The currency used in Myanmar is the Kyat, pronounced tchiatte. They have 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 et 1000 bills. The Canadian dollar is worth about 1000 kyats. The bills that will then encountered the most are bills of 100 and more. It shows when you look at the bills. I still got to take a picture of the worst bill yet although I missed my chance a few times already. The worst I have seen so far were 200 bills with big holes, scotch tape at few places and a texture that arise your imagination. The bills become very thick with dirt, sweat and what else? We have difficulty to tell what’s the number on them! As I was explaining in a previous blog, the international banks left the country in the early 2000 years. We do not have access to our bank account in any way. There is also no companies like Western Union to transfer money but there is now a private shipping company, DHL, that have an office in Yangon. In more prestigious hotels, Visa is accepted to get cash advance but you must pay between 10 and 25% service charge. However, somebody was telling me that these hotels do not offer this service anymore if your are not sleeping there. They stopped the service right after the bombs in Yangon at this year Water Festival. Your only choice is to arrive in the country with money in your pocket, enough money for the duration of your trip. I had 2500$ from Quebec delivered to me in Kathmandu by a lovely person that was coming in for a trek. When I arrived in , I quickly realized that I had less money than I thought! You need US dollars. Some places will accept Euros but it is rare and the rate will be bad. They mentioned in the guide that the money should be fairly new if you want to use it in this country. It is difficult for them to exchange American money in banks so restaurants et hotels spend a lot of time checking your bills before accepting them. What I would consider clean for money bills has nothing to do with what they consider clean. The bills need to be new!! They will refuse bills that were folded in two at one point, there is a line left in the centre! The people that will accept them, if the line is minor, will give a lower exchange rate for it. The bills that have a stamp on them, from banks usually are not accepted. It does happen often enough. I had never taken the time to look at my bills much before! If there is anything hand written on them, forget it. If the serial number starts with CB, it will be refused some places or you will get a lower exchange rate. After all that, I had about 1500$ That I could use in Myanmar!! The exchange counters are useless in this country and the people behind the counter might even tell you to go elsewhere. They are link to the government first of all and their exchange rate is the lowest of all, they take more than they give. The guide talks about an exchange rate of 450 kyats for 1$ but I haven’t checked on that. Of course, there is the black market. This black market is well known and the government is aware of it, it almost seems legal. Since I am a good girl, hearing about black market scared me a bit. What I imagined was close to what you see in gangster movies so I was a little stressed out for the first exchange. The few things to know before hand is that the exchange rate is much better in Yangon and is also better if you exchange 100$ bills. They usually exchange that money in banks or use it to buy merchandise coming from China. It is actually pretty easy. Some hotels will exchange your dollars with an exchange rate of about 930-950 kyats to 1$. The guidebook proposed a popular place to exchange money which is the market place. We set out to get there and we looked for a stall advertising money exchange. A guy walked up to us and asked us if we nneded to exchange money. Yeah, we do! That’s easy enough. He takes us to a stall in a busy area of the market and the guy is sitting with stacks of money in front of him. No alarm button or protecting window or counter…I decide to exchange 500$ and look at how much I will be spending for the first few days. I take the time to count the money and the guy encourage us to do so. Once the money is accounted for, we give our money and he examine it for few minutes. That’s when I understood that I could not use all the money I had with me. The exchange rate we got was of 990 kyats to 1$. We spent the first few days south of Myanmar and stopped in Yangon on our way back. I had a good idea of my spending and decided I would need to exchange an extra 600$ before going to explore the rest of Myanmar. This time though, I ran into problems. We get to the market to realize that it was closed. Crap! Where do we go? We decide to try one of the hotel. Even if their exchange rate is lower, it’s better than the rate that will be given in other cities. Again, a guy walks up to us on the street and after few minutes of general conversation, he asked us if we wanted to exchange money. Yeah! We ended up this time right in front of the train station in a ministore that sold bus tickets. We get an exchange rate of 1020 kyats to 1$. Wow! Better than the first time, good negotiation skills. We waited 30 minutes in the back of an empty store. They needed to get the money from somewhere else, The waiting is long and I bacame a bit nervous. It is hot and my belly is cramping. When they bring the money, I counted it and placed it in piles of 100$ but there is no elastic bands arounf the piles, the bills are loose. Rob is with me exchanging money too. The guys are talking, asking questions, bla, bla, bla… At some point, I turned mu head back to my money and saw one of the guy putting my piles one on top of the other. I got mad since it is a lot of money and he is not supposed to touch it. They want us to leave so they try to pressure us I guess. This atmosphere is one of stress. I would like to recount the money to be sure and have my piles so that it is easy to know how much money I have left afterwards. I told myself that I was paranoid and we spent already so much time in a stuffy room. So I put the money in my bag without recounting before getting to my hotel. That is when I realized that I was missing 200$. I felt so stupid to have believe in their honesty and not my sixth sense. I replayed the scene in my head and could see how it could have had happened. Grrrrr! The problem is that there are so many bills that 200$ worth less was not that easy to miss just looking at it for somebody that is inexperienced. I’ve learned my lessons that’s for sure! Bring rubber bands next time! I am now in the West of the country where the travelling is the most expensive and I have to count my money and plan very well to be sure that I would have enough. It adds some stress to the trip that I did not need. There were some souvenirs that I would have liked to get but it would be for next time!
Showing posts with label Short Stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Short Stories. Show all posts
Monday, May 3, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Going to Myanmar
Myanmar, formally Burma, is a destination that needs some thinking about. There are many different views on the way tourists affect the country. Is it good or are we encouraging the present government? It depends on how you see it and who you ask to. It is impossible to obtain all the infos we would need to get the real picture. Let me give you a very quick history of Myanmar. Again, I am not an expert in those matters and there are so many events that took place that it will really be a summary to attempt to explain the present situation.
Britain conquered Mandalay in 1885 and they took controlled of the teak , gem, rice and petroleum exports. During their reign they encouraged Indian and Chinese to immigrate in Myanmar and because they were more experienced in business, they succeeded to stimulate the economy. They were so good that Burmese people had difficulties to compete.
Myanmar finally achieves independence from the British in 1948. They had a promising young leader talking about democratic election but he was killed, some say by the military. They had many problems following that. The country inhabited by many different ethnic groups that do not trust the new government started fighting and rebel groups formed. The Chinese also tried to invade border regions. The government took control in the mid 50s finally but the economy was not doing so good. There was a military coup in 1962 and the army took control of the country. They started closing off the outside world and the foreigner’s visa was of 24 hours. In the mid 60s, they made a list of items that would be allowed to be sold only in certain shops. That gave rise to a vigorous black market but many shops owners did not have enough business to survive. Those shop owners were in majority Indians and Chinese… They were thrown out of the country and could not get their money out with them!
It continued to get worst for the economy and the people got fed up in the late 80s. Riots started and at least 3000 deaths were reported. A new political party for democracy was formed and led by a woman, Aung San Suu Kyi. The government got scared and tried to divert the attention of the populace by building new roads and painting buildings, interfering with the election process and postponing the election. All of it did not work. Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest in 1989 before the election. The democratic party took 392 of the 485 seats anyway but around 100 of those leaders were arrested, exiled or killed. Those events had the effect of raising the attention of the media and the world.
Under the build up created by all the publicity, Aung San Suu Kyi was released in 1995 and gave few speeches for the democratic political party. As she tried to meet with supporters in 2000, she was again put under house arrest, released for a short time and arrested for a third time after a manifestation in 2003. She is still under house arrest today and it is still forbidden to hang a picture of her in your house! Around the same time, the USA banned new investment of American companies in Myanmar. Other countries followed. Foreign banks packed up and left the country as well. In 1999, there were sanctions to the country for the used of forced labor and because they used civilians as … landmine detectors.
In 2007, the price of gas went up 200% and the people protested. Even the monks marched to support the populace. Guns were fired by the army and one monk was beaten to death. 100 more monks were arrested. The Monks association refused to give alms to military officials after those events! A soldier also shot a Japanese photographer and it was caught on tape. Two days later, the protest had stopped and internet was not accessible anymore.
In 2008, the first election in two decades are to be held. Unfortunately, a cyclone hit Myanmar and 2 millions people are left without shelter and food. Myanmar actually refused some of the international assistance! It will take more than a week before some external aid is able to reach the people in needs. In the meantime, the government still held the election, even after the cyclone, and it was determined that the majority of the voters wanted to keep a military government.
There are few reasons not to come. They used forced labor to build some site to attract tourists. They also relocated thousands of families to be able to built hotels, many of those families being the poor ones. There is a fee to some of the sights to visit and most of the money goes directly to the government. The routes for the foreigners are pretty much determined. They make it easy to travel in one direction and not in the other direction so that the tourist who has not much time will choose the easy route. Some areas require a permit from the government. There are also many regions that are not accessible at all for foreigners, and i am not just talking about transport. They will block the road so that you won’t go there. The reasons behind those restrictions are numerous. In the south, you still have some rebel groups fighting. In the north east region, you have lots of gems that can be dig up by the people owning the land. The government do not want tourists buying gems at low price when he can get a cut. There also some talks about spies going around to ask you where you are going in some smaller villages…
Now, there seems to be more reason to go for me. When I look around the streets, I get the impression that most of the people here are happy to see us. They stop us on the street to shake our hands and they thank us. They want us to like their country, they are proud of it. If they spoke a little more English or if I spoke a little more Burmese, the exchange would be great for their knowledge of the world outside their border. However, we still have to be careful about the subjects we ask about. They could get in trouble if they talk against the government and if we provide outside sources of knowledge like magazines that can put their country in a bad light. We are trying to avoid all hotels that are run by the government so that we contribute to local economy. We try to travel by pick up trucks and buses (private) instead of train (the government takes more than 90% on the fare). We vary our place for food to spread the money around as much as we can. Lastly, the regions that are accessible are beautiful!
How does this type of government affect my travelling in Myanmar? First of all, let me tell you that the visa was not a problem. We applied March 1st in Kathmandu and the visa was ready the next day! They did not even asked for an itinerary and we were in for 28 days of travelling in Myanmar. Since we only have 28 days (with a non-official possibility to overstay for 3$ a day…) we are OK with some regions being restricted, we do not have the time to do it all anyway.
The boycott by many international countries is the main problem really. Imagine being in a country for 28 days without an ATM being available! We had to get money before getting in the country and if your money get stolen, you have to get out of the country my friend! I am pretty nervous about carrying that much money on me knowing especially that I can not easily get more. I will actually write about the money in a shorter story…
The guidebook is absolutely necessary to travel here. There are a limited numbers of guesthouses that can accept tourists. Some town do not have such hotels and you need to move on! It is a little more expensive because of that monopole.
Internet access has also been troublesome. Most internet places have installed programs to unlock the major sites used by locals and tourists. However, some sites are not accessible, they are locked. You need to go through a website that will give your computer an IP address that is outside the country. That makes the process very long and the success rate is about 50%. If it fails, you keep trying and eventually it might go through. It took me 2 hours to check my mails and upload 3 blogs last night! Any download is actually blocked in most internet places.
During the water festival, 3 bombs (or grenades according to rumors) went off in Yangon killing 9 persons. I am not sure if it is related but 2 days later, the internet access was cut off. The official story was that a submarine destroyed the cable!! I haven’t verified that yet…but if some people really believe that, the government has more power than I thought. Anyway, just so that it is clear that, what is supposed to be a half hour business in the smoking room of internet cafes, becomes a 2 hours sit down with lots of patience.
There is overall much more good things than bad things in this country. So far, it’s been great and I would recommend a stop in this beautiful country and to take the time to mingle with the locals. Even as a girl, I would travel in this country with no fear of something happening to me. I know that I have been saying that people were the nicest in every country I visited so far but, it’s true, they are really the nicest!!
Britain conquered Mandalay in 1885 and they took controlled of the teak , gem, rice and petroleum exports. During their reign they encouraged Indian and Chinese to immigrate in Myanmar and because they were more experienced in business, they succeeded to stimulate the economy. They were so good that Burmese people had difficulties to compete.
Myanmar finally achieves independence from the British in 1948. They had a promising young leader talking about democratic election but he was killed, some say by the military. They had many problems following that. The country inhabited by many different ethnic groups that do not trust the new government started fighting and rebel groups formed. The Chinese also tried to invade border regions. The government took control in the mid 50s finally but the economy was not doing so good. There was a military coup in 1962 and the army took control of the country. They started closing off the outside world and the foreigner’s visa was of 24 hours. In the mid 60s, they made a list of items that would be allowed to be sold only in certain shops. That gave rise to a vigorous black market but many shops owners did not have enough business to survive. Those shop owners were in majority Indians and Chinese… They were thrown out of the country and could not get their money out with them!
It continued to get worst for the economy and the people got fed up in the late 80s. Riots started and at least 3000 deaths were reported. A new political party for democracy was formed and led by a woman, Aung San Suu Kyi. The government got scared and tried to divert the attention of the populace by building new roads and painting buildings, interfering with the election process and postponing the election. All of it did not work. Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest in 1989 before the election. The democratic party took 392 of the 485 seats anyway but around 100 of those leaders were arrested, exiled or killed. Those events had the effect of raising the attention of the media and the world.
Under the build up created by all the publicity, Aung San Suu Kyi was released in 1995 and gave few speeches for the democratic political party. As she tried to meet with supporters in 2000, she was again put under house arrest, released for a short time and arrested for a third time after a manifestation in 2003. She is still under house arrest today and it is still forbidden to hang a picture of her in your house! Around the same time, the USA banned new investment of American companies in Myanmar. Other countries followed. Foreign banks packed up and left the country as well. In 1999, there were sanctions to the country for the used of forced labor and because they used civilians as … landmine detectors.
In 2007, the price of gas went up 200% and the people protested. Even the monks marched to support the populace. Guns were fired by the army and one monk was beaten to death. 100 more monks were arrested. The Monks association refused to give alms to military officials after those events! A soldier also shot a Japanese photographer and it was caught on tape. Two days later, the protest had stopped and internet was not accessible anymore.
In 2008, the first election in two decades are to be held. Unfortunately, a cyclone hit Myanmar and 2 millions people are left without shelter and food. Myanmar actually refused some of the international assistance! It will take more than a week before some external aid is able to reach the people in needs. In the meantime, the government still held the election, even after the cyclone, and it was determined that the majority of the voters wanted to keep a military government.
There are few reasons not to come. They used forced labor to build some site to attract tourists. They also relocated thousands of families to be able to built hotels, many of those families being the poor ones. There is a fee to some of the sights to visit and most of the money goes directly to the government. The routes for the foreigners are pretty much determined. They make it easy to travel in one direction and not in the other direction so that the tourist who has not much time will choose the easy route. Some areas require a permit from the government. There are also many regions that are not accessible at all for foreigners, and i am not just talking about transport. They will block the road so that you won’t go there. The reasons behind those restrictions are numerous. In the south, you still have some rebel groups fighting. In the north east region, you have lots of gems that can be dig up by the people owning the land. The government do not want tourists buying gems at low price when he can get a cut. There also some talks about spies going around to ask you where you are going in some smaller villages…
Now, there seems to be more reason to go for me. When I look around the streets, I get the impression that most of the people here are happy to see us. They stop us on the street to shake our hands and they thank us. They want us to like their country, they are proud of it. If they spoke a little more English or if I spoke a little more Burmese, the exchange would be great for their knowledge of the world outside their border. However, we still have to be careful about the subjects we ask about. They could get in trouble if they talk against the government and if we provide outside sources of knowledge like magazines that can put their country in a bad light. We are trying to avoid all hotels that are run by the government so that we contribute to local economy. We try to travel by pick up trucks and buses (private) instead of train (the government takes more than 90% on the fare). We vary our place for food to spread the money around as much as we can. Lastly, the regions that are accessible are beautiful!
How does this type of government affect my travelling in Myanmar? First of all, let me tell you that the visa was not a problem. We applied March 1st in Kathmandu and the visa was ready the next day! They did not even asked for an itinerary and we were in for 28 days of travelling in Myanmar. Since we only have 28 days (with a non-official possibility to overstay for 3$ a day…) we are OK with some regions being restricted, we do not have the time to do it all anyway.
The boycott by many international countries is the main problem really. Imagine being in a country for 28 days without an ATM being available! We had to get money before getting in the country and if your money get stolen, you have to get out of the country my friend! I am pretty nervous about carrying that much money on me knowing especially that I can not easily get more. I will actually write about the money in a shorter story…
The guidebook is absolutely necessary to travel here. There are a limited numbers of guesthouses that can accept tourists. Some town do not have such hotels and you need to move on! It is a little more expensive because of that monopole.
Internet access has also been troublesome. Most internet places have installed programs to unlock the major sites used by locals and tourists. However, some sites are not accessible, they are locked. You need to go through a website that will give your computer an IP address that is outside the country. That makes the process very long and the success rate is about 50%. If it fails, you keep trying and eventually it might go through. It took me 2 hours to check my mails and upload 3 blogs last night! Any download is actually blocked in most internet places.
During the water festival, 3 bombs (or grenades according to rumors) went off in Yangon killing 9 persons. I am not sure if it is related but 2 days later, the internet access was cut off. The official story was that a submarine destroyed the cable!! I haven’t verified that yet…but if some people really believe that, the government has more power than I thought. Anyway, just so that it is clear that, what is supposed to be a half hour business in the smoking room of internet cafes, becomes a 2 hours sit down with lots of patience.
There is overall much more good things than bad things in this country. So far, it’s been great and I would recommend a stop in this beautiful country and to take the time to mingle with the locals. Even as a girl, I would travel in this country with no fear of something happening to me. I know that I have been saying that people were the nicest in every country I visited so far but, it’s true, they are really the nicest!!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Hair Cut (sequel)
I was at a point where my hair was a little messy when i got up. It was time to refresh my haircut. I asked so many barbers if they had a electric clippers but many of them just work out from a booth rather than a real barber shop. I did not want to spent too long on the chair but i almost try the hand clipper. It worked a bit like a scisor with the two big loops that you squeeze. I changed my mind thinking that it could be pulling at my hair a bit.
One of the barber was more insistent and said yes when i asked if he had a clipper. Once i sat down, he started cutting my hair with scisors. We never know how much they understand when you speak english to them so i stayed there thinking it was maybe a misunderstaining. Moreover, he had already made his mark on the top of my head. It takes time and the result is not that satisfying, both sides are not quite even. I start getting up since he looks like he is done but he has to shave my neck. So i pointed out to my neck and he said ‘Yes, yes’ and put some cream on my face. I said ''NO'', i am in a hurry, which was also true. I let him do his thing for 2 minutes so that he can wipe that cream. He put some more instead. I said ''NO'' a little louder, i am in a hurry and I tried to get up. He stopped me putting his hands on my shoulders and continue to massage the cream on me. He does it with lots of determination and I ended up with some cream in my eyes. He wiped my face with a dirty rug that scraped my skin a bit, sprayed water on my skin so I tought, yeah, it’s over! The massage continued. Shit, I will need to be more firm maybe get mad! He used a thread to get cream off it seems of fine hairs. He keeps ''Nice?''. '' i am in a hurry and I don’t want this!'', ''two minutes, two minutes''. I finally got up after 10 or more minutes, it seemed to last forever. The other barber felt that I was really getting pissed off and that I was trying to see through the cream I had in my eyes and he convinced my barber to finally stop. I took out money and to make it worst, I don’t have the correct change. He looks at me and asked for more since I got a super facial! I am fed up at that point and told him that we had agreed on a price and that i said i did not want the face massage. ''OK, OK'' he said keeping all the money i gave him. Euhhh! No mister! I successed in getting some money back but i am so mad that i had to leave before i ended up kicking his ass. I could have taken him believe me! He continues to ask ''Happy? OK?'' Arrrgh! He then said ''Come back later for shoulder massage'' Yeah right.... I was ready to show him the major finger when Rob shows me one of the rug he uses. On it, you can see lices!!! I don’t believe it was the rug he used on me but still, they must all be in the same state. That was the cherry on the Sunday, my body starts itching everywhere and the walk to the guesthouse was pretty quick. I took a shower and changed my clothes! I will have to be more clear next time and maybe more direct, but you never want to be rude which can be useful sometimes.
One of the barber was more insistent and said yes when i asked if he had a clipper. Once i sat down, he started cutting my hair with scisors. We never know how much they understand when you speak english to them so i stayed there thinking it was maybe a misunderstaining. Moreover, he had already made his mark on the top of my head. It takes time and the result is not that satisfying, both sides are not quite even. I start getting up since he looks like he is done but he has to shave my neck. So i pointed out to my neck and he said ‘Yes, yes’ and put some cream on my face. I said ''NO'', i am in a hurry, which was also true. I let him do his thing for 2 minutes so that he can wipe that cream. He put some more instead. I said ''NO'' a little louder, i am in a hurry and I tried to get up. He stopped me putting his hands on my shoulders and continue to massage the cream on me. He does it with lots of determination and I ended up with some cream in my eyes. He wiped my face with a dirty rug that scraped my skin a bit, sprayed water on my skin so I tought, yeah, it’s over! The massage continued. Shit, I will need to be more firm maybe get mad! He used a thread to get cream off it seems of fine hairs. He keeps ''Nice?''. '' i am in a hurry and I don’t want this!'', ''two minutes, two minutes''. I finally got up after 10 or more minutes, it seemed to last forever. The other barber felt that I was really getting pissed off and that I was trying to see through the cream I had in my eyes and he convinced my barber to finally stop. I took out money and to make it worst, I don’t have the correct change. He looks at me and asked for more since I got a super facial! I am fed up at that point and told him that we had agreed on a price and that i said i did not want the face massage. ''OK, OK'' he said keeping all the money i gave him. Euhhh! No mister! I successed in getting some money back but i am so mad that i had to leave before i ended up kicking his ass. I could have taken him believe me! He continues to ask ''Happy? OK?'' Arrrgh! He then said ''Come back later for shoulder massage'' Yeah right.... I was ready to show him the major finger when Rob shows me one of the rug he uses. On it, you can see lices!!! I don’t believe it was the rug he used on me but still, they must all be in the same state. That was the cherry on the Sunday, my body starts itching everywhere and the walk to the guesthouse was pretty quick. I took a shower and changed my clothes! I will have to be more clear next time and maybe more direct, but you never want to be rude which can be useful sometimes.
Cremation on the shore of the river
I haven’t done all the research to back my story here so… it’s meant to be entertaining even if not 100% accurate.
After death occurs, the deceased is washed and covered with a cloth from head to toe usually (although we have seen some faces of dead people in the streets!). The skull also has to be cracked open to let the soul leave the body. The stretcher on which the deceased is layed, is covered with pieces of colourful cloths that are shinier and look more festive. Numerous flower guarlands are also placed on the body followings prayers and blessings. The body is then carried to the Holy river, The Ganges. This process is supposed to take less than 24 hours.
The bed is made with branches, which is ideally Sandalwood, but since it is the most expensive one, most people only sprinkle sandalwood on the body. Then the cloths are removed from the body and only the sheet stays. The water from the river is then used to wash and bless the corpse before it is place onto the pier. The amount of wood used to make the pier is always different since the cost goes by weight. Of course, there is a minimum required to allow a body to burn completely and they say that it is an art to determine the correct amount. No accelerant is used to help the burning but they do use natural products like coal. They also poored a white liquid on the deceased which looked like cream but i did not get confirmation on that.
There is a person that is going to start the fire. It is always a man, usually the oldest son. He must have his head shaved to the skin, keeping just a bit on the top there, if he is Hindu. He also was in the Ganges before getting dressed in white. He will get the flame into a sacred fire from a temple and carry the flame to the woodenbed, no matches here. A body takes about three hours to burn. The ashes will be collected and thrown into the Ganges or the ocean thirteen days after the death, time needed for the family members to be purified.
The women are usually more expressive after death and can not be present when the burning take place. For the soul to leave the body and rise, there should not be any crying going on. Reincarnation is then possible and the pursuit of a better Karma is essential in their religion.
Five types of persons are not burned. Kids, which did not have time to gather enough wisdom to get a better Karma in another life; pregnant women, they are carrying a baby so same reasons than above; Sadhus, they are saints that have already a good Karma, lepers, that are blessed by certain gods, people who die from a cobra bite, it is a sacred animal.
After death occurs, the deceased is washed and covered with a cloth from head to toe usually (although we have seen some faces of dead people in the streets!). The skull also has to be cracked open to let the soul leave the body. The stretcher on which the deceased is layed, is covered with pieces of colourful cloths that are shinier and look more festive. Numerous flower guarlands are also placed on the body followings prayers and blessings. The body is then carried to the Holy river, The Ganges. This process is supposed to take less than 24 hours.
The bed is made with branches, which is ideally Sandalwood, but since it is the most expensive one, most people only sprinkle sandalwood on the body. Then the cloths are removed from the body and only the sheet stays. The water from the river is then used to wash and bless the corpse before it is place onto the pier. The amount of wood used to make the pier is always different since the cost goes by weight. Of course, there is a minimum required to allow a body to burn completely and they say that it is an art to determine the correct amount. No accelerant is used to help the burning but they do use natural products like coal. They also poored a white liquid on the deceased which looked like cream but i did not get confirmation on that.
There is a person that is going to start the fire. It is always a man, usually the oldest son. He must have his head shaved to the skin, keeping just a bit on the top there, if he is Hindu. He also was in the Ganges before getting dressed in white. He will get the flame into a sacred fire from a temple and carry the flame to the woodenbed, no matches here. A body takes about three hours to burn. The ashes will be collected and thrown into the Ganges or the ocean thirteen days after the death, time needed for the family members to be purified.
The women are usually more expressive after death and can not be present when the burning take place. For the soul to leave the body and rise, there should not be any crying going on. Reincarnation is then possible and the pursuit of a better Karma is essential in their religion.
Five types of persons are not burned. Kids, which did not have time to gather enough wisdom to get a better Karma in another life; pregnant women, they are carrying a baby so same reasons than above; Sadhus, they are saints that have already a good Karma, lepers, that are blessed by certain gods, people who die from a cobra bite, it is a sacred animal.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
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.
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!
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!
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