Bangkok nights..
Ain't none..
Too bad! ;=)
Finally made it to Bangkok.
And i'm loving..
every minute of it!
Even though i hardly have ventured out much beyond Kao San road..
Bangkok's backpacker heartland/tourist bedlam so to say.
Meeting the most incredible people and when i'm not in Kao San or ever so slightly hungover..
i've been practicing meditation at the Wat Mahadhat temple complex.
Even ventured out once before sunrise to have myself some 'breakfast with mindfulness' ;=) followed by three and a half hours of meditation, then on to lunch and 'personal time with consciousness'.
Though, since i didn't enroll in the intensive meditation retreat and no one really explained me these terms, after lunch i just chatted with some people who had already been there for two days of full on meditation. Brilliant conversations.
What else? The people - fellow traveler or local, the food, the surroundings.. What a change from India. A welcome breath of fresh air. The last weeks in India had been pretty tough on me. And though Calcutta was brilliant, i was glad to finally move on to South-East Asia.
What follows is a short breakdown of my last weeks in India.
Right, rewind-rewind...
Remember last when i told you about the Ellora and Ajanta caves?
So, Ilaria had decided to move on to Bombay - where we would meet up - after Ellora, but i wanted to spend one more day on the Ajanta caves. After which i headed down to Jalgoan to catch my overnight train to Bombay. (Which was of course a bit late.. Again.. Yawn.) Waking up the next morning, just moments before my arrival, seeing the high rise outta the open windows, i was immediately buzzing with anticipation. Finally, a proper big city. How wonderful!
And Bombay didn't disappoint: beautiful boulevards with colonial architecture, surprisingly easy to move about the (touristic) center, no where near Mumbai, the congested maximum city i expected.
For once, i didn't go slumming :) Didn't feel that interested to go on a tour and play the role of some rich bitch looking in at the lives of those poor sods stuck in Dharavi slum, so no Slumdog Millionaire stories from this end. (Except that AR Rahman, the composer who won best soundtrack + best song oscar is nicknamed 'the Mozart of Madras'!? I'm still at a loss how they came up with that one.. Poor Wolfie ;=)
I did, however, go round to visit Jeanne Devos, a Belgian nun who's the founder and national coordinator of the National Domestic Workers Movement. This organization defends the rights of women and children working (read: often slaving away) as household helps, and intervenes to liberate those who do live as household slaves and adding insult to injury, often have been abused in the past.
Maybe have a glance at their site:
ndwm.org and who knows, make a donation. My preliminary donation was a chocolate covered pie. :)
I was forced to. Since Jeanne Devos and my grandmother are related i had to honour the most basic of family customs: you can't have people over for coffee without there being some (read: an abundance of) pie.
What else? I greatly enjoyed the good food and great company of Pratap, the owner of Pratap Lunch Home (Janmabhoomi Marg, Fort Area). I can still hear him starting off a new piece of conversation with a proper curse and knowing, ah this one's gonna be good. And he never let me down. :) Great man.
We had some darn good chats. Sure did. So, do go there for an affordable drink, some of the best biryani and pilau rice i've tasted in India and pretty damn decent sea food, especially considering the price. Trust me, the place is a gem. If you wanna get a taste of Bombay proper, you now know where you should be heading for.
After Mumbai/Bombay (check the previous posts) i traveled further down South, first to Kolhapur (Maharashtra), then through Karnataka - Bijapur, Hospet, Hampi, Gokarna and Mysore.
After Mysore i went to Kannur to see the theyyam, a ritual of spirit possession, and there i also had the most loveliest of times with the local fisherman down at the harbour. (No pun intended.;=)
Next up was beautiful but sadly too touristy Fort Cochin, where i came up with another story idea. Sorta about what love is all about. Let's just say that, among other people, my friends in Brussels might find interesting.. (That they in one or other distorted form might feature in it.) Not that any of these things are in any way related. Obviously. ;=)
In Cochin i met the delightful Julia, who was sitting on the rocks near the seaside enjoying some the last rays Indian sunlight before heading off to Mumbai the next morning and then back to London. Too bad we didn't meet before.. She hosts 'the only weekly short film evening in London' have a look at
shortandsweet.tv to see a small collection of interesting shorts.
Pretty hard to resist the fishmongers who set up shop down the road from the old Chinese fishing nets. So i decided to have a proper bit of fish indeed: grilled tiger prawns and langoustines (small type of lobster). But don't feel the need to get all envious, they were slightly overcooked. :=)
(No really, i could've killed these guys working at the fish restaurants - the type where you can bring round the fish you bought at the fish market and they'll cook it for ya. Lying bastards. If there's one thing that really pushes my button it's the blatant dishonesty of some Indians. Not the fact that they're trying to make an extra buck. Fine by me. If you're going to cheat a bit of money out of some tourists at least have the brains to lie to them properly. First telling someone the price is x and later on all of the sudden it's doubled?! Yeah, i'm very sorry too, mate. That's just insulting people's intelligence, innit? - Oh well.. Seems at the time i wrote this i was still quite upset over the struggle it can be to have to deal with all this while traveling India. In case you can relate, a word of advise: best to avoid Chennai/Madras.)
Anyhow, i was more then happy to leave Cochin for Alleppy. Or as the locals call it Alappuzha, which each time i came across it on a shop front reminded me of the animated movie Madagascar and the illustrious 'Fooza'. Alappuzha aka 'A la puzha', so to say. And you could hear them too: sitting round in the garden late at night on a full moon the surrounding forest really came alive.
Talking about which, back in Alleppy i stayed at some madman's place. Frustrated over a failed marriage (my guess he cheated on his wife: he claimed it to be impossible for a man to stay faithful to a women for more than two years - go figure..) and the subsequent ruin of his career in advertisement and loss of a number of family businesses (he went on a two year bender and throughout his family took care of him) on the other hand he was a very creative and quite fascinating guy, though he could use a bit of anger management.
Then again his guest house was lovely, nevertheless i was more than relieved to leave the place after two nights. And he hooked Gael and Antoine, two brilliant French guys straight outta university, and me up with a pretty decent canoe. With which we were able to ply our way through the small channels and waterways where the locals live, outta the way of the big canals the houseboats navigate. Yup, them backwaters were amazing. Highly recommended to each one and all of you.
Leaving Kerala and my French companions behind i didn't know i was going to spend the following weeks moving from one place to another without finding any of 'em that captivating/enjoyable (with the exception of Hyderabad, maybe), without meeting any fellow travelers, not being able to find a halfway decent place to write, catching a major cold.. Best to be brief then.
Two facsinating bus rides through beautiful Kerala, one to Trivandrum (Kerala) and from there to Kanniyakumari (Tamil Nadu), the most Southern part of India, where two oceans meet. Which sounds impressive but not being way out at sea Kanniyakumari really wasn't that great an idea.
Overnight train to Madurai.
Nice enough temple complex.
They were repainting the lot to be ready by April 9th in celebration of Shiva and his marriage to his consort, Parvati.
Fell ill.
Forced to stay in Madurai.
Luckily there were some great restaurants, one of which had a menu with evening specials reading like a dictionary of local specialties. Have a look at the '7 flavour uttapam' below.
Another pretty bus ride from Madurai to Villupuram and from there Pondicherry. Arriving at 3am dead tired, nearly got into a fight with another lying cabby - half my size, he had balls, i have to grant him that much - who threatened me with his black belt in tennis. You just can't stay mad at them for too long when they say such inane stuff, can you now?
Bus to Chennai (Tamil Nadu), where i arrived too late to catch a connecting train to Hyderabad, so i was forced to stay the night. Imagine a weary traveler in a comedy of errors with each and everyone he meets - walking out of the station till the moment he goes to bed - lying to get as much money out of him as possible. With the exception of a couple of nice people at the juice bar and restaurant. You can always trust the people working in small time businesses tourists rarely frequent to be as truly hospitable and dead charming. At least in India.. :)
Arrived real early in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), well actually Secunderabad, where i spent a record 4 hours to get my tickets to Bhubaneswar and Calcutta sorted - red tape and pushy Indians always trying to jump the queue.. Divine!
Had quite a good time wandering round Hyderabad.
Had a chuckle over 'black bag central' - the surreality of all of the sudden being surrounded by walking talking black ghosts..
With fake Louis-Vuitton and Fendi bags, of course.
Treated myself to a good biryani twice daily.
Could've visited a lot more.. but was happy to leave all the same.
Boarded a 20 hour train to Bhubaneshwar (Orissa).
Arriving at Bhubaneshwar i was lucky enough to find an internet cafe where i could use skype to call some of my family and friends. Lovely. Too bad i didn't have the time to move to Puri and due to not being able to get any proper sleep - too much noise throughout the night due to a religous festival - i couldn't be arsed to spend another 2-3 hours on a bus to and fro the sun temple at Konark or to drag myself down the long snaking road round the local temples in the blistering heat.
Culcutta (West Bengal) luckily proved to be more my cup of tea.
Staying at Sudder St. i could again meet up with some fellow travelers.
The first (and only) item on my to do list, i had to go round to Mother Theresa's orphanage to meet up with little Joshua, whose future adoptive parents asked me to go round, take some pictures and shoot a movie or two. Since they will have to wait another couple of months now a new judge is appointed and due to the transition a lot of cases are left pending.
Brilliant experience. Walking in and having in no time ten, twenty kids pulling at you to come play..
I really enjoyed Calcutta.
The city may be a bit gritty and all - highest density of beggars i've ever seen - it's a vibrant place.
West-Bengal prides itself to be the intellectual and cultural center of India and they might just have a point.
The food's great too.
And walking through old Chinatown, now a predominantly Muslim quarter, being the only white kid or tourist in miles..
Highly recommended.
So, do go to calcutta y'all!
Well, for all those of you who've made it this far..
Loadsa - please no ping pong!!! - luv,
-hx.
