I had seen a documentary about Cochin and was very excited about it. What i remembered the most were the suspended fishing nets and the spices. As soon as we got down the ferry, we saw the fishing nets but they were not in function at that time. The area is very lively and we see mainly tourists on the street. We even found the best coffee place ever serving excellent breakfast as well. We did spent a lot of time there in the morning...we had to wait a long time to be served!
There are maybe 30 fishing nets aligned on the coast. They are a structure similar to a four fingers hand, one finger attached to each corner of the net. The hand has an arm with weights (rocks of different dimensions) at the end of it to balance the whole thing. When the arm goes down, the hand opens and the net sinks into the water. It stays down for about 5 minutes before the fishermen starts pulling on the rocks to make the net come back up again. We spent a good 2 hours watching the nets going down into the water and back up, very often containing no fish at all.
I also rented a bike to visit the older part of Fort Cochin, Jew town. Lots of antiques shops but what i was looking for were spices storage rooms. I went in 2 places where women where sifting pepper. The air was filled with dust and i could not stay very long before starting sneezing. Great people and i would have stayed one more day.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Alleppey
They compare Alleppey to Venice. It is known for its 900 km of canals going inland and linking remote villages to the coast. The canals cross rice patties, fields of coconut trees and banana trees. They are still used by the local population as a highway to transport cashews, coconut and rice. However, the villagers use the water to bath and to cook and drink. Since cruises are the most important tourist attraction, the water quality is starting to decline. We decided to rent a canoe to be more nature friendly. We had a great time relaxing and observing the life within the small villages. There are also more and more plants growing on the surface of the water cutting out light underneath, plus all the garbage floating around... We still swam to cool us down but my bathing suit came back greyer than before!
Massages in Varkala
Before getting any further, i have to explain a little something about Indians i met so far in India. They are very sensitive! Not in a bad way, just that they take what you say very seriously. Which means that i never voiced any complaint. It would just make them sad really, so no reason to try explaining what was wrong especially with their poor understanding of English.
My own massages
I went to a place that was out of the most touristy area and chose the Rejuvenation massage that was described as a full body massage using oil. First of all, the massage table had no sheet, Ok. Second, as soon as I walked in, the woman ask me to strip down. Usually, the therapist leaves you alone 2 minutes to get undressed and slide under the sheet but, OK. She put some kind of diaper to try to hide my genitals. It has a rope that ties on the lower back with a long piece of material hanging down in between your legs. They go behind you and get the piece of material to go between your legs and on your bum’s crack. She was gentle and it wasn’t pulled too tight. I am sitting on a chair for 15 minutes while she massaged my head while talking to me. Then another woman comes in and they start massaging the rest of the body. Hot oil is poured from my toes to my neck. The amount is excessive but it smells good and the sensation is really good. First place they started massaging is the chest and they went right to the breasts. They did circular massages followed by the up and down motion from the shoulders to the waist being sure NOT to avoid the breasts. It lasted a good 5 minutes! They moved to the arms and legs before I got to turn over. I ended up being legs apart for a good part of the massage and I don’t feel that the diaper helped very much in hiding anything. Their moves are always from one end to the other and it felt more like a rubdown than a massage. At the end of the massage, they told me to relax 5 minutes before the shower. Hmmm, they also started talking and laughing while my legs are still apart, how i am supposed to relax? It took me about 40 minutes to wash most of the oil. I forgot my ears though! Since i was unsatisfied with the experience, i decided to go someplace else and be more verbal about my needs.
A little difficult with the limited English of the therapist. The girl who was to massage me, had her boss explain to her how to do the type of massage i wanted. The amount of oil was just enough but she obviously didn’t feel comfortable with what she was doing. I would probably compare her moves to a crab motion, pinching the skin instead of massaging. If i add to that the fact that the rooms are separated by a thin wall made of palmtree branches, that we can perfectly hear a guy pee on the other side of the wall and that the boss, a man, comes in to check if I like the massage every 10 minutes, well, it is not a relaxing moment! Let’s give it another try.
There is a place recommended by the Lonely Planet guide book, it has to be good! Same thing than the last girl, it will be her first time doing the type of massage. She demonstrated what she can do on my shoulders and i thought ‘’Not bad’’!!! I made the mistake to say that i liked it hard! She started massaging my arms and it was perfect. The problem arose after 10 minutes. Her fingers are dead already so her solution to keep the hard part in the massage, was to use her knuckles. Again OK when it is applied on a muscle, not OK when she passes too many times at the same spot and especially not OK when she does it on my rib cage. I gasped when it happened. I tried to explain in simple terms what was wrong but she just didn’t get it for too long. She did tone it down while doing the belly part but i felt like she was making sure that the towel covering my genitals was displaced. There was also a weird moment while i was exposing my back to the mistreatment. She somehow made a move allowing my but crack to be exposed. She might have been looking at the whiteness of the whole thing and the contrast it gace to the pinkinsh color of my asshole!!! I spent the rest of the time concentrating to stop thinking about the pain. At the beginning, i had asked to avoid the face and the head but when I felt like getting up and leave from the pain, i tried to get the face and the head done as well. I thought she could not mess it up since they do it all the time. She smiled and i understood that she would do it ... but only after 60 minutes of body massage, ‘’No money!’’ she said. Crap, could not get out of that one! The last move of the massage consisted in the massaging of the chest. She placed herself at my head and tried to reach to my waist about 10 times. Each time, i got her full breasts stamped to my face, to a point that i had to stop breathing for few seconds. The facial was great but it was overshadowed by the bruises showing the next morning! She was very happy to tell me that i got 30 minutes extra treatment and that i should tell my friends to come see her. No more massages in India!
Other’s massages
Baldur got a massage at the same time as i did at the place with the very thin walls. I could actually hear his skin being rubbed and at some point the table was squeaking!!! He was being massaged by a guy of course! He had to be naked as well and at some point the guy touched him on the arm to ask him to replace his penis so that he could massage the rest of the thigh. A special Moment. The massage guy didn’t speak very much English but Baldur had asked his boss to get a hard massage so he would stop once in a while, look into Baldur’s eyes and ask with a smile on his face: “ok, is it hard?”...which Baldur felt awkward laying there on his penis.
Daniel’s experience was somewhat better since he had been warned of the basics by Baldur. He still found it a bit weird to be sitting naked on the edge of the table facing the therapist who started rubbing him from shoulders to thighs. It always bring some sort of sensation when somebody you don’t know rubs the inner thighs.
Jenna and Nicky are friends since primary school. They had to strip in the same room and received their head massage sitting down facing each other. The girls were trying to keep their eyes closed but they burst out laughing when the women started massaging their breasts in circular motions. It is a situation where you feel a bit uncomfortable even if you are very good friends. When came the time for the final shower, they went back to their room, they thought it was enough sharing for the day.
Billy was lucky, he got the same type of cloth tied to his hips than i did for my first massage. However, when the guy pulled the long piece of material in between his legs, he yanked it back and it ended up being a bit tight and revealing. At some point, the therapist asked him to lay on his front with his legs spread open as well as his arms. He got numbed hands from that position.
My own massages
I went to a place that was out of the most touristy area and chose the Rejuvenation massage that was described as a full body massage using oil. First of all, the massage table had no sheet, Ok. Second, as soon as I walked in, the woman ask me to strip down. Usually, the therapist leaves you alone 2 minutes to get undressed and slide under the sheet but, OK. She put some kind of diaper to try to hide my genitals. It has a rope that ties on the lower back with a long piece of material hanging down in between your legs. They go behind you and get the piece of material to go between your legs and on your bum’s crack. She was gentle and it wasn’t pulled too tight. I am sitting on a chair for 15 minutes while she massaged my head while talking to me. Then another woman comes in and they start massaging the rest of the body. Hot oil is poured from my toes to my neck. The amount is excessive but it smells good and the sensation is really good. First place they started massaging is the chest and they went right to the breasts. They did circular massages followed by the up and down motion from the shoulders to the waist being sure NOT to avoid the breasts. It lasted a good 5 minutes! They moved to the arms and legs before I got to turn over. I ended up being legs apart for a good part of the massage and I don’t feel that the diaper helped very much in hiding anything. Their moves are always from one end to the other and it felt more like a rubdown than a massage. At the end of the massage, they told me to relax 5 minutes before the shower. Hmmm, they also started talking and laughing while my legs are still apart, how i am supposed to relax? It took me about 40 minutes to wash most of the oil. I forgot my ears though! Since i was unsatisfied with the experience, i decided to go someplace else and be more verbal about my needs.
A little difficult with the limited English of the therapist. The girl who was to massage me, had her boss explain to her how to do the type of massage i wanted. The amount of oil was just enough but she obviously didn’t feel comfortable with what she was doing. I would probably compare her moves to a crab motion, pinching the skin instead of massaging. If i add to that the fact that the rooms are separated by a thin wall made of palmtree branches, that we can perfectly hear a guy pee on the other side of the wall and that the boss, a man, comes in to check if I like the massage every 10 minutes, well, it is not a relaxing moment! Let’s give it another try.
There is a place recommended by the Lonely Planet guide book, it has to be good! Same thing than the last girl, it will be her first time doing the type of massage. She demonstrated what she can do on my shoulders and i thought ‘’Not bad’’!!! I made the mistake to say that i liked it hard! She started massaging my arms and it was perfect. The problem arose after 10 minutes. Her fingers are dead already so her solution to keep the hard part in the massage, was to use her knuckles. Again OK when it is applied on a muscle, not OK when she passes too many times at the same spot and especially not OK when she does it on my rib cage. I gasped when it happened. I tried to explain in simple terms what was wrong but she just didn’t get it for too long. She did tone it down while doing the belly part but i felt like she was making sure that the towel covering my genitals was displaced. There was also a weird moment while i was exposing my back to the mistreatment. She somehow made a move allowing my but crack to be exposed. She might have been looking at the whiteness of the whole thing and the contrast it gace to the pinkinsh color of my asshole!!! I spent the rest of the time concentrating to stop thinking about the pain. At the beginning, i had asked to avoid the face and the head but when I felt like getting up and leave from the pain, i tried to get the face and the head done as well. I thought she could not mess it up since they do it all the time. She smiled and i understood that she would do it ... but only after 60 minutes of body massage, ‘’No money!’’ she said. Crap, could not get out of that one! The last move of the massage consisted in the massaging of the chest. She placed herself at my head and tried to reach to my waist about 10 times. Each time, i got her full breasts stamped to my face, to a point that i had to stop breathing for few seconds. The facial was great but it was overshadowed by the bruises showing the next morning! She was very happy to tell me that i got 30 minutes extra treatment and that i should tell my friends to come see her. No more massages in India!
Other’s massages
Baldur got a massage at the same time as i did at the place with the very thin walls. I could actually hear his skin being rubbed and at some point the table was squeaking!!! He was being massaged by a guy of course! He had to be naked as well and at some point the guy touched him on the arm to ask him to replace his penis so that he could massage the rest of the thigh. A special Moment. The massage guy didn’t speak very much English but Baldur had asked his boss to get a hard massage so he would stop once in a while, look into Baldur’s eyes and ask with a smile on his face: “ok, is it hard?”...which Baldur felt awkward laying there on his penis.
Daniel’s experience was somewhat better since he had been warned of the basics by Baldur. He still found it a bit weird to be sitting naked on the edge of the table facing the therapist who started rubbing him from shoulders to thighs. It always bring some sort of sensation when somebody you don’t know rubs the inner thighs.
Jenna and Nicky are friends since primary school. They had to strip in the same room and received their head massage sitting down facing each other. The girls were trying to keep their eyes closed but they burst out laughing when the women started massaging their breasts in circular motions. It is a situation where you feel a bit uncomfortable even if you are very good friends. When came the time for the final shower, they went back to their room, they thought it was enough sharing for the day.
Billy was lucky, he got the same type of cloth tied to his hips than i did for my first massage. However, when the guy pulled the long piece of material in between his legs, he yanked it back and it ended up being a bit tight and revealing. At some point, the therapist asked him to lay on his front with his legs spread open as well as his arms. He got numbed hands from that position.
Varkala
Beach time again! It has nothing to do with the need to get some rest this time. Do we actually need a reason? Varkala beach is bordered by red cliffs and most of the action happens up those cliffs. There is a path right on the edge, and along that path, are found tons of restaurants, cafes and clothing stores. It is the main road and it offers a great view on the ocean while drinking coffee. We didn’t think that we could find better relaxing place than Palolem but I think we were wrong. The beach itself is niceand quiet, there are only people selling fruits and tea walking on the beach! Maybe the water is a bit more rough but you only have to go a little further out to avoid the filling up of your bikini with sand! I preferred to take my late night swim with other people around... You can rent chairs and umbrellas which are a very good idea since there is always a bit of a breeze on the beach to cool you down and it is easy to forget that the sun hits you hard.
We rented a sweet place further away and we have direct access to the beach. There is also a great restaurant right beside it where we have breakfast and snacks when we want to get out of the sun. Loving it! We decided to skip Kovalam since we liked the place so much. We got into Varkala has a group of 11 people coming from the same guesthouse in Alleppey. There were Rob and I, Daniel (met on the way to Cochin), Baldur (met first in Anjuna, then in Palolem and finally in Mysore), Adam, Kate, Jenna, Nicky, Billy, Valerio and Adrian (all met in Alleppey). We had very good diners eating Tuna Tikka Masala and going for drinks. Days were going fast!
The Kerala province is known for being the richest one and it is where Ayurvedic treatments all started. Ayurveda means ‘’the knowledge of life’’. It talks about intrinsic balance which can be accomplished by dosing the 3 ‘’doshas’’ of the body, wind or air, fire and water\earth. There are 2 ways to obtain the balance we need to avoid diseases: internal purification (detox) and herbal massage. The detox requires a minimum of 2 weeks to be completed and i wasn’t so much interested in therapeutic vomiting through a special diet or elimination of toxins through the nose by flushing it with oils. However, i do enjoy massages! Let me give you some highlights of the experiences I had or other people I am travelling with had in the next blog.
We rented a sweet place further away and we have direct access to the beach. There is also a great restaurant right beside it where we have breakfast and snacks when we want to get out of the sun. Loving it! We decided to skip Kovalam since we liked the place so much. We got into Varkala has a group of 11 people coming from the same guesthouse in Alleppey. There were Rob and I, Daniel (met on the way to Cochin), Baldur (met first in Anjuna, then in Palolem and finally in Mysore), Adam, Kate, Jenna, Nicky, Billy, Valerio and Adrian (all met in Alleppey). We had very good diners eating Tuna Tikka Masala and going for drinks. Days were going fast!
The Kerala province is known for being the richest one and it is where Ayurvedic treatments all started. Ayurveda means ‘’the knowledge of life’’. It talks about intrinsic balance which can be accomplished by dosing the 3 ‘’doshas’’ of the body, wind or air, fire and water\earth. There are 2 ways to obtain the balance we need to avoid diseases: internal purification (detox) and herbal massage. The detox requires a minimum of 2 weeks to be completed and i wasn’t so much interested in therapeutic vomiting through a special diet or elimination of toxins through the nose by flushing it with oils. However, i do enjoy massages! Let me give you some highlights of the experiences I had or other people I am travelling with had in the next blog.
Mysore
We are really happy to have decided to stop in Udupi to cut the travelling time short. We left Udupi by bus around 11h30 and it is supposed to arrive at destination around 18h. We did stop a lot for 5 minutes at a time and the road is under construction for quite a distance. On top of that, we had to drive across the region of Kodagu where the road is pretty narrow and goes up and down mountains with ravines lining the side of the road. It becomes dangerous to pass other cars and so we stayed behind tractors for a while. The landscapes are awesome though! We got to Mysore 4 hours late. We are starving after having skipped lunch and dinner. We finally found a rooftop restaurant to eat something before crashing into bed. The food is awful, but full of tourists. I guess the view of part of Mysore was pretty good.
This city is descibed as flamboyant in the guide book and it has many palaces. The oldest one, Jayachamarajendra, is now a art gallery. It is notvery impressive when compared to the newer palace, the Maharaja’s Palace. Very impressive! There is so many people there with groups of students. One of them has Micheal Jackson’s look with a leather jacket and 2 others are wearing what looks like winter jackets, to be stylished we assumed since it is 30 degrees! We also walked through the city markets, one that they called the old market and the other which is much bigger, the Devaraja. There are so many stands selling exactly the same things. Flowers for the offerings in temples, fruits, vegetebles, colored powders, essential oils (?) and eggs. How can they make money when there is so much competition? We had an excellent Thalli served on banana leaves. Portion of rice with oil and spices, a bit of lentils, vegetables, pieces of fried cheese (???) and few hot peppers. We have to mix whatever we want with the rice and squeeze the rice between your fingers to eat it. Delicious!
Mysore is also where we witnessed a street fight. There are 2 women and 4 guys. The victim is wearing a beige shirt (Mr.B). The first thing we saw was Mr. B laying on the ground after one of the guy stamps its foot in Mr. B’s face. Mr.B gets up and he received a fist in the face, on the temple and in the belly from the guys. There is about 5 secondes in between each hit and it is weird that Mr.B don’t make any move to protect himself. One of the woman is screaming and she slapped him pretty hard. Yeah! The police is coming! Oupss, it looks like the policeman is running after the woman who hit the guy and he is slashing her back with a 4 feet-long stick. She disappeared finally and the policeman turned towards Mr. B that hasn’t reacted yet. Mr. B got got the stick treatment a few times before he starts running away with the other woman. It is the best way to end a fight!
This city is descibed as flamboyant in the guide book and it has many palaces. The oldest one, Jayachamarajendra, is now a art gallery. It is notvery impressive when compared to the newer palace, the Maharaja’s Palace. Very impressive! There is so many people there with groups of students. One of them has Micheal Jackson’s look with a leather jacket and 2 others are wearing what looks like winter jackets, to be stylished we assumed since it is 30 degrees! We also walked through the city markets, one that they called the old market and the other which is much bigger, the Devaraja. There are so many stands selling exactly the same things. Flowers for the offerings in temples, fruits, vegetebles, colored powders, essential oils (?) and eggs. How can they make money when there is so much competition? We had an excellent Thalli served on banana leaves. Portion of rice with oil and spices, a bit of lentils, vegetables, pieces of fried cheese (???) and few hot peppers. We have to mix whatever we want with the rice and squeeze the rice between your fingers to eat it. Delicious!
Mysore is also where we witnessed a street fight. There are 2 women and 4 guys. The victim is wearing a beige shirt (Mr.B). The first thing we saw was Mr. B laying on the ground after one of the guy stamps its foot in Mr. B’s face. Mr.B gets up and he received a fist in the face, on the temple and in the belly from the guys. There is about 5 secondes in between each hit and it is weird that Mr.B don’t make any move to protect himself. One of the woman is screaming and she slapped him pretty hard. Yeah! The police is coming! Oupss, it looks like the policeman is running after the woman who hit the guy and he is slashing her back with a 4 feet-long stick. She disappeared finally and the policeman turned towards Mr. B that hasn’t reacted yet. Mr. B got got the stick treatment a few times before he starts running away with the other woman. It is the best way to end a fight!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
HairCut
A decision has been reached concerning this new haircut of mine in Hampi. Many reasons were considered. 1st: It is very hot here and it would be wonderful to feel the wind passing over my neck, forehead and scalp, 2nd: Even if it’s stinking hot, i never appreciated to take ice cold shower. Since most accommodation we rent don’t have hot water, it is often the case and if my hair was shorter, i would have to spent a bit less time under the shower, 3rd: Before leaving on my trip, i had already thought about shaving and i have experienced that haircut more than once before. Not such a big deal. 4th: It was getting to a point that the difference between the color of my face and my scalp would be too much. I have no regrets so far. I wear a little hat to protect my head from the sun!
OM beach, Gokarna
We arrived at night and the beach is a lot less touristy than expected. It`s pitch dark on the beach. We wake up with a new view, a nice beach, quiet and clean with a lot less vendors than in Palolem. It is hot, so much that i decide to spend the day under a tree. I had red cheeks anyway at the end of the day, even after wearing my hat. I want to move more than that and there is so much to see still in India. We left the next day by train to get to Udupi. It is going to be a short stop since we use that city to cut the long trip to Mysore.
Badami
Badami is not so much of a tourist destination. We haven’t seen that many other white faces while we walked the streets. We became an attraction for all the locals but mostly for Indien tourist coming to visit the cave’s temples. There are only 4 caves and it should not take that long to visit usually. We have been asked so many times if they could take our picture! The funniet thing is more that they want to take a picturewith us but using our cameras! We could not simply stop for 5 minutes to admire the view since we were causing a jam in the stairs. After 3 hours of that, we thought it was a little crazy and my cheeks were hurting from all that smiling which was a bit forced at the end.
The reason why we decided to go to Badami was for its red sandstone cliffs. We had read in our guide book that there was a climbing school where we thought we could rent a rope. Well, it existed at some point but was no longer there. We saw from far away 2 guys dangling from a rope on one of the cliff, Andrew and Harry (same Harry that made a topo for the climbing in Hampi...small world!), and they allowed Rob to get a shot at the problem they were doing. Lack of muscles from his last 6 months of travelling didn’t allow him to get to the top. I have great pictures of that but he said it would be blackmailing and he would take revenge. I decided not to try since my muscles haven’t appeared yet.
We decided to stay only for 2 nights promising ourselves that we would come back with gears but especially muscles. We feel like we haven’t rested enough maybe and so, we choose a destination on the coast, Om beach of Gokarna.
The reason why we decided to go to Badami was for its red sandstone cliffs. We had read in our guide book that there was a climbing school where we thought we could rent a rope. Well, it existed at some point but was no longer there. We saw from far away 2 guys dangling from a rope on one of the cliff, Andrew and Harry (same Harry that made a topo for the climbing in Hampi...small world!), and they allowed Rob to get a shot at the problem they were doing. Lack of muscles from his last 6 months of travelling didn’t allow him to get to the top. I have great pictures of that but he said it would be blackmailing and he would take revenge. I decided not to try since my muscles haven’t appeared yet.
We decided to stay only for 2 nights promising ourselves that we would come back with gears but especially muscles. We feel like we haven’t rested enough maybe and so, we choose a destination on the coast, Om beach of Gokarna.
Hampi and its temples
We leave Margeon by train. The trip lasted almost 7 hours. There are 3 beds on each wall and we reserved the bed closest to the ceiling and the one in the middle. We found out that the one in the middle doesn't exist during the day, it serves as the back of a big seat which is the lower bed. In theory, there supposed to be 3 persons sitting on that bench. We had during the trip from 4-5 people sitting there and one person laying down on the upper bed. They are so thight in other compartment that they decided to invade the comfy section! It is hot and we can smell the toilets continuously. Our brain don't like doing abstraction of that smell for some reasons. I tried to sleep for the most part of the trip to avoid all that smell, heat, questions and cell phones playing very loud Indian music. The problem is that our backpacks are on the top bed as well which doesn't leave that much room up there. I squeezed in the best i could with my legs on top of the bags and my hips against the railing. I knew that my body would protest after that treatment. My back was soar for few days not allowing me to sleep and i had bruises on the hips from the banging against the railing. Since we were going to Hampi to do some climbing i got into my pharmacy kit and took muscle relaxant pills. I felt a little dizzy the first morning, it's strong!
We spent the first night in downtown Hampi it sounded like. We had a room with 2 windows opening up on 2 different alleys. People went to bed very late and they seemed to have a competition on the noise they could make. I used my iPod for the first time in India.
We decided to change room to get closer to the climbing spot. We had to cross the river with a ferry which is more of a small boat able to sit maybe 20 people. It's a paradise for climbers so we drop our bags and rented a crashpad and hop we go. We met up with 2 american girls (Rob was happy). OUCH! My muscles, well i thought i had muscles... I am so weak at the end of the day...my arms feel heavy, my hands have cramps and my skin is scratched and its burning. I needed some rest really bad and miracle! It was raining the next morning. We ended up climbing only few hours which was enough. We spent the next day touring temples. Hampi has great landscapes with boulders everywhere and the temples were actually interesting to visit. Even after that rest day, we are not fit to climb again so we decide to leave for Badami, that would give one more day to my skin to get better! Oh la la! When we got to the ferry, there was more than a hundred people waiting to cross. There was a festival going on in town. We thought we would have to wait about an hour since everytime that more people arrived, they went to the front of the line. Eventually, faster than we thought anyway, we succeeded in cutting in, we had our backpacks and were taking a lot of space. People are almost fighting to get in the boat so when we tried to get onboard, the boat was moving non-stop. I untied my bag from my hips because i was sure to end up in the water!
We spent the first night in downtown Hampi it sounded like. We had a room with 2 windows opening up on 2 different alleys. People went to bed very late and they seemed to have a competition on the noise they could make. I used my iPod for the first time in India.
We decided to change room to get closer to the climbing spot. We had to cross the river with a ferry which is more of a small boat able to sit maybe 20 people. It's a paradise for climbers so we drop our bags and rented a crashpad and hop we go. We met up with 2 american girls (Rob was happy). OUCH! My muscles, well i thought i had muscles... I am so weak at the end of the day...my arms feel heavy, my hands have cramps and my skin is scratched and its burning. I needed some rest really bad and miracle! It was raining the next morning. We ended up climbing only few hours which was enough. We spent the next day touring temples. Hampi has great landscapes with boulders everywhere and the temples were actually interesting to visit. Even after that rest day, we are not fit to climb again so we decide to leave for Badami, that would give one more day to my skin to get better! Oh la la! When we got to the ferry, there was more than a hundred people waiting to cross. There was a festival going on in town. We thought we would have to wait about an hour since everytime that more people arrived, they went to the front of the line. Eventually, faster than we thought anyway, we succeeded in cutting in, we had our backpacks and were taking a lot of space. People are almost fighting to get in the boat so when we tried to get onboard, the boat was moving non-stop. I untied my bag from my hips because i was sure to end up in the water!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Indians offended
When i packed my bag, I chose to bring very few clothes and i used 2 main criterias for the selection. 1st- Clothes that i didn’t want to take back home, 2nd- Clothes that were not too revealing.
I had bought new pants/shorts, you know the ones you can unzip the legs and take them off to make shorts... Well, i took off the bottom parts one day in Mumbai! A little short those shorts. Before that moment, the pedestrians looked at my feet, that day, they were looking up my legs. I felt really naked and haven’t taken off the bottom parts since then.
I had bought new pants/shorts, you know the ones you can unzip the legs and take them off to make shorts... Well, i took off the bottom parts one day in Mumbai! A little short those shorts. Before that moment, the pedestrians looked at my feet, that day, they were looking up my legs. I felt really naked and haven’t taken off the bottom parts since then.
Beggers
A little boy holds his sister in his arms and he asks for money first, then for food, finally he wants a balloon that i just bought while practicing my bargaining skills. I found the idea pretty good since he might spend some time playing with that instead of begging. We went back the same way maybe 20 minutes later and the balloon was on the sidewalk, the little boy still begging. Maybe he wasn’t able to blow it...it was a big balloon!
Efficient shopping
On the way to the airport, a boy came running to the car window with books he wants to sell. We negotiated for one and then for 2. We gave him our price and he wiggles his head so we thought we reached a deal. We took money out of our pockets just as the red light is about to change and gave it to the boy. He then kept close to the taxi screeming and arms in the air so maybe that our price was not his!
Mumbai
Also known under the name of Bombay
Population of 16,4M of which 60% are living in the slums
Day 1- Out of our element but so amazing at the same time
After 14 hours flying and 16 hours spent in airport, I found myself under the sunny sky of Mumbai. It is noon and it is 25 degrees. My friend Rob is there which is really reassuring. It turns out to be easy to get a taxi and find the hotel. No need to negociate since it was a prepaid taxi. We will learn later on that it is best to negociate! Rob had booked a 3 * hotel so we started the trip in luxury and confort, air conditionning, hot water, doorman... We dropped our bags, took a ahower, ooofff needed with a change of underwear even more important... and we went on our first exploration tour of the area close to the hotel. 1- It's dirty with garbage everywhere, 2- It smells like urine and goats but some good smells of food altenate with the bad smells. Add to that the smell of incent and you're set for a bit of an olfactory surcharge. 3- We need to be very careful to where we put our feet. Holes, kids that grab our arms, people sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk. 4- Lots of men saying ''hello'', ''Which country'', ''Your name''. They want their picture taken.
Seems we are not in a highly touristic area, we take the risk to eat in a local restaurant. Huummmm!! Indian food! Chana Masala for me please...no cramps afterwards! We then walk to the Chowpatty beach where families and couples eat and enjoy some fresh air. No swimming since the water there is supposed to be toxic! They have some rides that are running with arms power but the kids scream even if it is not fast at all. We have food on the beach and after Masala dosa, no cramps!
Day 2- Exhausting day in Colaba
Old buildings are photographed even if we don't always know which ones are which. We end up at the Sassoon Dock and the experience is interesting. It doesn;t look like they are visited that often because people are watching closely where we go and what we look at. It smells like fish a lot! It is amazing how they do to cramp so many boats in a tiny port and especially be able to take them to sea without too much damage. There's also the question of when do these guys sleeps? They come back from the sea early morning and they are still repairing nets and cables in the afternoon. We had to get the India's Gate where the atmosphere is extraordinaire. We eat a papaya looking at other tourists, mostly Indians. Peolple again take our picture, we feel like Stars. The way back to the hotel is long, street food again, no cramps!
Day 3- Rich area of Mumbai
Getting up is hard! My legs are hurting from all the walk of the last days, i have blisters... We get to Malamba Hill where the tallest appartment buildings do not fit at all with the simpliest houses. Real smiles though all the way there and back with nice temples hidden away. We were impressed by the biggest washing area of Mumbai, Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat and la mosquee Haji Ali which is reachable only during low tide. After that day, my legs are done. I wore my running shoes to make it easier on the blisters. I am getting old... or i should do more exercise. Watchout when I come back though!! I will need to keep it up.
Day 4- Elephanta Island
The experience started with the train experience. It is not rush hour so the experience isn’t one after all. Nothing to do with the number of people that we were expecting. It is difficult to imagine that in a city that looks so poor from the outside, that the train routes are monitored with an hitech GPS system and that the railways are taken care of by robots. We left Mumbai Central station and stopped at Churchgate station where i was hoping to see Dabba-Wallahs. They deliver about 200 000 lunch boxes a day everywhere around Mumbai. They first pick them up at the door and are able to reach work places without that making that many mistakes, 1 in 6M deliveries!
9 km from the coast, Elephanta island is reached after 1 hour boat trip during which we can finally get some rest from all the walking around Mumbai. The island should be called the Monkey island really. They are everywhere and they keep fighting and keep trying to get at my bottle of orange pop! After too many stairs to be climbed when it’s this humid, we arrive at the first cave. There are 5 but only the first one is of some interest. It has many temples carved into the rock dedicated to various Gods. Work of art!
That night, first bad Indian food experience. Maybe we chose a restaurant in an area a bit too touristy. I never thought that bad indian food existed and certainely not in India.
I haven’t shop and will leave Mumbai with only Ballons which were more a test of bargaining that a real need. My friend Sophie could not do the same and that’s a fact.
9 km de la côte, on doit embarquer pour une heure de traversée qui enfin nous donne un peu de repos. L'île devrait s'appeler l'île des singes puisqu'il y en a partout. Ils se chamaillent et veulent ma bouteille de Fanta à l'orange. Après une série de marches interminable avec cette humidité, nous arrivons à la grotte 1. Il y en a 5 mais seulement la première est d'intéret réel. Il y a plusieurs temples faconnés dans la roche de la montagne qui sont dédiés à plusieurs Dieux. Impressionnant!
Ce soir là, première mauvaise expérience de resto. Un quartier un peu trop touristique peut-être...on peut manger de la mauvaise bouffe indienne même en Inde!
Sophie, je quitterai Mumbai pour la province de Goa sans avoir fait d'achat. Pourtant plus de variété qu'au Maroc et je crois bien que nous pourrions sortir nos talents de négociatrices! Tu vois que c'est toi qui me fait dépenser!!!
Day 5- We are going South
Our first idea was to take the train to get to Madgeon in the province of Goa. The waiting list was of over 300 names so we decided to catch a flight. More expensive but so much time saved without talking about the energy level. Time is money!
The most complicated thing was to find our guesthouse tucked behind other stores and this even knowing the address. We had some scary moments in the taxi getting there since we circulated on a two ways road that i would have compared to a bicycle patch at home.
We decided to start with Anjuna as a starting point. It is supposed to be a party place but we decide to just relax and get prepared for the rest of the trip.
Population of 16,4M of which 60% are living in the slums
Day 1- Out of our element but so amazing at the same time
After 14 hours flying and 16 hours spent in airport, I found myself under the sunny sky of Mumbai. It is noon and it is 25 degrees. My friend Rob is there which is really reassuring. It turns out to be easy to get a taxi and find the hotel. No need to negociate since it was a prepaid taxi. We will learn later on that it is best to negociate! Rob had booked a 3 * hotel so we started the trip in luxury and confort, air conditionning, hot water, doorman... We dropped our bags, took a ahower, ooofff needed with a change of underwear even more important... and we went on our first exploration tour of the area close to the hotel. 1- It's dirty with garbage everywhere, 2- It smells like urine and goats but some good smells of food altenate with the bad smells. Add to that the smell of incent and you're set for a bit of an olfactory surcharge. 3- We need to be very careful to where we put our feet. Holes, kids that grab our arms, people sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk. 4- Lots of men saying ''hello'', ''Which country'', ''Your name''. They want their picture taken.
Seems we are not in a highly touristic area, we take the risk to eat in a local restaurant. Huummmm!! Indian food! Chana Masala for me please...no cramps afterwards! We then walk to the Chowpatty beach where families and couples eat and enjoy some fresh air. No swimming since the water there is supposed to be toxic! They have some rides that are running with arms power but the kids scream even if it is not fast at all. We have food on the beach and after Masala dosa, no cramps!
Day 2- Exhausting day in Colaba
Old buildings are photographed even if we don't always know which ones are which. We end up at the Sassoon Dock and the experience is interesting. It doesn;t look like they are visited that often because people are watching closely where we go and what we look at. It smells like fish a lot! It is amazing how they do to cramp so many boats in a tiny port and especially be able to take them to sea without too much damage. There's also the question of when do these guys sleeps? They come back from the sea early morning and they are still repairing nets and cables in the afternoon. We had to get the India's Gate where the atmosphere is extraordinaire. We eat a papaya looking at other tourists, mostly Indians. Peolple again take our picture, we feel like Stars. The way back to the hotel is long, street food again, no cramps!
Day 3- Rich area of Mumbai
Getting up is hard! My legs are hurting from all the walk of the last days, i have blisters... We get to Malamba Hill where the tallest appartment buildings do not fit at all with the simpliest houses. Real smiles though all the way there and back with nice temples hidden away. We were impressed by the biggest washing area of Mumbai, Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat and la mosquee Haji Ali which is reachable only during low tide. After that day, my legs are done. I wore my running shoes to make it easier on the blisters. I am getting old... or i should do more exercise. Watchout when I come back though!! I will need to keep it up.
Day 4- Elephanta Island
The experience started with the train experience. It is not rush hour so the experience isn’t one after all. Nothing to do with the number of people that we were expecting. It is difficult to imagine that in a city that looks so poor from the outside, that the train routes are monitored with an hitech GPS system and that the railways are taken care of by robots. We left Mumbai Central station and stopped at Churchgate station where i was hoping to see Dabba-Wallahs. They deliver about 200 000 lunch boxes a day everywhere around Mumbai. They first pick them up at the door and are able to reach work places without that making that many mistakes, 1 in 6M deliveries!
9 km from the coast, Elephanta island is reached after 1 hour boat trip during which we can finally get some rest from all the walking around Mumbai. The island should be called the Monkey island really. They are everywhere and they keep fighting and keep trying to get at my bottle of orange pop! After too many stairs to be climbed when it’s this humid, we arrive at the first cave. There are 5 but only the first one is of some interest. It has many temples carved into the rock dedicated to various Gods. Work of art!
That night, first bad Indian food experience. Maybe we chose a restaurant in an area a bit too touristy. I never thought that bad indian food existed and certainely not in India.
I haven’t shop and will leave Mumbai with only Ballons which were more a test of bargaining that a real need. My friend Sophie could not do the same and that’s a fact.
9 km de la côte, on doit embarquer pour une heure de traversée qui enfin nous donne un peu de repos. L'île devrait s'appeler l'île des singes puisqu'il y en a partout. Ils se chamaillent et veulent ma bouteille de Fanta à l'orange. Après une série de marches interminable avec cette humidité, nous arrivons à la grotte 1. Il y en a 5 mais seulement la première est d'intéret réel. Il y a plusieurs temples faconnés dans la roche de la montagne qui sont dédiés à plusieurs Dieux. Impressionnant!
Ce soir là, première mauvaise expérience de resto. Un quartier un peu trop touristique peut-être...on peut manger de la mauvaise bouffe indienne même en Inde!
Sophie, je quitterai Mumbai pour la province de Goa sans avoir fait d'achat. Pourtant plus de variété qu'au Maroc et je crois bien que nous pourrions sortir nos talents de négociatrices! Tu vois que c'est toi qui me fait dépenser!!!
Day 5- We are going South
Our first idea was to take the train to get to Madgeon in the province of Goa. The waiting list was of over 300 names so we decided to catch a flight. More expensive but so much time saved without talking about the energy level. Time is money!
The most complicated thing was to find our guesthouse tucked behind other stores and this even knowing the address. We had some scary moments in the taxi getting there since we circulated on a two ways road that i would have compared to a bicycle patch at home.
We decided to start with Anjuna as a starting point. It is supposed to be a party place but we decide to just relax and get prepared for the rest of the trip.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Anjuna / Palolem
Anjuna, finally a beach where we can get into the water without being scared of diseases. It was quite needed with this heat that I find difficult to adapt to. The hotel is 10 minutes away from the beach. It could be much closer but it has been made sothat wehave to go through a little bit of shops with vendors wanting us to stop so bad. It gets annoying quickly since they do it in way that is a little rude. We sleep in a guesthouse recommended by Hostels World but euhhh... It's maybe that i haven't travelled enough...but i think the room is way too expensive to sleep on a matress as hard as wood! The night is short!
The plan for the first day was to visit the Fort in Chapora but... life being life, we are stopped on the side of the road by a guy on a scooter who gives us cards to scratch. He says that everyone is a winner. Yey right! Well it was true. Rob won a bottle of wine and i won 1 week accomodation in one of the resort he was promotting. The only thing we had to do is go to the resort and visit the place! They even paid for the taxi to get there and back. I will have to claim my price within a year and will have to reserve it 2 months in advance. It's seems like a good reason to come back next year!!
We still visited the Fort where the view on Vagatore and Arambole's beaches is amazing. Since the atmosphere there was not what we were expecting, we decided to go a little further down south on Palolem beach. Wow and rewow! We are somewhere else that is not India, anyway not the India that we see in documentaries. More tourists it seems than people from there but still quiet. We rented a hut directly on the beach. We spent 5 days without the need of wearing shoes. We were on the beach for most of our time there, went on a dolphins excursion, drank pinapple and mango shakes and went to silent discos. The music needs to be turn down after 23h so the bars rent headphones on which you can choose from 3 different channels\DJs. It's weird since you can have a very normal conversation once you take the headphones down and you can hear people singing the words of the songs playing. On top of that, nobody has the same rythm and it gets very entertaining to watch! Palolem is also the place where my intestines started working again but they seem to do some overtime for a whole night. Well the hut was close buy and we didn't feel like eating too much since it was so hot. Only good souvenirs remaining! After 5 days of sun, too much for me, we decided that the next destination was to be Hampi to move a little more. A bit of climbing is on the schedule and temples hopping.
The plan for the first day was to visit the Fort in Chapora but... life being life, we are stopped on the side of the road by a guy on a scooter who gives us cards to scratch. He says that everyone is a winner. Yey right! Well it was true. Rob won a bottle of wine and i won 1 week accomodation in one of the resort he was promotting. The only thing we had to do is go to the resort and visit the place! They even paid for the taxi to get there and back. I will have to claim my price within a year and will have to reserve it 2 months in advance. It's seems like a good reason to come back next year!!
We still visited the Fort where the view on Vagatore and Arambole's beaches is amazing. Since the atmosphere there was not what we were expecting, we decided to go a little further down south on Palolem beach. Wow and rewow! We are somewhere else that is not India, anyway not the India that we see in documentaries. More tourists it seems than people from there but still quiet. We rented a hut directly on the beach. We spent 5 days without the need of wearing shoes. We were on the beach for most of our time there, went on a dolphins excursion, drank pinapple and mango shakes and went to silent discos. The music needs to be turn down after 23h so the bars rent headphones on which you can choose from 3 different channels\DJs. It's weird since you can have a very normal conversation once you take the headphones down and you can hear people singing the words of the songs playing. On top of that, nobody has the same rythm and it gets very entertaining to watch! Palolem is also the place where my intestines started working again but they seem to do some overtime for a whole night. Well the hut was close buy and we didn't feel like eating too much since it was so hot. Only good souvenirs remaining! After 5 days of sun, too much for me, we decided that the next destination was to be Hampi to move a little more. A bit of climbing is on the schedule and temples hopping.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
6 months backpacking
Hey! It`s been about a week now that i am travelling in India. I love it so far!! Let me explain a bit how everything together so well that i decided to take a leave of absence.
Last summer i obtained my permanence after 5 years of teaching. With that status, things seemed much easier. My friend Rob had talked about spending a year travelling starting in July 2009. Very interesting i thought and it made me start to think about the possibility to join him sometimes in January. Just what i needed actually...tall guy to protect me, he travelled a lot before so will be able to help me out a bit in the planning of things. On top of that, we`ve lived together before for 1 year and a half ans so, i think that travelling together, spending lotsssss of time together will be possible. I am still young enough to do something of the sort, no kids or boyfriend so here i am.
I flew into Mubai on December 30th where my friend Rob was waiting for me coming from Egypt. We explored a bit this huge city with just too many things to see in the amount of time we had planned there. We stayed 4 days and had to limit our exploration. We left for the province of Goa where we are now. You can read the other stories that will be coming up soon to actually follow me on the trip. There will be a journal version, more the day to day of what is happening but i will also try to write down stories of what stikes us to be different from home. So Welcome!
Last summer i obtained my permanence after 5 years of teaching. With that status, things seemed much easier. My friend Rob had talked about spending a year travelling starting in July 2009. Very interesting i thought and it made me start to think about the possibility to join him sometimes in January. Just what i needed actually...tall guy to protect me, he travelled a lot before so will be able to help me out a bit in the planning of things. On top of that, we`ve lived together before for 1 year and a half ans so, i think that travelling together, spending lotsssss of time together will be possible. I am still young enough to do something of the sort, no kids or boyfriend so here i am.
I flew into Mubai on December 30th where my friend Rob was waiting for me coming from Egypt. We explored a bit this huge city with just too many things to see in the amount of time we had planned there. We stayed 4 days and had to limit our exploration. We left for the province of Goa where we are now. You can read the other stories that will be coming up soon to actually follow me on the trip. There will be a journal version, more the day to day of what is happening but i will also try to write down stories of what stikes us to be different from home. So Welcome!
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