Code name: SEX PANTHER

Mel and I are back from Goa. It rained the whole time we were there but we still had fun. Glad we upgraded. All inclusive food and activities, not to mention the luxury room, made it more than bearable. I am turning into a fat bastard though. Everything there was buffet. Being the typical American meant two to three plates, breakfast, lunch and dinner. We didn't get the beach and sun that we wanted, but at least the resort was right on the cliffs above the (shitty) beach. The ocean was always in the background, which was quite nice. But moral of the story is don't go to Goa during monsoon season, even at the very end when you think it's safe. It's not worth taking the chance. Everyone says its nice in December, their summer. Last word - I guarantee it rained more there in two days than it did for y'all with Hurricane Irene.

This is likely my last dispatch for awhile. Mel is headed back to the states tomorrow (boo) and 10 of us are headed way up north. We're going to Leh, essentially as far north as you can go in India. I'm not entirely sure about the full itinerary but I know that we're going to lay low the first day - it's 11,000+ feet above sea level, much higher than I've even been. Get acclimatized and all. By all accounts this place is unbelievable though... at the base of the Himalayas and with a very mixed culture - Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese and Buddhist influences. I know that we're going rafting one day plus visiting Pangong lake, the highest salt water lake in the world at 13,000 feet up, straddling the border of India and Tibet.

Here are some pics (cheating, from the Internet):

Leh, in Ladakh, Northern India

Another view. Apparently this place is impossible to get to once winter hits.

This is the road to Pangong Lake.

Pangong Lake.

Sex Panther

I'm chucking the kitchen sink into this post, since as I said I'm not sure when I'll be able to get back in front of a computer. 

Sex Panther is a code word that Mel and I have been using. I'd been warned about the smells of India. In fact, a friend went as far as suggesting botox injections into my nose to dull the smell receptors. Turns out that this was as ridiculous as it sounds. It's not bad at all. However once in a while you do find a guy who STINKS. Today I thought I was going to vomit in airport security. I was praying to Lord Vishnu to be at least 10 rows from this one malodorous fellow in front of us. Turns out we were safe. Sex Panther!

We need this in the states!

First time I'd ever seen something like this. 70 Rupees ($1.50) into a vending machine gets you an ice cold 22 ounces of beer. Score!

 

Colors

One of the great things about India is the colors. Even the poorest women are donned in the most beautifully colored clothes you've ever seen and even the worst parts of town are spotted with colorful homes - purples and oranges and blues in a sea of aluminum and concrete. This place is across the street from Avi's cousin:

Air India

There could be a happy ending to this story. If you remember, Mel's flight was all messed up, necessitating a 5-hour ordeal at the Air India offices just to prevent her from a ridiculous 12 hour layover in Bombay. BUT, it turns out that I can get her upgraded to first class Delhi- JFK if we go back to the offices tomorrow. I hope it works. I'll be honest - I'll be pissed if it doesn't, this going to be my third damn time in their office. I'm also going to try to scheme the same for Avi and me. We DID spend 5 hours in their offices because they canceled our original flights and rerouted us with half-day layovers.

See Ya!

So, signing off. I'm sad that Mel is leaving, especially as we're all set to embark on a true adventure. This place Leh is going to be amazing. As much as the rain did put a little bit of a damper on Goa, I did appreciate staring into the stormy sea. It's a bit humbling seeing the power and vastness of the water. I think the Himalayas will have the same effect. More adventure to come. CHRIS

Goa Time!

I am writing this from our hotel in Goa. Weather is pretty miserable, been pouring all day. It IS the end of monsoon season, but I thought we'd be safe, especially since it hasn't rained much in my 10 days in India. What makes this okay is this:

UPGRADED! (this comp won't let me watch the video, so a little blind faith that this is what I think it is)

We upgraded hotels faster than a speeding bullet. We checked into the original place yesterday and it was okay - right on the beach, but just okay. This was the plan anyway knowing that Ms. Wu loves to just lay on the beach all day, everyday, and I wanted to give her exactly that. The problem is that this beach (Candolin Beach, Goa, India) SUCKS! For some reason I guess I thought this would be a tropical beach paradise, which its surely not. Tropical, yes, and a beach, yeah, but totally not what I expected at all. Similar to what I have found traveling through India so far (except for the Temple grounds and of course my friends places), there is garbage everywhere. For example, you can tell where the high tide mark is because of the swath of garbage - plastic bottles and plastic toys, flip flop bottoms and glass. Also, again something I've been seeing throughout India, there are wooden shacks right on the beach-edge... people here seem to park down wherever there is room. I've seen tent cities situated right in fields and a mini-city of aluminum shanties next to the basketball courts in a public park. So, in sum, this beach is dirty, not really scenic and populated by some very poor people (asking for money and/or for us to buy their trinkets) and the omnipotent Indian stray dogs.

So, I upgraded with the quickness (which Melissa found very sexy - as she should with a baller boyfriend). We walked right to the beach after freshening up at our original place (which incidentally looks good from its website and got great reviews on ClearTrip, a travel website). We went down to the water, felt the disappointment pretty quickly, and walked left. Luckily as hell a little while down the beach was this fantastic looking resort, the Taj Village Resort. Night and day! I am going to sign off and go enjoy but real quick we went from maybe 2 star to straight 5 star. This place is awesome, and all inclusive - important since it's rained all damn day. They have, I think, 4 restaurants, fitness center, activities, fabulous pool with a swim-up bar. The 19,000 rupees sounds steep but the exchange rate is 45 rupees to 1 dollar = $435 for two nights, including all of our meals, the aforementioned activities and free transport to wherever we want to go, including the airport (the taxi cost 900 rupees to get here). Pretty much all that we could ask for. It just needs to stop raining, but even if it doesn't at least we're not stuck watching Anderson Cooper hurricane Irene coverage on CNN in a dumpy room. 

Time for me to get back to some pampering. I hope everyone is well, given some of the flooding Anderson showed us this morning. Long Beach looks like it took some damage, plus some towns in Long Island. City looks fine. Send me some messages, lets us know what happened.

 

Air India sucks!

I don't want to get into that much detail but both Avi and mine AND Mel's flights got screwed up. Both were booked for one way JFK - Bangalore and both of these were canceled, for some reason wanting to reroute us to Dehli then to Bombay then to Bangalore (therefore from a direct flight to two transfers). Thankfully Avi and I were able to reorder things but Mel didn't catch it in time... therefore adding something like 12 hours to her trip (plus Gautam and I had to pick her up at 430 am).To add insult to injury, we spent a whopping 4 hours at the Air India office trying to reroute her (which did save her from a 12 hour layover in Bombay airport but wasted a whole day for us).

Of course we picked the airline because it was the cheapest direct flight. Never again, f$&*ers! I will give them a little credit though - all the people who helped us (in person) really went out of their way.

I'm thinking about all of my friends and family back in the states. Be safe for Hurricane Irene!!!

Train from Mysore to Bangalore

We took the train back from Avi's parents. Awesome, awesome experience! We rode average-person-class, mostly because we almost missed the train - the original plan being to spend the $1 more for the privacy (and possible safety) of first class. Avi's parents tried to warn us off of this a couple of times because of pick-pocket potential and I had been told by a couple of people (all of which seem to read my blog!) that I was going to minimally get stared at the whole time to wholly harassed by people wanting money. I'm not going to lie - I was apprehensive but with the 2 hours between trains we had no choice, literally running to the train. Of course in the end there weren't any problems whatsoever.

Besides seats below, general class has another bunk bed-type seat above, so you have 10 people in a place where maybe 3 people would be in an American train. Every two minutes or so someone walks by trying to sell you something, from chai (tea) and coffee, to fruit (we ate Guava), peanuts, savory cookies, spicy puffed rice (had that too), and other stuff I couldn't place. At one point two fruit ladies coming from opposite directions, with the same wares, started screaming at each other. Even I knew what was up with that. They both went back the direction they came in. Apparently these merchants hop on and off of the train all day.

Another interesting aspect were the she-men; cross-dressing men (wearing saris) who, because they can't get jobs, make do by begging for money. I saw one slap some guys ass, which made him give he/her money with the quickness. Avi got completely saved by an older guy sitting across from him. The two had been talking for quite some time before a she-man came by. To set it up somewhat, the first thing the he/shes does is clap once loudly when they come into the car; a little here I come, what you going to do 'bout it. Then this she-man proceeded to poke Avi with his finger and stood there (saying something I couldn't understand) for maybe 20 seconds before the nice old guy gave he/she some money, causing he/her to move along. Saw at least 3 he/shes on the ride, all lovelier than the last (sarcasm).

[Avi wants me to add that I was harassed as well (by another he/she while Avi pretended to be asleep - way to look out for a friend who doesn't speak the native language, buddy). I simply said no and shook my head. The man across from me said something to he/she, shooing him away.]

Besides all of this, the ride was amazing just because of the view itself. We had taken the bus on the way to Mysore and rode through the countryside by car, but the view from the train was phenomenal. Roadsides here are pretty populated - from food/produce stands to people walking (sometimes barefoot, sometimes herding sheep or goats or cows) but the train cut right through the countryside. It was straight out of National Geographic - woman balancing large items on their heads (and amazingly able to bend over while doing so), farmers plowing rice paddies with buffalo, hand-washing in rivers. The poverty was a little mind-boggling too. There were grass huts to aluminum boxes the size of my bathroom at home, to clusters of 10 or so blue tarp-like tents in the fields, clearly a make-shift village. There were also animals everywhere - roaming herds of sheep or goats, to cows being tied up right outside the entrance to the huts. It's crazy to think that these animals are some of these people's only possessions, their livelihood and maybe their life-savings.

It was quiet too - a nice reprieve from the constant honking on the roads.

I found the rice paddies, something I had never seen in person before, to be exceedingly beautiful. The tall grass is sugar cane, apparently all of which is infested with cobras.

Here are some stills:

This is the end of the ride, pulling into Bangalore Station. I recommend full screen or going to Youtube itself to check it out (just click on the link, it should get you right to the video). You can really see the poverty here, from the garbage along the tracks (pretty much the whole ride by the way) to the insane amount of people living in such close proximity, both on top of each other but also in every available piece of land. Many of the buildings are very brightly colored, which adds quite a lot to the atmosphere.

NOTE: As I proof read this I am realizing how often I say crazy and insane. I am not really trying to judge. These things are crazy to me, a lucky-to-be-spoiled American.

What's next
It's Thursday here. We're hitting the gym today, much needed as we seem to be eating every two hours (and again there hasn't been one thing that hasn't been delicious). May do a little shopping too.

I am very excited about my girlfriend Melissa's arrival tomorrow. I'm not sure what we're doing during the day but the plan is for me to make dinner tomorrow night. Avi has been telling everyone how great a cook I am - not exactly managing expectations - and they want me to make spaghetti and meatballs. Easy enough on paper, right? But there's a couple of problems... First, I don't think marinara is going to cut it - quite a lot of food here is tomato/ onion based sauces, but all kicked up the flavor chain with various spices. I think our regular stuff is going to be way too bland. Second, there's no ground beef (aka Holy Cow!) or turkey meat around, probably only lamb. So it sounds like some Italian-American-Indian fusion of some sort. Wish me luck!

Anyway, Mel comes in at 3am Friday night/ Saturday morning, so we'll be getting a car to drive us to the airport to pick her up. Baby doll has one whole day to get over jet lag before we head to Goa on the southwest coast for some beach time on the Arabian Sea.

I will try to make one more post before Goa. Any requests as to what you want to hear about? I still plan on posting a driving video. Ciao. 

First sightseeing pictures

Yesterday Avi and I went to two temples (in Belur and Halebeedu) and Mysore Palace. All were insanely awesome. The temples, circa 1100's, were entirely covered with hand-carved figures, every carving completely different. The bases of both started with elephants all around the bottom (I guess indicating the use of elephants in either the building of the temples or in the rule of the people who made it, but just a guess). Further up was Kannada writing telling the story of the ruler, then higher up were all idols depicting different aspects of Hindu mythology. Note the sexual freedoms here 900 years ago - hair pulling, threesomes and all. I have way more pictures but it's kind of annoying uploading them one by one onto this site - I'll use Facebook for the whole album.

Mysore palace was also very cool, though they wouldn't let us take pictures inside. The highlights for me were the 80 kilogram gold seat the Maharajah used to ride on top of elephants, plus the generally decadent trappings inside - stained glassed peacocks, silver doors and more.

Quick pics

I am going to take a video while we drive to the train station so that you can see what I mean about the chaos. Here's some examples in the meantime:

Plopped down in the middle of the road

Going for a ride with the fam.

First dispatch

So it's about 9 am here, official full-day two. Avi and I got here with no problems. In fact, we were literally the only people on the security line at JFK and we breezed though customs in Delhi. The trip itself wasn't bad either. Slept - though fitfully - on the super long leg from New York to Delhi. Long story short, after transferring (and waiting) for our flight to Bangalore we got in about 10:30 pm (our first flight left 4:30pm the day before). I slept until 730 this morning, and including getting up at 1030 yesterday means that I think I'm over jet lag already. The trick was to forgo naps, a tough battle at one point, and drinking at night.

There's so much to say already about this experience. I think the best way to tackle this right now are a couple of quick blurbs.

Accomodations
Avi and I are staying with his friends Gautam and Raksha in a (fantastic!) house in the city of Bangalore, which generally speaking is a big city in the middle of southern India. We'll be here for a few days before taking a train to Mysore to Avi's parents, about 2 hours west. Staying here is great for quite a number of reasons. Besides Gautam being our tour guide/chauffeur, I get Raksha's cooking, a water/ice filtration system, and above all else peace of mind - frankly we don't have to worry about a thing here, from security to the food/water situation, Internet, etc. They have absolutely everything we have at home that I can tell. But I very much appreciate not having to worry about anything, just tagging along with Gautam and seeing India without having to worry about figuring out where to catch a train here or a bus there.

Driving
This is the only thing that makes me nervous. It's complete chaos here and I honestly don't even know where to start in trying to explain it. Think about the craziest/most aggressive NYC taxi ride you've ever taken. Every driver here is that crazy cab driver. Add to this the fact that maybe 75% of the vehicles on the road are scooters or motorcycles, bobbing and weaving around everything, plus the British-style driving on the left hand side of the road thing. If there are lane lines in the road at all they don't count. Now, throw in the random cow in the middle of the road which doesn't seem to know or care that it's standing in the middle of the road with cars/trucks/bikes flying around it on both sides, plus the random horse or cow-drawn cart also trying to use the road. Apparently honking makes everything okay, from passing on either the left or the right, or coming within inches of another car/bike. There are very few traffic lights so turning onto another street is pretty much a matter of being aggressive and honking like a mother$@%*er. Crossing the road on foot, which I've had to do twice, is straight up kamikaze frogger.

I will take a video of a ride soon so you can see what I mean.

Food
The food here is insanely good. The typical breakfast is a non-sweet crepe/pancake which you dip in this spicy powder, with tasty coffee. It takes a second to get used to a spicy/savory breakfast but I am completely over that at this point. It's damn good. Lunch yesterday was homemade (by Raksha) creamy cottage cheese curry, with homemade flat bread (nan). This is probably close enough as an example. We went to this place down the road for a snack and got this masala curry chick pea dish which was ridiculously good plate of food for a whopping 50 cents. Avi had two. I've tried everything offered to me so far except for the sheep brains - wasn't going to go there.

I should do a better job of keeping track of the names of the dishes I have (or just ask Avi, who is still snoring and farting).

The Indian way to eat late-night pizza is, er, interesting.

Money
The exchange rate makes for an interesting situation. It's 45 rupees to one dollar, but combined with the fact that everything is super cheap here has me all messed up. The plan is to let Avi handle all transactions, keep track, and then figure things out once we get back to the states. How's this for a picture though (those are 500 rupee bills fyi):

PERSPECTIVE PIECE
As I mentioned in my very first post I am going to try to chronicle some of the big cultural differences and relate them to my life and world view, and America in general.  I am going to include these Perspective Pieces in some of my posts. The point is to sit here and really think about things, then force myself to get the thoughts onto (virtual) paper.

This first Perspective Piece needs a little bit of a setup though. Yesterday I went with Gautam to check out his farm, maybe a 45 minute drive out of the city. They farm carnations, which I got to see. Even cooler, when we got there the farm manager brought us coconuts, expertly/ viciously hacked into them with a machete then handed them to us to drink. Better than Gatorade and pretty much bad-ass and cool. While we were there, mind you in a much more rural area, we were standing on the road while Gautam's car was loaded with flowers when a family of four rode by on a scooter (in itself crazy as all hell).

The perspective that I really want to get down is the way the two children stared at me, maybe the first non-India they had ever seen in their lives. I mean, it was a straight-up, open-mouthed-in-wonder stare down, not anything that I've ever experienced before. I've also caught other people staring at me too; usually a face down to the toes back up the face thorough one-over. It's a strange feeling. I do try to appreciate the blessings of being a healthy, educated white man in America, but these two kids really made me think. It reiterates the whole stranger in a strange land thing - not that I could really forget this based on the sights and smells around me - but it reinforces the reality of being a visitor in a very different place. 

I could talk about the poverty and the extreme social stratification here, even more the whole casualness of the poverty and the stratification - and probably will get to this at some point. But for now I will sign off with this: I fully understand why I'm getting stared at but that does not change the fact that it can be more than a little uncomfortable.

There's a reason why your mother told you not to stare.

India Tips from a Facebook friend

The excitement is building... 3 more days of work and we are off!!!

A facebook friend was nice enough to send me some India travel tips (thanks, KL!). Here they are, with my comments in RED.

1. Don't drink mixed drinks - they water down bottles just like some bars here in the states do - but you don't want that water.

2. When you get bottles of beer make sure they open it in front of you. Same with bottles of water - in fact if you can have them give you the bottle, seal in tact, the better.

3. Do NOT use your left hand for anything. Do not expect to find toilet paper in city bathrooms. In the airports you will find Eastern (squat toilets) and western (US style) so pay attention where you go in. If you use an Eastern toilet your left hand IS the paper (yeah its disgusting to us, but they think we're nasty for using paper). Avi assures me that we will always have toilet paper. We shall see. Bringing some in case.

4. Brush your teeth in bottled water - don't even run the brush under the tap. 3rd water awareness tip in the first 4 points.... I truly hope that there will be no alcohol-induced amnesia on these points.

5. EAT EVERYTHING YOU CAN FIND - the food there is ridiculously good. If you've had Indian food in America you have not had anything. Oh and you make sure you eat everything on your plate or you'll upset your host family. And they most likely will not give you utensils - use your right hand only and learn to eat with your fingers. I am looking forward to the food. In fact, I am going to ask Avi's mom for some recipes for things like this delicious dish.

6. Always put your hands together as if in prayer and bow to all parents. Elders are the leaders in a family and house and bowing is a sign of respect. It is customary to bring a gift so before you leave the U.S. pick some things up - souvenirs at the airport, etc. Bring a gift. Desserts/Cookies are a good gift. Bring some American style treats for them. Still a work in progress. Avi has shot down pretty much every good idea I've had so far.

7. Don't expect anything safe in vehicles. The traffic lights are just pretty colors and the stripes on the road are just for design. Yes it is normal to have 6 people on a motorcycle.

8. If you get sick drink chilled coconut water with electrol (Indian Gatorade powder) in it and eat curd rice (white rice with yogurt basically) and you'll get better right away.

Oh hey one more thing. When you get there hit a mall and get some traditional Indian clothing. Two reasons:
One, its a sign of respect and they will accept you more quickly if they see you taking an interest in their culture. (your friends parents will be impressed). Two, our synthetic materials here in the U.S. feel like crap in the hot humid weather there. Literally, the light loose cottons and silks feel great and they don't stick like the polyester blends we have do.

What's up?

If you didn't already know, I'm going to India! Yup, traveling halfway around the world in 18 days with my good friend Avinash - not only a super exciting adventure away from work and worry but it's also an exceptional opportunity because I'll have my own, honest-to-goodness Indian-American translator slash tour guide slash (sometime-bullshit artist) haggler slash cultural attache.

I consider myself very lucky for the chance to meet Avi's family and friends, and since we're mostly staying with his friends at their house(s), being able to learn about Indian life by jumping head-first into the deep end of the cultural pool.  Let's just hope it's not this pool:

Levity aside, the one thing that I want to get out of this trip is perspective. That's what this blog is about. The cultural and economic differences between India and America are still very vast, and my hope is that the process of maintaining this site - armed with a new camera, a legal pad and an open mind - will force me to truly appreciate and ruminate on these differences.

So, my plan is to try to update this site every few days. I don't have a particular agenda to discuss. The posts on here may be long or short, serious or trivial, but I do hope that you come back and visit every few days. I encourage you to make comments on my posts, whether to call me an idiot or to just say hello from far away. With that said, I would appreciate any comments you have now, before the craziness gets started. We leave in about two weeks, with anticipated stays in Bangalore, Mysore, Leh and Goa.

What should I see/experience in or around any of these four places?
Any India travel tips? [Besides the inevitability of diarrhea - thanks, already got that memo.]