Around India in 18 Days
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Journal - 
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Apr. 27, Agra
A lot has happened in the last two days. I arrived safely at Delhi airport where Akshay and his uncle picked me up. Delhi stinks! (As in smell). As we were driving to Akshay's grandma's place, we went through many different variations of smell. Starting from a sulfur-like smell to the smell of rotten egs, many interesting smells blew in through the window. At least I had read about it before I arrived. One of the first major differences I noticed was the driving style here. The motion of the cars is similar to that of people in a crowd. No-one pays attention to lanes even though the lines are painted and according to Akshay "the rules exist". The cars are much smaller (many even smaller than Stanley), so they are maneuvered around quickly and precisely. Yet, all cars have dents and scratches in the corners and along the sides. I hope the pictures will roughly what goes on here. After getting to Akshay's grandma's place, we talked for a while and then headed to bed. The place was simple, but and very clean and nice. [Akshay later explained he thinks both his Mom and Grandma are neat freaks]. I slept about 2-3 hours then woke up, and stayed awake for probably about 4 hours before falling asleep again. So the 10:30 hour difference might take a little more then just one day to adjust to… After doing some quick shopping in the morning, we went downtown in Delhi and had lunch. met Akshay's friend along the way Excellent kabab, roti, spicy chicken and cottage cheese. The yoghurt might take a while to get used to… everything else so far has been good. Tour of Delhi, lotus temple, beggars… At about 4pm we left by train to Agra. Another set of intense experiences. Drove by many very poor looking villages, sharing a sleeping compartment with 6 Indians, getting off at the right stop, leaning out of the train with the door open… The heat isn't as bad as I had expected. Supposedly today it was much cooler than the day before. I think I will be able to tolerate it if gets a little hotter yet. We checked out 3 hotels before deciding to stay at the 3rd for Rs550. Pretty good deal - that's less than $20. There are a couple of grasshoppers jumping around here, another I'll have to get used to :) Called home just to let every one know I'm fine and don't have SARS. Was maybe a minute or so, but it still only cost Rs35 (about $1). Things are cheap here. We're off early to see the Taj Mahal tomorrow, so I better get some sleep. The Taj Mahal is definetly one of the most impressive buildings I've seen in my whole life. We went out early to beat the rush - the weather couldn't have been better. I think what makes it so impressive is all the marble and intricate inlayed stone. Most of the great european architecture I've seen doesn't seem to have kept so well over the years. |
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Apr. 28 Guess where I am? No, don't look at the title! On a train from Agra to Satna. guess it got too bumpy or I was too tired to write any more :) Something I remembered when I got back to
Canada: BTW - we also blew a tire on the way there or back (can't remember) - took about ½ hour until it was replaced. I ask myself how the driver noticed it - it was a back tire and we were sitting in the back so we should have felt it before the driver did. Another conclusion - an Indian bus driver has the ability to distinguish between what I sense as "bumpy" and "bumpy". |
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Apr. 29 Hmmm… didn't get much writing done lately. We've been traveling from site to site - it's already getting hard to remember what we saw when. Right now we're at the train station in Satna waiting for a train to bring us to Katni. We're both quite tired from the day; we didn't get much sleep on the train yesterday. The long bus+jeep rides were tiring as well. The temple in Khajuraho were worth it all though. The park was very well kept, and there were very few tourists around, making things very quite and peaceful. Back to the present. A cow just walked in through the entrance to the train-station, leaving 5 fair sized droppings behind it. We are betting on how long it takes for someone to step in it. I bet 2 minutes, Akshay says people are so used to it, they'll just walk around it. And so far, it looks like he's right. The two minutes are up. Akshay won. The people seem to avoid it without even seeing it. Maybe a sixth Indian sense? One minute later: Time's up. About 3 minutes. First someone with shoes, then someone barefoot. Now that it's spreading it will become harder to avoid. Will anyone ever clean it up? We might never know. Just took a picture of Akshay so you can see what it looks like where I'm writing this. Earlier, there were a bunch of people standing around us staring - I'm starting to get used to it. It helps that the people are generally very friendly (if they're not trying to get money from you). They are just extremely curious, and don't seem to want to hide it. In Panna today, a group of 5 year olds walked by and one of them proclaimed:
Right now a group of guys are watching me write again. Akshay's writing in Hindi seemed to have grabbed their attention. And they usually are not overly busy with other things, so a white guy is a welcome distraction from everyday life. The cow droppings still have not been cleaned up, but they also haven't spread as quickly as I had expected. … past midnight… '-> 30th Our train now has 3:30 hrs delay. Expecting it to come in at around 2 or 2:30, now it's 1:10. There's actually a lot happening for this time of the day. The newspaper man is selling the new issues of "Hindustan Times" and another paper I can not read. People keep on walking in and out through the entrance in front of me. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone here will be getting on the same train as us :) That would make the train about as full as the busses and Jeeps we drove in today. I counted 16 people in the last Jeep. 5 in the front 5 in the second row, and 6 in the back (including me and Akshay). The driver sat on the right side of the wheel… there are so many things I wish I had taken pictures of |
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1st, Tata (Jamshedpur) It was a long journey here. 2nd, Tata Just woke up ½ ago. Starting to feel a little better. Stomach doesn't seem upset (much anymore) and my headache is also fading. I hope I will get well soon and not get sick during the rest of the trip. I'm so lucky it happened here, where there were people to take care of me. Tata is beautiful. We went for a quick drive through town yesterday
evening after the rain. Went for a walk in the park. Would have
been nice to see it at daylight, but getting healthy again is more
important. 6:10 |
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2nd, Kolkata, Taj Bengal Talk about contrasts… just a few hours ago I was squatting in a dirty washroom n the train, now I'm sipping tea in the Taj Bengal. Akshay is reading his novel. I've never been in a hotel this exquisite. The pictures will speak for themselves. The service here is unimaginable. In the washroom there are people that pump the soap for you, turn on the tap and hand you a cloth for drying your hands. You can hear little water falls in the background together with classical piano music. I'm sure most people here expect this service and are willing to pay the price. The rooms start at $215 per night - that's about how much money we spend in a week… |
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2nd, Plane from Kolkata to Chennai An experience I don't want to ever have to repeat: My stomach is starting to feel better now, but I had a *very* close call on the way to the airport… The road was bumpy (as it is everywhere), and the driver was going at a considerable speed. I won't explain any more. We went through security without any problems except for Akshay's jackknife in his backpack :) Now we have to pick it up from "a guy" in Chennai: "There will be a guy in Chennai with the knife". Immediately after passing through security I rushed to the washroom to do my business. The few hours we spent in Kolkata left a good impression. I guess I have started to expect the worst after being in Delhi, Agra and Satna. The smell of traffic pollution seems easier to handle than the stink of rotten garbage we have experienced elsewhere. Before writing the following I read in the Lonely Planet guide that the traffic in Kolkata can be terrible - "frenetic streets" Traffic was slightly worse than the other cities so far, but getting to the airport didn't take too long. The cab drivers here have a consistently turned off the engines while waiting at intersections. I guess there might be some rule to minimize air pollution. In most cases we only stood for less than 30 seconds. Akshay mentioned his parents once waited at an intersection in Kolkata for over 20 minutes! (If I remember correctly) I think we'll be landing soon, or the plane is pointing downward for some other reason… I know mom often worries more because she doesn't know exactly what I'm doing. In the case of this journey, I think she would worry more if she knew about everything I was experiencing. Yes, we are landing now, I can see lights of boats in the ocean (I think…). Starting mental preparation for Chennai… While swooping down over Chennai They talked about the huge billboards in Chennai in the Lonely Planet guide - wow - I didn't think you'dd be able to see them from the plane… sorry no pictures of the huge billboards :( |
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3rd, Train from Chennai to Kollam Akshay and I both got a reasonable amount of sleep on the train tonight, so we are no longer half awake like yesterday night at 1am when we got on. It will be another 9 hours approx. to Kollam where we will try to find a hotel for the night. According to the Lonely Planet guide they'll be relatively cheap compared to what we've seen in Agra. I'm sure the beaches in that area will be beautiful - this time of the year there shouldn't be too many tourists either. Hotel in Kollam Man, that train ride sucked the energy right out of us! The scenery was beautiful along the whole stretch, it was just too long, and too hot. Because we only had general tickets we decided to stay in the sleeper wagon. We may have had to stay up all night waiting for seats in air conditioned compartment. Even with all the windows open in the sleeper wagon, the breeze didn't seem to cool things off much. So we ended up drinking a fair amount of water, and even grabbing a small ice-cream on the way (what a treat). Wetting your face with water and walking through the AC wagons also helped cool down a little :) At least now we're finally in Kollam in a not-to-bad hotel. We stopped at one other hotel recommended by Lonely Planet called "Hotel Sudarson" - but their rates were just way too steep for us. Our second try was successful - the KTDC Yatri Nivas. Supposedly we should have a "pleasant riverside view", but it's too dark out to see anything right now. The rate is Rs 495 ($17) for a double, AC room. Very reasonable as far as we can tell. I ate for the first time since breakfast. It was fried, breaded chicken with some vegetables - yummy yummy. I've been careful with the western food since the "if I can't make it real spicy, I'll at least make it real salty" macaroni salad in Agra. Here the cook seemed to know what he was doing… |
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4th, Hotel in Kollam The day started great. We went down to the restaurant for a quick breakfast, then asked at the front desk about the options we had for spending some time in and around Kollam. They mentioned a canal trip out at a remote village - it sounded great until they said the price was Rs 200. We will already be spending Rs 200 for the backwaters tour tomorrow. Instead we decided to check out the local beaches. First we went down to the Mahatma Ghandi beach. It was lovely as the pictures will show. Akshay took a dip - I didn't feel it was safe after the autorickshaw driver mentioned the strong currents. I must have inherited a few genes from my mother… The second beach was a little had to find for our autorickshaw driver - you could say we had communication problems. First he dropped us off at the lighthouse (no pictures allowed for some strange reason - I bet it's actually a missile launching facility). Then he wanted us to pay extra to bring us to the actual beach… These autorickshaw drivers are always a tossup. Most of time they're greedy (after seeing my [precious white skin]), other times their initial offer is reasonable and there's no fuss when paying. The latter ones seem to occur more frequently in the south. In the north, the initial off was often overpriced by 100%. It helps to know the distance to the destination, but that's not always possible. We finally got the driver to bring us to the beach at no extra charge thanks to Akshay's persistence. Usually it's just a matter of time - the more time you entertain the driver with your arguments the more likely you are to get a good price. The second beach was much calmer, less waves, but also dirtier. After getting into the water a fisher dumped some fish guts in the water about 100m from us. A large group of local boys chatted with us and stared at me for a while. I'm getting used to the stares I get when walking around, but being surrounded by a group of people, all gawking, still gets a little uncomfortable. I think I would get tempted if I found a bucket of brown paint around here anywhere… In the afternoon, we went to the restaurant and bar at the Sudersan Hotel (the one we decided was too expensive to stay at). I ate two jumbo prawns (large shrimp, as I learned after getting the meal - learning new English words in Asia) with some salad - it was ok, but Akshay and I think there might have been something "fishy" about the food there since both of our stomachs are behaving a little strange. I started feeling worse after the meal so I took a nap for a few hours. Thankfully Akshay is being very considerate, and letting me relax when I'm not feeling too great. Now I still have a bit of a headache, but the fever I feared this afternoon is not developing. Chances are I got a little too much of the noon sun on my balding head (wasn't wearing my cap in the water). I'll probably feel better by tomorrow morning. The backwaters tour shouldn't be too strenuous. Let's just hope they've got an accessible washroom somewhere on board. If there's no washroom and I'm still not feeling better, we might have to cancel it. I would hate to do that. But there are worse things… :) 10:00 |
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