Back home

Its good to be back in ny. It was a long flight and I'm now recuperating from jetlag; hopefully I'll be good by Monday. Even though I'm back I still have a couple more posts on backlog so keep checking back for more updates.

Trouble!

My last full day in Goa started off as usual, with some breakfast while overlooking the beach. However, after a stroll up and down the coast, I found myself not feeling well, and went back to the hotel to get some rest. I soon found myself incapacitated in bed with slight fever, headache, bodyache, chills, nausea, and diarhea. Now I'm no hypocondriac, but when you are ill away from home in a country with unknown quality of medical services your mind can start to go on hyperdrive. As I lay stewing in my sweat I began to imagine all the horrible diseases I could have come down with. After several hours of self inflicted mental torture I gathered the strength to hobble downstairs to my hotel lobby to use the internet access point there to put my mind at ease about my condition. Unfortunately after browsing the CDC website on India, and consulting wikipedia and various other medical websites I had become more paranoid since pretty much every terrible disease starts with the symptoms I was experiencing, including Malaria, Dengue Fever, and H5N1 which are present in India. Oh yea, you're supposed to get IMMEDIATE medical attention. I reasoned with myself that if I could some how tough it out for two more days I'd be back in the US and could get some proper treatment. Once it became a reasonable hour in NY I gave my dad a call for a medical consultation. After describing my condition as best I could he seemed to determine that I most likely didn't have anything serious, and could go with the ol' doctor's favorite: the wait and see. I, on the other hand, still thought it was a very real possibility that I had something serious despite the fact that I was on anti-malarial meds, had gotten a flu shot before I left, and that Dengue Fever is pretty much non-existent in the parts of India I was in. This must be why doctors hate slightly sick patients equipped with WebMD (sorry to all my MD or to-be MD friends...) Later in the evening I retched up what was left of my breakfast porrige and felt new life breathed into me, though I was still very weak and sick. At this point it was pretty obvious I had food poisoning and it helped put my mind at rest as I recouped as quickly as possible.

The next day I felt much better, and continued to rest as I spent most of the day and night on a train back to Bangalore. In retrospect, my bout of food poisoning came at pretty much the least disruptive time through my whole trip, with much of my recovery time spent while in transit anyway. I couldn't have picked a better day through my journey to have gotten sick if I had the option. I suppose a trip to India wouldn't really be complete without an episode of food poisoning so I can leave content knowing I got the full experience. Also Jake was pretty amazing at being there for me when I needed him, all while not letting me hold back his fun too much. Yay for Jake. Hes the best!

Northern Goa

After a relaxing stay on the peaceful beaches of southern Goa, Jake and I made our way up the state via the Goa bus system. I will try to explain what it's like taking the bus in Goa.

Buses arrive very frequently; the longest we had to wait for any bus was 2-3 min, but usually it was an immediate transfer. As you approach a bus or as it pulls into a station, the "bus conductor" starts shouting in the most rapid fire indian you've ever heard the destination of the bus. Its actually really helpful in finding the right bus to get on, once you decypher what he is saying. The conductor then rounds up everyone that wants to take the bus and heards them into the bus as quickly as possible and packs everyone in as far back as they will go, and off you go. Usually as the bus progresses along the route more people get on, but nobody is getting off, so the bus just continues to get more crowded, thus the bus escalates in temperature, body odor, and physical contact with your neighbors. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that it takes forever to travel even short distances, which can be blamed mostly on the road infrastructure. Goa is a small state. The length of the state is only about 100km, which is about 60 miles. In the states, even at conservative highway speeds this is not much more than an hour's drive. However in Goa (along with many other parts of India), most of the roads only have one lane in each direction, which is shared by scooters, motorcycles, cars, buses, and industrial trucks. What results is excruciatingly slow travel punctuated by knuckle whitening passing in the face of oncoming traffic. At least its cheap. A single ride amounts to not more than 50 cents.

Our first destination using Goan PT was a spice plantation in central Goa called Tropical Spice Plantation. The plantation is 120 acres with a smaller demo area for tours. We got to see the various plants that produce spices such as pepper, clove, nutmeg, betel nut, tumeric, cardamom, vanilla, all spice, cinnamon, cashews, and bay leaf. Unfortunately, many of the plants were not flowering this time of year and so we only got to see the plant and not the spices. The tour wrapped up with a buffet, with many of the dishes using the spices grown on the plantation.

















After the spice plantation we slowly made our way to Calangute-Baga, once again using public transportation. Calangute and Baga deliver pretty much the opposite beach experience as the southern beaches. Where Palolem and Agonda are quiet and serene, Calangute and Baga are loud and crazy. These are the beaches most tourists and indians come to for vacation and it definitely shows through the order of magnitude in commercialization. There are plenty of restaurants, bars, clubs, and beach activities such as jet skiing, banana boating, and parasailing. The crowd here is split between the same english retired crowd and young russians on vacation here.

Jake and I started off our first full day in Baga by renting scooters. There is pretty much no regulation; they will rent it to anyone that has the money, even if you've never ridden a scooter before. The man who loaned us the scooters also advised us that if we had a run-in with the police, we should just start by offering him 100 rupees before he says anything and continue going higher until he is satisfied.
(btw, the dials on my scooter were broken if you were wondering about the picture)





We took the scooters first to Anjuna beach to the north to view some of the spectacular views of the beach from some higher cliffs. After climbing around and soaking in the views we headed further north to Vagator where we scaled an old fort to see some more amazing views of the coast and people paragliding off the hill opposite us. We capped off the day with some more joy riding on the scooters (seriously lots of fun), not one, but two dinners, and exploring some of the nightlife at Baga.

Southern Goa

After taking a 15 hour train ride from Mumbai to Goa, Jake and I headed down to the south to Palolem beach. From what we heard, the south is way more quiet and has fewer tourists than the popular areas of the north. We found a pair of British sisters also headed in the same direction and split a taxi from the train station to Palolem.

Palolem is pretty gorgeous, like most other tropical locations around the world. Restaurants, bars, small shacks and hotels line the coast with more things slightly inland. Up until now, the weather for me in all parts of India has been absolutely fantastic. It has yet to rain, and days have been clear with highs between 70 and 90 degrees, depending on how north I am. Goa, however, takes the cake. The evenings are cool and dry, perfect for either shorts or long pants depending on your preference, and days are sunny, warm, and breezy. The beaches are way cleaner than what I had expected given the amount of trash I've seen in the rest of India, and locals are friendly and helpful. Each restaurant on the beach seems to have a handful of resident dogs that will come sit next to you as you eat waiting for you to give then a bit. The dogs are pros when it comes to this. They either patiently look at you with their big doe eyes or will gently rest their head or paw against your thigh until you succumb to their cuteness or shoo them away. The food here is delicous, and reminds me a bit of Korean food in that a lot of it is very spicy, sweet, and salty. The fish and calamari curries have been my favorite local specialties while the fresh fish caught off the coast has also been spectacular. Most restaurants have "happy hour" specials, 2 for 1 cocktails running 6pm-midnight and you can enjoy your drink in the evening with a firework show launched off the beach every night.

After enjoying our first night in Palolem, Jake and I rented some bicycles the next day to check out another beach to the north. It took a good 30 mins of hill cycling, but it was worth it to reach Agonda beach. The beach at Agonda is barely populated, and the prices at the restaurants are even cheaper. A wonderful way to relax if you're not a fan of huge mobs of tourists or locals trying to sell you boatrides. Speaking of tourists, south Goa is pretty much frequented entirely by retired English couples which makes for some interesting people watching. After Agonda and another strenuous bike ride back to Palolem, we had another relaxing evening soaking in all that Goa has to offer.

Right now, I'm blogging on the shores of Anjuna beach, which I'll talk about later, along with my visit to a spice plantation.

Goa

I'm not saying this place is paradise... but its pretty darn close.












My 5 day forecast, complete with days of the week in korean since i'm using my dad's netbook.

Its gonna be tough coming back...

A City Formerly Called Bombay

Last night Jake and I got into Mumbai. After settling in, grabbing dinner and some kingfisher beer, we called it a night so we could get an early start today.

Some highlights of today:

Post breakfast at the hotel we started our tour of Mumbai at Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST) rail station. Though we didn't need to take a train at the time, the station building itself is a landmark, much like Grand Central Terminal is in NYC. The building is built in Victorian Gothic style architecture, which interesting to see after all the historic landmarks in Dravidian and Mughal styles I've been swimming in til now.











We took our first Mumbai train ride to head to the north suburbs to check out whats there. None of the trains' doors close and you frequently see cars packed full of people that many are hanging outside of the train as it travels. To get a taste of local flavor I tried it also (breifly), but found it too terrifying to hang your head and body outside of the train for more than a second.

On our way back from the suburbs, Jake and I were sitting down when the ticket checker came to check out tickets. Upon surrendering our tickets the checker told us that we were sitting in the 1st class cabin but our tickets were for 2nd class. He pulled us off the train and told us the fine per person would be Rs.250 plus the difference in fare, which came out to Rs.290. After trying to explain we were new, and just tourists and asking for leniencey, the checker agreed to waive the fine for one of us be we still had to pay Rs.290 between the two of us. In retrospect, a fine that translates to $3.10 per person isn't that big of a deal but its never fun to get a ticket, especially when you've had no chance to learn the rules.

We got back to the downtown area to Chowpatty Beach. Nearby there was a Kulfi vendor where we got several dishes to try out various flavors. Kulfi, by the way, is a traditional Indian ice cream that is not whipped, so its really dense and delicious. An amazing afternoon treat.





















A bit more south was a rooftop bar and restaurant, Dome, that we decided to check out. Its a pretty cool place, with awesome views of the coast and downtown Mumbai. After paying homage to this city with a Bombay and tonic, we were treated to one of the best sunsets I've seen yet.




















This is the Gateway of India.
















Dinner was at an outdoor restaurant where they grill kebabs on a charcoal grill and the seating area is pretty much the entire back street. Eating vegetarian meals pretty much every other day makes me appreciate meat so much more :)















Overall, Mumbai is an amazing city. It is so full of life, with so many different cultures contributing to what it is now. The people are some of the friendliest I've met in all of India. Seeing some of the sites that were targets of terrorist attacks in the past serves as a good reminder the reality of religious tensions that exists around the world, something that is easy to be desensitized to when in the US.

Tomorrow, I get to spend all day on a train to my final destination in India, Goa. To all my friends toughing it out in the northeast winter, I will be joining you in a week. But for now, my shallowest, most insincere condolences ;)

Check out Jake's Blog

You can follow along the journey through the eyes of my PIC, Jake.

http://whatsinindia.blogspot.com/

The Tourist's Tour

Since leaving Agra, i've been continuing my tour of north west india in the typical tourist hotspots. Before I share some of the sights, I'll go through some lessons learned along the way:

-Make sure you check the menu or ask for prices before you start eating at a restaurant or more importantly, a roadside stand. Unscrupulous shop owners may overcharge you without much you can say now that you've eaten everything

-Kids in tourist towns seem to think "haloo money" are the magic words that automatically makes foreigners want to give them money. They will swarm around you, quite persistently, constantly shouting "haloo money". I've even had one kid continue to yell that even after i was a good 300m away.

-People will usually come up to you at a tourist site and being explaining things or start giving you directions without any solicitations, doing whatever they can to convince you to let them be your tour guide. They dont really post any threat but it can be tiring having to say no 4 or 5 times before each one will leave you alone and having to shoo away half a dozen touts at each site.

-Indian food is made with massive amounts of butter. Very tasty, but now I know how even vegetarians can get massive.

-I am addicted to chai (indian spiced milk tea). I have about 3 or 4 cups a day.

-No matter how delicious the street masala looks, don't eat it.

This is my tour of Northwestern India so far:

Delhi
-Red Fort















Agra
-Agra Fort














-Taj Mahal














On the way to Jaipur
-Fatehpur Sikri














-Keoladeo National Park














Jaipur
-City Palace














-Jaigarh Fort














-Nahargar Fort














-Amber Palace














-Water Palace














Pushkar
-Holy lake














-Mountaintop temple














Udaipur
-Lake Pichola, City Palace, Lake Palace













-City Palace















-Lake Palace















-Jagmandir Palace















-Rajasthan Royal Antique Car Collection (This is the Phantom from Octopussy)

Agra

I've really got my tourist hat on now. Pretty much getting driven from tourist site to site and snapping lots of pictures.

The main takeaway of Agra is that pictures of the Taj Mahal really don't do it justice and you really have to go see it for yourself... but here are some pictures of it at sundown.












































Its a little annoying dealing with the rest of the tourists, and then all the locals trying to take advantage of the tourists. But with a little patience and a a good helping of common sense, these nuisances are worth the crazy views.

Rendezvous with Jake in Delhi

I'm no longer alone!

Jake and I finally met up in Delhi airport and soon we will begin our tour of northern india.

I must say, I'm pretty impressed with the subway in Delhi. Its clean, pretty high-tech, and has good coverage of the city. We headed to Connaught Place to check it out and walked to Delhi rail station to go book our tickets for our tour. After getting lost for a bit (a reoccuring theme this trip), we find a railway worker that tells us to go back to Connaught place to book our tickets at the official india tourism office. After about 1.5 hours of talking and negotiations, we book all of our travel and some hotel for the next 2 weeks. Nice.

At the travel office we agree to depart for Agra the following morning so this night is the last one in Delhi. After checking out the Red Fort, we go to Saket. Here there is a huge shopping area and behind it are a bunch of restaurants and bars. We go around enjoying our last night in Delhi and finally end up in a kareoke bar. It was pretty fun hang out there and watching people dance and sing, but this one song in particular got everyone going nuts. I mean like people were going bonkers. I'll admit, its pretty catchy.



Next up: Agra, most famously known for the Taj Mahal

The sleeper problem

I'll forewarn my readers that this post is gonna be fairly analytical. If you want just the story, here it is:

I got on my very first trainride in India. Was able to get some decent sleep and after 6 hours arrived to Chennai in 1 piece.

Ok. On to more important things...



The important question of the night was "where should I put my bag?", and answering this question took a good hour of the 6 hours of my trip. I observed many locals brought a chain that they used to secure their bags to the train wall underneath the first bed. Unfortunately I didn't have that option.

Givens: my backpack size - about 2.25'x1.75'x1', (the bag get narrower at the top)
bed - about the width of my femur, maybe 2.5' and about 6' long. The picture shows how the seats are laid out. The backrest of the lowest seat swings up and is then supported by two chains that hang from the upmost bunk.
me - about 5'9", and fairly slim....



Objective: maximize comfort
Sub-objectives:
-maximize flexibility for different sleeping positions (I usually sleep on my side or stomach, but I like to sometimes build up to my final sleep position on my back)
-minimize exposure to ambient light, noise, and smells from the bathroom

Requirements: prevent theft of my loose belongings (backpack and shoes). Openings to my bag and placement of my shoes should be oriented in such a way that one would have to disturb me in order to have access.

With these objectives and requirements in mind, I began to try and optimize my solution to this problem. I tried to draw out what the sleeping area looked like, so you can follow along as well.





Option 1: The Headboard

The first position I tried was pretty straightforward and simple. I placed my bag and shoes at the head of the bed and laid down under it.

Pros: Simple. Bag and shoes are very secure. I have full width of the bed to myself

Cons: Need to bend my legs to fit; about 6" my legs would extend into the isle if I stretched them out. Shoes are also next to my head, and they kinda smell.
Remarks: I was ready to fall asleep like this, since as i said before, though i was currently laying on my back I would eventually shift to my side and having a slight bend in my legs in that position isnt really uncofortable at all. Nevertheless, the nagging notion that there was a better solution than the current implementation proved to be far more uncomfortable than the inability to stretch out my legs.

Option 2: The Side-by-side (bottom to top variant)

This was the next position I tried once I committed to achieving optimal bag placement.

Pros: Sleeping position is similar to how I would sleep normally (the backpack takes the place of my normal body pillow). Bag and shoe security is high. Having the bottom of my bag face the top of my body allows me to stap my body to my bag.

Cons: The main problem with this setup was that this position put the thickest part of my bag side by side with my chest and the combined thickness of my bag and body put my back right up against the edge of the bed. Because of the two chains coming down from the top bunk, and the belt loop of my bag i secured around my chest to use my bag as a heavy anchor, the fear of falling off was a non-issue. nevertheless it was an uncomfortable feeling. Also, this setup provides low flexibility, as I had to remain in this exact position to fit at all times.

At this point I have to confess at this point that my crappy mspaint-on-a-track-pad-on-an-airplane diagrams have not been entirely accurate until now, and the following option brings to light what i've been hiding.

Option 3: The Side-by-side (top to top variant)

Naturally I tried this variation of the previous position to see if it would be an improvement.

Pros: Shape of the bag mostly follows the volume distribution of my body. Same pros as Side-by-side bottom to top but eliminates back problem. Again, plenty of space also for my shoes to be put where i cant smell them.

Cons: One small problem with this setup was that before, the belt strap on my bag was situated right at my chest level, which led to a very secure feeling when I strapped in, but now was more at thigh to knee level, which did next to nothing for extra security in preventing my falling off. The huge problem with this arrangement was, quite frankly, my ass. If you are familiar with my physiology you will know that a certain portion of my body more resembles that of a particular black female singer rather than a typical asian male. That said, my resulting position from this arrangement left nearly my entire butt hanging off the side of the bed, which was unaccpetable in terms of comfort and for my pride.

Option 4: The Stack

At this point I thought very carefully about the current situation. As stated in the givens above, the physical dimensions of my bag, body and bed were fixed and I seemed to have tried the different combinations involving the length and width of the bed. What i realized i hadn't yet considered was using the height of my space.

Pros: Can utilize the full width and length of the bed

Cons: The bag is quite thick and heavy and once the bag was placed on top of me, it ended up being quite unstable. With the center of mass so high off the bed it would only be a matter of time before the bag fell off of me onto the floor once i fell sleep... and that would be bad because 1) security, and 2) it might injure the person below me. I tried to remedy this situation by using the belt strap as before to strap the bag to me. However i found the weight of the bag to be so much that if the bag fell, the belt strap would only serve to drag me with the bag into an awful tumble several feet down, or at worse drag me straight into the support chains that would prevent my fall.

Other Considerations: By this point I had thought of other possible configurations but dismissed them without trying them because of obvious flaws

-Bag at feet: This seemed like a good way to utilize the excess of space I had around my feet by storing the bag at the foot of my bed. This, however, puts the bag right next to the isle where someone could easily go through my stuff.

-Reverse bag at feet: By reversing my head position to the isle side, I can safely put my bag by my feet and still have it protected. Unfortunately having my head right next to the isle exposes me to lights that are turned on there, the random conversations that were going on, and the indelible aromas wafting from the bathroom several yards away.

At this point I was ready to go back to my initial "Headboard" configuration. I figured it was still the best compromise between comfort and security among all the options I tried or considered.
Try and think what other options you might have tried or what you thought was the best. Stay tuned to see my final solution.

Wrapping up Bangalore (updated)

Last night i got a taste of Bangalore night life with Sach. We first went to this local's rooftop bar that overlooks a major intersection and had some of the local brew. After this place Sach took me to a lounge where all the asians in the area go to. haha I had no idea there were so many asians in Bangalore. The music was an interesting mix of of pop, hiphop/R&B, house, reggae, and Indian. Overall I had a blast and definitely glad I ran into Sach at the cafe.

Tonight I'll be heading to Chennai on an overnight train. Time to experience authentic travel in India.

update:


With a couple hours left before my train to Chennai i headed over to UBcity, an upscale shopping center in bangalore. To my surprise, this place was actually really nice. All the typical high end designers were there: LV, Burberry, Mont Blanc, etc. Up on the roof was an ourdoor pavilion food court with lots of nice restaurants. The place I ended up eating is an all you can eat restaurant where basically you have a plate full of tons of small bowls filled with different dahls, curries and sauces, and people come around and constantly give you different breads, rice, and refills on your little bowls. Before you eat, this dude comes with a pot of warm water to wash your hands. Overall the food was fantastic, so much so that I totally forgot it was an entirely vegetarian meal and was a good fill up before my trainride to Chennai.

I've met my new best friend in Bangalore

Meet Sach. He is my new best friend here in Bangalore. More on him later.

After researching yesterday how complicated train travel in India can be i decided I needed to figure out how i was gonna make my flight in Chennai ASAP. I took a rickshaw to the train station and was a bit overwhelmed.



Its crazy busy and crowded and took me a bit to get my bearings. Eventually I figured out where i can make a reservation on a sleeper car to Chennai. Fortunately, several seats on each trail are reserved for foreigners and I was able to get a spot on a train tomorrow night with no hassle. Apparently for Indians, its wise to book trains 2-3 months in advance. As i left the train station i saw a cart of street food and figured i could start being adventureous with my food options. I dunno what this is called, but it was some sort of spongy pancake with some sauce on top.


















After breakfast I headed to Cubbon Park, which is similar to Central Park in that its a pretty large public park in the middle of a busy city. The couples wandering around and lounging on the massive boulders made it even more reminiscent of Central Park. A couple of key differences however. The first thing that struck me is how "jungle-y" this place is. I can totally see this place before it became a big city as he backdrop of a Rudyard Kipling story. All the trees are huge and have a dark green color. There are also eagles and monkeys just roaming around. The weather by the way has been perfect. Its cool, around 60s in the morning, and probably peaks in the mid afternoon in the high 80s. Every day has been clear and sunny. Eventually after wandering through the park I find a Science Museum. I go in to check it out but its pretty much the jankiest science museum i've ever seen. So much so that I dont even bother to take a picture of anything. haha call me a science museum snob i guess.

I head back to my favorite cafe and there I meet a guy who at first helps me find a plug for my laptop, but later hooks me up with his 3G usb stick (since the internet isnt working at the cafe), gives me a couple pointers for places to check out in Bangalore before I leave, and offers to help me acquire a SIM for my phone. This guy is seriously the most awesome dude I've met on my travels. Oh yea, hes also in NYC right now so we can hang out after India!

Anyway, we're headed off for some lunch and then some more fun activities.