India Trip: Dehradun part 1

We left for Dehradun on the Shatabdi express train around 7 am. It was a quick, pleasant ride other than the fact that about 2 hours into the ride I started feeling really nauseous. I've never gotten motion sick on a train before, and I think it had something to do with the malaria medication we're taking. At one point I was standing by the doorway so that I could get some fresh air as the train rolled along. That helped alot, although I think the train guy thought I was acting a bit weird. In about 5 hours we reached the Dehradun (DDun) station.

From the train station it was a quick rickshaw ride over to Shveta's house. On the outer gate there was a sign reading "Prem Puri / Ravish Puri". The ride over was fairly pleasant, much better than driving in the big cities of Delhi/Bombay. We went into the front gate and were greeted by Shveta's grandma and some family friends. It was comforting to know that we'd be staying put for a while, giving my stomach a break, although for some reason riding in a rickshaw gave me no motion illness at all. The house is very nice, and has a cute little backyard area with a swing. There are quite a few rooms, one of which is occupied by their friends who take care of grandma.

After a bit of rest and some lunch we toured around DDun a bit, visiting some old schools of her parents, and the Tibetan marketplace. I was hoping to find a nice Tibetan souvenir, but the marketplace was packed with stalls selling jackets and clothes. The Tibetan aspect of the marketplace was the fact that all the stores were owned by Tibetans. As the sun began to set we headed back to the house to settle in for the evening.

India Trip: Delhi pt 2

The day after we got back from Agra, we spent looking around Delhi. The morning started at the Park Hotel, which became our temporary home for the day. We met up with our tour guide and driver, then headed to the Akshardham Temple. They don't allow tour guides in the temple so we were on our own for the morning.

As we pulled up to the temple, we were all impressed with how huge it is. Pulling into the parking lot it felt like part Disneyland, part Vegas, and part religious center. They do not allow cameras so I couldn't take any pictures, but it was incredibly impressive (you can see it on their website). There were beautiful stone carvings all over, and a huge temple complex. Along the back of the temple was a musical watershow, which seemed to be like what they do at the Bellagio. There was also an IMAX theater, boat ride, and guided tour explaining the religion. On one hand, I was certainly impressed and admired the beauty of the temple. But on the other hand it was such a contrast to everything outside the temple I couldn't help but think how nice it would've been to spend all these resources improving the overall community instead. The temple was by far the cleanest and most pristine area I've seen in Delhi, but just 100 yards away you were back in the crazy urban Indian mix.

After visiting the temple, we met up with our guide, then went to McDonald's for lunch. They have a number of veggie dishes, and we tried the McVeggie combo which was pretty good. It was also quite cheap, around 70 Rs. for a value meal! Then we headed off for Qutab Minar.

Qutub Minar was a hindu temple site, but was razed by the moguls. In its place was a mosque and a large minaret (the largest brick minaret in the world). There were really interesting ruins all around, and the minaret itself was quite amazing in detail. Then we headed back to the Park Hotel to wait for our evening meetup with Ranju.

In the evening Ranju treated us to an awesome dance performance. The group was from Calcutta, and fused traditional Kathak dance with various dances from around the world. We saw a mix of Flamenco, Jazz, and even acrobatics like Cirque du Soleil to Indian beats and movements. I really enjoyed the show, and thought about how it illustrates India's opening up with the rest of the world. Here's the Pictures.

India Trip: Agra/Back to Delhi

We woke up early to try and squeeze in a few more sights in Agra before heading back to Delhi for dinner. Our first stop was the castle of Fatepur Sikri. It was a huge sandstone castle, with amazing carvings throughout. Almost every column and wall was filled with carvings of vines, flowers, or interesting patterns. There were seperate houses for each of the king's wives, apparently he had a few. We ran into our friend the soap star again, filming in the castle, and were surrounded by school groups on field trips. I'm constantly amazed at how they could build such impressive structures in those times.

Our next stop was the prison where Krishna appeared. The area surrounding the temple was really filthy. I couldn't believe that such a holy place would be so unkept. The entrance to the temple area was guarded by extremely tight security. I don't think I've ever gotten such a thorough frisking. The security here was far tighter than that of the Taj Mahal.

The prison where Krishna appeared was a large concrete structure, and you had to go down a short tunnel to get to the cell. In the cell were various pictures of Krishna and a few priests who would bless items for you. On the roof of the building was a mandap directly over the spot were Krishna appeared and people walked laps around it. It certainly made for an interesting side trip.

We left what I call "Krishna's House", and went back to Delhi to have dinner with Vinay. He took us to Pizza Hut, which is apparently a fancy, high end restaurant over here. They have Indian style pizzas, and I had one with some paneer and spices on it, very tasty. On the way back to Vinay's house, we stopped for some hot fresh Gulab Jamun which was fantastic! Then went headed off for bed.

India Trip: Agra

After a couple days in Delhi we took a day trip over to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. The highway connecting the two cities was great. As we were crusing down I mentioned to Shveta, "This highway is almost as good as one in the US". She replied, "Yeah, except for the kid taking a dump by the road." Sure enough we zipped by a little boy squatting down by the road watching the cars go by. Unfortunately I was feeling a bit dizzy, which made the ride very nauseating for me, but I made it without incident. Vinay had arranged for us to stay at the Taj View hotel, a really nice hotel that supposedly has views of the Taj Mahal. Unfortuantely due to the smog you couldn't see far enough to tell.

After we checked in, we were anxious to go see the Taj. A guy met us in the lobby saying he was with the car rental company (we hired a car and driver from Delhi), and was our tour guide. We didn't realize that we got a tour guide with the car, but thought Vinay must have arranged it for us.

Soon we pulled up to the Taj, and were immediately awestruck by it. Its just like walking into a photograph, a beautiful white marble building on a raised platform. There were inlaid arabic carvings all around, and it just looked so stunning. It is one of the most majestic buildings I've ever seen. It seems simple, yet extravagant at the same time, and as impressive as you would think. We also happened to run into some Indian soap opera star on the way in, and Shveta's mom got a photo with him :)


We walked around for a bit, then started to wonder if this guide was legit or just some opportunistic guy. We called Vinay and he said that he didn't arrange for any guide, so after we got back to the hotel we decided to ditch him. The driver thought we were complaining about the guide, so he called him in. Apparently he was legit and was now on the verge of losing his job! We felt really bad, and Shveta's mom was calling all kinds of people telling them he was fine and it was all a big misunderstanding. In the end it turned out okay.

After dinner we went to her cousin's house for a little while for a chat. They were really nice, and had two kids who were being a bit shy. After a few hours of tea and talking, we went to bed to get an early start the next day.

India Trip: Delhi

We landed in Delhi airport and were greeted by Shveta's mom, Rekha mausi, and mausa. It was really nice to see a familiar face! They took us straight to Ranju mausi's house, and we settled in for the night. I immediately felt alot of warmth from Rekha, although she didn't speak much English. Ranju is very boisterous, and one of the jolliest people I've ever met. She's always full of laughter, and is constantly having to remove her glasses to wipe the tears from her eyes! We spent the day visiting more family, and then had dinner with Ranju's sister Vandana. The sisters and Shveta's mom were having a great time at dinner, laughing and joking all night. I had a really good potato dish, that I can best describe as sweet and sour, spicy french fries.

We spent a couple days in Delhi visiting more family members, and stayed a few nights with Shveta's cousin Vinay. He has two cute daugheters who played games with us and talked our heads off :). His mother, Raj bua, lives with them and was very sweet.

Delhi was much more organized than Mumbai, and the roads were ALOT better. Traffic was still nuts, but at least the road wasn't all torn up. I still can't believe how much air pollution and trash is everywhere. This place would be so nice if they could just clean it up a bit.

India Trip: Mumbai/Delhi

Our only full day in Mumbai was spent in a car with Shveta's cousin, Babbli, driving by the sights. All the family we met were very nice and hospitable, taking time out to show us around, and taking us for dinners.

For me, Mumbai was just a bit too hectic, and we spent most of our time in the car stuck in traffic. We did see some nice looking beaches, and the famous Gateway of India. Her cousin had a driver for their car, so at least she didn't have to drive, but I really felt bad for the driver. I can't imagine what a tough job that must be, driving around from place to place all day without a break. There is definitely a huge divide between the upper and lower class.

For dinner we met up with another cousin, Chinoo (Babli's husband), at a fancy hotel. It was a nice meal, but the exciting part of the evening was meeting a Bollywood actor Nana Patikar. He was really nice and came by our table to shake everyone's hand. One of the really great things about India so far has been the friendliness of the people.

India Trip: Kerala/Mumbai

We woke up the next morning to some people rowing by us. It looked like a crew team practice with lots of rowers on various boats and a coach leading them on. Interestingly there were a number boats 'manned' by women. I wonder if the high literacy rate of Kerala (something like 97%) also translates to more empowered women. We had breakfast, then headed back to the docks were our driver was waiting for us. From there we drove straight to the airport to catch our flight to Mumbai (Bombay).

We arrived at the airport about 4 hours before our flight, and the security guard laughed at us when he saw how early we were. Since we were there so early we had plenty of time to look around, and found that there were tons of flights to Mumbai, and most of them left earlier and got there much quicker. So we started to enquire about cancelling our tickets and grabbing another flight. There was a flight on Kingfisher airlines which left in about an hour that was way cheaper than our current flight, but we had to book in in the next 10 mins. So we went over to the Indian airlines counter (where our current ticket was booked), and asked about getting a refund. The lady said it should be possible, but we'd have to go to an office, and before we had a chance to decide she stamped our tickets cancelled! Now panic struck as we ran back to Kingfisher to get our flight, only to find out that we had to pay for the flight in rupees to get that rate. Now we were scrambling to get enough dollars exchanged to rupees to cover the cost, and hoping that we'd be in time to get the tickets. Fortunately it all worked out and we made our flight. Kingfisher is a beer company, and the flight had in-seat TVs, very nice. Apparently the head of Kingfisher is like a Richard Branson type, very flamboyant.

We landed in Mumbai around 5pm and were picked up by Shveta's cousin, Rathan. He drove us to his flat, through what has to been some of the most insane driving I've ever seen. The traffic was just awful, making LA look like a sunday drive. We would pass by a huge corporate building, then by rows of shacks and beggars. Such a huge contrast! A number of children would knock on the car windows asking for money. It was definitely an eye opener. Eventually we reached Rathan's flat, met his kids and wife, and crashed.

India Trip: Cochin/Backwaters

Our next day in Cochin was pretty chill, in the morning we had an ayuervedic massage, and the rest of the day we just hung around. The massage was nice, and unlike any other I've had. It was 'synchronized', meaning there were two masseuses massaging you at once. They used tons of medicated oils that left me smelling kinda weird afterwards. After the massage was a steam bath, then an herbal bath.

The following day we checked out of our hotel and took a car ride to a dock to get on a houseboat. As we left the city it started getting much greener and prettier. When we arrived at the dock, we found a large boat waiting for us. The boat had a long black bottom, and the top was basically a huge basket. We spoke with the boat owner for a bit then began our overnight cruise through the backwaters of Kerala.

This was my favorite part of the trip thus far. We slowly floated through a maze of canals in what has been called the "Venice of Asia". As we floated along we passed small villages, and gorgeous green scenery. The boat moved pretty slowly, at about rickshaw speed, but that was fine with us. We had lunch aboard the ship, then cruised along until dinner. The waters were perfectly calm, and we had picked the coolest day of the trip so far so the weather was pleasant. It was so relaxing. Right after sunset we docked at what seemed like a random location for the night. After being docked a short while, a family of goats walked by. Then one of them decided to jump into the ship and onto our dining table! I chased it away by rapping my pen on my notebook. Other than that it was a pretty peaceful evening on the calm backwaters. Pictures are Here.

India Trip: Cochin pt 2

We started our first real day in Cochin with breakfast in the hotel. After hearing all the horror stories about food, we figured we should play it safe for the first few days with our diet. Then we ventured out to find a ride to the Fort Cochin area. We only had to walk a few feet before we spotted an autorickshaw to take us. I had an absolute blast in the autorickshaw. It putters along at what can be no more than 10 MPH, and you are totally out in the open air. You sit right about at eye level with pedestrians walking around, so you really can see, hear, and SMELL everything around. These things are old and very rickety, and often the driver would have to slow down to negotiate large speed bumps, potholes, and other road hazards you would normally ignore in a car.

About 20 minutes later, we were dropped off at the main dock area of Fort Cochin. We walked around a bit and saw the chinese fishing nets, which are large wooden things with nets attached to one end, and large rocks to the other. Occasionally about 5-10 men would pull down on the side with the rocks, like a seesaw, and lift the net out of the water to pull in some fish. It seemed very laborious, and I only saw a few fish pulled in each time. Right behind the nets were fishmongers, and after them little stand set up to cook the fresh fish. It reminded me of other fish markets I've been to, but with what seemed like ancient technology. The walk around the coast was very pretty, except for the fact that there was trash all over. The waters around were filled with green plants and boats drifting along.

We headed off for lunch at one of the hotels nearby, and were there kinda early so we had to wait around a bit for the kitchen to open. There was an old piano near the bar, and the wait staff asked if I could play. I didn't accept their offer at first, but then decided I'd try the few songs I know. It was alot of fun playing, and trying to teach some of them "Heart and Soul". Then we had a nice lunch, and walked over to St. Francis Cathedral, the oldest christian church in India. It was a nice, simple church, and a peaceful retreat from the craziness outside.

From St. Francis, we grabbed another autorickshaw to take us to the Jewish district. On the way there he offered to give us a "tour" for 50 rupees. It was a very interesting tour, hitting some weird sights along with the major ones. A few notable ones were a "salt temple" right by the road, which had a small shrine full of salt, and a "crazy elephant", which apparently killed someone and was now locked in somebody's front yard. The downside was that he also kept dropping us off at stores he had cut deals with. When we told him we didn't want to go into the stores anymore, he gave us a long explanation about how he gets free petrol and a T-shirt for taking us. Neither of us really felt like arguing so we went along. Later we had him drop us off at the hotel. There he told us it was 50 rupees per hour of touring, so he was now charging us 100 rupees. We argued at first, but its really hard to argue over what is $1 to us, so we paid him. Then we had dinner and went to bed. You can find more pics by click on the title or here.

India Trip: Cochin pt 1

We landed in Cochin around 10:30pm and I was surprised to find the airport was very clean and modern. Not quite as crazy as I was expecting, but in a good way. As we exited, we found the driver from the hotel along with tons of guys standing around in what looked like skirts called lungis. They had their lungis hiked up since it was so hot and humid, and they looked kinda like kilts.

Soon we were on the road to the hotel and I got my first Indian driving experience. Basically everyone drives in the middle of the "lane", until either you want to pass someone or someone wants to pass you. Then some honking takes place as you negotiate who will go where, and that is repeated over and over. As we entered the city, the traffic became a little more congested with more autorickshaws and pedestrians crossing our path. All the stories about how close they cut it driving around here are totally true! The honking gets even more frequent and intense in the city, where I think it also serves as a type of sonar. By hearing where the honks are you can kinda figure out where the other vehicles are to avoid.

Eventually we reached our hotel and went straight to bed, tired from all the flying.

Singapore trip part 2

Our second day in Singapore started at the Botanical Gardens, home to the largest Orchid garden. The main gardens were much like a Golden Gate park, where people were jogging and enjoying themselves, then you had to pay for admission into the Orchid area. There were just so many beautiful flowers, I couldn't take enough pictures. We also ran into a cute school group whose kids were having a blast around the gardens.

From the gardens we went over to one of the posh shopping malls for lunch. We ate at Devi Fusion, and Indian/Japanese fusion restaurant. The food was really delicious, and the service was great. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone stopping by Singapore, although it was a little pricey (about $25 SGD each). But where else do you find a mix of India and Japanese?

We walked around the town a bit more, stopping at St. Andrews Cathedral, a large white church. Apparently the bright white exterior was created with limestone, egg whites, and sugar? Sounds like some kinda dessert to me. For dinner we stumbled upon a small vegetarian restaurant in a mall by accident, which had really great noodle dishes. Mine was EXTREMELY spicy, and Shveta really enjoyed her ramen.

After dinner we caught a cab to the zoo for the Night Safari. They have a special portion of the zoo set aside with special lighting so that you can go and see the animals when they are most active. At one stop along the way we passed some lions who were roaring. Then my favorite was the leopard exhibit where a leopard was pacing right in front of a wall of glass. You could stand right up next to the leopard, and when I crouched down to its level and looked it in the eye, it gave me chills.

I've really enjoyed spending time in Singapore, but we're ready to head off for Kerala. You can find the rest of the pictures from Singapore here. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Singapore Trip part 1

We started our trip to India with a couple layover days in Singapore. When we left the airport the first impression I had was that Singapore is cross between Hawaii and Tokyo. Its really hot and humid here (about 90 degrees and what feels like 200% humidity), making me thankful for air conditioning.

Almost everything here is in English, making it easy for us to get around. They have very strict laws here in Singapore, which seem to pay off as it is so clean here. Walking around you find no traces of graffiti or litter. The fine for littering is $500 and $1000 for smoking where you aren't supposed to. It also feels very safe, much like it did in Tokyo. You can wander around the subways in the middle of the night and not feel like someone is going to mug you. Singapore also feels very culturally diverse, being between China, India, and the rest of Southeast asia, you can definitely feel the mixing of cultures.

Our first stop was Orchard Rd., which is the main shopping road here. It has to be the most shopping crazy area I've ever seen, with mall after mall, and tons of really high end stores like Gucci and Prada.


Then we headed up to Little India, which, according to Shveta, is very 'authentic'. It was full of small food stands blaring bollywood music, Indian men standing on street corners chatting, and a few temples. From there we visited Chinatown, a large area with souvenir shops and chinese food all around. There were some street performers doing some amazing acrobatics, and lots of colorful lamps overhead. Although I haven't yet been to China, it seemed like a pretty good taste of what China would actually be like.