India

Jan 28 2006

I flew from London to Mumbai (Bombay), then on to Goa. I thought that the transfer might be a bit tight, but was happy to breeze through immigration and had my bag within 15 mins. No probs, right? But then came the transfer from international to domestic terminals. Although I could see the domestic terminal, it was on the other side of the airfield and the only way to get there was by shuttle bus. So I waited... and waited... and waited,. And after a few nervous moments (time was running out), the bus arrived (an hour later) just in time for me to make my connection.

Cousin Chris was there to greet me at Goa airport. He'd grown a beard and looked like a hippy. But it was still the same old tuna munging Cousie-bro underneath the hemp hat and beard. First couple of days were spent in Colva, in the state of Goa...

Feb 01, 2006  

From Colva, we boarded a night bus to Hampi. We were cramped into a slightly larger space in the position that the luggage rack is on normal buses. Quite an experience really. They weren't really built for anyone over 6ft in height!

Hampi is the centre of an ancient Hindu empire. There's many ruins and an old bazaar there. Upon arrival, we met with a couple of fellow travellers, John from Canadia and Sasha from Pommieland. Both good eggs. So we hung out with them for a couple of days...

Feb 02, 2006  

After Hampi, we caught another night bus back to the coast in the state of Goa. It was cramped and uncomfortable but somehow an enjoyable adventure due to the outside stimulus through the night. Hey... I'm trying to be positive here!

Palolem is a paradise. Great food, great weather, great beach, warm seas.... Nothing to do but sit in the beachside restaurants drinking lassi or beer, catch the little shore breakers or mung down greedy portions of fresh fish cooked in a tandoori oven. Tough life!

Feb 04, 2006  

For the weekend, Chris and I decided to hire scooters, chance the traffic and head down the coast to the next state, Kanataka. Our destination was Gokarna, a holy Hindu town with a reputation for being a good place to drop out for a few days.

The trip is approx 100kms south from Palolem. It was really fun riding the scooters all that way. The traffic is crazy - it was sort of like riding a snowboard off piste through trees with lots of beginners around - except that you don't get run off the road by overtaking trucks coming the opposite direction when you're on a snowboard (this only happend 3 times...) But anyway, the point is that you need to pick your gaps between the assorted obsticles (bikes, cars, buses, cows, trucks, pedestrians etc) and scoot through. When we crossed the boarder from Goa to Kanartaka, we got stopped by the police and had to pay them a bribe of 1000 rupees because we didn't "have the right papers..." The police man was very nice about it. "It seems that you have a little problem, now what do you want to do about it?!" I would've liked to get my mate "Likky Bonting" to smash him in the knee with his cricket bat... but Chris and I opted for paying the Bashish instead.

We ended up staying at a place called Om Beach up the coast from Gokarna, which is, surprisingly, shaped like the Om symbol. It was quite a mission to find our way to Om Beach as it was not very well signposted. At one stage we had to test out the 4 wheel drive capabilities of our scooters by driving up a track made from rocks and boulders.

By the time we arrived at Om, there were no more rooms available at any of the huts. In the end one guy took pity on us and allowed us to sleep on hammocks on the porch overlooking the ocean. Awesome views!

Feb 05, 2006  

After Gokarna, we hocked it back to Palolem... In anticipation of another potential meeting with the friendly law enforcement officers, we hatched a cunning plan for getting back past the border crossing. "As we near the boarder, we'll find a truck or a bus to use as a 'bunny' and just sit right up it's arse right through the crossing. By the time they realise there's 2 juicy white tourists on scooters behind the 'bunny', we'll be on full throttle, flying down the highway at somewhere between 50 and 70 kms per hour!" Perfect! It didn't quite work like that in the execution though. It seems that all trucks get stopped at the boarder, so the 'bunny' didn't end up providing effective cover. The guards saw us in plenty of time, but just as we were putting our hands up in submission, they raised the barrier to let us through. Lucky this time... No Bashish!

Anyway, so after a quick adventure exploring a nearby Island (swimming out there while holding packs overhead and not drowning was quite a challenge), we said goodby to our good mate, Manu from our favorite restaurant, and boarded the night train to Mumbai...

Feb 07, 2006  

Well, I've arrived in my first big Indian city - the real India. The train terminated at the edge of the city in the north, and our destination was the southern tip (the end of a peninsula). Still being half asleep after the overnight train trip, we didn't go through all the proper checks and balances when selecting a taxi man for our ride south. I guess that I don't have to tell you that we got ripped off. Again, they had claimed to be our "friend" beforehand. We really should be weary of anyione using the term "my friend". But don't worry folks, we got revenge be eating maccas and supporting US economic imperialisim. Trouble is, we punished ourselves just as much... but maybe that's apt.

Feb 12, 2006

By an unfortunate coincidence, we accidentally had a very big night out in Delhi with our friends at the Canadian High Commission the night before heading off to Agra (location of Taj Mahal, tourist Mecca). We finally dragged ourselves into our hotel at about 8am, there was enough time get about an hour of kip, then it was off to Agra. I say it was an "unfortunate" coincidence, my friends, as one needs to be in a very patient frame of mind in order to deal with Agra. And a patient frame of mind is not easily found when one is feeling a little wonkey from the previous evening's frivolities. To give you a little flavour of our first few minutes in Agra, consider the following incidents at the train station:
1. A nice storekeeper accidentally forgot to give me 400 Rupees of change for my Rs 10 bottle of water
2. Another nice storekeeper accidentally miscalculated Rs 25 plus 25 as totaling Rs 85 when Chris tried to buy a drink and some biscuits
3. We were set upon by a bunch of "our friends" who were more than willing to help us out in arranging transport to the town's bazaars - destinations that we had no desire to find ourselves at.

I think that by the time we left Agra, approximately 80% of the sentences that were uttered in our direction had been completely lacking in truth. They were designed to help us part with cash. Some of my favorite incidents were: when a nice man attempted to get us to participate in a jewel importation scam; when we were assured that the reason for extremely crap service and food at a certain restaurant were due to the owner's brother coincidentally dying the day before; the hardest hard-sell I've ever experienced by a man in a carpet shop for an item that I had absolutely no desire to own.

Oh and to top it off, the 2hr30 train journey back to Delhi became a 5hr ordeal, putting us pack in the center of town at near 2am. You can imagine that we were a bit over it all by then. But anyway, I got some good shots of the Taj...

Feb 13, 2006  

We finished our India trip in the capital, Delhi. We were greatful for the hospitality that we received from the people at the Canadian High Commission. It was very interesting to get a glimpse of how the Embassy crowd live and work in India. We didn't do much sightseeing in Delhi, we spent most of time at markets or restaurants and chilling out.

Most people say that you either love India or hate it when you go there. But I'd have to say that I fall between the two. We had some great experiences in India, but equally weren't too impressed with some things. India is really a land of contrasts. It was incredibly interesting seeing how their culture affects both day-to-day life and higher-level government.

Adios 'till the next adventure