Ian and Nisha's Asian Adventure

New Tea Estate Photos

2011-06-23T13:20:00.002-04:00

Since we went to the Tea Estate many years ago, Nisha's brother Mike has gone to another similar estate. Since he is a real photographer he has some amazing photos you should check out.

Thai Train Guide

2008-02-13T07:31:00.005-05:00

Hopefully my Indian Train Guide will be useful to other travelers, I noticed that it is already #2 on google, so it is pretty easy to find. With that in mind, I figured I might share some wisdom about long distance transport in Thailand, where the bus and train are both important. This is a little better documented in Lonely Planet, but I still feel like more information is better, I certainly would have liked to have access to more before I left. Anyway, here is my Thai Train Guide, the Bus Guide will be later.

THAI TRAINS

CLASSES

We took two classes. We only took two trains, both overnight, so I cannot vouch for how the regular chair classes would be during the day, or at night. The two classes we took were both quite nice. One thing is that Thailand works on a narrow gauge rail system, so all cars a quite a bit narrower then in India, or on most train systems, the configurations reflect that.

1st Class Sleeper

In this class you get your own private room with 2 bunk beds. Although the privacy is nice, this is not the orient express or anything like that. The rail cars were clean enough, but not immaculate, and the room is pretty small. Everyone on our car to Chiang Mai was a tourist, including some drunken brits who brought a bucket full of beer (they were actually not particularly loud or anything). One nice thing about Thai Railways is that they make up your bed for you. Around bed time in the evening the conductor will start working the hallway asking if you want your beds made for the night. When you grab him he will convert your room from daytime configuration to bunk beds and make your bed with clean sheets, very nice. In the morning they convert your room back to daytime configuration.

Another consideration is that, as opposed to some train systems, 1st class is only 50% or so more then 2nd class, rather then 100% or so as you sometimes see on other rail systems. I still think 2nd class is a much better deal, but if you have to take 1st class it is not a killer.

2nd Class Sleeper

This is very nice as well, better then anything, except maybe 1st class, in India. It is a setup where on each side of the aisle of the car there are two single seats that face each other with a table in the middle, in daytime configuration. At night it turns into bunks, two high where the two seats are. The nice thing is that each bed is almost like a little pod, with a nice large mattress and a private curtain. This would be a much nicer setup for a solo traveler then in India. As with 1st Class, they come and make your bed at night and take your bed apart in the morning. On our train from Chiang Mai the vast majority of people in this class were also tourists.

FINDING YOUR TRAIN

This is a whole lot easier then India, there are only 4 main lines and they all radiate from Bangkok. The railway website has all the information you need. The only thing that I would keep in mind is that a few of the trains are Rapid (RAP) or Ordinary (ORD), I am pretty sure that these do not have sleeper cars. The ones most tourists take are the overnight trains that go to Chiang Mai and to the beach areas down south. These are the Express (EXP) and Special Express (SP EXP) trains, that have numbers less then 100.

BUYING A TICKET

This is the thing that is a pain in Thailand. The trains seem to book up very early, so you need to try to get a ticket as far ahead of time as you can. I was able to buy a ticket one day ahead of time to Chiang Mai, but there was no 2nd class left and I got the last 1st class on any of the evening trains that night. Going back to Bangkok, I was several days ahead of time, but there were still only a couple of 2nd class berths on one train.

As far as where to buy the ticket, this seems pretty easy. On the way to Chiang Mai I just went to the station in Ayutthaya (a little north of Bangkok, where we were leaving from). There was a desk in the station for advance tickets with a very nice guy who sold me the tickets. In Chiang Mai I used a travel agent. This worked fine as well, I got legit tickets for only a small fee. The nice thing about this is that quite a few of the Thai train stations are not in the middle of town, so it can be a lot easier not to have to take a tuk-tuk all the way out to the train station just to get the ticket.

AT THE STATION

Our experience at the train station was very easy. The stations are not that big and there was plenty of signage and information as to where the trains are and when they are expected to arrive or leave. You do not need to show any tickets to get on the platform, they are checked on the train. They did not have much in the way of concessions at the train stations I was at. At least there were generally some food stalls and convenience store nearby. You do not really need any food for the train, since they have plenty of stuff to sell. Keep in mind however that the food on the train is quite expensive (by Thai standards), so if you are a budget traveler it is quite a bit cheaper to bring something with you from the stalls or the convenience store.

ON THE TRAIN

As I explained before, the attendants are quite attentive and make your bed in the evening and take it apart in the morning. Other then that things are pretty obvious. They do also have a person who works for the catering service who roams the train in the evening, selling dinner (if the train leaves before dinner time), beer and taking orders for breakfast the next morning. The food is OK, nothing special, but acceptable. The problem is that it is very expensive. My recollection is that a meal is around 200 Baht and a beer was more then 100 Baht, which is quite exorbitant in Thailand. After I found this out I brought a collection of convenience store and stall food and drinks on the train, saving quite a bit of money in the process.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

One thing I wanted to mention, as it worked out quite well for us, is that there is a station next to the old Don Muang airport North of Bangkok. This is nice because we were able to hook up a trip where we traveled all the way from Chaing Mai to Surat Thani leaving in the evening and arriving before lunch the next day, without having to buy two plane tickets, or pay the expensive fares for the direct flight. It was quite easy to get the evening train from Chiang Mai, get off at Don Muang, walk the 20 minutes over to the one terminal of the airport that is still open, and catch a morning flight to southern Thailand. A good way to go, and saves a night in a hotel. The walk to the terminal is kind of freaky however, since the part of the airport near the station is closed down, just walk about 20 minutes south along the old airport terminal buildings and you will reach the open domestic terminal.

Indian Train Guide

2008-02-09T19:21:00.002-05:00

Before we left for India we knew that we would need to take the train as one of our major forms of transportation. However, despite reading up on the way the system works in the Lonely Planet and on the Internet, I found that I still had to figure out a lot of how to work the system on the way. With that in mind I offer my guide to how to take the train in India. I obviously do not guarantee any information to be current or correct, but if you are planning on going to India I think that this post will be very useful. Also, this guide that already exists is the best one available, so I would recommend reading it as well.

INTRODUCTION

If you are travelling in India you really owe it to yourself to take the train at least once. It is crowded, the trains are often late and it is very confusing, but it is also the quintessential Indian travel experience. It is how most Indians get around the country, and is a good way to experience everyday life. It is also vastly superior to any form of road transportation, bus or even private car. A car may be slightly more comfortable, but the bumps, curves and hair raising driving conditions make the ride a lot less relaxing. A flight is better, but taking the overnight trains is a great way to save money on hotel rooms and quite a bit cheaper.

CLASSES

There is really only 4 classes that you need to be concerned with on Indian Railways.

AC Chair Car - This exists only Shatabi Express day trains. It is the standard recline chair setup that you are used to on Amtrak or any European train. This is the only class where free food is served.

2AC or 2 Tier Air Con - This is the one that most people should take. It has air conditioned cars (sometimes a little too air conditioned), and is relatively clean (keep in mind this is India however). The car is separated into 6 bunk sections, 2 of the beds are on one side of the train, one above the other, lying parallel to the direction of the train. Then there is the hallway, then there is an area with 4 bunks, one on top of the other, on opposite walls, lying perpendicular to the train. At night curtains separate the 2 beds on the side from the hallway and the 4 beds from the hallway. During the day the bottom beds are used as seats for the 2 people in the bunks on that wall. Linens are provided, but you make the beds. Your cabin mates will be middle class Indian businessman types and some western travellers, depending on what the route is. We travelled this class on all overnight trains and we always got a very good nights sleep. The prime berths are the bottom bunks not on the side. The side bunks may also be good if you are travelling solo, as you have complete privacy when the curtains are drawn, rather then sharing the area behind the curtain with the other 3 people on the wider side.

3AC or 3 Tier Air Con - Same as 2AC but with 6 beds where there are 4 on the wide side. The beds are 3 layer bunks rather then two. We never travelled in this class, because it was not that much cheaper then 2AC, but it seemed like it would be fine as well.

Sleeper - Same setup as 3AC but with no AC. Dirtier cars as well. This has the open barred windows that you have probably seen in classic Indian train photos. We took this a lot during the day, as it was never crowded during the day and the fresh air can be quite pleasant. It is also much cheaper, so why not save money during the day.

SCHEDULES AND AVAILABILITY

One of the hardest things to do in the Indian train system is figure out what train to take. There is no Internet application that figures out the most efficient route, including transfers, from one place to another. Rather, the Indian Railways site will only tell you if a train exists from one distinct station to another. This is really not as big a deal as you would think, since it would be very difficult to ever pull off an Indian railways journey with transfers. For most people there will always be a train that goes from any common origin to the next logical destination. If it is a place where there is no train, then you might need to take a bus. Another good way of figuring out where you might need to route your trip through is to look at a map, like in Lonely Planet, that has the railway routes on it. By looking at where the railways go you can figure out where you would probably have to connect.

The most impotent resource for finding your train is the Indian Railways website, it is very poorly designed, but does have a lot of useful info on it. There are two primary sections of interest both accessible from clicking on the top, "Trains between imp. stations", which has drop down boxes of all major stations (FYI. there is no station for Goa it is called Madgoan), and "Train/Fare Accommodation", which can look up any station in the Indian Railways network. On this page first you type in part of the station name, and then you will get drop down boxes of stations that match what you put in. The resulting information is the same, it is just easier to use the first if you are going to be using major stations. Please note that some cities have many major stations, so if there is no train between two places that obviously should have one, look for another station in the same city. Such as, if you put in New Delhi and Agra City you will get no trains, that is because the main station in Agra is called Agra Cantonment (AGRA CANTT). Sometimes you may have to refer to the Lonely Planet, since that is the only place you are going to find out things like that the main train station in Kolkata is called Howrah.

Once you have found your two stations, you pick your class and day and hit the button. The class is not totally impotent, I usually pick 2AC for a night train and sleeper for a day train. They show you a lot of the other classes too, so you do not necessarily have to pick the class you want. The next page shows the trains that run on the day you want to go. In order to find out how many seats are on any given train, click the radio button next to it and hit the "Get Availability" button. The screen you get show the availability in the class you selected earlier (as well as one class down) for the 6 days starting on the day you picked.

Now we get to the tricky subject of the different types of availability. In my experience there were 3 different statuses that a train would be in:

AVAILABLE - Obviously this is the best, it means there are seats still available. If you go to an advance ticket window they should be able to give you a ticket with a seat number on it.

RAC - Reservations Against Cancellations - I was never completely clear about this, but my understanding it that it means that they cannot give you an actual seat at this time, but you will have a seat on the train.

WL - Waitlist - This means that there are not enough seats right now, and you are buying a seat betting that others will cancel. This sounds really bad, but for some reason, there are always a lot of cancellations on an Indian train. I was told by several locals and family members that a number less then 10 in 2AC means that you are pretty much certain to get a seat. I would assume that number would be quite a bit higher in a class like sleeper, since there are a lot more cars and seats in sleeper then in 2 or 3 AC. We never had a WL ticket not work out, but according to the sign on the wall in the station you should be able to return your WL ticket, if a seat did not open up, and get your money back.

Little sidebar here...

If you do buy a RAC or Waitlist ticket there are two ways that you can find out what seat you are assigned to, or if you have a seat at all. The first is to go to the Indian Railways website and click on the link at the top that says "Passenger/PNR Status". On the resulting screen enter in the PNR number that is printed on the top of your ticket. The website will show you the current status of your ticket and your seat, if you have moved up on the list enough to get one. The second method is more basic. When you go to the train station there will be big dot matrix passenger manifests for every train tacked to a big board, usually around track 1. Look on these sheet for your train and class and you should find your name, and the name of everyone else on the train with a seat. This is the final authority on where you are sitting. They also sometimes stick these sheets to the side of the actual rail car and the conductor will always have a copy, which is what he uses to figure out what seats are empty.

Sidebar over, back to the website.

One additional important thing to use in this section of the website. Please note on the screen where you pick your train there is a box that says "General Quota". When you search under the General Quota you are looking at the seats that anyone can buy, you should run your search this way first. Luckily for non-Indians there is also a "Foreign Tourist Quota". These are seats that are only sold to people who have a foreign passport and are on a tourist visa (although probably any westerner will have no problem getting a ticket). In order to search for these change that box to "Foreign Tourist Quota" before you click "Get Availability".

I know these tickets sound great, but as with all things Indian, there is a catch. First of all, there are not foreign tourist tickets on all trains, only ones between major tourist destinations. Second, as near as I could tell, you can only buy these tickets at the special places for foreign tourists to buy tickets that exist at major (like Delhi, Mumbai, etc.) stations. The lonely planet can help you out if you want to find out if there is a special foreign ticket area in the city you are in. Basically, don't expect to just stroll up to a window at any one horse town along the line and be able to purchase a foreign tourist ticket. Also, the foreign tourist windows sell regular tickets as well, so even if there are only regular tickets and not foreign tourist tickets you can still go to the foreign tourist area.

One other scam to note here, which I saw only in Delhi, was that we were trying to walk into the train station to get to the foreign tourist ticket area and a man stuck his arm in front of me and asked for my ticket. He then tried to convince me that I needed a ticket to get in the station, and to go with him to an office (certainly his friends) to buy one. This is just a scam, there is no area of an Indian train station that you need a ticket to access, and most tickets are sold inside. The only place that anyone legitimate will ask to see you ticket is on the train.

BUYING A TICKET

Now that you have figured out what trains you are interested in, and if there are seats remaining (or a reasonable number on the waitlist) it is time to buy your ticket. For clarity sake I will separate this in to two sections, advance and day of tickets, as they are two very different systems.

Advance Tickets:

The line is a little uncertain to me, but supposedly as long as your are 24 hours before the train leaves you can buy an advance ticket. If you are in a big tourist destination, then your best move is to go to the foreign tourist area to buy tickets. The Lonely Planet can tell you where this is. I went to two of these, the one at New Delhi station is upstairs in a large office. In Mumbai CST (formerly Victora) it is a special window in the upstairs ticket window area. They have some system in Mumbai where an unruly mob of people get numbers for the windows upstairs in a chaotic pen downstairs, but if you are a tourist, just go upstairs, you just queue up at the window. These are the best places to buy tickets because the people who work there speak English and they sell foreign tourist tickets (if available).

If you are in a city, or major population center, that does not have a special foreign tourist area, then they will at least usually have a designated advance ticket area that is used by the locals as well. Once again, Lonely Planet can tell you where this is. Also, for those in Goa, there is one of these offices in the main bus terminal in Panjim, which is convenient since the train does not run by the coast. From my experience these windows usually have a system where you get a number and then they call you to a window, so it is not a total madhouse from a queueing prospective. These are OK, they just might now speak as good English, and as far as I know they cannot sell foreign tourist tickets.

I never had to do this, but if you are in a out of the way place, that does not have any of the above mentioned offices, then I am pretty sure that you just head up to the regular ticket window. There has to be some system to buy advance tickets in these places, so I assume this is it. Every time I bought tickets from the regular window it was on the day of the train, which is a different deal.

Another, quite reasonable, option is to pay someone else to do the leg work for you. Most backpacker type hotels and travel offices should be able to get a train ticket for you, probably for a 50 or so rupee surcharge. One catch is they will not be able to get you foreign tourist tickets. We did this once and it worked out fine. One caveat I would add is that it might be a better idea to do once you know what a real Indian train ticket looks like, so you might want to think about buying your own first. If you have not already seen one, they are printed on a dot-matrix printer on thin 1980's line feed computer paper forms and are about 8 inches by 3 inches. I would look at anything else with suspicion.

Day of Train Tickets:

If you cannot get tickets ahead of time for the train, you can get tickets at the regular window the day of the train. The thing about this is that you cannot get a seat reservation the day of the train.

The reason for this seemed to be that while the train is still more then a day in the future, the seat reservations are managed by the computer system and thus can be given out to people who want tickets. On the day that the train is leaving they print up these big passenger manifests that have the names of everyone on the train, as well as assigning all the people in RAC and Waitlist statuses to a seat, if they have one. Once these lists are printed up they are posted at all the train stations, as well as one that the train conductor maintains as a master copy, where he can move around people or put people in different classes as he sees fit. Thus, after these manifests are printed there are no more seat reservations.

We had two different experiences buying day of train tickets. Several times we took trains for a fairly short (less then 5 hour) ride in the middle of the day. When doing this I just went to the regular window and asked for a sleeper ticket to my destination (I was told I could not buy a ticket for any class higher at that time). They handed me a little printed chit that had the two station names on it, but no specific train or seat. So, when the train arrived we just hopped on and took a seat in a sleeper car. The thing is that the sleeper cars in the middle of the day were always nearly empty, I assume because most Indians do not want to pay for the relative luxury of sleeper during the day when they could travel in a lower class. So, we just gabbed an empty seat, the conductor came to take our ticket and everything was fine. Also, sleeper is perfectly comfortable in the middle of the day, all the windows are open so there is plenty of air.

One other time we had to take a night train from Varkala to Chennai without reservations. Before we went to the station I checked the loads on the Internet and found that there were two trains, one left 2 hours earlier, but had tones of extra space in 2AC. The later train was full. With this information, we decided to take the earlier train, and attempt to upgrade on the train. This time at the station I was told that I could only by unreserved 2nd class tickets (the lowest class). I think the reason I was not able to by sleeper at the window like before was probably due to it being an overnight train. So, we just got on the train and sat in 2 empty seats in 2AC. When the conductor came by we asked if there was room in 2AC, which there was, so he just took the difference in the fares (it cost 1000 rupees more a piece to go from 2nd class to 2AC, but believe me it is worth it) and assigned us seats in 2AC. So, the moral of the story is that it is possible to upgrade on the train, but you are probably best off making sure that there are plenty of extra seats, unless you are happy squeezed in the lowest possible class on an Indian train.

Also, keep in mind that if you do buy day of tickets you will have to deal with an Indian ticket queue. These things are a full contact sport, so don't go in without the right attitude. People will press up against you in ways that are pretty uncomfortable for a foreigner, you just need to get used to the fact that being in constant physical contact with other, often sweaty, people in a queue is the norm in India. Also, when you get up to the window people will try to reach around you with their money and hand it to the agent. Use your large western body and elbows to shield the area in front of the window, and have enough rupees in your hand so you can quickly shove them in front of the person who sells the tickets.

GOING TO THE STATION AND GETTING ON THE TRAIN

So now comes the big day and you are ready to get on the train. An Indian train station is an experience like few others. They are dirty, chaotic, confusing and often full of people who want your money (especially in big tourist areas). The layout is usually the same everywhere. There is a building with a central lobby where they sell tickets, and sometimes have some food vendors. Then there will be between 2 and 15 tracks (depending on if you are in a big city or a small town). There will be island platforms off in the middle of the tracks that are connected to the main building via a tunnel, or usually a footbridge (which only about half the locals use, the others just run across the tracks).

When you arrive the first thing you will see in a main station is usually hundreds to thousands of people sleeping on the floor of the lobby and sometimes out in the street in front of the station. These people are changing trains and have to kill many hours at the station, no big deal, there is always a pathway through them to the tracks.

In big stations they will usually have digital boards in some degree where you can look to find out on what track your train arrives. If these are available, try to find out what track you need to go to. The thing is that often the boards are broken, or if it is a small station they do not exist. If it is a small station then it is no big deal, usually there will just be one track running in either direction. In this case just ask around as to which side the train is going to show up, or if your train is in the near future and there is a big crowd on only one side, that is probably the side you want to be on.

When the boards are not working at a big station things are a little more complicated. They do generally have announcements in English on the speakers when the train is pulling in to the station, so that is one way of figuring it out. This may sound crazy, but if all else fails you can just pick a platform and wait on it, then carefully look at the placards that are on the side of the train as each one pulls into the station. What happens if the train pulls into a different platform then you are on, you might ask. Well, keep in mind that an Indian train pulls into and out of a station like a ship pulls into a dock. It is not like Japan where the train pulls up, the doors automatically open and you have 1 minute to get on. First of all, in India the doors are open on the train the entire time, even when it is moving. Also, trains usually stop for at least 5 minutes, sometimes much longer, up to 20 minutes. So, if you see your train at a different platform just hustle over there using the bridge or tunnel and you should be fine. Also, even when the digital board has the track number on it, you really should keep your head up and watch where the crowds are in the station and what trains are pulling in. It certainly would not be out of the ordinary for a sign in India to be wrong. If you ever find yourself waiting alone on a platform for an overnight train at a major station, you are probably in the wrong place, and should try to figure out where to go.

If there are digital signs you also might be able to see when the train is expected to arrive. Trains are almost always late, sometimes by as much as several hours. If there are no digital signs then there may be a chalkboard or some other means of telling you when the trains are expected to arrive.

So, now that you have found your platform the only thing left to do is wait. Now is usually also a good time to stock up on snacks and water bottles from the vendors in the station. You especially may want to get some water as it can sometimes be hard to come by on the train. Another thing is that you may get bothered by occasional beggars in the station. This is one of the few times that I recommend just giving them 5-10 rupees or whatever you think it will take to get them to leave. Unlike most situations where you can just keep on walking, you have to wait in the train station, and since they know this they will be very persistent.

One other note is regarding ticket scams. We never had any big problem with this, but just to reiterate from above. The only person who you need to show your ticket to is the uniformed Indian Railways conductor on the train. I would be very, very suspicious of anyone who asks to see your ticket in the station, as this is not something that is done, as far as I know. Also, all Indian Railways personnel wear a uniform, so do not show your ticket to anyone who does not. If for some reason you feel compelled to show your ticket to someone, I would not hand it to them, just hold on to in yourself and show it to them.

ON THE TRAIN

This part is pretty simple. You just sit in your seat, or go to bed, and watch the world go by. Often your fellow travelers will be pretty friendly, and talking to them is a great way to meet some everyday people. As far as security, the good classes of trains seem very safe, although most people chain their bag to something when they go to sleep. We used a bike cable lock for this and never had any problems.

As far as food goes, sometimes there is way too much of it offered, sometimes not enough. Guys basically just walk down the ailes and sell stuff, which can get annoying when there are too many of them, but that is part of the charm. Tea and coffee guys are always around, and there will be an occasional guy with water bottles. Usually around meal times they do come around with some small food items, aloo paratha and such. Occasionally, especially when we got on a train that originated before dinner a person would come around and ask if you wanted dinner, then return with some food later.

The thing about the food and the water is that it pays to make sure you have enough food and water to go the entire trip if you really need to. We learned this lesson when we got on a train midway down the line at around 9 PM at night. Basically all the food guys were done for the night, so we did not get anything, and had to eat glucose biscuits for dinner. Also, we never had any problem with food sickness from the train food or the platform food, but it is generally prepared with the same level of cleanliness as most Indian fast food, so you may want to be careful if you just arrived.

One other approach for getting food and drinks, which I have done many times but cannot wholeheartedly recommend is running off the train during a stop. As I said before, Indian trains generally stop of quite a while at the station, so there is theoretically enough time to run off and grab drinks or pre-made food. You can generally figure out when the train is leaving the station because they blow the whistle right before the leave, and you can watch the conductors, who usually hang out on the platform during the stop. When the conductors start moving back to the train, you need too as well. Since the doors are always open on Indian trains you probably could get on the train, wild west style, after it starts moving, but I never waited that long.

The open doors are also nice for another reason. On a long trip, when you want to stand and get some fresh air, it can be pretty nice to hang out by the open door and watch the world go by. You can even hang out the side a bit and see where you are going, but just look carefully and stick your head out a bit at a time to make sure you don't get hit by a pole or anything.

GETTING OFF

This can be more challenging then you think. Often when you arrive at a stop there is no sign saying what stop it is right out the window. Obviously one thing to do is to stop out of the train and look down the platform, then you can usually see a sign. Another thing is to ask other people, but be sure if you do this you ask "what stop is this?". If you ask "is this .....?" people will almost always say yes, even if they do not understand you. Another good thing to do is write down or print out the schedule for the train that you can get from the website. That way you will have an idea of what the stops are leading up to yours.

So, there you have it, my brain-dump of how to ride the Indian train, and as the say on the top of the tickets, Happy Journey!

Cruising Halong Bay

2008-02-01T15:00:00.000-05:00

This has been in the works for the last month:

Ian and I despise tours. You and 10 - 50 some odd people pile onto a bus made for tiny-framed Asians. You are driven around terrible roads for hours until you arrive at an attraction. After disembarking the bus, you have 15 minutes to see it before you get back on to be taken to the next sight. If you are lucky, you get no food. The less lucky are taken to restaurants making food the locals wouldn't feeds to their dogs. All tours stop at the tourist trap retail "wholesale-for-you-only" store for at least an hour.

Why then did we deliver ourselves and money into the hands of a tour guide for a 3 day 2 night tour of Halong Bay? Partly because to see the area, which is 150 km from Hanoi, on your own requires such planning and time that even Lonely Planet suggests you take a tour. We went with Handspan, a Vietnamese owned well respected tour company.

After a 3 hour bus ride, Peter, Ian, and I board our junk in Halong City. Over the ensuing 72 hours, we fraternized with our fellow shipmates - a fun mix of 9 other tourists from Canada, NZ, Australia, and Ireland. Cruising around Halong Bay is of course stunning, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We visited the Amazing Cave (actual name) which was quite touristy with lights and walkways. This was fine for me. Spelunking with minimal equipment is something I have already done in Hungary, and would like not to do again. The famous fog over Halong Bay made for an incredible sunset, competing with the group jumps off the upper deck of the boat. We spent the evening playing drinking games (such has Jenga on a rocking boat!) with some horrid rice whisky that smelled like rubbing alcohol. After 3 hours of playing, the majority of us were completely wasted, and I sneaked away never having lost and therefore never having to imbibe the Vietnamese rocket fuel.

The next day was a rare perfect sunny warm day in Halong Bay. We spent the time kayaking around a few of the thousands of coves and lagoons. Sprinkled all around the bay are floating fishing villages. These villages are made up of small wooden houses mounted on styrofoam or air filled tubes. Most have fish farms below or aside the houses. There is even a school. Some people have generators and pet dogs. We were awoken at 8 AM on the boat by some breakfast time karaoke in one of the floating houses. I though a cat was being killed.

After a perfect day of kayaking, we were then dropped off in a fishing village on Cat Ba Island and taken to the Sunrise Resort. I had not expected such a classy resort as part of an organized tour. We spent the night drinking bia hoy (fresh beer) with the Aussies. It was too cold for the beach or pool, but perfect for a Vietnamese massage (by the way, these are much better than the Thai massages. I don't feel like I am being tenderized).

Overall an extremely amazing tour. Highly recommended. Tours aren't now totally forbidden in my book. You just have to pick them well and add plenty of Vietnamese rice whisky.

~ Nisha

Saving the Best for Last

2008-01-02T22:31:00.000-05:00

Hong Kong was obviously our last destination, and I have to say, that it was probably my favorite big city that we visited the whole trip. It is a really incredible mix of east and west, a efficiently run place with perfect subways and clean sidewalks, but also a place where you can get cheap Chinese food on a plastic table late into the night.

I covered most of our first several days in Hong Kong in this post, but I just wanted to talk about our last day in Hong Kong, where we decided to go check out the Hong Kong countryside.

One of the most unique and cool things about Hong Kong is the amount of nature that surrounds the city. My first taste of this was the Bowen Rd. path on Hong Kong Island. I like to get out and do some running in every place we visit, and thus I was pleasantly surprised that the Conrad Hotel had a little laminated card in the desk that gave you directions for how to get to Bowen Rd., which they billed as one of the most popular places to run in Hong Kong. As I found out quickly the first night when Pete and I ran up there, running in Hong Kong is great for those who like hills. We ran up probably around 400 feet of elevation in a half mile to get to Bowen Rd. Once you get there however, you are rewarded with the best running paths I have ever seen. Bowen Rd. clings to the side of a steep mountain, with constant views of the Hong Kong Island skyline. There are a whole bunch of other paths and lightly used roads up on the ridge as well. On one day I ran for 1:15 and made it quite a way up the top of the ridge towards The Peak.

We also spent a nice time up at the Peak after dinner one night, taking the tram up to The Peak and walking around the paths that circle the top. Looking down on Hong Kong Island on a cool night drinking beers from a backpack has to be one of the more atmospheric ways to spend an evening.

Anyway, our travels into Hong Kong nature culminated with our trip to the "Big Buddha" (officially called the Tain Tan Buddha) high on Lantau Island, an island of similar size to Hong Kong which is a 30 minute subway ride away and also houses the airport. Lantau is pretty lightly populated, by Hong Kong standards. Most of the inside of the island is a big forested park and there are just a few population centers around the outside of the island.

We arrived at one of these centers at the end of the subway, it consisted of around ten large (probably 40 stories) and new apartment buildings around a small mall. There is a 5 mile long gondola that normally takes you up to the big Buddha in a few minutes, however, evidently a gondola fell off a few months ago during maintenance, so the gondola is out of commission. So, on to the bus we went. The problem is that there is no road directly to the Buddha, so this bus takes you all the way around the mountain on a narrow road that is under construction, for a trip of about an hour. It was easy to tell who the veteran travelers were in our group as we were all sitting in a three across seat, Nisha asleep, me relaxing and looking out the window and Pete getting aggravated trying to figure out why the bus was taking so long.

We get off the bus to a rather uncrowded parking lot and the Big Buddha looming over us on the top of a small hill rising over the ridge. You can go up the steps to the Buddha for free, but it costs 80 HKD for the combination of the museum inside the Buddha as well as a vegetarian lunch. The Buddha itself is quite nice, he is a very peaceful and calming image, with only the sky as his backdrop. The views from up on the ridge are obviously quite impressive as well.

The vegetarian lunch was actually a very good deal. The food is served in a big Chinese dining hall in the monastery below the Buddha. It is all set menu, you just grab a seat and they bring 5 big bowls of vegetarian food and rice to your table. The food is actually quite good, and the portions are huge.

To get back to the subway, I looked at some maps and it appeared that we could get there with a 1 1/2 hour downhill walk. Comparing this to the 1 hour bus ride the choice was pretty obvious. The walk was very nice, kind of strange since you are basically on a paved sidewalk out in the middle of the woods. The views of the airport and the cluster of apartment towers around the subway station was quite a contrast to the undeveloped hills.

After walking by a few small monasteries and a few random houses out in the woods we finally got to the cluster of buildings. It is very abrupt, one minute you are walking through a field, then the next your are among the towering buildings. There were actually two groups, one a little older with about 15 buildings and the newer cluster right next to the subway. These had this strange kind of perfect/imperfect ideal society thing going on. It was kind of the perfect efficient socialist development, there are no cars and just some pedestrian courtyards surrounding grocery stores and shopping in the middle of the complex. It was quite bustling and everyone there looked pretty happy, but is certainly is depressing for me to think of living in Unit 1634 of Building E of the XYZ complex. Hard to think of yourself as anything other then just another bee in the hive. On the bright side, the new mall next to subway station had a nice little patio bar that had specials on giant Hoegaarden beers, perfect refreshment after a long day in the hills.

War From the Other Side - Vietnam

2007-12-23T08:19:00.000-05:00

As I posted earlier from Japan, seeing a counties war sites and museums is certainly a interesting experience when your country was the adversary. However, the surreal level really cranks up when the war in question is viewed by the other country as their glorious and successful revolution, rather then a unfortunate mistake in the past. We went to three major war sites in the Saigon area:

Reunification Palace - Saigon

This building in Saigon was the seat of the South Vietnamese government and was where the North's victory was made official in 1975. The war ended when North Vietnamese tanks smashed through the gates and then troops demanded the surrender of the president of South Vietnam. Interestingly, the president was not Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, the leader for most of the war, but Dương Văn Minh, a poor sap who was handed power 48 hours before the tanks rolled through the gate.

The building is a piece of 60's architecture that would look at home on most US college campuses. It would be the semi-modern building that would look out of place and everyone would hate. It is only as old as 1966 because the original was bombed by the South Vietnamese (you read this correctly) Air Force in an assassination attempt of the unpopular president, Diem.

From an architectural standpoint is does improve once inside, where there are large open foyers that actually give the building a very open feel. The stuff on the main floors is mainly the official presidential offices and meeting rooms for foreign dignitaries. The main thing that struck me about this area is the chincyness of the whole place. It is trying to be fancy in a Chinatown restaurant kind of way and does not look like a place of any real power or history. Disturbingly it pretty much looks like the seat of a low budget government, which is pretty much what it was.

In the upper floors of the building is the presidents residence, which is quite modest with the exception of a collection of stuffed elephant's feet. Also on the top levels is a small movie theater with vintage projection equipment and a helipad with a vintage US huey parked on it. There is also a lounge and game room that Austin Powers would be happy to have in his flat, for the use of top government officials.

Next you go to the basement where the command bunker facilities are. It is a really dank and almost claustrophobic place. There are seemingly endless rooms, all with gray painted concrete walls, that have crappy institutional desks and chairs, as well as vintage US radio equipment. You definitely get the feeling of how maddening it must be to command a country from such a dark and cut-off place.

For the last bit of the tour they drop you off at an area where they play a government produced video of the history of the building. The narrator was really hard to understand and we walked in at the end, so we only stayed for a few minutes. The only memorable part was the song they played during the video montage at the end. It had marching band type music as a background and then a choir singing "Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh..." over and over and over again.

War Reminence Museum - Saigon

This is the museum set up for the Vietnam War and the conflicts of that era. Evidently is used to be called "Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes", but was renamed to something a little more subtle when Vietnam reopened to the west.

The museum is three smallish halls surrounding a courtyard filled with captured American tanks, artillery and planes. The first hall was actually a very nice photo exhibit dedicated to news photographers who died in the war. It was actually sponsored by a bunch of western companies, I believe FedEx was one of them. This had a lot of great pictures from the photographers, most of which were published in magazines at the time, and often pictures of the photographers themselves before they died. The photos that I found most affecting were of a female war photographer who's name I cannot find. They had many of her photos as well as one of her in cammo garb. They also had a photo taken by another photographer of her being read the last rights as she lay dieing in a field of tall grass.

The second hall was mostly photos of terrible stuff that was done by the US in the war. Topics covered included My Lai, Agent Orange and the massacare that was admitted to by Bob Kerry in 2001, which I had actually never heard about. Of these the Agent Orange photos were quite disturbing, as well as a very grisly one I had never seen before of a Marine holding up the head and shoulders of a exploded corpse.

The third hall focused on the cruelty of the South Vietnamese regime as well as the French. For the South Vietnamese they had a waterboarding type of device as well as mock ups of the little cages that they used to keep political prisoners in on a deserted island. For the French they had one of their old Guillotines. It makes you jump about three feet back when you look though the little slit into the dark cage and find out there is a wax figure of a prisoner looking back at you. They should really put up a sign about that.

Chu Chi Tunnels - Chu Chi

There are several networks of tunnels that were built by the VC during the war, these are the most visited because they are right outside Saigon and have been set up into kind of a campy war tourist attraction.

Evidently this village of Chu Chi was a hotspot for the VC and war right near a big US military base. The VC in the area fought with the US for the length of the war by using a massive network of tunnels, a few of which have been enlarged for the viewing of tourists.

After buying your ticket, the first thing you do is go in a room where they show a propaganda video that was actually produced by the North Vietnamese during the war. It follows, in its own way, the story of the "Chu Chi Guerrillas". The movie starts with showing the peace loving villagers of Chu Chi tending to orchards and rice patties. Then the US starts bombing the village and kills many innocent people. The ingenious and determined Chu Chi Guerrillas then fight back the US with their network of tunnels, as well as hiding anti-tank mines in rice baskets and other guerrilla war tactics.

The strangest thing is the part where they follow one male and one female (who is quite attractive and made-up for a guerrilla fighter) member of the Chu Chi Guerrillas. They both win the "Killing Many Americans Award" (exact quote) for their mine planting and sniping abilities. I do not know if it is mainly just an issue with the translation of if that is actually the name of their medal of honor. Needless to say, I have never heard of a WWII medal called the "Killing Many Japanese Award".

After the video you get a free tour guide and they take you into the park. The first thing is an old entrance to a tunnel that is just a tiny hole in the ground. If you are skinny enough you can slide down into the hole, but not into the tunnel that leads away from it, and get your picture taken half in the ground. After that there are some bomb craters, a burned out US tank and many surface level bunkers with exhibits of how they were used to make weapons, treat the wounded or cook food. The kitchen is kind of neat because they have an underground chimney that lets the smoke out 20m away from the bunker. There is also a workshop where they make sandals out of old tires that were supposedly used by the VC in the war and were supposedly invented by Ho Chi Minh.

We declined the offer to go to the firing range where you can shoot an M-16 or AK-47 for one US dollar a bullet.

Our tour guide was a really nice and funny guy, but his habit of referring to US soldiers as "your army" made everything sound even more disturbing. When you are in the area where they have models of various sharpened bamboo traps he demonstrates each one by saying "your soldier step here then... whap!".

As for the tunnels themselves, you can walk about 200m through a tunnel that is only barely big enough to allow you to walk through bent over rather then on your hands and knees. There was a little bomb shelter room in the middle, but mostly it was just a tunnel. The air is really hot and stuffy and since only the guide has a flashlight, the person at the back walks mostly in the dark. It is a short experience, but the fact that people spent years living in this underground environment gives you an idea of how determined the VC was to win. The fact that after 5-10 minutes in there I was drenched in sweat also makes you appreciate how tough they were.

Conclusion

Let me start by saying that I in no way think that the Vietnam war sights are presented in any balanced way. The point of these places is to celebrate the glory of the current regime and they certainly in no way say anything about the ruthless tactics of the VC and NVA. However, the effect of these types of places, at least to me, is to emphasize how terrible war is, regardless of who is right and who is wrong.

It is also a little disappointing how few Americans are exposed to pictures of mangled corpses and deformed children that are the result of modern war. There is such an effort in our country, in newspapers, museums and on TV to shield us from any objects or images that disturb the myth of the glory of war. I would love to see someone build a place like this in DC. I don't think the effect of more exposure on people would be to make them never want to fight when it is necessary, but it may temper the belligerence that exists around how we need to bomb this country or that. It may also give people an idea of what it means to "Take the Gloves Off", which is too often floated as a solution when wars are not going well.

On a side note, as Japan made me want to do some more research into the endgame of WWII, Vietnam made me want to look more into the use of Agent Orange. I would be interested to know how the people who approved the use of a powerful chemical that killed all vegetation, and had effects on humans that were not fully understood at the time, would not be classified as war criminals under most accepted definitions. On one level it seems rather obvious that such a powerful chemical would have some adverse effects on humans. On another level, going on a focused campaign to destroy the natural environment of a country is not very ethical either. If we had sprayed Vietnam with a chemical that was designed to bring about chronic illness and birth defects that would be a war crime, correct? Ignorance of these obvious side effects does not seem to be a very compelling defence.

Home at Last

2007-12-23T08:11:00.000-05:00

After 5 months away we are finally back in the US. The flight was fine and was actually a piece of cake when you have the travel zen gained over many hours on Indian buses.

However, the blog is not over.

Because of issues with getting on the internet, as well as wanting to pack more activities into a short period of time, I left out a bunch of stuff from the end of the trip. So, stay tuned as I will be writing up the end of the trip as well as some overall thoughts and small travel guides over the next few weeks.

Last Quick Update?

2007-12-17T03:57:00.000-05:00

- Only one more day in Hong Kong, so this might be the last of the updates. I have mental notes on a bunch of things however, so I am probably going to write quite a bit when there is some Christmas down time in Baton Rouge.

- Hong Kong is great. Probably the most "international" city on earth. It is certainly Chinese, but the British influence is still very strong here. There seems to be a large Ex-Pat community in the mix as well. It is certainly as easy as anyplace we have been to get around with English here. Almost everyone seems to speak it quite fluently.

- Pete was nice enough to use hotel points to put us up in the Conrad Hotel for the first three days. Needless to say, staying in a high end hotel in Hong Kong is pretty nice. He also has a gold card so we got free breakfast and evening drinks, really great food as well.

- Speaking of great food, we have enjoyed a great Lunch and Dinner courtesy of our family friend Bob's sister Cecilia and her husband Hans. As usual with Asian cuisines they have meats and ingredients here that are just not available back home. The food was so good I even enjoyed eating a whole fish, which is pretty unbelievable for me.

- We had the latest night out of the entire trip in Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong's nightlife district. Great place where you can drink on the street and there are loads of bars. There was also a charity event going on where for 300 HKD (about $40) you got a Santa suit and 10 free drinks. As you can imagine this resulted in a whole street of drunk people in Santa suites, definitely a sight to see. If we had gotten there earlier, before we had a bunch of drinks ourselves, I would have thought about forking over the 300 HKD.

- Another strange thing. Often on this trip we have tried to avoid what we call "Human Zoos". By this we mean a tour where you go to see tribal people, boat people, etc., and seeing the people is really the only attraction. In Lan Kwai Fong there is a very mixed crowd of drunks, but a good amount are westerners. This results in quite a few rich Chinese and Japanese tourists walking down the street doing the human zoo tour of drunk westerners, snapping photos indiscriminately. Weird to be on the other side of the glass.

- The amount of money spent on luxury goods in this city is crazy. A Louis Vitton or Channel store is about as common as the Gap is in the US. It is kind of annoying because they do not really have regular shopping centers. A mall of the Copley Place quality is as low rent as it gets here. Evidently most of this consumption is fueled by mainland Chinese. Definitely boom times out here.

- The currency of Hong Kong is the Hong Kong Dollar. Interestingly it is issued by one of three private banks, Standard Chartered, HSBC or Bank of China. This makes it a little confusing because the notes from the three different banks all look different, but are the same basic color, based on the amount. There is something a little strange about money that is not issued by the government. I was thinking that if we had a similar system in the US banks would probably start printing the bills with "Free Checking", "New Low Rates on Home Equity Loans" or some other form of advertisement.

Back From Halong Bay

2007-12-14T10:30:00.002-05:00

We just got back from our tour and it was actually a great success.

The first day we spent on a nice cruise boat Junk kind of thing, had a good food and lots of drinks. The second day was two kayak sessions followed by a night at a really nice resort on Cat Ba Island. Third day was a half day at Cat Ba followed by the transport back to Hanoi.

As usual these days I do not have enough time to write a big post, but it really was an incredible natural environment. The giant floating villages were something very interesting as well.

Nisha is uploading some pictures right now and we are flying to Hong Kong tomorrow.

Perhaps I will have a little more time there to write.

Quick Update

2007-12-11T10:42:00.000-05:00

- We flew successfully up to Hanoi today and checked out the town. Very nice city, a lot different from Saigon since it is an older city with small little streets rather then wide boulivards. Still at lot of motorbikes however.

- Dispite our usual problems with orginized tours, we signed up for a 3 day trip to Halong Bay since it really seemed like the only practical way to do it. We will be on a boat the first night. The second will be on Cat Ba Island.

Quick Update

2007-12-09T20:33:00.000-05:00

Since Pete is now here we are a little more busy, so I might be in quick update mode for a while.

- Checked out the old South Vietnamese White House type building and the American War museum. Will probably write something serious about that later.

- Had a really full afternoon and evening in Saigon yesterday. Highlights below.

- Went to the Dam Sen water park. This place was really fun, normal water park setup like the US, but only 5 bucks to get in. They had about 10 water slides, including one I had never seen before. The new one sent you shooting down a tube at incredible speed and then shot you out into a big toilet bowl kind of thing. After circling the drain as many times as you could go around, you fall out the bottom of the bowl into a pool. The first time I rode it I thought it was the scariest water slide I had ever been on.

- Drank some Bia Hoi, or "fresh beer" on little sidewalk tables. This was in the real neighborhood near the water park, so we did stick out a bit. Bia Hoi is beer that is made fresh without preservatives and delivered to bars that sell it out of a big metal tank. It is sold by the liter and is the worlds cheapest beer at 25 cents per liter. This was our first time having it, and we ended up getting 3 beer mugs filled with ice and an old 2 liter plastic bottle, that looks like something you would use for petrol, filled with Bia Hoi. Mixed with the ice it was pretty good, very light and refreshing.

- Went to this big faux western music bar near the hotel. In this palace of varnished wood walls and giant totem poles they had the most bizarre cover band I have ever seen. It was a long haired guy and two scantily clad girls backed up by a normal set of musicians. The three singers with switch off on who was the lead vocalist and they covered everything from Beyonce to Roxette to Metallica. Really bizarre hearing two Vietnamese singers playing the roles of Beyonce and Jay-Z. They actually were really entertaining.

The Last of the Beaches

2007-12-07T09:10:00.000-05:00

Ian and I left our last beach location today. Let's see, we have been to Diu, Goa, and Varkala in India. Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Koh Phagnan, and Railay in Thailand, then Mui Ne Beach in Vietnam. You may be thinking that we have spent an inordinate time at beach places, but can you really ever have too much? Especially since it's 19 degrees in Boston, where we are headed on December 19th.

Mui Ne was a spectacular beach. I'm glad we didn't take the advice of a Australian-Norwegian couple we met on a bus. They live in the Mekong Delta and said that Mui Ne stunk. Stubbornly, we headed there anyway. Like Railay in Thailand, it has large sporting activities - kite-boarding and wind-surfing, neither of which Ian or I tried.

Our foray into the giant surf was to rent a divorce-boat (two person kayak). We have done this a few times before without incident. Unbeknowest to us, this particular kayak had a leak that let in water when it was turned over. We would be kayaking on an extremely wavy and windy beach, swimming in which made me nervous. We were paddling happily near the breaking surf when we had our first dump. Ian righted the kayak and we hopped in, prepared for such an event. In the next 5 minutes, we fell over 2 more times until we realized the kayak was sinking. We decided that Ian would kayak back to shore. He suggested that I swim back to shore, about 200 meters in very heavy surf. Instead, I held on to the back until 10 meters from the shore and swam hard the rest of the way. No papers served.

The rest of the three days we spent on the beach, at the pool, and checking out the local attractions. Due to the geography of the area, the beach gets very high winds daily and is relatively dry. We visited a stretch of picturesque sand dunes. Similar to India, it is difficult to visit any attractions without various people following you around try to peddle something. It looked like every tourist was on some desert expedition. Two kids followed us for about 20 minutes asking us if we wanted to rent a sled to slide down the dunes. Not quite sledding on snow, but it was fun nonetheless.

I highly recommend Mui Ne beach to anyone visiting Vietnam. The long, clean, and white stretch of sand is not overdeveloped. There are excellent Vietnamese and international restaurants. We went to an Italian one that we recognized by Slow Food International. There are many activities around the area if you get bored of baking in the sun. The Vietnamese people are surprisingly and extremely friendly. Most of all, unlike Thailand, there was no trance music or hookers.

- Nisha

One of a Kind

2007-12-07T08:39:00.000-05:00

I have been reading this book The Glass Palace the last week. As a historical fiction fan I have found it quite fascinating because of the different prospective that it offers. It is written by a Bengali author, in English, and is about the British empire from the late 1800s to WWII from the prospective of an extended Indian/Burmese family. It is a nice change to read something, in its original language, about the colonial era from the prospective of those being colonized, rather then the British colonialists.

The reason I am writing about this is that a part in the book, as well as being in these countries torn apart by violent revolutions, makes me finally "get" Gandhi. As I wrote earlier, I read an autobiography of Gandhi awhile ago and this gave me a much more full picture of his life then I had before. I now know him as more then just a peaceful, Dohti wearing guy, but I still thought before today that he was too much of an idealist.

The thing about Gandhi is that even though he wanted India to be free, he wanted even more to solve India's social ills. In fact, he said that he did not want the British to go until India was ready to rule itself in a just way. Even at the point of independence, he still thought India was not really ready to rule itself. Also, he never wanted there to be a violent revolution. Despite the fact that it took 40 years for India to gain its freedom, he fought ferociously against the elements that wanted to go to war with the British.

When I first read this, I thought it was very admirable, but I did think that it was a little weak. Granted his strategy did work, but it took an incredible amount of time, and only worked because the British got tired of ruling a country that did not want them there. I did think that perhaps if the Indians has taken a more active course they may have still had independence, but just a lot sooner.

The thing that I did not take in to account is that, in general, even if your violent revolution is a success, you end up with a country ruled by violent revolutionaries. The problem is that the kind of people that are effective at fighting a war are also terrible, ruthless leaders after the war is over. A large part of the reason why a chaotic country like India became a stable democracy is that its political revolution resulted in politicians, not generals, becoming its first leaders. I am not an expert on Nehru, nor do I agree with all his ideas, but at least he was a secular politician who believed in democracy. The chances of a violent revolution producing a leader who fits that description are slight at best. The problem is that there is only one Gandhi, so violent revolutions will exist for as long as there are people who do not like their government.

Incidentally, I do realize that the American revolution is the one example I can think of where a violent revolution did not result in an early government with totalitarian tendencies. I am not sure yet why I think this happened the way that it did. One thing I can think of is that it was a different era, and it was English colonists fighting against the English crown, not another race or culture of people. It also, however, makes one think about how unique the early Americans were to take power for England but then give all that power to a democratic government. Perhaps they were one of a kind in their own way as well.

Quick Update

2007-12-06T20:18:00.000-05:00

- We have been doing the last real beach stay of our trip on Mui Ne beach in
Vietnam. Is one of the top beaches that we have visited. There are
quite a few hotels, but it is pretty mellow. The beach is very long and nice, with pretty big surf, a nice change after Thailand;s calm waters.

- We really stuck gold with a hotel here. After a few places were
full we ended up with a bungalow literally 5 steps from the beach. The place is undergoing renovation, so there is construction, but it is just painting and quiet stuff. Because of the construction our room is half price and we get free breakfast and use of the big pool next door.

- Mui Ne is evidently one of the worlds best Windsurfing and Kitesurfing locations. Every day a sea breeze whips up that must be up around 25 knots in the middle of the day. This makes it a little annoying to sit on the beach (it is calmer before 10 and after 3), but watching the guys out there surfing is amazing. I have not windsurfed because it is really advanced and everyone seems to know how to do an in-water start and a carve jibe, which I never learned how to do. Also, since everyone else windsurfing is very, very expert I do not want to get in over my head and make an ass of myself.

- Kitesurfing has to be a pretty dangerous sport but is incredible to watch. Most people seem to keep their board on the water and just zip back and forth, but a few people do jumps, which are amazing. When they jump they look like they go about 10m in the air and stay up for at least 5 seconds. The really good guys make it look like a cross between windsurfing and hang-gliding.

- I might write more about this in the future, but I am kind of amazed how hard the Vietnamese work. At the construction in our hotel and around town in general, they get started at around 6 in the morning and are often still painting and sanding by the light of big florescent tubes until 8-10 at night. This is typical as people here in general are up and about at 5:30-6 in the morning and ofter are still working late in the evening. A Vietnamese construction site is pretty serious too, not much standing around. Seems like it could be part of the reason they were such worthy adversaries 40 years ago.

- Today we go back to Saigon (I am using the old name in this instance because that is what it is universally called here by the south Vietnamese, it is only written down as HCMC). Tomorrow we pick up Pete at the airport, he will be with us for the rest of the trip.

First Impressions of Vietnam

2007-12-04T00:53:00.000-05:00

Another country, another one of these articles.

- The official currency of Vietnam is the Dong, which is fun because the name is pretty great to say, and it is 16,000 Dong to the Dollar. Becoming a Vietnamese millionaire is as easy as one trip to the ATM.

- Interestingly enough, the US dollar is also very big here, especially for hotels and other higher priced items. So much for the capitalist pigs.

- Vietnam might be the cheapest country yet of the tour. 15 dollars will get you a pretty decent hotel room (AC, TV, hot water, sometimes fridge) and food is dirt cheap. Our dinner of two bowls of Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) last night was less then 2 dollars.

- Every bowl of Pho we have had in Vietnam has been spectacular. At less then a dollar is most places, and very healthy, I think we will be eating quite a few more.

- Even after seeing the rest of Asia, Vietnam is the small motorbike king. There are a few more cars in Saigon, but in the Mekong Delta where we were before I would estimate that %99 percent of all vehicles on the road are a motorbike. We rented one to look around Chau Doc and on the main road out of town you could see at least a mile down the road, and every vehicle was a motorbike, hundreds of them.

- The people of Vietnam are the friendliest so far. People smile and say "hello" all the time. Kids love to see you and get so excited if you pay attention to them. For the most part this friendliness seems very genuine. Even annoying hawkers can be fooled around with, and will often want to just chat with you, after they figure out weather you want to buy anything.

- After all this time we finally had a cab man try a meter scam on us. When we arrived in Saigon, we got in a cab and after less then a KM I noticed that the meter was already at 5 KM and 28,000 Dong. I complained and he said, or so we thought, that if would only be 14,000 Dong to take us to where we were going. When we got there he tried to take 50,000 and not give us any change. Nisha took the lead in bitching him out while I got change and ended up giving him around 20,000 Dong, which is about what the meter should have been.

- We have been travelling on a lot of speedboat ferries lately. First we took one from Penom Penh in Cambodia to Chau Doc in Vietnam and then from Can Tho to Saigon. Great way to travel around the Mekong. As fast as a bus and more comfortable, with a better view. They are a kind of long thin fiberglass boat with a roof and windows, set up pretty much like a bus inside. There is sometimes a little deck on back you can hang out on as well. Powered by twin I/O engines, these things move along over 30 knots. On our trip to Saigon, there was some driving down a crowded delta canal filled with sand barges that would make the average New Hampshire Marie Patrol officer pee his pants.

Thailand Beach Wrapup

2007-12-03T07:12:00.000-05:00

This is more for random people searching on Google that anything else, but I wanted to write up the five beaches that we stayed at on Thailand. The thing is that they all have their strong points, so picking one to go to is really a case of just finding the right one for you. Please note that all these visits were in mid to late November.

KO SAMUI - HAT CHAWENG

This was the most crowded and developed beach we visited. There is a main road that forms the "strip" of town, and most resorts are in the 300m or so from this road to the beach. The strip was a pretty lively place, however a good deal of the partying was hooker related. The strip also had a lot of very sleek bars, nice and expensive restaurants, as well as Starbucks, McDonald's and plenty of 7-Elevens.

We stayed at a hotel that was on the strip called The Wave Samui, which I was not a fan of. Besides my issues with the hotel, I did not realize what a pain it would be to not be in a place with beach access. There is only one place where you can take an actual public road to the beach, so most of the time we had to sneak through a resort to get out to the sand. There were a couple of relatively cheap places with beach access, I would check out those if you want to go here. If you want to pay 500 Baht for a bungalow on the beach, go somewhere else.

As for the beach itself, it was very nice. A little crowded, but not overwhelmingly so. The water is clear and the swimming nice. It can be a little hard to find a place because all the resorts put chairs out for their guests, but space can be found. There is also a strip of bars near the Ark Bar that have raised futons on the beach, and are pretty fun at night as well. You can hang here is you want to buy drinks. There were several kayak and sailboat rental outfits on the beach, and we had a lot of fun with a little Hobie Cat. There are a few hawkers, mostly of junk souvenirs, but they are manageable.

Go here is you want to:

- Party, mostly with Euros and Brits
- Listen to trance music
- Get a hooker
- Have a lot of activities, food and drinks available on the beach
- Eat at high class restaurants
- Spend a lot of money

Don't go here if you want to:

- Have a peaceful vacation
- Go to chill bars
- Really get away from it all

KO SAMUI - HAT LAMAI

I will not do a full review of this, because we used Nisha's leftover Marriott points to stay at a high end beach resort at the very end of the beach. From what I did see, it looked busy, but far less so then Chaweng. The beach was nice here, but very shallow. You could walk for probably a kilometer out into the ocean before having to swim. It was great for Frisbee in the water, and there was some snorkeling by the rocks at the headland.

If you want to know about the Marriott Renaissance, read up on it here.

KO PHA-NGAN - HAT KHOM

This was our place to do the real beach hut thing, and I don't think we could have found a better place. Hat Khom is a small beach, only about .5KM long, in a cove on the north side of the island. It is accessible from the main village on the north side by a dirt road that can be negotiated via pickup truck or motorbike. The road can also be walked in around 25 minutes. The beach has occasional boulders that add to the scenery, as well as a reef that can be snorkeled. Swimming is also good as there is a deep sand bottom area between the beach and the reef.

The only business here is the four beach hut resorts that line the beach, as well as their bar/restaurants. We stayed at the Ocean View, which seemed to have the best rooms and had the best food at the restaurant, but they all seemed OK. The huts all seemed to be in the 300-800 Baht range. There is no Internet and the only nightlife is the resort bars. One of the resorts rents Kayaks for very cheap and the Ocean View had free snorkeling equipment.

Go here if you want to:

- Stay right on the beach
- Only hear the sound of the waves at night
- Hang out with a backpacker crowd
- Be on a secluded, quiet and beautiful beach
- Not spend a lot of money
- Shower with only cold water and only have electricity from 6PM to 6AM

KO TAO - HAT SAIREE

We stayed here mainly because Nisha was getting here dive certification. This beach is very long, but also very thin. The resorts in the area push right up to the beach, so there is only a little room in front for swimming and putting a blanket down. The swimming is pretty good, but there are quite a few boats tied to the beach and ropes to watch out for. There is a place in town that rents Kayaks and sailing equipment, but not on this beach. One really nice thing here is that the main road is not anywhere near the beach. Along the beach is a brick walkway which is only used by pedestrians and the occasional motorbike.

This is kind of a middle ground between an overdeveloped beach and a quiet beach. The beach is fully developed, but there is still some open space and small hut resorts. There are a couple of 7-Elevens and plenty of Internet cafes and resort restaurants. There is also a area near the far end of the beach with some bars and restaurants that are independent of a resort.

One thing is that how quiet the beach is will have a lot to do with where you stay. We stayed at the AC resort, and the bar there pumps music until late at night, so our room was pretty loud. At other locations that are not near a big time bar, things would probably be pretty quiet. As far as the nightlife, it was still low season, so things were not really hopping yet, but it seemed like in season there would be a lot of partying going on. However, not many hookers and you could get away from it if you wanted to.

Go here if you want to:

- Get SCUBA certified easy and cheap
- Party, but not be in a total madhouse
- Spend a moderate amount of money
- Have plenty of modern amenities, but not feel like you are in a city

Don't go here if you want:

- A really nice beach
- To really get away from it all

KRABI PROVENCE - RAILAY

Railay is a peninsula attached to the mainland, but inaccessible by road due to the massive cliffs. The only way to get there is long tail boat. The peninsula is about 500m across, and has beaches at each side. The west beach is pretty nice, with giant cliffs at each side. It is wide with hard and flat sand. The swimming is calm and good, but the water is very warm and there are quite a few long tail boats. The east beach is muddy and used mainly for long tail boat arrivals. There is also another beach you can walk to in 10 minutes that I did not make it out to, but Nisha rated as one of the better beaches she has ever been on. There are some hawkers who work the beach, but they mainly sell beer, so I find them quite useful.

All the area that can be developed has been, all the flat area between the beaches as well as the area up the hill that we stayed in was used for resorts. Up the hill in back was the only place for budget accommodation (besides the far beach around the corner that is, but I am talking about the main part of town), but where we stayed at the Highland Resort was very quiet and only about a 10 minute walk to the good beach. However, since there are no motor vehicles, the place has a pretty low key feel, even more so then Ko Tao. There are a fair number of bars and restaurants, but no bars really pump music, it is more of a Bob Marley kind of place.

The rock climbing is also a real attraction here, I went twice and loved it. Things are a little expensive however, you definitely pay island prices, not mainland.

All in all, this was my favorite beach.

Go here if you want to:

- See great scenery
- Go to first class beaches
- Rock climb
- Enjoy chill, but busy, nightlife
- Spend a moderate to high amount of money

Don't go here if yo want to:

- Get a hooker
- Listen to trance music
- Eat top flight international food
- Really get away from it all

Meeting the Bogey Man

2007-12-03T07:11:00.000-05:00

I traveled to both Cambodia and Vietnam with reservations. My hesitation in going to Cambodia was because I had read about terrible bribery and scams at the border. we had been very well informed and therefore did not fall prey to any of these. I'll write my thoughts on staying in Cambodia later.

However, I had much irrational trepredation in coming to Vietnam. Irrational because I have heard many people say they had a great time here and know that it is a safe tourist destination. But this is Communist country. All the bogey men of my childhood were communist. They tortured you, imprisoned you for looking at them, started all the wars, and left you to die in the endless Steppe. These were all things I was told in elementary school and their sentiment has subconsciously lodged in my brain. Then top that with a large helping of resentment from the "American War" (that's what they call it here).

Of course, I have seen nothing of that here. I am stunned by how different this communist country is from my elementary-school imagination. Part of this could be due to the fact that they are more a socialist dictatorship rather than Soviet-style communists, but nevertheless. First, they love tourists. Of all the places we have been, the people in the small Mekong Delta towns of Chau Doc and Can Tho are overwhelmingly the most friendly. Nearly everyone smiles or says hi to us. Kids under 6 generally start yelling and screaming "helllllooooo" while gesticulating wildly. Just while walking down the street, a man offered for me to taste the soup he was making (it was yummy!).

Scary communist? Not in my observations of the last 48 hours. They take their kids to dinner. They go on vacation. They study engineering in college. I am at an unregulated internet cafe filled with kids and adults searching all corners of the net. We visited temples and have seen monks walking. There are no scary dudes in military vehicles in the streets. Though they do have a giant statue of Uncle Ho in the center of town and propaganda and calisthenics over the loud speaker awoke us at 5 in the morning.

The Anti-Ameriancism? I have not experienced any so far. They wear shorts with the US flag on them. The toilets are "American Standard" brand, thankfully. Most want any chance to practice their English and nearly everyone has relatives in Canada or the US.

I know this may be different when we travel to the north of the country. However, so far I am amazed and pleasantly surprised, though hopefully you knew this already.

Beach Reading and More

2007-12-02T06:55:00.000-05:00

While traveling through Asia, I have tried to rectify my deficient knowledge of world history by reading Asian history or historical fiction. No this is not beach reading, but I have never been the type to read about poor beautiful girls in New York trying to find a rich husband. Shogun gave me insight to Japan's rich feudal heritage. In India, the Lewis Fischer's biography of Gandhi and William Dalrymple's The Age of Kali taught me a great deal of Indian history. Thailand has few authors that write about anything except finding oneself, doing drugs, beaches, time in the infamous Bangkok jail, and marrying prostitutes. The real winners combine all 5 in one. Cheng and Eng, a fictional book based on the real Siamese twins, gave me a glimpse of 1800's life on the Mekong in Thailand. Ambitv Gosh's The Glass Palace concentrated more on colonial Burma, India, and Malaysia with a little of Thailand mixed in.

Volumes are written about places where terrible things have happened. I started my breif studies on Cambodian history with First They Killed My Father, by Loung Ung. I tore through this 250 page book in only 6 hours on the ferry from Koh Tao. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in a first hand account of what the Khmer Rouge did. In brief, the Khmer Rouge overtook Phenom Pehn in April 1975 and drove the inhabitants of this city and others into countryside work camps. In the following 4 years and 8 months, they enslaved their population in farming camps to fulfill some Utopian communist dream. They summarily executed those with higher education or loyal to the former government. They tortured and killed some 14,000 - 20,000 men, women, and children in a high school in Phenom Pehn now know as S-21 or Tuol Sleung.

Ian and I visited Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum yesterday. It is quite ironic that the tuk-tuk driver's touts to tourists usually start with "hello, want to see the killing fields and S-21?" The class rooms of this sunny high school were turned into between 1 - 30 cells each. Prisoners were kept shackled to the floor and tortured. Like the Nazis, the KR were fastidious about their record keeping. They took photos of each person alive, and many dead which are all shown in the museum. The people were taken to the killing fields, about 15km away, and bludgeoned before being left to die in a mass grave. In Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp which I visited in 1997, the solemn grounds have been able to mellow after 60 years. However, the barbed-wire wrapped Tuol Sleung still has violence in the air. There is a photo exhibit of men and women who worked (likely forced) in the prison. They are still living among the people of Cambodia, many of whom lost loved ones. There is still blood on many of the floors of the cells. The pictures of the main architects, one was Duch who will received a hearing on Monday in the war crimes tribunal, are scribbled with angry Khmer graffiti. There exist the actual tools of torture, including a water-boarding tank. It's nice to know that some of our presidential hopefuls endorse the torture techniques of the Khmer Rouge.

Finally the North Vietnamese, having recently defeated the Americans and South Vietnamese, invaded to end the Khmer Rouge reign in 1979 because the KR were massacring Vietnamese in the Mekong Delta. Sadly, the KH were responsible for the extermination of between 1.4 - 2.2 million Cambodians either directly or through starvation and tens of thousands of Vietnamese in South Vietnam only 4 years and 8 months of their reign.

Henry Kamm was a NYT correspondent in Cambodia from 1970 - the 1990s. He skillfully penned Cambodia: Report from a Stricken Land and answered many of the burning questions I had about the rise, reign, and fall of the Khmer Rouge.
I also highly recommend this book as a thoughtful history and analysis of this dark period in history. It's not exactly beach reading, but that's not what I'm here for.

Check back in a few days for links to pictures I took at Tuol Sleng.

- Nisha

Government Matters

2007-12-02T06:44:00.000-05:00

In the US these days, most talk about government or politics focuses on the high level philosophical stuff, Foreign Policy, Abortion, Church and State, etc. Not to say that this not impotent stuff, but this trip has highlighted for me that there is another dimension to government that is rarely talked about, overall competence.

By overall competence I mean the ability of the government to build roads, run schools, keep basic law and order. Basically its ability to provide a stable environment for people to live and work. As I have seen on this trip, the ability of governments to do these things is not necessarily related to how they are selected or what high level positions they believe in. At the highest level we have been in countries that range from stable, multi-party democracies like Japan and India, to Vietnam and Thailand, which are both currently run by unelected governments. All are basically capitalist countries, with somewhat of a socialist bent (Vietnam is officially communist, but that is not very true in practice).

In terms of overall competence I would have to obviously rank Japan as first. The infrastructure is top notch all over the country, the trains are amazing and crime is non-existent. Thailand I would also give high marks to, because it does a lot for how much money it has. Most things there seem to run at more or less a US level of quality, but I assume that they spend a lot less money to get there. India and Vietnam are similar in a lot of ways, because things seem to run OK, but you still run into some substandard roads and bad trash collection. Also, while some people in these two countries are doing very well, others are left behind in substantial poverty. Cambodia's one-party democratic government is basically a failed state. No one has any confidence in the government to do anything, and almost every road and school in the country has a sign out front thanking the country or NGO that built it for them, usually Japan.

The interesting thing about all these countries, as well as the US, is that a good number of people in all of them think the government is run by a bunch of crooks. Most of the time these thoughts are backed up by evidence. The accusations very from the money just disappearing, like in Cambodia, to the usual shady government contract deals that exist pretty much everywhere there are politicians with money to spend. Pork barrel stuff also shows up pretty much everywhere, like Shinkansens (bullet trains) to nowhere in Japan. However, even if crooks run the show everywhere, their output quality varies immensely.

The aggravating thing about this is that although the competence of government matters so much, I am not sure how one controls it. Why should India and Vietnam have similar public services despite the fact that one government is elected, and the other is authoritarian? As a voter in the US it is annoying that this never even really comes up as an issue. We know politicians positions on almost every philosophical issue, but not if they can build a decent airport.

My last thought is as to how the US fits within the ranking of countries above. Overall our government is fairly competent at basic service. We have very good roads, there are a reasonable number of cops and garbage does not stack up in the streets. However, we also pay a lot of money to achieve this decent level of service. I think our biggest problem is that our expectations for the final product of the things our government builds is so low. I am sure in Japan, Japan Railways (JR) is a giant pit of patronage and wasted money. I am sure there were all sorts of shady dealing with building the new airport in Bangkok. But, at least in these places they get an incredible train system and a really nice looking new airport. The most upsetting thing is that we get ripped off, as every country does, but often do not even get a world class product.

I guess my conclusion is that Americans should raise their expectations of government and not buy that things cannot be done, or cannot be done well. If the semi-authoritarian government in Thailand can build a nice new subway line, why can't we do so in New York or Boston? We might get ripped off, but it is better to at least get something for your money then nothing at all.

Thai food II

2007-12-01T21:32:00.000-05:00

Here were a few of our favorite meals:

Steamed Sticky rice in Bamboo - Our guide in Chiang Dao brought us to this road side place where a woman makes steamed rice in bamboo. The rice, sugar, and coconut mixture is stuffed into a hollow bamboo segment capped with hay. It is BBQed over a wood fire until steamed. The outer husk is then hacked off, the rice left to cool, then it's ready to eat by peeling away the bamboo from the rice. Simply amazing.

Crispy Aromatic Duck - This was tasty take on Peking duck that we have many times in Chinatown. - Chopsticks, Koh Tao

Malee's Buffet - We stayed in Malee's Guesthouse in Chiang Dao, north of Chiang Mai. The first night we went to the renowned Europen-Thai fusion restaurant next door, which was fabulous. The next night we dined on Malee's buffet. She served my favorite Thai curry, Green curry with chicken, mashed squash with egg, a huge platter of fresh fruit, and many other dishes. It was like dining in someones home. Not to be missed - Malee's GuestHouse in Chiang Dao

Thai Iced Tea - I am self-proclaimed iced tea snob. Northern restaurants on good days make me laugh with their version of iced tea, on bad days make me scream with horror. Thailand is where I surprisingly found excellent iced tea. They brew it extra strong, stronger than even the South. They they pour it over crushed ice and finish it with condensed milk!

Family meal at the Highland Restaurant - The restaurant at our resort in Raliay was the best in the area. We had no idea what to expect with the "family meal." You know a meal is going to be great when it starts with "maybe you should move to a bigger table." Our came a hot charcoal cauldron with a grille on top, a bowl of broth, a platter of veggies and rice noodles, and a plate of beef, chicken, fish, shrimp, and squid. We were instructed to coat the top with butter and then grill each. The resulting soup made from the meat drippings was delicious.
- Highland Resort, East Railay

Coke Zero out of a Glass Bottle - For fellow Coke Zero lovers, no more needs said.

You may notice on this list the abscense of Thai dishes in served in the US. They were there and we liked them. However, most good Thai resturants are very similar in the US. Therefore, it's just plain boring to write about Pad Thai.

- Nisha

Just Another Day in Bangkok

2007-11-30T07:39:00.000-05:00

The scene is a crowded Bangkok Internet cafe. The protagonist is a pudgy, 50 something American with a southern accent. The man sits down and calls his family on Skype. Because on Skype you use headphones (there is no phone booth) and because of his projecting voice, we hear a several hour phone call I never thought would be so public. Things about this nice man Nisha and I now know:

- Evidently he has been married for 2 weeks to a Thai woman (we did not hear how they met), I am assuming some kind of mail order bride.

- She does not know much English, but their connection is like nothing he has ever felt before.

- He has never been so happy in his life, every day keeps getting better and better.

- The lord and/or Jesus are responsible for the proceeding.

- His new Thai wife likes to sleep draped all over him in a non-sexual way.

- She is a massage lady and he hopes that she can get a job as such in the US.

- He knows someone who knows someone who works in Dick Durbin's (US Senator) office, thus her Visa is assured.

- He gives her a $20 dollar a week allowance, which goes a long way in Thailand.

Gotta love Bangkok!!!

Thailand Wrap

2007-11-30T06:48:00.000-05:00

Thailand was a very nice place to visit.

That, for better or for worse, is about as strong a opinion as I can muster about it. I know it is not all that profound, but honestly, Thailand is not that profound a place. It is just a nice, well run country with really nice beaches and people. It is also quite cheap to travel around, although not as cheap as places like India and Cambodia.

We did have a very good time in Thailand. But, I am really glad that we went there after Japan and India. While those parts of the trip felt more like a real adventure, Thailand felt more like a nice extended vacation. The first reason for this is that the travel in Thailand is so much less challenging. The train and the government bus run quite efficiently. People speak enough English, and westerners are a dime a dozen, so you do not ever feel particularly out of place. There are 7-Elevens, fast food and Internet cafes pretty much everywhere. The touts are quite tame by Asian standards and the beggars are virtually nonexistent.

The other reason why Thailand is different is that everything there is less dramatic. Their sights are kind of interesting, but nothing like the Taj Mahal, Angkor, Hiroshima or even Shinjuku. You may get a little aggravated with the occasional Tuk-Tuk man, but you never have to deal with the stress of an Indian train station, or figuring out how to order a meal in Japanese.

If you come to Thailand to find yourself, learn Thai culture or experience real travel adventure, you will be disappointed. If you come to Thailand for a nice vacation, you will probably love it.

In conclusion, a few highlights and lowlights:

UPSIDES

- The beaches are really nice, often with very litte waves and prefect conditions to swim or play Frisbee in the water.

- The north was pleasant as well, but we enjoyed it much better on our trips outside Chaing Mai on a rented car or motorbike. Downtown Chaing Mai can feel like one giant tourist trap.

- There are really not many places in the world where you can pay $15 dollars for a hut right on the beach.

- Bangkok is an interesting city, good, cheap shopping and some of Thailand's best sights.

- The quality and availability of cheap food is incredible. Eventually we figured out that for Thai food, the cheaper the place, the better the meal.

- There is also a good variety of quality food from all over the world at every tourist destination, at very reasonable prices.

- Most Thais are very nice people. They do indeed seem to smile all the time, and are usually quite helpful and friendly.

LOWLIGHTS

- Some Thais, especially ones who work in tourist trap places, are not very nice. This is the cost of Thailand being so well covered by tourists.

- I really don't like the parallel transport system of buses, boats and taxis that are only there for tourists. The service on these is usually really bad, and it is not a good way to experience the country. Unfortunately, sometimes this network can be the only practical way to get from one place to another. Often this is because the government bus terminal is not near downtown or the train is sold out.

- A great number of your fellow tourists are either British frat boy types or mid-market package European tourists. Also, a good proportion all westerners are sex-tourists. This is especially bad in Bangkok, Chaing Mai and Ko Samui. This may not be a problem for other people, in fact it may be what you are looking for. However, all these groups get a little tiresome for us at times.

- You will learn to hate Trance music if you stay in the wrong room at the hotel.

- Thailand has the worst waiters in the world. Getting the bill is a constaint ordeal.

- Thais care a lot about "face" and thus make for really annoying touts. I do not care if people want to aggressively tout stuff to me. However, the fact that I need to be polite to the touts, in order to prevent unpleasant behavior by them, is really annoying. At least Indian touts know their place in the world and have a thick skin.

- As Nisha has covered in some detail, Thai bathrooms suck.

- The amount of obvious Hooker-Westerner couples did not really bother Nisha and I. In fact it was kind of a game to speculate if the girls were hookers or not, then sometimes if they were really men or not (on a side note, I never imagined that any culture would be as accepting of transvestites as Thais are). However, if this kind of thing bothers you, then best stay away from the big three locations I mentioned above.

Thai Food I: Street Food

2007-11-28T23:51:00.000-05:00

It took me quite awhile after arriving to Thailand to get into the food. It was not because a dislike of Thai food, since it is one of my favorite foods in the US, more more a dislike of where one eats Thai food. The restaurant culture of the US, India, and every other place I have been does not really exist here. There are restaurants, just not Thai ones. It seems that Thais will go a nice enclosed AC restaurant to have pizza, Chinese, or any non-Thai food. However, except in Bangkok, all Thai restaurants if not catering directly to tourists or in a 5-star hotel, are ramshackle open-air establishments or food carts.

The carts are not really permanent, since they are put up and taken down everyday, but they occupy the same location every night. They all have wheels to be pushed away at the end of the night. They do not have running water. They do have electricity and even meters to presumably pay someone for the power. The prices are all between 5 and 40 baht (10 - 80 cents). The ambiance matches the price - you eat on metal folding tables and plastic stools. Many are arranged in the same place to constitute a day or night food market. Some are simply a swerer or fruit seller attached to a sidecar.

In India street food is either sworn off or you know it will cost you some serious bathroom time. We had great hesitation in delving into the multitude of street eats. During our first week here, we ate primarily at tourist restaurants, which besides McDonald's, this is the place you can go to guarantee eating the worst food any locale has to offer. Slowly, as we saw more Westerners eating from them and not in the hospital with IVs, we too entered into the makeshift street restaurants.

What do they serve? Everything on a menu of a typical US Thai restaurant and more. The diversity is stunning. Curry carts offer over 10 types of succulent meat and vegetable curries. Soup carts offer something akin to Vietnamese Pho with sliced meat or shrimp, or duck. There were numerous BBQ carts with various processed meats creatively sculpted on the wooden skewer. The carts catering more to Thais include BBQed hanging offal, looking much like an anatomy class. There were stir-fry and pad Thai carts. Many served various types of iced tea - black, chrysanthemum, hibiscus, and ginger finished with condensed milk. Dessert carts had banana and nutella crepes, silver dollar pancakes filled with a coconut mixture. On every corner is a fruit cart filled with carved and chilled pineapple, banana, mango, dragon fruit, jack fruit, and watermelon whether for immediate consumption or to be whipped into a shake. The one I always looked out for was the mango and sticky rice cart. At first I scoffed at such a pedestrian dessert made with rice. However, it's hard to describe the unbelievable marriage of a silky fragrant mango with slightly salty, sweet, coconut stewed rice.

After a month in Thailand, food carts instilled in me, rather than fear and terror, a Pavlovian response of salivation. Some of the best food we had in Thailand came from these lowly eateries. Next post - more about specific dishes.

First Observations of Cambodia

2007-11-27T21:09:00.000-05:00

- They have yet another form of Autorickshaw here, also called the Tuk-Tuk as in Thailand. The design is totally different however, as it is a regular small motorbike, like a Honda Dream, with a trailer attached that holds up to 4 people. It actually is the nicest ride of all of them, because it is not enclosed, so you get a lot of air and can see the view. They also drive at very safe speeds since a 125cc motorbike is not exactly designed as a towing machine. Here is a photo of one, from someone else.

- We ran into one of Nisha's classmates in her SCUBA course at Angkor Wat yesterday and got a first-hand account of the Koh San Road/Bangkok tourist bus to Siem Reap. Evidently everything was fine until the border where aggressive touts convinced half the people to change all their Baht to US dollars at a really terrible exchange rate. Then the ride that took us 3 hours in a cab takes 9 hours in the bus, so they can deliver you to a second rate guesthouse at the edge of town. Since you arrive at 22:00, it is difficult to get onward transportation, so you end up staying there until the next morning. If you are doing this trip, read our post and this website, do the trip yourself.

- It is really strange how upscale the center of Siem Reap (Bar St.) is, especially considering that the rest of the country is on the India level of rural economic development. There is basically a whole area here of upscale cafes, bars and restaurants which are up to western standards of sophistication, food and service. To give you an idea, we had pizza from a real brick oven and home-made raviolis last night. One thing I have read is that a lot of these establishments are run by westerners, as there are no regulations here that make owning a business difficult for foreigners, as in most Asian countries. This may very well be true, because some of the restaurants go out of their way to say that they are run by actual Khemrs (Cambodians). This may not be great for the locals, but is good for the consumers, as the level of service is high in both the western and local owned establishments. Lets here it for open market competition.

- Strangely enough, the fact that they use US dollars here, rather then some foreign funny money, makes us feel poorer then in India or Thailand. Things are about the same price here, but when you pay 240 Baht for a nice pizza in Thailand, you do not really think about it as 7 dollars or so, it just seems like some small amount of your total wad of usually over 10,000 Baht. Here the pizza will still cost 7 dollars, granted this is a tourist place and it is as good as pizza I pay 14 dollars for at home, but it still seems expensive. The same goes for beer costing $1.50 rather then 60 Baht. Actually the main thing that is cheap here so far is accommodation (15 dollars for the best value hotel of the trip - Golden Temple Villa) and the Internet (75 cents an hour). Food is the same price as India or Thailand for the level of quality, but the cheap food carts here sell roasted snakes and entrails, and are not really set up for westerners. No more 25 Baht noodle soup for us.

- Even though Siem Reap is very touristy, it nice to be back in a place where people are more happy to see the tourists and their money arrive then in Thailand. Thais are still very nice, but they can often seem jaded at the endless cycle of budget travellers that tromp around their country. Especially since many of these travellers are drunken assholes or sex-tourists, their attitude is somewhat understandable. Khemrs have so far seemed much more honestly friendly and happy to talk to you, and the scene here is a little more grown up, and less like Cancun.

- Do your self a favor and search for something dumb like "Cancun Drunk" on flickr. There are a lot of gems out there I found while searching for that picture. Like this.

Overland to Cambodia

2007-11-26T22:31:00.000-05:00

So, we completed the much dreaded Bangkok to Siem Reap overland journey yesterday. Rather then taking the tickets from Bangkok sold for backpackers, which can be a decent deal, but often involve bus scams and annoying delays, we did the trip ourselves, using a myriad of transit options. There may be annoyances along the way when you plan the trip yourself, but I prefer to at least make my own problems and have the flexibility to what I want to solve them.

The Result:

1) Leave at 7:00 in a taxi to go to the North Bangkok government bus depot (Mo Chit). Get stuck in Bangkok traffic, trip takes a little under an hour.

2) Take a government bus at 8:00 (no scams unlike backpacker buses) to Aranya Pratet.

3) Arrive in Aranya Pratet at around 12:30, pretty non-descript Thai border town. Decent roads, 7-Elevens, usual stuff. Take a 5km Tuk-Tuk to the border.

4) Check out of Thailand, walk across the little bridge to Poipet, Cambodia. Funny thing here, there is a border market on the Thai side that Cambodian merchents can get a pass to go to for the day. Evidently it is a way to sell goods of dubious origin to the Thai people who have more money. Going the other way on the bridge there were pushcarts full of new $800 Trek bikes as well as one with guitar amplifiers.

5) On the Cambodian side of the bridge go to the visa office to get a visa, since we did not get one before arrival. There is a sign that says that a visa costs $20 US (US currency is the de facto currency of Cambodia, although Thai Baht and their own currency can sometimes be used). Because you are supposed to have six months before expiration on your passport, and Nisha only has five, I pay 1000 Baht each (30 dollars) to the guy who "helps" you get the visa. Visa comes back no problem.

6) Walk down the strip of new casinos that are in this no mans land for Thai gamblers. Errie sight, especially seeing the Indian street scene beyond the immigration gate.

7) Wait behind a bus load of westerners to actually pass immigration.

8) Enter into Cambodia and start trying to work out the taxi situation to get to Siem Reap. There are a bunch of taxi guys right beyond the gate who seem pretty disreputable, and want $40 US to drive just the two of us in a Toyot Camry to Siem Reap. There are also guys wearing yellow shirts who try to get you to go on a bus where they say they sell you a seat in a share Toyota for $15 US each.

I don't really like the vibe from the guys who are right there, and the lowest they will go is $35 dollars. However, we see that the bus goes just 200m up the road, and a yellow shirt guy on a scooter keeps telling us to go there. So we head walk up there to check out the deal. This is a crappy little office, but does look to be where most people are getting trasportation forward. It is either $12 for a seat on a bus, or $15 for a seat in a cab that leaves right away. We take the cab and end up sharing with two solo people, a Swiss lady and a friendly young guy from Hong Kong.

9) From around 14:00 to 17:30 bounce down the atrocious dirt highway from Poipet to Siem Reap. Looks like we are back in India, shocking trasformation from Thailand.

10) Get dropped off in the taxi depot on the edge of town. Negotiated for a Tuk-Tuk with the Hong Kong guy for $2 US dollars into town.

11) Go to "Bar" St. in the center of town, find a suprisingly really nice and classy tourist area in the middle of town. Find a really nice little hotel in the area called the Golden Temple (or something like that) for $15 US a night. Get free beer opon check in.

The result, not that bad. Did not cost too much and relly the only problem was figuring out the taxi deal in Poipet, but even that worked out fine. Siem Reap is actually very nice, and today we head out to see Angkor Wat.

Flaming Floating Lotus Flowers

2007-11-25T02:14:00.000-05:00

Experiencing different festivals of the world is one of my passions, so you can imagine my delight when I found out that we would be in Bangkok for the Loy Kratong Festival. During the festival times, normally tourist-weary locals are more talkative, open, and generally in a better mood. The city is cleaner and the excitement in the air is palpable.

So far we have been extraordinarily lucky - we hit the Asakusa Samba Festival in Japan, the Ladakh Festival in Leh, the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Diu and Mumbai, Dandiya in Chennai, the Durga festival in Calcutta, and now we were in town for the Thai's second most important festival of the year. It has been chance all except for Calcutta (most of these run on the lunar calender making it hard to find the exact dates).

Possibly hinting at Indian roots, the main activity of the Loy Kratong festival is to buy or make a kratong and release it with lit incense and a small candle into the river. Unlike the Hindu festivals we have attended, this one seems to have unclear origins. It seems that the Thais take is as a festival to mark the beginning of the cool, dry season and releasing of the kratong as good luck.

The kratongs are usually made of a disc of banana tree, bread, or styrofoam (think the kind that you caulk windows with). Trying to find a less environmentally damaging one, we picked was a simple lotus flower. They are decorated with folded banana leaf, flowers, incense, and candles. I read at sometimes there is money in the center which explains the three women in a longtail boat downstream from the releasing point fishing them out, dumping the contents in the boat, and throwing them back in the water.

Some of the main events took place in the park near our guesthouse in the neighborhood of Banglampu. There were plenty of foods stalls (more on that to come in another blog), balloon sellers, and 2 stages. One stage was for beauty contests and traditional dance and song. The other larger one for a Thai rock band. It was all very well organized with marine patrol and Mardi Gras barrier corrals to wait in before releasing your krathong.

The floating kratongs in the Mae Nam Chao Phraya river and the Mardi Gras-like floats parading down the river made for a magical night. We released our krathong with the help of a man down the walkway from the festival. He was using a fan cover attached to ribbon to hoist up floating krathongs. I thought at first he was looking to take the money out of them as well. However, all he did was insert a stick topped with a alcohol soaked sponge, light it, and release the flaming kratong back in the water. I guess he was looking for lots of luck.

- Nisha

Thai Economics

2007-11-25T01:56:00.000-05:00

I wrote when I was in India a post called Indian Economics where I tried to put in prospective the amount of money that Indian make versus the US. I thought a followup might be in order discussing what we have found in Thailand.

Going back to the same list of GDP per capita, we find that Thailand currently is at $9,193 versus India at $3,802 and the US at $43,223. So, for the purposes of this article I will say that the average Thai makes 1/5 as much as the average American and twice as much as the average Indian. I have not done as much word of mouth research to validate these assumptions, but I do believe that they are more of less true.

With these facts in mind I will say that I am very surprised how much closer the standard of living feels in Thailand to the US then it does to India. When you walk around a Thai city or town, things do not seem that different from home. Most streets are well kept and have a mixture of little shops and restaurants as well as fast food and 7-Eleven chain outlets. Streets are well kept and usually have good sidewalks. People mostly dress in normal, clean western cloths. When you are in the outskirts of a city you see a lot of giant new Tesco superstores (similar looking from the outside to a Wall-Mart, except bigger) and fancy new gas stations.

The most drastic differences I notice off hand are in transportation and street food/shopping. The mix of vehicles here is very heavy with small motorbikes. There are plenty of private cars, but there are also swarms of these little bikes everywhere, being driven by young men, grandmothers, Thai schoolgirls, etc. Also, there are a lot more regular buses and many converted pickup truck buses, or Songthaews. As for street shopping, food carts are everywhere, selling cheap Thai food staples. Also, a lot of shopping for clothes and other goods is done in large areas of small stalls that are present in any large town or city.

The end result is that it seems like Thai life is not that different from the US, but just with a lot of components being done in a cheaper way. A Thai mother still goes out to the store, but it is usually on a motorbike and often to a rustic vegetable market. Thais eat out a lot, but they only spend 20 Baht (75 cents) at a soup stand rather then $10 at Chilies. Thai teens still spend a lot of time shopping, but rather then for name brand goods at a mall, it is for counterfeit goods at a outdoor market, and they ride in a Songthaew to get there. Long haul transportation is usually done by nice tour bus, rather then private car. From what I have seen on the outside, Thais usually live in much smaller houses, but they are usually well kept.

The thing that also makes life seem similar is how a lot of the Thai ways of doing things are a lot cheaper, but are actually on the surface as good as the US version. When we stopped on our 10 hour bus ride at a rest stop to eat it was a brand new open air market place with nice tables and chairs and a array of little counters with the usual soup and curry mix. My soup and Diet Coke cost be 40 Baht (a little over a dollar) but I would take it over a McDonald's value meal any day of the week. A ride in a Songthaew is certainly not a safe as a real city bus, but with the fresh air blowing through your hair, it is not any less comfortable. A 120 Baht (4 dollar) counterfeit Abercrombie and Fitch T-Shirt is no different from its $30 version, it might even be made in the same factory.

Nisha had an interesting observation on another aspect of this big leap from India. When you read the paper here the social problems are not that different from the US. This morning she read about a protest by people in wheelchairs because Bangkok was not installing enough ramps in the sidewalk, so that they can cross the street easily. This is in contrast from India where it is not that uncommon to see someone walking down the sidewalk on their hands. The Thai story reads like something you might see in the US, but having a disabled person walking down the street on their hands is not even something we would think of as a problem in the US.

Potty Humor

2007-11-24T08:53:00.000-05:00

Seeing as this part of our trip will be a major topic of conversation with the Basu family at Christmas, I will get a head start on the ups and downs of the traveling toilet situation.

The highlight of this part of the trip was in Japan. The Japanese have applied the technology we reserve for $2000 dishwashers to their the porcelain thrones, with splashing results. I had heard rumors of the wonders of Japanese toilets - they have mechanical hands that wipe the nether regions, the seats are made of solid gold, they play music, etc, etc. Some of this was true, though not the mechanical hand. There is a famous 24 karat solid gold toilet in Tokyo. If you have a golden toilet, then why not golden poop as well?

The typical Japanese toilet, the one you find in the homes, hostels, and malls, consist of a toilet bowl, seat, and toilet tank. In the high-tech ones, there is a control panel of sorts next to the bowl. This panel is studded with many buttons in Japanese with small incomprehensible pictures for those less literate. I never really deciphered all the functions, but here are some Ian, Andrew, and I figured out. With this panel, it is possible to receive squirts of water from inside the bowl to one's business areas. These jets vary in intensity, duration, and aim. During my first use, I nearly leaped to the ceiling because I didn't know the previous patron had turned the jet on high. As I became soaked, I found out that it would not cease until I found the off button. These robo-toilets also also would spray a jet of air to finish the job you did with the water and toilet paper. For the discrete Japanese ladies, there was a "fake flush" button that when pressed, would make a flushing sound during which you could tinkle or make whatever other noise you wanted without the whole bathroom hearing. One had headphone hook-up. I never found out what was playing.

Almost more important to me than the actual toilet apparatus, is the ability to clean my hands. This need is inversely proportional to cleanliness of the bathroom. In Japan, there was always automatic soap and water basins. However, I quickly found out that everyone carried handkerchiefs to dry their hands. This lesson is one that I will keep with me in the US. Why use a paper towel when you can carry your own?

Which brings me to my next country. I had the most trepidation about India in this regard. During my 3 prior visits, I had had some horrific experiences with splintered wooden planks as a toilet seat over a vat of mosquitoes and filth. Also, since everyones toilet use increases in India for obvious reasons, I tried to be prepared by always carrying toilet paper and a hanky to dry my hands.

Reflecting the diverse economic strata in the country, India has a wide spread between completely horrific bathrooms and sparklingly clean ones with attendants. Fancy hotels and restaurants have normal easy to understand Western toilets with paper, a flushing mechanism, a clean dry floor, and a sink with water, soap, and towels. All things taken for granted in the American bathroom experience. When there is a squat toilet in India, it generally had a flusher and a bucket of water to use instead of toilet paper (though I never figured out how to do this without soaking myself in the process). We had a squat toilet for 3 days in our stay in Mapsua, Goa. It really wasn't that bad. When it is your own, you can strip down so as not to wet all your clothes in the process. I can't stay I achieved the Zen of backpacking in India, which is to balance yourself on a squat toilet while reading the newspaper. Only the free public toilets will cause night terrors, as happened with me before our overnight bus ride from Udiapur.

Also, though this may not be evident on a quick vacation to India as your experience will likely be colored by the worst bathroom experiences of your life, Indians do care about washing their hands. This may not always happen in the vicinity of the toilet, but in every restaurant, no matter if it has a dirt floor and is made of blue tarp (the developing world's replacement for the tar paper shack), there will be a sink with soap to wash with before dining. Once you realize this, and have brought your own hanky to dry your hands, your war against the colon twisting germs in India gets a tad easier.

I do feel that I owe India somewhat of an apology about ragging so much on their plumbing in my first blog about our accommodation. I didn't think that the toilet situation could get worse once we left the land of the squat toilet. But again, I was wrong. Thailand has the worst plumbing I have ever seen coupled with a questionable system of personal hygiene as well (from what I can deduce from the facilities offered).

Here in Thailand, virtually everywhere has either a squat or Western bowl. Not really a problem - India trained us well. However, no where are these toilet bowls equipped to flush toilet paper as the exiting pipe is a narrow as a sink drain. There is generally a large bucket of water with a huge bowl or a high-pressure dish sprayer to replace the toilet paper. All bathrooms here have a generally poorly worded sign that tried to communicate to you to throw the paper in the trash. One of these signs read "some napkins go in the bucket." Not fully understaidng this, I thought to myself, where are these napkins, and why do only some need to go in the bucket, as I tossed my tissue in the toilet.

The second enormous problem with Thai plumbing and why it ranks below that of India, is that there are many places that don't have a flushing mechanism on the toilet. That's right, there is a toilet bowl with no tank. You think it's a normal toilet until you go to flush and stupidly pull at the air. Every morning, one has to try in vain to dispose of your handiwork with a bowl full of water that is kept in a bucket next to the toilet. Once hotel toilet was so terrible, that Ian and I had to use the bowl of water, the high-pressure butt sprayer, and the hand-held shower hose to get the toilet to flush. The large downside of this country wide practice is that: 1. you guessed it, your bathroom stinks at all times with the used tissues in the trash can, 2. since there is always a large bucket full of water, the bathrooms are mosquito pits, 3. you never want to flush the toilet since it's such an ordeal, and 4. your bathroom is soaked at all times.

So after a victory with flushing the Thai toilet, all I want to do is wash my hands. Therein lies the 3rd problem. Most public toilets in respectable places - restaurants, shops, etc, either have no place to wash or if they do, have no soap. Maybe I just haven't figured out how Thais wash their hands yet. In India it took me a while to figure out that it was expected that everyone wash their hands before eating in a restaurant. This really is the most maddening thing here in Thailand. From what I can tell, most Thais clean their privates, Indian-style, without the ability to wash hands. Baffling!

I know some of you are thinking, what should I expect traveling to Asia? Maybe avoiding toilet paper is more environmentally correct, I should have more respect for the local customs... I thought you might want the straight story without the social correctness sugar-coating.

Now on to Cambodia. I'm sure the situation can't get any worse. But I said that about India as well.

Don't Look Down

2007-11-23T21:51:00.000-05:00

We went to Railay primarily because it seemed like a nice beach and a pleasant area to relax. It certainly did match these expectations, but the highlight of my time there was certainly my first couple times rock climbing.

I went out on a beginner trip each of the two mornings that I was there. I found climbing to be more fun and more interesting then I imagined. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of challenge they would throw at you as a beginner. I have spent a lot of time climbing up little steep rock faces in New England without ropes, and did not want to just end up doing that with a guy holding a rope at the bottom.

The deal with beginner climbing in Railay is more or less this. You go to the office in the morning and they set you up with a harness, chalk bag and climbing shoes. The shoes are meant to be very tight, so you pick ones that are barley comfortable, knowing that you only wear them when climbing the wall. You then take a 10 minute walk with your Thai, rope carrying guide, to the end of the beach and arrive at a place I found out is called the 1,2,3 wall. This wall is evidently the easiest to get to area and is suitable for beginners, so it seemed like pretty much everyone who is doing the beginner half day rock climbing trip ends up down there, meaning around 10-15 climbers and the various Thai guides.

As you can see from someone else's picture, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this is a real wall, it is basically vertical in all places and is at least 100m to the very top. The first thing you do when you get there is learn how to tie yourself to the end of the rope, and how to belay, i.e. work the bottom of the rope, for someone else. You then get to put your belaying skills to the test as the guide lead climbs up the wall to get the rope to the top. The guide makes it look easy as he climbs up to the permanent ring anchor that will be used as the top of the rope for the rest of the day. He does clip in to the intermediate anchors so he has some protection, but between the fact that he is lead climbing and being belayed by someone who does not know what they are doing, I am pretty sure they prefer to never fall. After he reaches the top, around 10m up for the first climbs, he hooks the rope through the ring and then you lower him down.

Most of the initial climbs are only around 10m high, so soon after you arrive different groups and guides have strung up around 4-5 top ropes. At this point the tourists start going up and it becomes more interesting. The first climb I did was not too difficult. It was very steep, but the craggy limestone rock in Railay provides a ton of hand and footholds. I did make the climb more difficult then it should be because I was still climbing like I was scrambling up a ledge in NH. By this I mean that I was mostly using my feet and taking no risks, this ensured not falling, but limited the number of things you could do.

The Dutch guy with me did pretty much the same thing and we moved to the next rope. This is the kind of nice thing about being on a busy wall. When you get done with your rope, you just hop in line to use one of the other ropes set up by another guide. Before climbing the next rope the guide showed us how to climb using our hands more. Rather then using your hands to pull yourself up like a pull-up, as you might imagine, you can use your hands to hold your body away from the wall, giving your feet a better angle to grip small footholds. I would never do this without a rope, because if you hand lets go, you fall, but taking risks is the point of having a rope, right?

Now knowing this allowed me to take more risks and climb things that I would have never been able to make it up with my previous technique. We had fun the rest of the morning climbing the various routes, touching the ring at the top, and getting dropped down to the bottom. My highlight was climbing up a longer route that was around 20m high. My lowlight was running out of arm strength and ending up hanging by my fingers in an untenable position. There is an instinctive moment of panic, but then you remember that if you just yell "Tension" down below the rope gets very tight, and you can just hang for a minute to catch you breath and then pick it up again.

This seemed to be the most common problem people would have, running out of arm strength and not being able to make the final push over a difficult part. The Thai guides do have a little trick however. When someone can not quite make it, they just lean heavily on the rope, giving the person above the 20kg of upwards assistance they need to get over the hump. I don't think I got any help like this the first day (or perhaps I am just deluding myself), but that was how a lot of heavier guys and girls were making it to the top.

I liked it so much I went back the next day for pretty much the same program. Now with more practice, and a night to recover some life in my arms, I was able to breeze up even several of the harder 10m climbs. To give me a challenge they let me climb the 30m climb to the top of the main part of the wall. This was the limit of the 60m ropes that we were using. I was equal to the first 20m, which was a interesting, but not too hard climb I had done the day before. The last 10m however was a vertical, sheer wall with only a few handholds to use. I should have taken a longer break before tacking this beast, because I once again ended up dangling by my fingertips and needing to yell a long way down for the rope to be made tight so I could take a break. I was completely spent after this ordeal and it felt pretty good to touch the ring and take the easy ride down.

I was also entertained this day watching the other guy in our group who was a burly Nordic guy of some description. He was a lot heavier then me, but also a lot stronger. We were about equal as far as climbing, with him being a little better, due to his better time on the top of the 30m beast. He did not climb like us lighter guys, but rather just used his arms to lift himself up the mountain. It looked like he was in a bar brawl with the cliffs, thrashing around and powering himself up, but he always did make it to the top.

There should be some of our pictures of the day up soon as well, so check them out.

Quick Update

2007-11-23T03:53:00.000-05:00

We just had a great time in Railay, which is a beach area nestled in dramatic cliffs and accessible only by boat. It was really a great little place and I had a great time rock climbing, and Nisha had a great time at the beach.

Off to Bangkok since we only have 2 days left on the visa. Don't want to become an illegal immigrant.

Finally Legal: Open Water, Baby!

2007-11-20T10:45:00.000-05:00

When we planned this trip, we knew that we would want to do some diving in Thailand. Once I found out that Koh Tao is one of the cheapest dive meccas in the world, Ian I decided that we would spend a few days there and I could get my open water certification.

There are many outfits on the Sariee Beach, the main backpacker beach. After evaluating a few, I chose Phoenix Divers mainly because they had a nice looking restaurant and had a pool for Ian to hang out in. Most places wanted 9800 baht for the certification plus free accommodation on the course days. We took a discounted AC bungalow near the pool from the AC Resort for 400 a night and the course was only 8500. This was only $270, a steal compared to the US and I was diving in the Gulf of Thailand rather then the Boston Chinatown YMCA pool.

The course was entertainingly led by Christophe, a Flemish former boys boarding school principle turned SCUBA instructor who told well-timed fart jokes. There were only 5 people in our class which I didn't realize at the time was such a bonus until I saw some of the other outfits with 12 - 20 students. One of the highlights of the whole experience was meeting other travelers.

We went on four excellent dives. One of the other students, Marek, a communications major from Germany, took hundreds of photos of the dives, some of which I posted on Flickr. The amount of fish and diversity of coral was truly stunning. The visibility was perfect, and despite being monsoon season, had no rain. Since Koh Tao is a very young diving area, there were no places with anchor damage or trash. I hope they are able to keep it that way.

The beach itself was pleasant, though this should not be the sole purpose from coming here. The walking brick street was lined with many low-key resorts, Thai and international resturants, and bars. There were a fair amount of people around, so usually a few of the bars would be packed with the fire-twirlers providing much of the entertainment. The only downside about the AC Resort was that it had a totally empty bar that blasted techno until at least 5 AM every night. I heard that it would get crowded later with Thais, but I never saw a sole in there.

Now I'm finally legal. Open water in Flordia and Aruba here I come!

- Nisha

Book Corner II

2007-11-20T10:29:00.000-05:00

I have continued with my increased reading level since the last version of this column, so I thought I would catch up with what I have read since.

The Age of Kali - William Dalrymple

Nisha found this book first, and after hearing much about it I decided to keep on the Indian theme after the Gandhi autobiography. This book was also nice because it is a collection of short articles, so many stories almost read like a long Economist article.

Basically this book is a collection of stories from the premier English language author on India today, written as he was researching stories for books in the mid 90s. It is a little out of date because it portrays India as teetering on the edge of oblivion, when we now now that they following 12 years were one of the most prosperous in its history. However, the stories are very well written, and give a lot of insight into the darker sides of rural, traditional India. Also, there is a very interesting section on Pakistan that is very topical since it was written before 9/11.

My only real complaint with the book is that the author is certainly very sentimental, especially with the old coots who tell him tails of India many years ago. He is a historical fiction writer, so it is understandable, but he does not bring any prospective to the old tales of the glory of Lucknow, Hyderabad, etc. before independence. Things may have been better in those cities back in the day, but reading this book you would think the streets were paved in gold and the tap water was wine.

This is really my only complaint however, and this book really is a great way to get a lot of interesting history about the entire subcontinent. Just keep a little prospective on the ramblings of old men.

The Ramayana - R. K. Narayan

The Ramayana is one of the big epics of Hinduism and is referenced in paintings, songs and pretty much everything that has to do with Indian culture. Since I knew so little about it I looked around a bookshop and found this shortened English version of the epic written by a prominent Indian author. At only around 150 pages I figured it would we worth while to get a little background on Hinduism and read this book.

It reads a lot like the Roman and Greek mythology that you read in school. It is a tale of gods having fantastic battles in a mythical version of India. The story itself is a pretty basic tale of god meets girl, marries girl, rival god steals girl, good god takes girl back. It is somewhat entertaining, and does let you understand a lot more about Indian art and culture.

However, I did feel a little empty after reading it. Perhaps it is because it is so shortened, but even though I now know they basics of the Rama story, I do not really understand why it is of such great significance. Perhaps reading the whole epic makes the significance more clear, for me it was just a bunch of gods running around doing a bunch of stuff. Anyway, I found it to be useful, and brief, reading, but all in all, not essential.

Shalimar the Clown - Salman Rushdie

I know Salman Rushdie is mostly known in the US for his issues with the Ayatollah in the 80s, but as Nisha discovered, he should be known for his writing.

This book is the sordid tale of an American ambassador and a group of Kashmiri entertainers, spanning the trouble in Kashmir since Indian independence. It does a great job of being a real page turner, as well as feeling like literature. It also feels quite current since it deals with some of the issues of Islamic extremism that we deal with today.

The story is great in of itself, but the real star is Rushdies writing. His style is so fresh and modern, without being shallow. The first part of the book is one of the best constructed character introductions I have ever read. The whole story is set up as digressions to the climax of the book, which is at the beginning, intertwined with a fair amount of sarcasm and pop culture references. The rest of the book that follows is written in a more straight forward manner, but is still a tour de force.

Highly recommended.

Tai-Pan - James Clavell

After a time away from the big books, and in preparation for going to Hong Kong, I decided to tackle another James Clavell beast.

Tai-Pan is based in Hong Kong, 240 years after Shogun, but was actually written 9 years earlier. I will not hide the fact that I like James Clavell. I once again found this book to be an entertaining, swashbuckling, historical fiction romp. As reading Shogun makes you want to go to Japan, this book certainly increases your interest in Hong Kong.

Shogun and Tai-Pan are very similar. However, I would suspect that if you asked Clavell, he would tell you that the lessons he learned writing Tai-Pan were used to make improvements in Shogun. Probably the greatest thing about Shogun is how he seamlessly weaves together the many different characters and plot lines. Also, in Shogun the main protagonist is not the most important character to history, but rather an important bit player, which allows him to both look in the mind of Toranaga (the Shogun) but also leave him shrouded in mystery.

Tai-Pan is more of a standard novel, where the hero is the most important guy, and the whole book is pretty much focused around him. There are a lot of characters, but the vast majority of the writing is from the prospective of the Tai-Pan (meaning "big boss" in Chinese). It is still entertaining, but lacks the artfulness that brings Shogun to the next level.

If you want to read one Clavell book, I would still say to read Shogun first. It is the first one chronologically anyway.

Throwing a Few Brickbats

2007-11-20T09:28:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to publicly call out a couple of places in Thailand for what I thought was sub-standard service.

THE WAVE SAMUI

This place was written up in Lonely Planet as the only backpacker type place in Hat Chawang, and the best value in the area. All I can say is that the writer of Lonely Planet must be the owners buddy, because this was my experience:

- An AC room is 800 Baht (a lot for a backpacker joint in Thailand) and is in a concrete building on the main road. At least when we were there, numerous bungalows with beach access could be had for the same amount of money, meaning this is in no way a good deal.

- They have a cockroach problem. I had to kill 2 in our room and when we went downstairs early in the morning before things were open and I saw several scurrying out of our way into the kitchen.

- We got our room and the Thai staff said it was OK for us to come down later to fill in the forms and formally check in. Very standard practice in Asia. We went out to get dinner and did not get back until 11:45. We should have checked in before we left but forgot, but usually in Asia this is no big deal. When we came back to the hotel at 11:45 the western owner busted our balls about how he could not believe we did that, etc. I understand we should have filled out the form, but he made this big deal about how since our bags were there with no form he could get in trouble with the police. Yeah right, that is what Thai police are really looking into 24 hours a day. If it such a big deal with him he should take it out on his Thai staff who let us have the key without checking in.

- Now that it was 11:45 and we had no place to stay he told us that we needed to leave a passport with him. I do not leave my passport with anyone, but he had us by the balls in this situation. When we complained he told us that it was the law on Ko Samui that he had to have a passport for us. This was a lie, the Marriott did not require any passport and I am pretty sure they do things by the book. He just wanted the passport as a security deposit, which is his right but is BS, however, someone should have told us this earlier and we would have gone someplace else.

- There is a stocked fridge and snacks in the room, which is nice. However, he makes you count all the stuff, and there are about 50 items, yourself, and sign this affidavit that everything is there when you check in. What a pain. If you want to run a mini-bar then make sure you count everything yourself. Also, he was charging double restaurant rates for a beer, this was approaching Marriott prices, in a hostel type place. What a rip.

- There is a really loud hooker bar across the street, it is open all night.

SONGSERM FERRY/BUS SERVICE

We needed to get from Ko Tao on the east side of the Thai isthmus to Krabi on the west side. These routes are notorious for bus scams, but we needed to make the trip so I held my breath and bought a 750 Baht ferry/bus combo ticket in Ko Tao. I was shown a picture of the ferry that we would take as well as a large bus that would serve the bus portion of the ticket. I specifically asked if the bus was a big bus or a minibus, I was told big. The ferry part started out OK, the ferry was older and pretty low budget, but perfectly serviceable and fine. After 6 hours (the advertised time) we arrived in Surat Thani on the mainland.

This is where the problem started because rather then a real bus to Krabi we ended up in a minibus (like the big van you take to away games in high school) packed to the brim with backpackers. This was not honest, but at least the ride was OK. The driver was not a maniac, they had DVD movies, and we got the front two seats, which were reasonably comfortable.

My big beef was when we got to Krabi. They drop you off at their little van depot, which is basically just a confined space for accommodation touts to harass you while you try to get your bags off the van. These were Indian style touts as well, very persistent, and honestly a pretty shady crew. The people there also tried not to tell you where you were, so you would not know that you are only .5km from town and do not need their "free" taxi ride. We finally did find out we could walk to town and left.

On the way out I tell the last persistent tout that "I was not going to do any business here". Thais are big about saving face, so you cannot get really mean like in India without people getting upset. However, I thought this was a rather diplomatic way of taking a parting shot before leaving, certainly not telling anyone to "F... Off" or anything like that. Anyway, this greasy slime-bag of a tout follows me for a bit acting all offended and telling me that I better leave quickly. After hearing stories about groups of offended Thais and tourists I decided to walk away, albeit slowly. This last part did not make me any happier about being dropped of in this hornets nest of low life touts however, especially thin skinned ones who evidently cannot be treated with anything but the upmost respect.

Shout-Out to my Shout-Out

2007-11-18T08:07:00.000-05:00

I finished day 3 of the 4 day SCUBA certification course today. There is some really amazing diving off this little island of Koh Tao. We both have been having a great time just soaking up the sun and scenery. We joke that India was the "work" part of or trip and this is the "vacation" part. After we head to our 5th beach, one of us will write a blog detailing them all for the sake of anyone preparing for a trip to Thailand.

Since October 3rd, there has been a steady stream of hits from another blog to my post about women in the Delhi papers. If you would like to know more about the status of women in Delhi, check out this interesting blog. It's written by a woman, about whom I can't glean much information from the blog, who is interested in many of the social issues that Ian and I observed in India as well. I believe she may be a fellow Bengali since she wrote a nostalgic post about Durga Puja intertwined artfully with larger social commentary.

- Nisha

Take me home, country road...

2007-11-18T04:27:00.000-05:00

In the category of things that you would never expect, it is a little known fact that Thailand is in love with elevator music.

Not that I have any big problem with John Denver, but I have heard his songs more in the last 3 weeks then in the previous 3 years at home. The most humorous rendition being from our guide as we walked though the jungle north of Chiang Mai. In fact, we just missed the big John Denver tribute concert scheduled in Chiang Mai later this month.

Mix tapes of 70s and 80s elevator music hits are de rigueur at most classy establishments. If you are lucky these songs are the original versions. If you are not so lucky they are instrumental versions, or even worse, covers sung by a lesser quality Thai singer.

This seems strange until you hear Thai popular music. Basically the only Thai music I have ever heard played sounds like 80s elevator music with Thai lyrics. The stuff is truly horrid and the couple of videos I have seen on TV are even worse. Perhaps this music helps foster the chill, laid-back and happy vibe that people love about Thailand. That being said, I would take some brooding US or UK music any day of the week.

Ants, Frogs, and Hooker Bars

2007-11-17T08:14:00.000-05:00

I know that I have already posted a blog about our accommodation. However, it was early in our India travels and Thailand has opened up new frontiers in the pitfalls of the cheap hotel.

Rarely are we staying in places that we have a reservation. This is just not that kind of trip. Generally, we read about the accommodation in the Lonely Planet, have a place or two in mind, and then head there when we show up in a new city. Ian or I will stay with the bags while the other one goes to look at the room.

Each of us have a few things that we look for in a room that are essential - a bed, toilet, shower head, and sink. We both ask a few things of the proprietor as well - is there hot water, and is there electricity? Bonus items are a view, windows, a TV, fridge, a shower separate from the toilet room, bedding of any kind, and towels. However, Thailand has a few oddities about the accommodation, which reflect the cheap backpacker clientele that frequents these joints. Here are a few of the more bizarre things we have come across, that never occured to me to ask or look for:

- the presence or absence of a toilet tank - I need to write an entire blog dedicated to this. I could not believe the toilet situation could get worse after India, but it has. (multiple places)
- the presence of a loud hooker bar across the street (Ko Samui)
- a frog pond under the bungalow that sounds like a symphony of off-key oboes (Ko Tao)> I had to sleep with ear plugs in.
- beds that look like mattresses but feel like plywood (Ko Tao)
- Bollywood music being played in the hallway all night (Goa)
- using terry tablecloths blankets (Ayatthuya)
- ant swarms (every beach place)

Just thought you would appreciate the tip next time you are in the market for the $15 hotel in Thailand or India.

By the way, there are many new pics up today.

- Nisha

India

2007-11-17T08:03:00.000-05:00

It has taken a while, but I finally wanted to say a few things about India now that I have been gone for a few weeks.

First of all, what you would probably expect is true. India is usually dirty, smelly, ugly, hot, crowded and often very aggravating. When you are hot and dusty and getting ripped off by an auto-wallah you can easily hate the place, and swear that you will never return. However, at the end of nine weeks there is kind of felt like home. In fact, sitting at a touristy bar in Chiang Mai, eating the BBQ that we craved for so long, Nisha and I spent an hour commiserating about how much we missed India and how we should have spent more time there.

The thing I miss most about India is the energy. Everything in India is going at 100 miles per hour, 24 hours a day. It reminds me of how you think of the US in the first half of the 20th century. The power of the masses in incredible. If there is money to be made, someone is busy trying to make it. If there is vacant land, someone is building something on it. A middle class is developing, and many people are getting their first cell phones, modern appliances, cars and refrigerators. A country and a people who have been considered second rate and easily oppressed are finally rising to their rightful place in the world, and relishing in the new found respect that they now command.

In the mist of this is a culture which has not completely reconciled its present and future with its past. The fingerprints of the ancient religion are everywhere. Your driver may be driving a brand new car and chatting on his brand new cell phone, but there is probably still a Ganesh idol glued to the dashboard. English is the language of India's former oppressors, but in a lot of ways has become the language which binds the country together, and is the tongue that will lead to its future prosperity. Even when cheap DVD players are all the rage in Delhi, they still might be carried on a bullock cart to their destination.

There are still challenges to be overcome. First of all, how to manage the relations between the Hindu majority and the 13% of the country which is Muslim will continue to be a challenge. I have no idea how they will spread the prosperity of the white collar workers in Bangalore, who have no problem renting a Keralan houseboat for the weekend with a big screen TV and a cooler of beer, with the peasant rice farmers that they cruise so casually by. The thing that I find most important is do deal with is the national inferiority complex. Often people seem content with a substandard product or experience when it is created in India. At some point people need to expect that Indians can make as good a car, program a computer as efficiently or make a shower floor that drains just as well as everyone else in the world.

From seeing what I have seen, I do believe that they will be successful. I think a momentum that has been started cannot be stopped. The force of 1.2 billion people in a global economy is too great not to make progress.

The other thing I miss is the adventure. Even the most touristy area of India is not half as developed as the average place in Thailand. Once you get off the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur circuit, plus the Euro havens of Goa and Leh, you really are immersed in India. It is not that there are not the occasional western person around, but no place in India can exist just to entertain the westerners passing through. India is just too big and the number of tourists is just too small. It is probably similar to being a tourist in the US. A city like New York may have a fair number of tourists, but the city does not exist for them alone.

In addition, although the popularity of the English language may make you suspect differently, India is a culture that has not been westernized as much as most would think. Bollywood music is still pretty much all there is in India, their own movies are all anyone really watches and the only sport is Cricket. Their religion is unique to the subcontinent and is so different from the monotheistic faiths that we are used to. It even goes down to little things. Indians do not smile for pictures and do not think that reading over someones shoulder in the Internet cafe is the slightest bit rude.

In all this movement and chaos, I did start to really feel at home. They had a Hindi channel in the Renaissance Ko Samui and Nisha and I spent 2 hours watching Bollywood dancing during an awards show. It just seemed so much more normal and entertaining then the Thai stuff that they usually have on TV. The friendliness of the normal people, not the touts or the beggars or the auto-wallahs, is really what you miss however. The amount that Indians will sacrifice to make you feel welcome and at home is more then anyone else in the world. That, and their excitement for the future, is what I will take with me from our time there. I thank them, and their amazing country, for the great time that it was.

Another Quick Update

2007-11-16T23:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we moved to the SCUBA mecca of Ko Tao. Nisha is taking a 3 day course to get here certification, which she has wanted to get for a while. The island is pretty nice as well, not a total circus, but with plenty of internet and 7-Elevens. I will obviously have a lot of time on my hands the next couple of days, so I will get the chance to write a few things that I have been thinking about for a while.

Quick Update

2007-11-14T22:52:00.000-05:00

This is going to be really quick since Internet here is 2 Baht per minute.

Anyway, we left the circus at Hat Chawang to spend 2 nights at the Marriott Renaissance Ko Samui. This was us finally spending the Marriott points spoils of Nisha's hell year at Accenture in 1999-2000. The hotel was really top notch. Perfect little sand beach with people filling your water and ice tea cups all day. Nice pool and bar. Excellent food. Jacuzzi tub on your private porch. $20 per hour Internet?

Yes you read that right, thus, no blogging at the Marriott. Honestly, it was not easy to stay under our $100 a day budget, even with the free room. It is not near a town, so you have to eat there, and everything is at normal hotel prices.

From there we took the ferry to Ko Pha-Ngan, near Ko Samui, but known as a backpacker mecca. After having plenty of time to get to see European tourists and the hookers that love them, with the requisite 24/7 trance music, on Ko Smaui, we were looking for something a little more out of the way. We found it on Hat Khom, on the north side of the island. It is a little cove about a 20 minute walk down a jeep track from the fishing village on the north side of the island.

There are 4 little bungalow operations there with about 40 rooms total. All around 300-600 (10-20 dollars) Baht. Bungalows are basic, only have electricity during the night (they have to run a generator) and only cold water. Our porch with 2 hammocks is only 10m from the surf however, and the beach is very nice. Also, there are several little beach bars with good food and cheap Beer Chang. Perfect place to spend a couple of days to really get away from it all.

In fact, I had to walk 20 minutes just to get to this Internet I am using right now.

Random Thai Stuff

2007-11-10T08:50:00.000-05:00

A few random things about Thailand to small to put in their own article:

- Thailand is once again a country where two wheeled transportation is the norm for most of the country. However, due to the higher standard of living and ability for Japanese companies to operate directly in the country, they have standardized around a better sort of bike then the mixed bag that is in India. Most bikes in Thailand are Underbones (never heard this term before looking up the type of bike on wikipedia) such as the Honda Wave. These things are just about perfect developing country transport. They are small and very fuel efficient, but because of their better build quality and because they have gears, they are much more capable bikes then their Indian counterparts. We rented one in Chiang Mai for only 150 Baht a day (5 dollars) and it had no problem powering us up the 1000m meter mountain top road to see the big temple in the area.

- In Thailand and India, getting the bill at a restaurant is an incredible pain in the ass. It is not normal practice to have the "Can I get you anything else?" transaction at the end of a meal, and waiters will never bring the bill unless you explicitly ask for it. Couple this with the fact that most waiters stop paying much attention to you after your meal is done and this issue is a constant annoyance.

- On the flip side, Thailand is a great country to eat. They can get the ingredients for pretty much anything here and expats must be able to own businesses quite easily. We had pretty good Mexican, BBQ and burgers (outside of our usual Thai street food) in Chiang Mai. In Ko Samui, where we are now, we had Italian that would have been quite good even in the North End (at a place called La Taverna), with better Italian cured meat then you can get in the US. Pasta, pizza, glass of wine and a beer for around 20 dollars. Not a bad deal.

- We rented a little Hobie Bravo on the beach today, and I have to say I was impressed. This was the perfect beginner, just have fun, little sailboat. Nice fast ride, plus a roller reefing main, beer holders, a little cooler all on a tiny, sunfish size boat. Nice stable ride too, good for sitting in the sun. Might need to think about getting one of these at the lake if the lazer ever dies.

- In India we found that we tended to like the beaches that were called "overdeveloped" in the Lonely Planet because we found we liked having a little civilization on our beach. We also like truly deserted beached like Anegada and Diu as well, but the middle type, where there are enough beach motels to ugly up the place but no good places to eat is the worst of both worlds. However, were we are now, Hat Chaweng, on Ko Samui, is truly overdeveloped. The beach is great here, but this place is really a circus, with every inch of space up to the sand used for something. That mixed with the booming music of the Go-Go bars and the abundance of hookers gives the place a pretty trashy feel. You can also stay in a very nice resort here and eat Fillet Mignon, so it kind of runs the gamut. We did have a very nice day today, but after our free nights at the Marriott, we might need to try something a little quieter.

Stat Counter: Where are you all from and how did you find me??

2007-11-09T10:04:00.000-05:00

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will be excited by our stat count as much as we are. We finally crossed the 2500 hit-mark yesterday (also we didn't put up the counter until 3 weeks into the trip). Who else besides you is reading? Here are some of the stats:

- We get about 20 - 100 new or unique visits per day. There are about 5-7 of you that visit everyday.

Regular readers. I know who some of you are. For the others, we would love it if you left a comment telling us who you are.
- Baton Rouge
- Miami
- Lawarence MA
- San Francisco
- Sturbridge MA
- St Louis, MI
- Nagoya Japan
- Quebec City
- Rutland/Burlington VT
- Calcutta India
- Reston Virginia

Readers are from these countries (again the last 500 hits only):
43.65% United States
19.40% Thailand
14.32% India
5.77% Japan
5.31% Canada
3.46% Brazil
3.23% United Kingdom
2.08% Saudi Arabia
0.69% Ireland
0.23% Qatar
0.23% Mexico
0.23% France
0.23% Italy
0.23% Bahrain
0.23% Malaysia
0.23% Singapore

here is our reader map for the last 500 hits:

-We also get a report of the ways readers get to our site. Most search with google or blogger search. Here are some from the last 500 hits:
6 8.33% ywca hotel ooty review
4 5.56% tea estate managers
3 4.17% mutton kola
3 4.17% panki recipes
2 2.78% must have menues asian
2 2.78% impressions of chennai by americans
2 2.78% sundarbuns
2 2.78% nisha ian blog
2 2.78% onsen room
2 2.78% bihar food blog
2 2.78% nisha diu
1 1.39% like balloons
1 1.39% lonely planet vietnam beach
1 1.39% nisha check singapore
1 1.39% northindian food blog
1 1.39% classic cars in kolkata
1 1.39% asian women tight skin
1 1.39% ram sethu project tamil interest
1 1.39% sonar bangla tv channel,puja award
1 1.39% nisha sweets
1 1.39% indian newspapers
1 1.39% rough guide goa
1 1.39% mumbai chinatown
1 1.39% indians cleanliness
1 1.39% impressions of chennai
1 1.39% lights down in goa
1 1.39% authentic bihari recipes
1 1.39% india cleanliness
1 1.39% calcutta travel blog
1 1.39% cleanliness india
1 1.39% must have menus asian pakistani
1 1.39% trip to yakushima
1 1.39% nisha top teagarden
1 1.39% hiroshima museum
1 1.39% honda accord
1 1.39% delhi experience
1 1.39% indian chicken kathi rolls recipe
1 1.39% diu india lonely planet
1 1.39% indian junk
1 1.39% work life at chennai
1 1.39% nicest place in goa
1 1.39% nisha
1 1.39% udaipur hookers
1 1.39% hindu hot and cold foods
1 1.39% bengali sweets
1 1.39% bangkok travel blog
1 1.39% christian churches of siliguri, india
1 1.39% dal roti kochi
1 1.39% jaipur foot aidindia
1 1.39% bangkok prostitution
1 1.39% why does everyone wear yellow shirts in bangkok

- The most popular pages among the last 500 hits after the home page are:
45 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/lord-of-manor.html
26 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/must-have-food-in-india-part-ii.html
15 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/gleaming-calcutta.html
10 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/must-have-food-in-india-part-iii.html
9 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/11/last-of-indian-food.html
8 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/sweets-bengali-beer.html
7 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/09/lonely-planet-you-have-failed-me.html
7 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/11/new-dandiya-pictures.html
7 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/long-live-king.html
7 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/11/adventures-in-northern-thailand.html
6 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/09/women-in-papers.html
6 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/11/fight-night-bangkok.html
6 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/epic-tea-garden-post.html
5 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/09/indian-cleanliness.html
5 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/must-have-food-in-india-part-i.html

Thanks for reading. By visiting our site, you are coming along on our journey with us. We hope you like the pictures as well!

- Nisha

Planes, Trains and Songthaews?

2007-11-09T09:26:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to share the details of our 26 hour journey from Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand to Ko Samui, a resort island in southern Thailand. Hopefully this will be the longest travel day we ever need to subject ourselves to. For the record you can fly but it is at least 200 dollars a person, which our budget does not allow, so for under 100 dollars a person we did the following:

Thurs. 8th 15:00 - Take uneventful tuk-tuk ride to the train station.

Thurs. 8th 16:30 - Board overnight train to Bangkok in Chiang Mai. We have 2nd class sleeper, which is pretty nice, you do not have a private room, but you have your own private bunk. There is a nice wide bed and a guy comes out with fresh sheets and blankets and makes the bed for you. Had a good night sleep on the train.

Fri. 9th 7:00 - Get off train at Don Muang airport station. This is Bangkok's old airport with is only used for a few domestic flights, so spend a long time walking around the now abandoned international terminals to find the domestic terminal. Whole place feels like a time warp to 1988.

Fri. 9th 10:00 - Board flight to Surat Thani, the nearest mainland city to Ko Samui.

Fri. 9th 11:30 - Get off plane and get on bus to take us to downtown Surat Thani.

Fri. 9th 12:00 - Arrive in Surat Thani and get lunch of fabulous roast duck from a local Thai street type place. Also, get combined bus/ferry ticket to Ko Samui.

Fri. 9th 13:30 - Board bus to take us the 55km to the ferry. Nisha unintentially pisses off English girl behind us by reclining in the seat to take a nap. Brit bitches under her breath and we laugh about her later. I guess only she has the right to recline her seat on a bus.

Fri. 9th 15:00 - Arrive at ferry dock and get on ferry to Ko Samui. It is an old Japanese setup, so it takes me a minute to figure out why I know what some of the signs mean even though I don't speak Thai. Good to know a little of my Japanese stuck.

Fri. 9th 17:00 - Arrive at Ko Samui. Can't pay 500 Baht for cab to take us across the island to Chaweng beach, so take a songthaew for 100 Baht each. We are the last ones on so Nisha gets a seat and I end up standing on the tailgate platform hanging on to the roof rack bars, with a local Thai guy. This is actually a much better place to be since Nisha ends up being squished by the same difficult English girl from the bus.

Fri. 9th 18:30 - Our 40 minute ride to the other side of the island takes and hour and a half due to flooding from the recent rains. Really aggravating when you are in town for 30 minutes but don't want to get off since you can't figure out where you are. Finally check in to hotel.

We were mentioning on the way that this trip would be my Mom's worst nightmare. Not only because of all the modes of transportation, but the fact that only on the train and the plane did we actually have reservations.

Needless to say, a day of bumming around on the beach is going to feel pretty good.

Mobile Dining

2007-11-07T07:27:00.000-05:00

There is no such thing as an authentic Thai restaurant.

OK, that might be a strong statement, but the dining culture around Thai food is really something quite unique. In the first 10 days we have been here we have not seen a "Thai" restaurant that does not cater almost exclusively to foreigners. Rather, Thai food is almost exclusively served in numerous carts which appear on the streets sometimes at lunch time but usually around dusk. Some carts are free standing, but others are a scooter sidecar. The carts are also thankfully accompanied by plastic chair and table setups, also on the street. At most there are restaurants that are just a few tables in a storefront which has a permanent kitchen set up on the sidewalk.

It is very strange because there seems to be no fancy Thai food. Everything at all these places only costs 20 to 40 baht (50 cents to a little over a dollar). Don't get me wrong, the food is often very good, but it is unusual that eating with motorbikes and buses buzzing past you is the pinnacle of authentic Thai food, at least outside of someones house.

The other odd thing is that many places, especially the ones that are a storefront with a sidewalk kitchen, do not have a menu. It seems that basically Thais just walk up and order something from a list of standard Thai dishes that everyone should know how to make. It is almost like going to someones house and someone just asking you what you would like, assuming you know the ingredients that are present in the average American kitchen and what is reasonable to cook.

The best approach we have been able to take when eating at the food carts is to first walk down the sidewalk behind the row. If you cannot read the signs telling you what type of cart each one is, the affords you the opportunity to see what equipment and ingredients they have, and what type of food they likely prepare. For example, if there is a big vat of broth, it is likely a noodle soup cart. If they have a big wok, then they probably specialize in fried rice and pad Thai. Hotel trays of curry mean that curry of top of rice is a popular option.

I know to people at home it probably seems gross to be eating, very often, from food carts in a developing country. However, so far we have had a lot of luck with these carts, never having any problems at all. The one nice thing, and perhaps why Thais consider this the normal means of dining out, is that you can very clearly see the cleanliness of the area where the food is prepared. Usually it is very clean, much better then most Indian or low end American restaurant kitchens that I have snuck a peek into.

The only catch is what happened to Nisha when she was hungry. She pointed at a cart of fruit and said she wanted to go over and have a snack. However, before we made it over the proprietor fired up his scooter, and the sidecar full of fruit was soon speeding down the road.

Adventures in Northern Thailand

2007-11-06T21:57:00.000-05:00

After Ayutthaya, we headed to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city and the cultural capital. This, like Goa, was on everyone's "must see" list of Thailand. On paper and in the book it sounded great - an abundance of outdoor activities, plenty of bars, and a laid-back atmosphere. What this amounted to was a sort of European spring-break. Do you really need to walk around a foreign country in your swim trunks? There is no beach for hundreds of miles. Initially, we planned to do a 2-3 day trek or bike ride. However, we didn't feel comfortable with the types of tours available. Many of them read like this:

Day 1: trek through Long Neck village, bamboo raft down a river, see elephants at work, sleep in a Lisu village.
Day 2: visit Monkey Farm, trek through Big Ear tribal village, mountain bike through national forest, swim in waterfalls, sleep in Hmong village.
Day 3: more of the same

You get the picture. Too many activities, too long on a tour bus for our liking. We rented a car and took a road trip north with no particular destination in mind, only a Northern Thailand road map.

Our first stop was in interesting orchid farm. I can't believe I even try to grow orchids in New England after seeing their success. Next was the Queen's Botanical gardens. The first thing I would do if I were Queen after abolishing poverty and disease, would be to decree such a spectualr botanical garden. The place was about 100 artfully and naturally manicured acres featuring waterfalls, a herbal walking trail, and glass houses. The highlight were the several glass greenhouses holding an orchid collection, desert landscape, carnivorous plant house, water garden, and bromielad house among a few. The tropical greenhouse held a specimen of the largest palm tree in the world.

We stayed at a lovely bungalow style guest house called Malee's, with a killer Thai buffet at night made by Malee herself. We started our explorations of Chiang Dao with a visit to the famous caves and then a dip in the natural hot springs.

It is evident from being in Thailand for a short time that their love for the King and Queen is rivaled by their love of elephants, their national animal. Many Thais have turned this love into a business. There are at least a dozen "elephant training camps" around the Chiang Mai province. Some of these are actually conservation centers that have hospitals and work on elephant husbandry. We tried to sign up for a 3 day course with the Thai Elephant Conservation Center but they were full. However, the majority of these seem to be the Thai version of an elephant circus. We visited the Chiang Dao Elephant Camp with some trepidation as I had heard that elephants in some of the camps are mistreated, but I wanted to see for myself. The elephants did look healthier than your average city living elephant in India. They were in a very natural setting, no concrete and plenty of water and food. The morning was spent watching the elephants bathe, feeding them, and then were were presented with basically an elephant circus. They raised the flag, bowed for us, moved logs around, picked up trash to demonstrate the agility with their trunk, and painted.

The part I have a problem with is that these are billed as "elephants at work" by every Thai person. I saw no working or training. Also, why when logging with elephants has been banned for 100 years in Thailand, do these animals need to work? The elephants at the Mudumalai park at least were moving logs to be used as fuel for their own dinner. They actually had work to do as well - to herd wild elephants away from villages. There are no wild elephants in this area or logging. How is using a endangered animal to pick up trash training??? Of course money is the motivating factor. These elephant camp stops are on every tour and the vast majority of the people there were on a tour. Also, if it was called a circus, no one would want to come. I am glad that they are treating the animals well, births are occurring, and they are raising awareness for the animals. If you go to a camp, just know that you are really going for a circus show.

On the same note as the elephant circus, visiting the tribal villages seeming like a human circus. There are about 8 different tribal villages that have settled in this area from Tibet, China, and Myanmar. The government has either provided them with refugee camps or land dotted with villages. The Long Neck village is actually a village of Burmese refugees near the border that wear many gold rings around their necks. I was interested in visiting a few of the villages. However, I don't know if it is the bad translation of the brochures, but all the treks made it out to seem that you were visiting a human zoo or circus. Instead we hired a local guide in Chaing Dao and visited a few villages in the hills around our guest house. They were the poorest people I have seen in Thailand so far. There were 5 different tribal villages on the same road that all spoke a different language. All their kids went to the same school to learn Thai, which will probably result in the death of their indigenous languages. They all lead agrarian village lives and supplement their income from selling their colorful textiles to tourists.

Our guide's friend named Mr. Moon, then lead us on a trek through the jungle near Chiang Dao mountain. As it had raining the previous 3 days, the waterfalls were beautifully swollen and the paths muddy. Both Ian and I had the feeling that we were in an American Vietnam War movie. Actually, the Deer Hunter was filmed near here. There was no Charlie to shoot at us, only Mr. Moon who showed us how to make a potato-gun-like device out of 3 pieces of bamboo.

With so much to do in Chiang Dao, we never made it farther. But the beauty of the road-map-road-trip is the found in the journey.

- Nisha

Those Ransaking Burmese

2007-11-06T21:56:00.001-05:00

After showing up with Delhi Belly, Ian and had a slow start into Thailand. We saw a few of the temples and the Grand Palace (like Thailand's Buckingham Palace) while waiting for our visa to Vietnam to be granted. The largest draw was the world's biggest reclining Buddha, so enormous that he can barely fit in the building. Bangkok was a pleasant, clean city with horrendous traffic and a pleasant backpacker's neighborhood (Banglamphu) that looked like Bourbon street with more hookers.

Our first stop out of the city was the sacked city of Ayutthaya, one hour north of Bangkok. The spiritual and political capital of Thailand was here until the 1700's when it was ravaged by the invading Burmese. Not only did they torch all the structures in the city and looted the gold, but they also went though the trouble of knocking down about half of the large brick and stone structures resulting in the still standing ones to lean as if in the middle of an earthquake. Thai archaeologists then unearthed some large vaults of gold and a relic from Buddha in the 1950's. However, the city was unable to protect itself from modern day looters and thieves who pilfered the rest of the treasures. It was a shady area to stroll through and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The most visited area was a stone Buddha head that has been overgrown by a Banyan tree at the Wat Phra Mahathat, a very sacred sign in Buddhism. Of course Ayutthaya has their ridiculously large Golden Buddha as well. I don't understand why Buddhism here is celebrated with such opulence when the teachings of Buddha, as I understand them, shun such displays of wealth. If anyone can shed some light on this, I would be appreciative.

Our next stop, Chaing Mai..

New Dandiya Pictures

2007-11-06T09:24:00.000-05:00

A friend that we met at the Dandiya in Chennai just emailed me some new pictures showing me dancing, Ian and me, and some of the costumes the guys wore.

Royal Envy?

2007-11-06T02:47:00.000-05:00

I know that I have written about this before, but the reverence for the King in Thailand is something that I have never seen before and had no idea existed before we arrived.

My first reaction to this omnipresence and love of the king was to have more of an understanding of how personality cults work. You are here for a little while and all of a sudden you start liking the king, and thinking that he must be a pretty great guy. This is not to say that he is not a great guy, but I really have not investigated enough to know. You just see everyone wearing their yellow shirts and putting their picture of the king in the nicest spot in their business and think, "How could all these people be wrong? If everyone loves the king so much, then I should probably like the king too".

The thing that is even more convincing is that the reverence of the king is not forced, like North Korea, et al., but rather people seem to really like him. It is not like you have to wear the yellow shirt, or put up his picture, but people genuinely seem to like to do so. Some things are certainly done by the government, like the billboards, or the parade in Ching Mae of school kids wishing him well in his current illness. But even the school kids seemed to really take the parade seriously and liked being there.

The other thing Nisha and I have talked about is a kind of jealously that we have no figure to look up to as much as Thais look up to their king. The thing about the king is that he is not a pure figurehead, like most modern monarchs. My understanding is that he does still have a role in politics, but it is more of a guiding force, then day to day politics and administration. Thus he has this role of watching over the country, without having to delve into the mud pit where the politicians must reside.

One might say that we in the US had this type of reverence of the president, but I do not think it was ever as intense as Thais have for the king. Even before the down and dirty politics of the Clinton and Bush eras diminished the reverence for the president, the president was still a politician. As such he must be in involved in the nasty business of politics and sling mud like everyone else. To some degree it must be nice to have a person who embodies the guiding force of the nation, while being able to stay above the fray.

Bobby Jindal and Mistaken Pride

2007-11-06T02:04:00.000-05:00

Note - I have wanted to write about this for a long time, but was held up by other things. Anyway, I know I am a little behind the current events, but I still wanted to write it.

Early on when we were in India we were astonished by the amount of news coverage given to the visit of US astronaut Sunita Williams to Gujarat. We did not think that there was anything particularly wrong with celebrating the achievements of Ms. Williams, but the level of attention seemed a little excessive for the visit of a half Indian American who had spent her entire life in the US. This was our introduction to this strange Indian need to celebrate people who achieved things in other parts of the world and have even the slightest ties to India. As I would later read, Norah Jones was also followed very closely when she was at the top of the US music world.

Fast forward to the election of Bobby Jindal as governor of Louisiana. As we had expected, the election of this 2nd generation Indian was a topic of news coverage, conversation and even a celebration in his ancestral town in Punjab. All this was despite the fact that most Indians had no idea who he is or what he stands for. In fact, people were extremely surprised when we would tell them that he is in the same political party as George Bush, who is not exactly a popular figure in India.

People had heard only a little at most of his story. For those unaware, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is the son of parents who immigrated to Baton Rouge in the 70s. His real Indian name is very rarely heard and he has never visited the place where his family is from. He converted to Catholicism when he was 14 (although I have on good authority that this conversion was unknown at least one member of the Baton Rouge Indian community at the time, leading me to question the real timing, as such a thing as a little Indian boy going to church alone would seem to be a topic of conversation). In his later achievements and political career his background has been de-emphasized. Rumor has it he even asks his Indian supporters in Louisiana not to wear traditional Indian dress to his fund raisers, as pictures of him with people in traditional dress may appear in the media. When we were watching his acceptance speech on TV we could barley contain our laughter at his now strong southern accent, which is not a common trait among Ivy League educated 2nd generation Indian kids. In short his Indian heritage seems to be something for him to run away from, not a source of any pride.

None the less, I am not actually here to rip Bobby Jindal for doing what he had to do to advance his career. It is certainly everyone right to assimilate to the US culture as much as they want, after all I do not know any Eastern European languages or dances, I have an English name and am not Eastern Orthodox. I do find the ferocity that he has rejected Indian culture a little drastic however, if I was running for office and someone wanted to bring Perogies to a fund raiser I would not stop them.

The thing I actually find more disturbing is that Indians will waste time trying to love and admire someone who rejects his connection to them. On the day we left several writers from the Times of India were finally getting around to addressing this. I share their opinion, that India needs to reserve its energy for supporting its own heroes, not lionising people for whom blood is their only lasting connection.

I would rather drink with an elephant then a skinny bird

2007-11-04T03:56:00.000-05:00

As you may have read previously, I was getting pretty sick of Kingfisher beer when I left India. Thankfully the situation in Thailand is a lot better.

They still have tariffs here that make only a small collection of beers reasonably priced. The ones that you see everywhere are Singha, Chang, Leo, Heineken and Tiger (from Singapore). They are all decent, sweet Asian beers, but more like the ones in Japan then the sickly sweet stuff they drink in India.

The beautiful thing is that, at least in my opinion, the best tasting, strongest and cheapest is "Beer Chang". They run only 60/40 Baht (big/regular) in most bars. Also, they have the coolest label I have ever seen, with my favorite animal on it.

I may be eating my words in a month when I am sick of these, but for now I can't get enough.

Update (6/11/07) - I found out that "Chang" actually means elephant in Thai, now I like it even better "Elephant Beer".

Last of the Indian Food

2007-11-01T05:56:00.000-04:00

Check out the new post here.

Fight Night Bangkok

2007-11-01T04:50:00.000-04:00

In keeping with my love of seeing live sports in the countries we visit, as well as seeing how accurate the martial arts movies are on TBS late at night, seeing a Thai Boxing (or Muay Thai) match in Bangkok was an essential part of my visit.

The quick verdict is yes, boxing in Thailand does pretty much look like it does in the movies. As for the details, read on.

Evidently there is boxing pretty much every night in Bangkok, but since I wanted to go on a Tuesday, the place to go is Lumpini Stadium. Nisha did feel like going, or spending the money for a ticket, so I ventured out alone. After a fun tuk-tuk ride through rush hour traffic and then a brief ride on Bangkok's shiny new subway, I arrived at the stadium, which was off the side of a normal big city street. As I expected from the Lonely Planet, a English speaking host who works for the stadium intercepted me on the sidewalk and directed me to the ticket window after showing me photos of the different classes of seats and handing me a one page English program. I am not sure how the system works, but foreigners have to go to these windows where tickets are 2000/1500/1000 baht for Ringside/2nd Class/3rd Class seating. Thais have some way of getting in paying a lot less, but sometimes in Asia you just have to accept that you are getting ripped off to get into something cool. Anyway, I went for the cheapest seat, which as I learned in Japan, is where the real fans at any event sit.

To fuel myself for the fight I wolf down two pork skewers and a Beer Chang at a cart near the gate and head on in. The stadium is circular and probably holds around 3,000 people at capacity. It looks like you would expect from the movies. There is a ring in the middle and rickety wooden stands rising up around the central floor. The ringside seats are separated from the 2nd class stands by a chain link fence and the stands are similarly separated half way up between the 2nd and 3rd class. The whole thing is covered by a tin roof that is as low as it can be while still allowing everyone to see. There are numerous iron posts for the roof around the arena, meaning that almost every seat has an obstructed view.

When I walk in the stands are around 1/2 full. At ringside the seats are quite sedate and are filled with many westerners. The 2nd class is a smattering of westerners and a lot of normal looking Thai guys. Where I am in 3rd there are a few westerners and a mix of normal and sleazy looking Thai guys. To my dismay they only seem to have beer girls at ringside, so the only concession up in my section is a woman with a cooler of soft drinks and bags of chips. For reasons I would figure out later about 50% of the crowd is in a one quarter slice of the stands around the ring, in both 2nd and 3rd class seating. This means it is pretty crowded in one section while the slice that I hung out in and another were half full and one slice was mostly empty.

We are on the 3rd fight of the night out of 10 with the main event being fight 8. All the fights go down in the same sequence. First the boxers enter the ring and there is a 3 minute dance ritual where each boxer does his pre fight routine. All the dances are different, but the usually involve some bowing to the corner posts, bouncing on their knees on the ground and ofter some swan like positions held for each section of the crowd. There is a band that accompanies this with rather quiet drum, chime and flute music. After this the boxers go to their corner and have their ceremonial head band removed and some water ritually splashed on them by the trainer.

After this the fight is on, but for some reason, perhaps strategy, or to facilitate betting, the first two rounds of every fight would be pretty dull, with both boxers just feeling each other out. With every break in rounds however, the betting does get more frenzied. Unlike the movies I did not see any bookies with big fistfuls of Baht, or anything like that. Rather, when people want to make a bet they put a hand in the air with a different number of fingers up and the bookies in the crowd would acknowledge them and write down the bets. In the first few round breaks there would only be a few people with their hands up, but as the fight went on eventually the breaks would be a frenzy of yelling and hands in the air.

Also as the fights went on the action in the ring would heat up. Usually by the 5th and final rounds kicks and punches would be flying at dizzying pace. One nice thing about Thai boxing is that even when the fighters are clenched, they still use their legs and knees to deliver blows, so the action never stops. Also, as the fights goes on the entire crowd comes to its feet and all the people who gambled on a fighter make a "Ahhhh" sound when a blow is delivered. By the end of the 5th the sound is very loud.

Some of the fights were better then others, a lot seem to involve very small boxers, only a little over 100 lbs. The heavier fights were a little more entertaining. Only one KO occurred, and as in Soccer a stretcher team instantly appeared and hauled the loser out of the ring.

Overall, very fun experience. A little expensive, but worth seeing if you are in Bangkok.

Bangkok - Improved? Underrated?

2007-10-31T05:30:00.000-04:00

We left Bangkok today and I have to say, I was impressed. After all various things I have heard about Bangkok over the years from people and from stories in books and the press I was expecting very little from Bangkok. Perhaps I misunderstood people, but I was expecting a real developing nation dump of a city with beggars, touts, shanty towns and disgusting amounts of hookers.

In fact Bangkok is a lot closer to a low rent Japan then it is to Delhi. We were only in town for a couple of days and only saw Siam Square and Banglamphu but here are a few opinions:

- Pretty civilized roads and traffic by developing country standards. There a lots of elevated interstate type roads and the rest of the roads in the city are well maintained. Regular cars follow western standards of driving, the exception is that the tuk-tuks (Thai Autorickshaws) and motorbikes have a lot more leeway, weaving in and out of traffic when it is slow.

- All streets have wide sidewalks. This may not seem like that big a deal, but once you have been in India, it is.

- If you have been away from civilization for a while, or are in need of counterfeit anything, the very clean Siam Square area is excellent. We went to a very polished new shopping mall and another called MBK that was basically a 6 floor mall of little stores selling counterfeit goods. This was obviously very crowded with Europeans and Thai teens.

- Banglamphu is the backpacker/budget tourist zone of Bangkok. It is most definitely a tourist trap, but at least it is a good tourist trap. There are 500 baht (15 dollar) unglamorous AC rooms galor, and more Internet cafes and cheap food then you can possibly use. Also, pretty much every business is a place that has tables and sells beer, meaning that the main drags turn into a big, cheesy, other side of the world Bourbon street on most nights. There are also some classier drinking establishments in the area, including a blues bar we spent a long time at last night. I can see that if someone is trying to escape from the beaten path this area is probably very disappointing, but if you take it for what it is, it can be pretty fun.

- Touts, hawkers and beggars are very tame. When you are in Banglamphu you will occasionally get asked if you want a tuk-tuk, or to buy some trinkets. However, if you just say no, they go away without any trouble at all. These guys would get laughed at in India, where practically assaulting people with giant balloons is considered fair game. There is also the occasional beggar, but no more then in Boston, and they just sit on the curb with a cup. Not exactly the same as a crowd of unwashed kids who follow you for 20 minutes.

- At least in the section we were in it did seem that there was some prostitution going on, but at least it was pretty low-key. Only once did we actually see a bunch of obvious hookers standing on a street corner. It was more that you would see an inordinate number of white guy (usually British) and Thai woman couples walking the streets and in the bars. Maybe some of these were legit couples, but it was far too many for that to be true of all. Also, maybe these girls harass single guys more, but generally Nisha and I walk around together, so it is kind of obvious we are not interested.

- Metered Taxis in Bangkok are one of the best transportation deals in the world. For a 10km ride it is around 100 baht (3 dollars). This is usually in a relatively new Toyota with nice seats and AC. They are cheaper then an autorickshaw in India, but yet better then the rattle trap old police cars we have in Boston.

- The city is quite clean. Its not Tokyo or anything, but similar to your average US city.

- The traffic at rush hour is the worst I have ever seen. We took 90 minutes to go 4km at rush hour and still ended up walking the rest. If you must travel at rush hour it is better to take a tuk-tuk.

So, perhaps things have improved since some of the things I heard were true, or perhaps Bangkok got a bad rap from westerners who had no street smarts and got taken for a ride by a dishonest tuk-tuk driver. Either way, if you have a little experience traveling in a developing country, or honestly even in a big American city, I would not think you would have any problems in Bangkok. When you have survived some tourist traps in India like Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, Bangkok is like skiing on a green circle after a black diamond, very easy stuff.

Must Have Food in India Part III

2007-10-31T04:51:00.000-04:00

Alright, this is the last of the 3 posts about food you must try when visiting India. The first post covered our travels in the north, through Rajastan, Mumbai, Gujarat and Goa. The second post was dedacated to that amazing city of Kochi and focused on the resturant, Dal Roti. I have been assured by the owner Ramesh that the recipes I promised in that post would be up on his blog soon.

Below are my greatest hits from Chennai and Calcutta. Forgive me if I ramble on since I am Thailand now and am suffering from major Indian food withdrawl.

Mutton Kola Curry - I ate this curry for three straigt days in Chennai. It consisted of succlent tender minced lamb meat balls either served dry or in a curry gravy. The fiery gravy was thick with tomato and ground onion, as are most Indian gravies. The major differendce here was an even more libreal use of aromatics in the form of multiple eidble fresh curry leaves, cinnamon, cloves, and many other spices I could not identify. This is the best recipe I could find, but I am not sure if it will produce what we had. If anyone knows of a better one, please let me know! We washed the curry down with frech pineapple shakes and sopped it up with buttery parathas. Ponnusamay Hotel, Chennai

Ayurvedic Vegatarian Meal - This venerated Chennai establishment is also an ayurvedic center. They are a pure veg resturant (no eggs, meat, but dairy OK) that offer a special 26 course lunch. Each dish is to be eaten in a specific order. It started with 5 juices - date nut, beet, buttermilk, branwater, and I think banana. Next was the 4 raw vegatable salads, then 4 partially cooked salads, followed by 4 fully cooked dishes. This was all followed by 2 types of rice, 3 types of sambar (a falvorful lentil gravy ubiqutuois in South Indian meals), fianlyl a dessert of honey and payasam, a sweet. The most memorable vegatables was the banana flower salad. Only after this meal is finished is one to deink water, as this is thought to impair digestion. Not only did I not miss meat during meal, I felt better than ever. Of course, our dinner was Mutton Kola Curry. Sanjeevanam Vegatarian Health Restaurant, Chennai

Bengali Sweets - So Ian has already wrote a bit on the city-wide addiction of Bengalis to sweets in his previous blog. It is all true. There were times this Durga Puja season that we would eat Rasgullas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Not entirely by choice of course. How can you resist my Aunt Mya chasing you around with a clay pot full of them? Ian could not.

Most foodies are familiar with the Gulab Jamun, which is a deep fried, sugar water soaked ball of flour and milk solids. This is just the beginning. The king of all Indian sweets, the rassogolla or rusgulla, is a made from milk solids as well. It is not fried, but rather soaked in a warm rose water and sugar mixture. The sweet is usualy served cold or room temperature. These can be modified to include a small cane sugar ball in the core to increase the sweetness. I have seen them as large as a baseball, but normally they are 1 - 1.5 inches in diameter. The perfect rassogolla has a soft texture, a delicate rose taste, and should not be overpoweringly sweet. Once in Udaipur, I starving for them as I passed a sweet shop. I asked the owner for a rassogolla and was brought a small bowl from the back. While all the patrons watched me eat this sweet, I had to feign enjoyment while chewing this sqeaky ball of metallic tasting sweet cheese. He gave me a canned one and thought I couldn't tell!

I could go on and on about the staggering variety of Bengali sweets. What they can do with milk and sugar baffles me. But I would only mention one more - the ras malai. This is similar to a rassogolla but it is flat and soaked in saffron and cardomen flavored milk. Heavenly! If in Calcutta - try Haldirams or KC Das. Don't try the canned version!

Fish Fry - I'm not sure how this famous Calcutta first escaped me on my prior visits. Serving fish fry is as common as serving fried chicken in the south. It's much tastier though. Bengali fish fry consists of a very thin piece of fish smeared with some sort of spice paste, then breaded and deep fried. Sounds simple, and it's divine. Even Ian, that hater off all things fish, ate is fish fry and liked it.

Strangest food we had: Fermented millet alcohol in Sikkim. Steming water is poured over fermented millet in a large bamboo stein. I wasn't particulary strong, but tasted like the last bottle from our carboy of homemade wine - very yeasty. Only my dad and Ian were able to finish it.

That's all for now. Some of the best food we had was at relatives' and friends' houses, too many to mention. Indian hospitality is second to none. As it was explaned to us by a friend in Calcutta, a visitor in a house is treated like he or she is sent by God, and should be fed as such. And we were. I can't wait to go back to India.

- Nisha

Long Live the King - Updated

2007-10-30T05:42:00.000-04:00

When you arrive at the Bangkok airport, the one of the first things you notice is the large signs on the side of the jetways that say "Long Live the King". Since these are in the place usually associated with advertisements, I assumed that they were referring to the "King of Beers" or something like that. In fact, when you look at the sign and see only the King's picture on it, you realize that it is actually put up by the government and does refer to the King of Thailand.

I had always understood Thailand to be a constitutional monarchy, which is true, more or less. However, the reverence and visibility of the King is something that I have never seen before. The King's picture is everywhere, almost all businesses have portraits of him behind the cash register and his picture is on all sorts of billboards and signs around the city. Evidently this is the year of his 80th birthday, so in commemoration the Thais wear these yellow polo shirts with the royal emblem on the pocket. These shirts are for sale everywhere and for some reason yesterday at least half of all the Thais on the street in Bangkok were wearing them.

There is nothing wrong with this, pre se, but it does strike a westerner as odd to have one person's picture so prominent everywhere. Also, after being in Japan and India, where flags and patriotic symbols are less pronounced then in the US, it is strange to see the number of Thai and Royal (yellow with royal emblem) flags flying everywhere.

The interesting thing is how the King himself seems to be so revered despite the fact that he is a constitutional monarch. Perhaps this is why the bloodless coup here in 2006 caused so little disruption. It does not seem that any political figure is even 1/10th as respected or popular as the King himself.

Update (6/11/07) - As for the yellow shirts, there was some reason that more people then usual were wearing them on that Monday. However, they are very popular at all times, with at least 20% of Thais wearing them on any given day.

Nisha's new post

2007-10-30T05:33:00.001-04:00

My new post is here.
- Nisha

Epic Tea Garden Post

2007-10-30T05:28:00.000-04:00

Finally finished this beast. Check it out here.

Another World Series

2007-10-29T01:53:00.000-04:00

Just to let everyone know, I did watch Papelbon end the series with that high heat here in a Bangkok cafe. It was shortly after I finished a banana pancake, but that did not stop me from celebrating with a beer Chang.

Now if I can just find a place to catch the Colts-Pats next week...

Quick Update

2007-10-28T07:21:00.000-04:00

- Just arrived in Bangkok a few hours ago. Took Jet Airways from Kolkata and once again my opinion was validated. Even though the flight is only two hours, it is on an international class plane with video on demand and free drinks, including legit Australian wine. My only complaint is that they turned off the TVs for landing before I finished Ocean's Thirteen.

- So far I have to say that anyone who thinks that Bangkok is roughing it should never go near the entire country of India. Honestly so far it is very modern and orderly, especially since things are still at India prices. We arrived at a gleaming new airport, took a taxi for only 300 Baht (9 dollars) the 25km into town. The taxi was a real Toyota and drove on a real highway and the driver gave us no hassles whatsoever. We quickly found a nice basic dorm-like accommodation with private bath for 490 Baht (14 dollars), with cleanliness up to 1200 rupee (30 dollar) standards in India. Walked across the street and am using a cheap Internet cafe, 10 Baht (25 cents) for 25 minutes. Not a tout or hawker in sight.

- Just want to announce that we will be back to writing for real. The Internet situation here seems back to what we are used to, so we are back online.

- I have a HUGE backlog of things to write about from India. In fact I might we writing about India for a while before I even start with Thailand. Honestly, I think our travels in India and Japan are going to represent the part of the trip where we really try to delve into the culture and really understand what the countries are like. I am predicting that Thailand is going to be a little more like a vacation. We will see however, I could be wrong.

- Have been able to watch most of games 1-3 of the World Series as well as game 7 against Cleveland. Man, have I missed baseball. Maybe Colorado can pull it together, but right now the Sox look pretty unstoppable. I love that the young guys are contributing so much to this World Series, looks like we might have a good young nucleus to drive the Sox for the next few years. So far it is looking exciting.

- I got food poising last night and spent much of my evening worshiping the porcelain throne, as they say. I can't believe it happened on the last f---ing day. Anyway the final tally was:

-- 2 weeks of eating carefully
-- 7 weeks of eating whatever I wanted to
-- 1 day laid up with fever in Udaipur
-- 1 evening spent tossing my cookies in Kolkata

Overall, I think it was worth it.

- They have real bars here in Bangkok, and they sell beer everywhere. Just letting you know because I will be in one of these establishments in the near future.

Gleaming Calcutta

2007-10-25T11:09:00.000-04:00

After Chennai, Ian and I flew to Calcutta for the Durga Puja festivities. I was anxious to get back there since both my knowledge of India and the Indian economy had grown immensely since I was there last in 2000. Calcutta has always been a magical city to me, possibly because I read one too many British-era historical fiction novels. Anyway, the place is teeming with polite Calcuttans, exudes charm of the British Raj, and boasts the best food and most beautiful women in all of India.

I was interested to see how this was viewed on the traveler's circuit, since I know I am biased. Lonely Planet seemed to give the least visited large city in India due respect - it's own chapter and a very positive write-up. Indians I met all over India seem to agree about the manners, food, and the peculiar concentration of female beauty in Calcutta. It is known for it's gigantic and spooky Kali Temple, the Victoria Memorial (though not a tomb, it's seems like the British answer to the Taj Mahal), the tourist friendly enclosed New Market, and the close proximity to the large Tibetan population in the Darjeeling and Sikkim areas so popular with the Buddhist-loving-hippie backpacker.

This time Calcutta again did not disappoint. I was ecstatic to see that the main areas of town had been drastically scrubbed. For example, the last 3 times I visited Calcutta, I took a picture of a famous Raj-era building. It was remarkable for the numerous trees growing from the walls and the hanging drying laundry of the squatters. Now it is newly white-washed and gleaming. I almost didn't belive it was the same building. Notice also the people walking across the street on the cross-walk in front of stopped traffic. Unheard of last time I was there. Everywhere I went, I saw the signs of economic and social progress. New skyscrapers, multi-story AC malls, grocery stores, the absence of beggars and touts. Granted, one does have to wonder, where did all the beggars go? I am told that they and the evicted squatters have been given government housing outside the city. However, he city's 4 year old push to abolish the cruel human-powered rickshaw and install CNG taxis still hasn't come to fruition. There is still much work to be done.

And the rest of it? The people were actually the most polite in India. There was very little of the full-body-contact queuing and general rude staring than I have seen anywhere else. The food was actually the most tasty (for fish eaters of course). Bengali sweets are world-renowned. Ian talked about the state's addiction to them in his own blog and I'll go into more details soon. The women? You can ask Ian's opinion of that. However, if you just judge from among my cousins, the Bengali women win it hands-down.

Given the above, you would think it would be on everyone's travel list, right? Wrong. Not only are there less Western tourists in all of Calcutta than anywhere else in India, most have a very negative opinion of it. One Polish girl I met in Chennai was traveling India for three months. When asked if she was going to Calcutta, she replied "I have absolutely no desire." Good, the subtle wonders and historical marvels Calcutta would be lost on her anyway.

~ Nisha

Lord of the Manor

2007-10-25T10:31:00.000-04:00

After wrapping up Durga Puja in Kolkata, our next planned more was an excursion to north West Bengal with Dave and Susan as well as their friends Sarah and Rakesh. We had met Sarah and Rakesh before because they are the ones who put up Nisha for a month in their nice flat when she was here for a month after the wedding 4 years ago.

A little background. Rakesh works for in the office of a tea company in Kolkata. However, his previous position in the company was the manager of one of the tea estates in Assam. Before then he had been manager or assistant manager at any number of the company's eight estates in North Bengal and Assam. Last time we were in Kolkata he had captivated us with stories of capturing tigers and the enormity of the estates as well as inviting all of us up to an estate if we ever had the time. So, our itinerary on this trip was to fly up, spend some time at an estate, then swing up to Sikkim for a few days and head back.

So, we have an uneventful flight to Bagdogra, the airport of Siliguri, which is the dusty transportation junction of north West Bengal. From there we head out in a couple of SUVs for the 3 hour drive out to the estate. By the time we arrive it is after dark, so all we see are tea plants in the dark as we drive the 2km from the gate to the Bungalow where we will be staying. When we arrive at the Bungalow, Rakesh swings open the rusty gate and we enter into the driveway of this massive two story concrete and tin roof building. The paint is stained on the outside, but by the massive verandas and screened porches you can tell that this is a grand house.

We are met by the three man staff of the house and led inside. Like many leftovers from the British era in India this house mixed mostly 1950's (and earlier) fixtures and furniture with the care and cleanliness of a full time staff being dedicated to it. Our bedroom and bathroom on the second floor was as big as most Indian houses, with a 3m wide veranda out front. There was even an old ping-pong table set up in front of our door. Fitting with this colonial environment we were served tea and a dinner of nice continental food, along with a few sips of country rice wine before heading to sleep. Despite the five air-raid sirens that go off between 5AM and 6AM to wake the workers, we sleep in the cool quiet air until nine.

The next day we headed out in the SUVs to take a tour of the estate. The scale of this operation is incredible. The estate is separated into 46 sections and totals 1,400 hectares (3,500 acres). 6,621 people (the current manager knew the exact count instantly) live on the estate, with over 1,800 of them being permanent employees. The estate has its own school, hospital and multiple churches. We drive 1km and are still in the sections right near our bungalow.

As a crop, tea is basically like a giant hedge. It is a bush, which they plant in rows covering the entire section. The bushes are all spread out with a trimmed flat top around 75cm off the ground, the reason they all have this flat "table" as they call it, is because of how tea is harvested. When the tea bush has grown shoots about 6cm high from the table an army of pickers comes and picks the shoot off the top with their fingers. They remove the part of the stem with the top three leaves on it and discard any stem below. This results when they are done with the table being re-established. So when you look around the table of the tea bushes goes on for miles over the rolling hills. The interesting thing about tea as a crop is that it is harvest time 9 months out of the year. During this time the bushes need to be plucked once a week, thus the army of workers.

When we arrive at the area where the picking is going on we arrive just in time for the "weighment". The pickers all work by carrying a small bag with them as they pick and then depositing the tea in the small bag in a larger sack as the day goes on. Both of these bags are carried on the back by a strap over the forehead, traditional Indian style. Once around lunch and once at the end of the day each pickers bag is emptied into a large truck which is taken to the factory. When the truck pulls up an army of pickers scurries out of the garden, all laden with huge sacks of tea. As each bag is emptied it is weighed on a scale and the "Sadar", or supervisor, makes out a slip of paper that is handed to the picker. The pickers are required to pick 25kg of leaves in order to make their daily wage, then are compensated per kilogram above that. Considering after half a day the bags were all weighing about 30kgs, and one strapping young guy had a 54kg bag, it seemed to be a good day for the pickers.

Also when we were in this area we saw the trap that they had set up for the leopard that was thought to be living in the area. Evidently female leopards will often hide in the garden to have cubs since in the jungle they are likely to be eaten by the males. The problem is that the pickers cannot see the leopard as the pick, so there had been some incidents of mauling in the area. The trap was a cage type, with a smaller cage attached to put a goat into as bait. There was no goat in it at the time as it is only loaded at night. This is the best that they can do right now as it is against the law to shoot a leopard.

After this we went to the tea factory where the raw leaves are turned into the final product. This has to be done quickly as the longer the tea leaves sit around unprocessed the lower the quality of the tea. First the tea leaves are unloaded from the truck and loaded into a 50cm deep layer in the drying machine. The machine is like a big wind tunnel with a mesh floor that the tea sits on. Twelve hours or so later it has lost 30% of its weight and is unloaded. The tea is then ground into little balls in a series of knife rollers (leaf tea is made in a different process) then spread in a thin layer on the floor. This is called the fermentation, and during the one hour or so the tea is on the floor it changes color from bright green to the grey we are familiar with. Next the tea is dried to completion in large furnaces. The tea is then filtered and sorted into various grades of fineness, from course to dust. The tea is tasted, much like wine, every hour by the manager for quality control. Waste is also filtered out that is sold as fertilizer or to industrial caffeine manufactures.

The factory itself looked like another British era creation with lots of exposed belts and even a coal fired furnace for the drier. The thing that was impressive here was that all the leaves need to be processed immediately after they are picked. Now was a prime growing season so this factory was working 24/7 and has processed 48,000kg of tea leaves the day before we arrived.

That evening we were invited to have dinner with the current manager of the estate at his bungalow. The manager is a Anglo-Indian man who Rakesh had known for a long time and everyone called Timmy. His bungalow was smaller then the massive estate that we were staying on, but still extremely large and surrounded by an impeccable garden. It also had a large staff that was quick with the tea and drinks when we arrived. Also at the dinner was Timmy's wife, named Yasmin, and their very western daughters who were home from boarding school, as well as the Sikh assistant manager and his family.

For a while we were just hearing some stories of what goes into running the estate. The job certainly has some appeal in its luxurious perks and colonial English feel. The downsides are also there, with having to get up in the middle of the night to fix things at the factory high on the list. The thing that was most impressive was the amount of responsibility that the manager has. Despite the fact that the laws of the country still apply, the manager in many ways serves as the lord of this manor. In fact, there is a time set aside every week where he arbitrates domestic disputes and makes ruling for which there is no appeal process. The skills required are more diverse then any job that we previously thought existed. Where else can someone be an agricultural manager, magistrate, factory manager, wild animal chaser, etc.

We would see some of this constant excitement soon as a few servants scuffled in and told us that there were wild elephants in the garden right near the fence of the bungalow. As soon as Timmy offered to drive us out to take a look, Dave, Susan, Nisha and I all put down our beers and cocktails and piled into the managers SUV. The assistant manager also piled in the back and was told to keep watch for any elephants approaching from the back of the car.

The night was misty, but with a full moon, and we stained to see out into the dark, not aided by the smoke of Timmy's often present cigarette. As we pulled onto the first jeep track I spotted a silhouette of an elephant in the distance. We stopped quickly and I shined the flashlight on him, but only Nisha was able to see him before he bounded away. At this point I thought the excitement was over, but soon we saw the behinds of numerous elephants emerging from the garden to walk down the jeep track in front of us, directly in the headlights. We stayed at least 100m away and followed this heard for a little while. The herd consisted, but our count, of three adult females and five adolescent and baby elephants.

We lost them over a little rise in the road and when we topped the rise they were no longer visible. Then, the assistant manager spoke quickly and we realized that the heard was now sick of us following them and was 100m away in the garden, heading in the opposite direction, doubling back on us. We got a good look at the train of elepahants as they strode by, doing a fair amount trumpeting and breaking a lot of branches underneath their feet. Timmy made the call that observation time was over and stepped on it before we angered the heard any further. The fog obscured the road on the direct way home, making it unsafe with all the elephants about, so we returned by navigating the maze of jeep tracks that traverse the garden, which Timmy and the assistant manager all knew like the back of their hands. We also encountered a truck and three men who Timmy told us were the "Elephant Patrol", we stopped to tell them where the elephants were and they headed off to try to disperse them with their loud firecrackers and drums.

Dinner was rather sedate after all the excitement, but the food was good and we certainly headed back to our bungalow thinking that this was a pretty exciting night. Not everywhere can elephant chasing be part of the dinner party entertainment.

The next day we headed off early in the morning to go to Gangtok, in Sikkim, for the night and then returned the day after. We were only on the estate for a quiet night before heading to the airport, but we did hear an interesting and sad thing. In the day that we were gone a female picker had been mauled by the leopard in the area where we saw the trap a few days before. She was in the hospital and expected to recover. They were looking into getting the leopard declared a "Maneater" so that the forest department could shoot it, but it would probably have to kill someone before that declaration could be made. The multiple maulings in the last several months did not suffice, certainly highlighting the unintended effects of wildlife conservation laws.

As you can tell by the length of this tale it was certainly a memorable experience, a window into a world that most Americans probably think disappeared many years ago. Sarah, Rakesh, Timmy and his wife were all great hosts and we thank them for letting us see this unique, beautiful, relaxing and sometimes tragic place.

Durga, the Mother Goddess

2007-10-25T10:09:00.000-04:00

So sorry we have been so out of touch. We have had very little access to the Internet, but have been able to upload pictures. Now for the stories behind them...

After we left Chennai, we went to Calcutta to celebrate Durga Puja with my dad's extensive family. Durga puja is the largest puja celebrated in West Bengal. Community organizations prepare huge and colorful pandals which is a themed house. These temporary foam and cloth structures inside hold the elaborately decorated pratimas, or idols, and outside play host to a small carnival. The streets are lighted all around the pandal to guide the public. The thing to do during the main four days of the festival is to walk around touring pandals with your friends or family all night long (literally, our driver did not come back in the morning after pandal hopping all night). Like Mardi Gras where the question of the day is "which parades have you seen?", in Calcutta during Durga puja, it's "how many pandals have you visited?"
As with the Ganesh pratimas in Gujarat, the pandals for the Durga puja are all involved in fierce competition for prizes given away by the newspaper organizations and the city. Some even have political messages - one had a figure of Bush holding a missile while nearly being attacked by a lion. Durga was standing on the earth to symbolize peace. I believe this was in reference to the now-stalled US-India nuclear pact which the government of West Bengal, the Communist party, oppose out of solidarity with China. Anyway, all were great fun.

There are religious ceremonies that take place daily by the pandit (priest). on the 4th day, called Asthami, devotees assemble for a complex ceremony that occurs at a time prescribed by the astrologers. This year, it was 8:27 PM on Thursday the 18th. During the 45 minutes after 8:27, Durga will appear for a split second in the form of the pratima. Anyone seeing her at this time will have their prayers answered. It was actually an electrifying experience being among so many people who believed that they would see their beloved goddess come alive before their eyes in the form of the decorated Durga pratima. There is nothing I have witness in Christianity that could compare to the excitement of this part of the puja.

After this most holy period, then anyone can touch the pratima, not just the pandit. On the 5th day of the puja, the pratima is loaded on a truck and brought to be immersed in the Ganges, with great fanfare and sorrow. I am sure that even Bush is holding his missile at the bottom of this muddy river.

More to come soon. Please leave some comments!

-Nisha

Out of Touch

2007-10-23T00:12:00.000-04:00

Today we leave Kolkata and are flying to Bagdogra, in northern West Bengal, to visit the tea gardens and Sikkim with the Basu's family friends. We will have no Internet for the next few days.

Also, we have a lot of stuff to write about, but in the Hyatt the only computer to use is Susan's computer and it is shared among all four of us. This is a lot less CPU time then when we go to Internet cafes and get two computers. Once we get back to the normal Internet setup we will catch up.

BTW, I was able to watch the last half of the Sox game 7 here in India. Nice game, I am optimistic the World Series will be on TV as long as I am willing to get up early to catch the 8PM games.

Sweets.... Bengali Beer

2007-10-21T01:43:00.000-04:00

Sweets are an obsession in Bengali culture. Especially at Puja time, where they are served anywhere and everywhere. The most popular ones in Kolkata are the Rasgulla and the Gulab Jamun. Others are popular as well, but these are the ones you see the most.

I finally have this obsession figured out, it is basically exactly the same as American's obsession with beer. Drinking is quite taboo in most parts of India, so a substitute is needed, and has been found.

To demonstrate, try switching out the word "beer" for "sweet" in any of these observations and see if it is not true for Americans.

- At any celebration or family gathering, sweets will be served.

- A common topic of conversation at said gatherings is the quality of the sweets, and where the best sweets are made.

- People at celebrations attempt to get you to consume more sweets then you are prepared for or comfortable consuming.

- People also commonly discuss how many sweets they have consumed in the past at other celebrations or how many were consumed by the attendees of a celebration.

- At a large party it is common to have a large barrel of sweets (actually a giant clay jar).

- It is considered more festive to consume sweets in one gulp, rather then consuming then consuming them bit by bit.

- If you go over to someones house to consume sweets, it is essential that you bring some with you. These also must be more sweets around then anyone could reasonably consume.

- You can never have too many sweets at a party.

Funny sidelight to this:

We were watching the Bengali news channel on TV and they had a reporter out at a Pandel announcing that the club had been given some award for the design of their Pandel. First everyone was just standing around staring at the camera, as Indians do. Then when he announced the award everyone started dancing around like mad and a man walked into the crowd with a giant jar of sweets on his head. A second later, someone reaches in from off camera and stuffs a giant Rasgulla into the reporters mouth, silencing him at his obvious embarrassment.

Another Quick Update

2007-10-20T01:03:00.000-04:00

There is no Internet cafe in the Hyatt in Kolkata, so we use Susan's computer. Unfortunately we have been out a lot, so very little blogging time.

- Last night we went to one of the actual ceremonies that they do in front of the Durga idols at a medium size pandel in the neighborhood near the hotel. Was really cool to see, a lot of incense and drumming and smoke. The point of the ceremony is so the devout can see the Durga come to life for a split second in the smoke. None of us saw it, but will all the stuff going on you really want to believe that it will happen.

- We also had an incredible dinner afterwards at the Tandoor restaurant in the ITC Sonar Bangla hotel, the other ritzy place in the area. Really incredible meat, best cooked chicken I have ever had.

- Traffic in Kolkata is the worst. Kolkata has a larger car to every other vehicle ratio then anywhere else in India. Unfortunately all these cars reach gridlock much easier then the auto and 2 wheeler mix in most other cities.

- It may be because it is basically Bengali Christmas here, so everyone is in a good mood, but I actually appreciate Kolkata more now that I have been in other parts of India. People are very nice here, and even if you are a westerner at a Durga where very few westerners would ever be, people do not stare or make you uncomfortable. People were very nice at the Puja last night where we did not know anyone. Nisha was very nicely invited to go up and light some candles and people were otherwise very welcoming.

- There has been a lot of new development here, so the city is looking nice. However, they really need to get all taxis and buses to CNG like in the rest of Indian big cities. The air quality here is really bad compared to Delhi and most other big places. The issue I believe is the resistance from the drivers and car owners. I understand that this must be a difficult thing to push through, but once it is done it is really worth it.

Quick Update

2007-10-17T01:28:00.000-04:00

We finally are up in Kolkata. We had our first experience on the cheapest airline in India, Air Deccan. Everything was actually fine, brand new plane and we showed up on time with our stuff. Their mascot is a sketch drawing of an old man with a briefcase wearing a Dohti. Only in India will that be painted on the side of your plane. A couple of things:

- The Durga Puja pandels are really impressive. This is their biggest festival of the year, and neighborhood clubs all over the city set up these crazy big houses for their Druga idols. They are temporary structures made of cloth, Styrofoam and plaster of Paris, but they are still up to 50 feet high. They do different themes every year, so far we have seen Harry Potter's castle, several Turkish-desert themes and Styrofoam carved Jain temples. The idols inside are very impressive as well.

- If you like Indian sweets, as I do, Kolkata is nationally known as the best place to get them, and everyone is always feeding you copious amounts of them during Puja. Very nice.

- More updates later, off to the Puja now.

AID INDIA

2007-10-16T01:52:00.000-04:00

Feeling particiulary decadant about traveling these 5 months, Ian and I decided before we left that we wanted to volunteer for a week of our travels. Through four degrees of seperation, we were put in touch with Dr. Banaji Sampath from AID INDIA in Chennai through Amisha's mother, Chandan Sharma.

Staffed by dedicated men and women, AID INDIA is a NGO based in Channai whose main activitis are designing, implementing, and testing educational materials to improve the math and English education of students all over Tamil Nadu. They develop these materials then lobby the powers that be to implement these changes. It's a win-win situration for the children and the politicans. In addition, they are involved in rural health activities and education.

We both had interesting projects that we completed in a week. Ian built a PHP program to keep track of the organizations' scholarship awardees. He was literally in a sweat-shop working from 10 - 7 for 6 days in front of a computer in a stifiling hot office. He was able to create a very useful tool for the organization.

Their rural health education focudsed on women's health issues. In my discussions with Prabha, the health program coordinator, it became evident that they could benefint from both staff and village health-worker education in cancers affecting women. The most common cancer plaguing women in India is cervical at 30% and then breast at 19%. To put this in prespective, cervical cancer in the US plummeted after the advent of the PAP smear in the 1960s. Now, cervical cancer lies in the upper teens of most common cancers in the US. It seems fairly unknown here (as with some women in the US), that HPV, an STD, if the causative agent of cervical cancer. In common with many diseases targeting the poor around the world, it is a travisty that anyone dies of cervical cancer since there are such effective secondary preventative treatments. A recent NEJM cost-effectivness study of cerivcal cancer screening determined that if India screened women with one PAP smear, the lifetime risk of cancer by approximately 25 to 36%, and cost less than $500 per year of life saved (Goldie 2005). The Indian government has decided that the screening would be prohibitivaly expensive. Poverty, disenfransiment, female sex - a terrible mileu for womens' health.

Here was a great oppturnity for education. I developed educational pamphlets on breast and cevical cancer that will be illustrated and translated into Tamil. I also researched and prepared a lectures on cervical and breast cancers for the staff of AID INDIA - everything from pathophysiology of cancer, to prevention and treatment. Some of the 20 attendees were completely proficient in English, though most needed near simultaneous translation into Tamil by Prabha. I was pleased and supriesed that after hearing me lecture about cervical cancer for 90 minutes on a Saturday morning in a 90 degree room, they wanted to hear more about breast cancer. The two-and-a-half hour lecture was punctuated by lively discussion and question and answer periods. Unlike med school classes, not a single person fell asleep!

We both gained great gratification from the services we provided and met many great people. Hopefully our efforts were recieved in the like.

~Nisha

Dandiya of my Dreams

2007-10-15T07:01:00.000-04:00

Saturday we went to a Dandyia party hosted by the Gujarati community in Chennai. Dandyia is a dance done during the celebration of the Navratri, a holiday celebrated all around India in the beginning of October. My first experience with dandiya was in high-school. The large Baton Rouge Gujarati community hosted these at the LSU ball room several times during Navratri. Women and men would get dolled up in their finest saris, lengha cholis, and kurta pajamas. The dancing would begin with an intricate and energetic 6-beat dance around the dance floor to drum heavy music. The main event was the dandiya dance. Danced by all, the dance was preformed with wooden sticks in each hand. Dancers tap other dancer's sticks to the music to symbolize the fight between the goddess Durga and a mighty demon king. It is similar to a contra or square dance where two lines of dancers move an opposite direction from each other.

We arrived too early dressed in our best at 9, and met Arvin, the only other person there at the time. Turns out that he just moved back to Chennai after 15 years in the US, mostly in Porter Square, Cambridge. After killing some time getting coffee with him and his friends, we returned at 10:30 and the party really got started. Hundreds of people were pouring from chauffeured cars dressed in the most spectacular costumes. The female children, teenagers, and young women were dressed in elaborate lengha cholis dripping with jewels in their hair, ears, necks, hips, hands, wrists, ankles, and feet. Even the babies were lavishly decorated! The male children, teens, and young men were decked out in what looked like a short baby doll dress with matching dhoti. Now I see why the guys in my high school did not come dressed in traditional garb. Despite looking like they were wearing their younger sister’s dress, this unusual male outfit actually looked very dashing while twirling around the floor later in the night.

The music set up included 4 full drum sets, a keyboard, and a few singers. The first dance is the garba which is a high energy dance around the perimeter of the dance floor. I know two of this type and did dance for a while. However, just like in high school, once I got the hang of it again, the girls I danced behind switched to one I did not know leaving me there wondering what was going on. (I found out later that they take classes the month prior to the Navratri season.) Around 12:30, there was a dandiya for the teenagers and children. I suspect this was separate because the older teens and young adults get overly enthusiastic with the dandyia sticks. I'll bet that dancing with the kids caused many a gossipy mother to whisper next to her and say “can you imaging that grown woman, dancing with the children!” in scorn. Of all our time traveling, this was the first night I had to go to bed early since I was scheduled to deliver a lecture in the morning.

I had a fabulous time dancing with the kids and teenagers and ended up chatting with many. No one could talk for long though. They had to dance their best. There was a white-haired man in an all white kutra wandering among the dancers with a clipboard. In the center of a dancing hurricane, he looked like a bored judge at a dog show. I found out from them that he was the judge for the prize of king, queen, prince and princess of the festival. They are also judged on their costumes and dancing. Prizes range from a TV or DVD player to a 17,000 Rs ($450).

A nice woman we met emailed me some pictures I just posted on Flickr. We have not seen anything like this in India – where the men, women, and children are all free to enjoy themselves at the same time. In this nearly dry town, it was also the most memorable night out we have had without booze in awhile.

- Nisha

Indian Economics

2007-10-14T10:40:00.000-04:00

One thing that has interested me in India is trying to figure out the amount of money that people make and spend compared to the US. I find this to be a topic of some interest, since in the software business companies are constantly trying to leverage India. However, I do not feel like many people actually have an idea of what the savings actually are. The following is all information that I have gleaned from different conversations since I have arrived. It is therefore probably not accurate, but may at least be interesting.

If we look at it first from a purely statistical standpoint, the GDP per capita of the US is 43,444 dollars per person and for India it is 3,737 dollars per person. So by this reference the average US person should make about 11 times more then the average Indian. For the purposes of this article I am going to think of it as around 10.

In terms of how much money people make, my impression is as follows (everyone talks in terms of per month here, so I will go along). I think a service worker, like a guy who works in a mid range hotel cleaning and serving etc. makes around 4000 rupees a month, or 100 dollars. This figure I got from a rural area, so it may very well be higher in a city. I have also been told that 20,000 - 40,000 rupees a month (500 - 1000 dollars) is what someone with a good white collar job makes. Supposedly this is enough to get you a decent place to live and a cheap car or motorbike in Chennai. I have also been told that making 1 lakh per month, aka 100,000 rupees (2,500 dollars) is what it takes to be making a lot of money. I would assume this means that you have a nice house or flat in a new development and a nice car. I would assume most likely a servant as well. These numbers do make sense more or less. Someone who makes 25,000 dollars a month in the US is very upper middle class/upper class. The 40,000 seems a little high since that would be 10,000 dollars a month in the US. That is definitely a little more like upper middle class. As for the hotel worker, that would only be 1,000 dollars a month in the US, which is low since I am pretty sure people in that strata make around 20,000 a year. This is not surprising though since there are a large supply of such workers in India and limited demand.

I also looked up recently the price of transport. A Tata Indica econobox costs around 3-4 lakhs here (7,500 to 10,000 dollars) and an Ambassador is around 5 lakhs (12,500 dollars). An imported car mid-range car like a Honda Accord, which seems incredibly sleek and luxurious in India, runs a whopping 15 lakhs (37,500 dollars). Pretty steep by US standards. I am pretty sure this has to do with import duties. On the other hand a common motorbike here, the Hero Honda Splendor, only runs you a mere 40,000 rupees (1,000 dollars). Seeing how cheap these motorbikes are compared to the cars, which are not very discounted to the US, you can see why the motorbike is dominant as the transportation of the common man.

As for consumer goods, a bottle of coke runs you 15 rupees (38 cents). It is 25 rupees (63 cents) for diet, which is particularly infuriating to me. A one liter water is 10 rupees (25 cents) and a bag of grapes costs about 20 rupees (50 cents). We pay around 120 (3 dollars) for a box of cereal and 80 (2 dollars) for a 1 liter box of irradiated milk.

If you want to eat out, a all you can eat lunch at a working man's restaurant costs around 50 rupees (1.25 dollars). Dinner at more of a mid-range kind of place usually runs around 140 a person (4 bucks) while Pizza Hut or another clean corporate kind of place is 250 (6.25 dollars). A top end 5 star hotel kind of deal will run you 750 a person (around 19 dollars).

The thing that I notice about this is that while it is true that the average Indian makes around 10 times less then in the US, the stuff that they need to buy is not that much cheaper. 1.25 for a good meal sounds cheap, but that is more then 11 dollars for lunch (by the 10 times multiplier, which would be a lot to spend in the US, even for a Indian buffet in Cambridge. The Coke is 38 cents, but if Coke was $3.80 in the US, people would certainly not drink nearly as much. Cars are especially bad because they do not cost that much less at all.

I am sure that this seems rather obvious, that the standard of living is less. I thought however that it would be nice to be a little more specific. I find it especially surprising how much less purchasing power even a professional person has, especially in the transport and mid to high end restaurant arena (60 dollars for Pizza Hut?). At these prices I can see the motorbike and homemade daal ruling India for quite some time.

Auto-Wallah 2007 - New from EA Sports

2007-10-13T22:58:00.000-04:00

After using autorickshaws for much of my transportation the last 6 weeks, I have developed a decidedly love-hate relationship with them. My main complaint is that you need to haggle for every ride. I honestly would not mind paying more if I could just get in one, have them use the meter, and pay what it costs when I get out. But I digress, today I am here to give props to the India and its Auto-Wallahs, so here is goes.

If there were more Playstations in India, or more Americans had been here, there would definitely be a video game out by now celebrating the fearlessness and skill of the Indian Auto-Wallah. The thing about these guys is that they can navigate city traffic must faster then a car, due to their amazing maneuverability, so besides being the cheapest form of transportation, it is also the fastest. The common tricks of the Auto-Wallah would all fit well into a video game. They cut through secret gaps in medians to reverse direction, as well as secret cuts through construction zones to get ahead at a light. You can never stop at an intersection, unless there is a cop standing right in front of you. Driving the wrong way down the street, or the wrong way around a rotary (especially fun), no problem. The sidewalk, totally fair game. The lanes on the road mean nothing, and they are happy to mix it up with the bikes and bullock carts in the gutter if that is what it takes to get around a city bus, the arch-nemesis of any good Auto-Wallah.

In addition to the driving, the game could have fun with the diverse loads that you will be asked to carry (all these examples are real). Obviously foreign tourists are the best fare, especially when you can coax them to a rug shop or hotel that pays commission. But, you can also make good money getting a recurring contract to take 10 Catholic girls to school every morning. Other less glamorous cargoes can include a man with 6 live goats or a stack of rice bags. You could even have the game so when you pull over to pick up a load you need to negotiate the price. You would have to be able to spot the white faces quick and know to quadruple the price. Unless the sahibs look like they have been here for a while, in which case you just double it. If you charge to much however, your juicey fare could walk to the next guy.

To be realistic, however, the game need to capture that you can never run into anything. Even if you make a bad move and try to head down a bazaar street at 8PM, you need to never touch the pedestrians, old men on bikes, motorbikes with 3 guys on them or cows. Actually if you hit a cow that should probably end the game immediately, since your soul will be ruined for many reincarnations. Actually, a cow might actually be preferable to hitting a scooter with a couple and two kids on it, because then you are libel to get lynched by the locals.

Anyway, tell me this game would not be fun. Crazy Taxi made a lot of money in the US, but there the crazy driving all has to be fake. Here you can drive the same way, but it is for real.

Another new food post

2007-10-12T08:14:00.001-04:00

I too have been busy at work. Here is the second installment of Must Have Food in India. I will write about my time in Chennai at AID INDIA in a few days. Enjoy!

Back to Work

2007-10-12T04:42:00.000-04:00

If you have been wondering why the blog output is a little off lately, except for catching up on things that happened a week ago, it is just because we have not been doing much except for sampling the Indian working stiff life in Chennai. Basically we have just been getting up in the morning, at which point I usually go for a run by the big downtown beach. Then we get to the office at 10AM (normal start time here), have lunch at the amazing Indian restaurant down the street and then leave at around 6:30 - 7:30. Then a trip for dinner (Chinese, Mexican and Pizza Hut the last 3 nights) and back to the hotel.

For the first time on this trip you are probably not jealous of what we are up to, besides maybe the leaches. Basically I am doing the same thing you probably are, except the office is non-AC, in Chennai mind you, and my office chair is a plastic patio chair, no Aerons here.

We are doing some good work however and that is really the point anyway.

New Post

2007-10-11T23:53:00.001-04:00

There is a new post here.

It is from the boat trip a week ago so it posted down below.

First Impressions of Chennai

2007-10-09T12:33:00.001-04:00

A few things on the city that will be our home for the next week:

- Chennai is not the most inspiring Indian city. It is fairly sprawling and spread out, and I do not think the sites here really stack up against the other big Indian cities. I can see why from a pure tourist standpoint is it written up in the Book as more of just a place to arrive or depart from. It is not well set up like Mumbai either, just the basic Indian chaos.

- That being said, the modern stuff here seems better then anyplace else. Near the AID INDIA office are 3 nice modern grocery stores. The only other one I have ever seen was in Kolkata, and that was just one. We went to a massive mall here tonight that was like a real mall. We ate Chinese at a great restaurant court that also had Pizza Hut (more high end in India then in US) and South Indian. I know this may not seem like a big deal for those at home, and against the idea of being in India, but after so long away from these things you start to appreciate them more.

- The only things that separate Chennai autorickshaw men from pirates is that they don't have a parrot on their shoulder and they don't say "Arrrrrr". They all don't use the meter and no matter how much haggling you do and you end up paying 2 to 3 times the km cost of anywhere else in India. This includes Mumbai where you at least get to ride in a real car. I would have a much easier time forking over 80 rupees to go 3 km if at least I had a parrot to talk to.

- We are staying in a pretty nice place called the Hotel Himalaya. Room is 1100 rupees and we have a new AC unit and a fridge in our big clean room. Also 24 hour Internet cafe. The only drawback is that the neighborhood is the least appealing I have seen in Chennai, it is a real dump out there. We will also be lulled to sleep by the symphony of 1000 car horns. I kind of wish the AC unit was old and rattled more.

- The work at AID INDIA seems pretty good so far. Nisha is working on some materials for health education and I am working on computerizing their files of students they sponsor. The people are nice and the office is in a nice pleasant area of town.

- South Indian food rocks. The little fast food places usually have very nice dosas (thin lentil pancake) and other great light snacks. They have great fruit juice as well.

- We took our longest (15 hours) and last ride on the Indian rails last night. Great sleep as always, 2AC class rocks, especially when you get the big 4 berth area to yourself. Also Nisha and I are big into Backgammon and Rummy 500 these days, really helps pass the time, thanks Ern.

Quick Update

2007-10-08T00:50:00.000-04:00

- We did the Kerala houseboat thing (which I am writing up separately) and are now in the beach resort of Varkala, also in Kerala. This place is really nice, good beach and nice walkway along the top of the bluffs. All the restaurants and stuff are along the walkway, which is nice because you don't have to deal with walking on Indian roads. We can also see the ocean from our hotel room. The name of the hotel is Krishnatheeram for these searching on the internet. The hotel is pretty good, and the location is the best in town.

- Unfortunately we are only here for one night (last night) because tonight we are taking an overnight train to Chennai (aka Madras). Once there we are signed up to volunteer for a week with AID INDIA. This only got set up a few days ago, so we are not totally sure of the nature of the work. It may be in Chennai proper or somewhere close by. If we are not on the Internet for a week then it is probably safe to assume that we got shipped off to some small village somewhere.

- The next big plan is to fly to Kolkata on the 16th and meet up with Dave and Susan.

- I just signed up for the Boston Marathon next year. I have been running enough over here that I am not totally out of shape. However, I do anticipate some hard work when I get back in order to break 3 hours this year. I am already looking forward to it (the hard work and the marathon itself). Hopefully the weather will be better this year, so far I am 2 for 2 when it comes to running marathons in less then ideal weather conditions. A nice 50 degree day with a good tailwind would help a lot.

- PBielagus is confirmed for the last 11 days of our trip, Vietnam and Hong Kong. We will try our best to keep him alive and out of trouble.

- Sox sweeping into the ALCS and the Pats a dominating 5-0. I picked a hell of a year to miss the fall sports nirvana in Boston. I loved hearing about the Yanks collapse in Cleveland because of a swarm of bugs. Maybe they did make a deal with the devil to get all those titles in the late 90s. Very biblical form of bad luck to get them down 2-0. I had also missed all the Joba Chamberlain buzz since he was called up after I left, but it does not seem like a very auspicious way for him to start his playoff career.

Must Have Food in India, Part II

2007-10-07T10:37:00.000-04:00

Anything at Dal Roti

Kochi was a wonderland of great food - both Indian and non. There were serene art cafes straight from uptown New Orleans, U-pick-we-cook seafood stands, and posh Kochi restaurants celebrating the Arabic, Syrian, Portuguese, Dutch, British, and Jewish influences of this strange town.

With all these wonderful cuisines represented in one town, I did not think we would find some of the best Indian food we have had on this trip here. Next to our charming guesthouse, we wondered into a small unassuming restaurant called Dal Roti for lunch. As soon as I saw that the menu had wraps on it, I know this was no tourist-North-Indian-and-American-Chop-Suey place. This was a menu designed by a fellow foodie. Not only did this place have wraps, they also had stuffed parathas, biranyni only made a few days of the week, succulent chicken curry... I get ahead of myself.

Soon after we realized we were in no usual Indian restaurant, the owner, Ramesh came over to introduce himself. Tall and stately, he reminded us of Naresh Sharma (Amisha's father). He revealed that this restaurant is his labor of love while he continues to work in the international shipping industry. Capturing the authentic and lost food of Bihar is his objective. Yes, Bihar. The avid ianandnisha blog reader will recognize this as the lawless backwards state in the north that is more known for lynching of innocent people than food. Nevertheless, Ramesh hired some native Bihari cooks to turn his idea into magic. Quick to laugh and a fascinating conversationalist, we spent many hours over the next two days in his restaurant. You can even check out his blog that includes recipes.

Apparently, Bihar does have some tasty long lost recipes. I ordered the Chicken stuffed Mughali Paratha. Succulent marinated chicken was wrapped in a paratha that could rival the best Greek phyllo dough. Ian ordered the Chicken Curry, whose plain name betrayed the work of art set before him. He did receive chicken curry, but also bowls filled with a variety of succulent vegetables. The highlight was the flaky, ghee filled paratha to sop it all up with. Desert was a small chilled bowl of a carrot pudding laced with cashews and cardamon.

Finding Indian food heaven, we came early the second day for a cooking lesson and more lunch. Look out all future Iron Chef contestants. Ian and I now know how to make the king of all Indian breads - the flaky paratha. We received our lesson from the cooks while they prepared our lunch of Chicken Kati Rolls. This was marinated chicken pieces topped with sauteed and fresh red onions and cilantro wrapped in the flaky paratha. In this land of enterprising restaurateurs and scrumptious food, why are there no convenient hand lunches? With the exception of the Frankie, I have never seen a wrap in India and worse, no Indian-American restaurateur has had the creativity to do it either.

Following this second fabulous meal, Ian and I lamented with Ramesh about the dearth of creativity in Indian food in the US. It's all North Indian food operated mainly prepared by non-Indians - Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, or Nepalis. There is no Goan, Rajasthani, Gujarati, Keralan, or Bengali food. There is surely no Bihari food. Why O why do Indian-Americans deprive the American public of some of the best food in their home country, or even their own house?

For the next few days, Ian and I seriously discussed starting a lunch kati roll restaurant in Boston. Ramesh in on board. Anyone else?

- Nisha

Drifting Away

2007-10-07T10:14:00.000-04:00

We just got back from a night on a Keralan houseboat, a activity that was rather obscure a while ago that has turned into a "must do" stop on any Indian tour. At least that is what we were told. As usual we would find out for ourselves.

Basically these houseboats are built like a giant canoe, with a reed covered building on top that houses the bedrooms and the kitchen. There is generally also a covered sitting area on the front of the boat. My guess is that these boats probably started out as pretty humble setups, but have now evolved to where the majority are 50 foot behemoths with inboard engines, multiple bedrooms, A/C, second floor sitting areas and entertainment centers.

When we were in Cochi, there were plenty of hotels and tour operators who would set you up for the usual one night boat cruse. The going rate seemed to be around 5500 rupees for what looked like a nice boat in the pictures, as well as transportation for the 50 km to Alleppey, which is the main center for the boats. We did not do this because first of all our daily budget is only 4000 rupees. Besides that we wanted to get a look at some of these boats before booking and Lonely Planet wrote up Alleppey as a pleasant town to stay in.

So, we headed off to Alleppey on the train in the afternoon. The trip was an easy 1 hour, after the requisite 45 minute delay for the train to arrive. Open arrival we were a little disappointed to find that Alleppey was just your basic dusty Indian market and transportation junction town. Really no reason to stay here besides finding your houseboat. We did not want to look long for a hotel, so we ended up getting a cottage for 500 rupees at this place called the Gowari Residence. At this place we pretty much got what we paid for because the promised hot water did not work and we never got the sheets that we asked for (don't worry, we do carry our own bedding for occasions like this). There was also a ferocious mosquito problem, but that I cannot hold the hotel accountable for.

We did however find a houseboat for the next day. We ended up just going to the area around the tourist information office which has a lot of booking agents. The boats themselves are not really kept in the middle of town, so they try to sell you with just pictures. The guy who we did talk to finally agreed to show us one of the boats which was parked a short ride away, and it was only 3500 rupees, which is under our budget. I was pleasantly surprised with the boat, it was plenty big, with a decent bedroom and a fully equipped normal Indian bathroom (western toilet). It had a nice sitting area in the front as well as a bed up front you could use to lay outside if you liked. It also had the unique feature of a second sitting area on a roof level deck above the driver in the front. We also met the man in charge, and he seemed nice with very good English and a good recommendation book (most Indian businessmen keep a book that they keep recommendations from other tourists in), so we signed up.

The next morning we went out to the dock and got started. After navigating the boat junkyard near the dock we were out on the main canals that head out from town. The main canals are like boat highways, there are ferries that run up and down and quite a few boats, there are even roadsigns. The normal setup of the area is that there will be a canal, then on the side will be a narrow strip of land about 10m wide, then behind will be a giant rice field that is actually a meter or two lower then the water level in the canal. The narrow strip of land usually has a few houses and businesses on it that can only be reached by boat.

In the early afternoon we stopped to pick up fish for lunch and I also picked up a couple of fresh water mega shrimp that I had to pay for separately since they were not part of the regular food. They even had 25 rupee Diet Coke (the cheapest price you will ever see) at this little backwater shop, a very nice treat (I saw it being delivered by canoe as well). We later stopped on a spit of land in the middle of a lake and had a really good Keralan seafood lunch. After lunch we motored the canals for the afternoon, stopped at a town to pick up some chicken and stopped for the night at the edge of a town. The shore we tied up to was a nice little palm grove that a family uses to graze a couple of goats during the day, so it was nice and quiet place to stay.

It was fun watching the captain maneuver the boat to dock since they have a very unusual control system. The captain is at the front tip of the boat with a steering wheel, but the cook in back controls the throttle of the engine. They could dock perfectly like this without saying a word to each other. I was imagining my dad and I trying to do this with only disastrous results.

After dinner, the cook and captain made sure it was OK if they left for the night and headed out to sleep at the cook's house in the village. We did not mind as it was nice to have the boat to ourselves. There is not much nightlife in the backwaters however, so we pretty much just had a few beers and hit the bed. Sleeping was good even though we needed to use a mosquito net and there was no AC (we knew about this before we got on the boat).

In the morning we motored for about an hour and a half while eating breakfast and made it back to the dock by around 10. This is the normal amount of time the trips last, since it allows them to start another one night trip at 11. We ran into the couple that was taking over the boat from us and headed out to take the bus to Varkala.

I really liked the boat trip, I actually would not have minded doing two nights. Anything over that would probably get boring since you cannot swim and there are no bars or anything like that. One really nice thing about the trip was our captain, who was a really friendly and talkative guy. The food of course was excellent and was a highlight of the trip, the same as on the big cruise boats.

One piece of advice I would give for anyone reading the Lonely Planet is to forget about the suggestion that they make that you should try and find a boat powered by polling and not by a motor. First of all, I do not think any boats exist that don't have a motor any more. Second the motor on our boat was pretty quiet, it was a good quality outboard 10m away at the back of the boat. The big boats are all inboard, which may be quieter still. Third, you can cover a lot more ground. Fourth, I do not know why you would want a guy killing himself in the hot sun all day to drive the boat anymore then you would want to take a human rickshaw.

Also, if you have a little more money I would think about booking the all inclusive trip from Kochi. Allappey is not a town you need to see and every boat we saw on the water looked quite nice. If the pictures of the boat look good and it is a reputable place, I would be comfortable that your trip will be fine. Having the car transportation to and from Kochi would be really nice as well.

Must Have Food in India, Part I

2007-10-05T23:48:00.000-04:00

We have had some amazing food and dining experiences here. Here is my attempt to share some with you:

Mutton momos - Momos are Tibetan dumpling with a thin nearly translucent dough and a spiral top. We had may momos our week in Leh. However these were the only ones we went back for twice. Tibetan Kitchen, Leh

Anything Handi - A few times on this trip, we have come across such sublime food, that rather than go to yet another different restaurant, we will frequent the same place. In Jaipur, we ate at the Handi Restaurant twice and would have gone a third night if we had stayed longer. We knew this place would be great when the menu said "we do not sell in bulk." This Mughali's restaurant's specialty was the Handi mutton - mutton cooked in a clay vessel over a fire all day. The mutton was a soft as butter and bathed in a deep yet fragrant mouth searing gravy. Paired with their freshly made parathas (similar to naan but flaky), this may rank as one of the best meals we have had in India. The second night we had their assorted kebab plate. Numerous chicken and mutton all marinated, minced, and cooked over coals various ways. Amazing anyone can be vegetarian. Handi Restaurant, Jaipur

Gujarathi Thali - We rolled into Junagath after a 12 hour overnight "sleeper" bus ride hungry and feeling like I just worked a 24 hour ED shift. The hotel owner pointed us to a local thali restaurant. The word thali refers to a whole meal or eating experience with several different dishes. This is best done at lunch in a busy locals-filled restaurant. We ordered the "special thali" and sat at the last empty booth. Soon we were assaulted by several sunglass wearing men pouring endless bowls of delectable vegetable curries into 7 small stainless steel cups on our thali plate. Another man came with freshly made chapthis. Another came with rice. Another came with a chilled selection of desserts, giving the special thali its name. Each bottomless steel cup was better than the last. Not realizing that these men would continue to pile our plates with food until we told them to stop, we ate ourselves sick. We returned the next day for a more restrained lunch experience. I could only be vegetarian in India. Geeta Lodge, Junagath in Gujarat

Panki chatni - As a general rule, I always order anything steamed in banana leaves. These thin divine savory rice pancakes were steamed in a banana leaf and folded in quarters. The soft cake was scraped from the leaf by the server table side and topped with a spicy green chutney. Swati Snacks, Mumbai

Rose-Pineapple Ice Cream - Also at Swarti Snacks in Mumbai, this ice cream was the pink shade of an English cabbage rose mixed with whole red petals, smelled like tropical perfume, and tasted light, airy with the perfect balance of fragrance and tartness. Swarti Snacks, Mumbai

Frankie - Also in Mumbai, this was Indian fast food at its best. New York has the hot dog vendors, Mumbai has its frankie vendors. Its a thin chapthi filled with raw onions and a choice of egg, veg, or marinated chicken or mutton. So simple, yet so delicious! CST train station, Mumbai

Bebinca - After several weeks of the sticky sweet Indian desserts, we were happy to find the bebinca. This traditional Goan dessert is made with 16 layers thin cake and then steeped in a coconut-almond mixture. It's hard to describe, but I have found several recipes with will just make for you when I get home. Cavala Resort, Goa

More to come! Next is all about Kerala.

- Nisha

Southern Comfort

2007-10-05T23:24:00.000-04:00

Finally we found a place that we were truly sad to leave.

We spent the last several days in Kochi, a city in Kerala. The main part of the city is on the mainland shore of the harbor and is called Ernakulam. This looked to be a pretty standard downtown of an Indian city, from what we saw in the autorickshaw driving through. The real attraction of Kochi is the Fort Kochi area of town. This area is on a peninsula at the mouth of the harbor, about a 10km rickshaw ride or 20 minute ferry from the main part of town.

The Fort area is still a living, breathing Indian place, but is the quietest, most laid back area of India I have seen. It has a kind of New Orleans charm of rust and decay intertwined with quiet little cafes, big shade trees and open parks used for pick-up Cricket games. The whole atmosphere of the place is a really nice break from India. You can easily walk down the quiet streets, there are a few hawkers and rickshaw men but they are cute and not too annoying. There is a nice little walk along the water with some fish mongers and men working the giant Chinese fishing nets.

The first evening we got there we checked into a guest house called the Chiramel Residency in the middle of town. Our room in this place, for only 1200 rupees (30 dollars) was really great, big with high ceilings and a lot of varnished wood. We also had a semi-private seating area on the second floor sun porch. Really beautiful place.

The first night we had an expensive dinner at the Brunton Boatyard hotel, a swanky luxury place. The atmosphere and the hotel were very nice but I thought the food was a little expensive for what it was. Some of this is that there is a lot of really good food in India for very cheap, so when you pay 400 rupees for a dish you expect a lot. If this food is just good, then you are a little disappointed. Later we had a couple of beers, out of a teapot since no sidewalk cafes have a licence, from a little tourist restaurant on the street.

The next day for breakfast we stumbled upon a place called the Teapot, which was the nicest cafe we have encountered in India. The atmosphere was right out of uptown New Orleans and the tea, cold muslix (a rare treat in India) and chocolate cake (an even more rare treat) were all excellent. We ate breakfast here every day. I also got in a run after breakfast everyday which felt really good for my declining physique. Very little "crazy westerner" staring, which was also very nice.

For lunch that day we did the touristy thing and bought fresh prawns from the fish mongers near the ocean walk and brought them to a cheap restaurant to cook them. For 350 rupees, 200 for the raw material and 150 for the cooking, we ended up with 10 giant shrimp and 2 prawns the size of a small lobster. They were grilled with spices as they like to do down here and were excellent.

We later tried to go to the old Synagogue, which was closed for a Jewish holiday. It was fine however because there were a ton of really great shops near the Synagogue selling really cool old stuff. These shops had a lot of great carvings and other very uniquely Indian stuff. It was a little like being in Dave and Susan's shop, except more focused on Indian then British colonial.

That night we went to a short performance of a Kathakali play. A Kathakali play is a kind of traditional Keralan dance/play with continuous music and intricate make-up. This one was aimed at tourists so was only a 1 hour excerpt from a 8 hour play that they perform at temple ceremonies. One cool thing is that they put on the make-up on stage before the play, so you can see the crazy stuff that the make-up artists have to do to create these mythic figures. The show was good as well, the drums could be a little ear-piecing at times, but the energy shown by the dancers and musicians was very impressive.

The next couple of days we were quite a bit lazier, mainly just walking around and reading and relaxing. We did give some rupees to one of the Chinese fishing net guys to let us help drop the net and rise it, as well as look around the giant contraption. The real revelation of these two days was the little restaurant next to the hotel called "Dal Roti" that was not in any book, as it had only been opened for a few months. We ate there twice for lunch, and it was probably the best place we have eaten in India. It is the retirement project of this really nice shipping exec who we also talked to a lot. Nisha is going to cover it in its own post.

I realize that I rambled on a little bit about this place and nothing that I said may seem that impressive. However, this was really the first place that in India that I really liked in a no reservations, I would not mind living there kind of way. It does not really have that many impressive monuments or sights, but the place itself is the attraction. That is a nice change of pace sometimes when you often go to a drab city just to see the temple or palace.

Book Corner

2007-10-04T12:54:00.000-04:00

After a long hiatus I am back into reading (this is Ian by the way). Long train rides and a couple of English channels on TV tend to do that to you. Anyway, without further adieu, I just figured I would write a little on what I have read.

Obviously I am reading a lot about Asia right now, as it kind of seems appropriate.

Shadow of the Moon - M.M. Kaye

This was Nisha's favorite book she read growing up so she insisted that I read it at some point. I am glad I did because it is both a very good story, and gives you some good background about the British Raj, especially the Indian Mutiny of 1857. It is a love story book, so there is a fair amount of sappiness, but it is good none the less.

It is the love story of a officer in the British East India company and an Anglo-Spanish woman who was born in India then grows up in England before returning to her homeland. It is set around the 1857 rebellion, where the Indian regiments of the company rose up and killed their British leaders, before being suppressed eventually by loyal British troops. The rebellion ended the East India company and resulted in the direct crown control of India that lasted until 1947.

I was actually not a huge fan of the author's writing style, but the love story was well crafted. This book also gives you a lot of good history of the rebellion, as well as the atmosphere of India at the time. The shortcomings and attitudes that were the downfall of the British Raj are also probed in depth. R ecommended, unless you think the romance angle is not for you.

Shogun - James Clavell

I read this book many years ago and remembered it very fondly as one of the best books I ever read. Having now been to Japan, I re-read this behemoth. It was as satisfying now as it was back then.

Japan is obviously totally different, but one of the most interesting things about Shogun still applies when you go there in the 21st century. That is the question of who is really more civilized. In the book, the Englishman who lands in Japan first considers the locals to be primitive barbarians, but the thing is that the Japanese feel the same way about him. After a while, and many Onsen dips later, he looks at the dirt and grime of Europe at that time with total disdain. He remains an outsider, but the order and cleanliness or Japan make him question who is really all that civilized.

When you go there now, many of the same things still apply. You realize that their culture is so complex and their language so daunting that you will always be the outsider. However, all the positive things of Japan and the culture of order and cleanliness also make you question why we do some of the things we do at home. After a while you do start to get a little disgusted about wearing shoes inside and feel a little gross without your evening Onsen dip.

However, you also realize that the unpredictability of westerners, our non-conformity and our willingness to break out of tradition are rare qualities in Japan. They are for the main character of the book, and they still are today.

The Life of Mahatma Gandhi - Louis Fischer

Nisha read this first and then recommended it to me. It is a biography of Gandhi written in 1951, a few years after his assassination. The author is a journalist that knew and spent some time with Gandhi, giving him some interesting anecdotes to add to the biography.

Before I read this book my only impression of Gandhi was the same as most younger people. He was just some guy who walked around in a Dothi and somehow got the British to leave India. This book was really great to get a lot more knowledge about Indian independence and Gandhi's role. It is written by a fan of Gandhi, so it may not be completely balanced, but that love of Gandhi's vision brings a good passion to the book and the writing.

One of the main things that you take from the book is that the most amazing aspect of Gandhi is how he captured the soul of a nation without being a politician. He was involved in politics, but helping individuals and trying to fix the flaws that he saw in Indian society was his real passion. This passion was even more important to him then independence. He also did not openly pursue this role as moral authority for a people, he simply did what he thought was right and the authority came to him.

The other main thing for me is that although Gandhi succeeded in gaining independence, he ended his life distraught that he failed in letting the Partition of India occur. The idea that Hindus and Muslims could live together in peace was one of his most important missions. The partition and the 500,000 to 1,000,000 people who died were the marks of his failure.

It is also interesting to hear about a lot of the crackpot ideas that he had about medicine, food and health. I say crackpot because even he admitted that his ideas were as such. You realize that although he was a great man, it would not necessarily be a good thing for everyone to follow exactly in his footsteps. Even a great man can be wrong about many things, as Gandhi would be happy to admit.

Quick Update

2007-10-03T00:53:00.000-04:00

Just some quick things from the last couple of days:

- After our visit to the national park that Nisha is writing up, we headed up to a hill town in Tamil Nadu called Ooty. After a harrowing drive with a madman jeep driver up a road with 34 marked hairpin turns we arrived in this Indian tourist town. We had a fun day in Ooty seeing the great British botanical gardens and checking out the cheesy Indian carnival atmosphere around the boathouse. We hit the bumper cars, the mechanical bull and the world's largest handmade tread flower garden. Needless to say a fun time was had by all.

- We are now in Kochi, a city in Kerala. We are staying out in the historic fort area, which has quite a few tourists, but is one of the quietest and most charming little neighborhoods we have seen in India. We are staying at a great little B&B kind of place. We are going to be here for a few days, it should be very nice and relaxing.

- I still am getting used to the stunning popularity of the Lungi in south India. It is basically a man-skirt that is worn by a lot of guys down here. I never saw one until south of Goa, but probably about 30% of the guys down here wear them. In north and central India 99% of men wear pants. Only a few old and holy men wear the Dothi.

- Kochi has the best Internet connections and computers in all of India.

- South India so far has been really nice. People here seem to smile more, are generally more friendly and are a lot less annoying when tyring to sell you something. Even the autorikshaw guys have a little humor when they are pestering you. There is a guy around here who always tries to get us in his Ferrari, which is actually just a rikshaw with Ferrari stickers on it. There are also just a lot less hawkers and beggars in general, almost none in fact. The climate is nice as well, a lot less dusty and more tropical. Very much what we had expected from the South.

- The longer we are here, the cheaper we get. Since we were only going to be in Ooty for one night, we settled on the well run old camp atmosphere of the YWCA. A decent room for 450 rupees (11 dollars). "Its fun to stay at the..."

- One the flip side, we spent over 30 dollars on dinner the last two nights. Is it any surprise what our priorities are? That trend will end soon however.

- This one is for my Mom (who grows bananas in Key Largo)... Ever since we got to Kerala every convenience stall has at least 2 or 3, and sometimes up to 10, fresh banana stalks hanging out front. You just ask and they rip off as many fresh bananas as you want. The best convenience store food ever, except for maybe the steamed buns they sell at the Lawson Stations in Japan.

Indian Junk News

2007-10-01T09:04:00.000-04:00

One thing about being out of the country for so long is that you realize how so much of the news that you obsess about on a daily basis is actually quite irrelevant on a grand scale. I assume there is still a war going on, but besides that I do not know much else. However, my interest in US irrelevant news has been supplanted for my interest in Indian junk news, which is actually a lot more dramatic, in my opinion. The fact that an angry mob is usually on call at any moment is probably the biggest reason for the drama. Noting spices up a news story like an angry mob.

Here are 2 of the best that are currently going on:

Note - I am not a journalist and am giving my crude synopsis of the following stories. If I get anything wrong leave a comment and I will correct.

Indian Idol

So here they just finished up the 3rd season of Indian Idol. It is as popular here as it is in the US, if not more. Nisha and I watched the final, but we did not make it to the end since there were just too many performances of people who are probably grand old men of Indian singing, however unknown to us.

The winner as expected was Prashant Tamang. His story is heartwarming because he is an Nepalese-Indian Kolkata police officer who was not the judges favorite, but captured the hearts of the people. His father was also a cop killed in an accident, forcing him to join the force to support his family. Nisha and I also had interest in him because he is originally from Darjeeling, a charming mountain town we visited 3 years ago.

He was such a big deal in the hills that they banned alcohol sales for a week surrounding the final in Darjeeling. When he won people took to the street in joy all night. Also, people in Nepal donated 50,000 rupees to cops in India so that they could make numerous SMS votes on his behalf without bankrupting themselves.

So for a few days all was well, but this being India, all stories must end with a riot. A few days after Prashant's win some Delhi DJ made disparaging comments about him and the Nepalese-Indian community. In Siliguri, also in the West Bengal hills, a mob of Presant supporters was marching in protest of this, and was accused by some other local residents of assaulting a woman. Another mob of angry residents was formed and as Michael Buffer would say "Let's Get Ready to Rumble!!!". Several hours and burned cars and bikes later police restored order in what was described as a war zone. So far since then the Indian Idol peace has held.

Ram Setu

Hindus believe in the story of Rama, a god/king who lived in ancient times (I believe around 2500-1500 BC), as the story goes. One of the things that he was supposed to have done is build a bridge called Ram Setu from the southern part of India to Sri Lanka. There is in fact a strip of very shallow water between the two, but scientists say that it is a naturally occurring geologic formation.

I gather for some time, the Indian government, spurred primarily by the DMK party that rules Tamil Nadu (big state in south India) has wanted to dredge the channel between Sri Lanka and India. This project would be a boon to Tamil Nadu, but would also destroy the Ram Setu. Thus Hindu fundamentalists and their party the BJP are very against the idea.

This flared up recently because of a new court filing that spurred the DMK leader to call Ram a myth and challenge anyone who thinks the bridge exists to show him Ram's engineering degree. Verbal potshots have gone back and forth and a DMK mob sacked the BJP office in Tamil Nadu. The DMK leader refuses to backtrack on his comments, so the story trucks on.

At first I thought most in the US would think, as I did, that it would be pretty crazy in a secular country to halt a key public works project in order to not destroy a legendary bridge which science has declared natural. However, since then I realized that we are just lucky that our dominant religion does not have any myths that would get in the way of such a project. I do not think that it is any more of a unprovable myth that Ram built his bridge as opposed to a guy building a ship that saved all the animals on earth from a world-wide flood.

In fact, I think in the US we would actually be less likely to do the project, if it destroyed some biblical myth, then they are in India (where the project is moving forward). Also, if a major politician in the US made similar belligerent comments towards Jesus, I would speculate that he/she would be forced to leave office immediately, and probably have to do into hiding. Actually, this might be just what it would take for us to get an angry mob together, and have some more spicy news for ourselves.

Adventures of the Elephant Kind

2007-10-01T08:50:00.000-04:00

We desperately wanted to visit a nature preserve in India. Up until now, our plans had been thwarted by closed parks for non-existent monsoons or no reason at all. Last week, we decided to undertake the 20 hour journey from Goa to the Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu. It did not disappoint.

Formed in 1940, the Mudumalai National Park is part of 3 parks spanning 6000 square kilometers in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karanataka. The park is home to wild elephants, tiger, monkeys, leopards, spotted deer, sloth bear, Indian giant squirrel, wild boar, guar, bison, and peacocks among other animals. These animals share the park with several indigenous tribes.

Our drive in from Calicut on the coast to the park was the beginning of the excitement. In the 5 hour drive, we traveled in a fairly new Ambassador through tropical forests, rain forests, banana and coconut plantations. Father up in the hills, the air began to have a New England chill and the forest turned to more tropical dry deciduous. On the road to the report in Masiniguri, we experienced our first elephant sightings. This was only the beginning.

The Green Park Resort is a small middle-budget resport with a garden, restaurant, rooms and cottages. Aimed mainly at Indian tourists from Banglaore, it was full on this holiday weekend as 10/2/07 was Gandhi's birthday and a national holiday. The rooms were a little stuffy but clean. The remarkable aspect of this hotel is so simple and brilliant. As soon as we walked into the place, a man named Raju was assigned to us. He awoke us in the morning, arranged all our jeep excursions, cooked and served our breakfast, lunch, and dinners, and generally took care of all our needs. His brother Vishnu was our jeep driver and wildlife spotter. His other brother Ramesh arranged our trek. before knowing they were related, we thought all people in Tamil Nadu were particularly friendly with large round faces with pink cheeks and a head of dark curly hair.

The first morning, Raju woke us at 4:45AM for a jeep excursion into the park. The animals often move around looking for water ass-early in the morning. We didn't see any until the sun came up. Off in the distance Vishu spotted several elephants - a mother and her two calves were feeding. The other animals that weren't scared away by our roaring jeep were bison, peacocks, and deer.

Later in the day, Raju arranged a short trek to a famous waterfall. During the jeep ride there, we had our most thrilling wild elephant spotting - the mother with her 2 calves ran down the hill, and crossed the road 10 feet from our jeep.

The highlight of the trip was a visit to the domestic elephant park. The elephant park is home to some 25 elephants either found or rescued from danger randing in age from 1 year 2 months to 73 years old (the average lifespan is 60). One of their duties in the park is to guide wild elephants away from villages. Daily, they are worked, bathed for a 1/2 hour, and fed. The exception are the 2 geriatric elephants, 73 and 60 years of age, who are on pension. Each has an individual diet based on their age and level of work consisting of rice, 2 types of lentils, salt, coconut, sugar cane, and minerals. The mahouts pound the prescribed amount of food into 1 kg molds and stack them all on the table for presentation, complete with a place card for each elephant. When all the places are set, the mahouts mash up the carefully measured food and stick it into the elephants' mouths!

At 6AM the next morning, we leave for a trek with friendly Ramesh and a second man with a machete who barely acknowledges our presence. We arrive at the trail head as we are still waking up, the second man is sharpening a machete on a rock. Ramesh tells us to be silent and walk in a single file. We proceed to walk at a snails pace through thick jungles and grassy fields. The man with a machete moved like a wild animal, every now and then freezing in his tracks as he looks into what appears like a weed patch to me. Ramesh tells us later that this man is a tribal villager who can smell tiger, leopards, and elephants. Furthermore, in the area we were walking, there were 3 separate tiger spottings in the last month. A tiger trek! This was news to me. I thought we were going on a nice walk through the jungle to see waterfalls or something. I also could not belive he could smell anything since while walking behind him all I could smell was tobacco. After 4 hours of walking in complete silence, we were only lucky enough to see some wild monkeys. This was refreshing since monkeys in India are fairly scruffy city-dwelling ones that people throw rocks at. We saw scores of evidence of large animals - elephant mud tracks, stripped tree bark, warm football sized elephant dung, and agitated watering holes. The hunt for a tiger, pretty thrilling. Face to face with one, best left for the zoo.

- Nisha

New Post

2007-09-30T04:53:00.000-04:00

FYI - there is a new post here. Since I started writing it a few days ago, it posted with an old date.

Hot or Cold Water, not Both

2007-09-30T04:35:00.000-04:00

You may be wondering where we are resting our heads the last 2 months. Let me tell you, it has been half the journey.

In India alone, we have stayed in a total of 10 hotels, all very different. The accommodation in India is excellent for our budget. We tend to stay in places between $17 - $50 a night. Staying in a $20 hotel room for a few more nights is much more tolerable when you splurge for the $50 one every now and then. By far the highlight has been the Bali house at the Cavala Resort in Baga, Goa. This spotless hotel is built in an old Portuguese stuccoed walled house with plenty of dark wood trim and clay roof tiles. The restaurant meandered around the house under thatched palm overhangs. Our room was in a free-standing teak and glass house overlooking the pool. I never wanted to leave.

We have stayed at some less than desirable places as well. None were total rat-traps, but our hotel in Junagath, Gujarat left much to be desired. It had a lock from the inside to the hall. However, it had a second door to a barren concrete terrace that barely closed and did not lock.

Indians may be brilliant at many things, but hooking up plumbing is not a strong point. Only once was there no hot water, in Junagath no less. Over 50% of the time, the hot and cold are switched. In our hotel in Diu, you could only either get cold or hot, not both! Every place but the nicest has the toilet seat falling off, the flush weak, the drain for the shower sloped up from the shower spigot, or the sink drain leaking on the floor through a rubber tube. In Udaipur, shower water just came into the room under the door. In Diu, this combination was so bad, we asked the management for a mop to push the shower water into the drain after we showered.

If you have ever been to India, you know that they love noise here. We have been awoken by a comical list of noises: dog fights, car horns, prayers from the Mosque, prayers from the Hindu temple (sometimes at the same time as the prayers from the Mosque), roosters, construction workers, bells around horses' necks, rattling clay roof tiles, torrential rain, did I mention car horns? We stayed in a Muslim run hotel in Mumbai during Ramadan. They break their fast at nightfall. However, all night someone is in the guest kitchen cooking right in front of our door. It was like sleeping in the back of a busy restaurant.

One thing all these hotel have in common is that they are clean. We have gotten clean sheets, clean floor, and clean bathrooms. The hotel staff and servants have all been helpful and kind. We have not been scammed, cheated, or stolen from. For $20, what more can you ask for?

- Nisha

Goa Rundown

2007-09-28T03:34:00.000-04:00

Disclaimer - The opinions expressed are based on our visit to Goa in late September. Obviously if you visit Goa at a different time your results may vary.

Story:

We planned to spend a while in Goa as Nisha has an aunt as well as two cousins who live here that we wanted to visit. Also, this is known as India's most famous beach resort, and is universally recommended by Indians as one of the best places to visit in the country. It gets similar raves from the Lonely Planet and most other things you read. One thing I will say however is that we met some brits trekking in Leh who were here in August, at the height of monsoon, and they said it rained the whole time and almost everything was closed. This information tempered our expectations, but since we would be here at the end of monsoon we thought it would be OK.

We arrived on an overnight train and got picked up by Nisha's cousin, who has a very nice car, which is a rare luxury in India. They were having some water issues at the flat where her and Nisha's aunt live, so she put us up in a hotel for the time we would be with them, which was obviously very nice. They live in a city called Mapusa, which is the biggest town in North Goa, but is 10km from the shore, so it is not visited much by westerners, except as a place to get transport to the beach. The hotel, called Satyaheera, was one of the best values in accommodation on our trip. We had to get a triple room, because the doubles were full, but for 700 rupees (18 dollars) you got a big clean room with AC and a nice bathroom. The only catch was the Indian style toilet, but we are pretty used to those by now.

We spent the next couple of days seeing the sights in Goa, including the main town Panaji as well as the old Cathedrals and some quick stops at beaches. Nisha's aunt also cooked us 3 great home cooked meals at their flat, which were a nice change from restaurant fare. Also, the last night in Mapusa both cousins took us out to a nice dinner at our hotel. The one issue when we left Mapusa was that we had not found a beach we really wanted to stay at yet. Two of the beaches we went to were pretty crowded with people stopping on tour buses, and the other was completely closed down, with not even a place to get a beer, and just the occasional bead hawker.

On the morning we checked out of the hotel in Mapusa, we got a cab to a beach called Anjuna, which is supposed to be a quiet, but not too quiet, and really nice beach. The cab drops us off at the hotel we had planned on staying at, and all that is there are a couple of open bars and a rocky embankment to the ocean, as well as some confused looking westerners. I got a Diet Coke in the bar with the bags and Nisha walked in the direction of the beach, only to walk 1km to find a 1m wide strip of dirty sand. This was kind of a low point, as we had 2 nights left, and all we wanted to do was find a beach where we could go swimming and perhaps get some beers near the beach.

So, we made a last ditch attempt and took a cab to Baga, which is the supposedly quieter end of the Calangute and Baga beach that Lonely Planet describes as being too busy with package tourists. When we got there we finally found what we were looking for, a big beach with plenty of bars well stocked with beach chairs. We also got a room, actually a free standing little house, near the pool at a nice resort called Cavala. The room cost 2000 rupees (50 dollars), but was the nicest place we stayed all trip. The hut was really cute and had a beautiful shower and bathroom, which is really key in India.

The rest of that day we spent trying to find the famous market at Anjuna and drinking beer on the beach. The next day it actually rained for most of the day, but it was great anyway. We got some running in as well as a great lunch and played catch with a bunch of kids on the beach. We also rented a Honda scooter for only 200 rupees (5 dollars) a day, which makes it easy to get around.

Summary:

My opinion of Goa is far more nuanced then most. It is a pretty nice place, and a good place to chill for a while. But the people who say that it is nothing like the rest of India are wrong. It might be a little more western friendly, but it is still very much India. Its not like they stop all hawkers, cows or noisy autorikshaws at the border. Also, it is a pretty good beach resort for the price, but in terms of refinement and luxury it really does not hold a candle to the beach places that Americans are used to going to in the Caribbean, Florida or Hawaii. It is really not in the same league, but try getting 1 dollar beers there, that is the equalizer, if you care about the money.

Quick Reviews:

Anjuna - Big thumbs down. This place is bacially just a cow flop infested one horse town on a substandard beach with a couple of bars. Maybe if you need 100 rupee accommodation it makes sense, but to me it was a dump.

Anjuna Market - Big thumbs down. Someone must have paid off the Lonely Planet to write this up. Same trinkets as in any Indian tourist trap, just harder to get to.

Baga - Thumbs up. Nice beach, lots of places to get a drink. Probably gets crowded later, but was very nice now. A reasonable level of hawkers.

Calangute - Is OK. A little crowded, but an OK beach with a lot of stuff for sale and many hawkers.

Candolim - Thumbs down. This beach may be OK in high season when everything is open, but currently it is very shut down. Also, the end near the Taj is a pretty bad beach, surprising since it is such a high end resort.

Cavala Resort - Thumbs up. Really nice place to stay, the service, restaurant and room were great.

We're number 3!! We're number 3!!

2007-09-27T02:06:00.000-04:00

I do not read business management books, but I do remember a few tidbits that I am told by people who do. One of these Keith told me a long time ago is that Jack Welch when he was with GE thought that if they could not be either #1 or #2 in an industry, they should leave that industry completely. To some degree this philosophy shows up in America in that all companies like to either announce that they are the number 1, or the best, or the fastest growing, etc. If your business is none of these things, then you just don't say anything about where it stacks up.

In India very few businesses want to say that they are the best, and even if they do, they like to add all sorts of qualifiers, presumably so that no one can accuse them of being dishonest about their claim.

Examples (real slogans from Indian posters and signs):

- Bagpiper Whisky - India's number 1, now world number 3.

- Jet Airways - Possibly the youngest fleet in the sky.

- Savage Garden Restaurant in Udaipur (the best meal we had there) - Possibly the best of Udaipur's smaller restaurants.

- Hide and Seek Cookies - The world's best moulded chocolate chip cookie. At least they say they are the best, but I have not seen any other moulded cookies for sale.

There are many other examples of this as well, but I just cannot think of them off the top of my head.

Is it this happiness with "pretty good" that also manifests itself in the lack of industry consolidation in India? In most businesses here there are many little independent shops that all seem to copy each other in the products that they sell or the services that they provide. I have to wonder if this is because no person comes along with the idea that they are going to run the unquestionably best general store, Internet cafe, drug store or whatever, and then takes over the industry in that area or even in the whole country. Really the only consumer driven industry that is consolidated here is the petrol stations, and that is because of the government.

I may be going too far with this, but this may be an issue that India will need to rectify if they ever want to truly reach the status as a nation that they are striving for. One of biggest national issues here to me is the lack of quality, not effort, in many business endeavors. When you are looking for a hotel here there are always plenty of options where the owners and the workers will try very hard to make your stay as good as possible. However, in about half of the showers in said hotels the shower is hooked up in reverse (hot to cold and vice versa) or the floor is sloped so that water pools, etc. This is just an example, and I hate to criticize, because Indian people work as hard as anyone, but really the last step they need to make is to raise the standards of quality that are expected. When you work hard and work smart at the same time, then you have no need to say you might be number 1.

Update - 10/4/2007

Since I wrote this we visited the Thread Garden in Ooty. These guys certainly did not mince words when declaring themselves the best. The sign in the picture is one of many.

Quick Update - Pictures!!

2007-09-27T01:41:00.000-04:00

We can finally upload pictures again, so altough it is still troublesome, there is and will be some new stuff up there.

Will do a big write up on Goa when we leave, because I would love to set the record streight for anyone searching the internet in the future about Goa. Until then, let it be known that we are staying in a buitiful bungalow in a very nice little resort. We are near a nice beach and there are many shacks there open all day and night where you can grab a comfortable beach chair and 1 dollar beers. We also had a very nice Italian meal last night, so things are good.

Lonely Planet, you have failed me...

2007-09-26T11:52:00.000-04:00

I have been a faithful reader and user of Lonely Planet travel guides since my tour of Europe 10 years ago. These concise and thorough books are the bible of the thinking person traveling abroad (you can use Rough Guide, but everyone knows those are for frat guys). These ubiquitous guides, often referred to as "the book" or LP, are often on tables in cafes, in hands of those walking around cities, and most cherished among the few possessions of the backpacker traveler. They are loved for their no-nonsense, straight talking summation of the world's best places. Want to go spelunking in Budapest? Lonely Planet will point you there. Want pizza in Jaipur? Lonely Planet will tell you where to go. Need to get from Calcutta to the Sundarbuns park? LP will guide you on every train, boat, rickshaw, and donkey cart you need to get there.

After having LP guide me for 4 months around Europe, 2 weeks in Japan, and a total 8 weeks in India (split over 2 trips), I am a totally devoted fan and know how to read between lines to find the really good places it has to offer. I thought I did...

Goa, on the west coast of India, is a former Portuguese colony for a total of 450 years. Most people spoke Portuguese up until a few years ago. This area of the coast about the size of Rhode Island, was liberated from Portugal in the 1960's by the Indian Army and annexed into India. Not everyone here saw it as a liberation. Nevertheless, it is a peaceful, tropical, cosmopolitan place full of Portuguese colonial charm in the buildings, food, drink, and interesting mix of people.

The Indian army wasn't the only group to invade this beautiful area of coast in the 60's, the hippies did as well. They helped to develop many of the beaches into the international party scenes they are known for today. 747s full of Europeans, Brits, and Israelis land everyday at the Goan airport at high season all looking for a good beach party. Around Christmas and New Years, they descend on the place like locusts during a hatch, sleeping on the beach and aside the road. The most famed beach that we could discern from LP and other travelers is Anjuna beach. Many people for the last month have all said "oh, have you been to Goa?? It's so wonderful, you must go to Anjuna, there is no place like it!!" We met a nice German man on the train who claimed that Anjuna was the best beach in India. Diu could not compare, according to him (please see the Flickr site for Diu pictures and decide for yourself once all the pics are up). LP described it as a "place to see and be seen" and spoke of many beach-side accommodations, restaurants, and general beach related merriment.

So after 3 wonderful days of spending time with my cousins and aunt a few kilometers away from Anjuna, we were very excited to come and see it today. The rickshaw brought us to "Anjuna beach". There was no beach there, only red rocky cliffs. Leaving Ian with the bags, I walked about 1/2 mile down the shore road to find "the best beach in India." I did not find this, but I found a brown-black beach studded with rock outcroppings (ie not a swimming beach), sewer run-off, and trash. The shore was only dry about 10 feet deep before tired looking restaurants shot up from the beach, mostly boarded up with blue tarp and dried palm leaves for the season. There were some other confused tourists looking for this "amazing" beach. The whole place felt like Bourbon street at 10am on a Tuesday in the summer.

Never have I felt so misled by my beloved LP. Maybe the scene is fun at the beach bars in high season, but the beach was worse than the one in Revere. Having seen too much of Bourbon street at 10am in college, we moved on to the very lovely Baga beach, described by LP as "overdeveloped." If in LP language, "overdeveloped" really means "a long, wide, clean, sandy beach where a guy sets up beach chairs to serve me beer", I am IN.

- Nisha

No Skin Please, we are Indians...

2007-09-26T11:37:00.000-04:00

One of the most striking things about modern India is the vast difference between the way the the country views itself on TV as opposed to the reality of what the life of the vast majority of Indians actually is. Obviously things are a lot cleaner and better kept then in reality, but you could say that about US commercials as well, since every car is always driving threw the Hamptons or the Pacific Coast Highway. The gap is greater here, but still comparable.

However, the place where this manifests itself more then anywhere else is in women's clothing. If you only watched Indian TV commercials, you would be under the impression that most Indian women, especially young women, wear more or less western cloths. Perhaps a little more conservative then US teeny-boppers, but stylish and tight fitting. If you saw a commercial for a beach resort you would think that most Indians wear bathing suits and go swimming similar to westerners.

In fact only the tiniest percentage of upper class Indian women wear western cloths. Indian clothing is still the norm for almost every woman in India. Basically, the only places I have ever seen Indian women in western cloths was in nice areas of Mumbai and at resorts such as Goa. As far as bathing suits go, I have never seen an Indian woman in a bathing suit, except for on TV. Most Indian women, and most men for that matter, do not swim. If men swim they do wear a standard bathing suit. If women swim they usually go in the water in full Indian dress. Today in Goa we did see a couple of well to do young Indian women go in the water wearing stylish western cloths, but that is about as riske as it gets.

The other annoying side effect of this is that when we go to the beach, it is often uncomfortable for Nisha to wear a bathing suit because so many Indian men, who rarely see such things stare very obnoxiously. This is much improved in Goa, where western tourists are a lot more common, but it is definitely one of the major drags of going to an Indian beach.

Chak De India

2007-09-25T01:36:00.000-04:00

Last night India won the first Twenty20 world cup. They beat arch-rival Pakistan in the final, in a close game that went down to the last over. It would have been really cool to be in Mumbai to watch the game and see the crowds in the street, but we were in a very small city in Goa called Mapusa. In Mapusa the celebration was limited to some fireworks and the occasional band of drunken yahoos driving scooters around town with a big Indian flag.

This was the first time that India won a major international competition in something like 30 years, so I would imagine that it must be great to finally taste success in a sport people love so much.

Side story. The title of this post is from the movie Chak De India, which I believe means "Lets Go India". It is the top movie in India right now, and stars Indian mega star Shah Rukh Khan. It is about an India team of underdogs winning a field hockey tournament. The thing is that CNN-India stole the name of the movie for its coverage of the win last night. Watching the coverage was pretty funny, because, similar to how the Boston stations cover the super bowl wins, they basically have a 3 hour fluff program of various talking heads, including the king Shah Rukh Khan himself, talking about how great the game was. You realize that these programs are pretty boring to those who are not that into the team in question.

Another funny thing is that they were announcing on the show all of the money that was already given to the players from the chief ministers of the states where they live. I guess that is normal here, but can you imagine, if the Patriots win the super bowl, Deval Patrick just handing over 10 grand to Tom Brady. I don't think we would think of that as an appropriate use of government funds.

Photo Problems

2007-09-25T01:34:00.000-04:00

In case anyone is wondering, we have had a bad string of luck with internet cafes and getting our photo upload to work. At some point I am sure we will get everything uploaded, but that is the cause for the delay.

Stop Having Too Much Fun

2007-09-22T04:50:00.000-04:00

Cricket is India's number 1 sport. If there is a number 2 sport, I have not figured out what it is, that is how big cricket is.

For those unfamiliar with cricket it is a little like baseball, but the real main difference is that batters can basically tap off pitches with their big flat bats forever. If the batters focus is only to not get out, or play very safely, then they can take hundreds of pitches to get out. In traditional, or "Test Cricket", each team goes threw its batting order twice, until each player is out, with each player being able to take an unlimited number of balls. Thus test cricket matches normally take around 4 days to conclude.

Some time ago, in 1971, a new form of match was invented that was guaranteed to finish in one day. This allowed there to be tournaments such as the world cup that would take way to long to play if they were done as test matches. This form is called the "One Day International" or ODI. Basically the game is the same, but each side only runs threw the batting order once. Also, and most important, each side is limited to batting 50 overs, an over consisting of 6 balls. Now that there is a limit to how many balls can be taken, there is a motivation for the batting side to take more chances, even if it results in more outs.

Both kinds of cricket are still played, but the ODI became very popular since there is more action and the game only lasts around 8 hours. The thing is however, that it is still imperative for the team not to get out before they have used most of the 50 overs at their disposal. For this reason, especially early in the game, there is still a lot of safe batting, with batters hitting 1s and 2s, which are like singles in baseball.

Enter the Twenty20 match, which is being played at the international level for the first time right now, in a new world cup event. This is basically similar to ODI, but now there are only 20 overs a side. Also, bowlers (aka pitchers) must work faster and players sit on the field in a dugout, as opposed to way up in the box, for less delays when someone gets out. Now games are down to 3 hours, and batters really have to make the most of the balls they see. This means lots of outs, or wickets, and lots of 6s, which is when the ball is hit out of the stadium, like a home run.

For this American viewer, this is finally a type of cricket that I can get into, kind of like watching a baseball game. Based on the number of people watching the games, especially since a surprising India team has made the simi-finals, the general public seems to agree with me.

The funny thing about this is the fierce debates that are raging in the sport columns about weather this is a huge advance towards making cricket more accessible, or the death of this proud game. One one side are the people who feel, as I do, that Twenty20 is much more compatible with the amount of time that people can invest in a sports match, and that since there is more action the game is much more fun to watch. Predictably the other side consists of purists who think that all the risk taking and action ruin the beauty of the game.

One of the best articles by the purists was in the Times of India where the author bemoaned that cricket was supposed to be a "marathon that is to be endured". The fact that a stadium full of fans was cheering and on its feet for a lot of the match was a huge problem, since to paraphrase, cricket was not supposed to be fun. Obviously this guy has not spent too much time watching American sports and has not realized that fans are the reason for the game, and a sport with no fans is not going to last very long.

Anyway, I am quite disappointed I will not be able to watch India's simi-final match tonight because we will be on the train to Goa. But, if they can pull off and upset against mighty Australia, I am very excited for the final on Monday.

Ganesh Chaturthi

2007-09-22T04:28:00.000-04:00

We lucked out again on the festival scene. Many of you know that one of my life's dreams is to travel around the world and hit every major festival. This dream is somewhere beneath having a horse and above owing my own private island on the list.

Ganesh Chaturthi is the same festival that was ongoing in Diu as here. The basic festival is the same, but the Mumbai festival is about 1 lakh times larger (in India, 1 lakh = 100,000). I won't begin to understand the intricacies of the symbolism of the festival, but basically it is one celebrating the good luck Ganesh brings to the people of Mumbai. In both places, families obtain a Ganesh statue which they decorate and worship for anywhere between 1 - 13 days. One can buy the statue from many roadside stores. Seeing five 8-foot tall Ganesh figures sitting on the side of the road is a surreal sight.

The statues and pandals (the statue in a scene) of larger families and groups often have themes. Ahmedabad (a large city in the state of Gujarat and Nisha Bhatt's ancestral town) was the promotion of female children and their education. In Mumbai, it is the farmer suicide to highlight the poverty of rural India's farmers. A person my visit many pandals around the city, causing a line to form in one today up to 2.5km long. Some of the pandals are engaged in a fierce judging by the Times of India-picked celebrity staff. Often people will present gifts to Ganesh in hope for or in thanks of good luck (ie a child, or prosperity in business). One Mumbai couple presented a Ganesh idol a 9 lakh (900,000 Rs) gold sash in thanks of their new pregnancy after trying 11 years.

After the puja has been preformed twice daily, the family then parades the idol down the street. The men dance to the drums and keyboard of a hired band, the truck with the idol follows, with the women trailing in the back. I only saw women dancing in 2 of the 50 or so processions that night. Covered with and throwing pink, purple, and yellow powdered tempra paint, the men and boys dance themselves into a sweaty frenzy. The destination of this parade is the beautifully arched, nearly 10 km long Chowpatty Beach. After the musicians are abandoned, the procession has a solemn puja on the beach. Finally, the men of the families (and a few women) carry out the Ganesh idol into the Chowpatty bay for immersion in the night water. This sounds easier than it looks. The water is only about 2 feet deep for nearly 100 feet out. The larger idols need to be brought about 200 feet offshore before they can be immersed. Every year a few people drown.

I tried to capture this scene with pictures, but being the night, and trying to be respectful, I really could not. The black beach was covered with people chanting, trucks backing up, giant balloon sellers, and head massage guys. There was rain drainage and small waves lapping over disfigured idols washed ashore. In the water were hundreds of people for as far out as you cous see accompanied by the sound of drumming from all around the bay.

We watched this scene and then stood for a few hours around the parade route. Many people wanted to take a picture with us causing the cop to come and move the crowd along. Ian danced Punjabi-style with a few of the processions.

I'll try to load the pictures up, so far unsuccessful in Mumbai.

A great festival. Strangely, we were the only Western tourists!

- Nisha

Chinatown

2007-09-22T01:26:00.000-04:00

One really nice thing about being in a big Indian city are the Chinese restaurants. Chinese food here is generally a much more high end affair then in the US. A lot of restaurants say they they serve Chinese as well as Indian, but usually that just means 10 or so dishes of noodles cooked with Chinese spices.

A real Chinese restaurant here is actually incredibly similar to Chinatown restaurants in the US, in terms of food and atmosphere. The thing is that while a restaurant of that quality in the US is middle range, here it is very high end. The places themselves look very much the same, kind of gaudy with a lot of brass and aquariums or coy ponds.

The food is also similar, but really hits the spot after being away so long. Last night at a place called Ling's Pavilion we had for an appetizer a dim sum platter, complete with pork (yes pork) steamed buns, that were as good as any in Boston. For dinner we had a beef and wonton over noodle dish (yes beef) as well as a pork dish. They were both excellent and the beef and pork were so great to have after so long. All this for 625 rupees, which is around 15 dollars.

The kicker is that Ling's also had the best bathroom in all of India, one that even a good US restaurant would be proud of.

Unfortunately it will probably be until Kolkata before we have real Chinese again, but I am already excited.

Mumbai Classic Cars

2007-09-21T02:23:00.001-04:00

In a previous post I noted the almost complete disappearance of the venerable Hindustan Ambassador from the Indian streets. Although the fumes they spout
are horribly vile, they do have a certain charm and I was secretly hoping that there were still a few in Kolkata, just for old times sake.

Thankfully Mumbai has its own reminder of the charms of pre-economic liberalization India roaming its streets, the Premier taxi cab. Every normal cab in Mumbai is one of these rusty little guys, now running on CNG.

The look of a street full of them, with the English buildings makes you think you are in Austin Powers II.

Bright Lights, Big City

2007-09-21T02:03:00.001-04:00

When you are Mumbai you almost have to remind yourself that you are
still in India. Mumbai is still obviously a big city in the
developing world, but the economy, organization and civil order is so
far ahead of other Indian cities that I have seen that I would almost
say that Mumbai is more like an Indian New York or London then a rich
Dehli.

It actually feels a lot more like home to me. Certainly there are a
lot of slightly crumbling old buildings, but there are also a lot of
things that are either new or well taken care of. The stuff that
makes you feel more at home is subtle but everywhere. They actually
have sidewalks here that are not allowed to turn into a shanty town or
parking lot. Since autorickshaws are not allowed in the city center,
most of the vehicles on the road are actually cars and they more or
less follow the traffic rules. I have not seen a cow or other large
animal since I got here, meaning you can actually look up when you
walk rather then watching for cow patties. No one lives in the public
parks, and there is a very nice promenade along the waterfront.

The richer economy here means that there are a lot more smart and
flashy new restaurants, cafes and bars. These places cater to a much
larger group of well to do Indians then I have seen elsewhere. They
also have a lot more food variety then just the usual Indian
standards.

Tomorrow we go to Goa, which should be fun as well, but for someplace
that we ended up for a few days in transit, I have thoroughly enjoyed
myself. The blend here, which I think does a good job capturing the
energy of India with the order of the west makes it a great city to
visit.

No Giant Balloons, Shawls, or Drums PLEASE!

2007-09-21T02:00:00.000-04:00

Nisha writing: I also agree with Ian's assessment of Mumbai. Beautiful, clean, and it works. Lest you think that it is a different country from India, below is my experience from yesterday:

When we first arrived to India, we encountered some very ugly Western tourists. Unfortunately, I crossed into this group yesterday.

If you have never been to India or other places where street hawkers are common, you cannot imagine the effect this has. Naturally, your attention is diverted to a person calling out to you. These hawkers are selling useful items like water, lime soda, and taxi rides. They also sell anything from beautiful handicrafts, counterfeit items, and bus tickets. Often the hawkers will call out things you feel compelled as a polite Western tourist to answer like "you like India?", "where are you from?", "what is your name?" Sometimes they will try to help you with directions and actually be trying to sell you a watch. The hawkers will yell at you constantly while you are walking down some streets, often 2 or 3 at a time. Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur were the worst. There the hawkers seemed very unscrupulous, whether they were or not. Occasionally they will follow you for blocks holding items you wouldn't want even if it were free. After a few days of this, you get used to it and start to completely ignore the hoards of people vying for my attention (and therefore money). It is really hard when it is a child. Never would I want to be rude to a child who is innocently curious about the large white Westerner and wants to practice English. These kids are a delight to talk with. However, kids are also employed by hawkers and will use their cuteness to get your attention as well (by the way, I read in the paper that India would finally become more strict enforcing the child labor laws that were put on the books in the 1980s, finally!).

After trying to find some shoes from sellers on the street in the rain, I had been asked for the 1000th time that day if I wanted to buy a drum or pashmina shawl (there is not real pashmina sold on the street). The sad thing is, I actually like the drums and shawls and would buy both if my backpack weren't already nearly 25 pounds. There is also no way to express my true sentiment - I truly like their products and respect their right to sell me goods on the street since this is their livelihood, but I am not interested in their goods presently. Instead they follow you, yelling incessantly, and will keep dropping the price you until you have to say something like "even if it were free I don't want a drum/puppet/electric shaver (I kid you not)." The hawkers are the worst in Jaipur where I was accosted while getting into a rickshaw with a man screeching, "look, these puppets! heads wooden! 100 for 2, 50 for 2...." He threw the puppets on my lap and started banging the head together to prove they were wooden. Even if I had any inkling of wanting a puppet before this incident, I certainly don't want one with a face of chipped paint. While we drove off he yelled, "OK, 20 rupees for 2!!!" (50 cents for 2 beautiful handmade puppets).

Then yesterday, this guy asked me if I want a giant balloon. These are nothing like balloons you have ever seen. Fully inflated, they are about 12 feet long. Did I look like I needed a giant balloon in the rain? My patience for ridiculous Indian street salesman wore thin and I yelled to him "No, I don't want a giant balloon, shawl, or a drum!!" Immediately I felt remorse for this. However, later in the night he saw me again and before starting in his speech said instead "oh yes, no giant balloon, shawl, or drum." At last...

- Nisha

Flying High

2007-09-20T01:59:00.000-04:00

Now that we have flown on them 3 times (Delhi-Leh and Diu-Mumbai on this trip and Kolkata-Darjeeling 4 years ago) we need to give a shout out to Jet Airways, India's largest private airline.

Jet Airways is just a really well run airline, that frankly puts the level of service that we have grown accustom to in the US to shame. First of all, their employees are actually very helpful and professional, and actually seem happy to be working there. Their planes all seem to be almost brand new, either new Boeing 737s, or in the case of out flight to tiny Diu, a new ATR turboprop. In fact my one criticism of Jet is that it is blatant false advertising that they fly a propeller plane, but what are you going to do.

The real reason why Jet is the best is the food. They serve a meal on every flight, even all the ones we have taken that are only an hour long. I was not even aware that they could serve food on a small turboprop, but just after take off, the food cart appears. First when you get on they give you water and a bottle of this fresh lime drink. Then the meal is usually either Vegetarian or non-Vegetarian, we have always gone veg, as that is usually the best choice for average indian food. The food has always been excellent, the last meal was the best, it had a folded dosa with a really good curry to dip in as well as corn salad and chocolate cake (which is crazy rare in India). Then they do tea and coffee, all once again on an hour long flight. The topper is that the flight attendants are actually, both male and female, young, smartly dressed and attractive. Not like the grizzled old union types in the US.

So in conclusion, Jet Airways, highly recommended. In fact I would be tempted to take their new flights from Toronto or New York next time I am headed to India, to see what they do with 20 hours of time to kill. I could eat 20 of those dosas from the last flight easy.

Australian for Beer

2007-09-20T01:37:00.000-04:00

We are in Mumbai (sometimes still known as Bombay) now, so a couple of updates to my list from yesterday:

- I forgot that they actually brew Foster's under licence in India now, so the beer situation is a little better then described. Since it is technically a "domestic" beer the price is the same as Kingfisher, where available.

- Will write more on this, but Mumbai rocks, and they do have cafes here that are more or less like a normal bar. Nisha and I had a couple of the previously mentioned Fosters and watched the end of a big India-England Cricket match on a big screen in a packed house last night.

- One of the afore mentioned bars also has beef burgers and Chinese food with beef. The funny thing is that even though one of the objects of my affection is right in front of me, I don't think I am going to pull the trigger. I have no idea where they get beef from in India, but I don't really want to know. The possibility that it is one of those cows that hang out eating piles of garbage on the street is too much to take.