July 2 - 8, 2001 |
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Our first week of travelling is over… and what have we seen so far? Udaipur, Mumbai (better known as Bombay), train stations, trains and lots of rain!
On Monday, Oli and my "big" India trip started. But before we left to Delhi Sarai Rohilla Railway Station, I first had to say goodbye to my "trainee flat family". Saying goodbye to Rick was especially hard for me as I liked him very much – and he won't be in Delhi anymore when I return in August for 2 days. The same with Thomas, my roommate from Switzerland… Saying goodbye to the others was also not very easy but I know that I'll see them in August again… so, it wasn't that hard but still…
At 10:30 a.m. I had an interview for my thesis (about cultural differences between Austria and India), then Oli and I enjoyed our last lunch in Delhi, before we headed to the railway station. Our train to Udaipur departed punctually at 2:10 p.m.... The berths in the sleeper section of the train weren't too comfortable as the rail track from Delhi to Udaipur is a narrow one; that means the train, the height of the train, and everything else is a bit smaller and less spacious. Nevertheless, we reached Udaipur, Rajasthan at 10:30 a.m. the next day. In Udaipur we rented a double room at Hotel Gangaur Ghat for 100 Rs. After refreshing ourselves, we started exploring Udaipur – a city that is said to be the most romantic one in India. I have to admit I really liked Udaipur; it's a lovely city with narrow streets, lots of lakes, the beautiful Jagdish Mandir (temple), the skyline-dominating City Palace, the famous Lake Palace (unfortunately, the lake surrounding the palace was very dirty), the Clock Tower, and all this lively streets and bazaars… what I also noticed in Udaipur were the innumerable cows on the streets. Sure, I'm used to cows on the streets but I've never seen so many of them. You really have to take care not to step into their shit ;-)
On Wednesday, we again climbed in a train – in a train to Ahmedabad, Gujarat (here was the disastrous earthquake last January) – again another night train (9:10 p.m. to 6:35 a.m.). In Ahmedabad we were supposed to take another train to Bombay at 10 a.m. – unfortunately, we discovered that our destination on our train ticket to Bombay was 60 km north of the city. In order to save ourselves the troubles of getting transportation from there to the city in the middle of the night, we changed our train ticket to Bombay in Ahmedabad. Our new train was scheduled to leave Ahmedabad at 10 p.m. and reach Bombay at 7:20 a.m.. So, we spent the whole Thursday at Ahmedabad Junction (railway station) – we played cards, slept, read, observed the people around us,… for exploring the Ahmedabad, however, we were too tired…
After our third night in a train (out of 4 nights in whole), we safely reached Bombay. Till Sunday we did quite a lot of sightseeing, shopping, and nearly became "famous" :-) You have to know that Bombay is THE center of the Indian film industry – here you'll find Bollywood, the Indian version of Hollywood. Since we are here we got more than 3 concrete offers (one for a 6-day-film-shooting in Hyderabad, I got an offer for a photo-shooting presenting underwear, and the third one was for a TV commercial). If you wanna become famous, Bombay is definitely the place to go. I talked to one of the girls who tried to hire me about all that; she said that you could easily survive 3-4 months with the money you get from all those shootings (best time is from October onwards)… so, if you wanna see India for free and wanna become famous, head to Bombay ;-)
What else can I say about Bombay? Great city, much more westernized than Delhi, more pubs, a lot of sights, no rickshaws (! – they are banned from the city center), lots of taxis and unlimited rain falls! Although I knew that July is monsoon season I didn't expect the rainfalls to be so hard and never-ending. Nevertheless, Oli and I made (and still make) the most out of our stay… of course ;-)
Our next stop will be Pune on Monday (I have another interview there), Tuesday again Bombay before we head to Goa on Tuesday night ;-)
Talk to you later!
Greetings from the land of the Maharajas!
Love,
July 9 - 15, 2001 |
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What a week! Unfortunately not too many good things happened in this past week (especially to me). Let's start from the beginning…
On Monday, the day started quite early. At 7 a.m. we left to the CST (better known as Victoria Terminus) and headed to Pune. Due to heavy rainfalls we arrived there at 1:15 p.m. (instead of 11:55 a.m.). I felt very uncomfortable because my interviewpartner had to wait for me that long (I went just for this interview to Pune). Nevertheless, he invited us first to the buffet lunch at the hotel "Le Meridien" – the food was more than excellent. I can't remember when I had such good food for the last time! Following, we had the interview in the lobby of the hotel. After the "official" part, we had a small talk before he left back to office and we to the railway station. We heard rumors that due to the heavy rainfalls no train will go to Bombay anymore (as everything was flooded). Luckily, this was not true with our train – we departed and arrived on time.
Tuesday was our last day in this metropolis – and the weather was great; what a surprise! We spent the whole day strolling around, visiting all our favorite spots, did some shopping, etc. At 10:50 p.m. our train to Margao, Goa left Bombay…
Before I start writing about Goa, I wanna get rid of some things that I noticed in Bombay – more than in any other place I've been so far. First of all, the thing with the drugs: it was impossible to walk around for 5 minutes without being offered drugs on the street. These small drug dealers were quite persistent, they didn't accept a single "no" – we had to be very firm and sometimes even rude to get rid of them. To convince us, some of them even showed us their products – in the middle of the street! From hash, marihuana to LSD and cocaine, you could get everything!
Another thing I noticed here (and especially on the train to Pune and back) were the uncountable number of people who were handicapped in a form or another and the big mass of homeless people. The extreme poverty was all-present – I've never seen such a poverty in Delhi, for example. What irritated me more however, were all those handicapped people – blind, crippled,… There were more of those people than in any other city… I strongly believe that these people weren't born like this but mutilated at birth – to be more successful when begging. This is so disgusting on the one hand (how can parents to this to their children?!?) and sad, on the other hand – it's so hard for me to accept that these things still happen here in India… Especially one kid emotionally moved me a lot – one arm was missing completely and the other one was only half existing (just the upper arm). What kind of life this poor kid has to lead – unbelievable!
Our train to Goa left as mentioned at 10:50 p.m. and reached our final destination – Margao – at 11:50 a.m. (instead of 10:45 a.m.). From the railway station we took an auto to Colva Beach (8 km away) – there we checked in at Hotel Colmar, a quite noble place for our standards (even with a swimming pool!). We really wanted to enjoy our stay in Goa… but things usually don't happen how you expect them… I already felt a bit sick in the train (headache), so I spent this Wednesday afternoon in bed. However, instead of feeling better, my situation got worse and worse – I got very high fever (between 40 and 41 degrees Celsius), accompanied by periods of heavy freezing. The night from Wednesday to Thursday was the most horrible one – I still remember Oli saying that he was worrying so much about me but at a certain point of time I didn't care about my surroundings anymore… I felt like dying. I can't even remember when I had such a high fever the last time in my life – but I'm sure it must have been at least 15 years ago (I can't even remember when I was seriously ill for the last time – and that's good as it means it must have been a long time ago). After this heavy fever-attack, periods of even heavier sweating followed. It was good that we stayed in this a bit more expensive hotel as they changed my bed sheets every time I needed it, they gave me new towels all the time… that was very useful as all my things got soaked in sweat within a minute. I didn't feel like doing anything, I couldn't eat, I was even too weak to talk – poor Oli! He always stayed by my side, taking care of me. To entertain himself, he read a lot, did our whole laundry, and fulfilled every wish I had – thanks my dear!
So, I spent my whole Goa-time in bed (i.e. from Wednesday afternoon till Saturday lunchtime when we checked out). On Saturday, I luckily got part of my strength back – we walked a bit on the beach, listened to the breaking of the waves and feeling the sand between my toes. I also had lunch (a salad) and I even managed to carry my backpack! Although our whole time in Goa was spoiled because of my fever, I'm not angry or upset… I couldn't do anything about it – so why fret?
At 5 p.m. we left Colva Beach by bus to Margao. Before we went to the railway station, we visited an Internet cafe for an hour (to read your emails – thanks ;-)). At 8:30 p.m. we reached the railway station where we also got to know that our train to Ernakulam (that's the twin city of Kochi, Kerala – our next destination) was cancelled! Why? Due to the fatal accident (a train bridge broke down while a train was crossing it – a lot of people were injured or died) approximately 20 days ago, no train from the north can reach Ernakulam… big shit! What to do? A solution, though a complicated one, was found soon. Instead of going directly from Margao to Ernakulam (10:50 pm to 2:20 p.m.), we first had to take a train to Mangalore, Karnataka (departing from Margao at 2:10 a.m. and reaching Mangalore at 8:15 a.m.); another train from Mangalore to Calicut, Kerala (4 p.m.) and finally from there a bus to Ernakulam (5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.). As we bought all the tickets on a very short notice, we had no reserved seats or berths – that means we had to travel in the general class. Wooden, very hard benches and thousands of other people in the compartment made this trip an adventure. Everything was so jam-packed, there was neither space to move around nor to sit properly. After a certain time, everything started hurting – my butt, my back, everything.
As soon as we reached Calicut Railway Station we proceeded to the bus stand. There we were quite lucky as we found instantly a bus that was about to leave to Ernakulam. So, we happily hopped on and had to discover that all the seats were occupied. However, we didn't want to stay back and hope for another bus, so we made ourselves comfortable in front of the bus. I was sitting on the stairs (feeling every hole in the street – poor butt and back), while Oli was sitting on his backpack. Despite all these drawbacks, we had the big advantage of seeing everything as we were sitting right next to the driver. Although the ride was more than uncomfortable and exhausting, I still was able to enjoy it – we saw a lot of cute little towns, breath-taking flora and fauna and friendly people on the street who waved to me. Nevertheless, I was glad when we reached our goal short before midnight! After 30-minutes of looking for a place to stay, we found something nice – our odyssey finally came to an end! When I think back now, I'm "glad" that we had to go through all of this, as it was quite an interesting experience;-) The only thing I could have lived without was my constant hunger. In Mangalore I had a small breakfast but for the rest of the day and night I ate nothing but some chocolates and chips – we had no time to eat something proper.
More about my time in Kerala and Madurai next week!
Keep on smiling ;-)
PS: Concerning my fever: I'm already feeling perfectly fine again!
July 16 – 22, 2001 |
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After the bad experiences of last week, we had a great time this week! We've been more or less in Kochi, Kerala and Madurai, Tamil Nadu – 2 fantastic places in the South!
On our first day in Kochi and Ernakulam, respectively, we explored the twin-cities – just strolling around and relaxing (for "real" sightseeing we were a bit too tired after this exhausting journey down from Goa to Ernakulam). In the evening, we visited a "Kathakali" performance (Kathakali literally means story play, and the Kathakali performance is the dramatized presentation of a play). First we observed how the extraordinary make-up was being applied (approximately for an hour) and following we watched the performance itself. With the necessary background story information, the play was quite interesting.
On Tuesday, we started our sightseeing tour through Kochi – we visited places like the Jewish Synagogue, the Dutch Palace, the Chinese Fishing Nets, but also Bolgatty Island.
On Wednesday, we continued our sightseeing – this time we visited Kerala's famous Backwaters (a vast network of lagoons, lakes, rivers and canals) – we did a 8-hours journey with a houseboat. The 8 hours were very relaxing as our boat was not motorized but punted with a long bamboo pole. Besides enjoying fantastic nature, we visited villages where coir (coconut fibre) and calcium powder made of shells were produced. We also had a typical Keralan lunch in the middle of a palm-tree wood (but it was way too spicy!). At around 5 p.m., we reached our hotel in Ernakulam again.
Full of energy (thanks to the fresh air and the peaceful silence in the backwaters), we went in the evening by ferry to Fort Kochi and visited the various churches there and enjoyed a yummy Mango shake.
On Thursday, we continued our "relaxation program" – we had a great aryuvedic oil massage. I really enjoyed it a lot! The rest of the day we did nothing special.
In the evening, we took a night train to Madurai, which is located in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Madurai is one of South India’s oldest cities, and is definitely one of my favorites! Madurai's main attraction is the Sri Meenakshi Temple. It is covered with gopurams from top to bottom in a breathtaking profusion of multicolored images of gods, goddesses, animals and mythical figures. While staying in Madurai, we visited the temple twice – once in the late evening to observe the daily procession and once in the morning, to take a look at all the fantastic details of the temple. Frankly, I've never seen such a fantastic temple before – awesome!
We also visited the Thirumalai Nayaka Palace, several churches, and the bustling Madurai market.
Although Madurai gives the impression of being a small typical Indian city, people there are more pushy than anywhere else. Walking along the street without being disturbed was more or less impossible – a typical conversation went normally like this:
"Do you need a rickshaw?" - "No, thank you."
"But I'm sure you wanna visit my silver shop. I've beautiful jewelery. Bracelets, necklaces, rings,…" - "No, thank you."
"Just take a look!" - "No, really I don't need silver…"
"Ok, then visit my tailor shop. I stitch you a nice suit, sir." - "Grrrrr – no, thank you."
"And for you mam, a nice sari or blouse?!" - "No!"
"Maybe you need to exchange money?!" - "No, thank you – we have enough rupees!!!!" (that's the time when I lost my nerves, the latest… but wait, it got better…)
"Do you smoke? I can give you the best marihuana…" - "No!!!! Please get lost!"
Those, and similar dialogues occurred to us constantly. It can be very tiring after a certain time… but I guess that's part of Indian sense of business.
On Sunday morning (9:50 a.m.), we took a train to Trichy (or Tiruchi or Tiruchchirappalli – I prefer the last name as it is so complicated to pronounce it correctly ;-)), where we arrived at around lunchtime.
About our time in Trichy, Mamallapuram and Chennai (Madras), I'll tell you next time, ok?
Take care.
Love,
July 23 – 29, 2001 |
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What a week! We found our personal paradise but we also visited the shittiest city – in my opinion – in India.
On Monday, we started our sightseeing tour through Trichy; actually, to be precise, in Srirangam. The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple complex in Srirangam is about 3 km north of the Rock Fort in Trichy. At 60 hectares, the Srirangam complex with its 7 concentric walled sections and 21 gopurams is probably the largest in India. We spent nearly 2 hours in this temple complex. Although the temples were fantastic, Madurai's Meenakshi Temple is still my favorit.
In the afternoon, we visited Trichy's famous Rock Fort Temple, from where you have a superb view of the city and its surroundings. Later we strolled along the Main Bazaar Street – a bustling market in the Old Town of Trichy.
At 9:45 p.m., we left Trichy to Chengalpattu – by bus. What a nightmare! We sat in the last row of the bus (because of our luggage), unfortunately the last row in a bus is always the most horrible one. During our 6 1/2 hours bus ride, I didn't sleep a single minute. Instead I learned to fly according to Tom Petty's song "I'm learning to fly but I ain't got wings, what goes up must come down…" and believe me, I always came down again – and my butt was very pleased about it ;-) This bus ride was really horrible – the road was not too good (or did the bus driver hit on purpose all the holes in the street?), the bus driver was a driver from hell – he drove like mad, and it was raining… and of course, the windows were not able to hold back the rain completely…
I was really glad when we safely reached Chnegalpattu at 4:15 a.m. From there we took another bus to Mamallapuram - our actual destination. The bus needed 1 hour to cover the 26 km to Mamallapuram! Anyway, we were quite glad when we finally arrived there – a cute little town at the Bay of Bengal. Although there's a lot to see, we mainly enjoyed the sun, the beach, the fresh air and the breeze from the sea. Mamallapuram, in my opinion, has much more to offer than Goa – here you still find the typical flair and atmosphere of a small beach town, and lots of beautiful stone carvings. Carving in stone is still a living art here – stone masons can be heard clipping away from dawn to dusk along the dusty roadsides. With grief in our hearts, we left on Thursday our personal paradise to Chennai (formerly known as Madras). We took a bus from Mamallapuram in the morning to Chennai (3 hours for 60 km!).
Chennai welcomed us with either fully booked or dusty, dirty and overpriced hotels… we weren't very pleased about the rooms being offered to us, so we decided to stay at the AIESEC trainee flat. Unfortunately, all the trainees were still working, so we spent the afternoon at the Austrian Airlines office (to check on my flight back to Austria) and at Domino's pizza. At around 5 p.m., we went to the trainee flat – luckily, one Finnish girl was already back from work, so we were able to get in. The rest of the day we did basically nothing.
On Friday, we actually wanted to do a bit of sightseeing – Chennai has not really much to offer but nevertheless we wanted to visit at least these few sights. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a single rickshaw-wallah who was able to bring us to the "main sight" of Chennai – to the Fort St. George. We asked at least 15 rickshaw-drivers till we gave up hope. A typical conversation went like this:
"To the Fort, please!"
"Where, to the Taj?"
"No. To the F-O-R-T St. George!"
"Oh, to the church!"
"No, to the Fort St. G-E-O-R-G-E!"
"Ha?"
"Ah, forget it. Idiot!"
We even showed them the Fort on the map but they didn't know what we were talking about. Moreover, I had the feeling that the rickshaw-wallahs in Chennai were (and still are) the biggest idiots, the dumbest, most stupid assholes (please excuse my rude words) I've ever encountered here in India – unbelievable!
So, we went shopping instead of sightseeing; in the evening, we went to an Internet café.
Saturday, we again tried to do a little bit of sightseeing. This time we even found a rickshaw driver whom we could show the way to the fort; that's so ridiculous – we, tourists, have to show the rickshaw driver where to go. Anyway, finally we reached the Fort but what we got to see there was more than disappointing. That's why, we walked to Parry's Corner, but somehow we were already so pissed off of this city that we went home.
At around 8:30 p.m. when we wanted to leave for the railway station, it started raining cats and dogs. We decided to wait a little bit longer – but instead of getting better it got worse. At 9:15 p.m., we had to leave – despite of the heavy rainfall. The streets were already flooded and had already converted into (knee-deep) rivers; of course, the rickshaw-drivers knew that they were in a strong position. They charged us 60 Rs to Chennai Central Railway Station (normally 20 Rs). Grrr! When we arrived there, he said that he is not allowed to bring us to the entrance (later we found out that he had lied – asshole!). So, we had to walk through the water (I stumbled and nearly fell down when I stepped into a hole – well covered by the water. The result was that my pants were completely wet – yeah!). Somehow, we finally made it into the railway station… there we desperately waited for the train to Calcutta – let's get out of this city as fast as possible! We departed from Chennai at 11:15 p.m. Saturday and reached Calcutta safely on Monday 7:40 a.m. But that's another story – to be written next week ;-)
What I wanted to add: One weird thing happened to me in Chennai (for Chennai that's probably normal) – when sitting in a rickshaw, suddenly a hand came out of nowhere and touched my knee. Totally surprised I looked into the direction from where the hand came from – 2 women were sitting in the neighboring rickshaw, giggling. They just have touched my knee. Why? What was that for? Do they think that white skin feels different? No, I don't understand this.
Furthermore, when walking on the street (Oli next to me), a homeless man tried to embrace me (or better: tried to touch me on my waist) – thanks to my fast reaction, I was able to "defend" myself. Weird…
One more thing that might be of interest: Austrian Airlines finally confirmed Oli's and my flight back to Vienna – on the 20th (one day before my visa expires)! One more week later than expected – great! That leaves us with one more week of travelling! Where? Take a look at my updated travel itinerary ;-)
All the best from Calcutta!
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