointed me, it is nothing like Lonely Planet say), and I had to cross the street, only it was damn difficult because the traffic was indescribable. So, the same gentleman who told me that THAT was the building I was looking for, volunteered to help me cross the street with his bike. So he did. I thanked him for helping me out, and he said, "don't say thanks, just pass it to someone else", which gave us the chance to chat for a few minutes. I remembered something similar I read in "Zahir", a recent Paulo Coelho book, he said he didn't know the book but he sure did follow this "pass the favour to someone else" thing, but still, the moment we were to say goodbye, I wanted to thank him, so instead of thank you, I came up with "peace be with you", a line I learned during my short-short time in Australia, attending Sunday morning Catholic masses at some church... "Peace be with you" is a nice wish, and it's not "thank you", so I wasn't "disobeying" his request not to thank him... :-) SOOOO, I am not saying thank you anymore, I will just be there for you when the time comes for YOU to travel and set up a blog I WILL follow. Fair enough, I say... :-)
Tuesday, 5 December 2006
24 X 1 = 48
For days before coming to India, I would visit weather.com and see what the temperature was in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore etc. It said, "31 Celsius, feeling like 33", or "29 Celsius, feeling like 31"... Now that I am in India and I have spent a few days in big cities like Hyderabad and Chennai, I can say that a day here has "24 hours, feeling like 48"... It's not that the time passes slowly, torturing slowly, nothing like that. It's that, as a westerner, everything you see around, draws your attention, sometimes your admiration, many times your disgust, but either way, it does catch your attention, the amount of images you see, smells that penetrate your nose, situations you experience, is such, that by the end of the day you feel that it's been two days instead of one, which, at the same time, can be a blessing and a curse...
Yesterday afternoon I was strolling at Marina Beach, the one the Chennaiites claim to be the longest in the world (which is wrong, but... no big deal), the atmosphere was really captivating, if you ask me, with countless people strolling, couples sitting on the sun, sellers trying to push their things, and of course the occasional local who would come and start off a conversation seeing a westerner walk alone. The typical questions, where are you from, what's your name, how do you like Chennai, which other places have you been to, you are travelling alone???!!!, do you have family, what do you like here?... The last one I answered without giving it much thought... I said, "I like that no matter where I turn my head to, I see something that doesn't leave me indifferent", and seeing that he didn't understand this indifferent, I said "everywhere I look I see something new and interesting to me". I think that even if I had taken five minutes before answering his question, I would have said the same. This is what I like the most up to now in these few places I've been to. I love/hate how intense things are here... One moment you are talking to a super friendly local who is shaking your hand with a bright smile on his face, next moment a guy with no legs appears in front of you, crawling on the sand (yesterday, at Marina Beach) using his hands, with his chest stuck on the sand, next moment you are asked to be taken a photograph, next moment you need to bargain with a rickshaw driver to take you from A to B, next moment you smell some food which tempts you to eat it even if you are not particularly hungry, and the moment you exit this place where you tasted something yummy, your nose is flooded with the urine smell coming from a few meters' distance... Everything is too much here, all the good things and all the bad things, and this, at times is wonderful/disgusting, but it never leaves you indifferent, it obliges you to be a big sponge 24 hours a day, absorbing everything you see, and that's something that makes me feel great about my choice to come to India...
One fun thing to notice during the day, is seeing things being verified, things i had read about before coming. I had read that Indians avoid answering you straight if you pose a yes or no question, and they know the answer is no. For some reason, they just avoid saying no. I asked the receptionist at Hyderabad if anyone from Gulf Air had called, and he said "if anyone calls I will pass the call to your room, or I will take a note". I asked someone on the train if it is safe in the night, and he answered, "maybe you should ask this to the attendant of the wagon". The answer was no, but he didn't want to tell me no. He told me though, that no one goes on the train without a lock of his one, to secure his stuff in the night. I had read about women using those funny brooms (same material with the... witches' brooms) to kick the dust away, as if sending the dust a couple of meters away will make it disappear... I had read that people piss, just like that, on the sidewalks, which causes many places to stink of urine... I had read that people don't mind burping even while talking to you. I had read that you are asked for photographs and autographs. I had read... the list goes on and on... All these are true. Talking about the last one, as Sarah Macdonald writes in her "Holy Cow", in India you are famous just for being white... She also writes (I bought her book yesterday and spent a good part of the night laughing every now and then with her hilarious writing style) that in India, solitude is an egoistic pursuit, or something like that, meaning that you can never be alone... I've only been to cities up to now, I don't know how things are outside big cities, but it's true that even in the so called quieter corners of Hyderabad and Chennai, you are anything but alone, which, as almost everything in life I think, can be both a blessing and a curse...
Getting back to my first Indian train experience, I have to admit that as a Balkan European I felt a little embarrassed seeing how the 3A class of Indian trains is (air condition, 6/8 bunks "compartments" class). The last two years the Thessaloniki-Ljubljana train line was my second home, and I assure you that this train I took the night before yesterday, is A+, comparing it to the one from my home city to Slovenia...
Too much talk and no photos, I know, I forgot to take with me the cable to connect the camera to the PC... Next time...
Really nice to see you people check my blog, thanks again for your words of support :-), and... what else?... Talk to you from Mysore, the day after tomorrow.
Yesterday afternoon I was strolling at Marina Beach, the one the Chennaiites claim to be the longest in the world (which is wrong, but... no big deal), the atmosphere was really captivating, if you ask me, with countless people strolling, couples sitting on the sun, sellers trying to push their things, and of course the occasional local who would come and start off a conversation seeing a westerner walk alone. The typical questions, where are you from, what's your name, how do you like Chennai, which other places have you been to, you are travelling alone???!!!, do you have family, what do you like here?... The last one I answered without giving it much thought... I said, "I like that no matter where I turn my head to, I see something that doesn't leave me indifferent", and seeing that he didn't understand this indifferent, I said "everywhere I look I see something new and interesting to me". I think that even if I had taken five minutes before answering his question, I would have said the same. This is what I like the most up to now in these few places I've been to. I love/hate how intense things are here... One moment you are talking to a super friendly local who is shaking your hand with a bright smile on his face, next moment a guy with no legs appears in front of you, crawling on the sand (yesterday, at Marina Beach) using his hands, with his chest stuck on the sand, next moment you are asked to be taken a photograph, next moment you need to bargain with a rickshaw driver to take you from A to B, next moment you smell some food which tempts you to eat it even if you are not particularly hungry, and the moment you exit this place where you tasted something yummy, your nose is flooded with the urine smell coming from a few meters' distance... Everything is too much here, all the good things and all the bad things, and this, at times is wonderful/disgusting, but it never leaves you indifferent, it obliges you to be a big sponge 24 hours a day, absorbing everything you see, and that's something that makes me feel great about my choice to come to India...
One fun thing to notice during the day, is seeing things being verified, things i had read about before coming. I had read that Indians avoid answering you straight if you pose a yes or no question, and they know the answer is no. For some reason, they just avoid saying no. I asked the receptionist at Hyderabad if anyone from Gulf Air had called, and he said "if anyone calls I will pass the call to your room, or I will take a note". I asked someone on the train if it is safe in the night, and he answered, "maybe you should ask this to the attendant of the wagon". The answer was no, but he didn't want to tell me no. He told me though, that no one goes on the train without a lock of his one, to secure his stuff in the night. I had read about women using those funny brooms (same material with the... witches' brooms) to kick the dust away, as if sending the dust a couple of meters away will make it disappear... I had read that people piss, just like that, on the sidewalks, which causes many places to stink of urine... I had read that people don't mind burping even while talking to you. I had read that you are asked for photographs and autographs. I had read... the list goes on and on... All these are true. Talking about the last one, as Sarah Macdonald writes in her "Holy Cow", in India you are famous just for being white... She also writes (I bought her book yesterday and spent a good part of the night laughing every now and then with her hilarious writing style) that in India, solitude is an egoistic pursuit, or something like that, meaning that you can never be alone... I've only been to cities up to now, I don't know how things are outside big cities, but it's true that even in the so called quieter corners of Hyderabad and Chennai, you are anything but alone, which, as almost everything in life I think, can be both a blessing and a curse...
Getting back to my first Indian train experience, I have to admit that as a Balkan European I felt a little embarrassed seeing how the 3A class of Indian trains is (air condition, 6/8 bunks "compartments" class). The last two years the Thessaloniki-Ljubljana train line was my second home, and I assure you that this train I took the night before yesterday, is A+, comparing it to the one from my home city to Slovenia...
Too much talk and no photos, I know, I forgot to take with me the cable to connect the camera to the PC... Next time...
Really nice to see you people check my blog, thanks again for your words of support :-), and... what else?... Talk to you from Mysore, the day after tomorrow.
Sunday, 3 December 2006
Who would have thought?!
I didn't mean to come to the Internet cafe today, but after spending a super morning I just felt like telling everyone that... after all, I will leave Hyderabad with more fond memories than sad ones(!)... Putting my right hand on my heart I say that these last five hours, jumping from one auto rickshaw to the other, going and seeing places, talking to super friendly locals and eating something which I have no idea what exactly it was but it sure tasted yummy, I didn't think for one single moment about my lost luggage... Now that I think of it, the only thing I will really miss is my photo camera battery recharger, but it's a good thing that I have both my cameras with me, and luckily the second one, the older one, takes AA batteries as well (phewww). I don't know if losing my luggage was 'meant' to happen, or was it just bad luck, and I don't really care to know the answer... What I love realizing is that I compromised with it rather fast, and without meaning to... beautify this whole situation, I say that... in a way... it was not such a bad thing to happen. Uncomfortable, for sure, annoying, no doubt about that, but it gave me the chance to see myself in an -anything but pleasant- situation, and through this, I think I discovered a little more of me, a little part of me I didn't know I had. Patience is not one of my virtues, dealing with mishaps in a calm way is not a virtue of mine either, I am bad tempered and get easily pissed for little things, so this is like a... revelation to me. Quite honestly, I kind of like this new me... :-) Talking about Hyderabad, now that I am close to leaving from here, I'll remember it as the place of India that... taught me things, and I don't mean about the whole luggage situation. Hyderabad 'taught' me that even a relentless walker like myself, should rely on auto rickshaws to get from A to B. The distances are not huge, but the traffic, the air pollution, the heat, the crowd along the streets and the bad condition of the pavements (if any), make it very hard to walk for more than a kilometre. Auto rickshaws are FUN, CHEAP, PLENTIFUL, and quite fast, given that the roads may be FULL of vehicles, but they hardly ever stop... It's like a nonstop wheels' wave... It's like going to a fun park and get on those little cars that crash each other, only here I didn't see any cars crash, miraculously I guess... :-) Hyderabad also taught me that Indians (at least the Hyderabadis), are sweet and friendly. I had many people asking me the typical question "where are you from?", and to be honest in the beginning I was a little suspicious, but believe it or not, non of them tried to sell me something, they were just passers by who talked to me with a smile on their face for a couple of minutes, wished me a nice trip and left. Then again, every single time I asked for a little help, help I got indeed, even from people who didn't know much English and had to find another one who did speak English, so he could help me. All in all, I consider Hyderabad a great introduction to India, and when this trip is over, I will bring this chaotic city in my mind and I will smile... Last, but definitely not least, I would like to thank everyone from dropping a line... I already was in a great mood coming to the Internet cafe, and seeing your comments made me crack a bunch of extra smiles... :-) Talk to you from Chennai (where I will also try to upload a few photos).
Saturday, 2 December 2006
Ouch...
The receptionist at my hotel saw me totally hopeless, asked me what's wrong, told him and I felt 0.5% better, so here I am, hoping that telling everyone about it will make me feel at least 2% better... Here's the case, people: my backpack got lost. Up to a while ago I had the hope that it had ended up at Sydney (why Sydney? Loooong stupid Gulf Air story), but nope, it's officially lost. What now? Well, I have money with me, I have my passport, my tickets, so I'll do the only thing I CAN do... Go shop, the very basics, get a new backpack and basically I am going to try and repair my all crashed -at the moment- wings... There is nothing more I can do, is there? You know what's funny, in a... sick way? :-) A few days before flying to Mumbai I met Elena, a Cypriot girl studying in Greece, who came to Thessaloniki to meet a doctor and get info concerning her trip to India in February. I remember telling her that I didn't even want to think about having my luggage lost. What I had in mind was not 'lost', but 'delayed', I was thinking what would happen in case I arrived at Mumbai Friday morning and somehow my luggage ended up somewhere else. It WOULD be a problem, because yesterday midday I was flying again, from Mumbai to Hyderabad, so I would have to face the dilemma, "what do I do now? Do I lose the ticket (low cost airline, non refundable) and wait at Mumbai until my luggage arrives, sending my itinerary to the dustbin, or take the flight and let them send the luggage to Hyderabad when they find it?" Back then, I was thinking that this was the worst thing that could happen, have my luggage delayed for 24 hours, risking to turn my itinerary to pieces. The idea of having my luggage lost-lost had not crossed my mind...Then, I remember Elena saying that even if my luggage got lost, I would only lose stuff, and we can't be too attached to stuff... True :-) (bitter smile). They were only stuff, but first of all, they were ALL the stuff I was meant to have for 25 days with me in India, and second some of those stuff were sentimentally important to me, they were something like 'pals' of mine, and now... they are gone. Another funny thing is that along with me there was a Belgian yesterday at Mumbai airport, who had her luggage lost too. She is a yoga teacher, and she told me that in case she was told that her luggage was lost for good, she would try to practice the same self-control she teaches her class, but deep down she admitted that she would be "REALLY pissed", so... give me a break here... if a yoga teacher gets pissed when she loses her luggage, I think I have the right myself to get pissed... :-)
Well-well-well... I do feel a little better now that I told everyone what's the case... I'm going to see the Charminar, Hyderabad's landmark, a structure I fell in love with the first time I saw it in a photo, and then I'm going shopping. Then, in the afternoon, I want to stroll around the artificial lake separating Hyderabad and Secunderabad, another thing I had in mind doing here from the day I decided to include Hyderabad in my itinerary. Then, my hotel may not be super, but a decent room will be waiting for me, hot water is something they DO have (checked, yesterday), the bed is... weird :-) but clean enough, I'll get some sleep, and tomorrow will be a new day, one that will find me with a new backpack and new stuff in it, ready to see a little of Hyderabad again before taking the afternoon train to Chennai... What the heck... After all, they were only stuff... Worse things can happen in life than losing all your stuff the first of a 25 days' trip to India... :-) I salute everyone, and I hope that next time I drop some lines here, from Chennai, I won't sound so pathetic... :-)
PS My Athens-Bahrain Gulf Air flight got cancelled the day before yesterday, so Gulf Air set me up with Middle East Airlines for the Athens-Beirut sector (from Beirut I could catch another flight to Bahrain and be there in time for my Bahrain-Mumbai flight). On the MEA plane they had a Lebanese newspaper called 'The Daily..." something, I took a look, reached the last page with the horoscopes, checked it out of curiosity, and under Scorpio they wrote "blah-blah-blah, but luck is with you today". Call me sarcastic and nasty, but some Lebanese MUST lose his job... :-)
Well-well-well... I do feel a little better now that I told everyone what's the case... I'm going to see the Charminar, Hyderabad's landmark, a structure I fell in love with the first time I saw it in a photo, and then I'm going shopping. Then, in the afternoon, I want to stroll around the artificial lake separating Hyderabad and Secunderabad, another thing I had in mind doing here from the day I decided to include Hyderabad in my itinerary. Then, my hotel may not be super, but a decent room will be waiting for me, hot water is something they DO have (checked, yesterday), the bed is... weird :-) but clean enough, I'll get some sleep, and tomorrow will be a new day, one that will find me with a new backpack and new stuff in it, ready to see a little of Hyderabad again before taking the afternoon train to Chennai... What the heck... After all, they were only stuff... Worse things can happen in life than losing all your stuff the first of a 25 days' trip to India... :-) I salute everyone, and I hope that next time I drop some lines here, from Chennai, I won't sound so pathetic... :-)
PS My Athens-Bahrain Gulf Air flight got cancelled the day before yesterday, so Gulf Air set me up with Middle East Airlines for the Athens-Beirut sector (from Beirut I could catch another flight to Bahrain and be there in time for my Bahrain-Mumbai flight). On the MEA plane they had a Lebanese newspaper called 'The Daily..." something, I took a look, reached the last page with the horoscopes, checked it out of curiosity, and under Scorpio they wrote "blah-blah-blah, but luck is with you today". Call me sarcastic and nasty, but some Lebanese MUST lose his job... :-)
Thursday, 30 November 2006
Less than ten hours to go! (pinch me)
What do you write eight and a half hours before begining a trip you have been dreaming about for months and months? I'm really at a loss for words... I just feel that I waited for a long time, I took care of bunches of things that come with preparing for a trip to India, I made many sacrifices so as to be today a few hours before making this dream of mine real, and now it's the time to be... rewarded, let's say, for all my waiting, preparing and sacrificing, even though even THESE were great... I guess you will all agree with me that when something is important, then every single small or big sacrifice and 'pain' to lay your hands on it, IS worth it...
This is it, people. Next time you 'hear' from me I will be breathing Hyderabadi air! So what if people say that it's polluted because of the heavy traffic?... I'll be THERE to breath it, THAT'S what counts... :-)
This is it, people. Next time you 'hear' from me I will be breathing Hyderabadi air! So what if people say that it's polluted because of the heavy traffic?... I'll be THERE to breath it, THAT'S what counts... :-)
Wednesday, 29 November 2006
Ήγγικεν η ώρα η ευλογημένη!
Πριν διαβάστε τις επόμενες αράδες, ρίξτε μια ματιά στο σχόλιο που μου άφησε χθες η ‘londonair’…
Επιστρέψατε πατριωτάκια μου; Το λοιπόν, όταν διάβασα το σχόλιό της… γούρλωσα τα μάτια… Στη δεύτερη χθεσινή παράγραφό μου έγραψα ότι έκανα διάφορες ‘βαθιές’ σκέψεις, ίσως επειδή η ώρα ήταν περασμένη κι επικρατούσε –σχεδόν- απόλυτη ησυχία (αν εξαιρέσω το γάβγισμα ενός σκυλακίου που καθόλου δεν θα μου λείψει τις 25 προσεχείς ημέρες), σκέψεις όμως που στο τέλος προτίμησα να κρατήσω για μένα και να μη σας ζαλίσω πολύ-πολύ… Η πλάκα είναι ότι το ‘ζουμί’ αυτών που έγραψα και τελικά διέγραψα, είναι αυτό ακριβώς που γράφει η ‘londonair’. Μα ακριβώς!... Κρατάω ανοικτό μυαλό χωρίς να έχω τρελές προσδοκίες, ΕΙΜΑΙ κάργα ενθουσιασμένος αλλά δεν τρέφω την ψευδαίσθηση ότι πηγαίνω κάπου όπου τα πάντα θα είναι παραδεισένια, βγαλμένα από μπροσούρες ταξιδιωτικών πρακτορείων, και πάνω απ’ όλα πηγαίνω γεμάτος περιέργεια, γεμάτος δίψα να δω, να μυρίσω, να ακούσω… Τόσο απλά…
Με την ευκαιρία, londonair μου, μακάρι να ήμουν εισοδηματίας, μακάρι να καθόμουν και απλά κάθε πρώτη του μήνα να μάζευα ενοίκια από τα πέντε –ανύπαρκτα- σπίτια μου, μακάρι να μην είχα την υποχρέωση να δουλεύω έξι μέρες την εβδομάδα, μακάρι να είχα την πολυτέλεια να φύγω τρεις μήνες από τη δουλειά μου και να έβλεπα την Ινδία από… την κορυφή μέχρι τα νύχια της. Επειδή όμως οι μέρες που έχω στη διάθεσή μου είναι… μετρημένα κουκιά, έπρεπε να διαλέξω μεταξύ βορρά και νότου. Δεκέμβρη μήνα, μεταξύ Ιμαλαΐων και ζεστού νότου, πες με παράξενο αλλά… δε ζορίστηκα πολύ να αποφασίσω... :-)
Δώρα, όπως βλέπεις κάνω αυτό που σου είπα στην εφημερίδα :-), το μπλογκάκι μου από σήμερα γίνεται δίγλωσσο, για να μπορώ κι εγώ σαν άνθρωπος να εκφράζομαι όπως θέλω (στα Ελληνικά, κάτι που τα μη τέλεια Αγγλικά μου δεν μου επιτρέπουν να κάνω στα… οξφορδιανά που έγραψες κι εσύ :-)), ΚΑΙ τα φιλαράκια μου από Αυστραλία μέχρι ΗΠΑ που δεν σκαμπάζουν γρι Ελληνικά να μαθαίνουν νέα μου.
Φίλτατες και φίλτατοι, αυτό ήταν… Έντεκα και δέκα λέει το ρολόι, κοντεύουν μεσάνυχτα, το ξυπνητήρι έχει ήδη ρυθμιστεί για τις έξι και μισή το πρωί (μη φθάσω και με την ψυχή στο στόμα στο αεροδρόμιο), τα πράγματα είναι στον σάκο (όχι στριμωγμένα, γιατί θα χρειαστώ χώρο στην επιστροφή για τα αναμνηστικά που θα ‘τσιμπήσω’ από εδώ κι από κει), και… τι άλλο από, «ΤΑ ΛΕΜΕ ΑΠΟ ΙΝΔΙΑ!»
Tuesday, 28 November 2006
No sleep...
No way... It's almost 5am and I find it impossible to fall asleep. Got back home from work around 11pm, stayed online until about 1am checking fhrai.com, getting accommodation ideas for all the places I will spend nights at, turned the laptop off, tried getting some sleep, but... no luck. After spinning around the bed for an hour, I gave up, turned the TV on, and how lucky did I get!, a Greek TV channel had the last three 'Survival 6' episodes back to back! A little after 4am I saw Jenna snatch the million bucks from Matt, did some zapping, nothing caught my attention, so I said I could give it another try and get some sleep... Nope. N O P E. All sorts of thoughts were crossing my mind, most of them had to do with the trip of course, so since either way I couldn't sleep... here I am...
Phew... That was close. I just wrote an endless paragraph mumbling about all sorts of deeeep thoughts of mine concerning my trip, and when I read it I decided to be a good guy and spare you... Yep, lots of deep thinking, which comes with writing at 5:20am, in complete darkness, hardly hearing any sound other than a dog bark (I love doggies but THIS specific one has tempted me more than once or twice the last 20 months to put an early end to its life).
Closing, I would just like to say that it's nice seeing that a bunch of people have visited my blog, taken the time to read something, even drop me a line or two. Generally I'm a grumpy loner who only occasionally feels like sharing personal stuff with people, but in this case I really wanted to share my excitement about this trip with others, and it's great to see that these 'others' are waaaay more than what I expected...
Hm... Talking about 'others', maybe tomorrow night I should rent a DVD with a whole circle of 'LOST' episodes (you need to be a 'LOST' fan to know what 'others' has to do with this series). Either way, I don't see me get any sleep tomorrow night either...
5:45am, 9:15 in India... Say what? I sound as if virtually I'm already there? What in the world makes you say that?!!!...
Phew... That was close. I just wrote an endless paragraph mumbling about all sorts of deeeep thoughts of mine concerning my trip, and when I read it I decided to be a good guy and spare you... Yep, lots of deep thinking, which comes with writing at 5:20am, in complete darkness, hardly hearing any sound other than a dog bark (I love doggies but THIS specific one has tempted me more than once or twice the last 20 months to put an early end to its life).
Closing, I would just like to say that it's nice seeing that a bunch of people have visited my blog, taken the time to read something, even drop me a line or two. Generally I'm a grumpy loner who only occasionally feels like sharing personal stuff with people, but in this case I really wanted to share my excitement about this trip with others, and it's great to see that these 'others' are waaaay more than what I expected...
Hm... Talking about 'others', maybe tomorrow night I should rent a DVD with a whole circle of 'LOST' episodes (you need to be a 'LOST' fan to know what 'others' has to do with this series). Either way, I don't see me get any sleep tomorrow night either...
5:45am, 9:15 in India... Say what? I sound as if virtually I'm already there? What in the world makes you say that?!!!...
Saturday, 25 November 2006
Fighting preconceptions
“Don’t expect any politeness in Mumbai. It’s been named the world’s rudest city”. I heard this on Al Jazeera International a while ago… It got me thinking… If you ask me, one of the hardest tasks someone has to face from the day he decides to travel to
Five days to go, and I feel like (no giggles, please) Jodi Foster in ‘Contact’, towards the end of the movie, when she is in that… ‘ball’, free falling, being overwhelmed by excitement, knowing that she is about to experience something unique, not knowing though what exactly to expect… (now you can giggle).
Thursday, 23 November 2006
My itinerary
Here it is (weather/planes/trains/Brahma/Vishnu/Shiva/Allah/God/health permitting):
1 Dec – early arrival at Mumbai,
2 Dec –
3 Dec –
4 Dec – Chennai
5 Dec – Chennai (possible day trip to Mamallapuram)
6 Dec – Chennai (night train to…)
7 Dec –
8 Dec –
9 Dec –
10 Dec –
11 Dec –
12 Dec –
13 Dec – Day trip to Kanyakumari
14 Dec – Trivandrum-Kochi, making one or two stops on the way
15 Dec –
16 Dec –
17 Dec –
18 Dec –
19 Dec –
20 Dec –
21 Dec – Mumbai
22 Dec – Mumbai
23 Dec – Mumbai
24 Dec – Mumbai
25 Dec – early morning flight back home via Bahrain-Athens
1 Jan – Beginning of my “where to, next?” thinking…
Wednesday, 22 November 2006
The veils are falling, one by one...
A pal/ex colleague of mine kind of… told me off for writing too much (can you believe this guy’s nerves?!!), so today I’ll try to follow his advice and keep this post terribly short. I was thinking about what to write today, and my eyes fell on Tom Robbins’ ‘Skinny legs and all’ (‘Ο χορός των εφτά πέπλων’, στα Ελληνικά), squeezed in some shelf, among other Tom Robbins’ books (big fan of his). Isn’t spending the last days before starting a big trip you have been dreaming about for months, like watching Salome’s dance? Think about it… Yesterday I went downtown to window-shop and spotted a couple of things I need to buy before leaving for India India
Tuesday, 21 November 2006
Do ‘white lies’ count as real lies?
Yesterday I dedicated my post to the power of positive thinking. Today, pushed by a sad event that happened relatively close to Kolkata (
In my case, these last months, the main receivers of the… few, OK, not so few, eeehm, come to think of it… anything but few, OK, you got me, a whole BUNCH of white lies I needed to say, were my… poor parents. The thing is… they don’t just love me, more like… they live because I live, which may have to do with the fact that I am an only child (yep, Spoiled is one of my middle names, one of the first in the list, and with capital S). Anyhow, put yourself in my shoes and imagine what you would say to my parents if they asked you, the day before yesterday, “what was that we saw on the news about a train blast in
What’s true from all these? Well… not all Indian dishes are spicy. That’s true. And Air Deccan, the low-cost airline I’m flying with, twice, has a good safety record (hasn’t gotten any award of course, but a little exaggeration doesn’t hurt, if it makes your worrying parents less worried). Also, a good number of Indians are quite fluent in English, and I’m sure I will meet MANY locals who will be THAT fluent that I myself will sound like a beginner… Apart form these three, well… let me put it this way: don’t take any words of mine for granted…
Monday, 20 November 2006
Happy birthday to me
Οι αρκετοί e-pals μου (μη Έλληνες, όλοι τους), μου έχουν φάει τα αυτιά να αρχίσω να γράφω και στα Αγγλικά για να καταλαβαίνουν κι αυτοί οι δύσμοιροι τι γράφω, οπότε για σήμερα τουλάχιστον, ‘το γυρίζω’…
Since A) today is my birthday, B) some people, especially 30 somethings, tend to get moody on their birthday, and C) this blog is all about my upcoming trip to
Then, there was the big ‘health’ issue. This is going to be my 38th trip abroad (bragging?! I?! Naaaaa... Oh well, maybe just a liiittle), but up to now I never needed any vaccines before traveling somewhere, I never had to talk to a doctor, I never had to consider taking pills to protect me from certain diseases while on a trip. I didn’t jump out of excitement hearing that it would be wise to have a needle stuck on my arms five times before taking the flight to Mumbai, and hell no, I was anything but thrilled reading about the possible side-effects of Lariam, the anti-malaria pills I’m taking before, during, AND after the trip, but, on the other hand, talking to doctors, reading, searching, cross-checking info (helloooo, journalist writing these lines, what did you expect?), was damn interesting. I learned things, things I wouldn’t have learned if it wasn’t for my commitment to make this trip to
I’m trying to keep all my posts relatively short, so I’ll wrap this one up with one last ‘test’ I had to take, possibly the most pleasant of all, for a languages’ freak like My Highness… Every time I visit a new country, I do my… homework and learn some basic expressions. Hungarian, Hebrew and Arabic had been the biggest challenges up to now, but doing the same preparation for a trip to
Bottom line: I haven't stepped my feet on Indian soil yet, but this trip has already taught me heaps of stuff, plus, has given me lots of reasons to get excited about. All it took was a good dose of positive thinking...
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