Sunrise over the River Ganges, Varanasi, India

This is definitely in my top 5 of all the photos I took in the last 9 months of travelling. We woke up at about 4:30AM and headed down to the main ghat to watch the sunrise...and yea it was totally worth it.

Hampi, India to Bangkok, Thailand - Sep 2010

This was probably the longest journey of my travels. Originally I was hoping to travel from India to Thailand overland, but unfortunately the military junta in Myanmar (Burma) doesn't allow for that. The only other possible overland route would require me to backtrack through Tibet and then cross the dodgy China - Laos border. I don't like to backtrack so I had to rule out that route as well. I sucked it up and bought a flight from Chennai (Madras) to Bangkok via Colombo on Sri Lankan Airways for about 170USD. Chennai is located on the east coast of India and Hampi is quite far away.

To get to Chennai I started walking from my guesthouse in Hampi to the bus park at around 6pm. Luckily a bus was already loading up and about to leave. That walk took about 10 minutes. The ride from Hampi to Hospet was another 40 minutes and luckily for me the bus attendant didn't bother to collect my fare even though I was ready to pay him. After arriving in Hospet, the walk to the rail station took about 30 min down the main road, a distance of about 2km. My overnight train to Bangalore (Bengaluru) was delayed a bit but thankfully wasn't too late. I had another train to catch from Bangalore to Chennai in the morning.

When the train arrived I didn't have a reserved bed so I ended up sharing a bed (class AC3) with a very large Indian guy. Other than it being uncomfortable since the beds aren't made for 2 people (let alone 2 very big men) I really didn't mind since I can pretty much fall asleep anywhere. He had a great idea and went to go sleep on the floor but in exchange for his sacrifice he took all the bedding and pillow. I improvised with what I had in my daypack and used my waterproof as a pillow. Luckily the train attendant came by later on and got me a fresh bedding set. I met some interesting people on the train such as some Chinese businessmen and their Indian counterpart in the granite trade. It also turns out they also were making the same connection to Chennai.

In Bangalore I had about 1 hour to kill before boarding the train to Chennai. I splurged and got a reserved seat in the aircon carriage. The only other option was to ride in the human cattle car which I would've done if I were carrying a smaller pack but after the already long journey I didn't want to squeeze into an overstuffed rail car. I promptly fell asleep once the train got started on the 6 hour journey to Chennai. Luckily I did wake up in time to eat and got my last taste of the surprisingly delicious and very cheap food for sale on the train. The India Rail company also has a massive catering arm which serves up fresh hot meals at the stations and on the train.

From Chennai Central Station I walked over to the backpacker area called Egmore with the help of my compass and map which I saved onto my mobile. I should also note that I haven't showered since yesterday morning and I've already done quite a bit of walking while carrying over 20kg. Oh and it's summertime...in southern India. It took me some time but I finally found the post and sent out some postcards which I had been too lazy to send out in the past couple of weeks. Once I got that sorted I enjoyed my last 2 Kingfishers and then took the local train to the airport. I think the fare was like 10 rupees (appx 0.20 USD). I had a lovely chat with a local guy on the train who worked for the military. The friendliest people I've met in India have been on the trains and interestingly enough, many of them have been military personnel.

The Chennai airport is definitely on the disorganized side. Not quite chaotic, but definitely not very organized. First off, I had an e-ticket but to get into the airport they wanted to see a printout of the ticket. Seriously, what's the point of an e-ticket if I have to print it out? After a bit of discussion, I had the security guy check the passenger manifest and showed him my passport, then he let me in. Next up was trying to check-in. The staff had no idea when the check-in opened nor where I should check in. They kept pointing me to the wrong queue. I got fed up with their stupidity and found the correct check-in area on my own. This confusion could've been avoided had there been proper signs posted...but it's India.

After getting through that mess I finally got to the immigration desk. The officer looked at my passport for a while and said he couldn't find my entry stamp. I found it for him and pointed it out to him. He then asked me where the port of entry is even though it's clearly stated on the entry stamp. I said "Sonauli" and he asked me where that is. After explaining to him how I entered the country via the India - Nepal border and pointing out all the details on the stamp including the handwritten entry date he finally stamped me out. I'm still not sure to this day whether he was an idiot or he was looking for a bribe.

The rest of the journey went smoothly. I arrived in Sri Lanka for my layover and made use of the free internet kiosks till I boarded my flight for Bangkok. The airport in Colombo is one of the nicest I've ever been in. Really really nice. I, on the hand, was really really filthy after having traveled for so long on the Indian public transport network without a shower. It doesn't happen often that I can actually smell myself, but today was one of those days. The plane landed in Bangkok on time and then after weaving through the heavy Bangkok traffic I finally arrived at my hostel in Silom around 10 or 11am. It was a long 2 days and rarely has a shower felt so good!

Indian Hygiene

There's been quite in stir in India lately due to an Indian official's comments regarding standards of hygiene (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/25/world/asia/25india.html?scp=1&sq=&st=nyt). Yes, the buildup to the Commonwealth Games has been a disaster but apparently this guy went too far by implying that Indian hygienic standards are lower than those of people from other nations. To be fair, I didn't live in India or visit many people's homes so I can't comment on private hygiene. In public however, India is just plain filthy. There's rubbish, cow dung, and flies nearly everywhere. It was the first thing I noticed when I crossed the Nepal - India border. In my opinion, this is strongly associated with the typical Indian citizen's views on hygiene and cleanliness. Sure, you may keep your home clean, but why do you pee and throw your rubbish out onto the street? Doesn't the smell and the ever present piles of rubbish bother you? For me, the issue of hygiene and cleanliness became more than clear when I left India for Thailand. Thailand is an immaculately clean place mostly because it's a part of the culture to keep things clean. I'm staying in a jungle hut which is cleaner than many of the brick-and-mortar places I stayed in India. Call it post-India syndrome or whatever, but I'm still astonished at how clean things are in Thailand compared to the filth I routinely witnessed in India.

Dear India

The Taj Majal, Agra

Dear India,

I’m writing this letter to let you know that you’re beautiful. And mesmerizing. And enchanting and inviting and exotic and the stuff of dreams. But at the same time you can also be dirty, rude, crass, and infuriating. I’ve only known you for 6 weeks but I think I might be in love. You’ve shown me so many beautiful things and teased me with so many more. There’s been more than a few times when I was on a bus or train and saw something absolutely incredible but was already on my way to see something else you had in store for me.  Regarding your transit system, it’s really well run and gets people to where they need to go. In particular the rail system is outstanding when compared to many countries. It is light years better than Amtrak; Nepal doesn’t even have a rail system as far as I know.

Main Ghat, Varanasi

You’ve shown me the ultimate monument to love, religious festivals like nowhere else in the world, colonial forts, kama sutra stone carvings, modern cities, ancient settlements, and chilled out beach towns. You’ve drenched me with monsoon rains and dried me with subtropical rays of light. You’ve blocked my path so many times with cows that they became a part of my life. And no matter how hard I tried to avoid it, stepping into massive piles of cow dung also became a part of everyday life. Now that I think back to our time together, I think you’ve changed me in some subtle ways which I haven’t yet realized yet. You’ve opened my eyes (figuratively, not literally; my eyes are still tiny) to different cultures, customs, and religions. You’ve introduced me to loads of awesome people. Oh, and you can cook like a goddess. Yes, I was sad to say goodbye to Nepal and my first impression of you wasn’t positive, but in the end you won me over.

Sunrise over the River Ganges

But I’m easy to please. And I was still absolutely infuriated with you at times. The overt poverty, the filth, the flies, and the malodorous fumes that are present in so many places. The aggressive beggars, rickshaw drivers, jewelry sellers. The scammers and touts. People who pretend to be my friend and then ask me for “help”. It’s annoying and infuriating. You’ve really got to do something about it. No means no. Why can’t you take “no” for an answer? If you approach me in English, then you should know what “no” means. I can only imagine how many women here get date raped because their pleas of “no” are ignored. Yes, I’m going to see you again, but I’ve heard about lots of people who are fed up with you and never want to see you again. What will you do?

Riding the Indian Rail System

India, I don’t know if you’ve seen Forrest Gump but you’re the Jenny to my Forrest. Or maybe the Peggy to my Al Bundy. Or maybe the Azamat to my Borat. Anyhow, we’ve gotten along so far and I hope we’ll see each other again.

Thank you for an incredible time.

Cheers,
Steve

See the full gallery on posterous

Khajuraho

Orccha

Teej Festival, Jaipur

Sunset over Udaipur

Thar Desert, Jaisalmer

Pushkar

Amazing fish tikka, Goa

Anjuna Beach, Goa

Partying in Goa

Hampi

Indian Railway Tickets

By far the easiest way to book tickets on Indian trains is to use cleartrip.com. It has a similar layout to kayak.com and is a gift from heaven compared to the official government website. Another useful site is yatra.com, which allows you to book tickets per special quotas such as women-only and tourist. Once you've purchased your ticket online, you'll still need to bring a printout of it, but that can be done for a mere 10 rupees in most places. 

Jaipur - City of Victory and Gem Scams

We arrived via train and thanks to the prepaid rickshaw booth didn’t have to barter our fare. This time we booked ahead at Hotel Kalyan so there was no walking around in the middle of the night looking for a place to stay like we did in Agra. Jaipur is the gateway to the state of Rajasthan, the western desert state of India. In this bustling city of about 2.3mm the main attractions are the old walls and gates of the Pink City, museums and palaces, and loads of bazaars. We got lucky in that we arrived just in time for the Teej Festival, which is held once a year and marks the arrival of the monsoon. Although in reality the monsoon hasn’t actually arrived yet.

We decided to do the guidebook’s walking tour of the Pink City, which was about 1 hour total in walking time and hit all the major sights. At the start of the walking tour we passed by 2 bazaars, one selling marble statues and the other fine textiles. As with any other Indian City or town, we were constantly being pestered by sales people and rickshaw drivers although they were not as aggressive in Jaipur as compared with anywhere else I’ve been in India so far. This one younger guy was trying to talk to us but we brushed him off. He wouldn’t let up and we started to get real annoyed but he asked why Westerners didn’t want to speak to Indians so we told him it was because of the constant pestering and touting. He seemed to understand and asked if he could talk to us some more so we could exchange cultural knowledge. We agreed but partially only to prove to him that we weren’t against talking to Indians. We stopped for a soda, chatted for a bit, his buddy came by, and we agreed to meet later on for a drink and possibly food after the Bollywood movie we were going to watch at the famous Raj Mandir cinema in Jaipur.

The heat was once again stifling so the walking tour ended up taking up the entire day. I had to keep stopping for breaks in the shade to escape the oppressive heat. I completely forgot to eat lunch so I stopped at the McDonald’s next to the theatre for a quick meal before the show started. Walking out eating an ice cream cone was a bad idea; I had to shoo away the overaggressive beggars who were reaching for the cone and trying to grab it. The theatre itself was a throwback to the old days, it was beautifully restored with lovely chandeliers and décor that made you think you stepped back in time. The movie was quite entertaining although the plotline was hard to follow since it was all in Hindi and there were so many things going on in the movie: fatal tragedy, business blowups, evil syndicate, betrayal, murder, corruption, a love story, song and dance, downfall and resurrection of the hero. In true Bollywood fashion, the show lasted for 3 hours with a 10 minute intermission.

I was really exhausted and wanted to go straight to bed but didn’t have a way to call those guys to tell them I didn’t want to meet. We ran into them at the designated meeting place outside the theatre. Rhiannon was tired as well and excused herself from hanging out so I went with them to Aishh’s flat in the nicer part of town for some drinks and food. I made it a point to tell him that I was really tired and would only stay for about an hour. His older brother (Ajay) was in the car as well and we made conversation. I noticed that he was doing most of the talking; the others were noticeably silent, perhaps out of reverence for the elder. When we arrived at his flat, there was one other foreigner there, the rest were local guys. They were really hospitable and insisted that I make myself at home. After speaking with several of them, all of whom kept speaking highly of Ajay and what a successful person he is and how he helped them all out. Before I knew it, it was just Ajay and I in the room, he was talking to me about his business and how I could make some money working with him. Basically he wanted me to carry jewelry out of India and deliver it to his clients in Western countries, saving him customs duties but putting me at risk. I saw through this scam pretty quickly but feigned ignorance and said I’d consider working with him in the future. He wasn’t aggressive about it but I didn’t feel comfortable in that situation. Not long after he finished speaking I said I was really tired and was going back to my hotel to sleep. For all I know it may have actually been a “legit” operation; he showed me documents and photocopied passports of other foreigners he had worked with, mainly Europeans. However in the morning my strong suspicion was confirmed. At one point Ajay asked if he could copy a map from my guidebook. It was an innocent enough request so I said yes and someone took the book into another room to make a copy. In reality the page describing the gem scams in Jaipur was ripped out. Sadly, I can no longer trust any Indians I meet on the street who live in whatever place I happen to be in. Indian tourists have all been very friendly and trustworthy as well as many shopkeepers.
The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent sorting out onward travel and catching up with emails. After a laid back lunch we headed over to the Pink City for the Teej Festival. There were probably about 2-4 thousand spectators at the junction north of Ajmer Gate, we managed to get a decent position in the middle of the junction. The festival started off slow with some teenagers dancing and beating on drums but not long after that local bands came out in full costume with elephants and camels. it was a really good parade!